tives; promises of good; threats of evil; that constitution of nature by which virtue becomes its own reward, and vice its own punishment in this world; and that covenant of grace, by which sin is ordained to lead to hopeless misery, and obedience to eternal happiness in our future state of being. In the short view which I have taken of some of the principal charges brought against the regular Clergy, it has been far from my intention (it would indeed be a prostitution of my sacred office) to invent excuses for any neglect of our ministerial duties. However rarely I trust the charge of real neglect can be established against Individuals of the Order; of those who give occasion for the reproach, I would not willingly become the advocate. The holy interests of religion require that its ministers should be free, if in a licentious world it be possible, from even the imputation of blame. But when the purity of our DocTRINES is impeached, it becomes the duty of every Minister of the Church, however humble his ability, to stand forward in their vindication. It is not then solely our own Cause. It is the Cause of those whose instruction is com mitted to our charge. It is the Cause of our very accusers, whom we may hope to convince of their error, and to bring again to their folds. It is at this time more especially the Cause of all the ignorant Poor in these kingdoms, who are receiving, and frequently from the hands of those who profess to explain them more correctly than their own appointed Teachers, the Oracles of Divine Truth *. It is the Cause of the rising generation, whose unsteady minds we are anxious not to leave exposed to every wind of doctrine, but to establish firmly in the true Christian faith, before their passions shall have obscured their reason; before Vice, with all her blandishments, shall have seduced them into infidelity +. It is the Cause of millions of our fellow-creatures in distant regions still lying in darkness and in the shadow of death; to whom we are preparing, with a holy zeal, From Societies instituted for the distribution of the Bible, without Note or Comment. In our National Schools happily established of late for the Education of the English Poor in the Principles of the English Church. (may (may its object not be defeated by intemperance and enthusiasm!) to impart the heavenly light of the Gospel, and to proclaim the words of Eternal Life * However circumscribed, or however extended may be the sphere of our duties, we must not expect often to produce sudden or immediately perceptible effects by our preaching. It is our office to sow the good seed in the hearts of our hearers; God will in his own time, give the increase‡. And though the completion of our hopes be yet at a distance, though in the moral as in the natural world, first the blade must be brought forth, then, by gradual developement, the ear, and after that, with progressive growth, the full corn in the ear §; and though it may not be granted to those who sow the seed, to see the harvest in its full perfection, let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we * In reference to a plan submitted to Parliament for propagating Christianity among the Hindoos, by the aid of Missionaries from this Country. + See Note T. p. 211. § Mark iv. 28. 1 Cor. iii. 6. faint not*, if not in this world, certainly in the world to come. Finally, be it our invariable aim to describe Christianity, like its Divine Founder, full of grace and truth; requiring not faith in opposition to the convictions of reason; and promising no reward to a barren, unfruitful faith. Be it our unceasing endeavour to impress on the minds of all who attend to our doctrine, that God is no respecter of persons: but that in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. That this world is a continued scene of temptation and trial, in which Life and Death are set before us, which to choose: that it is a school of discipline, in which we must, in order to obtain an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ §; giving all diligence, add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to * Gal. vi. 9. + John i. 14. godliness godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity*. And that though even in this world the ways of religion are comparatively ways of pleasantness, though all her present paths are peace, we must wait for the full reward of our perseverance in her paths till we reach a higher state of being, whither the Author and Finisher of our Faith having, by the sacrifice of himself, redeemed mankind from the curse of Adam's transgression, is gone before to prepare an eternal habitation for all those who abounding in diligence as well as faith, fail not finally of the grace of God +. Above all things we must not handle the word of God deceitfully‡; but by manifestation of the truth, commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God §. We must beware of beguiling our hearers with enticing words, lest we beguile them and ourselves of our everlasting reward ||. While * 2 Pet. i. 5, 6, 7. + Heb. xii. 15. we |