For brevity's sake the reader's attention is directed to three cardinal points: The fall of man with its awful consequences;-The redemption by Christ with its blessed effects;-The communication of the Spirit with its renewing efficacy on the heart.

The fall of man with its awful consequences is taught expressly or implied in every collect; for every petition is founded on this supposition, and specifies some want as its natural result. More particularly we are instructed in this doctrine by being taught to confess our guilt, pollution, helplessness, and misery. A reference to verbal expressions is needless, as they must be fresh in the recollection of every person who has read the preceding pages with any degree of attention. We shall therefore only resume the question concerning these points, "Have ye "understood" them? Have you been made to feel your natural guilt, pollution, helplessness, and misery?

Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, with its blessed effects to believing souls, is also taught in every collect. The coming of Christ, His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension, are commemorated; His person and character are described; and the method of salvation by Him is plainly set forth. Now have ye underderstood the all-important doctrine of justification by faith in His name? Have ye learned to put no trust in yourselves, and to confide only in the blood and righteousness of the incarnate God? You have avowed that you do trust exclusively in Him. But Oh!" Beware "of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."

The communication of the Holy Ghost for the renewal of the fallen soul in holiness, is the third cardinal point of doctrine plainly taught in our collects. It is implied in all our prayers, and in some of them unequivocally expressed. Have ye understood this? Are ye conscious that man is naturally "dead in trespasses and "sins," that he is corrupt, and destitute of every good thought and desire? That all good is from the operation of the Holy Ghost? That He begins, carries on, and perfects the work of conversion and sanctification? Do ye feel the necessity of His grace, and cordially implore it?

2. We proceed to consider the dispositions which our collects suppose to exist, and are calculated to cherish, in the members of our church. The language which is prepared for our use evidently supposes certain pious tempers to prevail in our bosoms; and these it is designed to promote while we join in our churchservice. These are threefold, corresponding with the foregoing doctrinal points.

A humble disposition is evidently supposed and cherished in the use of our collects. But what is humility? It is a judgment formed of ourselves according to truth. When we contemplate ourselves as guilty, vile, helpless, and undone, then we are humble. All this we are taught to confess as a fact. But have we understood our confessions so as to feel the truth of what we have avowed and to be self-abased before God?

A believing disposition, accompanied with habitual self- renunciation and habitual recumbence on Christ, is further supposed and cherished by our forms of prayer. We have had

abundant opportunities of shewing, that this temper of mind is supposed in all those who use our collects, which are totally inconsistent with self-righteousness in all its shades. But are the sensibilities of the reader's heart consentaneous with this disposition? Doth he renounce self, and trust exclusively in Jesus?

A holy disposition of heart, consisting in a hatred of sin, sorrow on account of remaining corruption, and an earnest desire of deliverance from it, is likewise supposed to prevail in the members of our church. It is unnecessary to specify the proofs which arise from our collects on this head. For almost every collect is, directly or indirectly, a prayer for sanctifying grace. Will the temper of our minds justify our use of these requests?

3. We proceed to consider the desires which our collects breathe. And in this branch of our review we specify the direct object of these short prayers. They are expressions of desire, the feelings of a devout heart clothed in words. We mock God by reciting them, unless we feel the confessions, adorations and supplications, which we profess to address to the Searcher of hearts. As brevity and comprehension are the objects of this recital, we shall reduce the blessings which we implore to three particulars,-pardon, holiness, and heaven.

We pray for the pardon of our sins, as a benefit procured for us by the death of Christ, and the acceptance of our persons, as the result of His obedience to the Divine law. But do corresponding desires prevail in our bosoms? Do we feel the necessity of being pardoned, under

habitual dependence on Divine mercy for obtaining it?

We moreover pray for holiness. For if pardon be essential to salvation, as it removes guilt from the soul and restores it to the Divine fayour, holiness is no less necessary as a qualification for the enjoyment of the Divine favour and presence. Under this head we implore the influence of God's Holy Spirit to illuminate, direct, and comfort our hearts-to convert us from the love and power of sin, to rescue us from temptation, to alienate our affections from the world, to conform us to the image of Christ, and to implant in us all those tempers in which holiness consists. Are these petitions expressive of our desires? Have we, whilst we have considered the subject, observed in ourselves an uniformity between our sensibilities and our words?

We further pray for a participation of heavenly happiness, and for all that is needful to prepare and qualify us for its enjoyment. But do we anticipate this happiness, and cultivate in ourselves a meetness for it? Many wish to escape from hell, who do not, after a close attention to the true nature of heavenly happiness, feel in themselves any cordial desire of participating in it.

4. There are duties, which our collects enforce on all those who use them. A system of duty, indeed, is no more the object of our collects, than a system of doctrine. Yet while Christian doctrines are stated, while Christian dispositions are supposed and cherished, while Christian desires are expressed, Christian duties are of course implied and enforced.

The term love comprehends both our duty towards God and our duty towards our neighbour; for "love is the fulfilling of the law." It includes all morality and all godliness. Now do we see that our prayers are absurd, hypocritical, and offensive to God, unless we practise, or at least earnestly desire and strive to practise, those duties with a view to the performance of which we implore His grace?

Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the "things that I say?" is the tender and striking expostulation of our Divine Master. We profess in our collects to be imitators of Christ, and followers of His saints. Is such indeed our true character?

But we descend to a still more particular application of the subject. The course of our essays on the collects has conducted us through the period of twelve months, and brought us again to Advent Sunday, at which our efforts commenced. The returning season of the year concurs with our present design, and loudly calls us to the important duty of self-examination, respecting our state, character, and spiritual improvement.

1. The rapid lapse of time is a proper subject for serious reflection. How large a part of our short life is a single year! How many of our brethren have dropped into eternity, while we have been engaged in our present train of meditation! How soon must we follow them into that awful scene! Oh, let the reader, before he quits the subject, allow a moment for serious reflection! Let him ask himself, Am I a converted person, a believer, a saint, and thus.