ty. Theirs was the spirit of hardy enterprise, the desire of virtuous liberty, the regard for knowledge, the attachment to religion, which was to be developed on the theatre of this nation, and to mark the character and bless the destiny of a numerous posterity-the effects of which we feel at this day in those peculiar privileges which the God of heaven and earth has secured to us as our fair inheritance. But what is the history of the transmission? Go back and survey the adventurers, landed upon an unexplored coast, on the eve of a bleak and desolate winter, with a vast ocean on one side separating them forever from their former homes, and on the other a boundless forest filled with savage beasts or with men as wild and savage. They are to unlock the stores of temporal wealth which the God of the whole earth had concealed beneath these vallies and mountains. They are to protect, extend, and perpetuate those principles of civil and religious freedom which the God of heaven had inspired in their breasts. Yet at what toil, with what privations and sufferings, through what perils and dangers; to be endured and surmounted, only by the guiding and protecting care of Heaven! To God they commit their infant interests: and go forth, strong in heart and vigorous in nerve, to the perilous encounter. They fell the forests: they build their houses; they erect their sanctuaries; they sow their plantations; and over their harvests they raise their pious thanksgivings.

But the day of adversity soon comes. Famine. pestilence, war, those scourges, terrible to nations abun

dant in resources and sympathies for lightening the evil,-were to be encountered, in their most appalling forms, by these few and feeble adventurers. The native tribes, who at first welcomed them to a residence in the territory, soon regarded their increasing prosperity with envy, were jealous of their power, and coveted their wealth. Nor was it difficult to find pretences for justifying their hatred, or occasions for venting it in the cruelties of war. Who has not read of those days of distress, when (it might be said almost literally) every village was a garrison, and every householder, a soldier; when every heart was filled with terrors by day and alarms at night; when the gun was become the most necessary of implements, and was a constant companion at the plough, by the fireside, and in the sanctuary? Or why should I relate the story of those Indian wars which terminated in the desperate battles which, under the guidance or instigation of Philip the brave, spread carnage and woe through New-England; the grand struggle for mastery-the crisis of destiny to the colonies and the aboriginal race? The blood of our fathers then flowed for us freely; and in that day of fainting and sorrow, the God of all power declared himself on their side, the helper of those that trusted in him and the destroyer of their foes. Nor in closing this series of warfare in triumph over the Indian tribes were they restrained from acknowledging the favor of God in conducting them to it, by the reflection that their cause had been unJust. "I can clearly say," the pious governor Winslow observes, in a letter written at the time, "that

before the present troubles broke out, the English did not possess one foot of land in this colony, but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian proprietors." The planters had protected them in their rights, by their laws; and had attempted to introduce them to a friendly participation in their own privileges. And it is a record cheering to us, as we weep over this downfall of the aboriginal race, that, at the time of the war of Philip, more than twenty towns of Indians had united with our pilgrim fathers in acknowledging the One God and Savior of nations.

But another crisis of peril was to arise with the colonists: nor in that hour were they less signally favored with the guardian watchfulness of God. They were now to encounter a powerful foe in the nation that gave them birth. Though the ties of kindred pleaded against a war so unnatural, and their inexperience was to cope with valor often tried on the field of battle and crowned with triumph; yet they saw in their liberties what was dearer to them than all they might risk in the contest. Embarking their lives and fortunes, they launched forth upon the perilous enterprise. Strong in the justice of their cause, they disowned their allegiance to their former fosterland; and called upon God to watch over their destinies through the coming, dark, eventful struggle. The note of war was sounded; the veteran troops of Europe were upon our territories; and the blood of our patriot fathers was poured forth as the price of our liberties. At this crisis of destiny, the Lord watched

over our birthright. He secured to us our inheri

tance.

Nor do I fear the imputation of Puritanism when I acknowledge thus the goodness of God in conducting this nation up through past perils to its present height of prosperity. A Puritan ancestry is my pride. Puritan principles are my hope and my joy. I would blush rather for the American who, through inattention to the history of his country or fear of the imputation of prejudice, should prove himself so unworthy of his privileges as not to respond cordially to the grateful declaration of Washington, after he had achieved the independence of his country and resigned his military commission, when called to take the chair of chief magistracy: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

I have dwelt too long perhaps on this part of the subject. But the goodness of God toward us in conferring upon us the peculiar blessings we enjoy, and in transmitting them to us with so much care from our fathers, is worthy of a frequent and an attentive consideration. We should dwell upon it, until it affect our hearts. The survey presents to us impressive evidence, that the Lord of heaven and earth is our highest benefactor. He is seer to be with us, deserving and claiming our pious

gratitude. To this thought I would now advert: and consider,

II. The gratitude which he demands in return.

Now it cannot be that the Lord, who holds in his hands all the riches of heaven and earth and who dispenses them so freely in his providence, should ever seek to be enriched again by gifts which men can offer, or to be gratified with the flatteries of their tongues. He does not seek literal repayment. He simply asks to be acknowledged in the benefactions he has made, and to be trusted in for future, with hearts duly alive to his unbounded goodness; in order that he may consistently carry forward the works of lovingkindness that he begins. His object, like that of every good being, is to do good. He therefore seeks in men that preparation of heart which is implied in a grateful sense of his supreme goodness; which will fit them to receive, without abuse, his future favors. That was the return he sought of Israel, for the favors bestowed on that once happy but now desolate nation: and it is that, which he demands from this nation, for the goodness in which he appears before us at this day as the Guardian of our infant interests, the Giver of our present blessings, and the Promiser of increasing prosperity in years to come.

This return for his goodness involves in it, more especially, our grateful acknowledgment of what he has done and our supreme trust in him for future prosperity.

Our grateful acknowledgment of what he has done. In the lyric ode which contains the text,