merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Evidently the respond is merely a compendicus petition that GOD would fulfil to us the terms of this evangelical Covenant, being merciful to our unrighteousness, and writing His laws in our hearts: Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law; write all these Thy laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee." And each commandment in succession is christianized and spiritualized thereby; christianized,

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for in whom, but in Christ, have we redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins? spiritualized, for we pray that our hearts may be inclined to keep each law,-that all the laws may be written in them, showing that we understand much more by each precept than a mere external restraint upon our actions.

This

If any thing more were necessary to justify the introduction of the Decalogue into the Communion Office, it would be the consideration that without it the Service would lack the completeness which now it has. Were the Decalogue absent, this Office would contain hardly any portion of the Old Testament,-no portion of it necessarily; for those two or three Old Testament sentences which occur in the Offertory might be omitted at the discretion of the Priest. would be intrinsically a defect; for the Communion is the highest of all offices; and it is meet that in it the Old Testament should be formally recognised as the ground, basis, and source of the New. Moreover, it would be a departure from primitive custom; for as early as Justin Martyr, a writer of the second century, we find the practice mentioned of reading in the Church the Gospels and Epistles after the Law and the Prophets; and Tertullian, writing at the end of the same century, has these remarkable words, descriptive of Christian worship in his days: "The Church mixeth the Law and the Prophets with the Evangelical and Apostolical writings, and thence drinketh in the faith." Liturgically considered, the Decalogue is to be

regarded as a lesson from the Law, just as the Epistle and the Gospel are lessons from different parts of the New Testament.

It may be said, doubtless, that though the Law, by the testimony of the New Testament writers themselves, is spiritual in its inner significance, still its tones are stern and harsh, repulsive and forbidding, breathing commination rather than love. And this is more or less true. There is a stern, solemn tone in the very style of the Ten Commandments, which, if I may so say, holds the profane and careless at arm's length. But is this any objection to them in the present position which they hold? Is it not rather a recommendation? We have already instituted a comparison between the Decalogue, as an approach to the Communion Office, and the precinct used for interments, which lies around many of our old Parish Churches. And we now recur for a moment to this image. We should desire, no doubt, that our associations with the House of GOD might be all bright and happy. We should desire to connect with the sacred building thoughts of delightful hours spent within its walls in communion with GOD through Christ, the experience of which might make us re-echo the sentiments of the Psalmist: "O how amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord. . . For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand."

To

But are the stern, chill associations of Death unsuitable as a preparative of the mind, before we enter within the consecrated walls? Rather the reverse. be reminded of mortality, of the precariousness of life, of the penalty of sin, and of the havoc it has made, is a fitting and edifying memorial, while our feet are on the threshold of the House of Prayer. Not that those graves can daunt us, now Christ has died. In full sight of them, and in prospect of their yawning one day for himself, the true believer can cry, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?"

Well, so it is with the Ten Commandments, or

Covenant of works, as an approach to the Communion Office. Their stern legal tone excites a solemnity of feeling in the intelligent hearer, by no means inappropriate to the high Office which they introduce. We bethink ourselves that this is a broken law,—a law which in spirit, if not in letter, we have violated over and over again, and every statute of which, understood in the length and breadth of its requirements, is voiceful with condemnation. But what then? Does the Law frighten us, as well as solemnize our thoughts? Not for a moment, if we are among those who are led by the Spirit. In that case it is dead to us, has altogether lost its hold,—and we are not children to be frightened by ghosts. In this case (Oh great joy and signal triumph!) our Surety and Representative has answered and satisfied all its demands, whether of penalty or righteousness; and the Law is to us nothing more than the framework of that spiritual obedience, which we owe to Grace. Is it then the case, this is the question with which we will take leave of our subject, that we are at present led by the Spirit? Observe, the Apostle's word is "led." He does not say "moved:" for movements of the Spirit, pricks and stings from that inward monitor, are common to all the baptized, and afford no ground of distinction between man and man. Nor does he say "driven" or "compelled" by the Spirit; for to compel a moral agent is to destroy his moral agency altogether, and reduce him to a machine. But he says, "led" by the Spirit, not merely moved, but following; not dragged, but following freely, willingly, and with loving consent. Thrice happy we, if it be so with us. We may triumph in the Law; for it cannot condemn us. And our Communion Feast may be additionally sweetened by the thought, that it has been fulfilled for us, and is being and will be, under the guidance of Grace, more entirely fulfilled in us. Amen.

PART II

The Western Porch and the Nave

CHAPTER I

OF THE COLLECT FOR THE SOVEREIGN AND THE PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH MILITANT

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; "For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."-I TIM. ii. 1, 2

THE Collect for the Sovereign and the Prayer for the

and the end of one tract or section of the Communion Service, which tract or section we have designated generally as the nave of the sacred Edifice. Moreover, they are partly the same in kind, since the Prayer for the Church Militant embraces the Sovereign by name, as well as all other members of the Church upon earth. And, thirdly, the subjects of both Collect and Prayer are prescribed and made binding upon us by the inspired precept of St. Paul, who exhorts us to remember "all men" generally in our prayers, and specially "kings, and all that are in authority."

For the right understanding of this precept, it must be observed that the Epistles to Timothy and Titus are of a wholly different character from the other

Apostolical Epistles. They are addressed to Bishops in their official capacity, and give rules for the administration of the Church, and for the deportment and the teaching of those who are set to govern it. In the eighteenth verse of the first Chapter of the first of these Epistles, St. Paul had given Timothy a commission in general terms. In the first verse of the succeeding Chapter, he begins to unfold this commission in its various particulars. Now what is the first particular which he insists upon? He is directing the Bishop of Ephesus as to the administration of Public Service in the Church. Men, he says, are to conduct the public prayers, and to give Christian instruction (for the words, "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting,' should certainly be rendered, "I will that the men be the persons to offer up prayer in every place"),-the women are to appear in the congregation in seemly and modest attire, and to learn in silence, never assuming the character of teachers ;-this is the substance of the Chapter; but what is the emphatic direction with which it opens? What does the Apostle Paul regard as the most important point in Public Worship? To what religious exercise does he give the first place, in time, or in importance, or in both? "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." Observe how sovereigns are singled out from the rest of mankind, and particularly specified as those on whose decisions and acts the welfare of the commonwealth mainly depends. And when the character of the authorities of that day is considered, the precept seems to come to us, who live under Christian authorities, in a doubly imperative and obligatory form. The master of the Roman world, at the time St. Paul wrote these words, was one whose name has passed into a proverb of tyranny and wickedness-the odious Nero. If the First Epistle to Timothy is