been brought in-reverting thereby to what anciently itself had held-the ruling powers of the state ratified the same in a way of assent and approbation; and thus the self-same relation which subsisted between the church and the state antecedently, continued to subsist still, between the one thus reformed through its own reference to the sole standard of truth, and the other thus acknowledging the fitness of that reformation.

Christian rulers, therefore, in this realm have been aforetime what they ought to be, the nursing fathers" of that society subsisting in it, which abideth by the doctrine, and continueth stedfastly in the fellowship of Christ's apostles. And our ancestors having of old provided a maintenance for the ministers of religion, and the land having been divided into parochial districts, and a pastor placed in each, the country has not only had the means afforded it of having "the pure word of God preached, and the sacraments duly administered" by men lawfully called and sent into the Lord's vineyard;' system was also established, and was, once at least, in effective operation, whereby the stewards of the mysteries of God were so advantageously posted for the execution of their office, that they might have access sufficient to the people everywhere, to hold forth unto them

* Article xix. xxiii.

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freely the word of life; -and little therefore remained, supposing the clergy to be faithful, but that this same system should be, from time to time, extended as need and circumstances might require.

But has this been done? Setting other things aside at present, in which our practice. has been little answerable to our advantages, I put it to the clergy and laity alike, have we not, in this main respect, been as sleeping watchmen so that we have indolently shut our eyes against the changes which visibly, nevertheless, and obviously have taken place in the country since the original division of it in order to the cure of souls into parishes, and against those new necessities of our brethren which not less manifestly have thence arisen? And has it not confessedly come to pass in consequence, that there is at length an awful and widely-prevailing famine in the land-" not of bread, nor of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord?" And yet might not this very well have been prevented? and if so, is it not something very inexcusable that it has not been prevented? Is it not a national sin of a very aggravated character, and one that indicates a sad non-improvement, on our own part, of the means of grace?

I know that the present generation and the last have built hospitals for the sick at home, and

sent missionaries to convert the heathen abroad; but yet I think there has been a fearful hiding of our talent in the earth, and dreadful occasion given for the expostulation, "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

If multitudes, professing and calling themselves Christians, had not been dead in sin, and all true disciples had been as fully awake as they should have been-if the Gospel for the fifty years last past had been valued amongst us as was meet, and the worth of the souls of men had been duly thought upon by their brethren-if we had loved God supremely, and our neighbour as ourselves-if we had been earnest in praying, "Thy kingdom come," and had duly reflected that our prayer pledged us to correspondent action—if the children of light had been as wise as those of this world—if we had been as swift (and why might we not have been?) to see the danger to men's spiritual condition from the crowding together of large masses of untaught people, as to perceive the advantage of such concentration of so many workmen for manufacture and profitable production-if people had been half as zealous to do their fellow-creatures good, as to avail themselves of their effective industry-if they had considered themselves to be stewards of

whatsoever gains they got, and that it is required of stewards that they be found faithful—if men in England, having tasted that the Lord is gracious, had seen themselves to be on that account as deeply debtors to their own countrymen, or even to their own labourers, by whose hard work they live, as St. Paul took himself to be on the like account both to Greeks and barbarians,—then things would not have been as now they are. Our ancestors having bequeathed so much to us, and done all that was needed in their day, and shown us how to leaven the whole land with divine truth-we and our immediate predecessors should have trodden in their steps, and have carried on till we had fully carried out their plans, devising liberal things from time to time as they did: and then, by God's blessing on our liberal things, we and our church, our country and its institutions, might have been made to stand. We have slumbered and slept, however; and that is sin. And if so,

II. Can it be that there should not be also fearful peril? If, whilst things have been taking their course, we have been so unobservant and inattentive to the probable consequences, the enemy has not slumbered. If, for the crowds which have risen up around us, or have migrated from their former settlements to come to us, we have not provided either the food for every soul

convenient, or the medicine meet to prevent or heal the distempers so likely to be consequent upon the sudden transplantation of them-he has seen his advantage, and has provided, and is providing daily, more than enough of whatsoever may aggravate their maladies, and of those things which man, untaught of God, will still covet instead of bread, though they can never satisfy, and must at length destroy him.

What then is to follow if we will not arise and be doing; or if, like men but half-awakened, we should suffer one or two faint efforts to exhaust us? This church may be consecrated to-day, as another was a few weeks since; and one of a city, or two of a tribe, may have pastors to feed them with knowledge and understanding; but when" to him with the gold ring and goodly apparel in his good place," we have added-as we are now striving to do with more care than formerly" the poor man in vile raiment at his footstool," it is but as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done, compared to the mass shut out. What is to become of them? and what, let me add, of those also who having freely received themselves, and being put in trust with the knowledge of the Gospel, pray for their fellowcreatures in their assemblies, but help them not to what is needful for their souls?

Look at this neglected multitude: there doubt