PETERSFIELD.
Agent-Miss DUPLOCK.
TERCENTENARY ANNIVERSARY OF THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.—On Sunday morning last a most eloquent and impressive sermon was preached on this subject, at the Parish Church, by the Rev. M. A. Smelt. His text was the third verse of the general epistle of St. Jude: ‟Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.” The preacher glanced, in passing, at the fundamental doctrines of our holy religion—viz., justification by faith, the intercession of the one only mediator, and sanctification by the spirit; and contrasted with them the grievous errors of the Church of Rome, such as justification by works, prayers for the dead and to the saints, confession to the priests, intercession of the Virgin Mary, transubstantiation, &c., some of which unhappily had crept into our own church through the defection of those within her pale, who, while they professed the Protestant faith, were practically denying its pure and holy doctrines and fulfilling in themselves the character, given of such by the apostle St. Peter, 2nd Pet., ii., 1. The rev. gentleman concluded by urging upon his hearers, in the strongest terms, that they should, each in his own sphere, ‟earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.”