DEDICATORY DISCOURSE,

ADDRESSED

TO THE CHURCH AND CONGREGATION

ASSEMBLING FOR WORSHIP

IN ST. JAMES'S STREET, NEWPORT,

ISLE OF WIGHT.

"GRACE BE WITH YOU ALL."

DEDICATORY DISCOURSE.

HEB. XIII. 25.

Grace be with you all.

WE arrive, my brethren, this morning, at the conclusion of an engagement, which has occupied about two-thirds of the sabbaths of something more than three years. A number of very serious considerations are naturally excited by such a circumstance. Of these considerations, I design to notice a few of the most obvious and practical; and then briefly to illustrate the benediction of the text.

I do not hesitate to acknowledge, that I have often felt disposed to charge myself with temerity for attempting the engagement at all. I cannot reflect on the character of this epistle;

the grandeur of its subjects; the obscure and difficult passages which frequently occur in it; without being sensible that, to much necessary to be noticed, it is impossible for an elementary divine to do any thing like justice. I am ready, therefore, freely to confess that, all along, I have regarded the engagement, not only with the feelings of an instructor, but with those of a pupil. I have read, and thought, and written, not from the foolish conceit of being competent adequately to explain this important portion of God's word; but from the conviction that, by honestly attempting "to do what I could," I should be assisted to do something; and that I should unquestionably obtain great personal benefit, while systematically aiming at yours.

Now, I hope both these objects have in some degree been secured; but, that they have been secured to the largest extent, to the extent they might have been, it would be very absurd for either of us to affirm. They have been opposed, I doubt not, sometimes by the want of activity in my mind, sometimes

by the want of attention in yours. Оссаsionally, perhaps, just when more than ordinary research was required, the faculties may have been incapable of effort, or they may have improperly expended their strength upon lighter occupations; or physical indisposition may have prevailed, sufficient to prevent private labour, but not to interfere with public duty; or, unexpected occupations may have interrupted attention; or unseasonable and prolonged demands upon one's time, may have broken in upon the commenced engagement, and destroyed thoughts and feelings that could never be recalled. At other times, after much effort to ascertain the force of particular expressions, or to catch the scope of some involved process of argument, the mind may have been held in a state of anxious indecision, hesitating between views of apparent equal correctness, until the near approach of the hour of instruction warned us that something must be done, as it would soon be necessary for something to be said. In other cases, when all had been fully investigated, satisfactorily