in other provinces, and we become their tenants, and have nothing to leave to our children but poverty and slavery, what a contemptible appearance shall we make in the eyes of our neighbours. A wise man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself; but the fool goeth on and is punished.

And all our civil and religious liberties and privileges, if we divide into sects and parties, and grow angry, and if we abuse our liberties to the purposes of strife and contention, to bite, and devour, and oppress, may cease to administer to our comfort in this world, and only serve to render us so much the more inexcusable and miserable in the world to come. And our college, if not well instructed and governed, instead of being a nursery of learning and piety, may become a seminary of error and wickedness, and serve but to infect all our land. And while our idleness, our extravagances, our parties, our errors, and our wickedness in general, all join to render us a miserable people, they will at the same time naturally prepare us for, and bring down, the judgments of God upon us. And it may come to pass, when our iniquities are full; and we ripe for destruction, that the cup of trembling, which has been put into the hands of our sister Canada, may be given us to drink. Our sister Canada, I say; for Canada, with all her wickedness, is as much our sister, as Sodom of old was the sister of Judah, who were by profession God's peculiar people. And God greatly resented it, that the Jews, in their prosperity, took no notice of the remarkable vengeance, which he had executed on Sodom their sister. And this is brought in, among the rest of their crimes, in the time of their visitation, when they were captives in Babylon, to justify the divine severity towards them. Ezek. xvi. 56. For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride. And yet, proud as they were of their own goodness, God looked on the Jews more wicked than the Sodomites, ver. 48. As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. For when a people who are lifted up to heaven with privileges, yet go on impenitent in their sins, they are in the eyes of God more guilty than the worst of the heathen. Therefore it was, that our Saviour denounc

ed such heavy woes against Coraizin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, because they repented not. It shall be more tolerable, says he, for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for you, Mat. xi. 20. 24. And thus, with all our glorious privileges, if we go on impenitent in our sins, we shall be miserable while we live, and it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Canada than for us. But on the other hand,

3. Should God now of his infinite mercy through Jesus Christ, after all our aggravated provocations, give us eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hearts to understand; and should we all, high and low, rich and poor, old and young, be brought each one to know the plague of his own heart; and not cover, but confess our sins; repent and return to God through Jesus Christ, and become christians indeed, how soon should we be healed! God would become our friend, and we friends to one another. We should have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, and we all should become brethren, united together in the most cordial love, and then there would be an end to all our divisions. Meanwhile, pride and a luxurious disposition being mortified, those expensive and extravagant ways of living, to which our pride and luxuriousness now prompt us, would be looked upon with abhorrence, and laid aside with shame and regret, as infinitely unbecoming a people professing godliness. And idleness would begin to appear to us as it did to St. Paul, a scandalous crime. We should look upon an idle christian as a disorderly walker, and in obedience to the apostle's command, withdraw ourselves from such. 2 Thes. iii. 6-14. And not to provide for our own households, would be esteemed a practical apostacy from christianity, a denying of the faith, and being worse than infidels. 1 Tim. v. 8. The noise of riot would be no more heard in our land. Taverns would be empty; industry would take place; prudence, frugality, honesty, and all the social virtues. In consequence of which our debts would soon be paid; the farmer, the tradesman, the merchant, get out of their embarrassed circumstances, and all things begin to put on another face. And now we should

possess a disposition to make a right improvement of all our external advantages to be a happy people. And,

If all our external advantages were improved, as a virtuous people might improve them, we might be very happy. If Solomon's character of a virtuous woman, (Proc. xxxi.) should become the common character of our women; and St. Paul's sentiments of industry should be practically espoused by our men; we should soon have a fullness of all things. And if humility and love, love to God and to mankind, if this, which is indeed the true christian temper, should take full possession of all orders and ranks of men, there would soon be an end to all our parties, and to all our contentions. For, from whence come wars and fightings among you, says the apostle, Come they not hence even of your lusts, that war in your members. If our lusts therefore were mortified, there would be an end to all wars and contentions. And it love to God and to mankind took full possession of our souls, we should of course feel and live as brethren, in the most cordial friendship.

And now,

We should naturally unite in choosing those to rule over us, who are our wisest and ablest men; and they would naturally be affected toward the community as a father toward his children; and we should love and reverence them as our fathers; our ministers would all be united in the same faith; our churches would walk together in love; and peace and love would reign through all our towns; and no people under heaven would be happier than we. And let me add,

4. It is the duty of all, especially of those in places of public trust, to do all in their power to promote a universal reformation.

It is the duty of each and every one of us to be religious ourselves, to repent and be converted, to give up ourselves to God through Jesus Christ, and live in the daily exercise of every divine virtue and christian grace, and in the practice of all social duties as the servants of God. This is our duty previous to a consideration of our temporal interest. For God is worthy of supreme love and universal obedience, as he is by nature God. And he has an original entire right to us, as he is our Creator. And if we bring the work of our re

demption into the account, and the eternal rewards of heaven, we are bound, we are under infinite obligations, not only in duty, but in gratitude and interest, to love God and live to him, and do all we can to promote his honour, and the interests of his Son's kingdom in the world. And all this previous to any earthly consideration. Yea, all this, although we were so eircumstanced, as that we might lose our lives for the profession and practice of christianity. But when to all this we add, that we in this colony are in fact in such eircumstances, that it would be every way for our present interest to become strictly religious, that it is the readiest and directest way to become a happy people, yea, the only sure and certain way, this still further obliges us. And to go on in our sins, under these circumstances, is not only to despise God and the Redeemer, and the eternal joys of heaven, but to be even stupid to our own present interest and happiness in this world. Besides,

Those who are in public trust, are not only under all these obligations to be religious themselves; but they are also under peculiar obligations to do all they can to promote a universal reformation in others. And suffer me here to state and urge these obligations in an address to our rulers and teachers. And,

First. To our rulers. May it please your honours, and you, gentlemen REPRESENTATIVES, to you it belongs to lead the way, and it is your indispensable duty to do all that lies in your power, in your several places and capacities, to bring about a universal reformation among us, and so make us a happy people. You owe this duty to God, who has in the course of his providence done you this honour, to constitute you our rulers. He is the Father of your spirits, he formed your minds, he qualified you for government, and has distinguished you from your brethren and neighbours, and raised you up to rule over us. He has committed this people to your care, and made them your children, and he has given you wisdom, and put the sword in your hands, and you are sworn to be faithful and God is your witness, and will be your judge at that day, when, divested of your present offices, you appear before the bar of Christ to receive your final sen

:

And if you

tence, in the presence of the assembled universe. are unfaithful, you never can answer it to the almighty; but will stand at his bar as self-condemned, as you have some times seen guilty criminals stand at yours.

His honour the governor, by and with your advice and desire, has lately sent his MAJESTY's proclamation through the colony, and ordered it to be read twice every year in all our congregations. It may therefore be considered as your joint act. And therein you" earnestly and strictly require all persons within this government, of every character, rank, and degree, to exert themselves in the practice and encouragement of piety and virtue, in preventing and punishing vice, profaneness, and immorality. And you command and enjoin judges, justices, and other magistrates, and all informing officers, that they be vigilant and strict in causing the laws for promoting religion, virtue, and good manners, to be duly observed, and in the discovery, prosecution, and punishment of all persons who shall be guilty of the breach of the laws made for preventing and punishing profane, vicious, dissolute, and immoral praçtices. And you exhort all his majesty's good subjects in this colony, to contribute, all in their power, both by example and influence, toward a general reformation of manners, seriously considering their indispensable duty therein, and the awful consequences of a neglect thereof."—And now, gentlemen, you may remember the words of the Lord to his people of oid, they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them! (Deut. v. 28, 29.) It is easier, you are sensible, to issue out such a proclamation, than it is to act up to the true purport and spirit of it. "Dismal is the remark," says a late writer in England, "that no country has more or better laws to curb these vices than we have, but yet no country is so corrupted with drunkenness and idleness as England is at present, consuming all orders of people." And he adds, one can scarce number all the excellent laws made from queen Elizabeth's time to this hour, against drunkenness, swearing, idle and dissolute persons, and all vice in general: but such is the gross neglect of them, as if they had not been enacted." Thus far this writer*. O never let it be * See London Magazine, for 1760, p. 423.

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