of Grace," because, as the Apostle had shewn in the preceding verse, "we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are." Thus grounded on the Gospel of Christ, the holy Apostle might well exhort, and we may joyfully apply what he exhorts : "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." It was with this feeling that our pious forefathers, the compilers of our Liturgy, put together the forms of our public services; and in no portion of them is that Christian spirit more manifest, than in "the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels to be used throughout the year." I have thought that it may tend to our instruction, and to a more edifying use of this interesting part of our services, to direct our present meditation to an inquiry into their character and excellence.

The Collects, with their respective Epistles and Gospels, those selected portions from the word of God which have reference to the general or especial matter alluded to in the service for the day, may be divided into three classes: First, those which immediately relate to God, in the three Persons in the mysterious Godhead;-our heavenly and reconciled Father, our merciful and atoning Saviour, our condescending and holy Sanctifier: Secondly, such as concern our relationship to God, in regard to our common wants of soul and body: and, Thirdly, those which bring before us, for encouragement and example of life, the memory of the saints and servants of the Lord.

Of these collects it may be said, generally, that they have been used in the church of Christ from very ancient times: most of them are above a thousand years old, and many of them much older.

The first-named division of them, which more immediately relate to Almighty God, are especially designed to remind us, in the exercise of a devotional feeling in prayer, of

the relationship in which we stand towards him as our Covenant God. The Christian year begins with the Advent, the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, as the great and only foundation of all our hope of pardon, peace, and future glory. The sacred history of what he did and suffered on our behalf is condensed, in the language of prayer, for frequent meditation, and the exercise of our faith in him. He is first shewn to us in fulfilled prophecy: "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." We follow him through the various scenes of his humiliation in his great work of redeeming love, until, having atoned for us on the cross, justified us by his resurrection, and ascending visibly to the heavens, as the present Mediator and future Judge of the world, we have the full revelation of the dignity of his person, the efficacy of his sufferings, and the extent of his glory. Thus we are taught "the truth as it is in Jesus," "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

It is related of some ancient martyrs in the cause of this glorious Saviour, that, while they were being led to the torture of the fire-pile, they cried no other thing than these words: "Nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ!" It is the very language of our church. The Saviour, in her liturgy, is thus proclaimed to us as the only Saviour;

and in the continued use of all her devotional exercises of prayer and praise, she would have all her children join in one general song of heartfelt acknowledgment," Nothing but Christ." And "he is worthy for whom we should do this." For it is through Christ that we are enabled to "exercise" ourselves "unto godliness," in the use of those other collects which, in praise and prayer to the Father and the Holy Ghost, bring the true worshippers before the Throne; reconciled children to a forgiving Father; ransomed sinners through a crucified Saviour, and sanctified through the indwelling Spirit.

The second class of these prayers and selections from God's word concerns our relationship to God in regard to our common wants of soul and body. And here, as before, we still see our Redeemer glorified, and "Christ alone exalted." There is scarcely one single prayer among them all which does not finish with his great Name"through Jesus Christ our Lord;" and where in word it is otherwise, Christ is still glorified as the object of our worship, the only medium of good to man.

In Christ's name, and for Christ's sake, our wants of soul, amid our natural corruption and spiritual conflicts; our wants of body, amid our manifold weaknesses and surrounding dangers; are all named in prayer before the Throne of Grace: and in the doctrines and precepts, the warnings and the consolations, the encouragements and examples, put before us in the Epistles and Gospels, with the Collects for the day, we are constantly led to the acknowledgment of the great Scriptural truth, that Christ is our "all in all."

But besides the word of the Lord being put before us in the doctrines which it teaches, and the precepts which it every where enjoins, it is highly interesting and edifying to see these things through grace exemplified in men "of like passions

CHRIST. OBServ. No. 346.

with ourselves." Hence, there is a third division of collects in our church, with portions of Scripture appropriated thereto, which, in the lives of" the glorious company of the Apostles," "the goodly fellowship of the Prophets," "the noble army of Martyrs," may sound forth to "the holy church throughout all the world" the doctrines of the cross of Christ crucified, made manifest in the hearts and lives of these true followers of the Lamb.

That our church is right in thus putting before us the lives and sufferings of those who have shewn themselves before the world ready "to spend and be spent" in the work of the Lord, to the praise and glory of his grace, is manifest; since human creatures are powerfully excited to holiness and warned against sin by living records taken from among themselves. When we see the devoted zeal, the ardent love, the self-surrender, the martyred will of the saints of old,-we have a lesson before us of what Divine Grace can effect in hearts by nature fallen and corrupt as our own: and we see in their converted souls a reflecting mirror, which is intended to illustrate, for our own spiritual good, the great Scripture truth, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature."

There is, moreover, the carly practice of the Christian church to justify what our branch of the church of Christ does, in honouring Christ by the memorial of the graces of his "saints which were upon earth." It was a natural feeling which has always led the human mind to look back upon departed worth with mingled sensations of affection and zeal: and that feeling was enlisted into the service of religion, when holy men of old, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, who lived in the service of Christ, and many of whom bled in the cause of Christ, were held up to future generations with this memo. rial speaking from their dust, "Go and do thou likewise."

4 I

But the word of God is our strongest guide; and this consecrates the practice which our church has adopted, from the combined motive of usefulness and the practice of the primitive Christians. The Lord has declared of his saints while they live, "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him." "The Lord loveth the righteous." "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him." "His countenance doth behold the upright." And when their days upon earth shall be numbered, and they be gathered unto their fathers, the Lord's interest in his people does not cease. His gracious word further declares, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints; "The memory of the just is blessed; and "the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."

These sacred truths are also acted upon in God's word. The Holy Spirit moved the Apostle to hold out the example of those who had "fought the good fight of faith," on purpose to "tell them that should come after;" so that we might take comfort, encouragement, instruction, and warning, that their "God should be our God even unto death." We are exhorted upon this point, the life and memory of the just, to the practical application: "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." It is Christ, not his people, who must be glorified hereby, and the Lord Jesus exalted in the remembrance of his saints; for it is the express command from the word of God, "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, consider ing the end of their conversation: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Under

the arguments, therefore, before mentioned, and especially with the example herein of the church of Christ, from a very early period of its history, before us; and according to the express declarations of the word of God: our church, at stated seasons, brings the memory of saints and martyrs before her people; not to idolize the souls of the departed dead, but to glorify God in the grace bestowed upon them when living, and to apply to ourselves all that should be deduced from"Though dead, he yet speaketh." "We desire," saith the inspired Apostle, "that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end : that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

I have now briefly spoken of the three separate divisions of the Col. lects of our church, with their respective portions from the word of God which constitute the Epistle and Gospel for the day. Had I dwelt upon them each,as they present themselves in yearly round before us, every Collect would have formed matter for a separate address. Though short in expression, they abound in matter pertaining to the things of most vital interest to our souls; and the portion of Scripture appended to each would have presented an endless source of spiritual edification. Let me, then, apply what I have already brought before you upon this point of our public services.

The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, have reference, as we have seen, first, to the nature and the revelation of God, and therein the offices mercifully undertaken on man's behalf by each person in the Eternal Trinity; secondly, to those duties, trials, and circumstances, which appertain to each of us in our mortal pilgrimage; and thirdly, to the memory of the saints and martyrs, as bringing glory to God, and holding out an example of faith and holiness unto ourselves.

These Collects, together with the

portions of holy Scripture which are appended to them, are to be applied for spiritual purposes. The Scripture sets forth the rule taken from the faith of Christ crucified, and the Collect assumes that they who use it are spiritually minded. We pray for spiritual, as well as for temporal blessings, and in the language of a renewed heart and a right spirit. But the great question will remain for each of us to put to our own consciences,-do the thoughts and desires of our hearts correspond with these expressions of our lips?

As fallen, guilty, lost, and ruined sinners, our words are such as these: "O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men;" "through our sins and wickedness we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us;" "lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretch edness;" "we who, for our evil deeds, do worthily deserve to be punished;" "through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing" "may it please thee that all the diseases of our souls may be healed."

Thus confessing our own ruin, we use words which shew that our hope should be only in Christ: "O God, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy;" "who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do;" "that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves;" "who hast built thy church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone;" "grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved;" "to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life;" "that, by his cross and passion, we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection."

Thus taught in the language of prayer our utter ruin through sin, and our restoration in the Gospel

Covenant of Christ's blood alone, we also use words of prayer significant of our belief that we have been born again of the Spirit, and that we have a devout desire to be entirely renewed in the inner man : "Almighty God, grant that we, being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit" "that, as by thy special grace preventing us, thou dost put into our minds good desires; so, by thy continual help, we may bring the same to good effect;""may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts."

Then in the prayers of our lips we use words shewing how entirely the necessity exists, in those who thus profess to belong to Christ, "to be crucified unto the world, and the world unto them." "O Almighty God, mortify and kill all vices in us; "Grant us the true circumcisión of the Spirit; that our hearts and all our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts;" "our flesh being subdued to the Spirit;" "forsaking all worldly and carnal affections;' "we may Iever obey thy godly motions, in righteousness and true holiness."

We then, in the language of prayer, name the great Gospel principle of all our relative duties before the Throne of Grace, those ties by which we are bound in Christian love towards each other: "O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity," that is, as Scripture defines charity, real Christian love," are nothing worth ;" "who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord;" "send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee."

And, lastly, in the Collects of our church we seek the glories of "an endless life," in Christ, our great