Yes, this law concerns you; this condition is imposed on all. High and mighty lords: it is required of you this day to lay a new foundation for the security of this people: Return ye then, my lords, from your evil ways, and be converted. In vain shall you have proclaimed a fast, if you set not the fairest example of decency in its celebration. In vain shall you have commanded pastors to preach against the corruption which predominates among us, if you lend not an arm to suppress it; if you suffer profaneness and infidelity to lift their head with impunity; if you suffer the laws of chastity to be violated in the face of the sun, and houses of infamy to be open as those of temples consecrated to the glory of God; if you suffer public routs and sports to subsist in all their fury; if you abandon the reins to mammon, to establish its maxims, and communicate its poison, if possible, to all our towns and provinces. Have compassion then on the calamities of our country. Be impressed with its sighs. Place her under the immediate protection of Almighty God. May he deign in clothing you with his grandeur and you also with holiness and equity. give you the spirit of Esdras, of Nehemiah, of Josiah, of Hezekiah, princes distinguished in the sacred scriptures, who brought their nation back to reformation and piety, and thereby to happiness and glory.

power, to clothe May he deign to

This law concerns you, this condition, pastors, is imposed on you. "Return from your evil ways, and amend." The ministry with which God has invested you; this ministry at all times weighty and difficult, is particularly so in this age of contradiction and

universal depravity. You are appointed to censure the vices of the people, and every one is enraged against you, the moment you cast an eye on his particular crimes. They will treat you as enemies when you tell them the truth. No matter. Force your hearers to respect you. Testify to them by your generosity and disinterestedness, that you are ready to make every sacrifice to sustain the glory of your ministry. Give them as many examples as precepts ; and then ascend the pulpit with a mind confident and firm. You have the same right over the people, as the Isaiahs, as the Micahs, and as the Jeremiahs, had over Israel and Judah. You can say like them, The Lord hath spoken. And may the God who has invested you with the sacred office you fill, may he grant you the talents requisite for its faithful discharge; may he assist you by the most intimate communications in the closet, to bear the crosses laid upon you by the public; may he deign to accept the purity of your intentions, to have compassion on your weakness, and enable you to redouble your efforts by the blessings he shall shed on your work!

This law, concerns you, this condition, is imposed on you, rebellious men on you sinners, who have excelled in the most awful courses of vice, in fighting, in hatred, in brutality, in profaneness, in insolence, and every other crime which confounds the human kind with demons. It is you, chiefly you who have uplifted the arm of vengeance which pursues us; it is you who have dug those pits which are under our feet. But, return from your evil ways, and amend, Let your reformation have some proportion to your

profligacy, and your repentance to your crimes. And may the God who can of these stones raise up children unto Abraham, and make rush from the hardest rocks fountains of living water, may he deign to display on you the invincible power he has over the heart; may he penetrate the abyss of your souls, and strike them in places the most tender and susceptible of anguish, of shame, and of repentance.

This law, concerns you, it is imposed on you, believers; and believers even of the first class. How pure soever your virtues may be, they are still mixed with imperfections: how firm soever the fabric of your piety may be, it still requires support; and how sincere soever your endeavours may be, they must still be repeated. It is on you, that the salvation of the nation devolves. It is your piety, your fervour, and your zeal, which must for the future sustain this tottering republic. May there be ten righteous persons in our Sodom, lest it be consumed by fire from heaven; may there still be a Moses, who knows how to stay the arm of God, and to say, O Lord, pardon this people; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book. Exod. xxxii. 32. O how glorious to magnify this mission! O how glorious to be in a republic, if I may venture so to speak, the stay of the state, and the cause of its existence! May he who has chosen to those exalted duties, assist you to discharge them with fidelity. May he purify all your yet remaining defects and imperfections! May he make you the salt of the earth, and enable you to shine as lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, and cause you to find in the delights which

piety shall afford, the first rewards of all the advantages it procures.

This law, concerns us all, this condition is imposed on each. Let us return from our evil ways, and amend. Why would we delay conversion? Why would we delay disarming the wrath of heaven till overwhelmed with its vengeance? Why should we delay our supplications till God shall cover himself with a cloud, that our prayers cannot pass through? Lam, iii. 44. Why should we delay till wholly enveloped in the threatened calamities? To say all in a single word, why should we delay till Holland becomes, as Provence, and the Hague as Marseilles ?

Ah! what word is that we have just pronounced? what horrors does it not oblige us to retrace? O consuming fire, God of vengeance, animate our souls; and may the piercing and awful ideas of thy judgments induce us to avert the blow. O dreadful times, where death enters our houses with the air we breathe, and with the food we eat; every one shuns himself as death; the father fears the breath of his son, and the son the breath of his father. O dreadful times, already come on so many victims, and perhaps ready to come on us, exhibit the calamities in all their horrors! I look on myself as stretched on my dying bed, and abandoned by my dearest friends; I look on my children as entreating me to help them; I am terrified by their approach, I am appalled by their embraces, and receive the contagion by their last adieu !

My brethren, the throne of mercy is yet accessible. The devotion of so many saints, who have besieged

Let us approach it

it to-day, have opened it to us. with broken and contrite hearts. Let us approach it with promises of conversion, and oaths of fidelity. Let us approach it with ardent prayers for the salvation of this republic; for the prosperity of the church ; for the peace of Europe; and for the salvation of those victims, which the Divine justice is ready to sacrifice. Let us prostrate before God as David at the sight of the destroying angel, and may we like that prince succeed in staying the awful executions. May this year, hitherto filled with alarms, with horror, and carnage, close with hope and consolation. May this day, which has been a day of fasting, humiliation, and repentance, produce the solemnities of joy and thanksgiving. Amen. God grant us the grace. To whom be honour, and glory for ever.