unconcern of the Ministers of the Gospel, We are too frequently the first cause of degeneracy of conduct, and forgetfulness of God.

A Minister is a mediator with God for men, Now, what blessings can be expected from the intercessions of him who shall appear never to have received, or having received, shall have wickedly extinguished, the spirit of his sacred calling? What, alas! but schisms and divisions in the Church, an alarming ignorance of the genius of the Gospel, and an universal increase of depravity of morals? If, in the infancy of the Christian Church, sickness and unprepared deaths were the consequence of an unworthy receiving of the Holy Communion, what severity, O God! wilt thou not inflict on impure sacrifices and profane oblations,

Unworthy Pastors, like Jonas, are disobedient prophets, who occasion those storms and tempests which have so often nearly shipwrecked the vessel of the Church, and which would have drowned it in the waters, had the gates of hell been able to prevail against the promise of our Lord; and had he not put bounds to the impetuous waves of the sea, which they were not allowed to pass. So many people separated from the unity of the faith, carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, will one day rise up against and condemn those worthless Ministers, whose unpardonable negligence and guilty lukewarmness have provoked the

divine justice to permit heresy to increase, and abound more and more. Hear how God complains by his prophet,-"Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under "foot, they have made my portion a desolate wilder"ness: they have made it desolate, and being de

solate, it mourneth unto me; the whole land is "made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart." What calamity, then, may not one single Minister, who is unworthy his sacred office, bring upon the Church!" He is set for the falling of many."

A Clergyman is a fellow-labourer with God in the work of salvation: he delivers to men the word of life and of reconciliation; he supports them with the bread which came down from heaven, the word of truth. But he who is unworthy the sacred office, becomes a fellow-worker with Satan, in the seduction and ruin of his brethren: and that such men have, at every period, crept into the Church, cannot be denied; men who have entered into this holy calling without a conviction of its importance, and a knowledge of its duties; who undertake it without zeal, and discharge it without judgment; incapable of discriminating when to feed with milk, and when to nourish with strong meat. Innumerable are the evils with which the Ministry of such men afflicts the Church; -the security and impenitence of sinners-a disregard of the Ordinances of Religion, more especially an entire neglect, or an unworthy receiving, of the Holy Communion;-the ridicule and scoffs

of mány, when, in the discharge of our professional obligations, we undertake to undeceive them and lastly, their thoughtlessness and unconcern when lying on the bed of death. rant dispensers of the word it is very face of Christianity is changed.

To these ignoowing that the

Now a Minister, worldly in his affections, and irregular in his conduct, although he should do no other injury to religion than exhibit his own life, introduces an accumulation of evils into the Christian Church. What secret satisfaction! what encouraging apologies for excess, when many find their follies countenanced, and their vices authorised, by his depravity! We preach to them in vain the life of the Clergy, of which they are witnesses, is, with the generality of men, the Gospel; it is not what we declare in the House of God, it is what they see us practise in our general demeanor*; they look upon the public ministry as a stage designed for the display of exalted principles, beyond the reach of human weakness; but they consider our life as the reality by which they are to be directed.

Yes, my Reverend Brethren, we are as lamps set up on high to enlighten the House of God;

* "And here, I conceive, it is, that we of the Clergy are chiefly apt to fail. We do not always appear in the common Intercourses of Life sufficiently penetrated with the Importance of our Function, or sufficiently assiduous to promote the Ends of our Mission."-Abp. SECKER.

but from the moment the malicious breath of the evil one has extinguished them, we diffuse on every side a noxious vapor, which darkens, which defiles every thing, and which becomes "a savor of death unto them that perish:" we are the pillars of the sanctuary, which, if overthrown and scattered in public places, become stones of stumbling to them that pass by.

But the Church is not, God be praised! disgraced by many of so profligate a character: yet it cannot be dissembled that there are some, who, by their lukewarmness in Religion, or their attachment to the world, weaken the efficacy of their ministry*. For not keeping alive in their breasts the spirit and the grace of their calling, by prayer, by mediation, by a life of sanctity and holiness, they have neither power nor inclination to speak of the things of God. They perform the duties of their sacred function without zeal, and without interest, and, by consequence, without a blessing they pronounce the most awful and affecting truths with an indifference and insensibility which deprive them of all their force; the coldness of their heart freezes the words on their tongue; and it is not possible that they can inspire their hearers with the ardor of Religion, the

* Too possibly a great part of our People may like the lukewarm amongst us the better for resembling themselves, and giving them no Uneasiness on Comparison, but seeming to authorize their Indifference. But then, such of us can do them no good."-Abp. SECKER.

divine fire of the love of God, when they do not feel a single spark of it in their own breasts. For we must apply our leisure to meditation, and engage our heart in piety, if we would expatiate on the holiness of the Gospel, with glory to God, and edification to our hearers; if we would inspire those who violate its precepts with a dread of God's displeasure, if we would persuade them to avert his wrath, and secure his favour. . Hence it is, that where "holiness to the Lord" is not eminent. ly conspicuous in the life and conversation of the Ministers of the Gospel, many people depart from the service of the Church, unconcerned for their sins, and indifferent about their salvation: hencé the preaching of the Gospel without success, the prayers of the Church without avail, all the Ordinances of Religion, and all the means of salvation unedifying and unserviceable to Christians.

Although we should not perform any of the public offices of Religion-for I do not at present enquire whether it is allowable to enter into the Church, and to continue in it unemployed-although we should not discharge any of its duties, do we not still continue to be examples to man. kind; and do not all men, after we have taken upon us the sacred profession, look to our morals for encouragement in virtue, or for a sanction in vice?

The Word of God informs us that the most dreadful punishment which the Lord can inflict