is the pious courage and divine resolution of our parents, that we, their descendants, with eagerness should desire to inherit a great measure of, in case God should think fit to lay upon us this heavy task. We may look back and see them, hand in hand, flying from the pestilential breath of the whore of Babylon, making their escape through difficulties and dangers, death pursuing close behind, until at last they were safely landed on the English shore. Thus. O Lord, didst thou exert thy mighty arm in behalf of our parents, and withdrew them from the slavery of Egypt. Thou broughtest them through the great and wide ocean, and placedst their feet on dry land in a place of safety.
This is but a short and imperfect sketch of the deliverance which God wrought in behalf of those who were immediately before us. What he did for our fathers in former days is not as yet come to my knowledge, but if I mistake not, some of them were favored with great and mighty deliverances.
As to ourselves, I need make use of no argument to persuade you that we have been the peculiar care of the Almighty, and that he hath delivered us sundry times from dangers and death. These were refreshed to our memories, after a very lively manner, in that good and pious discourse which was delivered to us this morning, and which ought not to fail of having a lasting effect upon our future behavior.
What I would endeavor to impress upon your minds is, that these mercies loudly call for our sincere thanks and humble acknowledgments, and that we must be highly insensible, if we cannot perceive the necessity of it.
Doth God vouchsafe to save and deliver in this miraculous manner, and can we forget? Can we scarcely be prevailed upon to spare two days in one year to meet together, and glo-
