gitimate, or that his chosen friends were loyal and brave. And little, it is to be feared, will it avail our excellent Church, that she is sound in the faith, if the love of her members have waxed cold; or that her clergy are able and zealous, if a prevailing lukewarmness have deadened the hearts of their flocks against the influence of their ministrations. It is this general indifference, the fatal offspring of ill regulated attempts to secure a blessing at present unattainable, which awakens our fears, and too often palsies our exertions. He whose word is truth has declared, "that a kingdom divided "against itself falleth." Where then divisions are to be found, little does it matter, whether they are caused by open hostility, or encouraged by passive neutrality; their existence, in either case, is incompatible with the safety of that spiritual kingdom committed to our charge; and it becomes us to be prepared to remedy the latter evil, as we are, I trust, yet fully competent to resist the former. That then the zeal of those who are professedly members of our venerable establishment may be neither cooled by indifference nor misdirected by enthusiasm, let us be ourselves examples of that steady perseverance and indefatigable watchfulness, which we would recommend : let us endeavour to convince them, that the peace they covet is not to be attained, as they have been unwarily prevailed on to seek it; and that real union never can be purchased by concessions made to the sons of confusion and disorder. Let us remind them, that God alone can m" tame the "unruly wills and affections of his sinful creatures;" and that it is his peculiar province, to "" make men of one mind in "an house." If then they look forward with hope to that day, when it shall please him to build up his kingdom upon earth " in "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 66 66 Holy Ghost;" if they are anxious to prepare the way for its establishment, their duty has been plainly marked out in the Scriptures; they must continue in the faith m Collect, fourth Sunday after Easter. n Liturgy. • Rom. xiv. 17. P Col. i. 23. ii. 7. "as they have been taught," and take care that their q" conversation be such as "becometh the Gospel of Christ;" ever bearing in mind the declaration of the Apostle, that they who would live in peace must first be perfectly united in the common faith, and then "the God of love " and peace will be with them." q Phil. i. 27. r 2 Cor. xiii. 11. See Hammond's interpretation of xaтagтigoμa. Also Elsner, as quoted by Schleusner, and his own explanation of 1 Cor. i. 10. SERMON VIII. JOHN X. 16. Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. ; THE careful investigator of revealed truth will not fail to be struck with many passages in the sacred canon, which point to a state of moral and religious perfection hitherto without example in the world when Christianity shall obtain its due influence over the opinions and conduct of mankind, and the fruit of a c righteousness "shall be peace, and the effect of righte"ousness quietness and assurance." Such predictions will furnish him with a reply to those sophists, who would depreciate our holy faith, by insidiously comparing the 66 |