an explicit unreserved submission of heart to his will; they require a purity and rectitude of character which must be maintained with steadfast activity to the end, and a fervent energetic piety which must be supported by unabating exertion, if we would live to answer the end of our being, or enjoy the hope of a happy future state.

Every rational reflecting mind will perceive from these considerations, how infinitely interesting and important the duties of the present day of our existence must be! A boundless field of usefulness opens to our view-A scene of activity invites our exertion which has respect to all our obligations to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves-Not a chasm remains in all the years of our mortality that is not occupied by some important circumstance, that demands our immediate attention-Not a moment escapes from the days of our life that is not charged with some interesting duty that enhances its value.

But all these considerations acquire additional force when viewed in connection with the frail and scanty date of our time on earth, or joined with the recollection of the venerable dead. Let us learn the lesson, my Brethren, at the cemetery of our fathers. These breathless bodies, these disjointed bones, these putrid fragments, this dust and ashes, are not spread before you to open afresh the springs of sorrow which time was beginning to dry up: not to expose the vanity of our glory and excellency in our vigor and prime; but to remind you of the duties which time demands of you, and of the importance of seasonably applying to them.

Lo! a voice is addressing you from the tomb! It seems to say in awful accents, "We, our friends, were once as ye are, when we enjoyed the light, were employed in duty, and looked forth to flattering prospects of futurity-Our day is past-The night of death has closed the scene till the morning of the resurrection. Consider-O conșider how shortly you may expect to lie down with us in these mansions of corruption! Address yourselves with diligence to the great important duties of your day! Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave to which you are hastening. Your oppor tunity, your only opportunity for making your calling and elec tion sure; for doing good to others, or acquiring improvement to yourselves, is hourly drawing nearer to a close. Watch then and be sober. Be ye therefore ready also, for at such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh."

Thirdly. The question, "Your fathers, where are they?" lead back our thoughts, to retrace the steps of those who have gone befor us, through the duties and warfare, in which we are still to be e gaged.

It is painful, in reviewing the scenes of human life, to witness ho many rational creatures spend an useless existence on earth; whos history may be summed up in this, that they were born, and breathed and died. It is mortifying to know what multitudes pervert the end of life, to the abuse of reason and the disgrace of being; in scenes o folly and intemperance; in acts of violence and fraud, and riot and sensuality.

The infatuation, pride, and wickedness that reign in the courts of Avarice, and Pleasure, and Ambition, present an affecting and degrad ing view of human nature, from which we turn with pity, with humiliation and disgust.

But the men we contemplate, were among the excellent of the earth; the ornaments and the strength of society in their day. Your fathers (I mean the founders and the patrons of this church) were generally the sons of piety and religion. From their earliest settlement in this country, before the wilderness was subdued, or the ruthless savage had retired from these shores, it was their care to provide for the public social worship of God, and to transmit the doctrines of truth in one pure stream to their posterity, from generation to generation.

The grand impression they had of the power of the gospel, on their own hearts, taught them the importance of preserving it pure and entire to their children, and inspired them with fortitude to encounter many difficulties for its sake. Animated by the sentiments of pure and undefiled religion, correct in their manners, useful in society, and exemplary in piety and goodness, they shone as lights in the world, and in the midst of temporal inconveniences and discouragements, maintained a zeal for God, which did honor to the integrity of their hearts, and the sincerity of their profession. To their firmness and perseverance you are indebted for your prosperity in your temporal interests and in your spiritual; for your standing amongst the churches of Christ, and the correctness of your religious sentiments. They fought a good fight, they have finished their course; they have left you an example worthy of attention and imitation. Your blessings and your privileges are the fruit of their exertions. They cheerfully encountered the severities of a noxious cli

mate, without a knowledge of its proper antidotes, and submitted to a self-denying, distinguishing profession, that they might preserve to you the liberty of conscience, and the advantages of orthodox instruction in the faith of the gospel.

These benefits have descended to us unimpaired. And permit me to say, they convey to you the sentiments of your progenitors in a manner too explicit not to be understood, too emphatical not to arrest our attention!

Worthy men! Why did they labor and wrestle, and strive incessantly, till they raised a house for God, and established a Church and a Ministry on the principles of eternal truth! Why were they so solicitous to be instructed in those peculiar doctrines of the New Testament, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ? Why were they so studious of the Scriptures, pondering them in the secret retirement of the closet, reading them diligently in their families, impressing on their children and their households, the great duties they inculcate, and mixing all with fervent prayer, that they might become a word of salvation to their souls, the law of their life, and the foundation of their hope? It was that they verily believed them to be the words of eternal life: They had felt their sacred energythey had experienced their salutary light and influence, in guiding their feet into ways of righteousness and peace; they knew them to be the wisdom of God, and the power of God to salvation to them that believe.

Consider the beauty, the energy, the excellency of this respectable impressive example. It enjoins upon you to "search the Scriptures, in which ye think ye have eternal life." It demands of you to "Consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling yourselves together, as the manner of some is." It reminds you of your strong obligation to teach the rising generation, and to impress them with the saving truths of the gospel, that they may succeed to your place, when you shall have gone down to the grave. It recommends to your peculiar care, the Church of God, which in his providence is committed to your oversight; that the light so long burning in it, so often apparently subsiding and reviving, may never be extinguished. "Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' Which carries forth our thoughts in the

Next place, to that world of spirits, unseen to mortal eyes, which finishes the career of our probation, and fixes our character and condition for eternity.

We have seen the ravages of death and the gloomy caverns of the grave. Beyond them lies a prospect which stamps infinite importance upon our life and proceedings in the body-Even in this imperfect clouded state, the soul pants for immortality, and looks forth from the windows of her clay-built tabernacle, for an existence, more suited to her vast desires and extensive capacities. We know that to the eye of reason, this subject is covered with mystery. But Christianity turns aside the veil of uncertainty, and points out to us an hereafter a wide eternity of rewards and punishments, and we either look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, or expect the fearful judgment of fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. So soon as we drop this mortal flesh, the spirit perfect in all its habits of piety and goodness, or of impenitency and sin, prepared for an inheritance with the saints in glory, or fitted for destruction, enters into the state adapted to its condition. What a difference of prospect do these considerations open to the different characters and dispositions of men! Behold him, whose days are passing in prosperity and ease; to whom full tides of joy, without embarrassment flow incessantly; whose table, spread with luxury, and his coffers filled with wealth, court indulgence, and flatter his vanity and pride: But he hath forgotten God; lives a stranger to the sentiments of piety; unmoved by the sweet influences of gospel truth, unfeeling to the grace that preaches salvation and invites his attention to his immortal interests, insensible to the ingenuous pleasures that attend a course of virtue and religion, without hope of blessedness in heaven and careless of futurity. Let conscience be awakened to take cognizance of his condition; to spread before him the guilt of an impenitent, unbelieving life; to uncover the dark abodes of the ungodly after death; and say in his affrighted ear, "This night shall thy soul be required of thee!" Trembling and astonished-too late filled with horror and confusion, he looks around, but looks in vain, for comfort or for hope, on the possessions and the friends on whom he used to rely. Nothing can mitigate the anguish of his soul! Before him lies an unknown, untried eternity; but to him an eternity of unavailing repentance, and incurable despair; an eternity of encreasing guilt, and encreasing torment-But I forbear.

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"Mark the perfect man and behold the upright!" Calm-submissive-satisfied with the government of providence-with the vicissi. tudes through which he has passed, in all his pilgrimage of labor and difficulty, of temptation and infirmity, perhaps of disaster and afflictionand animated by the grace of God, he hath met his trials with a dignified composure, he has maintained his steadfastness with firmness, and lived uniformly a life of faith in the Son of God. He arrives at the close of his warfare, cheered with the smile of Heaven-conscious of an unfeigned conformity to the will of God, of a mind formed on the principles of the gospel, and framed for the enjoyment of celestial pleasures, he is not afraid to die. The recollection of a life of faith and patience, and the fear of God, a firm persuasion of his interest in the approving grace of Heaven, and a confident expectation of final admission, through the merits of his Saviour, into glory, have disarmed death of his terrors; and with pleasure he welcomes the moment of dissolution, as the best and happiest of his existence. Well he remembers, it is true, and he acknowledges the truth with humiliation, that once he walked according to the course of this world, and was subject to the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience: He recollects with sorrowful emotion, also, his numerous imperfections, since his first entrance on a Christian course, and feels how justly he might often have been condemned, even in his correctest days, for sin and folly. But he recollects with no less impression, the mighty change that passed on him, when the word of life became effectual in turning him from the error of his ways, in reconciling him to the purposes of grace, and transforming him into the image of Christ. He reviews with gratitude the instances of his recovery, and re-establishment, when he had wandered out of the way, and of seasonable comfort and support, when his soul was almost sinking. He can say with truth, even in a dying hour; "Hitherto the Lord hath helped me." With what pleasure may a good man in these circumstances, anticipate the joys of a future state!

It is no doubtful conjecture, with him, whether an eternity of happiness is prepared for the godly. The Scriptures have authorised him to say; "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." His faith has taught him long to consider Jesus the great high priest of his profession, as already passed into glory: And already possessing the kingdom prepared

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