world, for the conversion of both Jews and Gentiles to the faith of Christ, for the instruction of the rising generation, and for the promotion of piety in every possible way, have far exceeded all that had arisen during whole centuries before. Truly these things abundantly shew how greatly God has blessed us ; insomuch that we may say, like Israel of old, " He hath not dealt so with any nation f."]
3. The restoration of peace in our borders —
[With only two short intervals, the war has continued five and twenty years : and now at last we are favoured with a peace, which, we hope and trust, will be of long continuance. It is not such a peace as has been often made, a peace no better than an armed truce ; but one which our enemy will scarcely venture to violate, seeing that all Europe is leagued together for its preservation. To say that it is a favourable peace, is to disparage it altogether : for it infinitely surpasses all that our most sanguine or ambitious statesmen of former days ever ventured to desire. It has left us too in a state of elevation, prosperity, and power, which our country never before attained. And we have the happiness to say, it is universal, in India, no less than in America and Europe. Now is the happy time come, when we may " beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks," and " sit every one of us under our own vine and fig-tree, none making us afraid g."]
4. The abundant provision he has made for our
wants —
[When an extraordinary plenty was predicted by the pro- phet Elisha in Samaria, the answer given him by the chief courtier was, " Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing beb ?" or, in other words, " The thing is impossible." In the same strain would any one have replied, if the existing state of things had been predicted as to be ac- complished amongst us. But behold, we are, contrary to all reasonable expectation, so "filled with the finest of the wheat," that the very cheapness of it creates a general embarrassment : and this singular phenomenon exists, that the only subject of complaint heard in the nation at this time is, that God has been too good to us, and has overwhelmed us, as it were, with his superabundant kindness and bounty. The promise made to Israel has been almost literally fulfilled to us : he has given us such abundance, that " we have scarcely room to receive it1."]
Such being the circumstances of our country at
this day, let us consider,
II. Our duty arising from them —
f ver. 20. s Mic. iv. 3, 4. h 1 Kings vii. 1,2. ' Mai. iii. 10.