can we approach the Lord's table, and claim to ourselves the benefits of that redemption which belongs only to the children of Grace? Without "faith in the mercy of God," to pretend that we embrace the offers of Mercy is not piety, but hypocrisy. Without "a thank"ful remembrance of the death of Christ," we clearly pervert this holy institution in the most essential point. Without "charity to "all men," we are guilty of the utmost presumption in applying to ourselves those promises of pardon, in which, we ought to know, we have no share; " for if we forgive not "from our hearts every one his brother their "trespasses, neither will our heavenly Father forgive our trespasses *.' This being the case, it highly concerns us to use every precaution which may tend to preserve us from such aggravated folly and impiety; and, as "the heart," we know, "is deceitful above all 86 things," it is best for us not to trust it; but to search out, even with scrupulous exactness, every fault and failing which lurks in our breasts, and which, perhaps, we have had the art and address to conceal from ourselves as well as the world. * Matt. vi. 15; xviii. 35. + Jerem. xvii. 9. It was not indeed such capital defects as these which St. Paul censured in the Corinthians ;—but will any man say That there is no way but one of receiving the sacrament unworthily? If they drew upon themselves the judgments of God, by confounding the Lord's Supper with a common meal, may not we also have cause to fear divine vengeance if we partake without repentance, without faith, without charity? Is it not wiser therefore to judge ourselves in these essential points, that we" be not judged of the Lord ?" I shall conclude, where I began, with the definition of the word SACRAMENT. After what has been said it will be better understood, and more distinctly applied. A sacrament, we are told, consists of two parts:An outward sign and an inward grace. Of the outward sign there can be no dispute. The difficulty is to ascertain the inward and spiritual grace, conveyed or expressed in each sacrament. Now Baptism, we say, denotes our passage from a life of sin to a life of holi ness. The Lord's Supper, by setting before us the body and blood of Christ, assures us . of a yet greater change, from death to immortality. The grace signified by Baptism is REPENTANCE; the grace signified by the Lord's Supper is PARDON. By Baptism we become members of Christ's Church here upon EARTH; by the Lord's Supper we are assured of admission into his everlasting kingdom in HEAVEN. |