human family, then they have no right to enslave one another. All men have natural and unalienable rights, which never ought to be taken from them by force and violence. But all nations have been guilty of this cruel and inhuman practice of trading in the souls of men. This vile traffic has been carried on for ages, and is still carried on in the most cruel and barbarous manner. Notwithstanding the extensive diffusion of both civil and religious light, respecting this subject, christians as well as heathen nations persist in making, selling, buying and holding slaves. This is a crying sin among heathen nations, an aggravated sin among christian nations, and still more heinous among Americans, who are so tenacious of their own public and personal freedom. They seem to think, that they originated from a different and nobler stock than the Africans; and insist upon their right to make them slaves. One would think, that no man of sense and honesty would really maintain this absurd and unscriptural opinion. But many, very many men in the nation, who pride themselves for wealth, learning, and patriotism, are strong and powerful advocates for slavery, and carry their opinion into practice, by subjecting thousands and thousands of their African brethren to the meanest and most degrading servitude. This is a lamentation, and ought to be for a lamentation. It is a deep stain upon our national character, and nothing but repentance and reformation can wipe it off.

4. Since all nations are of one blood and brethren of the same large family, God has manifested peculiar care, wisdom, and kindness, in fixing the various places of their residence in various parts of the world, in the best manner, according to their relations to and connections with each other. God has not left the settlement of this world to mere chance or accident, but wisely fixed every nation in its proper place. "As he hath made of one blood all nations of men, so he hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." God divided the earth in the days of Peleg among the three branches of Noah's family, and ordered them to go to the several places of their destination. He fixed his own people in the place he had before appointed for their habitation. "Thus saith the Lord, this is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her." It was not a matter of indifference with God, where he should fix the bounds of the children of Israel, or those of any other nation. He has located every nation that has been, is now, or ever will be in the world, in the wisest and best manner to answer his own purposes. And as he fixed the bounds of their habita

tions, so he fixed their times. That is, the time when every

nation should rise or fall, or become mixed with any other nation. In a word, he appointed the times, when all the revolutions among the nations of the earth should take place. In these appointments, he has manifested peculiar care, wisdom, and kindness, in disposing of the large family of mankind. It requires great care, wisdom, and kindness in a parent, to dispose of his numerous family, in the wisest and best manner. It requires more care, wisdom, and kindness in a prince to dispose of his numerous subjects in the wisest and best manner. But it required far greater care, wisdom, and kindness in God, to settle the innumerable children of Adam in their proper places in this world. All the nations of the earth are under strong obligations of gratitude to God for determining their times and the bounds of their habitation. Though they cannot see why they are placed as they are, yet God knows why, and they have reason to be satisfied with the divine allotment. They may know that if they are really contented, it will eventually be for the glory of God, and their own good.

5. If God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and they are all brethren of the same family, then he has exercised his absolute sovereignty in a very striking manner, in the government of the world. He has made great and innumerable distinctions among the nations and inhabitants of the earth. How differently did he treat the three branches of Noah's family, causing them to separate far and wide from each other, and fixing the bounds of their habitation in very different parts of the earth? How differently did he treat Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau? How differently did he treat his own people, and all other nations? He has placed one nation in a warm and another in a cold country. He has placed one nation in a rich, and another in a poor, barren country. He has raised one nation to great power, opulence, and dignity, and reduced many other people to servitude, poverty and meanness. He has placed families and individuals in ten thousand different circumstances. He has governed the whole world and all the inhabitants of it, in a mysterious and incomprehensible manner. All things have come alike to all; there has been one event to the righteous and to the wicked. The race has not been to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but to human view, time and chance has happened to them all. We cannot conceive how God could have made more or greater distinctions among men in this life, than he has made, or how he could have made greater or more visible displays of his sovereignty in governing one and the same large family. But still it is denied by

thousands, that God has a right to act as a sovereign in this world, or in the world to come. Surely the understandings of men are darkened by the blindness of the heart; otherwise they could not help seeing and realizing the sovereignty of God, which he has so visibly displayed, for the express purpose of making the inhabitants of the earth to know, that he is God. God is as clearly to be seen in this world, as he ever has been, or will be, in any other world. Angels now look into this world to see the bright displays of his sovereignty, and of all his other perfections. The light here shines in darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not. God is passing before nations and kingdoms, kings and princes, high and low, rich and poor, every day in his amiable and awful sovereignty, filling the hearts of some with joy, and wringing the hearts of others with sorrow. And it is impossible for any one of the human family to be happy in this world, or the next, without seeing and loving his sovereignty.

6. Has God made of one blood all nations of men, and have they been so slow in coming to their present state of knowledge, holiness and happiness? then we have ground to think, that the world will stand many centuries longer. The earth is far from being fully inhabited. There is room for a far wider spread of the human family over the four quarters of the globe. Their numbers may increase an hundred fold; . their knowledge may increase with their numbers; and their holiness and happiness may increase in proportion to their numbers and knowledge. God has made men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and it will undoubtedly be covered with them for a thousand years at least. The earth will be filled with holiness and happiness, and the glory of God, as the waters cover the seas, and bear a lively resemblance to the world above. The great and glorious fruits of the sufferings and death of the divine Redeemer, will be astonishingly great in the eyes of the whole intelligent creation, when his kingdom shall come, and his will shall be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

7. Has God made of one blood all nations of men who now dwell on all the face of the earth, who have dwelt on the earth, and who will hereafter dwell on the earth? Then the whole family of Adam will be immensely numerous. If the seed of Abraham will be as the stars of heaven for multitude, what will be the seed of Adam? Their numbers will be beyond human calculation, if not beyond human conception. This immense family are to have one universal and solemn meeting. For, "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all

nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." We shall all be placed in this solemn attitude on that great day, to hear our own doom, the doom of the whole human race, and of the whole intelligent creation. The division will be irreversible. The righteous shall go away into life eternal; but the wicked into everlasting punishment. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." Are we prepared to see what we must see; to hear what we must hear; and to be where we must be, to all eternity? We are upon trial, and the trial will soon close, in eternal joy or sorrow. Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.

SERMON II.

DIGNITY OF MAN.

DONATION OF BOOKS, BY DR. FRANKLIN, 1786.

Snow thyself a man. -1 KINGS ii. 2.

DAVID closed the scene of life with that propriety of conduct, and that composure of mind, which at once displayed the beauty of religion and the dignity of human nature. When the time of his departure drew nigh he had nothing to do to prepare for death, but only, like other pious and illustrious patriarchs, to converse with his friends, and to give them his last and best advice. And as he had, some time before, committed to Solomon the care of his family and government of his kingdom; so he felt a strong and ardent desire that this beloved son, in whom he had reposed such important trusts, should appear with dignity, and act a noble and worthy part upon the stage of life. Accordingly he called him into his presence, and with equal solemnity and affection, addressed him in these memorable words: "I go the way of all the earth; be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man." This appellation sometimes signifies the dignity, and sometimes the meanness of our nature. Job makes use of it to express our meanness and turpitude in the sight of God. "How can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the Son of man which is a worm." But Isaiah employs this same appellative to represent the dignity of human nature, when he calls upon stupid idolaters to "remember this, and show themselves men." So here David, in his dying address to Solomon, "show thyself a man," evidently means to use the term in the best sense,