tionary state, to collect diligently and to use thankfully, all the means of grace we can for improving our spiritual condition. One of the most obvious and most efficacious of these means must be the providing for the public worship of God, by the erection of suitable churches, furnished in a decent manner, wherein Divine Service may be performed with order and propriety by ministers duly appointed.

The opening of this first epistle of St. Peter is in sublime language. He states that the Divine Power of God and Christ had revealed to the Apostles exceeding great and precious promises, with a commission to publish them--promises which might even enable those who accepted them to become partakers of the Divine Nature. Language can scarcely go farther and it is followed by my text, "and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue or courage; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." For this very reason that the promises are so great and precious in Christ Jesus, you must strive all you can to obtain them, by a cluster of excellent qualities, which go hand in hand together, like a chorus or solemn procession. All

these qualities, in describing which language almost fails the Apostle, are to be heaped one upon another in the hearts and minds of Christians, as proofs that their profession of the Gospel is true and cordial : the corresponding works will shew, what nothing else will, that they are not slothful in faith, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am afraid that there are persons who do not look at the matter with the seriousness and earnestness which the Apostle here prescribes-the matter I mean of their Eternal Salvation. I fear there are persons who suppose that the mere profession of the Gospel, or faith in Christ, will save their souls, however slight that faith may be, and produced in them by accidental circumstances of birth and education, without examination or reflection on their part, without any decided conviction of the truths of the Gospel, or any deep heart-felt sense of the necessity of a Saviour for fallen sinful Man. Such a superficial faith rather lulls men into ease and security, than excites them to good works; makes them contented with the name of Christians, instead of constraining them by a secret force on their consciences to approve themselves Christians by their lives and actions.

A man of this stamp may say, "I take up

the Bible, the New Testament, and believe in it generally. I will follow what class or denomination of Christians I please, and join myself to them with more or less strictness, according to my inclination: and no man has any right to ask questions on the subject, still less to condemn It is a matter between the Almighty and my conscience."

me.

This kind of assertion, for it cannot be called reasoning, may silence if not satisfy men ; but the question for serious consideration is whether it will satisfy God, according to the terms the Almighty has laid down in the Holy Scriptures for our obtaining his favour and the divine promises in Christ, What! the mere name and outward profession of Christianity satisfy our Maker, Redeemer, and Judge. It cannot be. I am not now alluding to insincere professors of religion, or to hypocritical pretences to it, both which transgressions carry their own condemnation with them. The present supposition we are upon is, not even that your faith is wavering, but that it is weak, idle, vague, leading to no good practical result. The world may say-ah! such a one is a good Christian, he is no man's enemy, he is charitably disposed, easy-tempered :-but I fear that the word of God calls such professors barren trees if they produce leaves and blossoms it is

all-the fruit, the expected fruit is wanting, Will it not be required? If the Word of God be true, an abundance of fruit will be looked for where an abundance of seed has been sown.

If a husbandman had received a farm of the best quality, in which good seed had been sown, and rich fruit trees had been planted-and after some time you passed by, and saw the fences of this farm broken down, weeds springing up to choke the corn, the fruit-trees unpruned, unwa tered, unprotected, you could not suppose that he had any right to expect a harvest. You would not blame the ground, nor the seed, nor the plants, nor the climate, but the husbandman whose folly and negligence had suffered the best things to run to waste and be spoiled. Thus it is with Gospel Truth in the minds of men: it cannot exist, it cannot grow, without the Divine aid of the Holy Spirit; but still unless Man gives his constant care and industry in cultivation, the grace and spiritual gifts bestowed will be all in vain : as the bounties of Nature are thrown away upon the idle farmer,

This cultivation consists in a careful, constant use of all the means in our power, that we may daily increase in godly Christian virtues. It is what the Apostle means in my text, by exhorting those who believe in the Gospel and have

hope in the Divine promises, to give all diligence, to attain more and more spiritual improvement. We may thank God that there is in the present age a sort of revival of religion; and one manifest proof of it is the number of churches which have been newly built, repaired, and enlarged throughout the country. I congratulate you on the good work you have here so far well accomplished; and have no doubt that you will persevere to the end with the same liberal spirit which has hitherto prompted your pious endeavours; so as to leave nothing short in making a decent provision for Divine Service. I think you must also feel it a subject of rejoicing and thanksgiving, that your business only extends to prepare a fabric suitably fitted up. The Church which is by God's favour and providence established in this kingdom, has taken care to supply a succession of persons expressly educated for the holy offices of the Ministry, who are prepared for their solemn work by a long course of appropriate studies, and by repeated examinations of their proficiency not only in learning and knowledge, but in expounding the Holy Scriptures and setting a good example of pious and virtuous lives to the flocks which may be under their charge.

Our Church has further provided a form of Prayer, and of Ecclesiastical Discipline, and there