"Yet what a sensible mixture is here of faith and distrust! It was faith, that said Master: it was distrust, as some have construed it, that said, If it be thou. It was faith, that said, Bid me come to thee, implying that his word could as well enable as command; it was faith that durst step down upon that watery pavement; it was distrust, that upon the sight of a mighty wind, feared. It was faith, that he walked: it was distrust, that he sunk it was faith that said, Lord, save me. O, the imperfect composition of the best saint upon earth; as far from pure faith, as from mere infidelity! Far be it from us, to be disheartened with the sense of our defects and imperfections: we believe; Lord help our unbelief.

"While I find some disputing the lawfulness of Peter's suit; others quarrelling with his, If it be thou: let me be taken up with wonder at the faith, the fervour, the heroical valour, of this prime apostle, that durst say, Bid me come to thee upon the waters. He might have suspected that the voice of his Master might have been as easily imitated by that imagined spirit, as his person; he might have feared the blustering tempest, the threatening billows, the yielding nature of that devouring element; but, as despising all these thoughts of misdoubt, such is his desire to be near his Master, that he says, Bid me come to thee upon the waters. He says not, 6 come thou to me.' This had been Christ's act, and not his: neither doth he say, 'Let me come to thee;' this had been his act, and not Christ's: neither doth he say, ' Pray that I may come to thee,' as if this act had been out of the power of either: but, Bid me come to thee. I know thou canst command both the waves and me. All things obey thee: bid me come to thee upon the waters.'

"It was a bold spirit, that could wish; more bold, that could act it. No sooner hath our Saviour said, Come, than he sets his foot upon the unquiet sea; not fearing, either the softness or the roughness of that uncouth passage. We are wont to wonder at the courage of that daring man, who first committed himself to the sea in a frail bark, though he had the strength of an oaken plank to secure him: how valiant must we needs grant him to be that durst set his foot and walk upon the bare sea! True faith tasks itself with difficulties. It is not the scattering of straws, or casting of molehills, whereby the virtue of it is described but removing of mountains.

"Peter sues; Jesus bids. Rather will he work miracles, than disap. point the suit of a faithful man. The suit of ambition in the mother of the Zebedees is suddenly quashed: the suits of revenge in the mouth of the two fiery disciples are received no better; but a suit of faith, though high and seemingly unfit for us, he hath no power to deny. How much less, O Saviour, when the things sued for lie in the very road of our Christianity! Never man said, Bid me come to thee in the way of thy commandments,' whom thou didst not both bid and enable to come.

"True faith rests not in great and good desires, but acts and executes. Peter doth not wish to go, and yet stand still; but his foot answers his tongue and is instantly placed upon the waters. Formal

volitions, yea, velleities* of good, while we will not so much as step out of the ship of our nature to walk unto Christ, are but the faint motions of vain hypocrisy. O Saviour, we have thy command, to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption : let no sea affray us; let no tempest of temptation withhold us!

"Lo, Peter is walking upon the waves: two hands uphold him ; the hand of Christ's power, the hand of his own faith; neither of them would do it alone. The hand of Christ's power laid hold on him; the hand of his faith laid hold on the power of Christ commanding. Had not Christ's hand been powerful, that faith had been in vain had not that faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ, that power had not been effectual to his preservation. While we are here in this world, we walk upon the waters: still the same hands bear us up. If he let go his hold of us, we drown; if we let go our hold of him, we sink and shriek as Peter did here, who, when he saw the wind boisterous, was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried, saying, Lord save me. "So soon as he began to fear, he began to sink. While he believed, the sea was brass; when once he began to distrust, those waves were water. Our faith gives us not only courage and boldness, but also success; our infidelity lays us open to all dangers, to all mischiefs. It was Peter's improvidence, not to foresee; it was his weakness to fear; it was the effect of his fear, to sink; but it was his faith that recollects itself, and breaks through his infidelity, and in sinking could say, Lord, save me.

"It is both the sign and the effect of true faith in sudden extremities to ejaculate holy desires. On the sudden, a man will appear as he is. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. It is good, therefore, to observe how our surprisals find us; and whether with the wings of our first thoughts, we fly up instantly to the throne grace, for present succour. O Saviour, no evil can be swifter than my thought: my thought shall be upon thee, ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief.

of

"It was Christ his Lord, whom Peter had offended in distrusting; it is Christ his Lord, to whom he sues for deliverance. His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge. O God, when we have displeased thee, when we have sunk in thy displeasure, whither should we fly for aid, but to thee, whom we have provoked? Against thee only is our sin; in thee only, is our help. In vain shall all the powers of heaven and earth conspire to relieve us, if thou withhold thy succour. As we offend thy justice daily by our sins, so let us rely continually upon thy mercy, by the strength of our faith. Lord

save us.

"The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found; immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. He doth not say, Hadst thou trusted me, I would have safely preserved thee; but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly dif

* Velleity means the lowest degree of desire; an idle unoperative desire of the end, without any consideration of the means.

fidence, sink and drown;' but rather, as pitying the infirmity of his fearful disciple, he puts out the hand for his relief. That hand has been stretched forth for the aid of many a one, that hath never asked it; never any asked it, to whose succour it hath not been stretched. With what speed, with what confidence should we fly to that sovereign bounty, from which never any suitor was sent away empty!

Jesus gave Peter his hand; but withal he gave him a check: O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? As Peter's faith was not pure, but mixed with some distrust; so our Saviour's help was not clear and absolute, but mixed with some reproof. When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters, I could not but wonder at his great faith; yet behold, ere he can have measured many paces, the Judge of bearts taxes him for little faith. Our mountains are but motes to God. Would my heart have served me, to dare the doing of this, that Peter did? Durst I have set my foot where he did? O Saviour, if thou foundest cause to censure the weakness and poverty of his faith, what mayest thou well say to mine? They mistake, that think thou wilt take up with any thing.

"The first steps were confident; there was fear in the next. O the sudden alteration of our affections, of our dispositions! One pace varies our spiritual condition. What hold is there of so fickle creatures, if we be left never so little to ourselves? This lower world is the region of mutability. It is for the blessed saints and angels above to be fixed in good.

"As well as our Saviour loves Peter, yet he chides him. It is the fruit of his favour and mercy, that we escape judgment; not that we escape reproof. Had not Peter found grace with his Master, he had been suffered to sink in silence: now he is saved with a check. There may be more love in frowns, than in smiles: whom he loves he chastises. Correct me, O Lord, yet in thy judgment, not in thy fury. O let the righteous God smite me, when I offend, with his gracious reproofs; these shall be a precious oil, that shall not break my head."

SERMON.-No. XXVIII.

THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF ZION.*

PSALM xlviii. 12, 13.-Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

ZION, as used in the text, means Jerusalem; and the psalm, from which the text is selected, was probably written on some occasion of her special prosperity. The particular occasion does not seem perfectly well known; for it has been supposed, by different commen

* Delivered at Claremont, New Hampshire, before the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in that state, August 22, 1822.

tators, to have been the destruction of the Philistines by David,* the deliverance of Jerusalem from the power and rage of Sennacherib,† and the triumph of Jehosaphat over the combined forces of Moab and Ammon. But if the particular occasion is not well known, there can be no doubt it was written after some remarkable interposition of the Almighty, in rescuing the mountain of his holiness, as Jerusalem is termed in the first verse of the psalm, from powerful assailants. The whole psalm indicates, that this is the fact. Having commenced with a lively and devout recognition of the majesty and goodness of God, it speaks of the natural pre-eminence of Jerusalem, being beautiful for situation, and then, with a quick transition, declares that God is in her palaces for a refuge. After this introduction the pious psalmist touches upon the principal circumstances which constituted the occasion of his writing, saying, For, lo. the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. And in the concluding part of the psalm, he breaks forth, with all the ardour of devout feeling; Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide until death.

Jerusalem was a city of great beauty and strength; and in the estimation of her inhabitants, at least, was the admiration of the whole earth. Her lofty towers, her splendid palaces, and her powerful bulwarks were so many objects of the greatest national pride. It was to these monuments of grandeur and defence that she had frequently been indebted for deliverance from her enemies. When they saw such an assemblage of power, and beauty, and magnificence, they marvelled, they were troubled, and they hasted away. Hence, David, in the text, directed the attention of his brethren to the towers, bulwarks, and palaces of their beloved city. His object in thus directing their attention was a highly commendable one; and the means for obtaining it were rationally and judiciously conceived. This object seems to have been, to inspire them with gratitude to God for the deliverances mentioned; with veneration for the means by which these deliverances had been effected; and with an unshaken reliance on the same means for future safety and prosperity. It was indeed natural, that whenever they beheld the objects which had been the means of their past security and triumph over their enemies, their hearts should have expanded with holy gratitude; that they should have felt an enthusiastick veneration for these objects; and that they should have had a strong desire to preserve them unimpaired, for future ornament and defence, even to the generation following.

As Jerusalem was typical of that heavenly city whose inhabitants shall have come off conquerors over every foe; as Mount Zion was 2 Chron. xx. 27, 28.

* 2 Samuel v. 17-21. + 2 Kings, xix. 34, 35.

typical of the spiritual Zion which triumphs amidst every species of opposition, and against which, we have the blessed assurance, that the gutes of hell can never prevail, so the psalm from which our text is taken is considered susceptible of a spiritual illustration; is considered descriptive of the deliverances which the Christian church experiences, when assailed by the enemies of religion. Often indeed, my Christian brethren, have the most sacred rites of the church been trodden under foot, as if an unholy thing! Often indeed has all the violence of persecution been directed against her consecrated walls! Often have her glittering spires been enveloped in the flames of her adversaries, as if to purify by fire the very atmosphere through which had ascended the incense of piety! And often has the blood of her children been made to flow, as if to wash away in its mighty torrent every vestige of Christianity from off the face of the earth! Yet, by the mercy of God, the church is still preserved; is preserved like the bush of Moses, in the midst of the flames, yet unhurt! 66 Walk," then, my brethren, "about Zion, and go round about her tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following."

And may not the sentiment of the text be applicable to that portion of the Christian church in particular of which we are members, and at this time the representatives. Assembled as we now are to consult on its interests; to repair what may be found wanting; to cherish and give all needed stability to what is already well ordered; and to contemplate its various excellences, that our hearts may the more cleave to it may not we, my brethren, adopt and enforce upon ourselves this sentiment, with the greatest propriety! That portion of the spiritual Zion, to which we belong, has certainly high claims upon our love and veneration. It has passed through various scenes of adversity, with no other effect than that upon gold which returns from the fire purified and made more precious; it is even now breaking forth upon an admiring world, like the light of the morning! In adapting the sentiment of the text and our meditations upon it to the present occasion, I shall notice such particulars in our Church as may be esteemed her bulwarks, her towers, and her palaces; to which she is indebted for present existence, and on which she must depend for future existence and prosperity. These particulars are her ministry, her articles of faith, and her formularies of worship: the exhibition and illustration of which, together with remarks incidental to the subject generally and to the occasion on which we are assembled, will claim your candid and devout attention.

The ministry of the Church is so intimately connected with its organization and polity, that a reference, at least, to the latter is a necessary preliminary to a consideration of the former. Our remarks then, in this division of the subject, will be commenced with an inquiry concerning the nature of the Christian church. Is it visible or invisible? Is it a human or divine institution. It is concluded, that the church is a visible society, because its members are admitted by the seal of a visible sacrament; and because fellowship is maintained