branch this was of Jewish worship. The Christian public service of religion was principally modelled after that of the synagogue. It is further observable, that it was the weekly practice of the early Christians to make collections for the poor, the sick, and for all in circumstances of distress and affliction, and that they considered this as a necessary dictate of their religion. It appears

also from this passage of Justin, that, as I have said above, the celebration of the eucharist constituted an important part of their weekly service. This is still retained in the popish church, although the rite itself is most scandalously perverted by their absurd and corrupt doctrine concerning its nature and object. With this exception, in regard to the weekly celebration of this solemn rite, whose character I shall briefly state under the head which immediately follows, Justin's account furnishes, a pretty exact description of the worship of the protestant churches, and particularly of that of the church of Scotland: Thus, the Deity desires not sacrifice and of fering. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart the Lord will not despise." To produce these, and every other becoming disposition in the worshippers, the sublime simplicity of the Christian service is admirably calculated.

2dly, In like manner the positive and ritual institutions of Christianity are few, simple, edifying, yet attended with no magical effect in the mere performance. Superfluous and gaudy ornament disfigures real beauty. A multitude of rites, like clouds, which obscure the face of the sun, or intercept his rays, diminish the lustre of pure religion, and obstruct its genuine influence. Its true glory consists in its simplicity, and its radiance is brightest when it is not transmitted through stained glass. This may delight the eye with the variety of its colours; but it excludes the view of the azure firmament of heaven. The Christian rites have, by a term borrowed from the solemn oath which bound the Roman soldiers to fidelity, been by divines denominated sacraments. Two only, baptism and the Lord's supper, were instituted by Christ. The institution of the former is in these words, as recorded by Matthew, "Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The institution of the Lord's supper is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke; but most explicitly by the apostle Paul, in these well-known words, "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread;

a Matt. xxviii. 19. b Matt. xxvi. 26-28. Mark xiv. 22-24. Luke xxii. 19, 20.

and, when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body which was broken for you; this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For, as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." Thus, baptism is the rite by which Christians are initiated into the church; the Lord's supper is that by which they commemorate their Saviour's death, for the remission of their sins, till his second coming. The former is, by its very nature, to be administered only once to the same person; because it is a contradiction to suppose that initiation can be repeated. The latter may, and ought to be celebrated frequently, because the event which it commemorates is the foundation of the pardon of sin, without which salvation is impossible, and cannot therefore be too strongly impressed on the professors of Christianity. It has been already shown that the celebration of this rite formed a part of the weekly worship of the primitive church. But, as there is no positive precept in the New Testament, by which this regular frequency of the celebration is injoined, the diminution of its effect, in conse

a 1 Cor. xi. 23-26.

quence of the habitual practice, may, in protestant churches, have induced the disuse of this hebdomadal recurrence. On the other hand, as men are always apt to run to extremes, the administration of this ordinance is generally less frequent than it ought to be, and has been chiefly rendered so by the appendages with which, in some churches, it has been connected, and for which scripture furnishes no warrant whatever. Nay, I cannot help thinking that these appendages, of mere human institution, have diverted this simple and most salutary ordinance from its real object, and superinduced erroneous notions of its nature and character. So difficult is it for mankind, even when they enjoy the purest forms of religion, to receive it in that simplicity which marks its divine origin, and to abstain from mingling with its pure ore certain proportions of the alloy of human ignorance and corruption!

The apostle thus evidently alludes to both sacraments, to their objects, and to their effects on the conduct of believers. "Let us draw near, with a pure heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." This last clause relates to baptism; the sprinkling of our hearts from an evil conscience, expresses the shedding of Christ's blood,

a

a Heb. x. 22.

for the pardon of sin, by which the terrors of conscience are removed; and of this, the sacrament of the Lord's supper is the commemoration. The natural effect which the due consideration of the objects represented by both institutions, is that purity and integrity of heart which the whole of Christianity is intended to produce, and which alone can give, under the influence of divine grace, full assurance of faith. The apostle's figurative language is evidently borrowed from the Jewish rites of washing, as a preparation for entering the sanctuary; and of sprinkling, on the great day of expiation, the blood of the sin-offering seven times, on and before the mercy-seat,"

As the Christian rites are few, they are thus extremely simple. Pure water, and bread and wine, are the only external symbols employed. Neither the worship of God is disfigured by ostentatious pomp, nor are the worshippers burdened by a multiplicity of ceremonies. Whether in the simple solemnity of introduction, or in that of the commemoration of the Saviour's cruel and ignominious death, nothing severe or shocking to natural feeling is admitted. All corresponds with the mild, the beneficent, the exalted spirit of the religion which is professed. The water used in baptism, is a symbol of the

a Numb. xix. 10. Levit. xyi. 14-16.