own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slew to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (23.)

The Gospel. St. John xvi. 5. JESUS said unto his disciples, Now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if

admonish us of duties answerable, to believe in Christ, to rise from the grave of sin, to be patient, loving, meek, charitable, &c; having our Lord for an example, and the promise of his Spirit for our guide, strength, and comfort.

Bp. Sparrow.

(23.) From this passage we should learn, 1. To ascribe with all possible thankfulness every advantage we enjoy, whether of nature, of fortune, or of grace, to the good God alone, who is the giver of them. 2 Hence we are likewise taught, where in particular to lay the inestimable benefit of our spiritual regeneration and salvation. That it is entirely owing to God, and an instance of his free and andeserved grace. 3. It is observable, that he assigns to the "word of truth" a part in this work: and such a part as intimates it to be the instrumental cause of our new and spiritual birth. With regard to which "word" he lays down directions for our behaviour in the three following verses, importing that we make use of all proper means and opportunities for being instructed in this "word," and so understanding our duty that we be modest and do not take upon ourselves to be teachers, through a vain conceit of our own sufficiency: that we endeavour to govern our passions, particularly that of anger, and cultivate its opposite virtue, meekness: and that we lay apart that sensuality and those fleshly lusts, which are irreconcileable with the purity of heart and life enjoined by the Gospel. Lastly, we may observe the significance of that metaphor, which commands us to receive the "ingrafted" word. Ingrafting, it is well known, incorporates one sort of plant with a tree of another: by which means the old stock is not destroyed, but a new quality so superinduced, that the fruit is from thenceforth changed, and made more generous. Thus the "word" must be

I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judg ment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. (24.)

thoroughly joined to us, and made of a piece with us: it must penetrate, and mingle with, and influence, every faculty of our minds. The wild suckers, which sprout from the old sour stock, must be cut low and kept under, that the new scion may receive nourishment, and shoot more vigorously. Thus nature is not taken away, but its luxuriances pared off. Our appetites are not extinguished, but improved, and turned to nobler objects. Our affections, (according to the Collect for the day) from being unruly, alter their taste; and from henceforth "love that which God commands, and desire that which he does promise: and by making this happy change in our originally corrupt temper and inclinations, and so becoming a principle of a new and nobler product, we "have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." And thus it is, that "the ingrafted word" becomes "able to save our souls." Dean Stanhope.

(24.) The Holy Ghost is here spoken of as guiding the apostles into all truth. A consideration of the true import of the guidance ascribed to him may enable us to judge what method he usually takes in the ordinary operations of his grace.

1. He is a guide to Christians, in the sense of one who leads a traveller on the way. He directs them what course to take, he warneth them against the pits and precipices, the difficulties and by-paths, by which, if destitute of such direction, they might wander, or perish in their journey ; and so he brings them forward in that holiness, of which himself is the perfection, and the brightest pattern.

2. He is a guide, inasmuch as he assists and supports men in their passage. This sort of guidance the Holy Spirit performs, when he conde scends to our infirmities, accommodates himself to our capacities, and imparts his gifts and graces, not according to his own fulness and power to give,

The Fifth Sunday after Easter. (25.)

The Collect.

O LORD, from whom all good things do come; grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Epistle. St. James i. 22.

BE ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself,

but in such proportions, as the vessels, into which they are poured, are qualified to receive them.

3. A guide is one who performs the office of a master or teacher. Such a guide is the Holy Ghost. He enlightens dark eyes, but by such illumination, as supposes a willingness to see. He leads men into paths of holiness and salvation, but then he expects a readiness to follow. He gives ability to perform that, which without him never could be done; but it is that, which will not be done neither, without our own pains and concurrence. "The meek" (says David)" he will guide in judgment, and the meek shall he learn his way." Psal. xxv. 9. But still they are "meek." And, although he strengthen our weakness, and inspire our dispositions, and assist our endeavours, to be good; yet is he no where said, by an almighty and irresistible operation, to compel the obstinate, or to drag men along whether they will or no.

Hence it will be no difficult matter, to reconcile those texts of Scripture, which attribute our sanctification and salvation to the "word," with some others which give the same effects to the "Spirit" of God. The short is; this is the efficient, that the instrumental cause. We cannot come to Christ, except we be drawn; and it is his Spirit that draws us; and he draws us by the word. He gives a new turn to our thoughts and inclinations, disposes us to hearken, and consider, and endeavour; and then he renders those actions and endeavours successful. So that all this iseffected by application of proper means, by seasonable suggestions, by influences so gentle and sweet, that all is done with us, and in us. The work is so much the Spirit's, that if we be tractable and willing to do our part, he will not fail to do his: and it is so much our own too, that, if we refuse or neglect our part, he will not do it, either for us, or without us.

So great agreement may we easily perceive, between the Epistle and the Gospel for this day: the

and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein; he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (26.)

The Gospel. St. John xvi. 23.

VERILY, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name,

"word of truth begets " us, and the "Spirit of truth" guides us. So exactly alike are the predispositions, necessary for profiting by both, I conclude, therefore, with most earnestly exhorting every man, as he values his salvation, so to receive the one, and submit to the conduct of the other, that each may attain its proper effect upon him: and, since "Almighty God alone can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men;" let us not be wanting to pray with our Church, that he would grant unto" all his "people, to love the thing which he commandeth, and desire that which he doth promise that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen.

Dean Stanhope.

(25.) The Gospel before promised a Comforter: the Epistle and Gospel this day directs us, what to do to obtain that promise. Two conditions are required on our parts for the receiving of that promised Comforter: first, prayers or rogations, this the Gospel teaches, "Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full:" secondly, to love God, and keep his commandments, (John xiv. 15;) this the Epistle exhorts to, "See that ye be doers of the Word," &c. The Collect prays, that we may feel the fruits and comforts of this holy Spirit in our hearts by good thoughts and abilities to perform them. Bp. Sparrow.

(26.) By resembling the "word" to a glass, it is the apostle's intention to convince the "hearers only," and "not doers," that they mistake the very end and proper use of "the word." For the use of a glass is to represent men to themselves. But the end of that representation is, not that they may sit, and contemplate, and fall into rapturous admiration of their own imagined beauty; but that they may see, and so see, as to correct whatever upon that view is found to be amiss. It is thus they are

he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs; but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I ca ne forth from the Father,

to take effectual care, that their persons and habit be comely and composed; which could not be taken, unless this beholding of their own image had made them sensible how matters are, and how they ought to be with them.

Such is the use and end of the "word" too. By comparing the contents of this with our own dispositions and actions, we may distinctly learn the state of our own souls: and, as that is found to agree or to disagree with the will of God, we have there, not only an opportunity of knowing ourselves, but a certain rule and model, whereby to amend ourselves. They, who will not look into this glass, are not so much as hearers: they who look carelessly, and straightway forget their form, are the hearers, without right application, and that practice which would certainly follow thereupon: for this is a glass which flatters none, who are content to hold it fairly, and take the report it gives a glass, which, men are sensible enough, ought not to be held in vain. But then they are more entertained with the reflections of other people's visages than their own. You shall have them very acute in discovering blemishes and imperfections, and recommending this correction upon their account; ingenious and ready to apply every smart thing they read, every sermon they hear, to their neighbours, and wonderfully qleased to think, how such a one's picture hath been drawn to the life: but in all this they can find no likeness of, no concern for, any fault or failing in the proper place. Hence it is, I mentioned a right application of the word: for this glass is intended to shew, not others to us, but every man to himself: to inform us what we are, in order to make us what we should be; not to divert us with the spots and deformities of our brethren for this would prove the certain way to keep us, nay, and to render us yet a great deal more, what we should not be. Such false appliers and censurers are always too busy abroad, not to overlook that at home, which, of all the rest, stands in most need of being nicely looked into. And, whoover they be, that turn this glass another way, casting off all the discoveries made by it from themselves, and becoming judges of their brother's liber

and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His dis ciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the ty and conscience; they are the very hypocrites reproved by our Lord for employing themselves about the mote in another's eye, without regarding the beam in their own. And how "religious" soever they may" seem," depend upon it, all their "religion is vain."

And so is theirs likewise, who reduce the Christian religion to a mere science, and place all perfection in reading, and hearing, and knowing the precepts of it; who measure their proficiency by the number of sermons they run about to attend, or the good books they are eager to peruse; or by the niceness of the points they are able to argue upon; as if the word had done its business by filling the head, though it never influence the heart at all. A sort of understanding this, to which even ignorance itself, when honest and unaffected, is infinitely preferable. For so our Lord himself pronounced "that servant, which knew his master's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes: but he that knew not," (that is, was not in a capacity of knowing.) "and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." (Luke xii. 47, 48.) Alas! it is action only that crowns all our studies. The word is of equal service and necessity, for quickening and exciting us to what we al ready do, as for instructing us in what we do not yet understand. It is not said, "Happy are ye if ye know these things;" but, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." (John xiii. 17.) In short, to be wise in spiritual matters is no farther an advantage, than as it disposes us to be good, for that alone is being "wise unto salvation." And he, in the Christian sense, knows most, who leads his life best.

So great reason have all those well-meaning people to be very jealous over their own hearts, who use a very commendable industry indeed, in learning the precepts of this law: so much it concerns them to examine, by the marks laid down under my former head, what effect they feel upon their temper and behaviour. And whether, after so frequent, and so zealous, I had almost said, such infinite hearing, they be not like the men of voracious

Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (27.)

appetites, who eat much and greedily, but digest and thrive by nothing; for such are sometimes the keenest and devoutest hearers; deceived by the quantity they take in, and still "hearers" only. And therefore so seasonable and important is the petition of our Church this day; that "He, from whom all good things do come," would "grant us, not only by his holy inspiration to think those things that be good, but by his merciful guiding to perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." Dean Stanhope.

(27.) It may be useful to consider what our Saviour means in this place by calling on his disciples to "he of good cheer."

1. The being of "good cheer" under tribulation" does by no means infer that firmness of mind, (as some philosophers of old miscalled it) which preserves the man from being at all affected with calamities, or moved from his usual easiness of temper. How far human nature might be beholden to them, who bestowed this fanciful perfection upon it, is not worth staying to examine: let it suffice to observe, that relig on is not at all obliged by it; for the Gospel no where goes about to delude us with romantic notions: it tells no man upon a cross, or in a fire. that he feels no pain; or that such pain is nothing to him, because it cannot reach his soul: and yet, it commands every man to continue steadfast in his duty, notwithstanding the most exquisite tortures to deter him from it. It is entirely suited to the condition and common sense of mankind, and would not require more constancy in suffering, if it did not furnish more substantial comforts, than any other system in the world: in short, Christianity leaves nature, and its passions, in the proper exercise of their powers; offers no false ideas of things without us, which experience will be sure to prove false, when we most need and wish to find them true; but it allows the tenderest sense of pain and grief, and yet contrives a way to conquer that sense, and sustain our spirits under the utmost weight of them.

2. This command to be of "good cheer" belongs to such "tribulation" only, as the hand of God brings upon us. The sufferings of these disciples, in propagating the faith, seem to have been principally in our Lord's view at this time; and for these he had long since declared them "blessed." But he had also directed them to join the "wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove;" (Matt. v. 10, 11, 12; x. 16.) and made prudence, as well as perseverance in goodness, a truly Chris

The Ascension-day. (28.)

The Collect.

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only betian duty. When, therefore, men court danger, and draw upon themselves unnecessary sufferings, it is not the best cause, nor the best meaning in the world, that will bear such people out, or entitle them to the comforts of persecuted Christians. For these in truth do suffer, not for Christ's and righteousness' sake, but for their own humour and folly, the enthusiasm of a mistaken, or the heat of an indiscreet zeal. DEAN STANHOPE.

The three Rogation Days, that is, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or the Ascension of our Lord, being by the Church of England appointed to be observed as days of fasting or abstinence, it may be proper in this place to give some account of their original.

These Litanic, or Rogation Days, were first instituted by MAMERTUS, Bishop of Vienna, a little after the middle of the fifth century. MAMERTUS was not the inventor of Litanics, or litanical supplications, but he was the institutor of the Rogation fast, and the first that applied the use of Litanics to the Rogation Days. To avert the irruption of the Goths, and to appease the wrath of Heaven, which was manifested by various calamities, and many strange prodigies; he ordered processional supplications to be made (or to speak more correctly, he obtained permission from the Senate, that they should be made) on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before the Ascension. Rogations being the Latin name given to the processional supplications, the days were called Rogation Days.

Hitherto the whole fifty days of Pentecost had been observed as one continued festival, and the appointment of a fast for three days before the Ascension, appeared to the Spanish Churches so improper a departure from the practice of their forefathers, that the council of Gironne enacted, that the Rogation fast should be kept after the day of Pentecost.

This fast was unknown in the Greek Church which kept Pentecost as one entire festival, in con formity to ancient and general usage. But the example of MAMERTUS was followed by many Churches in the West, and the institution of the Rogation Days, soon passed from the diocese of Vienna into France, and from France into England: though it was not admitted at Rome, before the end of the eighth century, or the beginning of the ninth. The first Council of Orleans enacted, that during the three days before the Ascension, men servants and women servants should be released from work

THE former treatise have I made, O The philus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard.

ing, that all the people might attend the public worship. These processional Rogations continued in England, till the Era of our Reformation.

The injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, which like those of Edward in 1547, prohibit litanical processions, "Require, that the curate in the common perambulations, used heretofore in the days of Rogations, shall at certain convenient places admonish the people to give thanks to God, in the beholding of God's benefits, for the increase and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth, with the saying of the ciii Psalin, Benedic anima mea, &c. at which time also the same minister shall inculcate these, or such sentences: Cursed be he which transla teth the bounds and dolles of his neighbour: or such other order of prayers as shall be appointed."

But no office, or order of prayer, or even single Collect has since been appointed for the Rogation Days in any of our service books: though four very excellent Homilies are provided, the first of which is to be read in the Church, after the ordinary service on Monday, the second on Tuesday, the third on Wednesday, and the fourth on the day that the Perambulation is made.

SHEPHERD.

(28.) Forty days after his resurrection, our blessed Saviour publicly ascended with our human nature into heaven, and presented it to God, who placed it at his own right hand, and by the reception of those first fruits sanctified the whole race of mankind. As a thankful acknowledgment of which great and mysterious act of our redemption, the Church hath from the beginning of Christianity set apart this day for its commemoration; and for the greater solemnity of it, our Church in particular hath selected such peculiar offices as are

of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into

suitable to the occasion; as may be seen by a short view of the particulars. Wheatly.

Forty days being expired since our Lord's resurrection, and he being now about to take his last farewell of his disciples, he came to them as they were assembled in a private place, and among other things, relating to the government of his Church, he particularly charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, until they had received that miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost, which he had promised, and would shortly send down upon them; and having led them out of the city, to that part of the Mount of Olives which was nearest to Bethany, he lifted up his hands, and gave them his solemn benediction; and while they remained in a posture of profound adoration, he was gradually taken from them in a cloud, and carrie:l triumphantly into heaven, where now he sitteth at the right hand of God God blessed for ever. Amen.

In this short history of our Saviour's ascension the Holy Spirit condescends, in a very particular manner, to the measure of our capacities, by attributing to God the parts and gesture of our human body. The hand is the chief instrument of exerting our strength, and is therefore very properly used to denote the power of God. The right hand is the usual place of honour and respect, and therefore implies the highest dignity. Sitting intimates a state of ease and rest, and is properly the posture of those who are vested with power and authority, of kings on their thrones, and magistrates in courts of justice, and therefore, Christ's sitting at God's right hand, implies, that the same bliss, glory, and power, which, as the Son of God, he enjoyed before his incarnation from all eternity,