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courage his heart. But remember that while this gives him present grief, it may be the foundation of everlasting sorrow to you. We wish you may enjoy a rich and lasting blessing in him; that many of you, and of your children may have reason to view him as a spiritual father, he "having begotten you to God through the gospel." And that he may be able to say, in the great day of Christ's appearing, "Lord, here am I, and the children which thou hast given me." And so that ye may be each other's "crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus."

I shall close with a few words to this whole assembly. You have heard, my brethren, some of the articles, in which your ministers should show themselves faithful. They are especially bound to do so, in preaching to you Jesus Christ, and the gospel method of salvation through him. This is the main point in which their instructions are to centre. Instructions of this kind, have you not all long enjoyed? The great inquiry, which I would wish every one to make, is this?"Have I been brought to know Jesus Christ, with that knowledge which renews the heart, and reforms the life?" If you have not, to what valuable purpose have you sat under the preached gospel? If you continue practically ignorant of this only Redeemer of lost men, your condemnation will be awfully aggravated, by the means of religious instruction afforded to you. O, my friends, there is no time to trifle in this matter. The day and means of grace will soon be at an end with you. Be entreated to "consider in this your day, the things which belong to your peace, before they are hid from your eyes."

As to those of you, who have been "born of incorruptible seed, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever," certainly you must have an ardent affection to the sacred truths of the gospel. Having "tasted that the Lord is gracious," you will like "new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby." You will hardly need urging to a steady and devout attendance on the preached gospel. This you know is a method appointed by the great Head of the church, to feed and nourish your inward man, and to build you up in all the graces and comforts of the spiritual and divine life. Have you obtained that "precious faith" which "cometh by hearing?" Let the apostle's exhortation be acceptable to you. "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly-kindness and charity; for if these things be in you and abound, they will make you, that ye shall be neither barren, nor unfruitful, in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So an entrance shall be administered to you abundantly, into his heavenly and eternal kingdom." AMEN.

SERMON

PREACHED IN THE FIRST SOCIETY IN DEDHAM,

ON THE 7TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1796,

FORTY YEARS AFTER THE AUTHOR'S INDUCTION

INTO

THE WORK OF THE GOSPEL MINISTRY.

Rev.

BY JASON HAVEN, A. M.

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN SAID TOWN.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY THOMAS FLEET, JR., AT THE BIBLE AND HEART.

1796.

SERMON.

ACTS xx. 24.

"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus."

THESE are the words of the great apostle Paul. He addressed them to the elders of the church of Ephesus. These elders endeavored to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem, as they imagined he would there be exposed to great troubles and dangers, from the enemies of the gospel. The apostle considered it his duty to go. He was very desirous of preaching Christianity to his countrymen, the Jews, who dwelt at Jerusalem. He was determined not to be prevented, by the formidable picture of impending dangers, set before him. He expected troubles, and was prepared to meet and bear them, with fortitude, and patience. "None of these things move me."

He expresses a firm and unshaken resolution, to pursue the path of duty, discovered to him, notwithstanding the difficulties and hazards which might attend it. He had engaged in a good cause, in a good work, and he would not desert it, because the duties of it could not be performed, but with great danger and self-denial. In this he set a noble example, to the followers of Christ, in general, and to his ministers in particular. "Having put their hand to the plough they should not look back." They should not neglect any known duty, whatever may be the expense or pain of performing it.

In the following words of our text he rises, in the expression of a holy zeal and heroic courage. "Neither count 1 my life dear to me, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus." He had "received the ministry" of the gospel, or an apostleship, "of the

Lord Jesus," who is the great Lord of the harvest, whose sovereign province it is to send laborers into his vineyard. This apostle had a clear, a special, an extraordinary call to this work. The call he had accepted; and to the service he had devoted his life. Therefore to wear it out, or even to lay it down, in that sacred employment, was not so painful to his mind and apprehension, as the thought of quitting the work or doing the duties of it slightly. He had set out in the Christian course; he had engaged in the Christian ministry. To finish these well was his great object. This so strongly engaged his attention and pursuit, as to give him a noble elevation of soul, above the obstructions and discouragements which might lie in the way. He expected his life would be spent, and perhaps shortened by a diligent and faithful performance of his duty as a Christian, and especially as a Christian minister. He laid his account in this, and the event proved his calculation just.

Paul went to Jerusalem. After he had preached the gospel there, for a season, and with some success, the Jews in a tumultuous manner seized him, and brought him before their ecclesiastical court. They accused him of subverting their system of religion, and of teaching things contrary to the law of Moses. He made a clear, rational, and animated defence. But finding it did not satisfy the partial, bigoted judges before whom he was brought, he appealed to Cæsar, the Roman emperor. After a while, he was sent to Rome, to take his trial there. His trial was long delayed. During the delay, he enjoyed some liberty. He improved it, in promoting a cause which lay near to his heart, and was dearer to him than his life. He preached the gospel, planted Christian churches, and wrote epistles. After a while he was confined a prisoner at Rome. In prison he wrote several of those invaluable epistles, which we have in the New Testament, and which constitute part of the sacred canon. After he was liberated from this confinement, which continued about two years, he travelled over great part of Italy, preaching the gospel, and founding churches. He went to Spain, to Crete, to Philippi, to Macedonia; and at length, returned to Rome, about the year of the Christian era 65. The sacred history doth not particularly inform us, what brought on his second imprisonment at Rome, and his death. But some of the ancient fathers, and particularly St. Chrysostom, tell us, in their writings, that he having converted, by his ministry, a cupbearer, and a concubine, of the emperor Nero, who was a bitter enemy, and cruel persecutor of Christianity, he was so enraged, that he ordered Paul to be seized, and committed to prison that from prison he was brought forth, and beheaded, at a place called the salvian waters, on the 29th day of June, A. D. 66 that he was buried at Ostium; and that afterwards, when

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