The day cometh which shall burn them up, faith the Lord of bofts, that it shall leave them neither root. nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the fun of righteoufnefs arife with healing in his wings. Mal. iv. 1, 2.

I cannot close these remarks without observing, that the striking leffon on which I am infifting, is farther taught us in a very extraordinary manner, by the account given us in this book of Genefis of the univerfal deluge. There are undoubted proofs that fuch a calamity has happened. The whole face of nature, as well as univerfal tradition, bear witness to it. The history in Genefis reprefents it as an effect of God's juftice, or a judgment inflicted by him on mankind. for their wickedness. All flesh (it tells us) was become corrupt, and the whole earth was filled with violence, infomuch that only Noah and his family were found righteous. Of this small remnant the Deity is represented as taking particular care, by forewarning them of the calamity, and directing an ark to be built for their preservation. Gen. vii. 1. And the Lord faid unto Noah, come. thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I feen righteous before me in this generation. Thus was a whole world destroyed for the wickedness of its inhabitants, except one virtuous family, which was preserved in an ark, and selected from the reft of mankind to be the founders of a new race.

The

The warning and admonitions, which fuch accounts give, fhould engage us to love and to seek righteousness above all things. When we confider what it is, we cannot wonder that it ftands fo high in the eftimation of the Deity. It is his image in our fouls. It is the foundation of all honour and dignity. It is the order by which the universe fubfifts. God, therefore, muft delight in those who practife it, and we may with reafon expect that his favour will extend itself to their connections; and that, on their account, their families, their friends, and their country will be bleft. I have been fhewing you that the Sacred History ftrongly inculcates this upon us. God will pardon a guilty nation for the fake of the righteous in it, if they are not too few. So we read in Jer. v. 1. Run ye through the streets of Jerufalem, and fee in the broad places thereof, if you can find any one who executeth judgment, and feeketh the truth, and I will pardon ferufalem. I can fcarcely fet before you a properer motive to the practice of virtue. If you are virtuous, you may fave your country, by engaging God's favour to it. Do you then love your country? Have you any defire to be the means of preferving and bleffing it? If you have, do all you can to increafe the number of the virtuous in it; or, fhould you defpair of fuccefs in this, refolve at least that you will unite yourselves to that number. Thus will you be your country's

best

best friends; make yourfelves powerful intercef fors with the Deity for it, and ftand in the gap between it and calamity. But fhould wickedness become so prevalent as to render calamity neceffary, though, in this cafe, your country muft fuffer, yet care will be taken of you. Perhaps, you may be directed to fome means of escaping from the common ruin; and a Zoar, or an Ark, may be provided for you, from whence you may view the ftorm, and find yourselves fafe. Methinks, the friends of truth and virtue may now look across the Atlantic, and entertain fome fuch hope. But fhould there be no refource of this kind left, the righteous will at least find resources of infinite value in their own minds; in the teftimony of a good confcience; in the confolations of Divine grace; and the prospect of that country where they shall poffefs an undefiled and incorruptible inheritance.

My inclinations would lead me to address you fome time longer in this way. But I must haften to fome obfervations of a different kind. My principal design on this occafion was to fet before you the chief particulars in the characters of those righteous men who are a bleffing to their country; and to point out to you the neceffary dependence of the falvation of a country on fuch characters. I fhall now defire

what I shall say on these heads.

D

your attention to

With

With respect to the character of those righteous men, who are likely to fave a country, I would obferve, FIRST, that they love their country and are zealous for its rights. They obey the laws of the legislature that protects them, contribute chearfully to its support, and are folicitous, while they give to God the things that are God's, to give also to Cæfar the things that are Cafar's. They are, therefore, loyal fubjects. That is, they do all they can to promote the good order of the ftate by complying with its laws, and bearing a conftant and inviolable allegiance to it. This alone is genuine loyalty; and not any attachment to the perfons of princes, arifing from a notion of their facredness. There cannot be any notion more ftupid or debafing. The people are the fountain of all civil jurisdiction, and theirs is the true majesty in a state. There is no individual, who, as a member of any community, is more facred than another, except as far as he is invefted with the authority of the community, and employed in executing its will. Civil governors are, in the intention of nature and reafon, the fervants of the public; and whenever, forget

tr

ting

*King James the First, in his firft fpeech to his parliament, declared, that "he fhould never be ashamed to confefs it his principal honour to be the GREAT SERVANT of the com"monwealth." But in the very fame fpeech, he calls his people

ting this, they imagine they poffefs inherent rights of dominion, and attempt to establish their own authority, and to govern by their own will, they become dangerous enemies; and all that is va luable to a state requires they fhould be oppofed. The righteous citizen, therefore, whose character I am defcribing, at the fame time that he is loyal, can have no notion of paffive obedience and non-refiftance. His duty obliges him to enquire into his rights, and to be jealous of them; to attend to the manner in which the truft of government is discharged; and to do his part towards keeping the fprings of legislation pure, and checking the progress of oppreffion. Thus only can he prove himself a worthy and ufeful citizen*. It is a fad mistake to think that

people his NATURAL VASSALS. It is, therefore, plain, he made this declaration from the fame affected humility, or rather infolence, which has led the Pope to give himself the title of Servant of Servants.

* It is common to affert that refiftance can be juftified only in cafes of extreme oppreffion. Mankind, in confequence of indolence and want of union, have generally acted agreeably to this principle; but it has loft the world its liberty. It implies, that refiftance ought to be avoided, while oppreffion is growing, and till it becomes too late to refift fuccessfully without fetting every thing afloat, and producing dreadful convulfions. The truth is, that oppreffion cannot be refifted too foon; and that all the tendencies to it ought to be watched. Had this been always done, tyranny would have been crushed in its birth; and mankind would have been al

ways