the pains of purgatory, perhaps for many ages, unless his relations can pay for masses to deliver him, before he can enter those mansions of glory which Christ has prepared for him. Our Reformers brought this impious doctrine to the test of Scripture and Antiquity. They found that in the primitive Church such a doctrine was long unknown, until at length there arose some, who sought to taint the pure stream of christian truth with the poison of heathen philosophy. They found that in those early times, the death-bed of the christian was not disturbed by the agonizing thought that ages of torment awaited him, before he could enter the haven of eternal rest; that the pittance of the sorrowing widow and the orphan was not wrung from them as the price of masses for a husband or a father's soul. They found that not only were the passages of Scripture brought forward in proof of this doctrine, wholly insufficient to give it any actual support, but that the whole tenour and spirit of the Gospel was directly opposed to it. They found that without any distinction between mortal and venial sins, the Apostle declares "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." And as if expressly to point out the remedy for those sins of infirmity into which the believer falls, and which, if unforgiven, would burden his conscience and destroy his hope of heaven, the Apostle addressing true christians says, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins." They found that

our blessed Lord, when He pardoned the penitent thief upon the cross, so far from dooming him to ages of suffering for venial sins of which he must have had his share, addressed him with those wellknown cheering words, " this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Thus our Reformers rejected the doctrine of Purgatory as false, unscriptural, and dangerous.

I might go on to speak of other points connected with this-of indulgences, and extreme unction, and of the multitude of sacraments in the Romish Church. But time will not allow of it. I trust, however, that the instances I have referred to will suffice to shew you, brethren, how in regard to doctrine, our beloved and venerable Church has acted on the great principle involved in my text, by casting off the errors and innovations of Romanism, and returning to the good old paths of the Apostolic Church, in which alone her children can find rest to their souls. I purpose on a future occasion to show how she has carried out the same principle in her government and discipline. At present I must conclude with only one or two words more.

Let us learn, my brethren, from this subject, to be deeply thankful that our lot is cast in a land and in a Church in which the true light shineth; where the simple truths of the Gospel are no longer enveloped with a cloud of error and absurdity; and where every one who will may search the Scriptures, and may hear and receive in all its purity, the engrafted

word, which is able to save his soul. Remember that those deadly errors, which it cost so much to discard, are still maintained in the Church of Rome, however she may seek to disguise it. And O learn, then, to value more highly the pure doctrines and blessed privileges of our Church, to secure which so many of our forefathers nobly shed their blood, lest these blessings, being undervalued or not duly improved, be again taken away! And pray continually, both for yourselves as individuals, and for the Apostolic Church to which you belong, that in these times of spiritual danger, when infidelity is sowing her noxious seeds on every side, and when Popery, in her subtlest and fairest disguise, is anxiously wooing the unwary; when heresy and schism are still disturbing the ranks of the Catholic Church-pray, I say, brethren, that the Holy Spirit may be given to keep you from error, and to guide you into all truth; that having escaped or defeated the enemies of every kind which lie in wait for your soul, and having fought the good fight of faith, and finished your course with joy, you may at length receive from the hands of Him who hath himself procured it for you,

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a crown of bright glory that fadeth not away."

SERMON II.

JEREMIAH vi. 16.

"THUS SAITH THE LORD, STAND YE IN THE WAYS, AND SEE, AND ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS, WHERE IS THE GOOD WAY, AND WALK THEREIN, AND YE SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS."

In a former discourse from these words, after pointing out the immediate occasion on which they were uttered by the Prophet, I shewed that the principle involved in them, that of recurring to ancient doctrines and usages for the reformation of a Church or people, is one as applicable under the Christian as under the Jewish dispensation; and that it was the principle on which the Church of England acted at the period of her Reformation, three centuries ago. I then endeavoured to shew, from a number of particular instances, in what way she carried out this principle in regard to her doctrine, and how it necessarily led to the renunciation of the many false unscriptural notions and usages of Romanism, with which the noble fabric of the holy Catholic Church had been weakened and disguised. I now proceed, in pursuance of the plan laid down, to shew how

the same principle has been carried out by our Church in regard to her Government and Discipline.

And let it not be thought, dear brethren, that the discussion of such matters is unimportant, or that it is out of place in a course of religious instruction. It is not indeed desirable that this should very often take the place of the more spiritual and practical subjects, which are proper to the pulpit; but that the introduction of it is needless or unimportant, we most strenuously deny. It cannot be so, whilst the things of which we treat are themselves of vital importance. And if the walls and outworks of a besieged fortress, though less valuable than the lives and property they enclose, are yet of vital importance to all within them;—if the ship that bears a golden cargo, though inferior in value to the precious metal it contains, is yet of vast importance to the owners of that cargo, until it is safely landed on the shore to which it is bound; then, assuredly, the institutions and all the external machinery of the Church (though in themselves less momentous than the holy doctrines they are intended to propagate and maintain,) are yet of vital importance to all her members, and the discussion of them can neither be useless nor unimportant to any individual amongst us; repeat, and I would say it emphatically, to any individual amongst us. Because whatever some may think, the Church of England in her parochial system recognizes no difference between those who call themselves her members and those who do not.