and show you how each and all are alike condemned by the united testimony of the early Church, and of the plain declarations of the Word of God. But I cannot believe it to be necessary to place any lengthened exposure of these errors before the members of this congregation. Ye have not, indeed, so learned Christ. Ye have ever had declared to you "the whole counsel of God." Ye have been taught to know the corruption of our fallen nature as the ground of your need of a Saviour. Ye have had Christ constantly pointed out to you in all his offices-as born holy, and living holy, and yet paying the penalty of disobedience, and becoming thereby the chastisement for our offences. Ye have had Christ set before you as the risen Saviour, as rising in our nature, and ascending in that nature into heaven, that He might continue by the work of His intercession, the efficacy of the atonement He came to accomplish. Ye have had the Holy Ghost constantly placed before you as the sole agent of converting, renewing, and sanctifying the soul of the believer. Ye have had the Church set before you as the channel of grace, as the means of incorporating men into the mystical body of Christ; as a society, which ought to be co-extensive with the nations of the earth, not by the obedience of all kings and potentates to one Bishop, the Supreme Vicar of Christ, but by the establishment in every land of a National Church; which, though, in its individual jurisdiction, separate and independent, yet, should by teaching the same truths, holding the same discipline, and maintaining the same worship as the rest, prove itself to be a branch of one large society, which in its totality, ought to be coextensive with the world; and which ought to keep up among men of every clime and tongue, the knowledge of her invisible Head now passed into the heavens. Ye have thus had proclaimed to you the great truths of our holy religion, as contained in the Scriptures, as taught by the testimony of the early Church, and as testified to, by the authoritative standards of the Church of England. And, my brethren, in thus placing these truths before you, I can at the termination of my ministry among you, "take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God." And now, in conclusion, I must ask permission to make to you as it were, a last parting application. The Apostle Paul, in the narrative from which the text is selected, besought the elders of Ephesus "to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive." I would make it my last parting request to you, that you would continue to support the two local societies, the claims of which I have in each year personally enforced upon you. The one, the Relief Society, established for mitigating the sicknesses, relieving the wants, and removing the distresses of the poor immediately around us; the other, our local Missionary Institution, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. I fully believe in the individual responsibility, resting on the soul of every one who receives the Gospel, to impart to others a knowledge of its truths. I, at least, am free from blood-guiltiness in setting this point fully before you; and I call on you to record, that through evil report and good report, I have not shunned to declare unto you this counsel of God. I pray you, then, once again, to give your support to these institutions; to aid them, not from impulse, but from principle; not from excitement, but from conviction; not now and then, as caprice and inclination may dictate, but as a solemn duty, binding on the conscience of each; and for the fulfilment of which each will be called to give account. It only remains for me publicly to express my thanks to those among you, from whom I have received personal kindness, whether as regards myself or as regards administering to the wants of those whom I have occasionally ventured to recommened to your notice. As long as memory endures, I shall remember, with pleasure, the period of my ministration among you. I trust that, though I am conscious of many imperfections and many short comings in the performance of my duty, yet that the period of my ministry may not have been entirely unblessed or unprofitable to some among you. In this hope, and in humble dependence on the Divine Blessing, "I now commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, (which I have ever preached among you) which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them who are sanctified." Printed by STEWART and MURRAY, Old Bailey. |