observe and do what was commanded by those that sat on Moses' seat,' even though they were bad men?

Have we any warrant in Scripture for thinking little of the pattern set us by Saints? or are we not in truth plainly commanded in the text, to consider well the examples left us, and to take care that we follow them, even as they followed CHRIST.

And asthis is so, does not our own reason tell us that it must be a very good thing for us to have certain days appointed, on which we may consider and compare together the different things mentioned in the Bible, about any one or two of the Apostles or other Saints? For if you were but once to try and make out what is said in different places about any one, you would be astonished to find how much more there is, than you might have supposed before you searched it out. Many, many lessons, may be derived in this way, from the example of any one or two Saints.

And whereas it is said that such are observances unsuited to the present times, the whole truth is, that many people in the present day are disinclined to this on any other restraint from religion. But it by no means follows from thence, that religious restraints are not good for them; but rather that they need such restraints the more. And I am sure, that the due observance of such days would be the most powerful means, under God's blessing, of restoring amongst us the sober and practical zeal and piety, which adorned the Church in early ages.

One great cause in truth that keeps many from such observances, who in their hearts know that they are right and good, is the fear of shame and ridicule.

1 St. Matt. xxiii. 3.

There are, I am convinced, a considerable number every where, who would observe these things-would receive the Sacraments of the LORD's Supper; and who would in short set themselves to follow the Saints, but they are afraid of what people will say of them. For that shame, many it is to be feared lose all their hope. For we know, that "Whosoever shall be ashamed of CHRIST and of His words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the SON of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His FATHER with the Holy Angels.""

The Saints who are now at rest, and with CHRIST, despised that shame, and overcame the world, and they already experience in part the fulfilment of His blessed promise, which one day they will most surely receive in full; "To him that overcometh, I will grant to sit with ME in My Throne." Now, even now, they are with CHRIST in that blessed mansion of rest, where the light of His countenance visits and shines continually on the spirits of the just. If we would be partakers with them we must take care that no shame, no fear, ever keep us back from serving CHRIST, or from honouring those who have approved themselves to HIM, and are by HIM set before us for our imitation.

G. P.

1 St. Mark viii. 38.

2 Rev. iii. 21.

SERMON XLVIII.

THE CHURCH CATHOLIC.

Third Sunday after Easter.

ACTS x. 15.

AND THE VOICE SPAKE UNTO HIM AGAIN THE SECOND time, WHAT GOD HATH CLEANSED, THAT CALL NOT THOU COMMON.

AMONG Balaam's prophecies respecting Israel, there is one that exactly describes a remarkable feature of the Mosaic dispensation. "From the hills I behold HIM : Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned amongst the nations." We are all aware how perfectly this prophecy was fulfilled. The people did dwell alone, both as a religious and a political society. GOD's peculiar people though they were, their name and their history has no place among the records of the wise or the mighty of earth.

This peculiarity was also foretold in another way; foretold, not by words, but by a divinely-appointed ordinance. And, in fact, the ordinance did more than typify and declare it, for it was itself, in some measure, the very cause of it. I refer to the distinction of meats into clean and unclean. "I am the LORD your God,

1 Numb. xxiii. 9.

which have separated you from other people: Ye shall therefore (therefore, observe), put a difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls, and clean." Thus, the clean beasts represented the holy nation, the unclean ones the nations of the world, those who were without the covenant. We need not indeed suppose that no further use, no moral use, was proposed by the distinction. On the contrary, the animals selected as clean were doubtless so chosen on account of what we may term certain moral characteristics belonging to them; and by these they were intended to remind the Jews of the character which a holy GoD required in the members of the favoured race. On the other hand, the animals marked out as unclean did certainly represent qualities that ought not to exist where the One True GOD is known. And much instruction might be gathered from a consideration of the parts of this subject, what qualities, namely, in the clean beasts made them, as it were, a book suggesting lessons of morality, and what qualities in the unclean ones gave to them, as it were, a voice to speak in warning against certain vices. Still, it is true that the distinction of which we speak had a reference to something further than to points of morality. It not only indicated a difference between moral good and evil, but also a difference between persons, between man and man, between nation and nation, between the world, visibly such, and the visible Church. This is shown by a passage which has been already repeated from the twentieth chapter of Leviticus. But it is shown with more certainty, and with a certainty impossible to question, by the history in the chapter which contains the text. The vision is there fully explained by the mission on which St. Peter is sent, that of opening the 1 Levit. xx. 24, 25.

door of faith to the Gentiles. And he says himself,

God hath showed me," (that is, had showed him by a vision of clean and unclean creatures, and by a voice from heaven, which interpreted the vision,) “GOD hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean." Any man; the Gentiles are no longer common or unclean. "Therefore came I unto you. " He came at once to Cornelius, though a man unclean according to the law. A pious proselyte, indeed, Cornelius was, not unclean in the courts above, but unclean by the rules of a divinely-given Institute on earth.

Accordingly, the difference of clean and unclean was a perpetual sign of that feature in the Mosaic dispensation to which Balaam's prophecy referred. And it appears at first sight a remarkable fact, that laws and ordinances, intended to keep alive a knowledge of the One God and of coming Redemption, should have been so framed as to shut out all nations from a share in them, except one. Yet so it was. Reasons may indeed be assigned for it, but at present we are not concerned with them. But such was the fact. The true religion, the Divine dispensation of the elder Covenant, was for one people only on the face of the whole earth.

All others were passed by. Traditions of the truth came down to them, keeping pace with the footsteps of time, but their voice grew fainter day by day, and spoke a less intelligible language. Ceremonies, borrowed from earlier ages, continued in outward shape, but their meaning (and what they properly meant was (true became obscurer, as their origin was thrown farther back. Who can tell what questionings unan