It

be, "how can I do this great wickedness who "have been at the table of the Lord." In short, the very preparation requisite for this ordinance, the self-examination implied in it, must have a happy tendency to shew us our true state and character, to guard us against sin and to excite us to greater purity and diligence. Further, the sacrament has a natural tendency to strengthen and confirm our faith. subjects what is distant and unseen to the testimony of our senses. It brings the wonderful scenes transacted on Calvary full in our view. It shews us the accomplishment of the divine predictions. It assures us of the immutability of the divine love, and of God's fidelity to his promises; for if he spared not his own son, but delivered him up to the death for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? In short, it shews us by the most lively emblems the ability and willingness of our Saviour to save us to the uttermost. What will not he do for us who humbled himself for our sakes even unto death? And must not he be an all-sufficient Saviour who was made perfect through sufferings? Who learned obedience by the things which he endured? Who having suffered being tempted is both able and willing to succour those who are tempted?

Again, the holy sacrament is naturally calculated to awaken our love and gratitude to our God and Redeemer. While we hold in our hands the visible emblems of our Saviour's body broken and blood shed for our sins, we cannot possibly be so insensible as not to feel our hearts burn within us at the recollection of what he has done for us. While we are actually partaking of the benefits derived from his death, we cannot but feel emotions of gratitude and thankfulness. We will then feel the love of Christ constraining us to love him who first loved us. We will then think nothing too much to do, or too much to suffer, for so generous and beneficent a Saviour. It is wonderful to observe the mighty influence which tokens or memorials of love and friendship have over the human mind. A ring or a picture will call up a remembrance on which the heart delights to dwell, and will revive a love or friendship which distance of time or place, or the interruptions of pleasure and connections, had well nigh erased from the heart. And shall the memorials of the most wonderful love and friendship which ever existed among men have no effect on the hearts of those who are the objects of it?

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A natural effect of communicating must be the strengthening of that love and charity which we ought to entertain for our brethren, especially those of the household of faith. The sacrament is a bond of union among all true believers. While it unites them all to Christ, it unites them also to one another; for we are required to keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, and to be reconciled to our brother, before we offer sacrifice at God's altar. While we are seated at the same table, and partakers of the same feast, we cannot possibly look upon one another as enemies, "for how can two sit to"gether, unless they be agreed?" Nay we must necessarily look upon all our fellowcommunicants as brethren and friends, as serving the same master, believing the same truths, walking by the same rule, entertaining the same hopes, and journeying to the same country. And how comely is it for brethren to dwell together in unity? How unseemly for fellow-travellers to quarrel by the way? How natural for those who have similar interests and pursuits to maintain kindness and concord?

The second kind of advantages derived from

this ordinance, are such as are inseparably annexed to it when worthily received. Among these, the first is, the confirmation of the pardon of our sins. For to those who receive the outward elements with true faith, they signify, seal and apply Christ and all the benefits of his death; of which forgiveness and reconciliation to God are the principal. Not that the performance of this outward act, or even that faith which accompanies it and renders it acceptable in the sight of God, will entitle us to pardon as a matter of right. We all know that the meritorious cause of justification is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Faith is merely

an instrument which appropriates his merits to ourselves. But as our receiving the symbols of his body and blood in the holy sacrament is an outward sign, on our part, of our inwardly accepting him by faith, so the celebration of this ordinance is a sign on God's part of that inward act of justification which is already passed, in virtue of Christ's merit, on all who sincerely believe. As the bow in the cloud in the day of rain is not the reason why God will not destroy the world by a deluge any more, but merely a memorial of God's promise to that effect, and therefore a con

firmation and assurance to men that the world will not be destroyed as heretofore, so the sacred rite of the Lord's supper is a declaration, a token, a proof that an expiation has been made for the sins of men, that God is now appeased and reconciled to his offending offspring, that the hand writing against us is destroyed, that we are now brought near by the blood of the cross, and may approach unto God as children to a father. And what an unspeakable advantage is this, to have the testimony of our senses corresponding to the witness of our spirits, that we are the children of God? That as our bodies are refreshed by bread, so our souls are healed by the stripes laid on Christ's body, and as the wine restores the sick and invigorates the whole, so our souls, dead in trespasses and sins, are revived and sanctified by Christ's blood? The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? "I am the living bread,” said our Saviour, "which came down from "heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he "shall live for ever; and the bread that I will 'give is my flesh, which I will give for the