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Show (12) l 13 ) hearts, as well as the joyful praifes of our lips : For I take it for granted, that you all firmly believe, that He who made the world, exerci- been under great apprehenfions by reafon of formidable fleets of an enemy on our coafts, menacing fire and {word to all our maritime fes a providential government over it; fo that the very hairs of our head " are all numbered by," and that " a fparrow doth not fall to the ground without"Him. How much more then, is his providence to be acknowledged in the rife, in the prefervation, in the great events, the re~ volutions, or the fall of mighty flares and kingdoms P ' To excite our gratitude to God the more ef~ feétually, let us confider the greatnefs of our late danger and of our deliverance: Letus take a brief retrofpeftive View of the perplexed, wretched (late, in which thefe colonies were, a few months ago, compared with the joyful and happy condition, in which they are at preffcnt, by the removal of their chief grievances. We have never known fo quick and general a tranfition from the depth of iorrow to the height ofjoy, as on this o'ccafion ; nor, indeed, fo great and univerfal a flow ofeither, on any other occafion whatever. It is Very true, we have heretofore feen times of great adverfity. ‘We have known feafons ofdrought,dearth,and fpreading mortal difeafes; the peiiilence walking in darknefs, and the deftruétion Waiting at noon day. We have {con wide devaflations, made by fire; and amazing tempelis, the hea‘vens on flame, the winds and the waves roaring. We have known repeated earthquakes, threat- hing us with fpeedy def'ti‘uéiion. ' ' ' ' ‘ We have been towns. We have known times when theFrench and Savage armies made terrible havock on our frontiers, carrying all before them for a While; when we were not without fear, that fome ca- pital townsin the colonies would fall into their mercilefs hands. Such times as thefe we have known ; at fome of which almoft every " face gathered palenefs," and the knees of all but the good and brave, waxed feeble. But never have we known a feafon of fuch univerfal confler- nation and anxiety among people of all ranks and ages, in thefe colonies, as was occaiioned by that parliamentary procedure, which threatned us and our pofterity with perpetual bondage and flavery. For 7776'}, as we generally fuppofe, are really flaves to all intents and pur~ pofes, who are obliged to labor and toil only for the benefit of others ; or, which comes to the fame thing, the fruit of whofe labour and induftry may be lawfitlb taken from them with- out their confent, and they juftly punifhed if they tefule to furrender it on demand, or ap- ply it to otherpurpofes than thofe, which their mailers, of their mere grace and pleafure, fee fit to allow. Nor are there many American underfiandings accute enough to diffinguilh any material difference between this being done by a flag/e perfon, under the title of an abfolute Monarch, and done by a far-diftant legillature confifiing of many perfons,in wliich ' tiev |