to pass away ; and that God would then hold out to every man, whether Jew or Gentile, whether bond or free, the golden sceptre of his grace, with free permission to make known to him his every request, even to the half, or to the whole, of his king- dom. To the Gentiles therefore he calls, to " turn from their idols to serve the living God," and to " glorify God with their bodies and their spirits, which are his."]
Let us next consider the words as,
II. A special call to us —
" The beauty of holiness" is yet standing —
[The tabernacle and the temple are indeed long since swept away ; nor is there in existence a vessel that belonged to either. But, if the symbol of God's presence is removed, is God himself therefore gone ? No : he is here, in this very place, as truly as ever he was in his sanctuary of old. He has said, " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." " Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." And have we not also a sacrifice wherewith we may approach him ? Yes, we have a sacrifice of infinitely greater value than all the cattle on a thousand hills. " The sacrifice of his dear Son is to him of a sweet-smelling savour :" and the merit of that every one of us may plead, and plead too with an infallible certainty of accept- ance. What was there in the temple of old which we do not possess ? Not any thing ; not any thing which we do not possess to infinitely greater advantage. The Jews had the shadow ; we have the substance : and what we enjoy as far excels in beauty and in holiness all that they possessed, as a living body excels a reflection of it in a glass.]
And may I not add, that "the beauty of holiness" is more especially visible in the ordinances of the Established Church ?
[I mean not to speak disrespectfully of any other body of Christians whatever, or to detract from their ordinances, however administered : but I must say, and I say it from my inmost soul, that, in my judgment, there is in the worship of the Church of England a beauty and a holiness superior to what is found in any other Church upon earth.
But, not to enter into invidious comparisons, or to diminish the respect which others have for their own peculiar modes of worship, let us confine our attention to the worship of that Church whereof we are members. If the principles on which our worship is founded are any tests of excellence, verily our Church stands most conspicuous for all that is beautiful and holy. The Scriptures themselves are the one standard which she follows. Disdaining the trammels of human systems, she