Again: suppose a case still more deplorable. There are many of your fellow creatures under confinement on divers accounts; fast bound are they in misery and iron, chained down, perhaps, in some deep dungeon, excluded from the cheerful light of day. Suppose, I say, that you were in such a wretched condition, and that you were suddenly to hear the voice of one exclaiming, "Prisoners, you are free:" that you were to perceive your chains falling off, and the light bursting in; that you knew the doors were thrown wide open, and that you had nothing to do, but to walk abroad, and be at large. Would you refuse your liberty upon such a gracious offer? Would you cling to your fetters as dear companions that you did not wish to get rid of, and say, "let me still remain in the darkness, to which I have so long been accustomed." Surely not. Yet, Christ offers deliverance from a worse imprisonment, from heavier chains, and from the horrors of a deeper dungeon; but you regard him not; you will not believe his word, and will not allow him to be your benefactor and your friend. Once more; you may suppose yourselves in a situation even worse than any of the foregoing. There are those, who, having been tried for capital offences, and convicted, are delivered up into the hands of the executioner, that they may undergo the

Imagine your

dreadful sentence of the law. selves one of those unhappy persons, that your hands were bound, the cap drawn over your eyes, the platform just ready to drop, and that you were to be launched in one moment into eternity, there to stand before the judgment seat of an angry God. Imagine, that in that instant you heard a murmur and bustle among the crowd, and a messenger from the King declare "Stop the execution of that criminal; loose him, and restore him to his family and friends, for I have brought a pardon."Would you refuse such grace? Would you

"Let the King, your

say to the messenger, master, keep his pardon to himself; I will not have it, but here I will die, and rush, with all my sins upon my head, into that eternity which is just before me?" No, you would not say so; yet, while the ministers of death are prepared to take hold of you; and damnation itself awaits you, and you hear the voice of Jesus, saying, "Save him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom ;-here am I with pardon, life, and salvation;" you will not listen, you spurn his mercy, and choose to perish in your sins.

"And do we really lose all these benefits,” you will perhaps say, "by refusing to come to the sacrament?" In answer to such a ques

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tion I would observe, that it is not the sacrament itself that has power to save you, but that glorious Redeemer, who is represented in it, whose dying love you there commemorate, whose grace you there implore, and whose spirit to sanctify and govern you, you therein obtain; and as an assembly of real communicants is the most solemn that can be conceived, and the presence of Christ is undoubtedly among them, you debar yourselves of that, which is most likely to be conducive to your spiritual welfare, and too plainly declare that you have no part in him, who so kindly invites you to accept of his salvation. O! how lamentable is it, that so many called christians should derive no comfort from "the most comfortable sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ." "Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn unto him." "Come unto me, all that travail, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.' *** "So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." Hear also what St. Paul saith, "This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Hear also what St. + John, iii. 16. 1 Tim. i. 15.

*Matt. ix. 28:

"We

John saith-" If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins."* These sentences are read to the people as often as the Lord's Supper is administered, and can any thing be more encouraging? But, you will observe, at least some of you, apprehend that it would be presumption in us to partake of the Supper of the Lord, and we are afraid to do it, because it is said, "the danger is great if we receive the same unworthily; for then we are guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour; we eat and drink our own damnation, not discerning the Lord's body; we kindle God's wrath against us; we provoke him to plague us with divers diseases and sundry kinds of death." But, in one sense, no person is worthy, and if our demerit is to stand in the way of our being partakers we must all keep far off. Such is the language in which we utter our humble confession in the presence of God, first, in the Prayer, which is used immediately before the Consecration of the Elements, and, secondly, in another Prayer near the conclusion. In the first prayer the words spoken by the priest, and the people with him, are the following: "We do not presume to come to this thy table,

*John, ii. 1, 2.

merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table; but thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy" and in the, other prayer the words are these, "Although we be unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer thee any sacrifice; yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences through Jesus Christ our Lord." Who then is worthy? Verily those, who are sensible of their unworthiness; those, who have nothing to say, but "God be merciful to us sinners ;"-those only, who are convinced they have no righteousness of their own to render them deserving, but who are certain that if ever they are so happy as to obtain the remission of their sins, it must be " by the merits and death of Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood."

But, I suspect there is another reason, which keeps many away from the sacrament, and which they will be ashamed to own. When the table of the Lord is spread, and the people are about to be partakers, the minister addresses them in the following words: "Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours,