also our Institution stands forth in ready obedience and dutiful co-operation with the will of heaven. Persuaded that the service of the Church of England is a most reasonable service; knowing that the book of Common Prayer, next to the holy Scriptures, has been blest far beyond all other books, to the preservation amongst us of a true faith, a pure spirit of devotion, and a holy life: therefore, it seeks to diffuse this sacred volume, with a like liberality, into all hands; that so, as much as may be, an evangelical worship may be added to a sound faith; and the voices of men may ascend with one consent, and in joyful concord of har mony and love, before the throne of grace. And accordingly it seeks, that this book may not only be possessed in hand, but in heart; that it may be duly understood and valued; that it may be the Christian's companion, from his earliest years, through all the stages of his earthly sojourn; that its words of supplication and blessing may descend upon his head, from the time when he receives the first effusions of God's redeeming grace in the baptismal waters, even to that solemn hour, when he shall be returned, not without a benediction, to that dust from whence he was taken; not, I say, without a benediction, and in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.

4. Yet again, Does our life present many special relations, and give occasion, from time to time, to peculiar situations, which need, in more than common degree, a friendly voice, to soothe, console, admonish, exhort, or rebuke,-here too this our Society comes in with many most effectual supplies.

Beginning, as I have shown, with the volume of the holy Scriptures making the Bible the foundation stone, and adding in the next place of esteem the book of Common Prayer, together with books of Psalms and Hymns, and of Private and Family Devotion, and books of Catechising and Christian Instruction, it has provided besides a large store of short Discourses

on all the main branches of Christian Faith and Practice. It has provided books of warning, guidance, or consolation for the old and the young, the sick and those restored to health; for those that are weary and heavy laden under the load of sin, and the cares and sorrows of life; for those that have wandered and gone astray from the paths of truth and holiness into vice and error; for the penitent and the pious, the rich and poor, the master and servant, and for all the other relations and conditions of our common humanity!-Now, the urgent and peculiar importance of this division of our labours, in the present age, they best can tell, who are adequately informed of the solicitations to which youth are exposed on all hands, from the unholy and pestilential effusions of infidelity, profaneness, sedition, fanaticism, and impurity; and who have considered duly how pressing the obligation is that proper materials for the exercise of their talent should be provided for the greatly in. creasing numbers of those who are able to read, lest, perchance, we shall only have enlarged, by education, their mischievous capacities, and that which was intended for their good, shall become unto them an unhappy occasion of falling: precautions which are the more necessary, because of late years a new description of schools has begun to arise up in our land, in which most lamentably, only a very subordinate regard is paid systematically to religious education.

Go on therefore, I beseech you, on this account also, to lend your aid to the effectual prosecution of these benevolent undertakings.

5. But, neither is this all. The Christian spirit, is, as we have said, diffusive like the sun: and, therefore, the benefits which our Society disseminates here, it is alike desirous to impart to other regions. In those especially where the British name bears sway, it seeks to maintain unimpaired, and to extend wider and wider, the authority and power of the Gospel; that to them upon whom the Sun of Righteousness has never

yet shone, but who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, the light of everlasting truth may arise.

Time has been, when the Church of England, more beloved and valued, because better understood by her own sons, was regarded with corresponding attachment in foreign lands. She was revered as the great bulwark upon earth of a true faith, and a primitive discipline; as the protector, patron, and glory of all the Protestant Churches. Time was, that the most gratifying expectations arose that her sister churches on the Continent might be united, through her influence, in one compact band of Christian communion, receive from her the same common confession of Christian faith, and adopt her ritual as the common model for their Christian worship; whereby, it was presumed, not with out good reason, that the genuine principles of the primitive ages, and of the Reformation, and with them the influence of Christianity on the lives of men, would be widely propagated, and largely confirmed throughout the world.

Another and very different set of principles, I need hardly say, is now extensively prevailing amongst us; how injuriously to the interests of peace, and piety, and true religion, time will reveal.

Still, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, retaining its fidelity, while it dictates to none, and interferes in no sort with the internal concerns of other governments, and other professions of religion, seeks, in the British possessions, to sustain and propagate the Christian faith, according to that form to which it is bound by every tie, the profession of the Church of England. With this view, the support of Missions in distant lands is another principal branch of our designs. And while its sister Institution, the Incorporated Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, has, on the same principles, disseminated the Christian religion with distinguished success in the western hemisphere, our Society has directed its regard especially towards the east, and has, now for a great V01. III.

2

number of years, maintained a very important mission in British India; whereby, at the same time that the saving word of God has been made known to idolatrous and pagan nations, the blessings of the Gospel have been extended to great numbers of Europeans, our own friends and relatives, placed there in circumstances of peculiar danger, and needing, therefore, in some sort, in more especial degrees than other men, the help and consolations of religion. Consider with yourselves, how great the peril must be of those who are sent forth, most of them in very unripe and tender years, far from home, far from the reach of the counsel, guidance, and example of parents and friends, into a licentious and unhealthy region. Consider the temptations and hazards which there surround them: and O! how unhappy must their condition be, if they be forsaken at length by their heavenly Father and Friend; if they drive him also away from them, by evil courses, and make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Further, therefore, with your help, and pray for the prosperity of that Society, which, according to its means, endeavours to impart to these wanderers from their native shores, the untold blessings, far more precious than all the gold of Arabia, of the worship, the faith, and the piety of their fathers. Neither let it be im puted to us for blame, if, desirous that what God has joined together, man should not put asunder, we therefore send forth not the Bible only, but the Missionary also; not the Missionary alone, but the Missionary with the Bible in his hand, and, where occasion permits, with the Book of Common Prayer also, and with such other Treatises, as the piety of holy men has provided for the incident necessities of afflicted humanity. And, let us be pardoned also, if, knowing well that one of the greatest impedi ments to the successful propagation of our religion has ever been the divisions and disunion of Christians amongst themselves, we look with less complacency than others upon the indiscriminate admission and encom

ragement of sects and principles the most discordant, and choose rather to be directed by the voice of the Apostle, who commands us to mark them who cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which we have received, exhorting us all to speak the same thing, to be of one mind, and to seek the edifying of the body of Christ in love.

You now have before you a statement of the principal general designs of this our Society: and you will have some notion of the extent and value of its proceedings, when I inform you that the number of Bibles dispensed by it, during the last year only, amounted to twenty-two thousand; of New Testaments and Psalters, to upwards of fifty thousand; of Common Prayer Books, to nearly the same number; and of other books and tracts to nearly hit a million.

The special purpose of the meeting of this day, and of the other proceedings of which this day's meeting is a part, is that a knowledge of these undertakings may be brought to your own doors; and that, with this knowledge, a participation in them may be extended as widely as possible amongst us; that so we may all lend our aid, in our place and measure, to bring on that glorious day, when the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.* And now, I think, you will see, that this Society does indeed deserve your esteem, gratitude, affectionate regard, and support, to the very highest degree, and far beyond what any other Institution hitherto extant, can do.

We seek to propagate true religion by schools and missions. We distribute the Holy Scriptures. We distribute the Book of Common Prayer. We distribute a multitude more other books, the sole object of which is to maintain truth and godliness in all descriptions of men, and to uphold, unimpaired, the pure, apostolical, reformed faith and worship of our fathers. Now, which of these things shall be our reproach? Which shall

* Rev. xi. 15.

be pleaded against us? Which shall divert from us the streams of patronage, or curtail the tribute of our praise and estimation? Shall any? God forbid! With whomsoever these may be arguments against us, they cannot be so with you: but, if ye value truth, if ye value piety, if ye value charity and the holy religion of your fathers, and your own choicest blessings; and if ye desire to hand them down, unimpaired, to your children, ye will go on as ye have begun: ye will not be seduced from your stedfastness; your patronage in these matters will be with the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; ye will show by the extent of your bounty, that you care anxiously for the welfare of piety and godliness upon earth; and by the channel in which you choose that this bounty should flow, ye will show that ye judge from the heart, that these inestimable blessings are best attained in connexion with a faithful, filial regard to the honour, the special interests, and the prosperity of the Church of England.

The present Times, in a Religious

point of view.-An Extract.

To many, I believe, the present times appear to be more than ordinarily "zealous of spiritual gifts:" and we occasionally hear expressions uttered of self-congratulation and wonder on this subject, which it is not easy altogether to approve of. Our spiritual day is represented as one of surprising brightness, and of special effusions of the Holy Ghost. It is affirmed,, that it may bear a comparison in respect of zeal, and the favour of hea ven, and the progress of divine truth, and the extension of charity, with the most distinguished of the past ages of the Church. May it be so! May God of his infinite mercy grant that his grace and goodness shall abound towards us more and more continually; and that the folly and perverseness of man may interpose less and less to thwart the divine purposes of loving kindness and bounty to the children

of men !

But then, to secure these good

ends, it must never be forgotten, that we carry all this treasure in earthen vessels. The apostolic age itself comes in to admonish us, that spiritual gifts, the least questionable, may be abused to very ungodly consequen ces; that, therefore, it may well become us to examine ourselves; to prove our own selves; not to be highminded, but to fear; not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God.

And truly, if the times in which we live, be distinguished by those extraordinary effusions of the divine grace, and more than common gifts of the Divine Providence, which some believe, O that there were not still more, the most afflicting reasons to fear, that in too many respects, the celestial bounty is marred amongst us, on all hands, by earthly intermixtures of zeal not according to knowledge, of ostentation, and vain-glory, of faction, and insubordination, of a pragmatical self-importance, and a craving after human praise; insomuch that, upon the whole, the religious principle, so far from being purified, elevated, and confirmed, is, it is to be greatly feared, in a rapid course of becoming lamentably debased, and deteriorated, by continual large accessions, from the most carnal and secular sources.

The impropriety of rambling after various Preachers, and forsaking our stated places of worship.-An Extract.

UNLESS men, therefore, can show, that these self-commissioned teachers have found out a new way of salvation, or that there is any difficulty in the old one; unless they can show, that their extemporaneous effusions are preferable to the sober and sublime words of our liturgy; unless they can show, that the inventions of man are better than the express appointment of God; till they can do all this, I would advise them to adhere to the worship of their fathers, and to follow those law ful guides and pastors, who are appointed, both by divine and human authority, to minister to them in holy things. And let them not doubt, but

that the means of salvation may be had at home as well as by deserting their families and occupations to ramble abroad, and that God will be found of them,who diligently seek him, as well in a church as in fields or tabernacles ; for he is not far from every one of us.

And whilst I condemn those who thus ramble frem field to field, or from tabernacle to tabernacle for instruction, I will not, I cannot approve their practice, who spend their Sun days in rambling from church to church. I mean not to give offence to any man who does this; but let the censure fall where it will, I must say, that it is an indecent, it is an unjustifiable custom, which ought to give offence to every sober mind: For, let me ask any serious and thinking person, Is it decent to spend the Lord's Day, which God commands to be kept holy, in this rambling and unsettled way? Is it decent either wholly to neglect the prayers of the church, or to come in when they are half finished? Is it decent to take off the devotions of a congregation by a noisy entrance or an impudent stare? And is it not much more indecent than all these, to turn their backs upon God's worship, which they too often do, if they happen not to like the voice of the minister or the appearance of the congregation; if the one has not the powers of eloquence to soothe their ears, or the other affords not the charms of beauty to captivate their eyes?

I know, farther, such men will tell me, that they go to hear the best preachers; that is, for they mean by it, the most pleasing speakers; for it is the sound, much oftener than the sense, which constitutes their idea of a best preacher. But what an inde cent and childish plea is this! Is the church then become a play-house, where men are to seek for pleasure in hearing? Are the ministers of God become actors? Were they ordained to entertain you? Are our discourses to be weighed in the nice scales of criticism, or tried by the rules of oratory? Must we join with the popular phrenzy for politics, or rant for liberty, before we can be heard? Must we adopt the language of fiction, and bor

row the gestures of the theatre? Must we paint to your imaginations enamelled meads and purling streams, gentle zephyrs and Elysian fields? Must we scatter from the pulpit the flowers of poetry, or weave the silken tale of romance, before ye will deign to listen to us? If some have done this to draw after them the admiration of gaping ignorance, sorry I am to say it, that they little understand either the nature of their own office, or the dignity of the religion they profess to teach, which stands not in need of borrowed ornaments or theatric rant. What! has truth then no weight? Have the tidings of salvation no influence? Has the word of God no power? Has heaven no charms? Has hell no terrors, unless we add to them poetic fiction or theatric gesture?

For shame, O Christians, think more nobly spend not your sabbaths in pursuit of soft speeches or new fangled instructors. Reflect for a moment for what different purposes we stand here, and for what different ends this place and day were intended. Judge, if not more favourably for us, at least more wisely for yourselves. It is indeed happy, where sound conspires with sense, and the powers of eloquence adorn the truths of the Gospel But, after all, is a well turned period, or a mellifluous voice able to save you? Can they add to the certainty of God's word, or increase the riches of your Redeemer's kindness? Can they prevail upon God to remit his vengeance to the unrepenting sinner, or to hear the prayer of an impure supplicant? Can they secure heaven to you without faith, or happiness without works? No; if heaven and happiness be gained, they must be gained by other means than listening to soft speeches and pleasing instructions. It is not the voice of angles, nor the tongue of seraphs, that can save you: they may instruct and advise you: but you must save yourselves. And can nothing but the voice of the charmer instruct and advise you? May not a man be an useful and sufficient, though not a pleasing instructor? Was St. Paul wanting in knowledge, because he was rude in his speech? Is not truth, truth,

from whatever mouth it comes? Is not God able to bless his word in the hands of the meanest of his servants,and out of the mouth of babes in utterance to or

dain strength? Why then should men desert their proper and lawful teachers in the church, even though they are less pleasing ones? They may gain heaven under their instructions; and would they have more?

But this is not all consider farther what a discouragement you throw upon the ministry by leaving your own churches. For to what purpose do we labour to feed our flocks, if they will not attend to us? How shall we heal the diseased, if they fly from us ? How shall we address ourselves to the particular circumstances and capacities of our congregations, if they are composed of a motley throng, whom chance or curiosity has brought together? It is a part of that solemn charge, which is given to every one of us at our admission into the ministry, "that we should never cease to apply our care and diligence, till we have brought all those who are or shall be committed to our charge, to that agreement in the faith and of the knowledge of God, and to that ripeness of age in Christ, that there be no room left among them, either for error in religion or viciousness in life." But where, my brethren, shall we apply all this care and diligence in rooting out error and subduing vice, if you, who are committed to our charge, withdraw yourselves from us?

Again: Do not our parish churches in general come recommended to most of us by some circumstances, which no other places can have? Can we, for instance, forbear reflecting when we enter them, that we are now going into that house, which, after some few short months or years, is to be our last and long home? Will it not stop the levity of the gay to reflect, that they are now standing over those gloomy chambers of mortality, from which nor youth nor strength can secure them for one moment? Will it not damp the vanity of beauty and check the giddiness of youth to consider, that not all the bloom of nature, nor all the flattery of admira.