We are described2 in holy writ, as watchmen :3 and it is the duty of watchmen to be upon their guard, ready to warn, prepared to act. We are described, as shepherds :a and it is the duty of shepherds to bear the extremities of heat and cold, storm and sunshine,-to feed, guide, and defend the sheep in the fold, to seek the lost, and bring back the wanderers to their home. We are described, as stewards and it is the duty of stewards to be diligent and faithful in the trusts committed to their charge. While, therefore, as men we claim a fair participation of all the privileges of society, while as citizens we maintain our inalienable right to the free and full enjoyment of our temporalities, let us never forget, as ministers, the sacred and sublime objects of our holy vocation, the responsible obligations we owe, not to man, but to the everlasting God. An unnatural feeling, (growing, perhaps, in common with other causes, out of the freedom of opinion and debate which marked the early progress of the Reformation, and has not diminished since that glorious era) has, I grieve to observe, almost extinguished those tokens of deference and respect which were once paid to our sacred order. They are now altogether withheld: or, if paid, they are paid for the sake of the individual, rather than of the

2 This view of the subject is handled by Barrow with his usual ability, and colossal learning, in a Consecration Sermon (see Works, vol. i. p. 318,) which will well repay a close and careful analysis. 3 Is. lii. 8... lvi. 10. 4 Ezek. xxxiv. 2. 5 I. Cor. iv. 1.

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order, to which he belongs. Be it our labour, then, my reverend brethren, be it our delight to bring back to the church of Christ the honour, which is due unto her name. Let the beauty of her holiness be chaunted by every tongue, let the lamp of her purity be trimmed and lighted by every hand. Let us each do the work of an evangelist, "in season, out of season.' The blessing of the Lord will rest upon us, the promise of the Redeemer will be ratified and fulfilled. The enemy may then walk round about the ramparts and battlements of our sanctuary, and mark well the towers thereof: but "the virgin, the daughter of our Zion shall despise him, and laugh him to scorn: the daughter of our Jerusalem shall shake her head at him." To promote this glorious consummation, unity of purpose, and unity of action, must characterize and invigorate our doctrine, onr duty, and our discipline, -an object, which is indeed partially attained by our exclusion from the secular paths of ambition, wealth, and political power. While therefore we throw the ample mantle of charity over some bright names, who have abused their talents by departing from the simplicity of Christ, and debasing the gifts of the Spirit ;-while we lament for others, who have been beguiled by the plausible theories of German theology,9 to naturalize the marvels of

9 On this subject

8 The late Rev. E. Irving, and his followers. the early portion of Franks' Hulsean Lectures for 1823-and more recently, Rose's Hulsean Lectures for 1834, may be consulted with advantage.

Jehovah, and bring down the wonders of the Bible to the fashion and level of household terms, (Iliacos intra muros peccatur, et extra,)—let the uniform tenour of our ministerial career bear witness to a literal, an exact, an uncompromising conformity with our ordination vows. And, as in western climes the sepulchral cairn is laid upon the mighty dead by each passing traveller placing a stone thereon, let each of us, my reverend brethren, in his respective station, contribute his slender mite towards the great cause of godliness, and cast it into the common treasury of the Lord. We may be troubled on every side, yet we shall not be distressed: perplexed, but not in despair: persecuted, but not forsaken: cast down, but not destroyed." Our pilgrimage on earth may be full of tribulation, but its close in heaven shall be full of glory. In that tremendous hour, when Oblivion, with her dank and deadly wing, shall brood upon the things of earth; when tombs and sceptres shall alike be shivered into nothingness; and they, who have tenanted the one, and they, who have grasped the other with an iron hand, shall all be summoned before the bar of God's tribunal,-oh! then patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, angels and archangels, "the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant," shall welcome into "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," those good and faithful servants, 2 Heb. xii. 23, 24.

1 II. Cor. iv. 8, 9.

those unwearied ministers of the altar, who have "turned many to righteousness:"3 and that gracious promise, which we have this day examined, and which will have cheered and supported us during our struggles here, will hereafter be renewed and immortalized in the bosom, and in the joy of our Lord.

3 Dan. xii. 3.

FINIS.

J. E. COULTER, PRINTER, SITTINGBOURNE.

THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE

LIFE;

BEING

A SERMON,

PREACHED AT

THE TRIENNIAL VISITATION,

HELD IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF CHIPPENHAM, ON THE 13TH OF AUGUST, 1835,

AND

Published at the Request of the Clergy then present.

BY THE

REV. RANDLE HENRY FEILDEN, M.A.

RECTOR OF ASHLEY, WILTS.

BIB

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY HAMILTON & CO.; RIVINGTONS; AND

HATCHARD & SON.

Goodwyn, Printer, Tetbury.