in the Lord! To them truly was " the day of death better than the day of their birth." The last exhortation: Mindful of Him, yea, mindful of thee, thou perfected and glorified Mediator, and of thy holy and blessed death, we have all doubtless but one wish, That we may die thy death, O thou Righteous! that our end may be as thine was, Holy and Blessed! Oh let us also finish that which God has given us to do; let us also keep the faith, and a good conscience, and a clean heart, even to the end; and whether the end shall arrive soon or late, let us also then depart with a forgiving benevolent temper, let us resignedly and quietly endure what it may then be our lot to suffer, let us also with confidence and faith recommend our spirit to the Father, and full of joyful hope pass into the land of eternal peace. Then, O then we die thy death, thou Just One! Then will our end also be as thine. Amen. SERMON XI. ON THE SANCTITY OF AN OATH, AND THE CRIME OF PERJURY. OH God, most holy and just, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, and thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, that right and truth may rule, and peace and love dwell among us! Let us ever adhere to the truth before thee, that we may not shun thy all-seeing eye, and thy eternal justice. Strengthen us to this effect according to thy grace, that thy fear may constantly govern us, that we may evermore walk before thee with our view devoutly directed on high, and find our happiness in thy love. Amen. PHILIP. i. 3-8. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. THE Apostle rejoices in our text in the uniformly constant fellowship of the Church at Philippi in the Gospel of Jesus, feels confident that God will gloriously complete the good work which was begun in them, and calls God, the Omniscient, as a witness of the desire of his heart for them when in his imprisonment, and of the affectionate sentiments he entertained towards them. "God is my record," he says, "how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." This asseveration of the Apostle, uttered with pious feeling on a solemn occasion, leads our serious attention to those oaths, which are required by authority as the seal of important depositions and promises, and those which, uncalled for, are uttered by the inconsiderate on the most trifling occasions; thus I feel myself under an obligation before God, to address you who are here assembled with the deep seriousness of the Gospel, respecting both kinds of oaths, and the heinous crime of perjury. The importance of the subject itself demands such consideration, but alarming appearances of our time give it a peculiar and impressive interest. The sacredness of an oath is |