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supplicate in our Collects. Remembering who hath said, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His," we surround the mercyseat with our prayers and say, 'O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee; mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord." But before I conclude, there is one point to which I desire to call your serious attention-a point on which the profitable use of these spiritual Collects entirely depend.

Consider we then,

V. THE STATE OF HEART WHICH THE USE OF THE COLLECTS IMPLY.

All depends on this; if the heart be duly influenced by the love of Christ and renewed by the Spirit of Holiness, our service will be spiritual, lively, and joyful: but if there be no life in the soul, if the heart be not sprinkled from an evil conscience with the blood of atonement, if the affections be still earthly and sensual, what can be the nature of that service which we attempt to offer to the God of the spirits of all flesh ?-what but formal, unmeaning, dead, and hypocritical?

That none but the truly regenerate man can render unto God a spiritual and acceptable service is clear from the tenor of the Collects. The more studiously you examine them, the plainer will you see that they imply a previous conviction of sin's exceeding sinfulness, a deep sense of our own utter

1 Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, and Seventh and Eighteenth after Trinity. 2 Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

unworthiness, together with a believing application to the free mercy of God as manifested in the cross of Christ; and promised in the Gospel without money and without price; with a hearty desire also for those blessings and graces we implore. In fact, they are the breathings of the souls of true worshippers, who "worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." The man who can truly enter into the meaning and enjoy the comfort of them, is not the pharisee or the formalist who through ignorance of himself and of God would vainly attempt to purify the streams of corruption, while the fountain is allowed to pour forth its polluted waters;-He does not wash the outside of the cup and platter, whilst within he allows it to continue full of hypocrisy and uncleanness. He has not so learned Christ. He begins at the root and spring of the evil—the heart. By grace he gives his heart to the Lord. By faith he gets an interest in the work of Christ; and the love of Christ being shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, the affections of his soul also are influenced by the same divine bias, and set supremely on things above. He would have his heart and all his members consecrated to the glory of God. Conscious of the power of sin which still dwelleth in him, and of his own inability to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, he constantly prays for the true circumcision of the spirit, that his heart and all his members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, he may in all things obey God's blessed will.' This, my dear brethren, is the true test of the true Churchman's communion with Christ's holy Catholic

1 Collect for the Circumcision of Christ.

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Church. How important then to look within; and examine well the state of our hearts. What know we of the spirit which breathes through these spiritual and evangelical collects? Does the state of our heart correspond with the language of our tongue, when we join the congregation in the use of them?

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It is only when we are delivered from that yoke of bondage which Satan and sin and the world bind round our necks, that we find the service of God to be perfect freedom. We then become, through sovereign grace, Christ's freedmen, and are admitted into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and we serve him without fear. The services of the sanctuary are our delight, and we can truly thank our heavenly Father for all the means of grace and hopes of glory.' It is no carnal pleasure nor trifling engagement, sanctioned only by the fashions of this sinful world, which will cause us to absent ourselves from the sanctuary of Him who hath said, "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary," and who has promised that "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." We enter into his courts with glad steps, and with grateful hearts, "hungering and thirsting after righteousness;" and there we find food convenient for us. O, beloved brethren, that there were such a heart in each and all of us! Happy is the people that is in such a case! Let such as know it not, seek it in earnest prayer: "it is the Spirit that quickeneth:" and God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And let the true worshippers rejoice and be thankful: yea, let us glorify the God of our salvation! True, we are

utterly unworthy of such vast and inestimable blessings as we implore. But our prayers are presented through Jesus Christ our Lord." Therefore we may ask with boldness, and with confidence, for "He is faithful who has promised "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." He is still the Lamb that was slain. He is still our Advocate with the Father. "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." To Him be glory in the highest, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON XI.

THE PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS.

PHILIPPIANS IV. 6.

"In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

SUCH is the true Christian's exalted duty and most delightful privilege to "pray without ceasing," and "in everything to give thanks." He feels himself a dependent creature; he owns himself a pensioner on divine bounty and forbearance for every blessing he enjoys or hopes to inherit: he alone knows something of the value of prayer, and can therefore appreciate the power and the consolations of the mercy-seat, sprinkled as it is with the blood of the Lamb, and thereby made accessible to his petitions.

Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw,

Gives exercise to faith and love,

Brings every blessing from above.'