Thirdly, What is required of them that come to the Lord's Supper.

With respect to the preparatory duties requisite to a worthy reception of the sacrament, Saint Paul has left this precept, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread." Which will be easily explained, by recurring to what has been already said of the nature of the sacrament.

By partaking of the communion, we declare, in the most solemn manner, in the presence of God and man, that we hold the faith of Jesus; that we are his followers, who expect eternal salvation from his merits; and, therefore, that we engage ourselves to that obedience to his commands, and that strictness and regularity of life, which he requires from those who place their confidence in his mediation: we profess, likewise, that we sincerely and humbly repent of those offences by which we have separated ourselves from him; and that, in consequence of this profession, we unite ourselves again to the communion of the church.

Nothing can be more reasonable, before this solemn profession, than that a man examine himself, whether it be true; whether he really and unfeignedly resolves to accept the conditions of salvation offered to him, and to perform his part of the covenant which he comes to ratify; or, whether he is not about to mock God; to profess a faith which he does not hold, and a purity which he does not intend to aim at.

The terms upon which we are to hope for any benefits from the merits of Christ, are faith, repentance, and subsequent obedience. These are, therefore, the three chief and general heads of

examination. We cannot receive the sacrament, unless we believe in Christ; because, by receiving it, we declare our belief in him, and a lying tongue is an abomination to the Lord. We cannot receive it without repentance, because repentance is the means by which, after sin, we are reconciled to God; and we cannot, without dreadful wickedness, by partaking of the outward tokens of reconciliation, declare that we believe God at peace with our souls, when we know that, by the omission of repentance, we are yet in a state of voluntary alienation from him. We cannot receive it without a sincere intention of obedience, because, by declaring ourselves his followers, we enter into obligations to obey his commandments. We are, therefore, not transiently and carelessly, but frequently and seriously, to ask ourselves, whether we firmly believe the promises of our Saviour-whether we repent of our sins-and resolve, for the future, to avoid all those things which God has forbidden, and practise all those which he has commanded. And when any man is convinced that he has formed real resolutions of a new life, let him pray for strength and constancy to persevere in them; and let him come joyfully to the holy table, in-sure confidence of pardon, reconciliation, and life everlasting.

Which that we may all obtain, God of his infinite mercy grant, for the merits of Jesus Christ, our Saviour! to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, three Persons and one God, be ascribed all honour, adoration, and praise, now and for ever! Amen.

121

SERMON X.

GALATIANS, CHAPTER VI. verse 7.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap.

ONE of the mighty blessings bestowed upon us by the Christian revelation, is, that we have now a certain knowledge of a future state, and of the rewards and punishments that await us after death, and will be adjusted according to our conduct in this world. We, on whom the light of the Gospel shines, walk no longer in darkness, doubtful of the benefit of good, or the danger of bad actions: we know, that we live and act under the eye of our Father and our Judge, by whom notking is overlooked or forgotten, and who, though, to try our obedience, he suffers, in the present state of things, the same events to happen to the good and to the evil, will at last certainly distinguish them, by allotting them different conditions beyond the grave; when it will appear, in the sight of men and of angels, how amiable is godliness, and how odious is sin; by the final sentence, which shall bring upon man the consequences of his own actions, so as, that "whatsoever a man shall sow, that shall he reap."

The ancient heathens, with whose notions we are acquainted, how far soever they might have carried their speculations of moral or civil wisdom,

had no conception of a future state, except idle fictions, which those who considered them treated as ridiculous, or dark conjectures, formed by men of deep thoughts and great inquiry, but neither, in themselves, capable of compelling conviction, nor brought at all to the knowledge of the gross of mankind, of those who lived in pleasure and idleness, or in solitude and labour; they were confined to the closet of the student, or the school of the lecturer, and were very little diffused among the busy or the vulgar.

There is no reason to wonder, that many enormities should prevail where there was nothing to oppose them. When we consider the various and perpetual temptations of appetite within, and interest without; when we see, that on every side there is something that solicits the desires, and which cannot be innocently obtained; what can we then expect, but that, notwithstanding all the securities of the law, and all the vigilance of magistrates, those that know of no other world will eagerly make the most of this, and please themselves, whenever they can, with very little regard to the right of others?

As the state of the heathens was a state of darkness, it must have been a state likewise of disorder; a state of perpetual contest for the goods of this life, and, by consequence, of perpetual danger to those who abounded, and of temptation to those that were in want.

The Jews enjoyed a very ample communication of the divine will, and had a religion which an inspired legislator had prescribed; but even to this nation, the only nation free from idolatry, and ac

quainted with the perfections of the true God, was the doctrine of a future state so obscurely revealed, that it was not necessarily consequential to the reception or observation of their practical religion. The Sadducees, who acknowledged the authority of the Mosaical law, yet denied the separate existence of the soul-had no expectation of a future state. They held that there was no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit.

This was not in those times the general state of the Jewish nation; the Pharisees held the resurrection, and with them probably far the greater part of the people; but that any man could be a Jew, and yet deny a future state, is a sufficient proof that it had not yet been clearly revealed, and that it was reserved for the preachers of Christianity to bring life and immortality to light. In such a degree of light they are now placed, that they can be denied or doubted no longer, but as the Gospel, that shows them, is doubted or denied. It is now certain that we are here, not in our total, nor in our ultimate existence, but in a state of exercise and probation, commanded to qualify ourselves, by pure hearts and virtuous actions, for the enjoyment of future felicity in the presence of God; and prohibited to break the laws which his wisdom has given us, under the penal sanction of banishment from heaven into regions of misery.

Yet, notwithstanding the express declaration of our Saviour, and the constant reference of our actions and duties to a future state, throughout the whole volume of the New Testament, there are yet, as in the apostles' time, men who are deceived, who act as if they thought God would be mocked or