Hamilton, October 23. 1776.

THE presbytery in court assembled, having considered the providences of God towards these united nations, of which they and the people under their inspection are a part; find, from many scriptural signs, that they exist in the sad situation of a people under the rebukes of heaven, ready to become a prey to offended justice, the guardian of the divine law, and the honour of its dreadful author.  For these judgments which have long ago begun at the house of God, are now fast widening their motion, and operate in a manner more perceptible to sense.  In which case they must be sensible, that the guilt of the nations is great; for what nation ever perished being innocent.  God, by the awful dispensations of his providence, declares that we have corrupted our ways.  Indeed, the slightest attention to the manners of men, and the conduct of providence, may convince all who make the sure word of prophecy their rule, that our guilt is eminently great.  Old, and new, and growing sins testify against us; the cry of which hath reached heaven, and now draws down the anger of God from above.  In this deplorable state, evangelical repentance, and real reformation alone, can prevent iniquity from being our ruin: Therefore, the presbytery, from motives of duty, compassion, and fear, would desire anew to call themselves, and their people, in faith’s dependence upon the promised aid of the Spirit of all grace, to be {3} humbled before God, for the standing and present sins of the nations, and their own proper transgressions, the just grounds of God’s righteous controversy.

Our ingratitude to God for the gospel, the best of all human blessings, is truly great.  Early were the lines of salvation stretched out to these isles; and hitherto the Lord hath preserved a lamp to shine before him in them: But we have not suitably improved this mercy.  The progress of the gospel in these nations, in past ages, hath not been advanced to our own times.  The efficacy of it in its highest attainments, in forming them into establishments according to the pattern shown in the mount, hath not been continued: The men in church and state have departed from those establishments, ratified by solemn oath to the Most-High, and substituted new forms, in which a leading evil of the Romish church is regnant: Civil and ecclesiastic power are lodged in one supreme head, by which the clear distinction of civil and religious ordinances is confounded, and the independency of the church upon the state destroyed; the bane of the English constitution, at first introduced in the passionate revolt of Henry VIII. from the see of Rome.  So violent has been the opposition to these attainments, that the covenants, their guard, are broken and denied; the ancient maintainers of them were by the first opposers put to death; sins yet loading the nations; the present asserters of them are laid under the greatest contempt, and all proper attempts by prayer and testimony to reduce the nations to our better state discouraged.  Many actual encroachments upon the authority of the Mediator, and the religious liberties of the church, have arisen from this change of establishments; patronage of popish extraction, hath been exercised in its utmost rigour; sacred offices are complimented for sinister ends; the seals of the covenant given to the scandalous; the pulpit prostituted to declamations from heathen moralists, and the books of gross hereticks, instead of the gospel of Jesus; censures inflicted upon the faithful, and those liable to censure suffered to pass with impunity.  This heinous apostasy is aggravated from its many circumstances; it commenced at a period when reformation was in its spread; is old in duration; is epidemic over all ranks; is maintained {4} against calls to repentance, and supported in opposition to the threatnings of adversity, and the smiles of prosperity, God’s voice, by which he calls apostates to consider their ways, and again turn their feet unto his testimonies.  And now God says unto us, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me? [Jer. 2.5.]

The extensive spread of false religion is truly mournful; popish and prelatical figments are advancing, while the true presbyterian religion greatly declines, which breeds fear to the thinking, that there is real danger of a relapse into that state out of which we were once redeemed by the good hand of our God: Two affecting circumstances increase this fear;—the faint resistance made to these superstitions by the persons whom providence hath exalted to an opportunity of checking their progress;—and the positive countenance given to them by the supreme power in the lands.  Many sectarian opinions, of very dangerous tendency, find their admirers in not a few places of the nation.  Pure damnable doctrines, which oppose the necessity of a supernatural revelation, the righteousness of the Mediator, as the alone condition of eternal life to sinners, and the absolute need of the aids of the blessed Spirit in performing moral duties, are openly avowed; divisions amongst Presbyterians are fast in growth; sinful distinctions are introduced into the precepts of the Almighty, under the beguiling pretext of Christian forbearance; truths which have a clear foundation in the scriptures are treated with indifference; hence it follows, that an uniform attachment to all known truths, is accounted party humour, and an unmanly contraction of spirit; an itching after novelties, and a disgust of received doctrines is very observable amongst some professors; others bigotted to their distinguishing principles, are too negligent in many weighty matters of the law.

Great ignorance of the doctrines and duties of Christianity prevails in the present generation; an inordinate eagerness to appear the person of fashion, hath consumed the taste for perfection in the gospel, which is no longer the main subject of study.  Nothing more strongly characterizes the age, than an indifference, if not a contempt, of true godliness: A competent knowledge of the distinction betwixt {5} law and gospel, how rare: The person, the offices, the salvation of a Redeemer, are buried in ignorance, which is most moving in a country where the gospel shines, and in a period when high improvements are making in arts and sciences; therefore Jehovah may say, It is a people of no understanding; he that made them, will have no mercy on them. [Isa. 27.11.]

Unfruitfulness to God under the means of grace is inexpressibly great.  The frequency and purity of gospel ordinances is one of the many characteristics of the nation of Scotland; and although it is a matter of praise due to free grace, that they have not been altogether in vain, yet the success of them is comparatively small.  Many refuse to give the sign of outward reverence to the gospel, in attending upon it; others who hear, can deliberately commit from one Sabbath to the return of another, those sins which are decried from the pulpit: The invisible realities of a future state heard there, seem to impress many with less force than the delusions of Pagans do their votaries; and thus it comes to pass that the lives of many gospel hearers form a direct contrast of the doctrines they are taught.  The great ends of ordinances seem to be forgotten; if the time is consumed with many, the all is gained; and too frequently the improvement dies with an unfeeling repetition, Such things were spoken.  May not God then say of his vineyard, I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. [Isa. 5.2-4.]

Time, one of our most precious talents, is ill improved.  How lamentable to think, that the only season in which the great work of salvation can be wrought, is employed to the most nugatory foibles; the hurry of business, and licentious pastimes, steal away the few moments of grace which the mercy of heaven allows to make our calling and election sure.  The tavern, theater, and places of dissipation, are carefully attended; but the duties of personal devotion, and family religion, find no leisure hours from many: Even while God waits to be gracious, the things which belong to the peace of the sinner are delayed through the throng of temporary concerns, till the day of his merciful visitation is over; and yet presumption indulges hope, as if God would bestow his best blessings in the total neglect of {6} means, and deny food and clothing but to the keenest industry.

Immoralities are rampant.  The Sabbath sacred to the honour of an arisen Saviour is grossly abused to journeyings, to pleasure walks, to pastimes, to feastings, to revellings, to unnecessary ornamental dress.  Uncleanness in almost all its kinds is very common, a sin strictly prohibited in scripture: Profane swearing abounds; how shocking to hear the lisping infant, from the example of cursing parents, mumbling the most horrid oaths.  Honest openness in trade, has given place to the basest fraud; oppression of the poor, still lasts.  How often do we see the rolling eyes and faultering lips of the drunkard?  Signs observed in these from whom an example of temperance might have been expected.  Luxury is great, although the channel of the means of it seems to be cursed.  Vanity shows itself.  The impudent assurance in which the aggressor commits these sins, argues a progress of wickedness, and should pierce the contrite heart.  The sinner either justifies himself, or receives his reproof without a fallen countenance.

An astonishing insensibility is to be observed in the generation under the present alarming dispensations of divine providence, to these nations and their colonies.  Never, to the knowledge of the presbytery, was the hand of God more visibly stretched out in his judgments against them, since the stoppage of the bloodshed of the saints; and yet so blinded are the great body, that all the causes of the present confusions are ultimately referred to the minds of men, without acknowledging a divine hand.  Men are questionless the instrument; but God has a holy hand in all public calamities, which however sinful in their rise as to men, are his rods to scourge a guilty people; Is there evil, says he, and I have not done it. [Amos 3.6.]  The nations which cut the calf in twain, have failed to pay their vows to the Most-High.  Both contending parties have broken the covenants, which we came under to God in the loins of our fathers; and he hath justly divided us in his anger.  It is to be lamented, that the judgment hath not brought the nations to say unto God, What iniquity have we done?  And that those who by profession are spiritual watchmen, {7} have not warned of the national sins.  Such practices if essayed would yet presage a hopeful issue.

Rivers of waters ought to run down from the eyes for all the abominations done in the land; but all right sorrow begins with personal transgression.  The presbytery desire to be sensible, that they, and all the people of their connection, have cause to follow the Jewish high-priest, and first approach the mercy-seat for their own proper iniquities, which are very great and countless like the hairs on the head.  The decay of vital religion, formality in ordinances, unfruitfulness under them, and satisfaction in the external enjoyment, are too obvious.  It is much to be regretted, that zealous contention for the gospel, with its doctrines, is vitiated.  Instead of the meek plea of the humble Christian, how frequently does the ill nature of an angry man appear.  While we testify against the public corruptions, how seldom is the apostle’s secret exercise to be found ours, My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved? [Rom. 10.1.]  What neglect of personal reformation, and study to keep the conscience void of offence to God and man?  What estrangement to the spiritual duties of faith, repentance, meditation, reading the scriptures, &c.  Shameful differences betwixt Christian brethren are too much fostered: Little sympathy with one another’s burdens, and sincere sorrow for their falls.  Lukewarmness in the public concerns for God’s glory, unthankfulness for distinguished blessings of providence and grace; undue association with the vicious, whose evils are infectious upon corrupt nature; levity in conduct, little concern to edify the souls of one another in useful knowledge and real godliness; sensuality of affection; small care to fulfil vows in the education of children for the service of God, in reforming abuses, and practicing duties.  A mournful increase of immoralities; too little caution in avoiding temptations to sin.  All which present a dismal view of a witnessing church, and afford too much ground for the observation, What do ye more than others? [Matth. 5.47.]  These, and many more iniquities, which by ones examination of himself, the church to which he belongs, and the nation in which he lives, furnish ample matter for the severe exercises of fasting and humiliation before a holy God; for which end {8} the presbytery appoint the third Thursday of December to be observed by themselves, and the people under their charge: And they earnestly beseech them, to cry to God in the prayer of faith, that he may cause all ranks to know their iniquity; that he may pour down upon them the spirit of real repentance; and that he may vouchsafe a full remission of all sin, known and unknown, of his sovereign mercy, for the sake of a bleeding Redeemer; that our iniquity being taken away, he may yet delight to dwell in our land, and indulge us with the sure tokens of his being pacified, notwithstanding of all that we have done.

The presbytery also recommend it to them, to return due thankfulness to the God of our mercies, for the many blessings temporal and spiritual, especially for the continued free dispensation of the gospel, and the seals thereof; for his countenance shown in public occasions, and his gracious visitations to the souls of his people; and for the good harvest, whereby his paths still drop down marrow and fatness upon us.  Moreover, they earnestly entreat them to be frequent at a throne of grace, to desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning his church, that he may maintain and prosper her at home and abroad, in the isles and in the continent, in these distracted times; that he may with his eye set upon his ministers and people, guide them in the path of truth and duty in this dark and cloudy day; that he may prepare for all future events; that he may graciously interpose in the present mournful contest, make the issue glorifying to himself, and comforting to all the mourners in Zion, that we may yet see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, and that the glorious things spoken of the city of our God may be fulfilled.  The presbytery appoint the ministers and probationers to read these causes publicly on the Sabbath immediately preceding the day appointed; [with] suitable exhortations.