trial. I admire her no less for her own sake, than for the sake of those martyrs and confessors who shed their blood in her cause. I am, therefore, anxious to impress others with that conviction which I so strongly feel, the conviction, I mean, that the peculiar circumstances of religion at this awful era demand the exertions of every thinking man in behalf of that holy faith, which in the sacred records, was once, (once for all) "delivered to the Saints.*" I cannot, then, but rejoice to find that, amidst the different changes and revolutions which have lately taken place, no alteration is, at present, likely to be made in the articles and invaluable liturgy of our Church. As long as the doctrines contained in them both shall be generally dispersed among her members, so long will the spirit of the Reformation be kept alive: so long will our Apostolical Church, pure in her confessions, evangelical in her doctrines, and spiritual in her services, continue the House of God amongst us, the Church of the living God, "the pillar and ground of the truth."t Let us, therefore, unite in earnest prayer to Him who hath all hearts in His hands, to dispose them to this "work of faith and labour and love; ‡ to vouchsafe His blessing on this and every occasion that may conspire to the great end of advancing His truth, * Jude iii. † 1 Tim. iii. 15. 1 Thess. i. 3. and spreading the power of His religion in the world, that in that day of solemn inquiry whether we have wrought the works of Him that sent us, we may be found in the number and share the happiness of those who "have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. "* * Phil. ii. 16. THE END. CHELSEA : BLATCH, PRINTER, 23, EXETER STREET, SLOANE STREET. |