precept, whatever practice enforced by example, it is by their union with the Christian faith alone, that their moral obligations are constituted and confirmed. No article of that faith is a dead letter, or a barren speculation. They all conspire to apply a powerful sanction to the laws of moral actions, to animate obedience, and to guide and support our feet in the ways of eternal life.

Do we believe that by the sacrifice of the incarnate God, the whole human race was delivered from the dreadful penalty of sin and death consequent on their first transgression, and that by the blood of Christ, we become heirs of light, life, and immortality; and shall not the stupendous means employed in our redemption, powerfully demonstrate the danger to which every sinner stands exposed, who shall crucify his Lord afresh, and deliver up his soul to the bondage of that corruption, from which the death and sufferings of the Son of God could alone redeem him? Are we assured that the same Jesus now stands at the right hand of God, to receive and sanctify the petitions of his Church; and shall not the heart of each disquieted and afflicted servant, take refuge in this his advocate at the throne of grace; and on the hopes of accepted prayer, as on the wings of a dove, "flee away, and be at rest?" Do we trust in the promised co-operation of the Holy Spirit with the weak

ness of our mortal nature, and shall not every unsettled imagination be confirmed in confidence, and every wavering resolution be fixed in strength? What power, but Christian hope, in all the storms of adversity shall be both the pilot, and the anchor of the soul? What terror, but the denunciations of an offended and rejected Saviour, shall awaken it from the deadly slumber of sensual indulgence, and criminal infatuation?

From these, as from every other article of our Christian faith, arises a strong and influential motive of moral action; and when to these we add that crown of all our hopes, the sanctification of our imperfect service by the Spirit of Grace, it will clearly appear that in the name of the Lord Jesus, every act of Christian obedience founds its origin, strengthens its continuance, and terminates its prospect.

Between then the faith and the morals of the Gospel, there is no line of distinction or demarcation, they are mutually supported and confirmed by each other; they are connected by an indissoluble chain, even by the name of Christ. It is the name, the spirit, and the command of his blessed Master, which, in the breast of every true Christian, binds them in everlasting union, and communicates a principle of vitality to the whole, which enriches his faith with the power of obedience, which sanctifies his

actions as the necessary emanations of a lively and humble faith. His faith is not a string of empty and delusive words, his deeds are not the creatures of a cold and capricious morality. All attempts, therefore, to distinguish the speculative opinions from the practical duties of religion, is vain and nugatory. It is to separate the motive from the action, the cause from the effect, the foundation from the superstructure. Every doctrine which can cherish hope, or animate obedience, is too extended in its influence, and too universal in its application, to be maintained or dismissed, as the dictate of a wayward disposition or a roving fancy may chuse to direct. Every article of that holy faith, whose author and finisher is God, is too precious in itself, to be rudely discarded by the presumption of man, and furnishes too strong a motive for moral action, to be passed over in hasty ignorance, or contemptuous neglect.

Whatever, then, may be our lot, whether in the higher and more cultivated order of society, or in the humble and more laborious walks of life; in whatever mould our days are cast, to whatever scenes, whether of joy or affliction, we are summoned, let every thought be controuled, let every action be governed, let every duty be enforced, in the name of the Lord Jesus; let all the high and leading doctrines of the Gos

pel dispensation, be so called forth in support of our obedience to the laws of our moral Governor, as to disseminate the blessings, propagate the influence, and extend the empire, of that genuine and perfect Christianity, which the Saviour of the world came down on earth to establishChristian conduct, founded on Christian motives.

If then in our private relations as Christians, as members of the universal Church, this influential principle is the spring and motive of all our moral actions, with no less a force is its predominance displayed in every article which is inculcated upon our practice, as sons of our English Church.

Christ is the rock upon which that faith is founded. On this foundation her creeds, her articles, her liturgy, are supported; on this ground is her pure, primitive, and apostolic dis cipline maintained, and in the name of Christ is the obedience of her children demanded and enforced. "Her foundations are upon the holy hills," even upon the apostles and martyrs, Christ himself being the "chief corner stone." The ancient succession of her hierarchy, the primitive mildness of her discipline, the gradation of her orders, the purity of her rites, the simplicity of her ceremonies, all conspire to feed that eternal increase of devotion and praise, which is kindled upon the altar of her Creator, her Re

deemer, and her God. She glories not, but in the cross of Christ. Her faith has been sealed by the dying breath of her confessors and martyrs, and her goodly structure watered and cemented by their blood. It is her glory to have preserved the ark of the covenant from the unhallowed grasp of fanatical presumption, and the refinement of philosophic pride. It is her boast to have contended manfully for "the faith once delivered to the saints," and amidst the virulent attacks of her open enemies, and the insidious machinations of her pretended friends, to have formed an impregnable barrier against the united assaults of enthusiasm, superstition, and infidelity. Hers is a religion that dares to be understood, that not only challenges, but rests, upon enquiry. Her faith is not supported on the arbitrary dogmas of fallible councils, nor the vague traditions of dark and uncertain authors. From the Scriptures alone her doctrines and discipline are derived, and to the Scriptures they must ultimately be referred. Whatever article of her creed cannot by rational deduction be traced to this origin, whatever duty is not clearly consonant with the letter, and the spirit of this heavenly guide, she essentially disclaims. Her belief and her practice are truly evangelical. Whatever she hath done in word or deed, she hath done all in the name of the Lord Jesus.