Think on the thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children, who have fallen sacrifices, and our country has enjoyed inward tranquillity, peace, domestic and public.
There are thirty poor houses, for which I solicit from the farmers, as a token of gratitude, subscriptions which will enable me to fulfil my most eager desire for every family in the parish among the poor, to have a Testament and Common Prayer, by which means they will learn their duty to God and their neighbour.
The day is hastening (O my parishioners) when I shall meet you face to face, and our mutual examination will pass before a merciful and impartial Saviour and judge, to give an account of all our actions; when hypocrisy, intemperance, breaking the Sabbath and God’s holy commandments, will receive their punishment, and virtue, religion, and charity, their rewards; for I have done my duty as a faithful shepherd, as far as my frail abilities have enabled me, to reclaim the wicked, and exhort the good, having clothed the naked, fed the hungry, visited the sick, and preached the blessed gospel of salvation to every one of you who have observed the sacred sabbath. When you have shut your pew doors, recollect, as many as possible, these verses of the Psalm xix. v. 14, 15. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
When the sermon is finished, before you go out of church, Psalm cxxxix. v. 23, 24. “Try me, O God, and search the ground of my heart, prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
I remain,
Worthy parishioners,
Your constant well-wisher in things
temporal and eternal,
JOSEPH PHILLIMORE.
Vicar of Orton.