ftructions, and practife this filial piety. He has threatened his curfe to those children who do not obey their pa rents in all things which are right and well pleasing to him. And the bleffings and the curfes of the Almighty are no fmall things; they are not to be trifled with; for in the divine bleffing is contained all that you can need or enjoy, and in the curfe of God are all the evils you can fear or fuffer.

But that your obedience to your parents may be pleafing and acceptable to God, it must fpring from a principle of religion-from fupreme love to God your Heavenly Father, and your dear Redeemer; who has faid, Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is right, and well pleafing to the Lord. He who for our fakes became a child, and fet the amiable example of filial love and obedience, he was fubject to his parents in his childhood and youth, and took the most effectual care that his widowed and aged mother should not want any thing for her comfort and fupport, And to act after his amiable

act the most honourable and

and excellent example is to fafe part you poffibly can, and the only way in which you can be fure of the bleffing of Heaven, and the favour and efteem of all the wife and good among men. In this way you will not fail of the outward bleffings of this life, fo far as will beft fubferve your best interest and true happinefs; for this is acting in obedience to that command which is with promise of outward prosperity, as far as it will promote the divine glory, and your good.

Thofe obedient children who have confcientiously done their duty to God and their parents, are blessed in this life, and completely happy in the next; but those who are difobedient to God and their parents meet with the frowns of Heaven, and the curfe of God often blafts all they attempt, and all they poffefs in this life; and at death they must go away accurfed into everlasting punishmentpunishment prepared for the devil and his angels. But,

my

my young friends, if you are obedient to your parents in all things which are lawful, because it is right and well pleafing to the Lord Jefus, herein acting from fupreme love to God and the dear Redeemer, you fhall inherit all things; you fhall live esteemed and bleffed in this world, and you fhall die happily, and be greatly lamented by your furviving friends here, and be owned and honoured by your Heavenly Father as his children, and be received hereafter into the everlasting arms of his mercy, crowned with life immortal, and invested with the inheritance of the faints in light :-for if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jefus Chrift, his Bleffed and Eternal Son, to an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away, referved in heaven

Difcourfe XI.

A Century Difcourfe, delivered on the 1ft of January, 1800, in which are collected fome of the more diftinguishing Hiftorical Facts, and Providential Events, which took place in each of the laft hundred Years.

PSALM 1xxvii. 10, 11, 12, 13.

I will remember the years of the right band of the Moft High. I will remember the works of the Lord; furely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate alfo of all thy works, and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the fanctuary who is fo great a God as our God!

HIS pious refolution of the Pfalmift should be adopt

THIS

ed by us, on this memorable era, the birth-day of the new year 1800. Such a day we never faw, nor ever fhall fee another.

It has ever been the custom of God's people, in all past ages, to perpetuate the remembrance of fome illuftrious event which has taken place among them; either by erecting fome monument, or fixing fome data, to excite their humility and thankfulness, or for the ftrengthening of their faith, or the establishing of their hope, in all fu ture times of trial.

This feemed to be the view which the Pfalmist had when he formed, in a dark day, the refolution of our

text. To perpetuate the memory of that decifive battle fought between Amalek and the defencelefs tribes of Ifrael at Rephidim, when Amalek was utterly defeated, Mofes built an altar at or near the place where the victory was gained, and put this infcription upon it, JEHOVAH-ni-the Lord is my banner. So Joshua was directed, when the tribes of Ifrael paffed through Jordan on dry ground, to take twelve ftones from the bed of the river, the waters being cut off before the ark of the Lord, and to erect them into a monument on the shore, in perpetuam rei memoriam. Samuel, in remembrance of a very fignal victory which he had miraculously obtained over the Philistines, fet up a stone, and wrote upon it, Ebenezerhitherto the Lord hath helped us. We, having obtained help from God, and begun a more distinguishing date in the annals of time than any of us ever faw; (the first day of the 1800th year) may therefore fet up our Ebenezer, and fay, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us..

What I purpose in the following difcourfe is, to call to mind the more remarkable events which have marked and distinguished the last century, and displayed the years of the right hand of the Almighty. And furely we ought to remember the wonderful works of the Lord, to meditate on all his doings, and talk of all his ways: for thy way O God is in the fanctuary: who is fo great a God as our God!

1700-Began with a vacancy in the miniftry in the only church in this town. [Gloucefter.] The Rev. I. Emerson, their first ordained paftor, after more than forty years spent in the miniftry among them, died in this year. There was a vacancy in the government of Maffachufetts, occafioned by the removal of Lord Ballamont to New-York, who left the government in the hands of Mr. Stoughton, his Lieutenant. In this year a college was founded at New-Haven in Connecticut; and the first Quaker meeting-houfe was built at Newport, in RhodeHlaud. Z 2

1701

1701 This year Lord Ballamont died at Newyork. Mr. Jofeph Dudley was appointed governor of Massachusetts and Newhampshire.

1702-Louis XIV proclaimed the Pretender king of England, which rendered a war between Great Britain and France inevitable. The governor of Canada, assuming the title of Father and Protector of the Indians, excited them to do what they could to prevent the NewEngland fettlements. The Pequods and the Pemaquids led the way, and became very troublefome to the Maffachufetts and Newhampshire.

1703 Meeting with fome check, the Indians remained tolerably quiet this year, till late in the fall; but war being proclaimed between Great Britain and France, they were encouraged and fupplied with arms and ammunition by the governor of Canada, and became, late in the year, very bold. A party of about three hundred French and Indians marched from Canada, destined against the frontiers of Maffachusetts and Newhampfhire. A detachment fteered eastward, and fell upon the defenceless inhabitants of Kennebeck; but the main body bent their courfe more weftward, and invefted Deerfield, (the most confiderable frontier town in the northweft part of Maffachusetts) and furprised the garrifon in the night of the 28th of February, 1704. They burnt the town, killed between forty and fifty inhabitants, and carried away above 100 prisoners..

1704 Governor Dudley united with the Ceneral Court in measures more effectually to fecure the frontiers; thought beft not to act any longer on the defenfive only, raifed feveral companies of volunteers, fet a bounty on prifoners and Indian fcalps. Col. Church, and captains Tyng and March, were the principal, officers; and their orders were, to fweep the coaft from the head of Connecticut river to St. John's; and they executed the plan