which are the principal objects of the affections of those whose hearts are animated by the Spirit of God. Such were the blessings, for which, as their Divine Master foresaw, the Apostles were induced

to pray. Such were the blessings which were actually poured out upon them in copious profusion and such also are the blessings with which your fervent petitions to Heaven, if preferred in the name of Christ, will, undoubtedly, be rewarded. But as to the transient and perishable things of earth, they are to be regarded as matters of minor consideration, and should never be the subjects of your supplications to the divine goodness, but with this proviso, that the attainment of them be perfectly consistent with your incomparably more important and exalted interests. For alas! my

friends, so contracted are the views of the human mind, that, like improvident children, you might possibly desire to be indulged in gratifications, which, if granted to your requests, would eventually prove injurious to you. You are not therefore to be surprised, if the Almighty, like a wise, though affectionate parent, do not always, on these occasions, accommodate his dispensations to the inclinations of your hearts. Yet, you are not thence to imagine, that he is inattentive to your petitions, or regardless of your interests. For, although he may not yield to the solicitations of your ignorance, he will give you what, in his wisdom, he shall perceive to be most conducive to your real welfare. He may not, perhaps, in conformity with your

wishes, make any material alteration in the circumstances of your condition, but he will do more, he will provide you with comforts which will cause you to be happy in every condition. He will give you a quiet and contented mind; he will infuse into your souls his heavenly consolations: and he will impart to you an inward satisfaction, delight, and joy, superior far to all the boasted advantages which the world is thought to confer on its most favored votaries.

Such then, my friends, being the great and important benefits derived from prayer, let me entreat you not to be so forgetful of your best and dearest interests, as to neglect that sacred and solemn duty. On the one hand, we cannot be ignorant of our manifold wants; and we are assured, on the other hand, in the Gospel of this day, that we may confidently expect to receive assistance from above, provided we apply for it in a proper frame and disposition of mind, and are careful, at the same time, to have recourse to the powerful and efficacious mediation of the Redeemer of mankind. Let us then, with sentiments of deep humility, of reverential awe, and of filial confidence, prostrate ourselves habitually before our Father, who is in heaven, and entreat him in the name, and for the sake of his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased, to listen with a propitious ear to our earnest supplications. Let us, in conformity with that form of prayer, of which Christ Jesus was himself the author, express to our Father who is in heaven,

our most ardent wish, that he may be universally honored, adored, and loved, throughout the world, and that we ourselves in particular, may contribute, on our parts, to the manifestation of his glory, by the sanctity of our lives. Let us pray, that on earth he will graciously deign to establish in our hearts the kingdom of his grace, that we may be qualified to become hereafter fit associates of the just made perfect, in the kingdom of his glory. Let us beg that his holy will may be the ruling principle of our lives, and that we may studiously endeavour to bring all the faculties of our being under subjection to it. Let us entreat him to grant us a supply of food, which may be necessary for the support of onr corporeal frames, but more especially of that supersubstantial bread, as it is termed in the Gospel, of heavenly grace, which may nourish our souls unto everlasting life. Let us request that he will pardon us the transgressions of his divine law, and that he will mercifully condescend to relax in our behalf, the severity of his just judgments. Let us solicit him to guard us against all the machinations of the infernal enemy, the seductions of the world, and the still more dangerous influence of our own corrupt propensities. Finally, let us present to him our most fervent petitions, that being delivered from every evil, which may be hostile either to our present, or to our future welfare, we may, in the language of the Church, so pass through the goods of this life, as not to lose those which are eternal.

SERMON XXIII.

THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

ON THE SPIRIT OF CONTROVERSY.

At that time,

GOSPEL. St. John, xv. v. 26-xvi. v. 4. Jesus said to his disciples, When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me; and you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. They will put you out of the synagogues, yea the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you.

THE Gospel of this Sunday, like those of the three preceding Sundays, is part of a discourse delivered by our blessed Saviour to his apostles, immediately after his last supper. Having animadverted on the enmity which he had experienced from the Jews, he informed them, that when the Holy Spirit, whom he denominated the Paraclete, that is to say, the advocate and comforter, by way of eminence, should come down upon them conformably to his promise, he would vindicate his character from the unjust reproaches which had been cast upon it, by the honorable testimony which he would bear in his behalf. "But when the Para

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clete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me." And here, by the way, it may not be improper to remark, that in the passage which I have just cited, two important points of Catholic doctrine are clearly announced. The first is the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the second is his procession from the Son as well as from the Father; the former of which is denied by the Unitarians, and the latter by the votaries of the Greek Church. Christ most evidently speaks of him in this place as a distinct person, and of a person too whom he himself would send. Not only did our blessed Saviour acquaint his apostles with the testimony which the Holy Spirit would bear in his regard, as he actually indeed did, when by his descent upon them on the feast of Pentecost, he shed his divine influences over their minds and hearts, and enabled them to perform the most stupendous miracles in support of the pretensions of their divine master, but he told them moreover, that they themselves should bear testimony of him, since by their constant attendance on him during the whole of his ministry, they were peculiarly qualified to be selected for the discharge of that important office. "And you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning." Of the satisfactory manner in which they executed their commission, we actually possess the fullest evidence. For the wonders recorded in the Acts