dustry, temperance, fortitude, probity, piety, unanimity, Great difficulties, more especially, call for great talents and great virtues. It is in times fuch as these that we look for thofe noble examples of SELF-DENIAL and PUBLIC SPIRIT, which befpeak true greatness of mind, which have sometimes faved kingdoms, and immortalized individuals. Let, then, all the wife and the good in every party and denomination of men among us (for they are in every one to be found) ftand forth in the prefent exigency as one man, to advife, direct, affift, and befriend their country; and as the Roman triumvirs gave up each his friend for the deftruction of the state, let every one now give up his favourite prejudices, fyftems, interest, resentments, and connections, for the prefervation of it. Let us not, for God's fake, let us not waste that time in tearing and devouring one another, which ought to be employed in providing for the general welfare. Unjust sufpicions, uncandid interpretations, mutual reproaches, and endless altercations, can anfwer no other purpose but to embitter our minds, and multiply the very evils we all wish to remove. From beginnings fuch as these arose

1

the

the calamities we are now met to deplore; and the conclufion was, not liberty, but tyranny in the extreme. Can there poffibly be a stronger motive for us to moderate our diffenfions, and compofe our paffions, before they grow too big for us to manage and control? On the fame bottom are we all embarked, and if, in the midst of our angry contentions, the veffel perish, we must all perish with it. It is therefore our common intereft, as it is our common duty, to unite in guarding against so fatal an event. There can be no danger of it but from ourselves. Our worst, our moft formidable enemies, are our own personal vices and political distractions. Let harmony inspire our councils, and Religion fanctify our hearts, and we have nothing to fear. PEACE ABROAD is undoubtedly a moft defirable object. But there are two things ftill more fo, PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER, and PEACE WITH God.

SERMON

SERMON XI.

LUKE iv. 32.

AND THEY WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS DOCTRINE, FOR HIS WORD WAS WITH POWER.

T is evident from this, and many other

IT

fimilar paffages of the New Teftament, that our bleffed Lord's difcourfes made a very uncommon and wonderful impreffion on the minds of his hearers. We are told, in various places," that the common people heard him gladly that they wondered at the gracious "words which proceeded out of his mouth, "and declared, with one voice, that never man *fpake like this. man *." Expreffions of this fort, which continually occur in relation to our Saviour's preaching, we never find applied in

Mark xii, 37. Luke iv. zz. John vii. 29.

Scripture

Scripture to any other teacher of Religion; neither to the prophets who preceded, nor to the apostles that followed him. And we may be fure, that the effects of his doctrine must have been very extraordinary indeed, when it could draw fuch strong language as this from the Evangelifts, who, in general, express themfelves with much calmnefs and fimplicity; and frequently describe the most astonishing miracles, and deliver the fublimeft doctrines, without any apparent emotion, or remarkable energy of diction.

What, then, could it be which gave fuch furprizing force to our Saviour's inftructions, fuch power to his words? He employed none of those rhetorical artifices and contrivances, those bold figures and unexpected strokes of overbearing eloquence, which the most celebrated worldly orators have generally made use of, to inflame the paffions and gain the admiration of the multitude. These, certainly, were not the inftruments employed by our Saviour to command attention. The caufes of these furprizing effects which his preaching produced, were of a very different nature.

Some