to comply with the demands of God in Christ,-to comply therefore with the demands of your Baptism. You are not released from this obligation by your natural inability. Your natural inability is one of your own creating; so it must be regarded in relation to God; for God did not send the devil into your heart; but you admitted him thereinto, in the person of your first parent, for whose act you, who have derived your being from God through that person, are justly made responsible. Why do I set these things before you? It is in the desire of stimulating you, first of all, to deep reflection; secondly, to strong conviction; thirdly, to earnest supplication; that you may call upon God for that help which you find yourself in need of, and which you are bound, from the declaration of the text, to consider God as willing to bestow upon you. Beloved, this is the benefit of the promise. It is not to make people idle; it is not that people should lie down in their sloth; much less that they should account themselves justified in their despair; but it is that they, hearing the sound of God's voice, and being assured that He is to be taken at his word, do come forth, and under the full persuasion that only his mercy can save them, do call upon Him for that power of his which shall overcome their natural weakness, and enable them truly to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and so to realize their Baptism in its condition and in its benefit; the condition being, as I have stated it, simply faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which implies

the renunciations and purposes expressed in that ordinance; and the benefit being no less than that of the sacramental investiture with the risen body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the seal of their acceptance in Him, the sign of the body they are to wear, and the pledge that God will at his appointed time put it upon them.

O God, grant that these words, few as they are, may be thy instrument for bringing many to deep thought; and that, satisfied out of the fulness of thy treasure of wisdom and knowledge, they may do the things which Thou hast said; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

August 30, 1829.

SERMON XX.

2 COR. iii. 7-9.

BUT IF THE MINISTRATION OF DEATH, WRITTEN AND ENGRAVEN IN STONES, WAS GLORIOUS, SO THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL COULD NOT STEDFASTLY BEHOLD THE FACE OF MOSES FOR THE GLORY OF HIS COUNTENANCE; WHICH GLORY WAS TO BE DONE AWAY: HOW SHALL NOT THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT BE RATHER GLORIOUS? FOR IF THE MINISTRATION OF CONDEMNATION BE GLORY, MUCH MORE DOTH THE

MINISTRATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS EXCEED IN GLORY.

I AM strong in the expectation, beloved, that the solemnity of this last week will have, amongst other results, that of bringing many young persons to the Communion of the Lord's Supper. You have heard, by a higher authority in the Church than mine, that the attendance upon the Lord's Supper is connected with the ordinance of Confirmation; and that the Church does not consider persons as fit subjects for the administration of the Lord's Supper, until they have undergone that former ordinance. Now I believe the real meaning of the Church in that distinction is

founded upon the high reverence, and even necessity, which she attaches to the episcopal office. The Church is an institution of order. And, however we may have lost the savour of good order, the Church still retains the form and desires to maintain the spirit of it. To this order a gradation of offices is necessary. And in this gradation of offices the bishop holds the highest rank, and is the immediate representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is necessary therefore that the vows of persons who are presented to God in Christ by the Church should be attested before this highest officer, and that he should pronounce that assurance which it becomes the highest officer of the Church to give of their acceptance in Baptism, before they are admitted to that highest intercourse with God and with each other, which is considered as maintained by the second sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. On this principle, if I understand it, is founded the regulation, that none can properly be received as partakers of the Communion of the Lord's Supper, who have not first of all been confirmed; but, having been confirmed, they are allowed to be the fit subjects of that office. I am therefore strong in the expectation, as I have already stated, that the solemnity of this last week will add to the number of our communicants. And I would earnestly address myself to those young persons who have been partakers of the ordinance of Confirmation, in the desire that they should give close and severe attention to what they shall from time to time hear