knowledge which, by God's blessing, can make you "wise unto Salvation."

I pray that God may prosper these my endeavours for your benefit, and that He may dispose you to be regular in your attendance in this sacred place to receive such instructions as I may be enabled to dispense to you. In the mean time, suffer me, in conclusion, to impress upon your minds the duty of a warm and devoted attachment to the Church of which you are members-in which you have been, by God's Providence, baptized, and in which may you, by God's grace, resolve to die.

We have indeed but too many enemies in these days. Perhaps God thinks that we have deserved them. Nevertheless the Church must not shrink from her duty. She ought to feel confident of the holiness of her cause, and to believe that she, to whom Christ himself has said, "Lo! I am with you alway even unto the end of the world," is actually "built upon a rock,” and that "the gates of hell" will but feebly attempt to prevail against her. However oppressed, however reviled, however humbled, however obscured, she may be for a time, God is with her; and she will eventually come forth from the furnace, like the fabled Phoenix from the ashes, fresh and undying.

Let us all only endeavour, whether as Ministers or People, to do our duties in our several capacities and stations, and to "walk worthy of the high and holy name whereby we are called"—let us pray to God to further our endeavours with His especial Grace-let us continue to walk in the fear of God, and in the love of His Son, and to grow daily together in the Grace of His Holy Spirit. If we only preserve "pure and undefiled" "the faith once delivered unto the saints," the great doctrines combined in the three awful words CREATION, REDEMPTION, and SANCTIFICATION;— and if those who believe in Christ be "careful to maintain good works," and to "adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things," the machinations of Devils or of evil men will be able to avail nothing in the attempt to overthrow that which is "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" for "if God be with us, who can be against us?"

LECTURE II.

THE SENTENCES, EXHORTATION, CONFESSION, AND ABSOLUTION.

Deuteronomy, xxxi. 12, 13.

GATHER THE PEOPLE TOGETHER, MEN, AND WOMEN, AND CHILDREN, AND THE STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES, THAT THEY MAY HEAR, AND THAT THEY MAY LEARN, AND FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND OBSERVE TO DO ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW; AND THAT THEIR CHILDREN, WHICH HAVE NOT KNOWN ANY THING, MAY HEAR, AND LEARN TO FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD.

IT is sometimes said that it is quite sufficient for us to worship God at home; and that if we do this, there can be no necessity for our coming to the public worship of God in his House of Prayer, or of attending in his Holy Temple on the Sabbath day.

For the present I will only say that it is not sufficient-it is not obeying the plain commands of the Bible; in which we find that God expressly ordered his ancient people to assemble together at the worship of the Temple, that our blessed Redeemer regularly attended this worship

himself, and that the first Christians did so. We nowhere in the New Testament find places for religious worship forbidden, while the great Apostle St. Paul expressly tells us "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together." Therefore attending public worship is a religious duty prescribed in Scripture-it is of essential importance to Christians, and it will be generally found that they who do not worship in public will very soon forget to worship in private.

Religious assemblies-in fact, what we commonly mean when we talk of going to Churchare the best means of keeping alive the knowledge and practice of Religion in the world. Here we all meet together on a stated day, principally on the Sabbath, which was ordained by God Himself, at appointed hours, which all men are able to ascertain, and on such occasions we pour forth together to the Throne of Grace, Prayers, and Praises, and Thanksgivings-here also the Scriptures are read and explained: those therefore, who voluntarily stay away, must do themselves and their souls immense and awful injury.

According to the plan which I have proposed, I will endeavour, in a series of discourses, to shew you the meaning, and the value, of the form of Public Worship provided by our own Church for the religious service of its members; that by

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understanding it properly, and joining in it as you ought to do, appreciating and feeling all its beautiful and affecting petitions, prayers, thanksgivings, and offices, it may prove to you, what it has done to millions and millions who have gone before you, "a holy and a reasonable service." Every thing appointed by the Church in the form of religious worship, as contained in the Prayer Book, has a particular intention and meaning, and when you have properly understood these, it will be your own fault if your worship does not prove of a suitable and acceptable nature.

Our Morning and Evening Service begins with a sentence or two being read from Scripture. Thus we begin with the Bible; and we end, as in the blessing from St. Paul's 2nd. Epistle to the Corinthians, with the Bible also.

All the sentences which are appointed to begin. our Morning and Evening Service relate to one great subject, viz. REPENTANCE: which is the first step to a cordial reception of the Gospel, and therefore highly necessary to prepare us for the holy work in which we are now about to engage in the House of God. Therefore when the Minister announces to us from the Word of God that "when the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness which he hath committed he shall save his soul alive"-that we must "re