who have not yet examined its peculiar claims to the attachment of Christians, to examine its faith and its worship, by the criterion to which I would bring all churches; and to inquire whether the Gospel which St. Paul preached, is not more peculiarly and exclusively established, and enforced, in this Church, than by either of the two other great divisions which exist among us. If you are not convinced that it has, at least, more of truth, more of the Gospel, more of the primitive Christianity, than others, I can only request you to examine its pretensions to your approbation, by Scripture, by reason, by antiquity-by considering the state of the Christian religion through the world, by experience, by theory, and, if it were possible, by any other mode, in which you may arrive at a satisfactory conclusion in religious inquiry.

And now it will be demanded, for what purpose, I have reminded you, my reverend brethren, of these things. It is for this purpose,-that I might urge upon you, that if we profess more truly than others the Gospel which St. Paul preached, the same absolute necessity is laid upon us which rested upon him. Woe, unutterable woe, will be unto us, if we permit negligence, sloth, indifference, folly, or any other offence, to turn us from our sacred duties, and to induce us to betray our trust to the people, or to dishonour our commission from God. I say our commission from God: for our conviction that we alone are the authorized

teachers of the people, is the only true and lasting motive of duty. We require this powerful and only motive. We are surrounded with evil; we are beset with trouble, rebuke, and with blasphemy. Exploded superstitions are reviving; religious indifference is mocking the truths of Christianity, and clothing its actual infidelity under the mask of a candour, which pardons all faults but those of the priesthood; and of a liberality, which sanctions all opinions but those which are supported by the institutions of our country, and enforced by the ministers of the national Church. On one side are the openly vicious; on the other, the clamours of the fanatic. If we are zealous, we are regarded as bigotted; if we are patient, and endure, we are called careless and remiss. All are anxious to condemn; none are willing to praise. The advocates of the Church, from which, by God's mercy, we have separated, have united with other opponents, and openly demand our downfal; and every sign of the times seems to require from us, from us, the ministers of the holy communion to which we are joined, more energy and more zeal,-personal piety, and uniform consistency of character. Shall we be indifferent, shall we be negligent? The Head of the Church has put upon us the robe of honour, and clothed us with the perfection of glory, in exalting us to

Shall we not

be ministers of His holy religion. from this hour devote ourselves more and more to the service of His sanctuary, and make our garments of holiness honourable? Shall we not put

away every inferior motive, and consider ourselves as the authorized teachers of a divided people? Shall we not look only to the glory of God, and the salvation of ourselves and others? Let us not look to wealth, or honours, or dignities; these have been twice taken away; once by the Church from which we have separated; and once by opposite opponents. The State secures them, and the State may sweep them away; and we ought so to be indifferent to them, that we may be ready to undergo poverty, affliction, and contempt, yet once again. These things ought not to move us. If these are all taken from us, still are we the ministers of God; still are we the upholders of truth : and we must know both how to be abased, and how to abound; but we must never forget the dignity of our high calling, nor forsake the holy commission which has been granted to us by the Head of the universal Church. God has honoured us to be the teachers of His people; to Him we are responsible; and may His blessing so rest upon us, that we become ourselves, the living examples of all we teach to others, till we finish our course with joy.

SERMON VII.

THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT PROVED FROM THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN MIND.

LUKE xvi. 25, 26.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things.—And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

THE parable of the rich man and Lazarus, from which I have selected this passage, presents us with an impressive picture of the condition of two immortal spirits in the invisible world. One is in a state of happiness, the other is in a state of misery. Their separation from each other is eternal. Both are represented as having a remembrance of their past lives. The happiness of the one is not so fully related as the misery of the other: it partly, however, consisted in communion and intercourse with other spirits, which had been received into heaven. Lazarus was in the society of Abraham, the first founder of his religion, and the friend of God. The misery of the rich man consisted in the

recollection of the past, and in horror of the present-in the continuance of his human feelings, affections, and sympathies-in useless prayers-in unavailing remorse-in sufferings, from which there was neither respite nor alleviation. He thought of his kindred, and the reflection increased his agonies. I pray thee, said the sufferer, that thou wouldest send him to my Father's house, for I have five brethren. But the eternal gulf was fixed; and the spirits of the departed could not pass from one state to the other.

Of all the subjects which can be submitted to a Christian congregation, that which we are now going to consider in the parable before us, is among the most impressive-the doctrine of the future misery of impenitent and wicked men. When we speak of the immortality of the soul, and the nature of the future happiness, we have attentive and willing hearers; but when we would remind them, that the same Scriptures which reveal an eternal state of glory, are no less earnest in enforcing the certainty of an eternal state of punishment, our hearers shrink from the contemplation, not so much with fear and terror, as with aversion and unbelief. They declare their conviction, that eternal misery is inconsistent with the mercy and love of God. They assert, that it is impossible that the Deity could have created man to condemn him for ever, on account of the errors or the follies, the vices or the crimes, of this short life of ignorance or trial. In the midst of all such speculations, the

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