the subject, which has now been under discussion, is one of vital importance also to every individual who hears me, to every creature to whom the Gospel of Christ is preached. Whatever may be the fond conceits of a morbid liberality, if we will be content to be regulated in our judgment by the declarations of our Lord Himself and his Apostles, we must be persuaded that Christian faith is necessary to Christian salvation; that the object of a Christian faith is the word of God as made known to us by our Saviour; and that, as that word containeth all things necessary to be believed in order to our salvation, so we cannot, as we hope for salvation, wilfully refuse to believe any thing which that word containeth: in short we must be convinced, to state the case in the compendious and authoritative sentence of our blessed Saviour Himself, that, wherever the Gospel is preached by those whom He has commissioned to preach it, "he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned."

May it please Almighty God by his Holy Spirit to impress this awful sentence deeply and permanently upon the minds of all of you, my beloved brethren! May He cause his gospel to be preached faithfully amongst you! May He guard you from the delusions of those who would seduce you to make shipwreck of the faith! May He guide you

to the belief and profession of all the truth, which He has revealed by his blessed Son! May He by Christian faith confirm you and strengthen you in Christian holiness! And finally, may He through the same faith establish you in everlasting happiness, for the merits and by the mediation of that Son, our Lord Jesus Christ!

Now unto God the Father, who hath made us and all the world; unto God the Son, who hath redeemed us and all mankind; and unto God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth us and all the elect people of God; the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God; be all honour and glory, in all churches of the saints, world without end. Amen.

We yield Thee humble thanks, O heavenly Father, that thou hast vouchsafed to call us to the knowledge of thy grace and faith in Thee: increase this knowledge, and confirm this faith in us evermore. Give thy Holy Spirit to all those who are baptized in thy name: that being then born again, and made heirs of everlasting salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, they may continue thy servants, and attain thy promises; through the same Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, everlastingly. Amen 1.

1 Ministration of Baptism.

DISCOURSE VI.

THE CHURCH'S NOTION OF THE TRUTH AGREEABLE TO THAT OF ST. JOHN.

3 JOHN, ver. 1—4.

The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

THERE is something to my mind extremely pleasing and affecting, in this expression of good will from the writer of the epistle towards the person to whom the epistle is addressed; as well as in the general sentiment to which the particular observation gives occasion.

Who the person was, to whom the epistle is addressed, we have, I apprehend, no means of knowing. He is termed in the salutation, con

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tained in the first verse, "the well-beloved Gaius," whom, adds the writer, "I love in the truth." And in the progress of the epistle he appears to have been honourably distinguished, for his attachment to the Christian faith, and for his corresponding exercise of the Christian virtues of charity and hospitality. But more than this, neither the sacred volume, nor the other records of primitive Christianity, give us any information concerning him.

Of the person, by whom the epistle was written, we have large information. He is denominated by himself, in this and in the preceding epistle, "the elder," a title of dignity in the patriarchal times, thence transmitted to the Jewish, and thence again to the primitive Christian Church; and well adapted to the high apostolical office which he bore, not perhaps without allusion to his advanced age when he wrote: but to us he is more familiarly known by his name and function, as St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, or by his character as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

To "the well-beloved Gaius" then, "whom he loved in the truth," did the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, the "disciple, whom Jesus loved," address himself in the words of the text. And in them he breathes forth an earnest wish or prayer for the temporal prosperity and health of Gaius, answer

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able to his spiritual] prosperity: he expresses the great joy which he had experienced on learning from the testimony of his brother Christians that such was the prosperity of Gaius, signified by the assurance of "the truth being in him," and of his walking in the truth:" and he thereupon lays down a general position, with respect to those who had imbibed from him instruction in religious knowledge, and agreeable to the sentiment which he had expressed concerning the case of Gaius in particular, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." It is upon the subject of the Apostle's joy, as intimated in this passage, that I propose at present to address you: and in so doing I shall take occasion to bring under your especial notice an article of the Catholick faith, which, in obedience to God's holy word, the Church holds fast as an essential part of the Christian verity, and a “right belief" of which she, in obedience to the same word, pronounces to be necessary to everlasting salvation."

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I. "I rejoiced greatly," says the Apostle, "when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." Now of the exceeding great joy here professed by St. John the foundation manifestly is his assurance, that the persons, in whose