may not now be as near? For his second SERM. coming we should all prepare; for though XIX. it may not fall out while we are actually alive, yet, in its effects, it can never be further from us than the natural limits of our mortal life; and we shall be sure to be called forth from our graves when he does appear, to give an account of all we shall have done in the body, whether it be good,

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or whether it be evil." But as men are always apt to be dull of apprehension as to remote consequences, and very backward in fleeing from the wrath to come by timely repentance and amendment, it is with peculiar propriety that the Churchvaries her services so, as to recal to our remembrance, in the most striking manner, the principal events and circumstances of the gospel dispensation; and nothing can be more full of wholesome admonitionthan the several services in particular appropriated to the Advent of our Lord. In the Collect of the first Sunday, we are directed to pray to God" to give us grace, (now in the time of this mortal life, in which Jesus Chrift came to visit us in great humility)

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XIX.

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SERM. " humility) to cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light." And why? For the most exalted ends possible, namely, "that in the last day, when "Christ shall come again, in his glorious ma

jesty, to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal !" In the second Collect, we are reminded of the great importance of the written word, the word of life; " profitable unto all things, having

I promise of the life that now is, and of that "which is to come." And to prepare our souls properly for the future appearance of our Lord, we beg that we may have grace, " in such wise" to receive these holy Scriptures, "to bear them, read, mark, learn, "and inwardly digest them, that by patience "and comfort of God's holy word, we may “embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope

of everlasting life, which he hath given us "in our Saviour Jesus Christ.” In the third Collect, a very apt similitude is pointed out, between the Baptist and the existing Ministers of God's word—a similitude that could not be more concisely stated, or yet put into terms more for

cible and strong, pregnant with instruc- SErm. tion both to pastors and their flocks; ad- XIX. monishing the former to consider of the very high importance of their calling, and reminding the latter of the propriety of attending to the doctrine taught them. "O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare

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thy way before thee; grant that the mini"sters and stewards of thy mysteries may "likewise so prepare and make ready thy "way, by turning the hearts of the disobe"dient to the wisdom of the just, that, at thy "second coming to judge the world, we may "be found an acceptable people in thy sight, "who livest and reignest with the Father and "the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world with"out end." The fourth Collect, appropriate to this very day, so near to the celebration of Christ's nativity, is aptly put into the form of an invocation, expressive of our spiritual wants of succour and assistance. In this we acknowledge ourselves ready to receive him, and prepared to rejoice in his presence. " O Lord, "raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and "come among us, and with great might

"succour

SERM." succour us, that whereas through our XIX. "sins and wickedness, we are sore let and

"hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may

speedily help and deliver us through the

satisfaction of thy Son, our Lord." Now, I cannot think it possible that the hopes and expectations which Christianity opens to our view, the weaknesses and infirmities incident to human nature, the precious benefits of Christ's mission, and the duties incumbent on the sincere professor of the Christian faith, could ever have been brought into a smaller compass, or yet more fully set forth, than in these four beautiful prayers. They leave us at no loss, as to the preparation necessary for the coming of our Lord and Saviour; they point out the only means whereby we may be made partakers of his holy kingdom; they fully express the importance of his incarnation, and fully instruct us how to apply to ourselves the benefits of it. But these prayers are not now for the first time to be offered up; they have been offered up before; we have prayed for these graces and this assistance already. It will be

come

come us then to consider what we have sERM. done on our part to give effect to them. XIX. Have we turned away from any one deed of darkness, or cultivated any one virtue the more, by way of preparation for the coming of our Lord? For this was Christ manifested," that he should destroy the "works of the devil;" and shall we pretend to hail his coming, and yet continue, through our sins and wickedness, in open opposition to him, and confederate with the very enemy he came to destroy? Shall we pretend to be anxious that we should be found worthy, at his second coming, "to rise to life immortal," and yet continue to "walk in the counsel of the ungodly," whose condemnation is, to be driven from before his face, "like the chaff which the “wind scattereth away from the face of the "earth?" Have we made his holy word our study and delight? have we turned to it with eagerness to learn our duty, and be taught of God? have we listened with attention to his appointed ministers, when they have, in their respective administrations, read or expounded his word? have