self-righteous plea, the church has employed two words, which are expressive of the same Divine attribute. Had the whole human race been left to perish in their natural state of rebellion and apostacy, no fault could justly have been found with the moral government of God. For he was under no obligation to find an adequate propitiatory sacrifice, without which there is no remission. "By grace are we saved" in the rise and origin of the stupendous plan. And were every member of the church to be cut off from his connection with redemption, and from a share of its blessings, on account of his abuse of it, every mouth would be stopped before a just and holy God. For that man must be ignorant both of the law and of the gospel, who doth not feel within himself a clear conviction, that he every day forfeits his title to the Divine favour, and to every good arising from it. Every genuine Christian wonders at the forbearance of God towards him, and is led to admire with new astonishment, from day to day, the riches of that grace which spares the rebel, and crowns him with fresh proofs of lovingkindness.

While the language of the collect is humiliating, it is also encouraging. For with a view of confirming our hope of success in our application for succour to the mercy-seat, an epithet is added to that attribute of Deity to which our appeal is made, descriptive of its munificence. It is bountiful grace and mercy" which God exercises towards lost sinners. If our application were made to a being of limited powers or compassion, we might well despair. But the grace of God is unlimited, unconfined, and immeasurable. Our expectations, therefore,

"

cannot rise too high, nor be too sanguine and confident.

The object of our petition is twofold-present succour, and final deliverance.

1. We implore present succour, that God's "bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help "us;" that we may "be strengthened with "might by His Spirit in the inner man." The Christian's lets and hindrances are such as he can neither remove nor surmount by his own strength. He therefore applies to Omnipotence for relief. What does the awakened worshipper want? Let him examine his own bosom, and that will afford the best comment on this petition. He wants to have his corruption subdued-not only the streams lessened, but the fountain itself dried up; to have temptations rendered inefficient to seduce or distract him, by the annihilation of that within himself, through which only they can prevail; to have the world deprived of its power to retard his progress heavenwards; to have his heart confirmed in the faith, his love fanned into a flame, his eye fixed immoveably on its proper object; in short, to have his soul alive and alert in " pressing towards "the mark for the prize of the high calling of "God in Christ Jesus."

The help which he solicits is speedy help; for, till it be granted, his state must momentarily become worse and worse. Time grows shorter, death draws nearer; "the Lord is at hand;" much remains to be done, for corruption is still strong, and " without holiness no man shall see "the Lord." His language, therefore, is similar to that of the Psalmist, "Make haste to help "me, O Lord my salvation!" His situation, and the actings of his mind under it, may be

illustrated by those of the Gibeonites when they applied to Joshua for relief against powerful enemies who were combined for their ruin. They had made a league with Israel, in consequence of which five Amoritish kings rose up to destroy them. With a mighty host they encamped against Gibeon; which, under a consciousness of the certain effect of the unequal contest, and in despair of help from its own resources, or those of any other except Israel, dispatched a messenger to Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, "Slack not thy hand from

thy servants, come up to us quickly, and save "us and help us; for all the kings of the Amo"rites that dwell in the mountains are gathered "together against us.' Similar earnestness marks the language of our collect, and is supposed to be felt in the bosoms of those who use it.

2. We implore a final deliverance from that which is the cause of our trouble. A conflict with sin protracted for ever, painful as it 'is, would be preferable to everlasting slavery under it. But we are taught to look for something better than either; for God does not create in us holy desires in order to disappoint them. No: there is a time at hand, when our warfare shall be conducted to a happy termination; when we shall be able to say, "I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I "have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid "up for me a crown of righteousness, which the "Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at "that day and not to me only, but to all “them also that love His appearing." This is the consummation of Christian hope, the great scope of faith and prayer. O what an ocean of

sweetness is comprehended in the word deliverance, when it is realised by faith to the mind of the weary pilgrim, who sometimes seems nearly exhausted and incapable of proceeding further! He surveys the painful excoriations, which the heavy chains he has so long dragged after him have occasioned, and says, These will soon be healed. He contemplates the disgusting figure which he presents to view, both in his body and in his soul. But while self loathing is excited, he exultingly exclaims, I shall soon be changed; speedily I shall "receive beauty for ashes, the "oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." While. "faith" is thus "the substance of things hoped "for, and the evidence of things not seen,' his past fatigues are forgotten, his present sufferings lightened, his soul is endued with new strength; and, like the horse described by the poet,

Stare adeo nescit, pereunt vestigia mille
Ante fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.
THEBAID VI.

The gen'rous courser pants in ev'ry vein,
And pawing seems to beat the distant plain :
Hills, dales and floods appear already cross'd,
And, ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost.

POPE.

Thus with wishful eyes the Christian contemplates the state and place to which he would arrive, and "swallows the" intermediate "ground." A perfect freedom from sin, uninterrupted purity of soul, close and everlasting communion with God, convey ideas which enrapture his soul, and make him "long to be dissolved and to be "with Christ."

After the blessing of deliverance from sin every genuine member of the catholic church earnestly pants. Reader, dost thou ? Make this question the criterion of thy state, and of thy connection with the church of Christ. If you feel no burthen, and struggle for no emancipation, you cannot use our collect with sincerity, nor claim communion with those who are "looking for and hastening to the coming of the

day of God." That the sensibilities of the believing soul differ in the degree of their activity at different periods, is allowed. The tide of holy desire doth not always flow with the same rapidity. But the Psalmist's language describes the habitual frame of his heart: "Then "only shall I be satisfied, when I awake up "after thy likeness."

The adverb "speedily" is connected with deliverance as well as help. Yet it doth not express impatience; it is not the dictate of an unhallowed vehemence of passion. It is not a wish of anticipating God's time of deliverance, which faith knows to be the best. It does not intimate an anxiety after a mere cessation of suffering; such as is often apparent in those who know not God, and often pains the ear of a pious attendant on the sick bed of his dying neighbours. "I have no wish for life, I want "to be gone," is language often to be heard. But what doth it import? Doth it arise from a hatred of sin and a love of holiness ?—from a pungent sense of absence from God, and a solicitude to enjoy communion with him? Nothing less; for it results solely from the torture of body which is felt, and from a total disqualification for the enjoyment of earthly objects.