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by which God is grieved and man offended; and the sinner himself rendered miserable; those sins which we must forsake, before we enter into Heaven; since, if we could carry them thither, even Heaven itself would cease to be a place of happiness.

SERMON XI.

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY.

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ST. MARK, xiv. 22, 23, 24.

Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.' And He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, He gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And He said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.

THOUGH in the various opportunities, which I have had of administering in this Church the public Sacrament of the Holy Communion, I have much reason to be satisfied with the numbers, and the seriousness of those who attended, I still have thought it good, by examining a portion of the lesson appointed for this morning's service, to confirm the faith of you all in this Christian and necessary practice; as well as to explain to such as have been prevented from attendance by scruples or fears, or (a much worse and more common reason) by indifference to all religion—I am anxious, I say, to explain to all such, how idle their scruples are; their indif

ference, how criminal; and how vainly the title of Christian is boasted by any who do not attend frequently and faithfully the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ.

I shall, then, first consider the necessity of this ordinance for the salvation of all mankind; and prove that no man, who wilfully absents himself, can at all lay claim to any share in the merits and advantages of Christ on the Cross. I shall next state a few of the immediate advantages and blessings which are promised to the faithful communicant. Lastly, in order to explain to every man the dangers, as well as the blessings, which surround a Christian, I shall shew the nature of the curse denounced against the unworthy receiver; and the means by which this curse may be avoided, and we may, by the grace of Jesus Christ, become worthy and blessed partakers of His Body and Blood.

To impress on your minds, then, the necessity of attendance on the Lord's table, it is proper to consider, first, that Christ's death was a sacrifice for all the sins of all mankind; that God had, in all points, in this our passover, conformed to the passover, or sacrifice for sin among the Jews; or, to speak more properly, that all sacrifice for sin, in shedding the blood of lambs or the like, had been, from the beginning, instituted by God, in order to set forth by signs and figures, that true Lamb, who, from the fall of Adam, was

destined to perish for the sins of mankind. These sacrifices were, in themselves, nothing. The blood of lambs and goats had no natural power to please the Almighty; or to remove His anger against sin; for God had no need of the flesh of bulls or the blood of goats; if He were hungry, He would not have recourse to our aid, "for all the beasts of the forest are His, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills." They could then be only useful, as containing the shadow of good things to come; as referred by faith to that all sufficient sacrifice, which they darkly and imperfectly served to represent.

In this light, however, they were useful, both to these times, and to our own; to both times they were pledges of the covenant which God made to send His Son to redeem mankind; and they served also to teach the world, that all men, as sinners, were deserving of the pains of death.

For the custom at a sacrifice was this. When the lamb, or other animal, was offered up, all the congregation, or priests in their name, laid their hands on its head, and confessed, that they themselves deserved, in like manner, to die for their sins; but that they prayed to God to accept of the death of that creature, instead of theirs. Nor was this all; for, in most ancient sacrifices, and particularly in the yearly celebration of

1 Psalm 1. 10.

the Jewish Passover, the lamb was eaten by those who stood by; as if they became thereby partakers of all the spiritual benefits of its death.

Such were the ancient sacrifices; but the time was now come for the real passover of the Lord; the fulness of time, when all that debt of nature, which the sin of Adam had brought upon the world, was to be paid in the single person of Christ; whose flesh and blood were to be offered up to God in redemption for the lives of all men. I say of all men; for, owing to this blood, all men are restored to life; some will, indeed, be raised again only to give a dreadful account of the opportunities of salvation which they have neglected; but, either for hell or for Heaven, all men must be raised again. There is, indeed, a second death, which is eternal torment; but the earthly death, the destroyer of the earthly body, is conquered and trampled under foot by Christ, who has set all men free from the fear of the grave, and opened to all, who heartily strive by His help to enter, the gates of everlasting joy.

And now, on the evening before this last and bloody passover was offered up by Christ, we behold Him, as described in the lesson of to-day, surrounded by His few remaining friends, feeling already in Himself the pangs of approaching death, and of parting with those whom He loved

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