[721] One may be sure that the following caustic comment of the editor of the _Independent Chronicle_ is to be set down to instinctive repugnance and hostility, and is thus representative only of rabid partisanship: “Actions speak louder than words. If the parish observe the Minister busy about many things; if they find him more anxious about the _geographical_ description of the City of Washington or the Georgia Lands, than the _New-Jerusalem_ or the _Land of Canaan_; if they find him neglect his parish on a Sunday and employ himself during the week, to collect ridiculous fables to swell an appendix to a political publication. If he will do these things, he must expect that his Flock will not increase, and that at the year’s end, while he is exploring the territory of the United States, and hunting up Robinson’s [_sic_] straggling Illuminati, he must not be surprised if some of his _own sheep_ have strayed across the river, and become the care of a more attentive shepherd.” (_Ibid._, Jan. 7, 1799.) [722] _A Memorial of Divine Benefits. In a Sermon, delivered at Exeter, on the 15th, and at Haverhill, on the 29th of November, 1798, days of Public Thanksgiving, in New-Hampshire and Massachusetts._ By Abiel Abbot, pastor of the First Church in Haverhill. Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1798, pp. 18 _et seq._ [723] _A Sermon, delivered on the day of Public Thanksgiving, at Deerfield; Nov. 29, ’98._ By John Taylor. A. M., pastor of the church at Deerfield. Greenfield (n. d.), p. 13. [724] Taylor’s _Thanksgiving Sermon_, p. 13. [725] _A Sermon, delivered on the Anniversary Thanksgiving, November 29, 1798, with some additions in the historical part._ By Jonathan French, A. M., pastor of the South Church in Andover. Andover, 1799. p. 23. [726] _Ibid._, pp. 23 _et seq._ [727] _Ibid._ [728] _A Discourse, delivered on the Public Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1798._ By Joseph Eckley, D. D., minister of the Old South Church, Boston. Boston, 1798, pp. 9, 15, 18. [729] Connecticut kept a state thanksgiving at the same time as Massachusetts. [730] _Political Instruction from the Prophecies of God’s Word,—a Sermon, preached on the State Thanksgiving, Nov. 29, 1798._ By Nathan Strong, pastor of the North Presbyterian Church in Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford, 1798. This sermon is characterized by an ingenious effort to remove the stigma “mother of harlots” from the Catholic hierarchy and attach it to the Revolutionary leaders in France. “It is the Talleyrands and their associates,” said Strong, “whom I conceive to be the most properly designated by the mother of harlots, in the present period of the great apostacy.” (_Ibid._, p. 17.) [731] _A Sermon preached at Billerica, November 29, 1798, being the day of the Anniversary Thanksgiving throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts._ By Henry Cumings, A. M., pastor of the church in said town. Boston. 1798, p. 22. [732] _Ibid._