and if, not being possessed of it, you have no misgivings nor apprehensions, it is only because Satan sees that you already are his own, and would not, by disturbing you, lead you to discover how really defenceless you are. Since, therefore, death is an enemy whose dart is ever poised, and sin a foe whose arrow is always fitted to the string, and Satan an adversary whose sword is constantly uplifted to destroy if would be safe, "put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

you

But we may hope, surely we may do more than hope, we may confidently trust and believe, that there are many in this quarter of the church of Christ, who are at this very moment marching under the banners of the Great Captain of their salvation and have arrayed themselves for the contest in the whole armour of God - and have proved its efficacy, even when opposed in single combat to the great adversary himself. Well do such believers know whence their strength is derived - and who it is that nerves them for the contest-that supports them when they are ready to faint, and raises them up, and makes them more than conquerors, even when they have seemed for an instant to lie prostrate before their foe. They look for all this to the Spirit of God. It is his sword that they wield; his shield that they object;

his helmet which is proof against the weapons of this warfare; and when they add to these the weapon of "all prayer and supplication," still is it "in the Spirit." They never begin a day without preparing themselves for its trials by special supplications for his grace; they never experience a temptation without turning to Him for support; the moment a rebellious temper begins to rise within them-the moment that a deceitful heart inclines them to any sinful or questionable compliance; the prayer-it may be only an ejaculation or aspiration, only a breathing of the heart, yet still a prayer,-rises through Him to the throne of grace, and draws down the required aid. Be encouraged then, believers, to make the proper use of your high privilege-scruple not to call on your Heavenly Deliverer whenever you feel the need of his assistance: the occasion that is of sufficient importance for you to prefer a special prayer, will be sufficiently important for Him to bestow his special aid. Thus shall you not only be arrayed in the whole armour of God, but be "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man ;" and thus armed and thus strengthened, you shall be able to "withstand in the evil day; and having done all, to stand."

SERMON V.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RAISED ABOVE THE

FEAR OF MAN.

"Hearken unto me,

in whose heart is men, neither be ye

ISAIAH LI, 7, 8.

ye that know righteousness, the people my law; fear ye not the reproach of afraid of their revilings.

"For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation."

As true religion has been in every age substantially the same, so have its adversaries in every age assailed it with similar weapons. We cannot therefore be surprised, if two of the most subtle, penetrating, and insidious of those weapons-reproach and slander - which the prophet specifies as being prominently employed in his time, should be, in at least an equal degree, directed against the gospel in our own. This day, in which we live, is, like his, "a day of trouble, and

of rebuke, and of blasphemy;" wherever we turn, our eyes are shocked, our ears are insulted, and our hearts are grieved by the open taunts and scoffings of the ungodly and profane. Those who, like Sennacherib, defy the living God, no longer shelter themselves under secrecy and darkness, but pour forth their blasphemies in the broad light of day, and in the hearing of assembled multitudes: the walls of our Zion in particular are publicly menaced, and the dark designs of her assailants unblushingly and unreservedly proclaimed. The watchword and war cry of the enemies of all religion is, the subversion of the Church of England.

These open and avowed enemies, however, are far from being the greatest or the most imminent of our perils. If the Church of our Fathers, as we firmly believe, has her foundation deeply seated on "the rock of ages"-if she is indeed reared upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone" -then may she bid defiance to the assaults of her confederated enemies, since we have it upon authority that cannot fail, that "the gates of hell," the Powers of darkness themselves, "shall not prevail against her;" how much less then the combined malice and violence of evil or misguided men. The danger which is most to be dreaded, and against

which the most vigilant caution should be exerted, arises less, far less, from the adversary without, than from the careless and negligent defenders within her walls. It avails little with what vehemence the arrows may rattle against the rock on which our spiritual edifice is reared; it is of the highest moment, that when the invading force approaches, her gates should be closed, and her barriers compacted, and her battlements manned, and her sentinels on the alert; that she should be prepared to resist force by force, trusting most of all in the living God, who goeth forth with her armies, and fearlessly avowing, "the Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man can do unto me."

Such is, and such has been, from the time that the pure and primitive doctrines of Christianity were revived within her houses of prayer, the language and the confidence of the Church of England, considered as a church. It is upon her strictly spiritual character that her assurance of stability is based, and upon that alone. The temporal honours and dignities and emoluments, with which the benevolence or the policy of our ancestors have endowed her, are mere adventitious appendages, forming no integral or essential part of her constitution; - and with their expediency and utility we have no concern in this place. Indeed, the