friend exclaim" thrice happy period, which will more, infinitely more than atone for the forrows fuffered by the righteous, from the many mournful "fcenes that preceded!

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"Nor is this all," continues he. "The "Power who commanded the universe "from chaos, can still make darknefs light, "and touch difcord into harmony. From "the mafs of public confufion, and na"tional depravity, he can, if it please him, "call forth particular spirits of a tran"fcendent ftamp, who fhall, under his "influence, be able in a great measure to "remedy this depravity, and turn that "confufion into the unexpected means of "higher order, and of furer quiet. Nay, "it is poffible, that one noble, one glorious "fentiment, impreffed by Him on fome "fingle mind, or what shall we say? "peradventure fome little, and at the "moment feemingly infignificant, circum"ftance, unconnected with the counfels of

men, and appointed by Providence to fhow their infufficiency, may become in its confequences the fource of joy to millions. If reconciliation from what"ever caule takes place, if union is reeftablished, if juft fubordination and virtuous fecurity fhall yet concur to crown our wifhes; where is the friend of Bri"tain, or the lover of humanity, that would not rejoice? But if the Unerring Arbiter has otherwife determined, if the worst "evils foreboded by the most apprehensive "minds fhould fall upon a guilty land,

then indeed the cafe would be deplorable: yet even then it would not to the truly pious, be defperate. It shall ftill be well with him who is reconciled "to God, to the Family of God, and to "the everlasting laws of his Government. "Whatever loffes this man might sustain "in the general wreck, he would have no "reafon to think himself forlorn: the pity

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"of the good would ftill attend him:

there are still refources for the diligent,

"the prudent, and the virtuous: the peace "that paffeth all understanding would re

main to confole and fupport him: his " grand take, his immortal intereft, and "that of all the juft, are fecure: the "Empire of his Father and his God can "never be moved or endangered: the Lord "reigneth; let the earth be glad ; let the "multitude of the ifles fhout for joy— "and, oh my heart!" will he cry, "let us join in the holy transport."

ફેડ

Say not, ye men of the world, that these are the idle fpeculations, the vifionary profpects, of enthufiafts alienated from fociety, and unacquainted with its concerns, or carelefs of its welfare. No: these are folid ideas, founded in truth, agreeable to common fenfe, confiftent with the foundeft philofophy; ideas that have times innumerable cheered and elevated the most reflecting, the best informed, and the moft liberal fpirits of all generations, in contemplating fcenes of diftrefs and

uncertainty, as they immediately affected themselves, or as they involved that Public' about whofe profperity they never were indifferent; I will add, ideas of no lefs confequence than the glory and happiness of man, large as the Universe itself, and leading up in a direct line to the throne' of the Eternal. It is only the ignorant or the infenfible, the vicious or the prejudiced, who cannot enjoy fuch ideas: we fincerely pity them, as ftrangers to that fyftem which can alone inspire a rational and unfailing fortitude, or lay the foundation of an Impregnable Tranquillity, when the face of Affairs is unpropitious.

Nor will this part of the argument for Early Piety appear lefs forcible, if we proceed, in the next place, to survey the prefent condition of our Morals. Suppose, that after delineating the manners and principles of the Times, particularly the Whible decay of public fpirit, the unbounded

luxury of the great, and their infatiable appetite for riches, as neceflary to fupply it, the rage of pleasure among all ranks, the idleness, pride, and diffipation of perfons who yet retain fome decency, and, as the chief fpring of thefe evils, a growing difregard to the spirit and practice of de- : votion-suppose, I say, that, after thus delineating the most characteristic features of this country at this day, we fhould be induced to conclude its power in danger of being undermined, and its conftitution of being diffolved, unless an extraordinary change is wrought on its principles and manners; are there not, numbers who would treat the whole as common cant, or at best as a kind of language which, however it may impofe on the gloomy or contracted, can make little impreffion on fuch as think freely? Nevertheless, Gentlemen, the fubftance of the defcription, as well as the inference, would be borrowed from one of the moft candid and difcerning hiftorians of antiquity. It is

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