sympathies of holiness and piety are roused and extended, when we meet in the house of God to offer him the sacrifice of our hearts and lips. There we are instructed by feeling and by example-to say nothing of the common effects of devotion itself. We imperceptibly learn there to repress every sinful thought, to subdue every suggestion of pride, and to have a practical sense of our weak and dependent state. The prayers and thanksgivings, that we utter there, are not so likely to become languid as those which we offer up in our closets; but they are enlivened, exalted, and warmed, by what I will venture to call the public spirit of Christianity. The charities of life are more justly felt, and more sensibly called into activity; beause the high and the low, the rich and the poor, meet upon equal terms, and share the comforts and the discipline of their God. What I have now said applies only to the influence of public devotion. The advantages arising from public instruction in sermons are not to be overlooked: for though a person may from private study and meditation, acquire an excellent knowledge of Scripture and of his own duty, yet that knowledge will be confirmed, and many helps will be afforded in illustration of particular texts and of the general harmony of holy writ, by attending to discourses from the pulpit. It is the practice of some men to go about from one church or place of worship to another, from a curiosity of hearing different preachers,-and they imagine that they are better edified by doing so; but

the fact is, that they are less edified, because they mistake the use and intention of preaching: they have what St. Paul terms "itching ears ;" and inears;"

stead of considering prayer (which they ought to do) as the great end of divine service and preaching as only the means, they ascribe the highest importance to preaching, and consider prayer to be a matter of less consequence, It is true that there is a great difference in the qualifications and the manner of different preachers. One shall have a great command of language, an eloquent mode of delivery ;another shall, from being a good textuary or biblical scholar, be able to expound the critical niceties of scripture. A third may be deeply versed in moral philosophy, or may possess an intimate knowledge of the human heart; and so by arranging his arguments and his grounds of persuasion, may be able to engage the affections of hearers in the important work of religion. Still it is a good rule to attend one and the same place of worship; because it is not only more orderly, but by giving opportunities of hearing a whole course of doctrines and duties explained in a regular and progressive manner, it is the fittest for true edification.

Connected with this subject of public worship is the sacrament of the Lord's supper, of which no man should neglect to partake, who is desirous that his repentance or his perseverance in grace should be effectual. It is one of the means which our Saviour himself has appointed for the benefit of our souls;

and nothing can be more efficacious than this Sacrament in promoting the dispositions of holiness, and mercy, and brotherly love. It is also of excellent use in restraining us from wilful sins, in reminding us of our baptismal vow, in suggesting holy resolutions, and in giving us inclination and strength to perform them. If God has endued us with the wisdom of considering our ways and of forsaking the evil path, and when we were in misery from the weight of our sins, he so helped us as to deliver our eyes from tears, and our souls from death, we should "receive the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord;" paying in the presence of his people, and in the courts of his house, the vows which we made in the time of doubt and distress.

While, then, the incorrigibly wicked man revels in sin and pollution,-alike regardless of the precariousness of life and the certainty of death,-alike insensible to the blessings of God's favour, and to the terrors of his wrath,—the true penitent, embracing the means of self-correction and amendment, redeems his time, and "maketh haste to do the will of God:" and when, at the day of judgment, the one shall be banished to the regions of eternal woe, the other shall enjoy that everlasting blessedness, which is reserved in heaven as the reward of the righteous. The great Creator of Spirits shall free him from the power of death and corruption; or, in the figurative language of the text," he shall deliver his soul, from going down to the pit; and his life shall see the light."

SERMON XV.

ON THE MIRACLES OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.

HEBREWS ii. 4.

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.

THE Hebrews to whom this Epistle was addressed, were those Jews who, through our Saviour's own preaching, and the preaching of his Apostles afterwards, had been converted to the Christian faith. Their affected fondness for the Mosaic Dispensation, seconded by all the attempts and arguments of their unconverted countrymen to the prejudice of Christianity, had hindered them from being firmly established in the faith. They retained a secret affection for the Ceremonial Law; because they regarded that law as a perpetual mark of their own superiority over the rest of mankind. The intention, therefore, of the Epistle before us, was, to shew that the Mosaic

dispensation is altogether inferior to the dispensation of the Gospel ;-that the one is defective, and the other absolutely perfect ;-that the Law was but the shadow of what the Gospel is the substance ;—and that the dignity of Christ is as far superior to the dignity of Moses, as the New Covenant is, both as to its nature and design,—more noble in itself, more strongly authorized, and more beneficially extensive, than the Old Covenant.

In the beginning of the chapter from which the text is taken, the author of this Epistle points out to the Hebrew Christians what would be their proper line of conduct. From their former adherence to the ceremonial Law, he, by a judicious inference, exhorts them to adhere as strongly to the Christian Covenant." Therefore," says he, "we ought" (we Hebrews ought) "to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip ;"-i. e.-lest we make an improper use, or no use at all, of this great opportunity of salvation, and so bring ourselves to final destruction. "For," he goes on to say, "if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,”— if those inferior and preparatory revelations made by the ministry of angels, were always ratified and firm, -if transgressing the precepts delivered by them always met with the punishment that was threatened to it, as you know, was constantly the case," how, then, shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salva