294 SERMON PREACHED ON THE ISLAND. 
see your children, who ought to be your joy 
and crown of rejoicing in the day of our Lord 
Jesus, coming out as so many swift witnesses 
against you! consider this, all ye that forget 
to serve the Lord with your respective house- 
holds, lest He pluck you away, and there be 
none to deliver you ! 
"Do, I beseech you, seriously reflect on what 
has been said this morning. It is the last day 
of the year; and who may be permitted to see 
the close of the approaching year, God only 
knows. Do but seriously and frequently reflect 
on, and act as persons that believe, such impor- 
tant truths, and you will not neglect either your 
own spiritual welfare, or your family's. And 
though, after all your pious endeavours, some 
may continue unreformed, yet you will have 
this comfortable reflection, that you did what 
you could to make your families religious, and 
therefore may rest assured of sitting down with 
Abraham, Isaac, Cornelius, Hannah, Lydia, 
Mary, and Dorcas, and all the godly families, 
who in their several generations, shone forth as 
so many lights in their respective households 
upon earth. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
is God over all, blessed for ever, assist and 
watch over you, and keep you from all evil and 
sin here, and present you before his Father 
faultless at the great day of account. 
"To God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the blessed Spirit, three Persons, and one 
eternal God, be ascribed all honour, power, 
glory, might, majesty, and dominion, now, hence- 
forth, and for ever. Amen." 
