mination of the question now agitated, but for the permanent rule of future proceedings. He whose own resources are expected to be equal to such investigation, whose own patient and clear-sighted moderation must hold the reins, when the most vigorous and fervid minds are in the full career of a mutually quickened excitement,-who, in concerns so complicated, must be looked to to commit no errour, where no errour could fail to be a wide mischief,-who should make his contribution, for future times, to the settled doctrines of social justice,-assuredly he needs to be provided out of all the people, not only from among able, but from among the most able men.

Secondly; thou shalt provide men of truth out of all the people, says our text, and place such over them.We need to be sure that they whom we elevate to the trust of magistracy shall be men of truth, in the sense of being men of probity; men faithful to the truth, as far as it has disclosed itself to them; prompt and explicit to make it known, firm in adherence to it, and careful that, as far as depends on them, it shall fully do its office, in regulating concerns of others, to which it may have application. Publick provisions may remove from a publick officer many temptations to swerve from the path of integrity. But they cannot make him a man of integrity; and if he is capable of being seduced or intimidated into apostasy from uprightness and truth, he is only the more to be dreaded for possessing an ability, which may help him to disguise or defend his deviations.-He should be a

man of truth, in the sense of having that attachment to it, which shall lead him to seek it by diligent investigation. He should be impressed with that sense of the worth of truth, and of the strong necessity there is that what he announces for its dictates, should indeed be such, that he will not be satisfied to take up with first impressions, nor think any pains too great, by which truth, in its most unequivocal signatures, may be ascertained.-Once more, he must be a lover of truth, not only that his ability may not be perverted, but that we may be assured of his ability being of the highest character. Love of truth is not a moral quality alone. It deserves to be ranked among qualities which make up intellectual power. Nay, it may claim to be ranked highest among them; to be esteemed the first of talents. The capacity of discovering truth is the great attribute of human reason; and certainly nothing goes further towards the discovery of truth, than that state of inclination towards, and correspondence with it, which love of it involves; nor can any thing else do so much, to subject the other faculties to an effectual training to make them available to this end. Without a presiding love of truth, men may exhibit extraordinary powers to persuade, or illustrate, or beautify; but without this,-without this, I say, not attributed, but really existing,-the fame of an understanding of the first order was never permanently established by any man. Without this, no tangible contribution was ever made to the resources of the human mind, any more than to the well-being of human society.

Another qualification for the magistracy, which our text specifies, is a detestation of covetousness. We would have our magistrates hate covetousness, because we would be sure that their love of truth, that their integrity, is above temptation. Invested with such high powers, we might well tremble, if we should see them possessed by a sordid passion, the gratification of which might seduce them from the path of right. We would wish to have in their characters a pledge of something more than an incapacity of being swayed by any coarse form of bribery. We shall feel the more secure, if we witness in them no such covetousness of popular favour, as might seem like an ambition after higher prizes, which publick favour has to bestow, -for, betraying such a feeling, we might fear that they would systematically aim, or that they would be insensibly biassed, to make the office which they hold a stepping stone to the office which they desire, and thus that the popular clamour would be louder in their ear than the private citizen's claim for his rights. It will gratify us to see that they are not covetous of accumulation for the sake of luxury and state; for then we might apprehend that their sympathies would be hurtfully estranged from that humbler mass of society, above which they seemed desirous to exalt themselves; or, at least, that their minds might come to be occupied with objects merely trifling compared with their proper pursuits. And, on the other hand, we shall be little satisfied to witness in them the covetousness which stints and hoards, for we would

not have minds, which must embrace subjects so large, and lift themselves to speculations so lofty, belittled and dwarfed by a parsimonious spirit. It will add greatly to our confidence in them, if we may see that their assumption of office has been disinterested, and dictated by views to the publick good. It is a sad condition of a country, when office is desired chiefly for its emoluments. It is a deplorable and a fearful thing, when the majestic trust of ordering a community's concerns is converted into a job of private selfishness. We may prophecy in sack-cloth for a people capable of using their political privileges with a view to political preferment and its profits. In our country, and certainly not least in our commonwealth, we have been used, in past time, to other examples. We have been accustomed to see the most esteemed citizens under a sense of publick duty, assuming high office, at personal sacrifice ;-because, for the common safety, they would not see such momentous trusts committed to inferiour hands. God grant it be long before that noble race shall be seen to be extinct among us!

Once more; it is said, thou shalt provide out of all the people such as fear God, and let them judge the people. The fear of God, witnessed to be a rooted principle in a magistrate's heart, gives us the only complete assurance of his fidelity. It assures us not only that he will not knowingly pervert his trust to ill uses, but that he will bend himself to all its duties with a scrupulously conscientious purpose. It satisfies us, that, religiously observant of the oath of God

which is upon him, we shall no more find him remiss or unprofitable, than we shall find him partial or oppressive; that he will diligently seek for guidance at the best sources; that he will give to his tasks the best application of his mind; and that he will watch cautiously and humbly against exposures to errour. In a religious community like this, we would have our magistrates fear God, because we would not have them without sympathy with ourselves on the most important of all subjects, and a subject the most intimately related to the well-being of all communities. They are conspicuous examples to the whole people whom they serve,-models, to no small extent, on which is to be formed the character of the rising generation; and, in these respects, we would not lose the benefit of their being avowed friends to the church of Christ.

If it had been our purpose, my hearers, to compose a compendious description of the eminent citizen, who has just ceased from his labours in the midst of us, we could not have done better than to select the words in which our text enumerates the qualifications of a competent magistrate. The character, in which those whom I address have viewed him, was the completion of his labours in building up an enviable name. But, from first to last, his was a singularly exemplary course. In the contemplation of it all, it is safe to say, that he has left few, "either wiser or better behind." The late Chief Justice Parker, the son of a merchant of this town, the straitened circumstances