"Use me, O Lord, I beseech thee, as an instrument of thy service. Number me among thy peculiar people. Let me be washed in the blood of thy dear Son. Let me be clothed with his righteousness. Let me be sanctified by his Spirit. Transform me more and more into his image. Impart to me, through him, all needful influences of thy purifying, cheering, and comforting Spirit. And let my life be spent under those influences, and in the light of thy gracious countenance, as my Father and my God.

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"And when the solemn hour of death comes, may remember this thy covenant, well ordered in all things, and sure, as all my salvation, and all my desire,' (2 Sam. -xxiii. 5.) though every other hope and enjoyment is perishing and do thou, O Lord, remember it too. Look down with pity, O my heavenly Father, on thy languishing dying child. Embrace me in thine everlasting arms. Put strength and confidence into my departing spirit. And receive it to the abodes of them that sleep in Jesus, peacefully and joyfully to wait the accomplishment of thy great promise to all thy people, even that of a glorious resurrection, and of eternal happiness in thine heavenly presence. And if any surviving friend should, when I am in the dust, meet with this memorial of my solemn transactions with thee, may he make the engagement his own; and do thou graciously admit him to partake in all the blessings of thy covenant, through Jesus the great Mediator of it: to whom with thee, O Father, and thy Holy Spirit, be everlasting praises ascribed, by all the millions who are thus saved by thee, and by all those other celestial spirits, in whose work and blessedness thou shalt call them to share. Amen."

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF ENTERING INTO CHURCH COMMUNION BY AN
ATTENDANCE UPON THE LORD'S-SUPPper.

I HOPE this chapter will find you, by a most express consent, become one of God's covenant people, solemnly and cordially devoted to his service: and it is my hearty

prayer, that the covenant you have made on earth may be ratified in heaven. But for your farther instruction and edification, give me leave to remind you, that our Lord Jesus Christ has appointed a peculiar manner of expressing our regard to him, and of solemnly renewing our covenant with him; which, though it does not forbid any other proper way of doing it, must by no means be set aside, or neglected, for any human methods, how prudent and expedient soever they may appear to us.

Our Lord has wisely ordained, that the advantages of society should be brought into religion; and as by his command, professing Christians assemble together for other acts of public worship, so he has been pleased to institute a social ordinance, in which a whole assembly of them is to come to his table, and there to eat the same bread, and drink the same cup. And this they are to do, as a token of their affectionate remembrance of his dying love, of their solemn surrender of themselves to God, and of their sincere love to one another, and to all their fellow Christians.

That these are indeed the great ends of the Lord'ssupper, I shall not now stay to argue at large. You need only read what the apostle Paul has written in the tenth and eleventh chapters of his first epistle to the Corinthians, to convince you fully of this. He there expressly tells us, that our Lord commanded the bread to be eaten, and the wine to be drank, "in remembrance of him," (1 Cor. xi. 24, 25.) or as a commemoration or memorial of him: so that as often as we attend this institution, we shew forth the Lord's death, which we are to do "even until he come.” (ver. 26.) And it is particularly asserted, that "the cup is the new testament in his blood;" (ver. 25.) that is, it is a seal of that covenant which was ratified by his blood. Now it is evident, that in consequence of tl is, we are to approach it with a view to that covenant, desiring its blessings, and resolving by divine grace to comply with its demands. On the whole, therefore, as the apostle speaks, we have " communion in the body and the blood of Christ,” (1 Cor. x. 16.) and partaking of his table and of his cup, we converse

with Christ, and join ourselves to him as his people; as the heathens in their idolatrous rites had communion with their deities, and joined themselves to them; and the Jews, by eating their sacrifices, conversed with Jehovah, and joined themselves to him. He farther reminds them, that though many, they were one bread and one body, being "all partakers of that one bread," ( 1 Cor. x. 17.) and being “all made to drink into one Spirit;" (1 Cor. xii. 13.) that is, meeting together as if they were but one family, and joining in the commemoration of that one blood, which was their common ran. som, and of their Lord Jesus, their common head. Now it is evident, all these reasonings are equally applicable to Christians in succeeding ages. Permit me, therefore, by the authority of our divine Master, to press upon you the observation of this precept.

And let me also urge it, from the apparent tendency which it has to promote your truest advantage. You are setting out in the Christian life; and I have reminded you at large, of the opposition you must expect to meet with in it. It is the love of Christ which must animate you to break through all. What then can be more desirable than to bear about with you a lively sense of it? and what can awaken that sense more than the contemplation of his death as there represented? Who can behold the bread broken, and the wine poured out, and not reflect how the body of the blessed Jesus was even torn in pieces by his sufferings, and his sacred blood poured forth like water on the ground? Who can think of the heart-rending agonies of the Son of God as the price of our redemption and salvation, and not feel his soul melted with tenderness, and inflamed with grateful affection? What an exalted view does it give us of the blessings of the gospel-covenant, when we consider it as established in the blood of God's only begotten Son? And when we make our approach to God as our heavenly Father, and give up ourselves to his service in this solemn manner, what a solemn tendency has it, to fix the conviction, that we are not our own, being bought with such a price? (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.) What a tendency has it,

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to guard us against every temptation to those sins which we have so solemnly renounced, and to engage our fidelity to him to whom we have bound our souls as with an oath? Well may our hearts be knit together in mutual love, (Col. ii. 2.) when we consider ourselves one in Christ:" (Gal. iii. 28.) his blood becomes the cement of the society, joins us in spirit, not only to each other, but "to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:" (1 Cor. i. 2.) and we anticipate in pleasing hope, that blessed day, when the assembly shall be complete, and we shall all "be for ever with the Lord." (1 Thess. iv. 17.) Well may these views engage us to deny ourselves, and to "take up our cross to follow our crucified Master:" (Matt. xvi. 24.) well may they engage us to do our utmost by prayer, and all other suitable endeavours, to serve his followers and his friends; to serve those whom he hath purchased with his blood, and who are to be his associates and ours, in the glories of a happy immortality.

It is also the express institution and command of our blessed Redeemer, that the members of such societies should be tenderly solicitous for the spiritual welfare of each other and that, on the whole, his churches may be kept pure and holy, that they should "withdraw themselves from every brother that walketh disorderly ;" (2 Thess. iii. 6.) that they should mark such as cause offences or scandals among them, "contrary to the doctrine which they have learned, and avoid them;" (Rom. xvi. 17.) that if any obey not the word of Christ by his apostles, they should have no fellowship or communion "with such, that they may be ashamed;" (2 Thess. iii. 14.) that they should not eat with such as are notoriously irregular in their behaviour, but on the contrary, should "put away from among themselves such wicked persons." (1 Cor. v. 11-13.) It is evident, therefore, that the institution of such societies is greatly for the honour of Christianity, and for the advantage of its particular professors. And consequently, every consideration of obedience to our common Lord,

and of prudent regard to our own benefit and that of our brethren, will require that those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, should enter into then, and assemble among them in these their most solemn and peculiar acts of communion, at his table.

I entreat you therefore, and, if I may presume to say it, in his name, and by his authority, I charge it on your conscience, that this precept of our dying Lord go not, as it were, for nothing with you; but that, if you indeed love him, you keep this, as well as the rest of his commandments. I know you may be ready to form objections. I have elsewhere debated many of the chief of them at large, and, I hope, not without some good effect.* The great question is that which relates to your being prepared for a worthy attendance: and in conjunction with what has been said before, I think that may be brought to a very short issue. Have you, so far as you know your own heart, been sincere in that deliberate surrender of yourself to GOD, through Christ, whica I recommended in the former chapter? If you have, whether it were with or without the particular form or manner of doing it there recommended, you have certainly taken hold of the covenant, and therefore have a right to the seal of it. And there is not, and cannot be, any other view of the ordinance, in which you can have any further objection to it. If you desire to remember Christ's death, if you desire to renew the dedication of yourself to God through him, if you would enlist yourself among his people, if you would love them and do them good according to your ability, and, on the whole, would not allow yourself in the practice of any one known sin, or in the omission of any one known duty, then 1 will venture confidently to say, not only that you may be welcome to the ordinance, but that it was instituted for such as you.

As for other objections, a few words may suffice by way of reply. The weakness of the religious principle in your soul, if it be really implanted there, is so far

See the Fourth of my Sermons to young Persons.