her faith-not an impossibility of erring, but an assurance, that she does not err.

Let us, in the next place, direct our at tention to the excellent incorporation of doctrinal and practical religion, which we have in our Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy. In the first of these, christian doctrines are em. bodied from scripture, in a brief, clear, and masterly compendium. In the second, they are illustrated, defended, and enforced. And in the last, namely, the Liturgy, they are made the vehicle of our daily addresses to the throne of grace; and with them we ascend to the presence of our Maker,

Men are social beings, and when they are assembled in the temples of the Almighty, their natures and the community of their blessings and wants, require that they should offer a common worship,

In order to this, a form of prayer and praise is necessary. As a form is in the nature of the thing requisite, so established forms have, in all ages of the church, been esteemed most conducive, to the purposes of

public worship. They were used by God's chosen people, in the service of the tabernacle and the temple. They have the sanction of the blessed Lord, they were adopted by the apostles and primitive christians, and have continued from that time to the present day.

By such stated services the people know beforehand, the sacrifice which is to be offered, they have it, as it were, in their hands, they unitedly bring it to the altar, and lay it thereon. It is their offering, as well as the priests'; here then may be observed, the happy adaptation of our Liturgy to the social character; whereas it is not easy for us to conceive, how, having no such established services, we could assent to that, which we had never contemplated, or offer that, which we never possessed.

Further, that the service of the sanctuary might be perfectly social, the people have in it an active part; responding in alternate verse, the praises of God, and the desires of

men.

To adore together the Maker of all, for mercies in common enjoyed, to pray to God in company for mercies in common wanted, is a custom which carries with it, at first sight, an air of beauty and decency. It is right, in itself, that private necessities, and private obligations, should be privately expressed before God. It is right, in itself, that

domestic prayer should implore, and domestic praise acknowledge domestic blessings; and it is also and for the same reasons right, in itself, that the public voice should cry to heaven for public mercies, and that those who enjoy the felicities of the same climate, the protection of the same laws, the possession of the same liberties, and the illumination of the same religion, should, together, return their thanks to the Almighty, for them.

The propriety of this practice requires no laboured proof, I will not injure the subject by a formal argument.

Again, it is not only in one church, but in all, where the service of the common prayer is sociably performed. The same

prayers and praises, in the same words, are offered, perhaps, at the same hour, with the same faith, by ten thousand tongues, to the same God, and Father of all. Contemplate for a moment, on a Sabbath day, the public appearance of towns and villages,-the still street, the closed shop, the concealed merchandize, the deserted market, labourers released from their weekly toil, the business of this world at a stand, all terrestrial pursuits making a solemn pause-the eyes of mankind turned away at once from earth, and lifted up to heaven: Nobles, Statesmen, Magistrates, Monarchs, falling down with Mechanics and Peasants, with rich and poor, before the throne of high heaven, exclaiming as with one voice,-" Behold oh Lord God omnipotent, our little distinctions all blended in thy presence,-here we are all equal, for here we are all nothing; thine O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the victory, for all that is in the earth, and all that is in the heavens, is thine-Thine is the kingdom, oh God, and thou art exalted as head over all."

To judge rightly of the Liturgy, we must notice also its purity and suitableness.

It is well known that the services of the church of Rome, from whose communion we separated, were mixed with superstition and error. They contained, it is true, much that was good; but they were at the same time so filled with ceremonies, of man's invention, and with doctrines repugnant fo the gospel, that they were calculated to deceive those who adhered to them. In direct opposition to those services, we affirm that the whole scope and tendency of our Liturgy, is to raise our minds to a heavenly state, and induce us to look to Christ as the only foundation of a sinner's hope.

Is faith in the Lord Jesus the way appointed for our reconciliation with God? to mark our affiance in his atoning blood, we ask every blessing for his name, and for his sake; and if we call to mind all that we have heard or uttered, from the introductory sentences which are to prepare our minds for devotion, to the dismission prayer, which closes the whole, we shall be astonished at the wisdom, with which the Liturgy is adapted, to the edification of every member. There is no case that is overlooked, no sin