guage of indignation which her fons utter, as they read the tale of human woe*. Just as I finish this addrefs, I am told it is decided by a great majority of the Commons, that the Slave-Trade, the reproach of our nature and of our religion, shall be abolished. May the bleffing of them that are ready to perif come upon you; because you have delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

GENTLEMEN of all thefe different SOCIETIES,

THE principle merit of the Lectures and Reflections I have dedicated to you is, that the fubjects are excellent, and the intention of the writer good. With the highest respect for your principles and conduct,

I am,

Gentlemen,

Your most obedient,

And humble fervant,

DAVID WILLIAMSON.

Whitehaven, April 10,

1792.

* Let the Americans blufh, while they behold the true dignity of a generous nation correcting its errors, with the tear guthing for the miferies they have occafioned.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE centenary Commemoration of the British Revolution. gave the Author an occafion to deliver two difcourfes on Civil and Religious Liberty. Since that time, his obfervations on thefe important fubjects have been carried to a length, to which he had then no defign of carrying them. Though thefe Lectures do not contain an hundred fentences of the original difcourfes, the Author has preferved the original form of addrefs; and this circumftance, he hopes, will give no offence to any good man. He does not offer them to the world as Sermons on the doctrines or duties of Chriftianity, but as flrictures on thofe fubjects, which are intimately connected with the propagation of the Gospel, as well as with the temporal happiness of mankind. He trusts it will give no perfon any pain, to fee a text of Scripture prefixed, to what the Author honeftly affirms, never to have been delivered from the pulpit.-In the Reflections on the Conftitutions of England and France, the Author fuppofes his Readers to be acquainted with the hiftory of the late Revolution in the latter kingdom; and with the general turn, political controverfies have lately taken in both countries.

LECTURE I.

ON CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS

LIBERTY.

DEUT. vi. 20, 21.

And when thy fon afketh thee in time to come, faying, what mean the teftimonies, and the ftatutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt fay unto thy fon, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

SUCH

CH is the account of their civil and religious inftitutions, to be tranfmitted by the Ifraelites of that age, to future times. The conftitution of their government, is unexampled in the hiftory of mankind. The Governor of the universe took them under his own tuition, and he himself filled that throne, which his parental care had erected, in an infant ftate. He even condefcended to offer himself as a Candidate for their monarchy, and submitted his right to an election, made by the free fuffrages of the people. Being chofen into the feat of authority, he took both the legislative and executive parts of the government into his own hands. These were, with ample fecurity to the rights of the nation, and to the liberties of individuals, united in one perfon, when that person was God; but can never, with the fafety of either the one or the other, be repofed in the fame perfon, when he is of

an inferior nature. The Theocracy being thus formed by the voluntary compact of the parties, God was now the Civil Head of the Jews, as well as the object of their religious worship. The confequences of this conftitution were, in the first place, a more equal diftribution of rerewards and punishments, than any other goverment is able to attain. And, fecondly, temporal rewards and punifhments formed the moft confpicuous part of its fanction. Agreeably to the spirit of that goverment, as well as to the nature of the religious difpenfation it conducted, the rewards and punishments of a future ftate, were wrapped up in an external cover. They were, in a great meafure, concealed by the fame veil of mystery, under which the doctrines of the Gospel were obfcured and hid. Both of them were fo far difclofed, as to answer the great designs of Providence by that difpenfation of religion. What was known, was fufficient to awaken the fears of wicked men. To the faith of the good, a foundation was given, on which it might calmly reft. Both were fo much thrown into fhade, that the most enlightened of the holy Prophets defired information with refpect to their nature, more complete than the circumftances of the church allowed.

MOSES, who, under God, conducted the Children of Ifrael from flavery in Egypt, to the borders of Canaan, the appointed place of their fettlement, exhibits in the whole hiftory of his life, the most difinterested attachment to the fortunes of his nation. Though he was not suffered to enter the promised land, he fhews, in the laft and concluding fcene of his life, the fame concern for their felicity, rifing fuperior to every perfonal confideration. In this book, he appears like a dying father, overloaded with a parent's cares. To his foreboding mind, the future rebellions of his countrymen prefent themselves, in fad profpect. In thefe he reads the tale of their mifery and of their woes. Every fpring of tender fenfibility is touched

within

within him. The fhort space of time, allotted for inftructing the people before his death, he eagerly feizes, that every hour of it might be filled up, with such information as the circumstances of their condition required. He collects all the force of his great mind, while he fets before them the bleffings of obedience, and the evils incurred by tranfgreffion. With obedience, he connects the prosperity and grandeur of the common wealth; as well as the happiness of its members. The interefts of both, he affures them, would be effectually promoted, by an unreserved fubmiffion to his goverment, who was equally their God and their Prince. The threats employed to awe them into obedience, are an exact counterpart of the bleffings he proposes: the decline, and even the diffolution of their ftate, when the apoftacy from their divine institutions became general: the punishment of individuals, by the strict administration of justice, so long as the constitution retained its pristine vigour. To these temporal motives, others relating to a future life were fuperadded; though they were not expreffed in terms fo pointed and decifive, but the thoughtless might overlook them. It was not the intention of God under that difpenfation of religion, any more than it is his intention under the prefent difpenfation of it, to justify finners by perfonal obedience; but they both alike restrict the bleffings of his favour, to those who do his commandments.

In this folemn tranfaction many were concerned, who were not the fpectators of it. The conftitution of the Church and State, was to fubfift for a series of ages. Other generations were to arife, were to live under the fame laws; and to be members of the fame community. The force of the Theocracy was ftill to be exerted, in rewarding and in punishing, whether the collective body, or particular perfons, as those inftitutions were revered, or violated. The doctrines of the Unity and the Redemption were to