SERMON XI.

ON THE THANKSGIVING

FOR THE VIC

TORY AT TRAFALGAR.

St MATTHEW, xvii. 4.

"Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord! it is good for us to be here.

WHEN Our Saviour carried his disciples up into the mount, and was transfigured before them, we read, in this chapter, that St Peter, overpowered with the vision of glory which he was permitted to see, exclaimed, in holy rapture, “Lord! "it is good for us to be here." It is

good for us to be raised above the lower world, and to witness this manifestation of the majesty of Him by whom thou art sent; that we may return again into the world with deeper conviction of Thy divinity, and that Thou art the beloved Son, whose voice it is our duty to hear.

With such feelings of devout gratitude, I trust we are now assembled in the House of God, and have joined in those accents of praise. which on this day rise from every corner of Our land. We are assembled to commemorate one of those signal deliverances which reach to the foundation and stability of our empire.-We' have seen the protracted anxiety of years, dispersed, as it were, by the breath of Heaven; and, accustomed as we are to the possession of national glory, we have seen it awaken, as if with accumulated lustre, and shed over

the

year

which is about to close, a splendour unknown to any former age.

In such moments there is a command, superior even to that of the sovereign or the legislature, which summons us into the temple of God, and leads us to join that multitude who, in receiving common blessings, are ardent to express their common praise. It is an instinct characteristic of our nature, and productive of sentiments that become us; it unites the concerns of earth with the laws of Heaven; it raises us from ordinary thought, to the conceptions of Him in whose hand all "the nations of the earth are as the dust "in the balance; "-and, amid the miseries of nations, it leads us to the anticipation of that final state, when there shall be war and tears no more.

If, indeed, it were only to swell the note of public exultation, that assemblies of this kind were summoned,-if it were

to cherish national vanity by the sanguinary record of achievement, or to inflame national malignity by an inhuman triumph over the chains of the captive, or the ashes of the fallen,-I know not that human impiety could afford so dark a scene of profanation. In such assemblies no Christian spirit would breathe, and on such hearts no grace of Heaven could descend. It is for nobler ends, that, on days like these, the wise and the good follow the multitude into the House of God. It is to sanctify, with all the solemnity of religious impression, their love of their country. It is to recal to mind the blessings which the Providence of Heaven hath shed over their land. It is to weigh the obligations which these blessings create, and thus to prepare their minds for the discharge of those duties which their country may in future demand of them, whether in peace or in war.

There is a love of our country which is inherent in human nature, which is felt by the savage as well as the citizen, and which no artifice of sophistry can eradicate from the bosom of man. But, in the thoughts of a wise man, there are other circumstances to be weighed: he will be disposed to justify to himself these original anticipations of nature, and to consider well whether the character or the conduct of his nation sanctions that instinctive love which nature has taught him. In such an inquiry there will probably be three principal subjects of his examination,-Whether the land to which be belongs be distinguished by the purity of its religious faith? Whether it has accomplished the great ends of social union? And Whether it has been instrumental to the happiness and welfare of mankind? These three inquiries fulfil the widest investigation into the conduct and