them. The last disposition is a grateful feeling for that mean of salvation still provided for you by God, in preserving the sacred trust of the truth, and in continuing amid you the succession of those ministers alone authorized to announce to you the holy word.
In effect, the most terrible chastisement with which God formerly struck the iniquities of his people, was that of rendering his word rare and precious among them. As he saith, through his prophet Amos, "And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the east even to the west; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." And, not only he ceased to raise up true prophets in Israel, but he likewise permitted false teachers to spring up among his people, who turned the tribes away from his worship, and preached gods to them which their fathers had never known.
Now, my brethren, it is a signal mercy of God, that, notwithstanding the iniquities which seem to have attained to their utmost height among you, he still raiseth up to you prophets and pastors who hold out a sound and a faultless word. It is a most singular protection of the Lord, that error hath not been permitted to prevail over truth among us. And what have you done to merit the being thus distinguished from so many other nations? Why is it that you are not involved in the same condemnation? Why have you dwelt in that happy land of Goshen, alone shone upon by the lights of heaven, while all the rest of Egypt was enveloped in darkness? Is it not the sole mercy of God who hath marked you out from among so many nations which applaud themselves in their error? You are still under the care of your pastors; you still receive from their mouths the doctrine of the apostles; truth still flows upon you in a pure and divine stream; Christian pulpits still resound in every part with the maxims of faith and of piety; and by preserving to you the doctrine and the blessings of instruction, the goodness of God still provides for you a thousand means of salvation.
Nevertheless," when you come to listen to us, do you bring a heart filled with gratitude? Do you consider, as a signal blessing of God, the charge of the truth and of the holy word, which he hath preserved, and permitted still to be announced to you? Do you ever say, with the prophet, " He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them?"
Alas! you bring here only vanity and irreligious disgust. The most wearisome of your moments are those which you employ in listening to truths which ought to compose the whole consolation of your life. We are even obliged to respect your languors and disgusts, by often mingling human ornaments with the truth, which is thereby weakened. It would indeed appear, that we come here to speak to you for ourselves; and you give the same attention to us as you do to troublesome mendicants who are soliciting your favour. You have no regret for moments occupied by the frivolous pleasures of a profane spectacle. There alone it is that every thought of business, of fortune, and of family, is rejected as an
