Excerpt from A Sermon: Delivered Before His Excellency John Davis, Governor, His Honor George Hull, Lieutenant Governor, the Honorable Council, and the Legislature of Massachusetts at the Annual Election, on Saturday, January 7, 1813I prefer. To appeal to the undeniable facts, that the Christian revelation enforces duty upon the principle of a command from the Creator, - that our own moral powers acquiesce, - that the experience of the world has proved that the light of conscience, and natural religion, have never yet produced an amount of virtue sufficient to constitute a safe basis of popu lar freedom, - and that the highest instances of moral and social advancement have been in those communities most governed by the precepts and sanctions of the Christian religion. Forever true are those memorable words of Washington, so often quoted, and worthy of being repeated in the hearing of the nation through all time Let us, he says, with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained Without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the in¿uence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.