much,—the reasonableness and efficacy of hearty prayer at all times; but all that may be done in few words, even as our Saviour has taught us, "Give us this day our daily bread."

II. But to show that the advice of the Wise Man in the text is reasonable and good, we may enforce it from the example of God's own people, and the practice of the Jewish Church, founded and modelled by God himself. The only public form they had prescribed, we read in the 6th chapter of Numbers:

Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise shall ye bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee: the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." The commandments were delivered in ten words, which contained the moral obligations of human life. Our Saviour, he knew what was in man, what the infirmity of his nature; that every one had too much of himself in him, and is therefore too prone to value his own thought and conception; and accordingly he warns them in that wonderful Sermon on the Mount: "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking; be not ye therefore like unto them but, when ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven," &c. It would be taken very unkindly, I am sure, by some in our days, if we should say the heathen in this respect were better than they; and that the heathen would rise up in judgment against them, and condemn them, for that, notwithstanding our Saviour's advice and

direction, they please, if not pride themselves in their sudden emanations,-I wish I might not say foolish babblings,-and use more and more vain repetitions than ever the heathen did.

III. But to proceed. We may demonstrate from our Saviour's continual practice, that the advice in the text is good; not insisting longer on that form of prayer taught by him, and enjoined under an indispensable command; which yet some have been so arrogant as to dispute, disuse, yea, and abuse too, and deny, at last, that it is a form of prayer. Omitting that topic, from other passages of his life and actions, yea from the whole tenor of the Gospel, it may appear, that he was well pleased our words should be few. This we learn from the song of the angels at his birth,-Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις,— Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, goodwill towards men." From the form of baptism : "Go ye, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." From the words of their mission: "As my Father hath sent me, so send I you." From the song of angels and departed souls, which is to be sung in heaven to all eternity, and which is yet comprehended in few words; as we read, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

IV. And to the example of our Saviour and his apostles and all the company of heaven, (to show that the custom has been one in all succeeding ages,) add we the constant practice of the Church, which proves that this is true. So our Saviour

taught his apostles to pray; they, their successors: for therefore said he unto them, "As my Father sendeth me, so send I you," to teach others to pray, and to prescribe due forms, as I have prescribed to you in general, and by you to all others that shall believe on me through your preaching, and that shall call upon the Father in my name, to the end of the world. Therefore did St. James, the brother of our Lord, and bishop of Jerusalem, or some of his early followers, compile a formal liturgy for his church and people: and in the like work laboured many of the ancient fathers of the church, as we are taught by undoubted records. And by this means, all churches, in all following ages, spoke, as it were, one language, were taught to pray after one set and formal manner, for mutual edification, and to avoid that confusion which must inevitably follow upon the contrary practice. And there is no place or time, no church or nation, that was Christian, where this wholesome custom prevailed not, even for fifteen hundred years together.

This is enough, surely, to convince any reasonable man that the practice is laudable, and the advice good, "Therefore let thy words be few." And this abundantly justifies our mother, the church of England, that she teaches her children nothing that is new or untrue, but prescribes that which is most reasonable in itself, taught by our Saviour, preached by his apostles, and received throughout the world. What remains, but that we bless God for all these mercies? that we have a church, and such an one as keeps to the foundation; that has not only received the depositum, but preserved it, by

retaining the form of sound doctrine, and of sound words also; by which means she is conjoined to Christ her Lord, and to his spouse the Catholic Church? May this mercy long be continued to us, and may we be thankful to God for the same, and so live, and so pray, that, at last, we may obtain the end of our hope, the salvation of our souls; even that good thing, which we are not worthy to ask, but for the merits, and through the mediation, of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SERMON IV.

AT ST. MARTIN'S-IN-THE-FIELDS.

ROMANS xii. 1.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice; holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

ST. PAUL having, in the former part of this epistle, proved all legal performances unavailable, and that the Gospel is now the only way to salvation, infers, in this chapter, the necessity of living up to the rules of it; and that though our Saviour, by his coming, had abolished the ceremonial law, and laid aside the use of typical sacrifices, by offering up himself a sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of the whole world, yet that he expects we should still offer up ourselves, "our souls and bodies, a living sacrifice," in opposition to those dead ones under the law; "holy" and pure, not as those carnal ones, which had no real intrinsic goodness in them; and "acceptable unto God," whereas those were not so, unless rendered efficacious and acceptable by the merits of an holy life. "This is our reasonable service," to which we are obliged by all those mercies of God, whereby