us. It is our own holiness,--the superabundance of it, of which, having more than we know what to do with ourselves from works of fupererogation, we have transferred the furplus in ecclesiastic ware-houses, and in pure zeal for the good of your souls, have established public banks of merit, ready to be drawn upon at all times.

. Think not, ye men of Israel, or fay within yourselves, that we are unprofitable servants ;

-We have no good works to spare, or that if we had,—we cannot make this use of them;

—that we have no power to circulate our indulgencies,--and huckster them out, as we do, through all the parts of Christendom.Know ye by these presents, that it is our own power which does this ;—the plenitude of our apoftolic power operating with our own holiness that enables us to bind and loose, as seems meet to us on earth ;-to save your souls or deliver them up to Satan, and as they please or displease, to indulge whole kingdoms at once, or excommunicate them all ;-binding kings in chains, and your nobles in links of iron.

That we may never again feel the effects of such language and principles,-may God of his mercy grant us. Amen.

SERMON V.

Ezra ix. 6, 7.
And I said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush

to lift up my face to thee, my God :—for our :
iniquities are increased over our head, and
our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.-
Since the days of our fathers have we been
in a great trespass unto this day.—

THERE is not, I believe, throughout

I all history, an instance of so strange and obstinately corrupt a people, as the Jews, of whom Ezra complains ;-for though, on one hand,—there never was a people that received so many testimonies of God's favour to encourage them to be good,-so, on the other hand, there never was a people which fo often