I HAVE thought fit, by, and with the advice of the Council to appoint THURSDAY, the Seventeenth day of APRIL next, to be observed throughout this Commonwealth, as a day of PUBLIC FASTING, HUMILIATION and PRAYER; earnestly exhorting the Ministers of Religion to assemble with their respective Congregations on the same day--that deeply lamenting our ingratitude to our Heavenly Father, to whom we are under all possible obligations, and our many deviations from those right and safe Paths, into which, as our Supreme Governor, HE hath plainly directed us, we may with one heart and voice humbly implore His gracious and free pardon, thro' JESUS CHRIST, supplicating His Divine aid that we may become a reformed and happy people. At the same time humbly beseeching HIM, mercifully to regard our lives and health, so that no infectious and mortal distemper may prevail amongst us: To favour our land with the alternate benefits of rain and warmth of the Sun; and that our hopes of a plentiful harvest may not be disappointed by devouring insects, or any other calamity:--To prosper our trade and fishery, and the labor of our hands:--To protect our navigation from the rapacious hands of invaders and robbers on the seas, and graciously to open a door of deliverance to our fellow-citizens in cruel captivity in a land of Barbarians:--To continue and confirm our civil and religious liberties; and for that great purpose to bless and direct our great University, and all Seminaries and Schools of education:-- To guide and succeed the Councils of our Federal Government, as well as those of the several States in the Union, that under their respective Constitutions they may be led to such decisions as will establish the liberty, peace, safety, and honor of our country:-- To inspire our friends and allies, the Republic of France, with a spirit of wisdom and true religion, that relying on the strength of HIS Almighty Arm, they may still go on prosperously till their arduous conflict for a government of their own, founded on the just and equal rights of men, shall be finally crowned with success:--And above all, to cause the Religion of JESUS CHRIST, in its true spirit, to spread far and wide, till the whole earth shall be filled with HIS glory. And I do earnestly commend that all unnecessary labor and recreation be suspended on said day. GIVEN at the Council-Chamber, in Boston, the Nineteenth day of February in the year of our LORD, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four, and in the Eighteenth Year of the Independence of the United States of America. SAMUEL ADAMS. By His Honor's command, with the advice and consent of the Council, JOHN AVERY, jun. Secry. GOD save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. MAY 31, 1794. [Independent Chronicle, June 2, 1794; a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library, and two manuscript texts (those sent to the Senate and House respectively) are in the Massachusetts Archives.]