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preaching sedition. And if ministers only teach the common sentiment of mankind in all ages, they accuse them of going out of their province and preaching politics. They will not allow them to teach their hearers that religious instruction is useful and necessary in civil society. In a word, they employ every method they can devise to silence the whole body of the clergy, to take off all moral restraints from the minds of the people, and bring them into a state of universal infidelity and licentiousness. Now what is the duty of ministers of the gospel in this alarming situation of the country? Is it their duty to obey man rather than God? Is it their duty to stand still and be silent, and let vice and infidelity produce their fatal effects? Or is it their plain and indispensable duty to imitate the noble example of Jehoiada the priest, and exert all their influence to defeat the designs of those who are aiming to corrupt and destroy the nation? They never had a louder call, a fairer opportunity, or greater encouragement to stand in their lot, to set their faces as a flint, and to oppose by all the force and authority of religious instruction, atheism, deism, infidelity, and all the land-defiling iniquities. If they plainly preach the great doctrines and duties of christianity, and inculcate upon rulers and subjects their mutual duties and obligations, they may be instruments in the divine hand of restraining the nation from those errors in principle and practice which threaten its ruin. This is a most animating motive to be faithful in their office, and to do all the good they can in the American Israel. But if any minister of the gospel refuse to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and neglect to plead his cause against the enemies of his kingdom, it may be said to him as Mordecai said to Esther when her nation was upon the point of destruction. "Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape -For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place, but thou shalt be destroyed."

Finally, we ought to infer from this subject, that we have great reason to fear the displeasure of God, for neglecting and abusing the ministrations of his word. He has raised up and sent us his ministering servants, who have long labored, by their faithful instructions, to make us a holy and happy people. But we have neglected to hear and refused to obey his voice, by his sacred ambassadors. How many, of late years, have wholly forsaken the house of God! and how many more have become extremely inconstant in their attendance upon divine ordinances! By this criminal negligence, multitudes have grown up ignorant of the important truths of the gospel, and unimpressed with the solemn objects and motives of eternity;

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which has exposed them to suck in the most poisonous sentiments, and to pursue the most vicious and destructive courses. Many others there are, who, though they have not neglected to hear, yet have refused to obey the religious instructions which have been poured into their minds from sabbath to sabbath, through the whole course of their lives. They have hated instruction and despised reproof, and with their eyes wide open, have followed the multitude to do evil. Such neglect and abuse of religious instruction, have brought a heavy load of guilt upon our nation. We have not despised man, but God, by neglecting and abusing his sacred institutions.

And now our greatest danger is, that instead of reforming, we shall wax worse and worse, and more and more provoke God to anger, by continuing to neglect and abuse the ministrations of his word. We may, indeed, have as many houses of public worship, and as many public teachers of religion, seven years hence, as we have now; but will these houses be filled? or these ministers of the sanctuary be heard? If the opposers of all religious instruction continue industrious and successful, the ways of Zion will be unoccupied, and the houses of God deserted. And is there not apparent danger of our revolting more and more, by neglecting and abusing divine institutions? This will ripen us, faster than any thing else, for the heaviest judgments of God. When God condescends to assign the reasons for punishing his peculiar people, he never fails to mention their stupidity and obstinacy under the warnings and admonitions of his servants. By Isaiah he says to his people, "Therefore I will number you to the sword, and ye shall bow down to the slaughter; because when I called ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear." To the same people he says by Jeremiah, "Behold, I will bring evil upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words." And again he says by the same prophet, "Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up and sending them yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken unto thee: thou shalt call unto them; but they will not answer thee: But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth instruction." The curse deserved and threatened is-"the land shall be desolate." God is the same holy and righteous being from age to age. He is as much displeased with us as he was with his ancient

people, for despising and abusing the instructions and admonitions of his word: and we have just ground to fear, that he will punish us as severely as he did them, for sinning against all the light and instruction which he has given us by his faithful servants. In the view of our guilty and dangerous situation, we have abundant reason for humiliation, fasting, and prayer before God this day. We ought to bewail the atheism, the infidelity, the licentiousness, the impenitence and stupidity, which abound through the nation. These national sins will certainly draw down national judgments, unless we reform, repent, and return to the God of our fathers, from whom we have unreasonably revolted. This is the duty which God requires of a degenerate people, and upon the performance of which, he promises to forgive and save them. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach. Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people." Amen.

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SERMON XVII.

PUBLIC SPIRIT.

OCTOBER 15, 1806.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep. Acтs, xiii. 36.

As GOD is pleased to employ human agents in carrying on his designs in this world, so he never fails to find those persons who are best qualified to answer his purpose. This he intimates by the mode of expression in the twenty-second verse of the context. "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will." The Lord saw something in David, the youngest son of Jesse, which neither he, nor Samuel saw, when he was sent to anoint him and set him apart for the service of God. It seems they would have preferred either of his seven brothers; but God, who looked on the heart, and not on the outward appearance, preferred him. Nor was the divine choice misplaced; for as soon as David appeared in public, he seized every opportunity of promoting the cause of God, and the good of his fellow men. And it is truly astonishing what talents he displayed, and what signal services he performed, in the course of his life. After he had undauntedly fought his way to the throne of Israel, he found the kingdom weak and divided. But he soon united the nation in peace, and conquered their numerous and powerful enemies. Having finished his long and bloody wars, he turned his attention to the internal concerns of the nation. He devised the best methods to regulate the services of the sanctuary, and promote the public worship of God. He prepared many materials for the building of the temple, and it was in his heart to have accomplished that noble and pious design. But when God

denied him this privilege, and acquainted him that the time of his departure drew near, he set his kingdom, his house, and his soul in order, and prepared to die in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor. This fully authorized the Evangelist to say, "David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep." The mode of expression here is designed to signify the composure and serenity of mind in which he died, and not to intimate that his death put a final period to his existence, or threw him into a state of insensibility. The text plainly represents David as living a useful life, and dying a peaceful death, whether it be read as it now stands, or more exactly according to the original. The literal translation is, "David, in his own generation having served the will of God, fell on sleep." This reading is rather to be preferred to the other, because it presents David's character in a more pious light, and more strongly marks the connection between his piety and usefulness in life, and his hope and happiness in death. These things, which were inseparably connected in David, always will be inseparably united in all good men who faithfully serve God and their own generation. This suggests a plain and important truth to our present consideration: That a useful life prepares men for a happy death.

To illustrate this subject, I shall consider first, what it is to live a useful life; and then, how this prepares men for a happy death.

I. Let us consider what it is to live a useful life. There is a sense in which all men are useful. They all, in some way or other, serve the divine purposes. Pharaoh, Haman, and the king of Assyria, were instrumental in bringing about the designs of Providence. Howbeit, they meant not so, neither did their hearts think so. They intended to accomplish their own ambitious designs; but God overruled all their views and operations in subserviency to his own glory and the good of his people, whom they sought to destroy. But in order to be useful in the sense of the text, and according to the common acceptation of the phrase, men must imbibe the spirit of the patriarch, and act from the same principles of piety and benevolence. This leads me to observe,

1. That, to live a useful life, men must live in the exercise of supreme love to God. They must give him the throne in their hearts, before they can take their proper place at his footstool, and feel and act as his dutiful subjects. They cannot serve both God and mammon at the same time. While they love themselves supremely, they will seek a private separate interest, which is wholly hostile to the glory of God and the interest of his moral kingdom. They must seek first the kingdom of God,

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