discharge your Baptismal obligations; I ask you now to make good my promises to the Church; the Church expects it both of me and of you, and God forbid that we should disappoint her reasonable expectations.

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"Be not discouraged at the difficulty of your undertaking believe only the rich promises of God, and you shall not fail. It is true, you "are not able to do these things of yourself; " you cannot in any strength of your own renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil; you have no ability in either your mind or heart to believe one of these Articles of your faith; nor can you "walk in the commandments of God, and serve him without his special grace:" but do not forget, that this grace God is ever ready to give you, and that he loves you at all times to call " on him "for" it "by diligent prayer;" and as you are now a child of his adoption, you are at all times acceptable to him, and his ear is ever open to hear you. You have much to encourage you; for remember what blessed privileges you were admitted to at your Baptism; you were first "made a member of Christ : now I expect the evidences that you are as truly incorporated into, or become a member of Christ's spiritual body, as that my arm or my leg are a part of this my natural body; and these evidences are, that you live in Jesus Christ by the exercise of a lively faith, and that he lives in you by the renewing, sanctifying, and consoling influence

of his Spirit. The life, therefore, which I am desirous of seeing you live in the body, is a spiritual life, which you can only live by "faith of the Son of God."1 Let it encourage you to bring all your wants to a throne of grace, when you remember that Jesus Christ sits as the Head of his body the Church, of which I trust you are a lively member, to supply all your wants, and to give you grace sufficient for every time of need.

"Let me also encourage you by reminding you that as you were at your Baptism "made a member of Christ," you were, in virtue of this connexion with Jesus Christ, then made "the child of God" also. As God is "his Father" so he is now your Father, not by nature but by adoption and grace. You know, that, as you are a sinner, you can claim nothing of God; all that you have from him therefore is in the way of mercy. If I meet a poor ragged houseless starving child in the street, he cannot claim one farthing from my pocket as his right; much less to be taken into my house : but if I extend my pity still further than this; if I take him home to my house, make him one of my family, clothe him at my own expense, seat him at the same table with myself, and introduce him to my friends as my own child, to whom I purpose to leave my property when I die; this is freely and graciously to adopt him as my own child. It is an act of mere pity, of free grace,

1 Gal. ii. 20..

nothing moving me to this act of benevolence but my own will and pleasure. It is thus, that, in virtue of your being a member of Christ through faith, you become a child of God by adoption you are one of his family, you are of the household of God, not a "servant but a Son,' and therefore entitled to see your Father's face, to enjoy what his house affords, to tell him all your wants, to pour all your complaints into his bosom, to find access into his presence at all times by prayer, and to enjoy a constant sense of his kindness and love; and this sense of a Father's kindness and love you will find the grand preservative from sin.

"And being thus God's adopted child, let the third privilege of Baptism encourage you to go" on your way rejoicing;" for being a child of God, you are "an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven;" if a child then an heir, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. Enjoying the privilege of a child, heaven is given you as your everlasting inheritance. It is the free purchase of the blood of Christ, graciously and gratuitously bestowed upon you. You stand before God in the merits of Christ Jesus; he regards you as a portion of his Son, a member of his very body; and the love wherewith he loves him he loves you also, for "so are we in the sight of God as is the very Son of God himself." 2

""Do you not think," then, since all these things are so evidently for your advantage, “ that you are bound to believe and to do as we "have promised for you?" And should you not say "yes" indeed I do think so; and it is my firm intention if God help me with his grace to believe and to do as you have promised for me; and I heartily thank our heavenly Father that he hath thus called me from my natural state of sin and condemnation, to this state of salvation of free mercy and mere grace through the channel of all his mercies Jesus Christ our Saviour: and it shall be my constant prayer to God to give me his grace, that I may continue in this same state of salvation by grace, to the very end of my life, when the grace which he has bestowed on me on earth shall be perfected in the glory of heaven?

"You do well to say "unto my life's end," for it is yours to discharge Baptismal vows, and to enjoy Baptismal privileges to the very last gasp of your mortal life; and of this the Church will not fail to remind you. Whenever you are ill, you will be told of "the profession which you made unto God in your Baptism;" and at your Confirmation, the Bishop will make the most pointed appeal to your conscience, whether you are willing to confirm in your own person the vows and promises of your Baptism.

"Let me conclude then, by affectionately reminding you that a season is approaching when

you are to" be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him;" this "care" is committed to me; and our minister will expect me to see that you are prepared for that solemn occasion. The Bishop will then ask you the questions I have just now put to you; demanding of you whether you do there in the presence of God, and the whole "congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at your Baptism;" and on your answering “I do," as I trust you will through grace be enabled to do with all your heart, he will assume that "God" has "vouchsafed to regenerate you by water and the Holy Ghost," and has given to you "forgiveness of all" your "sins ;" and his prayer will be that God would "strengthen " you" with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, daily increase" in you "his manifold gifts of grace," and that you "may continue" his" for ever." You see then what the Church and its ministers expect from us, that I should present you a truly gracious soul at your Confirmation. It is my heart's desire not to disappoint them. I would watch over your growing years with the most affectionate solicitude, trusting to those kind promises for success, on which alone I undertook the interesting office of your Godfather; and by which I trust you are indeed a "child of God," and that the Holy Ghost is even now "sanctifying " you with "all the elect people of God." And it is my hearty