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THE SAVIOUR'S DEATH.

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compared with this! Their creation would never have called forth songs of eternal praise, so fervent, so lofty, so expressive of infinite benefits, as this event will elicit. And glorious as God shines when he appears the Creator of cherubim and seraphim, of angels, archangels, principalities, and powers, yet their creation would never have invested him with half that glory, which shines around him, as a just God and yet a Saviour. And shall that one amazing, astonishing, overwhelming event, the atoning death of Jesus, thus be remembered to eternity in worlds of light-thus to eternity fill heaven with its sweetest praise, and invest the character of God with its most radiant glories-shall the hearts and songs of the redeemed be full of it for ever and ever-and shall we not remember it with gratitude and delight ?-Will you not listen to him who says, "Do this in remembrance of me?"

§ 4. Perhaps you have done it with repeated delight. Persevere: do it till he come to call you from the sorrows of time, to all the blessings of eternal life. But perhaps I address one that has hitherto lived careless of this sacred ordinance, and disobedient to the Saviour's will. Why do you act thus? Perhaps you reply,

Obj. 1. I apprehend I am not fit to approach the Lord's table, and partake of an ordinance so solemn.

Ans. This objection must spring either from a consciousness that you are a stranger to converting grace, or from incorrect views of the gospel of Christ.

If you are a stranger to converting grace; if you know not what it is to flee from sin and ruin to the Saviour; if you are the slave of allowed sin; then indeed you are unfit to approach this sacred table. But while this is your condition, you are unfit for heaven, and are really and truly fit for hell. The same remark will apply if you know that you are not decided in your acceptance of the Saviour, but halting between him and the world; an almost-Christian, and no more. You are unfit; but then the reason is, you have no part in Christ: you are unfit for heaven, and if you die as you are, sure of not entering there.

But perhaps your fear springs from incorrect views of the gospel. When one who professes to love and follow Christ says, I am not worthy to approach his table, it seems to show that the heart is yielding to a self-righteous bias, and that the

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professed believer, instead of seeking acceptance wholly in Jesus, is depending on some fancied personal worthiness. It is not as a worthy creature, but as an unworthy, yet penitent, believer, that you should commemorate the Saviour's death. What does the ordinance point out to you, which has any reference to a worthiness of yours? Is not its very design to remind you, that when you were yet a condemned sinner, an ungodly creature, without strength, Christ died for you. Perhaps you add,

Obj. 2. I am not absolutely convinced that it would be improper for me to attend to this holy ordinance; but I have many scruples respecting the propriety of my doing so.

Ans. Your scruples are either well founded, or without sufficient foundation. If they are well founded, you sin in living in such a state as gives occasion for them. If there is no sufficient ground for them, you sin if you do not endeavour their removal. Were you heir to a rich estate, but had some doubts about the title-deed, would you not have sought with earnestness the best advice you could obtain upon the subject? Have you done so on a subject of infinitely more importance? Have you disclosed your scruples to your minister, or other intelligent and pious persons? If you have not, it seems that the case truly is this-you care little whether you rebel against the Saviour's authority or obey his sacred precepts.

Obj. 3. It is true I have neglected communion with the church of Christ; but the cause of my neglect has been the wickedness of some, that were professors of religion.

Ans. Will this excuse avail you at the day of judgment? If they have been hypocrites, will this justify you in rebellion? Suppose that the apostle Paul, when ordered by the Saviour to preach the gospel, had replied, No, Lord; in secret I will love thy gospel, but I will never preach it; for Judas preached it once: nor will I ever join thy people; for Judas once belonged to them. What would the Saviour have thought of him? If boundless mercy had not changed him, he would have been left to go on in pride and disobedience, and with all his professed love to the gospel, to travel to perdition. If you rebel against Christ's authority because some false professors have dishonoured him, take care lest this should be

your case.

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Obj. 4. I acknowledge that I neglect communion at the Lord's table; but the reason is, my mind is vexed and troubled, by the conduct of one who attends there. He has said some very unwarrantable things about me.

Ans. Are you to fall out with the ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ, because a brother or sister has fallen out with you? Are you to disobey the Son of God, because a friend has used a harsh word respecting you, or done an unkind action? Is your regard to the Lord's precepts, is your love to his ordinances, is your pleasure in remembering him, so small, that the unkind conduct of an imperfect fellow-sinner should lead you to disobey his commands, and to slight his ordinances? Blush at such weakness, and such weak attachment to the best of friends. Be assured this objection commonly springs from unmortified pride. You are probably indulging rancour and resentment. While you indulge such hellish dispositions, what is your professed religion worth? Unless you forgive you will never be forgiven. But if you feel not these passions, let not the unkind conduct of a fellow-sinner keep you from that ordinance, which reminds you of him who died for all your sins. Go there, and think that ten thousand talents are forgiven you, and forgive and forget an erring brother's debt of a hundred pence.

Obj. 5. I love the Saviour, and wish to follow him; but I fear coming to his table, lest I should eat and drink unworthily, and thus eat and drink damnation to myself. This leads me to neglect his command.

Ans. It is probable that your fears are founded on, mistake. To eat and drink unworthily, and to partake of this ordinance with a deep sense of entire unworthiness, are two things as distinct as possible. The sin of eating and drinking unworthily, is committed when persons commune at the Lord's table in a careless, irreverent manner. So did the Corinthians, when some were hungry and others were drunken.

But probably the idea you attach to the expression, eating and drinking unworthily, is of quite a different description, and consequently you have quite mistaken its meaning. They who were once the chief of sinners, but who have fled to Jesus for salvation, unworthy as they feel themselves, do not eat and drink unworthily, when commemorating his death, who is their hope. But the proud moralist, the good-hearted

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young man, or innocent young woman, as the world esteem: them, who never knew their sinfulness, and whose religion is no more than a little morality, and an outward form, when they come to this sacred table do eat and drink unworthily.

Perhaps you have misunderstood the meaning of the expression, eating and drinking damnation. It is evident from the connexion the word does not signify future punishment, but temporal judgments; for the apostle adds, "For this cause, (viz. eating and drinking unworthily) many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Sickness and death were the judgment that the members of the Corinthian church incurred, by their irreverent behaviour at the Lord's table. But so different was the judgment they endured from damnation, that it was sent to preserve them from that dreadful doom; for the apostle adds, “ When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."a

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§ 6. This sacred ordinance should be treated with a peculiar degree of reverence. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." The feelings we should cherish at the Saviour's table are those of deep self-abasement, sincere gratitude, fervent love, and increasing devotedness to the Son of God. Go not to that sacred ordinance in a light, irreverent way. Go not without self-examination, as to the state of your soul, and your progress in the divine life. Go not there to perform a duty, but to enjoy a privilege. And O, go there with a mind discerning the Lord's body. Tremble at the thought of partaking with a light, irreverent mind of the memorials of the Saviour's love. Place yourself as before his cross, and in the view of an expiring Redeemer, devote yourself anew to him, and let one subject of self-examination, before partaking at the table, be, how far the resolutions formed at the preceding opportunity have been regarded by you. Pursue this course, depending on the Spirit's aid, and though you should feel yourself the unworthiest of the unworthy, yet you will not eat and drink unworthily.

Often improve this sacred privilege. It appears that the primitive Christians very frequently, even weekly, and perhaps oftener, partook of the Lord's supper. If partaken of

(a) 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32.

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with proper views it will nourish every grace, strengthen every virtue, and promote your growing meetness for that world of felicity, where though this ordinance will cease, yet the event it commemorates will be celebrated in the triumphal anthems of the redeemed for ever and for ever.

§ 7. There are many lamentable instances, in which communicants at the table of the Lord manifest a declension in religion by a disposition to neglect that sacred ordinance; and, at the same time, delude themselves with the notion, that they are not going to give up religion altogether. Some extracts from a letter drawn up with the design of sending it to a young female, who was falling into this deplorable condition, may perhaps without impropriety conclude these brief observations on the supper of the Lord. This young woman, while expressing her wish to neglect the Lord's table, professed that she should continue her attendance at public worship.

"A sincere desire to promote your spiritual welfare leads me to trouble you with these lines. Be assured they are written with an earnest wish for your everlasting welfare. Read them seriously, and weigh their purport as carefully as you would do on a dying bed: and as you love your own soul, consider well what you are doing, before you decide on what I fear will prove one of the most fatal actions of your life. Let me be plain with you. That plainness proceeds from love to your soul. Consider then, my friend, what you are doing, and whom you are pleasing by doing so; think what will be the probable consequences of the step you wish to take, and how you will view it at another day; and remember that the reasons of your conduct, whatever they are, must be examined by the Judge of all.

"Consider what you are doing. You wish to leave the church of Christ. Can you leave it without plunging into sin? and when separated from it, can you help leading a life of sin? You cannot, for you will live a life of disobedience to the Redeemer. If you were to live uttering an oath with every sentence, you would think this a wicked life, and it would be so. Its wickedness would arise from its disobedience to him, who said, 'Swear not at all.' But you know that it is as much his will that his disciples should be united in church fellowship, as it is that they should avoid profane language; and it is as great a sin to break Christ's commands

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