is also here an Endowment for your Minister; so that after your building is completed, you have none of these things to seek, which are sometimes not procured without great difficulty, and long delay, and party-strifes but when your vessel is once off the stocks, she is launched immediately into smooth water, with all her equipments complete. But in vain will have been the good out-fit, unless you are always watchful against accidents, and on the alert to keep all that is about you in the same good order and strength in which you have received it. My meaning is to allude not merely to this temple made with hands (which will, however, without your care fall to decay); but in a much more complete manner to the spiritual condition of your souls, which are the House of God. I wish to press upon you in the most earnest and affectionate manner, the necessity, the absolute necessity of unremitting vigilance on your parts, to guard against the temptations and assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil, to prevent Sin from overwhelming you, and making shipwreck of your salvation.

The Church of England, we are bold to say, has taken as solicitous care to preserve the souls of her children, as any of those Christian Societies which differ from her. Has Has any Church

good forms of prayer and articles of faith, to pre

Has

vent error and confusion? So have we, any Church the Holy Scriptures? So have we. Has any Church a Ministry duly appointed and qualified? So have we. I think in my conscience that the advantages in these three most important particulars are on our side; and if you will bear with me a little, I will endeavour to prove that this is so.

The Roman Catholics have public prayers in the Latin language. Judge yourselves, is this custom consistent with the directions of the Holy Scriptures and the practice of our blessed Saviour and the Apostles? Is it consistent with common sense? The prayers are the prayers of the priest only, not of the congregation, if they understand not what he says. How can they ask God to pardon their sins, to bestow particular blessings upon them-how can they offer up praises and thanksgivings when all the while they know not one part of the Service from another, except by certain outward ceremonies, as the lighting tapers, the tinkling a bell, the changes of the priest's dress; and although the worshippers meet together, as there is no public understood form, two persons may be kneeling side by side, and praying for very different things, without that consent and agreement in their petitions, which our Lord has

deigned to promise us will ensure his personal presence and blessing.

Our Liturgy is so comprehensive that it includes all person and the whole matter of devotion; and yet, at the same time, so particular, that every individual may find in it what suits his own case. It is truly Catholic on this account, and for the universal charity it breathes ; and also because it has been compounded from the most ancient and generally received prayers of the Christian Church, The Book of Common Prayer is thoroughly scriptural; and many portions of the Holy Scriptures are interspersed in it. The language is beautiful, sublime, affecting, yet plain and easy to be understood, and is a standard of the true English style and our mother tongue.

Is there any one who would wish to exchange this written Liturgy for extemporaneous prayers ? The best of these are prepared beforehand; they are only extemporaneous in appearance. Indeed I know not how any pious person could bring himself to rush into God's presence on the most solemn occasion of public worship, without preparation. Is it supposed that the Holy Spirit will inspire those who pray without book? and why not those who write prayers? I should rather say> that the composition of our Liturgy affords the

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first model of devotional exercises the world has ever seen. If any human composition can lay claim to inspiration, this is it.

Whoever has heard the indigested incoherent harangues, sometimes poured forth as extemporaneous prayers, confused repetitions, unintellible and painful allusions, and expressions fulsome, disgusting, and ludicrous, must be glad to take shelter under the comfortable and refreshing protection of our prayer-book. In visiting the Sick we often find their attention, even in extreme weakness, revive at the sound of well-known forms of prayer, and particularly the Lord's prayer. I grant that the Service is not lively enough for all descriptions of persons: we want some of those imposing ceremonies, some of those bursts of enthusiasm, which, though they have led to errors, give an ardour and impressiveness to Divine Worship. The occasional chaunting of some parts of the Service, and good plain congregational singing, would greatly relieve the monotony of which I speak, and allow scope for the feelings to be exercised as well as the reason, in the worship of Him who endowed us with both those qualities.

The articles of the Church state that the Holy Scriptures" contain all things necessary to salvation," and are the only authority for religious doc

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trines; thus relieving us from all spiritual thraldom to human power. They are less exclusive than the articles of any other Christian Society, and those who make the strongest objection to

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them, do so on the ground that it would be better to have no articles at all, but to take the Scriptures themselves generally as the only bond of Christian union. But experience has shewn that this is impossible, that the differences in interpreting the Scriptures are so important, that an argument of this kind would be only hollow and superficial, and would lead to more confusion and contention than open decided separation, It is evident that the Almighty did not intend that we should all agree upon religious truth: differences are perhaps necessary to quicken our faith, to improve our knowledge, and animate us in the practice of Christian duties. Only let the Rivalry be open and generous, in a Christian charitable spirit; and then, as Mr. Edmund Burke observed on another occasion, our antagonist will be our helper, by provoking us to good works.

The Scottish Kirk professes to be especially Scriptural, and to have Jesus Christ for its only Head. Now this last expression is figurative, for Jesus Christ is not visibly present to direct their assemblies; they are not under a Theocracy