bound, therefore, to bring forward this new Law, and prove it to come from GOD, or else confess themselves to be impostors. If there is a new priesthood, then the LORD's Day need not be kept holy. Baptism is no longer necessary, and the LORD's Supper is as useless as the offering of a bull or goat was after the death of CHRIST. The whole ceremonial law of the Christian Church is changed. The Bible too must be confessed imperfect we must have a New Revelation added to it to make it complete. All this senseless blasphemy must be true, or this new Christian priesthood must be an imposture. It cannot be defended consistently in any other way. If the priesthood be changed, the Law must be changed too.

But it is not changed, my Brethren: the words of CHRIST still hold good-"Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He is always present with the Apostolical Priesthood, and "makes them able ministers of the New Testament"-able to do "whatsoever He has commanded them." There is, therefore, still "one Baptism for the remission of sins," which He commanded them to administer "in the name of the FATHER, and of the Son, and of the HOLY GHOST."" There is still a Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of CHRIST-still a LORD's Day to be kept holy in memory of His Resurrection. And as the Ceremonial Law is not changed, so neither is the Moral Law. The Bible is the "perfect law of liberty:" "it containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.""

1 St. Matt. xxviii. 20. 22 Cor. iii. 6. 4 St. James i. 25.

3 St. Matt. xxviii. 19.

Article VI.

There are some who would have the Church without the Bible; and this has always ended in corruption, superstition, and idolatry. There are others who would have the Bible without the Church; and this has always ended in schism, heresy, and infidelity. In some countries of the world, the people are so unfortunately situated as to be obliged to choose between these two evils: they must either have the Church without the Bible, or the Bible without the Church; they must either be idolaters or infidels. If we were placed in this unfortunate situation, we must belong to the Church, at all hazards; for a corrupt Church may be reformed, as the Jewish Church was, and our own has been; whereas, all the pruning in the world will never make a dead branch grow. But, my Brethren, we are not in such an unhappy situation as this. We have no such choice to make. We have both the Church and the Bible. Let us, then, "keep that which is committed to our trust." The Church of God and the Word of GOD must never be separated. If we leave the Church, we shall become infidels; and if we leave the Bible, we shall as certainly become idolaters. All history and experience show this. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Both are the ordinance of God, therefore let neither of them be despised, nor let one be exalted at the expense of the other. We have no right to pick and choose among GoD's commandments, and say "this I will keep," and "that I will not ;" "this is essential," and "that is not :" all proceed from the same GOD, Who has an entire claim to our duty, and is to be as fully obeyed when HE says, "Obey them who have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as 11 Tim. vi. 20. 2 St. Matt. xix. 6.

they that must give account:" as when He says, "Search the Scriptures, for they testify of ME.' There are no little commandments. "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." And as both the Church and the Bible are the ordinance of GOD, so both will last to the end of time. "This is my covenant with them, saith the LORD: MY SPIRIT that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.'

925

SERMON XXVI.

PRAYER AND FASTING.

Ash-Wednesday.

MATT. XVII. 21.

HOWBEIT, THIS KIND GOETH NOT OUT BUT BY PRAYER

AND FASTING.

THE immediate occasion of these words was this. During our Blessed SAVIOUR's absence from the multitude, and from nine of His twelve Apostles, at the time when on Mount Tabor, He was transfigured before the other three-Peter, James, and John,—who were permitted to behold the glorious vision, when "His face did shine as the sun," and His raiment "was white as the light," it appears that an agonized father had applied to the nine Apostles whom CHRIST had left on the plain, for the cure of his son, whose body, being possessed of an evil demon or spirit, was by him sorely vexed, and ofttimes in danger of being drowned, or being consumed in the flames. His appeal to them, however, was to no purpose; they were unable to effect a cure. What they could not do, he had faith enough to believe-and happy was it

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for him that he had-that their Master could. As soon, therefore, as our LORD came down from the Mount-even while some rays of the glory of His Transfiguration yet lingered on His countenance, for so may we best account for what St. Mark tells us, that all the people on His first coming down, when they beheld HIM, were greatly amazed, the father came to HIM, and, falling down on his knees, prayed HIM to have mercy on his son. JESUS, after hearing the sad description of his misery, and of his ineffectual application to His Apostles, first of all utters a reproachful exclamation against the perverseness and faithlessness of the people amongst whom He was daily ministering, a censure of which, although the sharpest edge was directed against the wilful unbelief of the Pharisees, yet was it not without being partly levelled against the weak faith of His own immediate followers-" O faithless and perverse generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you ?" But CHRIST was, we know, the INCARNATE GOD, and GOD is Love; therefore His next words are, "Bring him hither to ME." And then after the evi spirit, knowing that his time was short and his power about to cease, had dreadfully torn the poor youth, and had thrown him to the ground, where he “wallowed foaming," as the Scripture expresses it, our SAVIOUR "rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him, and he was as one dead, insomuch that many said, he is dead. But JESUS took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose, and he was cured from that very hour."

No sooner had this act of mercy been performed, to