careless and indifferent to overlook its passing excellence, yet with powerful and convincing energy does the tide of its deep devotion burst upon the soul of him who seeks his God with the earnestness of a true believer. The more we carefully examine the general spirit which pervades it, the more, as we grow in grace, its sacred formularies are breathed, with increased intensity, from our hearts, the more forcibly do its admirable consistency and propriety flash upon our minds, and deep and important truths, hitherto unobserved, open gradually to our view. More effectually almost than any institution of man's devising, seeing how carefully it is framed throughout on the model of the word of God, even though it be in the hands of ministering servants not free alas! from human infirmity, does it seem placed above the common delusions of man's fallible reason, and the wild and irregular fantasies of human caprice. Those who come, with hearts full of thankfulness and devotion, to proclaim the praises of the Almighty, and who feel that words of their own devising are scarcely competent to express the warmth of their heavenward aspirations, find here meet and appropriate language for entering, with due reverence, the court of the King of kings. Even to those whose prayers are on the lips alone, rather than echoed in their

hearts, this form is calculated to suggest a more sound and genuine spirit of devotion. It helps to call back the wandering thoughts, to mould and direct them by scriptural rules, to fix them on right and wholesome doctrines, to clothe them in reverent and appropriate language. It serves to humble the proud, and to revive the desponding; now requiring of us our penitence and deep contrition, now enlivening our adorations, and rousing them into a more cheerful strain, by communicating the joyful tidings of hope and of comfort. And it contributes in every way to the exalting and the purifying of our devotions to heaven, by prohibiting the use of any presumptuous word, and diverting our minds from the conception of any presumptuous thought.

In the words of our text there are, as I observed before, two points distinctly insisted on by the apostle. The first of them is The necessity of assembling together for the purposes of public worship; the second is a direction respecting some part of the duties to be performed on those occasions. On the former of these points I shall not at present lay much stress, because I am willing to believe that all who hear me now are ready to acknowledge the full weight of the obligation which requires our attendance on the ceremonies of public devotion; and because also I sincerely

hope that many amongst us have experienced a comfort and a blessing in that constant attendance, which would lead them to regard it as a great and valuable privilege, rather than a distasteful task. Confining our attention therefore, principally to the second branch of the text, we find it enjoined on those who assemble themselves together in the name of God, that, amongst other duties, they should practice that of mutual exhortation. Nor has our Church, in her wise provision for the general celebration of public worship, in this respect deviated from the requisitions of the Apostle's precept. Exhortation forms a very prominent feature in the solemnization of her divine services. It is for this object partly, together with doctrinal instruction, that a discourse is commonly delivered after the conclusion of the prayers. And more especially, perhaps, is that duty fulfilled in the preliminary address called "The Exhortation," in which the minister invites the congregation to join with him in common devotion to heaven, and reminds them of the proper character which that devotion should assume, and the spirit with which it should be offered. To this part, therefore, of the Liturgy of the Church of England, as natural order would suggest, let us direct our first attention, and endeavour, under the blessing of God, to inquire how

far the general purport and tenor of this exhortatation are in unison with the precepts of Scripture.

Were every man left to the devices of his own imagination in framing the style of his public addresses to the throne of mercy, it could hardly be expected but that some unholy temper of mind should often intrude to destroy the due sanctity of his devotions, and to encumber those spiritual aspirations which ought to ascend freely and uninterruptedly unto heaven, with many of the gross appetites and carnal affections of the world. Nature, corrupt and rebellious nature, is too prone to indulge in proud and presumptous imaginations. She would lead us too hastily and too abruptly to intrude on our Maker's presence. She would bid us lift up our heads in confidence and self satisfaction, to demand, rather than to supplicate, the assistance and the blessing of heaven. She would insinuate the spirit and the language of the haughty Pharisee, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." But how totally the reverse of this, how replete with humility and contrition, how pure, how meek, how essentially Christian, is the temper in which the service of our church calls on its members to pour out their hearts in prayer! As we enter the house of God, there is no syllable that salutes our ears calculated to gratify the proud imaginings of the na.

tural man. Not even with the productions of the highest of human wisdom do we venture to begin the solemn ceremony. The words of God himself -the language of chosen parts of Scripture dictated by His holy Spirit-and all of the most startling character, are the first to break on the slumbering conscience. The Sentences, of which some are required to be read before the exhortation, are in many points different from each other, and addressed to different characters; but the injunction to penitence and self-abasement distinctly pervades them all. And the Exhortation continues, and carries on the strain. Repentance-confession-humility, this is the spirit with which it commences, and with which it ends. And while it invites us to pray, and to join in all the exercises of holy worship, it plainly tells us of our own unworthiness, denounces most strictly all ostentation of merit in the sight of God, and dictates only the burthen of the publican's prayer, Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner."

I. But, to enter more into particulars, the Exhortation begins by assuring us that we must at all times be ready to confess; "The Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness, and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of God our heavenly Father." And it then