1785] P^EV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 33 



multitudes were bidden ; and the excuses, which they off^r for not 

 coming, strongly describe the various obstructions which the Gospel 

 would meet with in its reception among men ; from the time of its first 

 promulgation, to that blessed period when the dispersed among the 

 highways and hedges of remotest nations shall hear its Divine call, and 

 " all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord, and 

 of his Christ ! " 



After speaking of certain methods of bringing men to the 

 Heavenly Feast, which the Gospel will not justify — such as 

 external compulsion, or what was as unscriptural, the dressing out 

 the pure religion of the Gospel in a way that offers salvation with- 

 out obedience to its moral precepts, and strives to persuade men 

 that they may become Christians on easier terms than Christ hath 

 appointed, the preacher, coming to the more joyous branch of 

 his subject, says: "The consideration of those methods which the 

 Scriptures not only justifies but com.mands ; whereby all, both 

 clergy and laity, may be instrumental, through the help of God, in 

 compelling others to the profession of the Gospel, and the prac- 

 tice of its Divine precepts." " This," he says, "we may do — 



" 1st. By special instruction and exhortation; 



" 2dly. By living example ; and 



" 3dly. By the decency, devotion, fervency and solemnity of 

 our forms of public worship, and by embracing ev^ery opportunity 

 of their further improvement." 



Having treated, in a forcible way, the first two modes above, 

 mentioned, he comes to the one which prompted the discourse. 

 He says : 



This brings me to my third and chief head on this great occasion ; 

 which was to show that another powerful method of compelling men to 

 come in, is by the decency, devotion, fervency and solemnity of our 

 forms of Public Worship ; using every endeavour in our power for their 

 further improvement. For this good purpose, the representative body 

 of our Church, from a number of these United States, are now assembled 

 or convened. 



Arduous was the work that lay before us. When we took up our 

 Liturgy with a view to certain necessary alterations, wa were struck with 

 the utmost diffidence. We contemplated our Church service as an 

 august and beautiful fabric — venerable for its antiquity — venerable from 

 the memory of those glorious, and now glorified. Luminaries, Saints 

 and Martyrs, who laid the foundations of our Church on the rock of 

 ages. We stood arrested, as it were, at an awful distance — It appeared 



