1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 39 



seek for their decision, by suffering them to glide smoothly down the 

 stream of mutual forbearance, till at length they be discharged into the 

 unbounded ocean of Christian love, and be there swallowed up and lost 

 forever ! 



Let us not, therefore, repeat former errors ; nor let the advantages 

 now in our hands slip from us. If we become slack or indifferent in 

 the concerns of Religion ; if we discourage every endeavour for refor- 

 mation,* "not only departing from the Law but corrupting the covenant 

 of Levi, so as to make men stumble at the Law; the Lord our God hath 

 said that he will make us base and contemptible among the people, and 

 all our flock shall be scattered." God will be provoked to remove his 

 candle from us, that glorious light which he hath revealed to us ; and 

 we shall fall back again into the former grossness and superstition ! 



If, Brethren, in the present work any thing be offered or done, with 

 less clearness, precision, purity, or elevation of thought and expression, 

 let it be considered calmly, judged of by Christian methods, and pro- 

 posed for future amendment with singleness of heart ; imitating the 

 meekness and love of our master Jesus ! Thus shall we approve our- 

 selves his disciples ; and be justified in our endeavours for the purity of 

 our Religion, not only in the sight of men and angels, but of Him 

 especially, who will be our sovereign Judge, and sits enthroned above 

 all the choirs of angels. 



Thus also shall men be compelled to join in our worship, and our 

 Sabbaths become more and more sanctified. Our very hearts and flesh 

 will long for the courts of God's house — for the return of every Sab- 

 bath, as a blessed remainder, yet left us, of our original bliss in para- 

 dise, and a happy foretaste of our future bliss in the paradise that is 

 above — a day of grace whereon our heavenly King lays open the courts 

 of his palace, and invites us to a more immediate communion with 

 himself! .... 



Wherefore, then. Brethren, let our Sabbaths be remembered, and 

 more and more sanctified. The Scriptures encourage us to look for a 

 time when there shall be an universal diffusion of the gospel throughout 

 this land ; when they who dwell in the Wilderness shall bow down be- 

 fore the Lord, when among the highways and hedges to the remotest 

 part of the Continent decent places of worship shall be erected — vil- 

 lages, towns and great cities arise — and the service and worship of our 

 church as we have introduced it, be not only adopted, but through the 

 blessings of God, become happily instrumental in compelling the fulness 

 of the Gentile world to come in. 



O Time, may thy wheels move quickly round, until the approach of 

 the blessed sera, till there be a fulness of spiritual food through every 

 part of this new world ; and all nations, kindreds and tongues have 



* Mai. Ch. II. ver. 8, 9. 



