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from the review of those few solemn hours, when I have delivered the messages of God to you with such pathos and earnestness, that the world may have thought me mad. But I accuse myself, and would lament my many infirmities, particularly my frequent languor and coldness in the care of your souls. Indeed, I have been made sensible of my defects in this respect and oh! that may be enabled to be more faithful and laborious for the future. I am more sensible than usual that I must work while the day of life lasts for, oh! it is short and uncertain; and the night of death is coming, when I cannot work. I have but little time to labour for my divine Master-but little time to warn, instruct and edify my dear hearers. Therefore, now, while my mouth is not silent in the dust, I would address you with the utmost earnestness and solemnity,

But this is not the only reason for improving the present time. As I am mortal myself, so are my dear people they are dying fast around me, and dropping into the grave from between my hands. Above twenty that were wont to mingle with us in this assembly, and to hear the word from my lips, have been hurried into the eternal world in a few days. They have now passed the grand decisive trial: their state of probation is over, and an irrevocable sentence has fixed their eternal state in the mansions of glory or misery! These I have done with forever. No more can I labour to warn and convince them-no more can I comfort and edify them-no more can I denounce the terrors of the Lord against their sin, nor offer the blessings of the gospel to their acceptance! The most ignorant of them are now wiser than their teacher, and know more of the great realities of the eternal world than the wisest man upon earth. Farewell, then, to these our friends and neighbours-farewell, till we all meet in one vast as、 sembly before the supreme tribunal !

But, blessed be God, all my dear people are not yet swept off from the land of the living! Here is still a goodly number, as yet in a state of trial for that strange world, whither our brethren have taken their flight. Here is a goodly number, who can still hear the gospel of peace, and who are still interested to hear it ; and who, unless they hear it in time, must soon be miserable forever! And why then should you not all hear it with the most solemn attention and seriousness? Why, brethren, should you not all hear it so that your souls may live? Alas! is it possible there should be one vain, trifling, thoughtless mind, in a religious

assembly in such circumstances! Methinks horror must set him a trembling, and mark out the monster to the whole congregation, as a magor-missabib-a terror to himself and all around him!

Certainly, if ever there was a time for serious thoughtfulness, this is such a time. Our nation, our country, our neighbourhood, and some of our families, are in very alarming circumstances. Our nation is in danger from the victorious power of France, and the formidable conspiracy of her allies,* that seem zealous to erase the name of Britons from the face of the earth. Our country has been ravaged, and bled in a thousand veins; and the posture of our affairs threatens still more gloomy times. Our neighbourhood has been turned into a grave-yard, and some of us are the remains of families that have been thinned by death; and we are escaped, like brands plucked out of the burning. And what improvement should we make of these calamities? What is the will and pleasure of God in this case? Suppose you knew what the will of your Maker and Lord is, what he desires, commands and expects you should do, in such circumstances--suppose you knew this certainly and infallibly, must I not have so much charity for you all as to presume you would pay a serious regard to it? Is it possible you should be capable of such daring wickedness, as to contemn his royal pleasure, when you knew it beyond all doubt? Well, brethren, I am just going to put this matter to trial: for I can assure you as certainly as if you heard it proclaimed with an immediate voice from heaven, what the will of God is in this case. It is this: that you should repent, reform, and turn to the Lord, under these threatenings and chastisements. This is undoubtedly the pleasure and the command of God; and the issue will show how much weight it will have with you.

Some of you, I doubt not, have been roused by these calamities to more earnestness and zeal in the great work of your salvation. You have re-examined your past experiences, to see if you can venture upon them into eternity. You have renewed your hold of Jesus Christ, that he may be your sure support, when nature is sinking in death. You have been trimming your lamps, and putting yourselves in a proper habit to meet the Bridegroom of your souls. You have been setting things in order for your last remove and though you may have been tossed between the alternate billows of hope and fear, yet you cannot but conclude, up

* This sermon is dated Hanover, November 14, 1756.

on the whole, that you have not delayed the grand work of life to such a time as this; but have been so wise as to make it your main business in the time of health and prosperity. Well, my dear brethren, go on in this course, and you shall be safe, come what will; and these threatening and afflictive dispensations of Providence will, in the issue, prove most blessed and beneficial dispensations to you. Yes all things, even the heaviest calamities, shall work together for your greatest good.

May I not also allow myself the pleasure of hoping that some of you, who have formerly lived thoughtless about the concerns of eternity, have been awakened by these alarming providences to some proper sense of your danger, and to work out your salvation with fear and trembling? You begin to see that your former course will never do; that you are unprepared for eternity, and in the utmost need of a Saviour; and you are now determined to seek him with all your might. Well, my brethren, hold on in this course, and you have reason to hope it will issue well: only I must caution you against the danger of apostasy. Alas, you have reason to fear, lest, when the fright is over, all your religion come to nothing! And if so, your last estate is worse than the first.

This, Sirs, is a very proper time for repentance and reformation, and I am unusually desirous that it may be improved for that purpose. The calamities we have felt, and those we feel, have a direct tendency to drive us to it. This is an effectual method to make up our loss, and turn our afflictions into blessings, and our bereavements into enjoyments: and this will be the best preparative for days of distress, and the best support in them. God has also frequently set in by his Spirit at such a time, and carried on an extensive work of grace; and it is a dismal symptom, indeed, if he withdraw his Spirit from a people in such circumstances, and leave them to groan and perish under unsanctified afflictions; or deliver their bodies from the outward calamity, without delivering their souls from the slavery of sin. This is a melancholy case indeed; and yet, I am afraid, this is the case of many, perhaps of most in this congregation. You may, perhaps, be a little damped while living, as it were, among so many graves: you may have been struck into a panic, and in a serious fit, poured out a few prayers. But, alas, this is but a small part of the work to be done! And unless it be carried farther, you must perish forever. You may flatter yourselves, and

make fair pretensions to others. But, "Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?" And dost not thou, who seest through all their designs, and knowest the reality of their case-dost not thou see that though" thou hast stricken them, they have not grieved," with deep, ingenuous sorrows, and the kindly relentings of true repentance?" Thou hast consumed them, but they refuse to receive correction :" they are not made sensible of their sin, and reduced to their duty, by all thy chastisements, though various and heavy; they are stiff and unyielding under thy rod, and will not be made wise by it; instead of being dissolved into repentance, and purified, they grow harder and harder in the furnace of affliction. "They have made their faces harder than a rock :" they can no more blush at their base conduct towards thee, than a senseless stone; they can no more wet their faces with penitential tears, than a flinty rock. "They refuse to return." Not that they refuse in words-not that they expressly say in so many syllables, We will not return: but they refuse it practically. They refuse to return by not actually returning; for not to return, in fact, is to refuse to return. They refuse to return, by not using the means necessary for their return, and by continuing their career in their old course. They refuse to return by the habitual temper of their hearts, which reluctate, struggle, and draw back, and will not return. This was the character of the Jews, under all their calamities, in Jeremiah's time. And is not this, brethren, the character of sundry of you? Are there not blind minds, hard hearts, and profane lips, among us still? Are there not prayerless persons and prayerless families among us? Are there not some that neglect the plainest duties to God and man? Some thoughtless, careless creatures, that feel no deep impressions from eternal things? Some worldly-minded grovelling creatures, perpetually digging in the earth for riches? Some vain, light, trifling sinners, who go on frolicking and carousing, even when the Lord of Hosts calls to "weeping, and mourning, and girding with sackcloth ?"*--Some that have never experienced a thorough conversion, and know not what it is to repent and believe?--Some obstinate, incorrigible sinners, that bid defiance to all the judgments of God? Or, if they are afraid of his judgments, they are not afraid of sin, the cause of them. In a dastardly, and perhaps, unnatural manner, they keep off or fly from the

* Isaiah xxii. 12.

contagious disorder; and helpless families may die around them, unassisted, for them: but they are not so shy of the more fatal contagion of sin, nor so solicitous to keep out of the way of temptation. If they can but live, it is enough for them; but they care not whether they live to God or not. Alas! are there not many such among us? Does not conscience witness that this is the real character of some of you? Chastisement is thrown away upon you: you are made no better by it. You will receive no correction or warning from the death of a neighbour, or even of a parent or a child.

This, indeed, is not a singular case, which renders it still the more melancholy. It seems the general curse of the present generation, that the chastisements of the divine hand do not work kindly upon them, nor bring them to repentance. Thus it generally is in England, Scotland, and the northern colonies, though in such an alarming situation. Mr. Bellamy, of New England, whom some of you know and highly esteem for his excellent writings, has these words, in a letter I lately received from him : (6 A dark cloud seems to be gathering over a sinful land. We have had a day of great grace-that is past and gone, and a day of great wrath seems to be at hand! Our northern army is sickly and likely to do nothing-our treasury is exhausted-people's spirits low-great murmurings, but no reformation. For all these things we feel, and fear we do not return unto the Lord." Thus discouraging is the prospect in New England, where religion has so long flourished. Mr. Blair, of Pennsylvania, with whose excellent character most of you are perfectly acquainted, and whose congregation has been the scene of the Indian ravages and murders, complains in these moving terms: Alas, I have not enjoyed the sweet supports of success in my ministry! Under all this heavy scene of judgment, our people are manifestly more and more hardened; and that, notwithstanding a gracious God has stooped to assist me remarkably in preaching, frequently this summer. A dreadful omen this !" says he. My British correspondents send me the same accounts. Mr. Erskine, a worthy minister in Scotland, writes, " I hear of no such thing as a revival of religion in Scotland: a spirit of deep slumber seems to have seized us." Mr. Adams, the excellent minister of Falkirk, writes in the same strain : "What is wanting, says he, to encourage our hopes, is a spirit of repent

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