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three distinct branches, which were designed to be mutual checks. And when the federal constitution was framed, the framers meant to guard against the very form of government, which the republicans now plead for and wish to introduce. They plead for a pure democracy, which places the whole power in one body of rulers, who are under no restraint from any other civil body, and who may make and unmake laws and constitutions every day in the year, and every hour in the day. It is so far from being true, therefore, that the majority of the people are republicans, that they are by habit, by tradition, by the federal constitution, and by their love of order and religion, real federalists. Be not deceived by the artifice of the republicans, who at one breath pronounce us entirely united, and at the next, totally disunited in sentiment. The truth is, republicans are a new political sect lately risen up in America, who derive their notions of government from Turgot, Condorcet, Thomas Paine, Needham, or some other politicians of the same cast. Their sentiments are diametrically opposite to the first principles of the federal constitution; and therefore they cannot be sincerely attached to it. Have we then any ground to believe that they are sincere, when they tell us that they are the best or only friends to our excellent constitution? Can such a profession be intended to answer any other purpose than to make us believe that all their peculiar zeal has been and is still pointed against men and measures only, and not against the very existence of our civil and religious institutions? assured, federalists are friendly and republicans are unfriendly to our general government; and notwithstanding the republi cans zealously affect you, yet remember that they are not federalists, that they are not friendly to federalists, and that they are seeking to destroy that very government which federalists are seeking to preserve and establish. The republicans would lose all their power of proselyting, if the people would only open their eyes and view their sentiments and spirit in a true light. Let us therefore endeavor to undeceive those who are deceived, and in this way effectually check the farther spread of false zeal.

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In the next place, it is our immediate duty to cherish in ourselves and others the spirit of true zeal in opposition to false. Our enemies have long been exercising and promoting a false zeal, by which they have done wonders, and brought us to the brink of ruin. This consideration ought to awaken in our breasts the spirit of true zeal in our own defence. We have good reasons to be zealous. Our most important interests lie at stake. We have long enjoyed the gospel in its purity and simplicity, and been allowed to worship our Maker in the way

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most agreeable to the dictates of our consciences. We have lived under a government most favorable to public peace, safety and happiness. We know by experience the inestimable blessings of true religion and good government. We must be therefore extremely stupid and criminal, if we tamely suffer ourselves to be stripped of all our great and distinguishing privileges, by the arts and intrigues of false zeal. It is always good to be zealously affected in a good cause. Our cause is the best in which we can possibly be engaged. The defence of our religion and government calls for our most zealous exertions. We need only to realize the magnitude and importance of our national interests, to inflame our zeal in our country's cause. Let us turn our own attention, and if possible, the attention of others, to these great objects, which are the best suited to inflame the mind with a truly noble, benevolent, patriotic zeal. There is nothing so directly calculated to strike terror and despair into the hearts of our enemies, as the appearance and prevalence of true zeal among the great body of our steady, judicious, and honest citizens, who sincerely desire the continuance of just such a government, and just such a religion, as they have heretofore always enjoyed. Could this class of men only be convinced that their professed friends are their most dangerous enemies, who are seeking to rob them of every thing they hold most dear and sacred, their zeal would be enkindled against their deceivers, and make them tremble for their past conduct. And it is encouraging to reflect, that the spirit of true zeal begins to appear and operate in various parts of the Union, where false zeal has long borne down all before it. The deceived begin to open their eyes and discern their danger. Wherever we discover a spark of true zeal, let us cherish it; and there is good ground to hope that true zeal will become more universal and more powerful than false. At the present crisis there is nothing more proper, more necessary, and more effectual to be done, than to enkindle the fire of true zeal through the country, and turn the just indignation of the people against those who would rob them of the richest blessings of time and eternity.

The subject and the occasion now call upon us to lament before God the uncommon prevalence of false zeal. This is our national iniquity, for which God may righteously visit us with the severest national calamities. Instead of being zealous to do good, we have been zealous to do evil. Instead of being zealous for the glory of God, the interests of religion, and the prosperity of the nation, we have been zealous to abuse and misimprove our most distinguishing and important blessings. Our zeal has been pointed against God, against Christ,

against the Bible, against divine institutions, and against all civil, moral, and religious restraints. Such a blind and flaming zeal to break over all the laws of God and man, must be extremely criminal, and loudly call for humiliation and self-abasement. We are a "sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: we have forsaken the Lord; we have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger; we are gone away backward.” "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." Let us sigh and cry for all that false zeal which has burned in our breasts, or in the breasts of others, and which has been infinitely offensive to God. Our national guilt will become our personal guilt, unless we sincerely lament it. Let us rend our hearts and not our garments, and return unto the Lord by true repentance, that iniquity may not be our ruin.

With these feelings let us look to God, who governs the moral as well as the natural world, to display his power and grace for our deliverance. He restrained the false zeal of Esau from injuring his brother. He restrained the false zeal of Pharaoh from destroying his chosen people. He subdued the false zeal of Paul, and made him as warm a friend as he had been a bitter enemy to the cause of Christ. He still has the entire dominion over the hearts of rulers and subjects, and can turn them whithersoever he pleases, as the rivers of water are turned. He can turn the most zealous infidel into a zealous believer. He can turn the enemies of their country into sincere and zealous patriots. He can save our nation from foreign wars and internal tumults and convulsions. He can disperse the dark clouds which hang over us, and establish us in the full and lasting enjoyment of all our civil and religious privileges. Let us trust in the Lord, in whom there is everlasting strength; and who has assured us that the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. Amen.

SERMON XV.

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

JULY 5, 1892.

THIS day shall be unto you for a memorial.

- Ex. xii. 14.

NOTHING can be more correspondent with the joyful occasion upon which we are convened than this passage of divine inspiration. It contains the express command of God to his ancient people to commemorate every year the auspicious day of their national independence. From a single family, in the course of about four hundred years they rose into a numerous and independent nation. They were of the seed of Abraham in the line of Isaac and Jacob. The darling son of this pious. patriarch was carried into Egypt, where he was raised to superior power, and where he became the happy instrument of preserving his father's family, who rapidly increased to a numerous people. During the life of Joseph, his infant nation was extremely prosperous and happy; but some time after his death they found themselves in a very wretched condition. There arose a king in Egypt who knew not Joseph, and who attempted to diminish the growing population and strength of the children of Israel. Among other arbitrary acts, he set over them certain officers who treated them with intolerable rigor and severity. But the more they sighed, and groaned, and complained, the more they were oppressed by their unfeeling masters. At length the God of Israel heard their groanings, and raised up a deliverer. Moses was born, and providentially preserved, educated, and prepared to execute the gracious design of Heaven. God vouchsafed to speak to him

face to face, and gave him authority to go to the king of Egypt and demand deliverance for his chosen people. Though diffident and reluctant, he accepted the divine appointment, and undertook his important and arduous work. He repeatedly applied to Pharaoh, and repeatedly met with a repulse; but being clothed with divine authority and miraculous power, he brought such a series of sore and wasting judgments upon him and his subjects that he finally gave his full consent that the people of God should leave his kingdom and return to the country from which they came. This was the joyful day of their independence: and this day God appointed as a standing memorial of that great and happy event.

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The causes and circumstances which concurred to bring about the independence of the Israelites are so similar to the causes and circumstances which concurred to bring about the American revolution, that we may justly conclude there is a peculiar propriety in commemorating the birth-day of our national existence. Many instances might be adduced from scripture to illustrate this conclusion. God sanctified the Sabbath for a memorial of the great work of creation. pointed the bow in the clouds for a memorial of his preserving mercy to Noah and his family in the midst of a perishing world. He ordained that the pot of manna and Aaron's rod which budded should be kept as perpetual tokens of his special kindness and awful justice. He likewise commanded his people, whom he conducted through Jordan upon dry ground, to take stones from the bottom of the river and raise a lasting monument of that miraculous interposition in their favor. Justly reasoning from such instances as these, Mordecai, with the express approbation of Esther the queen, appointed the days of Purim to commemorate the great deliverance of the Jews from the hand of Haman. Each of these cases exactly applies to the case before us, and completely illustrates the propriety of commemorating the day upon which we took the rank and claimed the character of a free and independent nation.

But what I farther propose in the present discourse, is to point out some of the important purposes which may be answered by keeping up the remembrance of this great and interesting event.

First, it must have a tendency to give us a realizing sense of the overruling hand of God in all that takes place in the moral as well as in the natural world. While we observe the common course of nature, which is no other than the common course of Providence, in producing similar effects in a similar manner, from day to day and from year to year, we are extremely prone to lose a realizing sense of that invisible hand

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