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are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, edify the body of Christ."

While you invite all to come to him as the chief shepherd and Bishop of souls, state explicitly the

conditions of faith and he will receive them. to the visible fold.

repentance, on which alone

Strictly guard the entrance Admit to the holy communion

such only as profess and appear to be regenerated, and experimental christians. In exercising gospel discipline, be affectionate, be impartial, be firm, and when you begin, always carry it through. Take up each case by itself and in season. No where are delays more dangerous. Discipline has been entirely prostrated in many a church, by the timid remissness of the pastor. Scandalous members who might easily have been reclaimed or removed, one by one, have been tolerated, till they and their friends and partizans have become the majority, or if not the majority, so formidable as to intimidate the church, and trample her order in the dust.

In reference to false or erroneous teachers, who may proffer you their assistance, remember that you "watch for souls as they that must give account;" and however loud or long the cry of illiberality may be, however fierce or wrathful the charge of uncharitableness, never yield for a moment to the clamour. Night and day be at your posts and if need so require, warn the flock against wolves "in sheep's clothing." The only safe pastures and waters are those which Christ himself hath fenced off from the wil

derness; nor even those, any longer than faithful shepherds guard them.

And now my reverend fathers and brethren, "Who is sufficient for these things? and who is that faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing." Ours is no common charge-no ordinary responsibility-no literary sinecure. It is a charge on which infinitely greater interests are suspended, than the temporal salvation of a kingdom or a world. And O how urgent are the claims of our sacred office! While I speak the arrows of death are flying thick among our beloved people. The graves of some of them will open tomorrow; and soon, too, will every pastor now present lie down where there is "no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom." "Whatsoever our hand findeth to do, therefore, let us do it with our might."

O who of all the dead will rise so reluctantly at the last day, as an ungodly pastor, surrounded by his wailing flock? Who will cry like him to the rocks and mountains? On whose head will be heaped such fierce and burning execrations? And whose soul will quake with such horrible recollections and forebodings?

How soon, my brethren will the amazing realities of judgement and eternity break upon our unearthly vision, and fill us either with ecstacy or despair! I cast my thoughts forward but a little, and behold the dead are rising, the elements melting, saints rejoicing, devils trembling. The judge appears upon

his great white throne-in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we are before the judgement seat with our respective flocks. The faithful and the unfaithful shepherds of every age are also there. The trial proceeds, the books are closed, the final sentence is pronounced, and suddenly the scene is changed. The heavens are opened, and the pit yawns, and the eternal song and the eternal wail are both begun. O may we then rise, with a great multitude saved through our unworthy instrumentality, to "shine with them as the brightness of the firmament, as the stars forever and ever."

SERMON,

DELIVERED AT THE ORDINATION

OF

REV. DANIEL L. CARROLL,

LITCHFIELD, CONN. OCTOBER 3, 1827.

By Benj. F. Stanton, A. M.
Pastor of the Church of Christ in Bethlem.

PUBLISHED At the requeST OF THE SOCIETY'S COMMITTER.

PRINTED BY S. S. SMITH, LITCHFIELD.

......

DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, SS.

Be it remembered, That on the fifth day of November in the fifty-second year of the Independence of the United States of America, Stephen S. Smith of said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Proprietor in the words following, to wit:

"The Apostolic commission. A Sermon delivered at the ordination of Rev. DAN"IEL L. CARROLL, Litchfield, Conn. October 3, 1827. By BENJ. F. STANTON, A. M. "Pastor of the Church of Christ in Bethlem."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the "encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to "the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled 'An act for "the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, "to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' "and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching "historical and other prints."

CHA'S A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

A true copy of Record, examined and sealed by me,

CHA'S A. INGERSOLL, Clerk.

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