2(30 Deuteronomy, V. 28, 29. [192.

too long; and we shall have a better opportunity of doing it in our next Discourse. But we would here entreat you all so far to bear this objection in your minds, as to cut off all occasion for it as much as possible, and, by the devout manner of your attendance on the services of the Church, to shew, that though you worship God with a form, you also worship him in spirit and in truth. Dissenters themselves know that the repetition of favourite hymns does not generate formality; and they may from thence learn, that the repetition of our excel- lent Liturgy is not really open to that objection. But they will judge from what they see amongst us : if they see that the prayers are read amongst us without any devotion, and that those who hear them are inattentive and irreverent during the ser- vice, they will not impute these evils to the true and proper cause, but to the Liturgy itself: and it is a fact, that they do from this very circumstance derive great advantage for the weakening of men's attachment to the Established Church, and for the augmenting of their own societies. Surely then it becomes us, who are annually sending forth so many ministers into every quarter of the land, to pay particular attention to this point. I am well aware, that where such multitudes of young men are, it is not possible so to control the inconside- rateness of youth, as to suppress all levity, or to maintain that complete order that might be wished ; but I know also, that the ingenuousness of youth is open to conviction upon a subject like this, and that even the strictest discipline upon a point so inter- woven with the honour of the Establishment and the eternal interests of their own souls, would, in a little time, meet with a more cordial concurrence than is generally imagined : it would commend itself to their consciences, and call forth, not only their present approbation, but their lasting gratitude : and if those who are in authority amongst us would lay this matter to heart, and devise means for the carrying it into full effect, more would be done