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motive to quicken your exertions and sustain your resolutions: let it enable you to hold on your course with patient and faithful spirit," in nothing terrified by your adversaries';" but looking "unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith 2," and "casting all your care upon him" who “careth for you

3 "

May we too, my brethren, who have borne our part in this day's solemnity, feel that we have profitably kept the ordinance of the Lord! May it lead us to pray more earnestly for the peace of our Jerusalem, that "peace be within her walls,” and "plenteousness within her palaces!" For our "brethren's and companions' sakes may we wish her prosperity: yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, may we seek to do her good!" And as we go forth from this house of prayer, in which we have walked together as friends, to return once more into the busy walks of Christian life and duty, may we be strengthened daily with "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness!" May we increase and go forward in these "manifold gifts of grace," until, through the merits of our Redeemer, we are admitted into that city, which, in the fullest and truest sense, "is at unity in itself,”—that city "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker

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is God," whose "walls" are called "Salvation, and her gates Praise 2;" and which hath "no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

1 Heb. xi. 10.

2 Isaiah lx. 18. 3 Rev. xxi. 23.

SERMON IV.

ON THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE.

1 Cor. iv. i.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

ACCUSTOMED as we have been, in the daily and weekly services of our Church, and throughout every other period of our changing and eventful life, which, whether marked by feelings of joy or sorrow, of hope or fear, the Church nevertheless seeks faithfully to convert into a season of spiritual grace unto us all, by impressing upon our hearts the lessons of Scriptural warning and consolation which are suitable to each;-accustomed as we have been, I say, from the days of earliest childhood, in the possession of these privileges, to see therein a distinct order of men set apart from the rest, for the express purpose of punctually and regularly performing these minis

trations, and to connect with their persons, chiefly or entirely, the association of public religious duties ;there is danger lest the very knowledge of such an appointment, so early presented to our minds, so constantly attending upon us through life, may, like any other possession with which we have become familiar, lose much of its usefulness and value, in the case of many amongst us, through our forgetfulness of its real character and importance. We may be tempted to look upon the subject of it, as one of those stated and customary matters which come, and pass away, and return as things of course, exciting no interest, and awakening no thankfulness. The very prevalence of the blessing received loses its attraction in the sight of the recipient; its constant recurrence finds him heedless of its coming. We must confess that such is the infirmity which ofttimes blinds us to the value of those daily gifts of nature, which are common to almost all of us,-the light which cheers, the food which nourishes, the rest which refreshes our bodies'; let us confess that it is an infirmity

''One great cause of our insensibility to the goodness of the Creator, is the very extensiveness of his bounty. We prize but little what we share only in common with the rest, or with the generality of our species. When we hear of blessings, we think forthwith of successes, of prosperous fortunes, of honours, riches, preferments, i. e. of those advantages and superiorities over others, which we happen either to possess, or be in pursuit, or The common benefits of our nature entirely escape Yet these are the great things. These constitute what most

to covet.

us.

which hinders our improvement, because it diminishes our sense, of spiritual gifts likewise. And, for this cause, let us take the present opportunity of enquiring, with the attention which it deserves, into the real nature of that sacred office which the Apostle has set forth in the text,-its obligation upon those who minister, its obligation upon the people who are ministered unto.

The Church evidently deems this a subject of needful contemplation to all who meet together in God's house of prayer, to observe her ordinances; for, as she pursues, each year, her round of holy thought', she brings it distinctly before us, and instructs us carefully in the same. Thus, in that opening period of her ecclesiastical year, which she has appointed for the purpose of preparing our minds for the religious commemoration of Christ's first Advent in the flesh, and for pressing upon us the application of those means of grace, which shall enable us to walk here as becometh the believers of that blessed truth, and, hereafter, to "rise to the life

properly ought to be accounted blessings of Providence; what alone, if we might so speak, are worthy of its care. Nightly rest and daily bread, the ordinary use of our limbs, and senses, and understandings, are gifts which admit of no comparison with any other. Yet, because almost every man we meet with possesses these, we leave them out of our enumeration. They raise no sentiment; they move no gratitude. Now, herein, is our judgment perverted by our selfishness.'-Paley's Natural Theology, chap. xxvi. ' On the goodness of the Deity.'

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