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mandments, and the Seven Sacraments, &c.; and was again published in 1540 and 1543, with corrections and alterations, under the title of "A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Chrysten Man;" and, as it is expressed in that preface, was "set furthe by the King, with the advice of his clergy; the Lordes bothe spirituall and temporall, with the nether house of Parliament, having both seen and liked it well." These books were not free from Popish errors; still, publication of the service in the mother tongue was one great step gained, which gradually led to another.

In 1545, another book was published under the sanction of the king and the clergy, and which was styled the "King's Primer." It contained not only the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, but also the whole morning and evening prayer in English, not much different from what it is in our present Common Prayer; the Venite, Te Deum, Lord's Prayer, Creed, &c. being in the same versions in which we now use them. And so far the work of reformation proceeded until the end of the reign of Henry VIII.

In 1547, the first year of the reign of Edward VI., a most important declaration was put forth by the convocation; namely, that the Lord's supper should be administered in both kinds to the laity. No impediment was now offered to the progress of the Reformation. It was required that at least four sermons in the year should be delivered from every parochial pulpit against the Pope's supremacy; that the worship of saints should be immediately discontinued; and all images, abused by superstitious offerings, destroyed. A Book of Homilies was composed for the use of the parochial clergy; and an English translation of the Bible, and a copy of the Commentary of Erasmus on the Gospels, were commanded to be placed in every church for the use of the people. A committee of bishops and other divines, amongst whom were Cranmer and Ridley, was appointed to compose "an uniform order of Communion, according to the rules of Scripture, and the use of the primitive Church." This form was immediately brought into use, in which the point of confession was left free. Such as desired to make their confession to a priest, were admonished not to censure those who were satisfied with confessing to God, and the latter not to be offended with those who continued in the practice of auricular confession; all being exhorted to keep the rule of charity, follow their own conscience, and not to judge others in things not appointed in Scripture.

The following year, the same divines, empowered by a new commission, undertook a still more extensive task; and in the course of a few months revised and finished the whole Liturgy, by drawing up public offices for Sundays and holydays, for baptism, confirmation, matrimony, burial of the dead, and other special occasions; and inserting the above-mentioned Communion, with certain amendments.

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and York. It is now usually called "The First Book of Edward the Sixth," or "The Book of the Second Year of Edward the Sixth." "This Liturgy," says Dr. Southey, "was prepared with the same sound judgment which characterised all those measures wherein Cranmer took the lead. It was compiled from the different Romish offices used in this kingdom; whatever was unexceptionable was retained, all that savoured of superstition was discarded; the prayers to the saints were expunged, and all their lying legends: and the people were provided with a Christian ritual in their own tongue. And so judiciously was this done, that while nothing which could offend the feelings of a reasonable Protestant was left, nothing was inserted which should prevent the most conscientious Catholic from joining in the service." The committee by whom this book was drawn up, consisted of the following persons :

1. Archbishop Cranmer. Burnt at Oxford in Queen Mary's reign, March 21, 1556.

2. Thomas Goodrick, Bishop of Ely.
3. Henry Holbech, Bishop of Lincoln.
4. George Day, Bishop of Chichester.
5. John Skip, Bishop of Hereford.

6. Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster.

7. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of Rochester, afterwards of London, who was burned at Oxford in Queen Mary's reign, October 16, 1555.

8. Dr. Wm. May, Dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

9. Dr. John Taylor, Dean, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln. Deprived in Queen Mary's reign. 10. Dr. Simon Hayns, Master of Queen's College, Cambridge, and Dean of Exeter.

11. Dr. John Redman, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Dean of Westminster.

12. Dr. Richard Cox, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and Almoner to King Edward VI. He was deprived of all his preferments in Queen Mary's reign, and fled to Frankfort; from whence he returned in the reign of Elizabeth, and was consecrated Bishop of Ely.

13. Thomas Robinson, Archdeacon of Leicester. This book, however, was not in all respects approved; and accordingly Archbishop Cranmer, with the assistance of two reformers, Bucer and Peter Martyr, altered it. These two eminent foreigners had fled from Germany, on account of the troubles, and taken refuge in this country. Some rites and ceremonies were removed, and some important additions made to the service, especially of the introductory sentences, the confession and absolution, at the commencement of morning and evening prayer. The forms of consecrating archbishops and bishops, of ordering of priests, and making of deacons, were added; and the elements of bread and wine in the communion, were, at Bucer's suggestion, to be received by the people in their hands, and not put by the minister into their mouths, as was to be done according to the first book; and for this reason, that they might not, as had been done, be conveyed secretly away, kept, and abused to superstition and wicked

ness.

The whole was confirmed in parliament in 1551, and is usually styled "The Second Book of Edward the

Sixth," or "The Book of the fifth year of Edward the Sixth." [To be continued.]

ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.-No. I. THE Conversion of his native island from the darkness of Paganism to the glorious light of Gospel-truth, must form an interesting subject of inquiry to every true believer in Britain. Unfortunately, however, the entire absence of literary knowledge in this country at the time, and the scantiness of assistance to be obtained from foreign sources, leave the precise period of this important event a matter of great uncertainty. Some writers have carried back the date of the introduction of Christianity into Britain to the latter end of the reign of Tiberius, while others assign it to the time of Claudius. This latter conjecture is drawn principally from a passage in Tacitus, wherein Pomponia Græcina, the wife of Plautius, who, in the reign of Claudius, made the first descent upon Britain, is stated, on her return to Rome, to have been accused of embracing a "foreign superstition;" but this expression is equally applicable to the Jewish as to the Christian religion. Bishop Stillingfleet places the introduction of the Gospel into this island about the middle of Nero's reign. That St. Peter preached here, is a speculation of recent date: but there is a remark in Eusebius, which, when viewed in connexion with a passage in Clement of Rome, makes it probable that St. Paul visited Britain. Eusebius asserts that some of the apostles preached the Gospel in the British isles; and Clement, who wrote before the end of the first century, states that St. Paul went to the utmost bounds of the west. Now, the juxta-position of these two passages certainly appears favourable to the conclusion; but such deductions as these must always be received with caution. It may, however, be further urged, that Theodoret, who lived in the early part of the fifth century, confirms this opinion with regard to St. Paul. The traditions of St. James, Simon Zelotes, and Philip, are destitute of any ancient authority. The fable of Joseph of Arimathea also, and his having founded Glastonbury Abbey, would be unworthy of notice, but for the credit given to it by Queen Elizabeth and Archbishop Parker; nor is the idle legend of Claudia, the daughter of Caractacus, carrying back Christianity from Rome into the territory of her father, deserving the slightest regard. But, whatever difference of opinion may be entertained as to the exact period of its introduction, "towards the end of the second century," says Dr. Burton, "Christianity had penetrated into very remote parts of the British isles." About this time, also, the new religion appears to have derived protection from the civil power. King Lucius is the first British monarch recorded to have received baptism, and under him bishops were consecrated for the dissemination of Christianity. But the infant society of believers, even in our remote island, did not escape the sanguinary persecutions that harassed the Church of Christ under the emperors Maximilian and Dioclesian; and the names of St. Alban, of Aaron, and of Julius, are recorded in history as martyrs to the truth, who suffered under the violence of their oppression. The heresy of Pelagius, moreover, at an early period disturbed the harmony of this little community, although the active measures which were taken by Germanus, a Gallican bishop, who was called in by the British divines to stop its progress, eventually proved of service to the Church, by introducing into the island the study of sound learning and theology. A form of prayer, also, was at this time brought from Gaul into Britain by Germanus and other bishops in his train, who had derived it probably from St. John, through Polycarp and Irenæus; and it was on this basis that the Church of Rome, from time to time, engrafted her erroneous principles. Episcopacy,

from the earliest period, was established in Britain; and bishops from our island are said to have assembled at the councils of Nice, of Sardica, of Arles, and Ariminum. It is worthy of remark, that, from the manner in which the council of Arles was conducted, we can determine that the British bishops esteemed themselves quite independent of the authority of Rome. The council of Ariminum, moreover, gives proof of their number and wealth; for, although provision had been made by the emperor Constanstine, the British bishops, three only excepted, chose rather to defray their own expenses than to burden the public treasury. From these circumstances, it may be inferred, that towards the middle of the fourth century the religion of Christ was firmly established on the ruins of paganism. But, from its unavoidable connexion with the course and revolutions of human affairs, the Church had yet to struggle with enemies both open and secret; and a series of troubles was at hand that materially affected its welfare. On the desertion of the island by the Romans, A.D. 422, the Britons, to repel the Picts and Scots who invaded them, called in the assistance of the Saxons; and the disturbances which thence ensued, and which, after having lasted for upwards of a century, terminated in the Saxons possessing themselves of the country they were invited to defend, proved nearly fatal to the cause of truth in Britain. But the actions of men are overruled by God, to effect his own wise purposes; and the calm that followed after the storm had subsided, together with the marriage of Ethelbert, king of Kent, to Britha, daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, who was a Christian, paved the way for a welcomed reception to St. Augustin and his followers. The mission of St. Augustin is said to have had its rise from the following circumstances. Gregory the First, while in a private capacity, having observed some youths of great beauty exposed for sale in the market-place at Rome, inquired of what nation they were. Being told that they were Angli, he exclaimed, they would not be Angli, but Angeli, if they were Christians." But "what, said he, is the name of the province whence they are brought?" It was answered that the inhabitants of it were called Deiri. "Yes," said Gregory, "de irá erepti, delivered from wrath, and invited to the mercy of Christ." Upon this he formed the benevolent design of exerting his energies for the revival of Christianity in Britain. And this design was put into effect upon his coming to the popedom, by the mission of St. Augustin, with forty monks, who landed in Kent, and settled at Canterbury. From this time, the conversion of the seven Saxon kingdoms was fully effected in about ninety years. Augustin died in A.D. 605. The repeated invasions of the Danes, and their attacks on the religious houses, which now became the chief stores of wealth and what learning existed, more than counterbalanced the good effects which Christianity in Britain might have experienced from the union of the Saxon heptarchy under Egbert; and the country was again relapsing into barbarity and ignorance. But the exertions of Alfred, and the patronage which he afforded to men of learning, rapidly advanced the British mind from its low estate, and gave it credit with surrounding nations; so that it is said of Athelstan, the third in succession from Alfred, that he had the honour of educating in our island three foreign kings, Alan of Bretagne, Louis of France, and Haco of Norway. The characters of Odo and Dunstan, who at this time succeeded each other in the see of Canterbury, are so mixed up with idle tales of wonders and miracles, that it is difficult to form any just idea of the benefit, or injury, done to the Church under their direction; but it is probable, that what she gained in extent and influence, she lost in internal purity and true Christian principle: since, to increase the power of the clergy, through motives of interested ambition, seems

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to have been with them the ruling passion. At length, the Danes, as did the Saxons before them, became incorporated in the religion, as well as the civil government of our kingdom; and under the monarchs of this race, Canute, Harold, and Hardicanute, the wealth and influence of the Church were greatly extended; for on the restoration of the Saxon line, onethird of the lands in England is supposed to have been in the hands of ecclesiastical bodies. This was the condition of the Church in temporal things, when our island was invaded by the Normans; and thus was she fitted to maintain her part in those distressing struggles between ecclesiastical and civil power, so disgraceful and injurious, that throw a gloom over this period of her history. It may be well to observe, that, from the arrival of St. Augustin, the baneful influence of the Church of Rome was felt in our island; and the simple truths of Christianity began to be burdened with the inventions of men. But the progress of error is gradual and almost imperceptible; and it required a period of nearly one thousand years to build up that system of corruption and idolatry which the Church of Romanised England exhibited, when the great work of the reformation was entered upon. From a respectful alliance, founded on the benefits that the Britons had received by the exertions of St. Augustin and his followers in their island, the transition was gradual and easy to that blind submission which Rome afterwards demanded of them, and to which England for a period was compelled to submit. With the admission of papal supremacy, came also the reception of papal errors. But at the period of the Norman invasion, many of the injurious tenets of the Church of Rome, even if they existed at all, had not yet reached our island. The Romanist of the present day would do well to examine the history of his creed, that he may be convinced how gradually those erroneous doctrines, which successive councils have declared necessary to his salvation, have crept in upon the primitive simplicity of Gospel truth.

Oxford, July 1836.

[To be continued.]

Biography.

GEORGE HERBERT.

Born 1593; died 1632.

THE "holy George Herbert," as he has often been reverently called, was born on the 3d of April, 1593, in the Castle of Montgomery, near the town of that name. He was of an ancient and honourable family, being descended from William Herbert, who was Earl of Pembroke in the reign of Edward IV. George was the fifth son of the family; the third was the celebrated Lord Herbert, of Cherbury.

"George spent much of his childhood," says his simple and affectionate biographer, Izaac Walton, “in a sweet content, under the eye and care of his prudent mother, and the tuition of a chaplain or tutor;" and afterwards "at Westminster, where the beauties of his pretty behaviour and wit shined, and became so eminent and lovely, in this his innocent age, that he seemed to be marked out for piety, and to become the care of Heaven, and of a particular good angel to guard and guide him." In his seventeenth year we find Herbert writing to his mother, "For my own part, my meaning, dear mother, is, in these sonnets, to declare my resolution to be, that my poor abilities in poetry shall be all and ever consecrated to God's glory; and I beg you to receive this as one testimony;" and then follows the religious poem which begins with these lines:

"My God, where is that ancient heat towards thee Wherewith whole shoals of martyrs once did burn?” Herbert was a close student, his only relaxation while at Cambridge being music; of which he continued all his life exceedingly fond, and in which he became a considerable proficient. He said, "It did relieve his drooping spirits, compose his distracted thoughts, and raise his weary soul so far above earth, that it gave him an earnest of the joys of heaven before he possessed them." During a good many of the following years this really worthy and pious man appears to have sought court-favour with an anxiety which over-rated the object; but on the death of James I., and his powerful patrons, the Duke of Richmond and the Marquess of Hamilton, he abandoned all hopes of worldly elevation, and, after a painful struggle between ambition and better feelings, entered on the study of divinity. Ellis says of Herbert, "Nature intended him for a knight-errant; but disappointed ambition made him a saint." These are severe strictures; for Herbert still possessed youth, birth, friends, and excellent talents to promote his worldly advancement. His answer to a court friend who dissuaded him from going into the Church, as below his birth and hopes, was: "It hath been formerly judged, that the domestic servants of the King of heaven should be of the noblest families on earth; and though the iniquity of the late times has made clergymen meanly valued, and the sacred name of priest contemptible, yet I will labour to make it honourable, by consecrating all my learning and all my poor abilities to advance the glory of that God that gave them; knowing that I can never do too much for Him that hath done so much for me as to make me a Christian." These resolutions he kept inviolate. In the meantime his mother died, and he married, after a very romantic courtship; that is to say, if we may trust his poetical biographer. "He was, for his person," says honest Izaac, "of a stature inclining towards tallness; but so far was his body from being encumbered with too much flesh, that he was lean to an extremity. His aspect was cheerful, and his speech and motion did both declare him a gentleman; for they were all so meek and obliging, that they purchased love and respect from all that knew him. These and his other visible virtues brought him much love from a gentleman of a noble fortune, and a near kinsman to his friend the Earl of Danby; namely, from Charles Danvers of Bainton, in the county of Wilts, Esq. This Mr. Danvers having known him long and intimately, did so much affect him, that he often and publicly declared a desire that Mr. Herbert would marry any of his nine daughters (for he had so many), but rather his daughter Jane, because Jane was his beloved daughter. And he had often said the same to Mr. Herbert himself; and that if he could like her for a wife, and she him for a husband, Jane should have a double blessing; and Mr. Danvers had so often said the like to Jane, and so much commended Mr. Herbert to her, that Jane became so much a platonic as to fall in love with Mr. Herbert unseen. This was a fair preparation for a marriage; but, alas! her father died before Mr. Herbert's retirement to Dantsey; yet some friends to both parties procured their meeting, at which time a mutual affection entered into both their hearts, as a

conqueror enters into a surprised city; and love, having got such a possession, governed, and made there such laws and resolutions as neither party were able to resist; insomuch that she changed her name into Herbert the third day after this first interview." So much for Izaac, who goes on with the epithalamium of the young couple.

This marriage was another proof of the truth of the adage, "Happy the wooing that is not long doing." For, in Izaac's own words, "the Eternal Lover of mankind made them happy in each other's mutual and equal affections and compliance." Very shortly after his marriage, Mr. Herbert was presented to the rectory of Bemerton, near Salisbury, "changed his sword and silk clothes for a canonical coat," and told his wife, "You are now a minister's wife, and must so far forget your father's house, as not to claim a precedence of any of your parishioners; for you are to know that a priest's wife can challenge no precedence in place, but that which she purchases by her obliging humility; and I am sure a place so purchased does best become her."

Mr. Herbert, from the energy and enthusiasm of his natural character, as well as from nobler motives, was a most zealous and faithful priest, and in his private life strict and exemplary. He and his household attended prayers every day at the canonical hours of ten and four in the chapel of the rectory. "The meaner sort of his parish," says his faithful biographer, "did so love and reverence Mr. Herbert, that they would let their ploughs rest when Mr. Herbert's saint's-bell rung for prayers, that they might also offer their devotions to God with him, and would then return back to their plough. And his holy life was such, that it begot such reverence to God and to him, that they thought themselves the happier when they carried Mr. Herbert's blessing back with them to their labour." Mr. Herbert sang his own hymns to the lute or viol, of which instruments he was a master; and, though fond of retirement, he attended twice a-week at the cathedral at Salisbury: saying, that "the time spent in prayer and cathedral music elevated his soul, and was his heaven upon earth:" and, to justify his practice, he would often say, "that religion does not banish mirth, but only moderates and sets rules to it." Many anecdotes are told of his piety and charity; and, indeed, from the period that he took orders, his life seems to have been one of unreserved dedication to God. He died of a consumptive disorder in 1632. Of" The Temple, or Sacred Poems," Walton says, "twenty thousand copies were sold in a few years after their publication." It is worthy of notice, that this volume was the only companion of Cowper during his first melancholy eclipse. Herbert's prose work, "The Country Parson his Character and Rule of Holy Life," is an inestimable little treatise.

THE RELIGIOUS INNKEEPER.*

D.

I AM of opinion that in every lawful calling God has his witnesses and faithful servants, to convince

From that very useful little work, the Friendly Visitor, edited by Mr. Carus Wilson.

us that those callings which are most abused, and the greatest sources of iniquity, may be sanctified.

It happened in one of the midland counties of England, some years ago, that an innkeeper became concerned for his soul, and set himself with all his heart in pursuit of the one thing needful-religion. His search was not in vain; from deep and humiliating views of his sinfulness, he was led, in the course of time, to discern the fulness and sufficiency of the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse him from all sin. He received the perfect work and righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith, and became not a nominal, but a real Christian. In a word, he became a new man, and felt himself to live in a new region. Many painful reflections, however, on his past sins were constantly passing through his mind, and it grieved him more especially, and above all, that his particular calling had been the occasion of much sin, and that even now his house, at times, was the scene of unhallowed mirth and wanton joy. What was to be done? Things (thought he) cannot possibly go on as they are. The question therefore arose, whether it was lawful for him as a Christian, to continue any longer in his line of life? Many things were to be taken into consideration: he had a large family entirely dependent on him; and if he gave up his business, poverty and want seemed to stare him in the face; besides, should he give up, he could by no means be certified but his house, being let to another, would again become the scene of equal, if not greater, wickedness. In this strait, however, after much anxious thought and earnest prayer for Divine guidance, he determined to remain and to glorify God in his present calling. resolved to harbour no improper characters, and never to draw more than one pint of ale at a time, for any customer: by these regulations, he knew his house would be still useful for the accommodation of travellers, and he hoped to rid himself of all his tippling customers. It is true he had his doubts and fears, at times, whether he should be able to make business answer on his new plan; but he generally cut them short by faith in that universal promise, "Them that honour me, I will honour." So that, in the main, he trusted, by God's blessing, to be able both to pay his rent and to maintain his family.

He

In process of time, the religious innkeeper's peculiarities became known; and as he was universally respected as a man of great integrity, his house was much frequented by travellers; although some, whose custom he cared little for, withdrew their favours. On the whole, what was lost on the one hand was more than made up on another.

The squire of the parish in which he lived kept a pack of hounds, and his house was consequently the resort of the idle, the gay, and the dissipated. In one of their convivial meetings, the conduct of the publican became the subject of their derision and merriment; and they determined, the next time they went to the hunt, to put his religious principles to the test-they determined, if possible, to have more ale than his rule allowed. Accordingly, no long time after, the troop of hunters, greatly heated in the chase, hauled up at his house to bait their horses, and take some refreshment. The landlord, with his usual attention and civility, took the charge of the horses, to rub them down and bait them, while the good man's daughter within, busied herself in preparing the refreshments, which were quickly devoured. Then came the drink; pint after pint was called for and drank, until each had been served with his allowance; for Betsy had counted heads, and scored with her chalk each successive flagon; and now that the scores had equalled the heads, what was to be done? More ale was called for, and how to refuse the squire she hardly knew; but her father's orders were not to be disobeyed. Like a dutiful daughter, therefore, she told the company she could not draw them any more, for

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they had had enough. "And who made you a judge of that?" cried one of the troop. My father," replied the girl, "never draws more than one pint for any one; and I have drawn that, sir, for each." On this the company became very noisy; some calling for the host; others exclaiming against his methodism ; whilst, in the midst of the bustle and confusion, the father stept in, and so relieved his daughter from her trying situation. He told them briefly his reasons for adopting the rule, which he hoped they would value; but, whether or not, he would by no means break it to please even the squire. "More ale we want, and more ale we'll have," shouted one.

،، What

has religion to do with drink?" cried another. "Hang

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him and his enthusiasm," cried a third. "Gentlemen," said the landlord, firmly, yet courteously, "I am sorry to disoblige you, but under no consideration will I draw you any more-my conscience will not permit me." Perhaps my conscience then will not permit me to renew your license, rejoined the squire;" while the doctor and the lawyer backing him, besought him, the one to give him a pill, and the other to make out his mittimus. "As for that, sir, I cannot help it," replied the landlord; "but I can help offending my God, and burdening my conscience, which I will never do to get the favour of men." The party, thus defeated, and seeing that remonstrance was in vain, left the house with many threats and much abuse.

On the way home, however, they cooled down, and in the end agreed in admiration of the innkeeper's firmness and principle; indeed, one went so far as to propose that they should give him the benefit of a pint and refreshment as often as they went his way, which, meeting with no opposition, was agreed to: thus giving another proof of the faithfulness of God's promise-"Them that honour me, I will honour;" and that He "will make even their enemies to be at peace with them."

THERE ARE NO LITTLE SINS:

A Sermon,

BY THE REV. THOMAS ENGLAND, M.A. Curate of St. Mary's, Newington Butts.

1 COR. v. 6, 7.

"Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump."

IT is the habit of most men, and of many among the professors of religion, when convicted by their fellows, or their own consciences, of any offences that the world deems slight, or of any backslidings, to extenuate, if not to justify their conduct, by saying, as Lot did of the city which he wished to save, "Is it not a little one?" To all such as overlook the fearful importance of little sins (called by the world trifles), and who forget that the accumulation of such minor offences often causes the destruction of the neverdying soul, I would address the warning of the Apostle in the text-" Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump."

Leaving for the present the consideration of sins of omission, called in our Liturgy "negligences," in handling this subject, I will, under God's blessing, attempt to exhibit the

following truths: that as "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," and as the accumulation of small offences must necessarily create a corrupt life, so little sins carry with them heinous guilt, and bring after them sore condemnation. I will then briefly apply the subject more closely to ourselves.

I. Under the law, we know, this was the doctrine: “He that breaketh the least commandment shall in nowise enter into the

kingdom of heaven;" for "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," be the magnitude of the sin what it may. This may be illustrated from many considerations. For instance, there must be as much outrage against the authority of the great Being with whom we have to do, in the commission of little sins, as there is in the commission of great sins; and the one must be as offensive to infinite holiness and purity, to a sin-hating God, as the other. It is the same God that saith, Do not take my name in vain, who saith, Do not blaspheme me-the same God that said, Do not murder, said also, Be not angry with thy brother without cause the same God that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Think no vain thought, and speak no light word. Hence it is clear, from the very nature of God, that the commission of the least sin brings us under the guilt of the greatest.

Be warned, therefore, ye that allow yourselves in vain and loose thoughts, or idle words; and who say within yourselves, It is but a thought, it is but a trifling word: think better of the matter, and say to yourselves, on the authority of Scripture, No, it is hatred of God, it is blasphemy; it is as bad as murder, or adultery. What says the Apostle? "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all;" and though the specific offence be but small, it matters not; for the outrage against the attributes of God is the same. What, let me ask, causes theft, or blasphemy, or murder, to be considered crimes of so deep a dye? Plainly, that the direct authority of the great Being who has forbidden them is slighted and trampled under foot: and the same must hold good of other sins, concerning which we choose to imagine that they are little and trifling.

Again, consider that these little sins are usually the condemning and the soul-destroying offences. Look abroad among the families that surround you, and you will observe, that of those who perish, far more are cast out of the kingdom for the commission of what are called little sins, than for gross worldly crimes. Watch the character of the majority around you, and you find that they are moral and respectable in the eyes of the

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