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own strength, we look to that almighty arm, which made them more than conquerors, for like aid and support.

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The "blessed saints," are exhibited in our collect as examples of all "virtuous and godly living. Virtue is moral goodness, and Godliness is an universal regard to God. These differ from each other, so that the language of our collect is not tautologous. Saints possess the former in common with some heathens.* The latter is peculiar to themselves. Both are essential to the Christian character; but the latter is its distinguishing feature.

Are we endeavouring thus to follow the blessed saints? Are we painfully conscious of our own imperfections? Are we solicitous for a larger measure of grace, that our imitation of them may be more exact? If no such dispositions are felt within our bosoms, how hypocritical is our prayer!

The end which we propose to ourselves by an imitation of the saints, is a participation with them of "those unspeakable joys which are pre"pared for them that unfeignedly love God, "through Jesus Christ our Lord." O glorious object, worthy of our ambition, worthy of our utmost efforts! May the prospect fire our souls, add fervency to our prayers and energy to our endeavours!

Holiness is not the meritorious cause of heavenly felicity, which is attainable only "through "Jesus Christ our Lord," His obedience unto death being exclusively its procuring cause. sanctification is the only path that leads to

But

* See the Collect for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity.

glorification, and an indispensible pre-requisite and qualification for it. Thereby departed saints were prepared for those unspeakable joys which they now inherit, and thereby only can we partake with them. And it may moreover be observed, that the degree of holiness which is attained by the saints on earth will determine the measure of happiness which they will be capable of receiving in heaven.

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That the joys of heaven are unspeakably great, yea, that they transcend the utmost reach of human imagination, the Scriptures testify. For they assure us that "eye hath not seen, "nor ear heard, neither have entered into the "heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." The images of Scripture afford us some faint coruscations of light on the subject; and occasional moments of sweet experience disclose the nature of those pleasures which are at God's right hand. But these gleams of radiance are like the effects of a vivid flash from the summer's cloud in a dark night, whereby an imperfect and transient glimpse of surrounding objects is obtained, while no distinct apprehensions can be formed concerning them. The fulness of heavenly joy is only known to them who possess it.

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These unspeakable joys are prepared for "all those who unfeignedly love God," and for none besides them. And the reason of this is evident; for none but those who unfeignedly love God, are capable of participating in them; since the essence of heavenly felicity will consist in a continual influx of Divine love to the soul, and in suitable emotions of gratitude and affection towards its source. Do we suppose that we love Him? Let us examine whether our

love be "unfeigned." A mistake will be fatal to our happiness. How did the blessed saints. evidence the sincerity of their love to God? Do we demonstrate the reality of ours by proofs of the same kind, though unequal to theirs in the degree of strength? A feigned love will avail nothing. It must be genuine, and produce the proper evidences of its reality.

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O let us contemplate the "great multitude "which no man can number, of all nations, "and kindreds, and people, and tongues, "standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms "in their hands!" let us listen to their song, while they cry "with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the "throne, and unto the Lamb." The glorious sight and the melodious sounds will animate our souls to "press forward towards the mark "for the prize of the high calling of God in "Christ Jesus."

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CONCLUSION.

HE question proposed by our Lord to His disciples, with reference to the parables which He had delivered to them, may with propriety be addressed to the readers of the preceding pages: "Have ye understood all "these things?" (Matth. xiii. 51.) He was anxious that the important truths involved in all His mysterious discourses, might be clearly comprehended, and produce their due effect on the understanding, heart, and life. Gracious solicitude! worthy of the sinner's Friend, the compassionate Jesus! The author of these essays, while he is conscious of multiplied imperfections in the execution of his plan, and of wide aberrations from the spirit of his adorable Master, hopes that his main object has been the promotion of the Divine glory, and the communication of spiritual profit to his readers, and that neither a desire of human applause nor of worldly profit has been predominant in his breast. He feels solicitous that eternal advantage should accrue to his readers from what he has written; and therefore takes the liberty, before he concludes, of proposing our Lord's important question, "Have ye understood all "these things?"

The range which we have been led to take, in the course of the preceding essays on the collects of our church, has been wide and extensive. It has conducted us through all the more

important parts of the Christian system both of faith and practice. What we are required to believe, and what we are required to do, with a view to our salvation, has been set before us. It may not be unprofitable to epitomize the whole in a concluding essay. And in order to render this review profitable, we shall adopt the mode of address which theological instructors have called the way of perpetual application. The reader is therefore requested to scrutinize his conscience on the following particulars.

Have ye understood the doctrines which our collects teach-the dispositions which they suppose to prevail, and which they are calculated to cherish, in all the professed members of our church-the desires which they breathe, as expressive of the wants and feelings of the faithful bosom-and the duties which they enforce on all who adopt the use of our liturgy?

1. Let the reader inquire, whether he have understood the doctrines which our collects teach. It is not indeed the primary design of our collects, nor of any other part of our liturgy, doctrinally to instruct the mind. Their chief object is the furtherance of devotion. But as ignorance cannot be its parent, the prefaces or introductory parts of the collects usually consist of some revealed truth, expressed in an eucharistic form of address to God; and even the petitionary part, directly or indirectly, necessarily conveys doctrinal information, as we have endeavoured to shew in the preceding essays.

To reconduct the reader through the whole circle of Christian doctrines, as they are expressed or implied, more generally or particularly inculcated in our collects, would require a repetition of almost all that has been before said.

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