law of faith, or what we are bound to do as redeemed sinners;-and the law of love, or what is required of us as Christian believers. If we consider ourselves as God's creatures, under the covenant of works, a perfect and unremitting obedience, from the earliest dawn of life to its latest moment, is our bounden duty, the indispensable condition of Divine favour, and enforced by the penalty of eternal death. For"Cursed is every one who continueth not in all "things which are written in the book of the "law to do them." A perception and knowledge of our duty under the law of works is essential to our welfare, painful as the discovery of our tremendous situation, thereby made, must prove to the conscious mind. For "by "the law is the knowledge of sin:" and without a knowledge of its spirituality, extent, inexorable rigour, and unchangeable requisitions, we should remain destitute of all humiliation of heart, and consequently of all preparation for a reception of the gospel. As redeemed sinners, to whom the word of reconciliation has been preached, we are bound both by duty and interest to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For "there is none other name under “heaven, given among men, whereby we must "be saved." As the primeval foundation of human hope is intirely destroyed in consequence of the first transgression, and as God has gra- ciously laid in Sion for a foundation a precious stone that is immoveable, it is both our duty and interest to build upon it, that is, to renounce our own righteousness, and, to trust ex-› clusively in the vicarious atonement and righteousness of the adorable Jesus. And this faith in our Lord Jesus Christ includes and pre-supposes.

the exercise of repentance towards God. As Christian believers we are required to love Him supremely, "who first loved us and gave His "Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To seek an universal and growing conformity to His image; to honour Him in our daily walk, both by lip and life; " to shew forth the praises "of Him who hath called us out of darkness "into His marvellous light"-this is our bounden duty and inestimable privilege, the test of a genuine faith, and the only way of becoming "meet for the inheritance of the "saints in light."

It is the doctrine of our church, of which she supposes all her members to be fully convinced, that the human mind is naturally ignorant of all spiritual things. This is deducible from the prayer which she teaches us to offer for a knowledge of our duty. For what could be more absurd than to ask for that which we already possess? In the mouth of an advocate for the proud notions of natural religion, now so prevalent, this prayer would be irrational. But the Scripture concurs with our church in declaring, that we are all alienated from the "life of God through the ignorance that is in

us, because of the blindness of our hearts;" and that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot know "them, because they are spiritually discerned."

The collect, moreover, teaches us that a perception and knowledge of these things are essential to salvation. For this follows from the earnestness with which we are taught to pray for instruction. So that if fervent desire for the attainment of this perception and knowledge of duty be not operative in our bosoms, our sen

sibilities are not in unison with those of the catholic church, and we have reason to doubt whether we are its genuine members.

It is also a legitimate inference deducible from this petition, that the word of God, without His Spirit, is not available to the illumination of the fallen mind of man. For if the gift, the inestimable gift, of an external revelation were sufficient without internal illumination, this prayer would be needless and totally impertinent. "Ever since the fall, the nature of "man has been blind and corrupt; his under"standing darkened, and his affections pol"luted: upon the face of the whole earth there "is no man, Jew or Gentile, that understandeth "and seeketh after God; the natural man, or "man remaining in that state in which the fall "left him, is so far from being able to discover "or know any religious truth, that he hates " and flies from it when it is proposed to him; he receiveth not the things of the Spirit of "God. Man is natural and earthly; the things "of God are spiritual and heavenly; and these "are contrary one to the other: therefore as "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with "God, so the wisdom of God is foolishness with' "the world. In a word, the sense man is now

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possessed of, where God does not restrain it, " is used for evil and not for good: his wisdom "is earthly, sensual, devilish; it is the sagacity

of a brute, animated by the malignity of an "evil spirit. This being the present state of "man, the Scripture does therefore declare it "necessary, that he should be transformed by "the renewing of his mind, and restored to "that sound mind and light of the understand"ing, that spiritual discernment, with which

"the human nature was endued when it came "from the hands of God, but to which it has "been dead from the day that evil was brought "into the world."*

Our church moreover supposes her best-instructed members to feel themselves to be very imperfect scholars, and to be but partially acquainted with their duty. And that they are so, is undoubted. For during every stage of the Divine life attainable on earth, "we see "through a glass darkly." The evil and demerit of sin, the glory and excellency of Christ, the obligations to holiness and gratitude under which we are laid by redemption, are subjects on which our most exalted apprehensions fall very short of the truth. Christian believers of all ages and attainments have therefore need daily to implore, "that they may perceive and "know what things they ought to do." And our conviction of this necessity will be heighténed, when it is also considered that those lessons, which we have already learned, can only be kept in remembrance through the continued assistance of the great Teacher. For such is the influence of "sin that dwelleth in us" on our mental powers, that it obscures the clearest truths, unless it be continually counteracted by Divine grace. Let the humble disciple of our church bear in mind this admirable form for ejaculatory prayer, and make use of it in every occurrence of life," that he may perceive and "know what things he ought to do."

The third petition of our collect respects the practice of duty. This is the end of perception

* Sir William Jones's Works. Vol. 1. p. 95, of the Preface to the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity.

and knowledge, without which these advantages are useless and injurious.

This petition teaches us that knowledge may be unconnected with practice. A man may have such an acquaintance with the covenant of works as to perceive his danger, without being impressed by it, without feeling any godly sorrow for his transgression of it, or exercising any repentance towards God. He may also discover so much of the gospel plan as to perceive that salvation is only to be derived from Jesus Christ, without ever fleeing to Him for refuge. He may have some views of the obligations which arise from redemption, and yet feel within himself no love to God, and manifest no zeal in His service. This is a very awful consideration; for "that servant who knoweth "his Lord's will, and doth not act according "to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes;" his punishment will be more severe and terrible than that of heathens who never heard of the Bible.

As

The terms by which we describe the aid which we implore, are nearly synonymous. the word grace, however, is used in a large sense, another term is added for the purpose of shewing, that the blessing implored is a communication of Divine influence to our souls. The boon then which we solicit is an increasing conversion of our hearts, to God, that we may approve, love, and delight in all the will of God; and such a powerful, stimulant to the exercise of those graces which by conversion have been implanted in our bosoms, as may continually excite them to action in the path of duty. For the energies of the renewed soul are liable, through the influence of remaining cor