among you, and which, being your highest interest, I pray God, may be your principal delight, to fulfil; that, when you are called, as you soon will be, to give an account to the Judge of all the earth, for the improvement you have made under the preaching of the Gospel, you may answer, individually, for yourselves, not with despondency and apprehension, but with satisfaction and comfort.

The first duty I shall mention, is the devout observance of the Lord's day. The Sunday, with grief I repeat it, is considered by some, merely, as a day of rest. They neglect attending the service of the Church, one Sabbath after another, and pass the day, either in idleness at home, or in unnecessary visits abroad. My brethren, this is, probably, the last time I shall ever address you from this place. Permit me, therefore, to propose to you this simple question. Were this day the great day of account-were we now assembled before the Throne of God-do you believe, in your consciences, that those excuses you have offered to me, when I have requested you to attend divine service, would be sufficient to present to the Almighty? Would you have the presumption to make them to Him "from whom no secrets are hid, to whom all thoughts "are known?" And if you would tremble at such presumption, as I am well assured you would, why will you be so inconceivably thoughtless-for I would express myself in the gentlest terms-as to persist in such a conduct, as will expose you to the wrath of God? For if you have no excuses more satisfactory now, you will have none more available to offer at the day of Judgment-and then what, do you expect, will become of you? Some who live in the profanation, at least

in the neglect, of the Lord's day, are fathers of families, to whom those families, naturally, look for precept to inform, and example to influence them, that, "be"holding your good works," the God of love and the Father of mercies, may, in that day

when every

Were there

"eye shall see Him, accept you both." no satisfaction in pouring out your souls at the Throne of Grace; were there no satisfaction in reflecting, that, in our public assemblies, we all, independent of our moral conduct, appear, without distinction, as children of the same Father, and, equally, the objects of His providential care; yet when we further, consider, that to the profanation of the Lord's day have been attri buted all those evils which have brought so very many of our fellow-creatures to an untimely end; the fears of every parent, it might be supposed, would be awakened, and his whole soul alarmed, lest his children should plead his example in extenuation of their vices, and as an apology for their crimes. Rather, my brethren, learn to estimate the value of the Lord's day-let it be a day of rest, of cheerfulness, of devotion-let a part of it be, uniformly, appropriated to acquire a knowlege of the Scriptures, and of the God who wrote them-let it be to all of you what it is, graciously, intended to be-an emblem of heavena passage through the vale of mortality to the regions of life.

I would, likewise, suggest to you, that a divine invitation is given you, four times in the year, to celebrate the Lord's Supper-an invitation which folly only can overlook, and profligacy alone can reject. I have, during my ministry, pressed this duty upon you with much earnestness, and, I bless God, not, altogether,

Bb 4

altogether, without effect. But I cannot dispel my fears, that, after my departure, you may be induced to forget my exhortations, and return to that state of supineness and inattention from which it has pleased God to deliver you. In the celebration of the Lord's Supper are comprized all the blessings of the Christian Covenant-expiation of sin, renewal of heart, peace of mind, acceptance with God. Your participation, individually, of such invaluable blessings was the first object of my preaching and my labors, of my prayers and of my solicitude. In my reflections on the state of my parish, I consider my flock as divided into four unequal parts. One, blessed be God! a very considerable, part, uniformly receive the Holy Sacrament; a second receive it about twice in the year: these two classes comprize more than four fifths of the inhabitants. third description of people have, during the five years I have been your minister, occasionally received the Communion. And a fourth, of whom I thank God, there are very, very few, have never received it at all. They resist all exhortations. They are deaf to all persuasions. Be it so! I have, I humbly hope, delivered my soul. "When I say unto the wicked"—it is the language of God by his Prophet" O wicked "man, thou shalt surely die; if thou warn the wicked.

A

of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his "way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast deli"vered thy soul."

Let not this my last address be without effect. Discharge your duty as Christians. Be cloathed with the wedding garment; lest when ye stand before God, ye should then be found without it, and should, for your negligence, be cast into outer darkness, where there ❝is wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Another

Another duty of no less importance, which I am, extremely, solicitous to prevail with those, who have begun the practice, to continue; and with those who have neglected to appropriate its blessings, to live in the neglect no longer, is family worship. Carelessness may disregard, folly deride, and impiety contemn the observance but there is, assuredly, no security like trust in the Lord, there is, believe me, no comfort like the worship of God. He, who considers that when he goes to rest at night, may awake in eternity in the morning-that his children and his boushold may be murdered by the assassin, or consumed in the flames, will feel it as much his delight as it is his duty, devoutly and reverently, to solicit with them the protection of that gracious Being, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. He, who is impressed with such sentiments, will not repose in indifference without Religion, nor content himself with substituting external decorum for vital piety. He will esteem his family as a community, and will shudder at the thought of being at the head of that community, and discouraging and excluding, instead of introducing and establishing, supplication to Him, without whose Providence no community can subsist. What! shall he refuse the opportunity of presenting himself, his children, and his family before the King of kings and the Lord of lords? What! shall he neglect the means of proclaiming allegiance on the one hand, and of supplicating protection on the other? No! he estimates, too justly, both the honor to which he is admitted, and the blessings he may course. May such, my all of you! Although it

obtain from so holy an interbrethren, be the character of may seem evil," or a matter

of

of indifference to others "to serve the Lord," may it be, individually, your resolution "to serve the Lord 66 your God" in your several families, and to "obey. "His voice" in your whole conduct!

Such are the religious duties which I feel it incumbent on me to recommend to your observance before I leave you; because if they are, uniformly, and reverently, fulfilled, you will be amiable in your social, upright in your moral, and exemplary in your religious, character. I may, I trust, humbly appeal to God, that, during the time your Salvation has been entrusted to me, I have, faithfully, discharged the important duty, and have watched over your souls with the solicitude of one who was one day to give account for them. I have had no motive in whatever I have written, or delivered, or done in my parish, but your good. And it is this testimony of my conscience which supports me, when I reflect upon the awful account we are each of us to give, I of my ministry, you of your faith and hearing; if devoted to pleasures, attached to gain, or immersed in indolence, I have been regardless of your Salvation, and have, thereby, suffer ed you to lose your souls; if to gain your approbation, I have rather endeavored to amuse your fancy than affect your hearts; if led away by a sect or party, I have, in order to please men, kept out of sight, or misrepresented, the essential doctrines of the ever-blessed Gospel, I shall feel myself the object of contempt and abhorrence, hated of men, condemned by God. But you will, I persuade myself, do me the justice to believe, that I have not thus fulfilled my ministry! Your welfare in this life, and your Salvation in the next, have, indeed, been the end and aim of all my labors.

And