quenched" altogether through the wilfulness of human pride but this is man's own work; GOD willeth not that any should perish, HE is ever ready to pour down His SPIRIT from above, He hath made the heart of man as it were a vessel open to receive it, but if man will mar His CREATOR's work, and place upon his heart the lid or door of unbelief to resist the HOLY SPIRIT'S entrance, he must be content to reap the harvest which himself has sown. We are indeed rational creatures, and as such, have been entrusted with powers of free-will, to make our own choice. between good or evil; but the two paths-the path of life and the path of death, are set with like plainness before us; and we may not, with the Israelites of old, set ourselves up against GoD or declare His dealings with us to be not just; for, "Hear ye now," saith the LORD by His prophet unto "the house of Israel, ye that say the way of the LORD is not equal, are not My ways equal? are not your ways unequal? for when the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, for his iniquity that he doeth he shall die: but if the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Wherefore repent and turn yourselves and live ye, cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die, O house of Israel”?1 Why will ye die, O sons of Adam? saith the unwearied voice of the LORD your GOD.

Read we then, brethren, in the case of the Israelites, a lesson to ourselves. The candle of the LORD by His mercy hath been lit in our hearts, keep we down, by

Ezekiel xviii. 25-32.

a course of self-discipline with prayer for Divine aid, those unruly affections which are ever striving for the mastery. The seal of the SPIRIT of GOD hath been affixed to our Baptismal covenant, be we mindful of the inscriptions which that seal beareth: "The LORD knoweth them that are His, and let every man that nameth the Name of CHRIST depart from iniquity." The LORD knoweth whether we be His indeed and in truth, or His only by profession and outwardly,— whether we be "vessels made to dishonour, or vessels made to honour," prepared for good works and "meet for the MASTER'S use." And when HE shall come hereafter, "the husbandman and LORD of the whole earth," and shall "thrust in His sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth," and "cast them into the great wine-press of the wrath of GOD," then verily shall it be well for us in that fearful day if we have carried through every action of our life the remembrance, that we are CHRIST's Redeemed ones. When

HE Who has been made "HEAD over all things to the Church" shall greet her obedient children with this welcome invitation, "Come, ye blessed of My FATHER, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world."

SERMON V.

THE CHURCH'S AUTHORITY AS A PREACHER OF REPENTANCE.

ST. MARK vi. 12.

AND THEY WENT OUT AND PREACHED THAT MEN SHOULD

REPENT.

THESE words are spoken of those distinguished characters, whom our LORD " set in the Church, first Apostles," His chosen followers, whom He had expressly commissioned to the office and work of the sacred ministry. They inform us likewise of the subject, which, in commencing their solemn duties, engaged their attention. From the words before us, therefore, I propose to offer, first, and that but briefly, an observation on the commission requisite to every one who undertakes the ministerial charge; and then more at length to insist upon the nature and obligation of repentance, the subject which these first authorized promulgators of the Gospel Covenant went out and preached to the world.

Now, our LORD's own immediate attendants undertook not the office of preaching the Gospel, or of occupying themselves in other acts and ordinances of their Divine MASTER'S religion upon the impulse of their mere will, or authority; nor surely can any one else in these subsequent times, undertake of his own mind and inclination, or, it differs not, upon the presumed power of some voluntary company or association, in furtherance of whose interests he has been

11 Cor. xii. 28.

elected to come among them, such functions, without incurring the manifest offence of sacrilegiously intruding into those things which he ought not, and of acting in disregard of weighty and constraining example. The chosen followers of our LORD, we observe, ventured not upon such a mode of behaviour. He gave them an orderly appointment; for so we read a few verses before the text, that "HE called unto HIM the Twelve, and began to send them forth two by two." (ver. 7.) Nay; what is more, our LORD HIMSELF, Whom GOD "gave to be Head over all things to the Church," did not without an open designation to office, enter upon His Ministry. The Son of GOD HIMSELF, the LORD also of the Church, waited the period of His own most holy investiture from the FATHER; and we read, "from that time JESUS began to preach, and to say, repent." And what hath ever since been the rule and observance in this grave matter? The Apostles were not suffered to continue by reason of death, and, when their lamp of life was extinguished, yielded to the common lot of short-lived mortals; but they delegated the virtue of their commission, their authority, and power to faithful men, who, themselves being duly ordained, caused by descent, the same power and authority to be handed down from generation to generation, for the creation and continuance of a successive ministry. In this continuous line of succession, the truth of the SAVIOUR'S promise ever keeps on advancing towards its fulfilment, when time shall be no more, and "all rule, and all authority, and power shall have been put down," 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Now, whereas, in unison with 2 St. Matt. iv. 17.

Ephes. i. 22.

31 Cor. xv. 24.

4 St. Matt. xxviii. 20.

the doctrine here laid down, we have most plain declarations of the Word of God; "How shall they preach except they be sent ?"" And again; "No man taketh this honour unto himself": "Also CHRIST glorified not HIMSELF to be made an High Priest":3 "A dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me":"The Church, whereof I am made a minister":" the material question arises, who are verily the ministers and stewards of the Church of CHRIST? Who are the heirs, the legitimate descendants; who are they of the house and lineage of CHRIST and His Apostles, to whom the people, without the fearful risk of invalidity of ordinances and of incurring the sin of schism, can lawfully and in security, entrust in these days the oversight of their dearest interests? The answer is, amidst the perplexity of divers conflicting and contradictory sects, some of to-day, some of yesterday, all of them mere novelties, repudiated by the voice of Catholicism, unknown to venerable antiquity, that they, are of a truth the ministers and stewards of the Christian household, who have, by the laying on of hands, received their creation from those authorized persons, who, ever since the Apostolic times, have, in unbroken series, existed, and are known by the name of Bishop. This holy and highest order of spiritual persons in the family of CHRIST it is, who have received their formal commission, comprehending the power of sending labourers into the vineyard, transmissively, as so many links of one unbroken chain, till we fall back upon Apostolic days and usage; till we are arrived at the fountain source of all ministerial authority through the Apostles from CHRIST; in

1 Rom. x. 15.

3 Heb. v. 5.

5 Col, i. 25.

2 Heb. v. 4.

4 1 Cor. ix. 17.

See also I Thess. ii. 4; 1 Tim. ii. 7.