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Yankee Doodle."1 General Burgoyne glittered in his uniform. Gates was in his plain blue frock, and each of the American soldiers had on "the clothes which he wore in the fields, the church, or the tavern. They stood, however, like soldiers, well arranged, and with a military air, in which there was but little to find fault with. All the muskets had bayonets, and the sharp-shooters had rifles. The men all stood so still that we were filled with wonder. Not one of them made a single motion, as if he would speak with his neighbor. Nay, more, all the lads that stood there in rank-and-file kind nature had formed so trim, so slender, so nervous, that it was a pleasure to look at them, and we were all surprised at the sight of such a handsome, well-formed race. In all earnestness," says the same Hessian officer,2" English America surpasses the most of Europe in the growth and looks of its male population. The whole nation has a natural talent for war and a soldier's life."

The ministry were assailed in Parliament for their employment of the Indians against the Americans. One of the secretaries defended it, concluding, "It is perfectly justifiable to use all the means that God and nature have put into our hands."-"That God and nature put into our hands!" repeated Chatham, with contemptuous abhorrence; "I know not what idea that lord may entertain of God and nature, but I know that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacre of the Indian scalping-knife! — to the cannibal and savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating-literally, my lords, eatingthe mangled victims of his barbarous battles! . . . The abominable principles, and this most abominable avowal of them, demand most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench,”— pointing to the bishops, "those holy ministers of the gospel, and pious pastors of the church, I conjure them to join in the holy work, and to vindicate the religion of their God." That appeal was in vain. The chief of that bench was at the head of the "Society for the Propagation of their Gospel in Foreign Parts" in America; the end justified the means; and, beside, implicit obedience was their "badge."3 Mayhew had denounced their principles and object in 1750 and afterward. They knew the utter hostility of America to their rule, and their only hope now was in violence.5

1 Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, i. 81.

2 Irving's Washington, Lond. Ed., vol. iii. 905.

3 See p. 42.

4 See pp. xxix., 41, 44, 52, 88, 100, 103, 109, 110, 160, 175, 195, 197, 218. 5 See pp. xxxi., xxxii., and Peters' letter, p. 195.

The glad news from Saratoga was like the noonday sun on the gloom and heaviness, engendered by continued reverses and suffering, pervading the colonies; it strengthened the heart of Washington, infused new life into the legislative councils, inspirited the people; and in the providential ordering of events, which human foresight or prudence could not have anticipated or prevented, and on which hinged the great issue, the faith of all was confirmed that God was with them, as he had been with their fathers. An incident, close in time with this auspicious and splendid achievement, illumines the record of our history, and by its light we may see the source of that marvellous strength in weakness, and endurance in trial, which George III., Lord North, and that "right reverend bench" could never comprehend, nor their wit or power overcome. It was an order of Congress, directing the Committee of Commerce to import twenty thousand copies of the Bible, the great political text-book of the patriots.1

The enormous and unavailing expenditures of England against her colonies, the failure of her generals, of greatest reputation and success in Europe, in their American campaigns, and the animation and good cheer of the patriot heart, dispirited the tories, the "friends of government."

On the 15th of November, the thirteen colonies confederated under the style of "The United States of America," and presented a consolidated front to George III., who might see on their national coin, not his own now hated and discarded royal effigy, but the motto "We are one," which, passing from palm to palm, linked every heart in one united whole. In the midst of this prosperity, on the recommendation of Congress, the 18th day of December was observed as a day of solemn thanksgiving and praise throughout the United States.

On the sixth of February, 1778, France- hesitating till after the tidings of the capture of General Burgoyne, giving decisive evidence of the vigor of the American character, and of their ultimate success-formed an alliance with the "United States," as an independent nation, and from this time there was a feeling that the question was not as to the final result of the war, but only how long George III. would persist in fighting, and how long England would endure his blind obstinacy and folly. As in the other colonies, or "states," as they now were, so in Massachusetts, old ties and authorities being thrown aside, and new governments being only in inception, it was a period when executive authority and decision were most needed, and yet were weakest; and the disorder of anarchy and revolution

1 See p. 262.

were averted only by the virtue and intelligence of the people, demonstrating the truth that "where the spirit of liberty is found in its genuine vigor, it produces its genuine effects, . . . and can never endanger a state unless its root and source is corrupted." A constitution, agreed upon by a State Convention, February 28, 1778, was then before the people for their consideration, and Mr. Payson's Sermon, appropriate to the time, had particular reference to the subject of government. Its practical wisdom, its profound observations on man, on the dangers and safeguards of liberty, on religion, morality, and education, rather than large statistics of material wealth, as the greatest good, and the true test of prosperity on the character and requisites of good magistracy, and on the difficulties of free institutions, all are treated on such broad and comprehensive principles of universal and perpetual truth, that his sermon is adapted to all times, and may be pondered, perhaps, with peculiar advantage at this day.

The preacher, Rev. Samuel Phillips Payson, son of Rev. Phillips Payson, of Walpole, Massachusetts, was born January 18, 1736, educated at Harvard College, 1754, ordained at Chelsea, October 26, 1757, and died January 11, 1801, aged sixty-four, after a life of great value to his own people and to his country. He was of a family noted in many generations for piety and usefulness. The name of Phillips is identified with venerable institutions of learning, and that of Payson is dear to the Christian world. Mr. Payson was distinguished as a classical scholar, for his studies in natural philosophy and astronomy, and for his fidelity as a Christian pastor and teacher, but has, perhaps, a stronger claim to our grateful remembrance as a high-minded patriot in the days of his country's peril, difficulty, and darkness. We find in the pages of his friend Gordon's History of the Revolution an incident illustrative of the times and of his character. It is this: The British forces, on their inglorious retreat towards Boston, after their raid at Lexington and Concord, suffered from the fire of the provincial sharp-shooters. A few of these, headed by Mr. Payson, who till now had been extremely moderate, attacked a party of twelve soldiers, carrying stores to the retreating troops, killed one, wounded several, made the whole prisoners, and gained possession of their arms and stores, without any loss whatever to themselves. The preacher suited the action to the word and the word to the action, in his part of the national tragedy.

DISCOURSE VII.

ELECTION SERMON.

BUT JERUSALEM, WHICH IS ABOVE, IS FREE, WHICH IS THE MOTHER OF US ALL. SO THEN, BRETHREN, WE ARE NOT CHILDREN OF THE BOND WOMAN, BUT OF THE FREE. - Gal. iv. 26, 31.

Ir is common for the inspired writers to speak of the gospel dispensation in terms applicable to the heavenly world, especially when they view it in comparison with the law of Moses. In this light they consider the church of God, and good men upon earth, as members of the church and family of God above, and liken the liberty of Christians to that of the citizens of the heavenly Zion. We doubt not but the Jerusalem above, the heavenly society, possesses the noblest liberty to a degree of perfection of which the human mind can have no adequate conception in the present state. The want of that knowledge and rectitude they are endowed with above renders liberty and government so imperfect here below.

Next to the liberty of heaven is that which the sons of God, the heirs of glory, possess in this life, in which they are freed from the bondage of corruption, the tyranny of evil lusts and passions, described by the apostle "by being made free from sin, and becoming the servants of God." These kinds of liberty are so nearly related, that the latter is considered as a sure pledge of the former; and therefore all good men, all true believers, in a special sense are

children of the free woman, heirs of the promise. This religious or spiritual liberty must be accounted the greatest happiness of man, considered in a private capacity. But considering ourselves here as connected in civil society, and members one of another, we must in this view esteem civil liberty as the greatest of all human blessings. This admits of different degrees, nearly proportioned to the morals, capacity, and principles of a people, and the mode of government they adopt; for, like the enjoyment of other blessings, it supposes an aptitude or taste in the possessor. Hence a people formed upon the morals and principles of the gospel are capacitated to enjoy the highest degree of civil liberty, and will really enjoy it, unless prevented by force or fraud.

Much depends upon the mode and administration of civil government to complete the blessings of liberty; for although the best possible plan of government never can give an ignorant and vicious people the true enjoyment of liberty, yet a state may be enslaved though its inhabitants in general may be knowing, virtuous, and heroic. The voice of reason and the voice of God both teach us that the great object or end of government is the public good. Nor is there less certainty in determining that a free and righteous government originates from the people, and is under their direction and control; and therefore a free, popular model of government of the republican kind —* may be judged the most friendly to the rights and liberties of the people, and the most conducive to the public welfare.

On account of the infinite diversity of opinions and interests, as well as for other weighty reasons, a government altogether popular, so as to have the decision of cases by assemblies of the body of the people, cannot be thought so eligible; nor yet that a people should dele

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