guest? Are they mean blessings, which throng around her steps? Would it be a great dishonour and a grievous sin to be the first to exile her from a favoured and familiar home?

If we think so, the occasion has another lesson for us; to do what we may with all diligence, redeeming the time; to date from this day a stedfast adherence to whatever principles and practices have hitherto illustrated this place, if we would be sure not to have it hereafter for our shame, that they were defrauded of their due tribute from us. How little is that time, in which so many have been faithful to them! How short is that time, in which we must maintain or disown them! It seems, and it is, no long period since this place first began to echo the praises of the Most High. And yet, within this narrow space, no small portion of the business of living and dying has been transacted; and the history of this Church is already matter of curious antiquarian research,-so few remain, who have even seen aged men, who could tell them of its early fortunes. Since its establishment, four complete generations, according to the common estimate, have followed one another into the gates of the narrow house. Of the first and second ministry, the fruits have been thoroughly gleaned and gathered to heaven. One individual, who in his youth had seen the last survivor of our two first pastors, has been seen by us in this house, the solitary link, that connected us with a departed world; but when his venerable form appeared among us, he was gazed at as a singular example of extreme longevity. (37.) The half century since this modern edifice. was reared, for with the conclusion of our worship this day, divine service will have been solemnized here through the sabbaths of fifty-one years,-appears to us a little time indeed; and the names and characters of the projectors of the work are familiar. Yet of those, who saw this house in its first glory, how few have met in it this day! Death came in with the throng of worshippers, and bade them sing a requiem almost as soon as their first thanksgiving

had been sung. Five times, within the little period which has since elapsed, has been missed from its accustomed place here the august form, that had been invested with the supreme authority of the state. Three times these walls have been clothed with funereal pomp for him, who was brought hither to give his last lesson from his bier; and many times in each year they have heard the consolations of religion implored for those, who mourned the illustrious and the beloved,-till at last we only see, here and there, a few survivors of the crowded assembly, that came first into these courts with thanksgiving, and into these gates with praise. But why speak of the revolutions of years, when weeks or hours are so ample for the work of desolation? It seems but yesterday, since we last met in this house; and yet places, which were left that day without the apprehension of a final parting, are to know their occupants no more forever. Death seems sometimes to labour long at his work; but it is not because the shortest time will not suffice him. He seems to seek advantages; but it is not because he requires their aid. He has been commissioned to seize almost the moment of our re-union, to teach us, by a most lamented visitation, how transient it may be. Among the multitude of them that keep holy day, who would have brought hither a more devout spirit, than the friend, whose place we have scarcely ever till now seen empty? Who could have been taken from an important sphere of duty better filled? Whom would it have been harder to resign; and yet who was more ripe for a higher worship and a nobler society? We mourn over the dissolution of near relations most exemplarily sustained; over the removal of a pious spirit, which found its happiness and resources in devotion, and its exercise in duty. But we bless God for the now extinguished light of an excellent example; and we own the momentous importance of that lesson of human frailty and exposure, which needs to be taught, even at such a cost. (38.)

So rapidly, my friends, we are following one another away. So soon must we give over our work to other hands. So soon are the fortunes and character of this Church,-such as, while in our trust, we made them, to be added to the history, which we have this day recounted. Shall it be the continuation of this yet unfinished history, that God first left and forsook this Church in our times, because we first forgot and forsook him? or shall it be said, that he was still with us as he had been with our fathers; for we loved the habitation of his house, we loved his worship, and reverenced his word, and prized his ordinances; we were jealous for his honour with a godly jealousy; we searched for his will with a lively interest, and did it with a holy zeal; were followers of his Son, and benefactors of his creatures; that in our time the men resorted here, who loved him with heart, mind, soul, and strength, and laboured that his name might be hallowed, and his kingdom come; who, living a life of faith and prayer, in all holy conversation and godliness, were strenuous in duty and unmoved in trial, and abounding in that pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keep themselves unspotted from the world; that the families met here, in whose homes dwelt devotion, peace and love; that the youthful piety was learned here, which bore in maturer life the fruits of exemplary worth, of domestick usefulness, and disinterested publick services? Oh, may God be thus gracious to us, as he has been to our fathers! May his spirit never leave nor forsake us; but prepare for itself meet dwellings in our hearts, and subdue them wholly to its excellent sway!

Meanwhile, we see this day no little cause for grateful joy and animating hopes. To those of us, for whom many interesting recollections connect themselves with this house of prayer, it is no unimportant event to see it set in its state and strengthened, and no little anxiety has

1

been relieved in many minds by the knowledge, that a temple of religion, so honoured by time, and so graced by piety, is not to be removed from our view, like the common structures, which our convenience or our fancy adorns or levels; that the very soil, which has borne so favoured a church of Christ, is to be burdened with no meaner weight. It is matter of satisfaction, to think, that, in the ordinary course of providence, as long as we shall need a temple made with hands, this may stand to shelter our devotions. It is soothing to consider, that it may be in this familiar place of our solemnities, that God will be entreated to sustain us in our mortal sickness, and comfort them by whom we may be mourned. It is a thought not without interest, that the sabbath steps of our children still may tread in the path, where we first led them; and we almost find ourselves less apprehensive in committing them to the chances of the world, when we think of bequeathing to them the strengthening and guiding influences of this consecrated place, and the divine care and favour, that have never failed to distinguish it. God grant that they and their children, through all succeeding time, may find it the house of God, the open gate of heaven! Here may he vouchsafe his presence, and disclose his perfections, and give power to his word, and pour out his spirit! Here may truth shine forth as the light, and righteousness as the noon day! The Lord our God be with us and our children, as he was with our fathers! Let him not leave us nor forsake us ; that he incline our

may

hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, to make our hearts

perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and keep his commandments !

NOTES.

(1.) p. 6. THE First Church was founded in 1630; the Second in 1649; and the Old South in 1669. At the time of the establishment of the Church in Brattle Square, Allen and Wadsworth were pastors of the First Church, which then met upon the spot now occupied by Cornhill Square; Increase and Cotton Mather of the Second, in North Square; and Willard of the Old South. The First Baptist Church, in Back Street, was founded in 1679; and the First Episcopalian, (King's Chapel,) in 1688,

(2.) p. 7. THE grantees were Thomas Clark, John Mico, Thomas Bannister, Thomas Cooper, Benjamin Walker, Benjamin Davis, Timothy Clark, Stephen Minot, William Keen, Richard Draper, William Harris, Abraham Blush, Zechariah Tuthill, Thomas Palmer, John Colman, James Meers, Joseph Allen, Elkanah Pembroke, John Kilby, and Addington Davenport. The land measured 107 feet on the south and west boundaries, 97 on the north, and 120 on the east, extending to within 17 feet of the present south line of Brattle Street, and on the east and north sides from 3 to 13 feet beyond the walls of the present church. Brattle Street, and a way leading from the Town Dock to it, are mentioned in the deed. October 17th, 1700, a new avenue to the church was obtained by the purchase, jointly with others, of a passage, ten feet wide, through the land of John Dassett, since called Dassett's Alley, where a post, to secure it for foot passengers, is still maintained, according to the terms of the purchase.

(3.) p. 8. As some of the Society, who have never met with this document, may be curious to see it, I insert it entire. It would evidently be so contrary to the spirit of the whole, to regard any part of it as a creed, which the founders of our Church meant to impose on their successors,—that it is, perhaps, superfluous to remark, that its sole design is stated to be to prevent all misapprehensions and jealousies.' I have not been able to find an original copy of it. That from which I reprint is