SERMON XXI.

ON THE FAST, FEBRUARY, 1811.

ROMANS xii. 21.

"Be not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with good."

AGAIN, my brethren, we are assembled by the command of the Throne, in one of the most solemn of our religious duties; to humble ourselves before the God of the universe, and, in the midst of national calamity, to implore His blessing upon our councils and our arms. Year follows year, but none of them brings with it any promise of peace, or any pause from the miseries of war; and the wings of time, heavily as they pass by us, are still wet with human tears, and still drop with human blood.

There are yet more striking circumstances, which the hours in which we meet bring almost involuntarily into our remembrance.

The whole Christian world are, at this season, united in the common service of penitence and meditation ;-the gates of every church are open

to the contrite and the sorrowful;-from a thousand languages, one uniform voice of prayer and of repentance reaches the ear of Heaven ;—and it is in this sacred season that ambition is preparing its plans, and war meditating its progress :—and that, to gratify the insatiable avidities of conquest, every guilt and every wo is to be let loose upon the unoffending race of man, and the earth again "to be covered with violence and blood." It is at this season, too, that the spring of nature is returning; that the sun is rising in his strength; and that the breath of Heaven is blowing to awaken, over the universe, all the various family of its love; -and it is at this beneficent season, that man is advancing to the work of desolation;-that no sympathy with Heaven softens his ruthless heart; -that the march of armies is to tread upon all the prodigality of Providence ;-and that the dark atrocity of ambition relents not (while it calculates its numbers) at the thousands of human souls whom it is to send, ere the season expires, to their final and their unprepared account.

If, of such miseries, we, my brethren, were the authors;—if it was our ambition or injustice which created this dark catalogue of crime;-if it were the dread lusts of power, or of wealth, which now unsheathed the sword of this country, whatever might be the triumphs that the vulgar tongue might tell, or the vulgar ear receive, the language of this place at least, must ever have been of a different

kind. The voice of the Gospel mingles with hesitation with the voice of war, and when the avarice or ambition of nations sends forth, amid a peaceful world," the flame of the sword, and the lightning of "the spear," the only language in which religion can express itself, is the plaintive, but awful language of the prophet. "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanc"tify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the "people; sanctify the congregation; assemble "the elders, and the children, and they that suck "the breast and let the priests, and the ministers "of the Lord, weep between the porch and the "altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O "Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach;" and even, while the world was resounding with the shouts of victory and of triumph, the only prayer which religion could pronounce, would be the melancholy one of contrition and of sorrow. "Turn thou us, O God of goodness, and we shall "be turned. Be yet favourable to thy people, "who turn to thee, in weeping, and fasting, and "prayer.-Turn us, O God of hosts, from all the "evil of our ways; shew the light of thy counte"nance, and we shall yet be whole."

It is, however, I trust, my brethren, under very different circumstances that we are now assembled; and that it is with a less trembling voice, that we may now present our prayers unto Heaven. Whatever was the occasional origin of that war in which we have so long been engaged;-whatever

were the views of statesmen or of legislators;→→ whatever even may have been the errours or the guilt of its conduct, I yet trust I may say, that, upon our part, upon the part of the people of this country, it has never had any other object or end than that of justice and of necessity. It has been a war which we sought not, and which we were unable to avoid; a war, in which we had nothing to acquire, but every thing to preserve ;-a war, in which we have combated not for wealth, or fame, or dominion, but for independence, for liberty, and for existence ;-it has been a war, (in a higher view) in which we have combated, not only for ourselves, but for the injured and the oppressed of every people; in which we have forgot every national animosity when the cry of their misery approached us; and in which we have not hesitated to pour the best blood of our country, that we might loose the bands of wickedness, and "undo the heavy burdens, and bid the oppressed "go free," and break the iron yoke which the arm of conquest has so long imposed upon a prostrate world. It has been a war (in its highest view) of moral principle against immoral power; -in which we have combated for all the laws of nature and of humanity ;-in which we have gone forth as the champions of the human race; and shrunk not from the sacrifice of our treasure or our blood, that we might stem the torrent of iniquitous ambition, and restore the reign of freedom

and of happiness to mankind. These, and these alone, have been the objects of the people of this country. Amid the darkest hours which the modern world has seen, they have felt what was due to themselves, and to the situation in which the Providence of Heaven has placed them ;they have felt that to them, and to them only, was committed the sacred fire of truth and liberty; they have held it yet (I thank God) with a firm and unwavering hand; and they will still hold it (I trust in his Providence) until its radiance shall break through all the clouds that involve it, and restore the light and life of moral day to a dark and to a suffering world.

In such circumstances, my brethren, and in such a contest, the language of this place ought not to be that of despondence or of fear. The appropriate language is that of the apostle; "be "not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with "good." Be satisfied, that, amid the sufferings and the calamities of nature, the same guardian Providence reigns, as amid its prosperities and its peace; be assured, that it is in the midst of suffering and of trial, that every thing that is good, and every thing that is great in the human mind, is awakened, and brought forth ;-be confident that, in the lofty designs of Heaven, evil shall ever be overcome with good, and that, in the spirit of religious faith, there is a "might

which can overcome the world,” and make the