to render himself absolute! The army is in his hands, and if he be a man of address, it will be attached to him; and it will be the subject of long meditation with him to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish his design. And, sir, will the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I would rather infinitely, and I am sure most of this convention are of the same opinion, have a king, lords and commons, than a government so replete with such insupportable evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as shall prevent him from infringing them: but the president in the field, at the head of his army, can prescribe the terms on which he shall reign master, so far that it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from under the galling yoke. I cannot, with patience, think of this idea. If ever he violates the laws, one of two things will happen: he will come at the head of his army to carry every thing before him; or he will give bail, or do what Mr. Chief Justice will order him. If he be guilty, will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American throne? Will not the immense difference between being master of every thing, and being ignominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite him to make this bold push? But, sir, where is the existing force to punish him? Can he not, at the head of his army, beat down every opposition? Away with your president, we shall have a king: the army will salute him monarch; your militia will leave you, and assist in making him king, and fight against you and what have you to oppose this force? What will then become of you and your rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue ?

INFIDEL PHILOSOPHY.-ROBERT HALL.

We might ask the patrons of infidelity what fury impels them to attempt the subversion of Christianity? Is it that they have discovered a better system? To what virtues are their principles favorable? Or is there one which Christians have not carried to a higher perfection than any of which their party can boast? Have they discovered a more excellent rule of life, or a better hope in death, than that which the scriptures suggest? Above all, what are the pretensions on which

they rest their claims to be the guides of mankind; or which imbolden them to expect we should trample upon the experience of ages, and abandon a religion which has been attested by a train of miracles and prophecies, in which millions of our forefathers have found a refuge in every trouble, and consolation in the hour of death; a religion which has been adorned with the highest sanctity of character and splendor of talents; which enrols among its disciples the names of BACON, NEWTON, and LOCKE, the glory of their species, and to which these illustrious men were proud to dedicate the last and best fruits of their immortal genius?

If the question at issue is to be decided by argument, nothing can be added to the triumph of Christianity; if by an appeal to authority, what have our adversaries to oppose to these great names? Where are the infidels of such pure, uncontaminated morals, unshaken probity, and extended benevolence, that we should be in danger of being seduced into impiety by their example? Into what obscure recesses of misery, into what dungeons have their philanthropists penetrated, to lighten the fetters and relieve the sorrows of the helpless captive? What barbarous tribes have their apostles visited; what distant climes have they explored, encompassed with cold, nakedness, and want, to diffuse principles of virtue, and the blessings of civilization? Or will they rather choose to waive their pretensions to this extraordinary, and, in their eyes, eccentric species of benevolence, (for infidels, we know, are sworn enemies to enthusiasm of every sort,) and rest their character on their political exploits, on their efforts to re-animate the virtue of a sinking state, to restrain licentiousness, to calm the tumult of popular fury, and by inculcating the spirit of justice, moderation, and pity for fallen greatness, to mitigate the inevitable horrors of revolution? our adversaries will at least have the discretion, if not the modesty, to recede from the test.

More than all, their infatuated eagerness, their parricidal zeal to extinguish a sense of Deity, must excite astonishment and horror. Is the idea of an almighty and perfect Ruler unfriendly to any passion which is consistent with innocence, or an obstruction to any design which it is not shameful to avow? Eternal God, on what are thine enemies intent! What are those enterprises of guilt and horror, that, for the safety of their performers, require to be enveloped in a darkness which the eye of heaven must not pierce! Miserable men! Proud of being the offspring of chance; in love with universal disor

der; whose happiness is involved in the belief of there being no witness to their designs, and who are at ease only because they suppose themselves inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world!

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.-Burke,

I wish to see the established church of England great and powerful; I wish to see her foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness. I would have her head raised up to that heaven to which she conducts us. I would have her cherish all those who are within, and pity all those who are without; I would have her a common blessing to the world; an example, if not an instructor, to those who have not the happiness to belong to her; I would have her give a lesson of peace to mankind, that a vexed and wandering generation might be taught to seek for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of Christian charity, and not in the lap of infidelity and indifference. Long may we enjoy our church under a learned and edifying episcopacy. But episcopacy may fail, and religion exist. The most horrid and cruel blow that can be offered to civil society, is through atheism. Do not promote diversity; when you have it, bear it; have as many sorts of religion as you find in your country; there is a reasonable worship in them all. The others, the infidels, are outlaws of the constitution; not of this country, but of the human race. They are never, never to be supported, never to be tolerated. Under the systematic attacks of these people, I see some of the props of good government already begin to fail; I see propagated principles, which will not leave to religion even a toleration. I see myself sinking every day under the attacks of these wretched people. How shall I arm myself against them? by uniting all those in affection who are united in the belief of the great principles of the Godhead that made and sustains the world. They who hold revelation give double assurance to the country. Even the man who does not hold revelation, yet wishes that it were proved to him-who observes a pious silence with regard to it, such a man, though not a Christian, is governed by religious principles. Let him be tolerated in this country. Let it be but a serious religion, natural or revealed, take what you can get; cherish, blow up the lightest spark. One day it may be a pure and holy flame.

By this proceeding you form an alliance, offensive and defensive, against those great ministers of darkness in the world, who are endeavoring to shake all the works of God established in order and beauty. Perhaps I am carried too far; but the honorable gentleman would have us fight a confederacy of all the powers of darkness with the single arm of the church of England; would have us fight, not only against infidelity, but fight at the same time with all the faith in the world except our own. In the moment we make a front against the common enemy, we have to combat with those who are the natural friends of our cause. Strong as we are, we are not equal to this. The cause of the church of England is included in that of religion, not that of religion in the church of England. I will stand up at all times for the rights of conscience, as it is such, not for its particular modes against its general principles. One may be right, another mistaken; but if I have more strength than my brother, it shall be employed to support, not to oppress his weakness; if I have more light, it shall be used to guide, not to dazzle him.

CONSCIENCE.-TAYLOR.

No power, no decree, human or divine, no amnesty, can actually alienate from a man his property in a crime he has perpetrated.

Let us then contemplate this companion of our existence ;and let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality. How peculiar were the inducements;-how much did circumstances, in which we were not to blame, concur, almost to necessitate the act! Virtue, at the moment, was not on the alert. And then the actual injury that resulted, was not nearly so great as it might have been;-ourselves were the chief sufferers:amends have been made :-the victim even, has forgotten the wrong: the world has pronounced a full pardon :-nothingnothing remains ;-but memory and conscience:-it is as if it were not. No; we cannot ourselves fall in with this illusion. There have been cases in which a man, disordered in mind, has thought himself incessantly followed by some ghastly phantom-he has mixed in the crowd;—he has hurried from place to place; he has plunged into the heart of revelry, and has fondly for a moment believed, that he had actually eluded his pursuer :—no ;—at his side the cruel persecutor still stands up,

and mocks his endeavors to escape. But the crime with which conscience holds so much familiarity, is a far more real and terrible companion. In the one case, if the mind could but be disabused and restored to soundness, the shadowy form would melt away and be forgotten; but in this, the more the mind is sane, and vigorous, and calm, the more palpably and vividly does our grim attendant stand forth in our path.

Or in order to feel, the more sensibly, the reality of our guilt, let it be placed by the side of a very possible supposition; namely that the temptation had been repelled-the force of evil passions withstood-the voice of conscience, which we well remember to have heard, listened to-and a victory actually obtained over the trying seduction. Is then the difference between compliance and resistance of no account?—is it a circumstance not worthy of remembrance, whether a man stands or falls before his enemy? Victory, we should have thought much of:-is not defeat as notable an event as conquest? But if it may not be obliterated, in what light are we to regard this deep stain of sin, which has sunk into the soul?—

Can we not bring ourselves to believe that the common notions of mankind, and the affirmations of religion, concerning invisible government, and retribution, and the difference between good and evil, are a dream and a nullity? This, if it could be done, would rid us at once of every uneasiness.True-our crime stands on record; but we have no more to do with it than with the forgotten deeds of antediluvians.—Alas! no pains will avail to realize such a persuasion! Even if the positive and irrefragable proofs of the truth of religion could be subverted, an unquenchable instinct of the soul remains to retain hold of the notion of a moral system, and of law and justice.

Yes, if nothing else can confer importance upon man-his crimes shall give him consequence. If there were no other argument for a future life, SIN would furnish one never to be refuted. We need descend into no depths of abstruse reasoning here the simplest notions are conclusive enough. There is a cause standing over between the impartial Judge and ourselves; and a time for the hearing and decision of it must certainly come. If indefinitely delayed and forgotten, all loyal orders must harbor dissatisfaction and fear; while all who have actually been called to account and punished, will protest against the partiality. If conscience be but awake, the transgressor, as he stands at the verge of the present life, may thus