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of Christ Jesus to redeem, put human works in the place of his atoning blood and teach men a partial salvation by them. Search the scriptures, saith God: unpermitted by us, say they, search them not. Thou shalt not make a graven image, or bow down or worship it, saith God, with a lower kind of reverence you may and you ought, say they. When you have done all things say we are unprofitable servants, saith God: you may have justifying merits of your own to bestow on others too, say they. None can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him, saith God: the saints whom we invoke can deliver by their prayers and their imputed piety, say they. There is one only mediator between God and man, saith the the scripture : there are hundreds, saith this apostate church. But enough-you will see the Son of Man would not find faith here in this mystery of iniquity, though a christian superscription be upon it; no, nor in the end will he find it; for let liberalizing schismatics and traitorous churchmen say what they may, so evident and so indelible is the brand of her apostacy, like the mark of Cain wherever she walks the earth, that verily we are all but assured that this idolatrous church in her head doth exhibit no other than the very man of sin, the son of perdition, the wicked one whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming.

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But setting aside these we will come to a narrower limit yet, and of that portion of the christian world who profess a pure faith, that delivered once to the saints, we will still enquire, Would the Lord find faith amongst them and not to touch on other kingdoms of orthodox christianity, let us come directly to our own and ask, Would he at this moment find faith in this Protestant land? Certainly in profession he would: he would behold here a church of which we scruple not to say that its doctrines are the most scriptural, its worship the most pure, its ordinances the most apostolic, of any in the known world. It has Christ and him crucified for its corner stone, and whether it be faith or whether it be works, upon each and

every part of its superstructure is inscribed, Behold the Lamb of God. Go where you will in the range of the Reformation, or search where you please in the records of primitive Christianity, and you will not find a church whose articles of faith contain a closer and more faithful condensation of God's word, than those of our own, nor a liturgy or form of prayer, so spiritual and yet so practical, so wisely observant of that tone with which a sinner should ever approach his God; reverence without superstition, and warmth of devotion without the wildness of fanaticism.

Well then, you will say, The lord would find faith here; he would look upon our church reflecting him from first to last, and the faithfulness thereof, would be well-pleasing in his sight! But stay, for the question rests not here. A holy profession is one thing, and a holy and a correspondent principle another. The voice of the church may be speaking in one tone, and the voice of the nation in another and perhaps a contrary. The piety of our martyred forefathers may yet be breathing in the articles and ordinances of our faith, but, brethren, is it utterly impossible that the acts of a later age may brand us as a people faithless, a cold, lukewarm, degenerate posterity, unsanctified by the holy influence, nay, and careless of the holy tenure of that precious heritage which they bought at such a price, and bequeathed as such a source of blessedness to us? Our church may be, it is reflecting Christ; but would the Son of Man find this nation reflecting him? would he find faith not preached in our Pulpits, not talked of in our religious meetings, not written in our Prayer Books, not testified by our multitude of Bibles; but faith operative in the kingdom's character at home and abroad; faith adorned upon our Throne by righteousness; faith exemplified in our Court by purity; faith acknowledged in our Parliament by honor to the name and the cause of God; faith pervading the assemblies of our citizens, by a zeal for the glory of his kingdom. What, brethren, saith the voice at home to this question? Think of our Sabbaths, how they are kept-think of our Protestant character, how the

heads of our nation are prizing and preserving that-think of our established church, and how they guard its welfare-think of God's word, and what an effect that has upon them—think of men of piety, how they are advanced-think of the abominations of popery, and how they are opposed-think of heresy and schism, and the discountenance they meet with—think of open ungodliness, and how that is abased from honour-think of duelling, that is, murder on system, and how that is punished by the laws, or the perpetrator shunned by society. Lastly, contrast the sum expended on christian missions for God's glory, and that on ardent spirits for man's bestial degradation.

Think upon these things, all of easy observation, and say, are you satisfied with the answer of the voice at home-or, if it please you, look abroad and see how the faith of our holy church is reflected in our actions there. Thank God there is one point of bright reflection, slavery no longer pollutes British soil. Oh! that the freedom of the souls of men were as precious in our eyes, and as zealously aimed at as the freedom of their bodies. But do the nations of the earth know as much of our christianity as our commerce? Are we publicly, nationally concerned, to send the gospel to them? Are we careful to provide the means of grace from the kingdom's treasury for the people of our foreign colonies? We appoint them magistrates to preserve their peace, we send them soldiers to defend their property; but do we from the same source send them ministers of Christ and Bibles, and build them churches as a proof of our faith professed that we care for their souls? Again, are we at war with idolatry to exterminate it; cautious against a false christianity to guard against it, wherever the authority of Protestant England is recognized? What saith North America, what saith India? Do they witness that hand in hand with Britain's conquests is first manifested a zeal for the establishment of Britain's faith? Is the voice from our territories abroad satisfactory?

Think you then, on the whole, that were this the Lord's second Advent throughly to purge his floor, he would find us

a nation acknowleding ourselves by our acts to be the stewards of the influence and the wealth he has given us; a people preserved as we have been, and blessed to make known his gospel and set forth his glory in the earth. Think you, in a word, he would find Faith the character of this kingdom? I, brethren, think not, and perhaps there may be some who will agree with me and lament it.

Come, then, let us contract the circle yet narrower, and perhaps you may discern in the elements of our population some source of the evil that infects the whole. We will divide it into families and then ask the question as of each severally, Would the Lord find faith in your household. We read of several of the disciples of old time that they believed, feared, and served God with their whole house. Is this a picture of what your family is, or what you are striving to make it? Doubtless in the case of these faithful ones, their brotherhood in Christ Jesus would be the first consideration, the welfare of each other's souls their first object, and then the same for the poor ignorant ones around them, or in distant lands, promoted by their mutual efforts. Is such the high, and the holier than mere natural relationship or earthly fellowship, that is entertained in the household to which you belong? If so, then the day never passess without the solemn assemblage of every member of it to the morning and the evening sacrifice of Prayer. This is an indispensible mark. I am bold to say, that in the family where this is neglected, there, as a family, faith cannot be found. People cannot be under one roof from day to day, and regard each other as looking to be numbered with God's saints in glory everlasting, without joining in this eminently saintly work now. The children of that household too are early taught, and before all other knowledge, the name and the fear of God their maker, the love of Christ their Redeemer; and that not by word only as a task to be learned, but by the practice and conversation of those around them as truths to be treasured in the heart as well as the memory, and evinced in their daily lives as well as repeated in their

daily lessons.

The heads of that household too are jealous

for their christain profession, that it be not dishonoured by any member with whom they have authority, be the intimacy of relationship or the value of their services what it may, and they will not scruple if needs be to do violence to the one, or sacrifice the other, rather than give countenance to ungodliness. God's holy day will be hallowed in that family, publicly by each one being found in the Lord's house, and privately, by a cessation from all unnecessary labor, and an air of seriousness befitting holy thoughts. God too will not be absent from their mirth, the thought of his presence will never throw a damp on the amusements of their lighter hours, or interrupt the joyful flow of their festive socialities. Innocence will be the character of their pleasures, and the voice and presence of God is there only terrible where guilt is.

But, brethren, I need not proceed further, but will ask each of you, Is such or such like the household of which you are one? Is it consecrated by the prayer meeting? Is it a house in which the word of God is read? Is it the abode of domestic peace and harmony? Do hallowed sabbaths, christian conversation, and innocent recreations mark it with the fear of God? or is it otherwise, a prayerless house, a house of worldliness, avarice, selfishness, dissensions, luxuries, and carnal revelry? A house where life's vanities constitute its amusements; where the harp, and the viol, and the tabret and the wine are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands. Answer this question for yourselves each one of you, for of course I cannot, and judge what the Lord's visitation upon your household would be, the severing of a holy or a worldly family, a cause of consternation or a cause of joy. Would he find your loins girded, and your lamps burning together as watchful ones, or dim or expired as in a house of carnal slumberers? Would he find an empty profession, or would he find a lively faith?

But lastly, brethren, for it may be that you have too little satisfaction in the answer you must give to this question, but

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