be given to it, is become neceffary to enforce thofe falutary injunctions, which are more of a fpiritual than a temporal kind. If power can be exercised with wisdom and with efficacy, we should be little follicitous in whose hand it is placed, and yet we may rejoice to fee it placed where it will excite the leaft fufpicion. Time has brought fome regulations and reftrictions into difufe. Let not the Church be answerable for inconveniences which no prudence of man can ever prevent, and let her adversaries know, that we wish to filence their cavils by any thing fooner than by a penal statute. If fome flight alterations in the Leffons, and in the Matrimonial Service, if a rubrick, explanatory of the real tendency of the Athanafian Creed, and a lefs frequent repetition of the Lord's Prayer, might prove fatiffactory, and induce them to unite in one Communion, perhaps our fuperiors would not be inflexible to thefe moderate conceffions. But what reason is there to think that these will be fufficient? Several experiments have formerly been made without fuccefs, in order to reconcile difcordant parties; and to endanger the adherence of our friends by a fruitless fruitless attempt to comprehend our enemies, would neither be prudent nor just, The Liturgy comprehends the whole Chriftian system, it inculcates every doctrine and every precept of the Gospel; it deftroy's every vainglorious thought, and all reliance on our own unaffifted endeavours. Every prayer offered up implies that we will, to the utmost of our power, promote those good purposes which we wish to fee accomplished; and as Scripture does not enable us to judge what degree of affiftance will be granted us, nor how the affiftance is granted, the more humble and the more general our expreffions are, the better will they agree with the condition of frail and dependent creatures. It is true, indeed, that extreme diffidence might, through human weakness, end in fupine indolence. But, generally speaking, he who knows that all he can do is but little, will endeavour to compenfate, by diligence and perfeverance, what is wanting in ability. May a due fenfe of our infirmities add Strength to our faith, and ferioufness to our repentance; and may that worship, which unites together high and low, rich and poor, under L the the humiliating but just appellation of vile earth and miserable finners, gradually purify our hearts from every finful inclination, from every thought which exalteth itself against God, to whom, with the Son and Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and forever, Amen. SERMON SERMON VII, ROM. XVI. 17, NOW I BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN, MARK TRINE WHICH YE HAVE LEARNED, AND T O preferve us ftedfast and unmoveable in the principles of the Church of England, it may not be improper to take a general view of the mischiefs of Separation, What allowances the Almighty will hereafter make for weaknefs of understanding, or prejudice of education, is not granted us to determine. The condemnation of error implies no uncharitable judgment of individuals. But if the guide be blind, we muft guard against the obvious confequences of placing ourselves under his direction; if the pilot would carry us to rocks and quickfands, it is of little moment, as to our safety, whether ignorance or rashness would be the primary cause of our ruin. Of the evils of feparation, fome are chargeable upon Diffenters in general, and fome upon particular denominations. Of the general evils, the first and most obvious is a breach of Chriftian unity. And to prevent this the Apostles seem to have exerted their utmost powers, both in preaching and writing; they feem to have branded with the strongest marks of disapprobation the contentious and the turbulent. And, indeed, who does not clearly fee that fuch a spirit is in direct enmity with the true fpirit of religion? Who does not fee that the crime of herefy arifes from that general murmuring and discontent with which it is attended, more than from the immediate object of disputation? If Christianity owe much of its influence to the firm and collected exertions of numbers, if every religious duty be performed with more animation by fociety, if the generality of men have neither leifure nor ability to form |