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V"        THE PESTILENCE,


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            SERMON,


PREACHED IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH, NOV. 17, 1822,
AFTER THE
Cessation of tfte ^tUoto iFetoer,
WHICH PREVAILED IN NEW-YORK IN 1822.
    BY PASCHAL N.  STRONG, A. M.
                   •••
One of the Collegiate Ministers of the Reiormed IJutch Church in New-York
PUBLISHER BY REQUEST.  V
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 t-----NE.W.YOBE:


UTTSHED BY H. PAGE, 208 BROADWAY



         3822. 

5
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•J

   This discourse was prepared for the pulpit, without the
most remote idea of its ever being issued from the press.
1 o gratify, however, the earnest and repeated solicitations
of his friends,  and to correct the many gross misrepresen-
tations made by others of the  sentiments he advanced, the
author has consented to  its publication.  The following
notes are, to the best of his recollection, the ipsissima verba
delivered at the time.   Although written with much haste,
during a week of almost  incessant interruption, it was not
deemed fair that the discourse should be altered in any re-
spect whatever.   Under these circumstances, it is now  sub-
mitted to an impartial public. 
4 
SERMON.
              Leviticus xxvi. 23, 24.

" If ye will not be reformed by me, by these things, but will walk
 contrary unto me ; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and
 will punish you yet seven times for your sins."

As this is the  first occasion on which, in the pro-
vidence of God, I  am  permitted  to address  you,
since the recent calamity that has befallen our city,
I should feel  myself wanting  in my duty to my Mas-
ter and to you, did I not offer you  some remarks
suited to  the circumstances under which we  now
officially meet.  On the  last Sabbath, such  of the
congregation  as were then in the  city,  had pre-
sented  to them truths worthy of their  most seri-
ous attention, and  which I trust will  not easily be
erased  from their remembrance; but as I know that
there is a disposition in too many to forget God's
judgments, as I know that our late calamity is alrea-
dy forgotten by multitudes  in our city, and as the
most serious  among us cannot meditate too patient-
ly and  too deeply upon the " strange works" of our
God, it surely can  be neither unseasonable nor un-
profitable to  spend another hour  in  reviewing our
recent  visitation; and although I may have been an-
 ticipated in some of the remarks that I may suggest,
 yet the truth is  apt to produce a deeper and more
 abiding impression, from being enforced by frequent 
4
 repetition, and from being presented in a variety of
 aspects to the mind.

   The words  of the text, which I have selected as
 applicable to my purpose, were addressed originally
 by God himself to  the  nation of the Jews, his own
 covenant people.  The chapter  from which they are
 taken contains a general  enforcement of the laws
 which God gave to  Israel by Moses, by promises
 of rewards in case of obedience, and by terrible de-
 nunciations of vengeance in case of disobedience.
 The phraseology of the text is so plain, that it  re-
 quires no  illustration.   It is addressed, as you must
observe, to a community; and the very obvious,  but
the highly important lesson it teaches, is simply this:
 that  if men do  not grow  better under the afflictive visita-
tions of God's providence, they shall infallibly be punished
yet more seeerely for their sins.  " If ye will not be re-
formed by me, by these things, but will walk contra-
ry unto me; then will I  also walk contrary unto you,
and  will punish you  yet seven times for your sins."
So the nation of the Jews have found it in their sad
experience, and they are to us, at this very hour,
living witnesses of the faithfulness  of God to his
 threatenings.

  Without then detaining you upon the words of the
text  itself, I at once assume the principle it contains
as the basis of my discourse, and as peculiarly ap-
plicable to our present  circumstances, and proceed
to consider the peculiar form,  the  probable causes,
and the  Divine purpose  of our recent calamity, and
the awful  danger to which as a city we are subject.
if we are "not reformed by these things." 
&
  It must at once be very evident, that upon a topic
like this, there is  no place to  " prophesy unto  you
smooth things;" that when called  " to declare  into
Jacob  his  transgression, and  unto  Israel his  sin,"
the faithful minister of God  must deal plainly and
honestly and fearlessly with the consciences of those
to whom he speaks;  and that  he can lay no flatter-
ing unction to the hearts of his  hearers.   It is in-
deed always far more pleasant to the  preacher and
to the hearer to dwell upon the tender mercies and
blessings of God ;  to exhibit the  compassions of his
grace;  to  commend  Christians  for their diligence,
and zeal, and good works ; to strengthen the feeble
and support the desponding; in short, to be " a son of
consolation," rather than " a  son of thunder," But
there are times and seasons, (and the present  occa-
sion peculiarly is  one,) in which to flatter men is to
destroy them, and not to expose their transgressions
is to cherish and strengthen them.  Oh ! how  utter-
ly unfit for his duty, and how utterly unworthy of his
station, is that ambassador of Christ, who is afraid of
displeasing men ;  and how unthankful and unsanctifi-
ed would  you manifest yourselves to  be as hearers, if
you should count us to be your enemies, because we
tell you  the truth! You know, and I this  night re-
 member our commission, " Son  of man, I have made
 thee a watchman unto the  house  of Israel.   And
 thou son of man, be not afraid   of them,  neither be
 afraid  of their words,  though briers and thorns  be
 with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions;  be
  not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their
  looks.  And thou shalt speak my words unto them,
  whether they will hear, or  whether they will  for-
  bear ; for they are most rebellious." 
8
   Feeling, therefore, in the  place where  I stand,
that I have  nothing to do  with the  criticisms  of
men; that I am called to speak, not in my own name,
but in the name of Him who is my Master, and will
be your Judge and  mine, I would endeavour faith-
fully  and affectionately to  perform the duty before
me, and  to answer with all  plainness the question,
" What meaneth the  late visitation of God's provi-
dence ? Why is it  that our city has  been thus af-
flicted ?"

   I stop  not for  a moment, to show, that our recent
affliction has  been & judgment,  and a, judgment imme-
diately from God.  This truth has already been suf-
ficiently established in your hearing,* and it is there-
fore unnecessary to spend your time  in any formal
vindication of the certainty of a  particular provi-
dence mingling  itself in all the affairs of men, and
directing all things to the purposes of his own glory.

   When  that day shall come that "evil" shall be " in
a city," and  " the Lord hath not done it,"  then this
Bible shall be trampled under foot as a volume of
lies, and  atheism shall hurl the Omnipotent from his
throne.

   I. The first thing to which we proposed to advert
is  the peculiar form of the late judgment of God, or if
you please, the especial circumstances accompany-
ing it.  We mention this first, because  it is of no or-
dinary importance to be distinctly reviewed, and cor-
  * The reference is to the discourses previously delivered by the au-
thor's colleagues. 
9
rectly  understood,  inasmuch as the form  of  his
judgments  is, generally speaking, the key, the clew
to open and  unravel the sins for which the judg-
ment has been sent.  God generally punishes men
in kind. He repays them in their own coin.  There
is always some analogy or correspondence between
the sin and the judgment.  Sometimes "God's way
is in the sea, and his path in  the great waters,  and
his footsteps are not known."   We cannot some-
times discover why he afflicts us;  and perhaps in
most of his dispensations he has some reasons known
only to himself.  But there are visitations in which
his hand is clearly marked, and cannot be mistaken;
where " the man of wisdom"  can trace his footsteps,
and hear his voice, and understand the meaning of the
rod.  Now, the judgment which God sent upon us
was not the sword,  nor  famine—but the pestilence;
precisely that kind of judgment in which the imme-
diate hand of God in sending it, in spreading it, in
mitigating it, and removing it, is more conspicuously
displayed  than in any other of his judgments:  and
hence David, when the three judgments, the sword,
the famine, and the pestilence, were proposed for his
mournful selection, chose the pestilence, and thus
 expressed his reason for it: " Let me fall now into the
 hand of the Lord."  He selected this judgment, be-
 cause therein the hand of man was not  visible; men
 were not the immediate authors of his calamity; but
 here he knew that God himself directly afflicted him;
 here he could see nothing but God—even the God
 whose judgments  are  always  righteous, but  who,
 " like as a Father pitieth his children, pitieth them
  that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, and remem-
                         B 
10
  bereth that we are dust."  God then was pleased to
  send upon our city the pestilence—a pestilence high-
  ly contagious, voracious in its thirst for prey, rapid in
  its work of death, dreadfully malignant—spreading
  from person to person, from house to house, from
  street to street—scattering dismay and  horror as it
  approached, causing  all to flee before it, excepting
  such as were compelled to  remain,  and those who
  would foolishly tempt the providence of God, and
  many of whom  have  paid for their temerity by the
  forfeiture of their lives.  It commenced its ravages
  at a season of the year uncommonly early, and upon
 a spot heretofore deemed peculiarly  healthy, and
 where none could anticipate its appearance.  It tra-
 velled along the very healthiest and fairest  sections
 of our city, defying all the expedients of health-offi-
 cers, and the skill of our ablest physicians.   It strip-
 ped our wharves of their shipping, and left the mart
 of business of this proud and splendid port naked,
 empty, desolate.  It silenced the busy hum of com-
 merce. It turned the key upon your counting-houses,
 and closed up your stores.   It drove the merchants
 from their exchange.  It  deprived of employment
 thousands of industrious workmen.  It subjected all
 to many inconveniences  and privations. It emptied
 the most elegant dwellings of their rich proprietors.
 Along our gay walks of fashionable life, nothing was
 to be  heard, save the solitary  and reverberating
 tread of some anxious watchman upon his lonely and
 dreary round.  It completely depopulated one-third
 of this great and mighty city; so that in this infected
region, where our population is the most dense, and
in which the sinews of our commercial strength  most
abound, the city was literally « desolate, without in- 
11
habitant, and the houses without man." Where be-
fore all was life and gayety and business, was nothing
but a solemn stillness, a wide-spread and spreading
desolation, resembling the awful stillness and deso-
lation of the grave!   It closed up the sanctuaries of
the living God, and made our Sabbaths silent; and
in a large proportion of our churches, (some of them
the oldest in the city,) the voice of the preacher was
not to be heard, nor the congregation of the righteous
to be seen.   And in those parts of the  city which
were spared, all was a continued scene of confusion,
anxiety, and alarm.

   Now, brethren, wherefore was all this ?  why has
this evil come upon us ? How is it, that  such wrath
has gone out against this city from the Lord ?  Surely
" He doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children
of men."  Surely it is not without cause that he hath
sent the pestilence;  for, if we had not deserved it, and
deserved it most richly, it had  never been here. Let
the infidels of New-York prate as they please about
 their second causes,  or rather about chance: let the
 thoughtless thousands in our streets, that have already
 forgotten the judgment of God, and the God of judg-
 ment, go on in their career of folly and of blasphe-
 my: let men dispute as they will,  whether this pes-
 tilence is of foreign or of domestic origin—we envy
  not  their wisdom nor  their mirth.  And although
  unquestionably God is pleased to work by second
  causes;  and although we would by no means deem
  these  unworthy of consideration and discussion in
  the proper place—yet here,  in  the sanctuary of the
  God of righteousness  and  of grace, we would look
  directly to Him, who  «numbers  the  hairs  of our 
12
 heads," and without whom " a sparrow cannot fall
 to the ground."

   II.  In endeavouring to enumerate some of the pro-
 bable causes of this judgment, we make no pretensions
 to any infallibility of opinion.   We think, however,
 that it is by no means difficult to discover sins enough
 which have had  their share in contributing to this
 evil. Although every individual has his own personal
 sins, for which he is responsible,  and for which he
 individually may suffer,  (and the sins of individuals
 combined, form the great mass of iniquity for which
 God is angry with us,)  yet, let it be remembered,
 that in our remarks on this head, we are speaking of
our sins as a city,  as a  community, as a people ; and
upon this  part of our discourse, you will excuse our
plainness if  we shall endeavour to speak so that we
may not be misunderstood.  It is,  comparatively, of
very little consequence  to  dwell in general remarks
about our sinfulness, if  we sincerely wish for refor-
mation, unless we realize the particular sins of which
we are guilty before God.  To specify  these, is an
odious and unpopular, but still a tiecessary and salutary
task.

  1. The  first particular that we  name, is  one on
which, no  doubt, we shall be anticipated by many__
perhaps by some in this very congregation: I mean.
the public contempt which this city, as such, has affixed to
God's Sabbath, to God's ministry, to God's ordinances.  I
pretend not  to offer one single remark as to the na-
ture of the measures pursued to obtain that highly
desirable  end, the better observance of the Lord's
day;  but  this broad fact you know, that those  welU 
18
intended measures were defeated;—that in a public
meeting the sanctification of the Sabbath of God was
voted down; his  authority and his ministers  were
insulted; and thousands of our citizens did publicly
declare,  " We will act as we please," on the day of
which  God  hath  said,  " Remember it,  to keep  it
holy."   Now, brethren, we have not the least hesi-
tation in pronouncing this to  be one of the sins of
New-York,  for which  she  has this season  been
scourged; and for her conduct on that occasion, she
has had a glorious commentary in her closed  sanc-
tuaries and  her  silent  Sabbaths!—and, instead of
celebrating the Sabbath of the God of grace, she
has had week after week, and month after month, to
keep the Sabbath of the God of judgment!  So far
as concerns the desolated portion of our city,  it has
been something  like the Sabbath  that sinners will
have in hell.   The first day of the week will return,
and  return, and return; but no Sabbath comes—no
sanctuary is open—no  messenger of peace is seen,
no voice of mercy is heard—no ordinances of grace
welcome their approach:  every thing around  is de-
solation and death!

  But, brethren,  we have something farther to add
upon this point.  We know that there are many very
wise in their  own conceit, though very foolish and
impious in the sight of God, who are ready to  sneer
whenever this is named  as a cause of our recent ca-
lamity: but we affirm, that the conduct of too  many
of our citizens, during this very season, shows how lit-
tle they regard the authority of God in relation to his
positive  institutions.  To say nothing respecting the
continued violation of the Lord's day during the past 
14
season, previous to the commencement of our distress,
what are we to think, what must any reflecting man
think, of the wanton profanation of the Sabbath by
many of our merchants, when leaving their city ha-
bitations and retiring to a neighbouring village!   I
wish not to be  censorious, nor uncharitable, nor per-
sonal in my remarks; but their conduct on the occa-
sion to which 1 refer, proves most clearly how very
little regard too many among them habitually cherish
for  the authority and the Sabbath of God.  God's
hand was stretched out upon the city, among other
reasons, for its violation of the Sabbath, and in  a
most visible manner upon its mercantile interests ; and that
at such a time when, smarting under his rod, in the
very teeth of his judgments, some of our merchants
should have under  their employ two hundred ham-
mers, in erecting temporary buildings, in the broad
daylight of God's Sabbath, is a public wanton profa-
nation of his name,  that nothing can justify, and be-
cause of which the city deserves to suffer.   Is it to
be wondered  at, that our Sabbaths in the district
they had left, were silent, when, instead of trusting his
providence even for one single day, and that his own
most holy day, they thus sinned in the very face of
heaven, and chose rather  to profane his Sabbath,
than lose the profits of the succeeding day! " Ye
shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctu-
ary," is the statute of the living God; and if we do
not obey it, God will take from us our Sabbaths and
our sanctuaries.  Brethren, you may lose your for-
tunes acquired after patient toil;  you may be re-
duced from affluence, and honour, and peace, to po-
verty and contempt; our city may have all the chan-
nels of its wealth and  commercial glory stopped or 
15
diverted;  sickness and death may prevail among us;
the famine, and the sword, and the pestilence, may
come upon us; but all this is nothing, when compar-
ed with that judgment of God which would remove
from us his candlestick,  would deprive us of the
means of grace, and shut out from us the light of hea-
venly hope and peace.  It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God as to temporal judg-
ments; but wo, wo to that  community that makes
light of his solemn ordinances, that tramples under
feet his Sabbaths, and becomes  hardened by  his
mercies and his judgments!  " O Jerusalem, Jerusa-
lem ! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
that are sent unto thee, how often would I have ga-
thered thy children together, even as a hen gather-
eth her chickens  under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."
        %
   2. The second particular that  I  name, but on
which I shall  dwell only a moment, is, the inordinate
appetite for gain which has pervaded almost all classes
 of the community.   The God of heaven has shown
 this season, how  he can blast the god whom so many
 thousands in  our city worship—I mean, Mammon.
 Merchants, mechanics, and  tradesmen, have too ge-
 nerally been striving with each other who can most
 rapidly acquire fortunes, without much regard to the
 manner in which they obtained them.  Very  few
 have honoured God as  they ought with their sub-
 stance.   Look at the form of God's late judgment.
 The pestilence  was sent upon the theatre of our
 commercial life: it  covered the business-part  of our
 city: it  touched the very heart's core of our com-
 mercial  wealth.  Now, my  hearers, if I had no other 
16
evidence, this alone would be to my mind conclusive
proof,  that something is radically wrong in the sys-
tem of business pervading this city.  And remember
too, that this  visitation came at a season when the
expectations of great profits in trade were peculiarly
flattering; when unusual calculations of gain were
about to be realized;  when unprecedented quanti-
ties of merchandise were ready to be disposed  of.
And just as the market was about to open, down from
heaven comes the dreadful pestilence upon this very
scene of business, shuts up your stores, and scatters
you all abroad.  Now,  brethren, if ever the finger of
God's providence pointed to any one thing, it did and
does most clearly to this. There has been, beyond all
doubt, a deep-rooted, wide-spread system of iniqui-
ty, of deception and fraud, pervading the mercantile
operations of this community.  When I say mercantile,
I mean not simply our merchants,  strictly so called,
but most operations in which buying and selling are
concerned.  Our city  is notorious  for its money-
making spirit:  every thing must be sacrificed to this.
For it, men will lie, and cheat, and swear falsely,
without any remorse.   Oh ! could the walls of our
Custom-house speak, what, what would be the mass of
perjury, and blasphemy,  and infamy, that would be
disclosed!  Our merchants know something of it;
God knows it altogether.  His eye is there;  and he
hath seen  the  perjurers day after day profaning his
Bible and his authority;  and you  have seen this
season, that he knows how to avenge the profanation
of his name.

   3. Our third item, on which we cannot dilate, is,
that love of pleasure, that spirit of dissipation, that gen*. 
17
rttl profligacy  of morals, to which our city has been
addicted.   In adverting to the form of the judgment,
we cannot but observe, that our walks of fashionable -
life have been  deserted; and for many weeks the
attendants  of the ball-room, the billiard-table, the
gambling house, and the Theatre, were compelled to
leave their respective places  of resort.   I  am no
enemy to lawful indulgences.  I  have no objection
that  persons of wealth and rank in the community
should distinguish themselves from others by their
equipage, their tab'e, and their dress.   But,  assur-
edly, any one must have perceived, that a spirit of
rivalry in gay dissipation, in splendour of style,  in
the luxury of the table, in extravagance of dress, has
pervaded  most thoroughly our  fashionable world.
Now, God  has shown how easily he can dispossess
such of their elegant mansions ; how he can deprive
the sons and daughters of frivolity and gayety of their
usual sources of amusement,  and make them satis-
fied (if satisfied they ever can be) with any accommo-
dations, provided they are safe from the pestilence.
It is  not long since God gave these devotees of plea-
sure a serious rebuke in  the destruction of our The-
atre. But it would seem that this spirit of folly grows
among us, in spite of any and  every correction, and
that men will indulge themselves, no matter how
sorely they may be afflicted.   What, I pray you, are
we to think of the state of society among us, when, at
the very moment that God's pestilence was the hea-
viest upon  us, we are credibly told in one of our pub-
lic gazettes, that the non-appearance of a celebrated
comedian upon our stage, in consequence  of our ca-
lamity, had cast as much gloom over the city as the
fever itself?  What are we to think of the state of
                        C 
18
  morals among us, when, on the evening ol the very
  day set apart by our constituted authorities as "a day
  of humiliation and prayer" for all classes of the com-
  munity, the doors of the Theatre are thrown open, to
  invite our citizens to drown their gloom in dissipa-
  tion and revelry ?  For our part, we never expected
  any thing better from the Theatre; but, as we so often
  hear it lauded as  " a school of morality," and that a
  well-regulated stage is a benefit to society, one might
  have supposed, that after our civil magistrates had
  requested all to abstain from improper gratifications
  on that day, they  might,  at least in  complaisance  to
 them, have furnished us for once a lesson of common
 decency, and not have shown their disregard of every
 thing moral  as well as serious.   But farther, must
 we not conclude that the spirit of dissipation is deep-
 ly rooted among us, when we find at this very time,
 when our inhabitants are called more solemnly than
 ever they were before,  to consider their ways, and
 humble themselves  before God—when his awful
judgment is scarcely lifted up from us—the Theatre,
that school of Satan,  that nursery for hell, is over-
flowing, night after night, with our citizens, to witness
the mimicries of an actor, whom God Almighty has
sent here, at  this very time,  in his wrath, as a  man
better qualified, by all accounts,  than any other in
the world to dissipate every serious reflection, and
harden  men in folly and sin ?  If such be our spirit
as a community, have we not deserved God's chastise-
ments ?  Can we not find in this thirst after dissipation,
a fruitful cause of our late calamity ?  Shall not God
be avenged on such a city ? 
19
  4. There has been, and there is, in this city, a spi-
rit of political feeling at war with the authority of God;
and this we name, as another of our public sins that
has provoked the judgments of God.  In his word,
he  hath  laid  down  certain characteristics which
ought to belong to public  magistrates, and certain
principles which ought always to govern men in their
choice of public rulers.   These characteristics have
not been sought for, nor have these principles been
complied with as they ought in this city.   And in this
respect,  men  of all parties,  no matter what are their
names, are guilty.  It is needless to go far back for
proof of  the assertion.  If  the  candidate is of their
party, if he has been regularly nominated, if he chimes
with their political sentiments, it is enough: he must
be supported at every hazard.  Brethren, I care not
a rush under what  political banner a man may be
arrayed: so long as he acts under the fear of God—
so long  as he subjects his political relations and
movements to  the  authority of God—so long as he
seeks to promote the  election of men who honour
 and fear God,—so long I honour  him as a patriot in-
deed. But, when we find in our city, men, and Chris-
tian men too,  men  of  high consideration and influ-
ence, maintaining, and publicly abetting the election
of an infidel in preference to a Christian; when we
find elevated to some  of  the  highest offices in the
 state, men who fear not God, but blaspheme his re-
 ligion, and disregard even  common morality,—what,
 I ask, has become of the authority of God on the con-
 sciences of men, in the discharge of  their political
 duties ?  Does it not show, that there is among us as
 a community, a mass of political guilt,  that deserves
 the chastisement of heaven ? 
20
   But, brethren, it is time to hasten to another branch
 jf this head of our discourse. We have been advert-
 ing  to some  classes of sins with which our city,  as
 such,  is chargeable, and because of which we be-
 lieve God has recently scourged us.   In the sins we
 have specified, we have reason to affirm that all are
 concerned, professing Christians as  well  as  mere
 " men of the world," among us.  Yes, how many are
 there of those who  name the name  of Christ, who
 have not kept their garments unspotted from the
 flesh, but have been found more or less chargeable
 with one or other, or all of the sins that we have spe-
 cified ! the disregard of God's ordinances, the inordi-
 nate thirst after gain, the excessive love of pleasure,
 or the spirit  of political  depravity!—How few,  in-
 deed,  are they who have kept their " consciences
void of offence towards God and towards man!"

  The point, however, to which we more particular-
 ly refer, is the sinfulness of the church of God among
 us. It is evident, from the form of the judgment, that
the church has been concerned, has had her share in
bringing on this visitation, and that  as it respects
both  ministers  and people.  We  who statedly attend
upon the sanctuary, and who profess to love and ho-
nour the Lord Jesus, may be apt to flatter ourselves
that we have had very little, if any, concern in caus-
ing the late pestilence.  But herein  we greatly de-
ceive ourselves; and if we  cherish  any such pre-
sumption, we give a miserable evidence of our Chris-
tianity.  God's people ought to be the first to hum-
ble themselves in his presence, and to examine dili-
gently  why He hath dealt thus with our city.   It is
his church and her welfare that he especially regards 
21
even in those judgments that affect only " the world."
But here the church has suffered also.

  We regret that our time is so far elapsed, that we
cannot dwell, as we had intended, upon the leading
sins with which the church  of Christ in this city is
chargeable.  We  must, therefore,  confine  the  few
remarks that we have  to make, more especially to
that section of the church in this city to which we
immediately belong.

   And, if we are not  greatly mistaken, it is among
the transgressions of which we are guilty, that we hove
not valued nor improved the  ordinances of grace as we
ouo-ht; that there is in our churches too much of the s}.. Irit
of form,  and too little of the power of godliness   Not-
withstanding all the serious attention that m«r-- have
been generally manifested in the house of I■» •'*, we
have not placed  that high esteem which bec^?i-e us
upon his word and ordinances.   Our spiritual mer-
cies have been abundant indeed; but God was pleas-
ed to deprive us for a while of our usual privileges;
and he has shown you, that if you do not diligently
improve his Sabbaths and his sanctuaries, he can
easily remove his candlestick from you, or at least
for a season withdraw its light.   If many in our con-
gregation will at times prefer to remain at home, or
to roam abroad  upon the  Sabbath, as too many of
 them do, God can  give such their full desires, by
 closing up his sanctuaries altogether.

   We remark again, that the churches of God in this
 city  and our oivn among the number,  have not at the pre-
 sent day that zeal for Christ's pure  truth, that love for his 
22
old-fashioned gospel, they once  had.  Many  of those
whom I address this evening, are the descendants of
men who were valiant for the  truth, and who would
hold  no fellowship with  error  of any description,
however  specious  in name.  To tamper with the
word of God—to abandon, by way of compromise, any
of the doctrines of the gospel—was, in their opinion,
to promote the cause of heresy, and destroy the inter-
ests of the church.   The Synod of Dort forms an ho-
nourable memorial of their  tenacious  adherence to
the truth; and furnishes a pattern worthy of your imi-
tation, in " contending for the faith once delivered
to the saints."*  They contended not merely for the
doctrines which are called essential,  but for those
which are  called  non-essential;   that  is, for those
which tend  to glorify God,  and  beautify  his  church
hers on the earth.   They wished not  only that men
should be saved, but  that the God who saved them
should be honoured in this  world in their salvation.
They prayed and laboured, not merely that a church
of ransomed sinners should be gathered  unto Jesus
Christ, but that " the King's daughter should be all-
glorious within;  that  her  clothing should be of
wrought gold; that she  should be brought unto the
King in raiment of needle-work; and that  all her
garments should smell of myrrh,  and aloes, and cas-
sia, out of  the ivory palaces."   But how is it now ?

  * Arminius, whose doctrines were condemned in this Synod, declar-
ed, a little before his death, (as he stated in his last will,) that the great
object he had in view, in all his theological and ministerial labours, was
to unite in one community, cemented by the bonds of fraternal charity,
Christians of all sects and of all denominations, (Papists  excepted )
whatever their religious sentiments might be.   How near many of those
who call themselves orthodox, in some  churches in this city, are approx-
imating to this spirit,  is left for the reader to determine. 
23
Have you at this day that zeal for God,  and for the
purity of his church, that inextinguishable hatred of
error, and that devoted attachment to the whole truth
of the gospel, which you ought to have ?  Have we
not in this city synagogues of every description, So-
cinian, Universalist, Arminian, &c. ?  and if in these
a popular preacher is  to be heard,  who may deny
the creed of your fathers, and sneer at whatever en-
ters into the life and glory of the gospel, are there
not  too many to  be found, who will abandon their
seats at home, and run to gratify their curiosity, at
the  risk of imbibing fatal poison ?   How many are
there who " will not  endure sound  doctrine; but,
after their own lusts,  heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears; and thus turn  away their ears
 from the truth, and are turned  unto fables ?"  Has
 there not flowed in upon this city, from the eastern
 section of our country, a flood of error, which, under
 the semblance of great benevolence in endeavouring
 to unite the various classes of Christians, has been
 gradually undermining the bulwarks of the truth—a
 new divinity  that would supplant the old gospel—a
 new system of making Christians, that would super-
 sede the plan of God's regenerating grace—a system
 of feeling which places very little, if any, value upon
 the peculiar doctrines of Christ, and has very little, if
 any, connexion with sound, substantial, and well-inform-
 ed  piety ?  Have not the advocates of this system
 established themselves in many parts of the land ?
 Have  they not made  inroads upon our own church;
 and is it not to be feared, that too many of our people
 have not guarded as  they ought against the poison
 of their creed,  and  the seeming liberality of their
  conduct ?  Is it not  true,  that, in  some missionary 
24
transactions during the past year in this city, there
has been  manifested by many members of our own
" Reformed" church, a spirit of unwarrantable com-
promise with this  " disinterested" system of " be-
nevolence" and " union," which, if allowed  to gain
the ascendency among us, we may bid  farewell to
our Reformed Zion ?   Is it not too true, that neither
our ministers nor our people have co-operated, as
became them, in endeavours to advance the prospe-
rity of the church ?   Is there not, in consequence of
listening to the cant of the day, a disposition in too
many, altogether to abandon our independent inter-
ests as a separate  section of the church of  Christ,
and join with any denomination that might better
subserve their individual views ?  Have we acted, or
do we now act, with that unity, that wisdom, that
zeal, that  efficiency,  which are necessary to  our in-
crease and prosperity?  Are things, brethren, as
they should be with our churches ?  Let us  search
diligently  into these  things.   Let  us look at " the
signs  of the times."   For "Thus saith the Lord,
Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the  old
paths, where is  the good way, and walk therein, and
ye shall find rest for your souls."

  We did  propose, at the commencement of our dis-
course, to  consider not merely the peculiar form and
the probable causes of the late calamity, but also the
design of God in thus afflicting us, and the awful dan-
ger we incur, if we are  not reformed by his visita-
tions.   The two first topics we  have disposed of
As to the two last, our hour being spent, we must
dismiss them in a word.   We remark then. 
25
  HI. That the great and gracious design of God in the
punishment we have received, is our reformation—the
public amelioration of our principles  and habits.
We should grow better under these dealings of his
hand.  We should learn wisdom from the rod.  We
have seen our sins: let us forsake them.   We have
suffered  chastisement:  let it tend to our profit.
Wherein we  have done  wickedly as  a community,
let us do so no more.   " Wash you, make you clean,
put away the evil  of your doings from before mine
eyes:  cease to do evil; learn to  do well."   The
voice of God to this city is not to be mistaken.  " Be
thou instructed, O Jerusalem !  lest my soul depart
from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not in-
habited."  Let, then,  every  individual look to him-
self.   Let every family look to itself.  Let every
 church look to itself.  Let all seek to diminish the
 amount of public guilt,  by deep humiliation, by un-
 feigned  repentance,  by new obedience,  by living
 nearer to God, and doing more for his glory than
 heretofore has been done. It is greatly to be feared
 that our recent visitation has not been sanctified; that
 many of our citizens have grown hardened under
 this  judgment, and are now more ready than ever,
 to plunge  into dissipation and folly.  God  forbid
 it!—for,

   IV. If we are not reformed by these things,  we shall be
 yet more awfully punished.  Dreadful as  has been the
 past calamity, more  dreadful  calamities  will be  at
 hand.   Our city has been most highly favoured—as
 highly as any city upon the earth;—but,  " if we will
 walk contrary unto God, he  will walk contrary unto
 us, and will punish us yet seven times for our sins."
                          D 
                       26

 He will  take  from us  our prosperity, and send not
 merely temporal afflictions, but spiritual judgments.
 He will take from  us his gospel, his truth, his minis-
 try, his Sabbath, his ordinances, altogether.   Let us
 then tremble!  Let us  not shut our eyes against a
 sense of our guilt and our danger.  Let us not harden
 our hearts through the deceitfulness of  sin; but let
 us confess and forsake our transgressions.  Let us
 amend our ways and our doings;  and cast ourselves
 upon Him who is ready to forgive,  and  abundantly
 able to save.  In wrath, he hath  remembered mer-
 cy.  " He hath not yet dealt with us after our sins,
 nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." "Come
 then, and let us return unto the Lord;  for he hath
 torn  and  he will heal us; he hath  smitten and he
 will bind us up."   " Who is wise, and he shall un-
 derstand these  things ? prudent, and he shall know
 them ? for the ways of  the Lord are right, and the
just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall
 fall therein." 
 
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