and Romans believing civil government to have arifen at first by: an agreement among independent favages, as fome of them magined; that the world itself was formed by a fortuitous concourfe of independent atoms, floating up and down in an infinite void. In constructing thefe vifionary fyftems, political and phyfical, they difplayed their ingenuity, and we can only lament their want of information with regard to what had happened in former ages, of which they had no means of obtaining more than was derived to them by an imperfect disjointed tradition, disguised in the dress of fable, and deftitute of any authority to recommend and gain it credit. They erected the best fabric they could with the materials in their hands, and it would be unreasonable to expect brick from artificers, to whom straw was not given. But in us who have the Scripture hiftory before us; it would be fomething worfe than unreasonable, to over-look the information with which that fupplies us; and have recourse to romantic schemes, which owed their being to the want of it. On the other hand, let us fuppofe a colony; upon it's migration, to have fettled itself in a warmer climate, where men would find little or no occafion for clothes, houfes, or the preparation of food by fire; and where they were cut off from all communication with the rest of the world. In this fituation, they would not concern themselves about the conveniencies, much lefs the elegancies of life. Naked, or nearly fo, living upon the fruits of the earth; and fuch other provifions as the chafe, or the net would procure, and ftrangers, for want of commerce, to arts and learning, they must continue in the deepest intellectual poverty, retaining only fome of those fuperftitious customs, and diabolical rites, derived from their idolatrous ancestors, and imported with them. And thus degenerating, as they must of neceffity do, every day more and more, they would come at laft into that deplorable state of ignorance and barbarifm, in which fome nations are indeed found at this day. But is this a ftate of nature? Was this the ftate in which the Lord of all things placed the nobleft of fublunary beings, the heir of glory and immortality, when his own hands had formed and fashioned him, and he had breathed into him the breath of life? No, furely, it is a ftate the most unnatural in which rational creatures, made in the image of their Creator, can be conceived to exift! A ftate into which, through T 2 apoftacy from revealed truth, and confequent lofs of all knowledge, by the juft judgment of God upon them, fome nations were permitted to fall, and are fuffered to continue, in terrorem to others. And does a master of reafon, an enlightened philofopher, in an enlightened age, send us to learn the first principles of government from Floridans, Brafilians, and Cherokees, because it is faid, that they have no kings, but choofe leaders, as they want them in time of war? Though fuch is the force of primeval inftitution, fuch the neceffity of government, and fuch the voice of nature concerning it, that even in America, upon its difcovery, fome nations, as the Mexicans and Peruvians, were found in the flate of the larger governments which arofe by conquest, while others, in the form of the effer, were fubject to the chiefs of their refpective clans and tribes. Savages themfelves cannot live a ftate of abfolute equality and independence. In civilized communities, a fhip cannot be navigated, a regiment cannot march, a family cannot be holden together, without a fubordination eftablifhed and preferved. And was all government once diffolved, and the world really reduced to that ftate, out of which civil polity is fuppofed to have originally fprung, it would be a scene of uproar and confufion, and a field of blood, till the day of the confummation of all things. A long and uninterrupted enjoyment of bleffings is apt to extinguish in us that gratitude towards the author of them which it ought to cherish and invigorate; and juftice is the lefs regarded, when the maketh thefe her awful proceffions through the land, preferving peace and tranquillity in our borders, because she maketh them periodically and conftantly. Far different would be our fenfations at fach times, had fad experience ever taught us what it was to fee government unhinged, to want the protection of real power, and the due execution of laws, by thofe to whom that power is delegated, " for the punishment of evil doers, and the praife of them that do well." The courfe of nature often glides on unobferved, when there are no variations in it; and the *fun himself fhineth unnoticed, because he fhineth every day. "Since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law," fays the excellent Hooker," heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their labour hath been to do his will. But if nature fhould internt her courfe, and leave altogether, though it were but for a while, the obfervation of her own laws; if those principal and mother elements, whereof all the things in this lower world are made, fhould lofe the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch, erected over our heads, thould loofen and diffolve itfelf; if celeftial fpheres fhould forget their wonted motions, and, by irregular volubility, turn themselves any way, as it might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied course, fhould, as it were, through a languishing faintness begin to ftand, and to rest himself; if the moon fhould wander from her beaten way, the times and feafons of the year blend themfelves by difordered and confufed mixture, the winds breathe out their laft gafp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, and her fruits pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man himself, whom these things. do all now ferve;" and how would he look back upon those benefits, for which, when they were daily poured upon him in boundlefs profufion, he forgot to be thankful! While, therefore, we partake, in fo eminent a degree, the benefits of civil polity, let us not be unmindful of our great Benefactor. Let thefe folemn occafions ferve to remind us, that there is an intimate connection between religion and government; that the latter flowed originally from the fame divine fource with the former, and was, at the beginning, the ordinance of the most High; that the state of nature was a state of fubordination, not one of equality and independence, in which mankind never did, nor ever can exift; that the civil magiftrate is "the minifter of "God to us for good ;" and that to the gracious author of every other valuable gift we are indebted for all the comforts and conveniencies of fociety, during our paffage through this turbulent scene, to those manfions where, as violence is no more committed, punishment is no more deferved; where eternal JUSTICE hath fixed her throne, and is for ever employed in diftributing rewards to her fubjects, who have been tried and found faithful, |