preacher, even among those, who have the experience of years, the credit of superior knowledge, the advantage of high station. But there is always, I trust, in such an audience, some part, among whom the discourse of a preacher may be attended with more general, more direct, and more lasting benefit. I mean those ingenuous youths, who are trained in these venerable seats of legal learning, and who look up with just admiration to those ornaments of their profession, who are revered for their goodness, as well as distinguished by their wisdom. In the ardour, in the honest ardour, to surpass their competitors in the race for worldly knowledge or for worldly fame, some there may chance to be, who lose sight of that knowledge which is far more to be coveted; the knowledge of God, who formed him for the most glorious purposes; and of the Saviour, whose all-prevailing mediation gives effect to those purposes;-usefulness and goodness here, and hereafter everlasting life. Others there are, who bury the remembrance even of present wealth and present fame, in a vain and senseless endeavour to extract pleasure from a round of tumultuous amusement, or the unrestrained indulgence of immoral propensities; who vainly seek to calm the tumult of an undisciplined mind in the dangerous vortex of a gaming house, the disquieting mirth of midnight revelry, or in scenes of debasing voluptuousness;-scenes, which to credulous inexperience may wear a fascinating look, but of which the infatuated votary will too soon reap the bitter fruits in disease and despair; and, without timely repentance and renewed faith, in the

blighting of every prospect, both in this world and in that which is to come.

Some there may by chance be among my younger hearers, who (from a fatal neglect of religious culture, or the unhappy example of those, with whom it has been their hard lot or perverse choice to associate) may have contracted a fatal taint of scepticism; may have permitted themselves to doubt about the substantial doctrines of our creed; or, even more fatally, have suffered their doubts to merge in a total disbelief of the utility, the efficacy, the truth, of all Revealed religion.

To these several degrees of moral perversity or intellectual darkness the efforts of a preacher may sometimes most properly be opposed; and, by the gracious assistance of God, his admonitions may be addressed effectually. Him, whose thoughts are too much engrossed by the hope of gain or distinction, he will remind that no earthly labour can prosper, but by the aid of that Power above, who ruleth all human events; he will remind him that, after all, the riches and the glories of this world are equally transitory; and that he, who is truly wise, will fix his main hope, and exert his chief endeavours, for such as are unperishable and eternal.

The votary of dissipation or mere animal enjoyment he will rouse to nobler pursuits even here; to the due cultivation of his mind; to the judicious employment of his time; to the praise and the esteem of his fellow-creatures, which, when conferred by the wise and good, are of far more value than the uncertain and fleeting gratification, which at best can

be supplied from worldly pleasure. If, awakened by such suggestions, he will arouse him from his dream of sensuality, and shew an anxiety for present peace and present fame, he may be led gradually to elevate his thoughts to higher views and fairer scenes; and at length to center them, where all the thoughts of man should chiefly, should ultimately, be centered, the favour and approbation of "Him, in whose right hand is the fulness of joy, and pleasures for ever

more."

To those, who have unfortunately been induced to regard the precepts and the obligations of religion with indifference, or, still more unhappily, to disbelieve its evidences and its doctrines, the exhortations of a preacher must necessarily be addressed with less effect, even if curiosity, or a less pardonable motive, should prevail with them to join in formal worship within the sanctuary. Vain, too often, will be the call upon those to hear, who have not ears to hear! But haply the grace of God may touch an obdurate heart. It may employ a feeble instrument to rouse its sluggish sensibility; to dispel its corrupt prejudices. Such as these then will be exhorted, if they value the praise of superior understanding, not to depreciate those truths, which have gained the firm assent not only of the mighty minds, who have adorned the annals of our Church, but of those masters of human science, of Newton and Boyle, of Locke and Hartley; as well as of those luminaries of your own profession, Bacon, with his matchless intellect, and Hale, with his clear and penetrating judgment. Ingenuous minds may easily be taught

to feel that it is discreditable even to doubt, where they have not attempted to explore; and they cannot but own that it is most irrational to deny conclusions, when they know not even the source, still less the extent, of that amazing mass of fact and of argument, by which the truth of our holy religion, and the doctrines which our Church has deduced from the Sacred Book which records it, have so often been demonstrated,—I do not say, to the satisfaction of every mind,―for in every age there will be unbelievers, there will be gainsayers,-but I may surely say, to the general satisfaction of unprejudiced and reasonable minds.

Such are among the various sources of instruction, which may be dispensed by a preacher in this holy temple; and such are the obligations to attention on the part of his audience, if they will but comply with the spirit of our Saviour's emphatic, and seasonable, admonition: "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear! "

It is however time to bring to a conclusion this inadequate expression of my own feelings; this imperfect delineation of claims on a preacher's attention and that of his hearers, which I have thought it fitting to lay before you upon my first approach to the duties now imposed. If I may but indulge an humble hope that those, who may themselves stand in little need either of instruction or reproof, will hear with candour and with approbation what is bestowed on others; that the young and ingenuous will permit themselves by degrees to be weaned from prejudices which they may have contracted, or from

habits in which they have indulged, till they feel all the clearness" of that grand light which came down from heaven to direct us in our way thither ", and the necessity of that redemption which is offered to all men;-my labours will have begun auspiciously; and to Him, who prospereth every good word and work, solemnly but cheerfully, henceforth I commit their issue. May it but please His gracious will to vouchsafe ability proportioned to my zeal, you, my brethren, will see no cause to complain that I am "weary in well-doing." And, if my hearers will earnestly implore the same Almighty aid to strengthen their wavering resolutions, and to open their minds to the full conviction of Gospel truth and Gospel peace, the ministry, this day begun, will admit, each succeeding day of service, fresh accessions of good to us all; so that, in God's own time, both our faith and our works may be found, in the day of the Lord, laudable, glorious, and honourable, to the increase of glory and endless felicity".

a Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, p. 32, folio.

b Service for the Visitation of the Sick.