unto you, but ye cannot bear them now," John

vi. 12.

If we are unable to digest public discourses of the description which we have been giving, much less are we disposed to bear with the private admonitions of a judicious and sincere friend, who is so faithful as to unveil to us our own heart. What a treasure is a friend, who keeps constantly in view, I do not say our honour only, our reputation, but more especially our duty, our conscience, our salvation! What a treasure is a man, who employs the influence which he may have over us, only for the purpose of undeceiving us when we are in an error; of bringing us back when we have gone astray; of assisting us to unravel and detect the pretences which the deceitfulness of the human heart uses to justify to itself its wanderings and weaknesses! What a treasure is a man, who has the honesty to say to us, according as circumstances may require: "Here it was your want of experience that misled you; there, it was the prejudice of a faulty education: on that occasion you was betrayed, through the seduction of those flatterers, in whose society you take so much delight: on this, it was the too favourable opinion which you had formed of yourselves, which would persuade you, that you are ever sincere in your conversation; ever upright in your intentions; ever steady in your fellowships!"

has united the compendious road of sensation to the more circuitous one of reasoning, for the preservation of our body. What is noxious to the body, makes itself known to us, not only by a process of reasoning, but by certain disagreeable sensations, which warn us to keep at a distance from it. Whatever contributes to its preservation, makes itself known by pleasurable sensations, and thereby engages us to make use of it.

3d Proposition. It by no means involves a contradiction, to say, that if it was the will of God, in the order of nature, that the compendious road of sensation should supply the more circuitous one of reasoning, he may sometimes be pleased to conform to the same economy, in the order of grace.

4th Proposition. We are assured not only by reason, that God may adopt this mode of proceeding, but Scripture and experience teach us, that he actually does so, in the case of certain Christians of a superior order.

I compare those sensations of grace to the movements by which the prophets were animated, and which permitted them not the power of doubting whether or not it was the effect of the presence of God in their souls; movements which produced conviction that God intended to make use of their ministry, and constrained them in many cases to act in contradiction to their own inclinations. Never Nevertheless, we usually look upon this was mission more glorious than that of Jereprecious treasure not only with disdain, but miah. Never was mission more difficult and even with horror. It is sufficient to make us more burdensome. He was called to open his regard a man with an eye of suspicion, that he mouth in maledictions, levelled against his felhas discovered our weak side. It is sufficient low-citizens, and to be himself exposed as a for him to undertake to paint us in our true butt to the execrations of that people. Overcolours, to be perfectly odious to us. A real whelmed under the pressure of a ministry so Christian employs all the means with which distressful, he exclaims, "Wo is me, my mohe is furnished, to unveil his own heart to him-ther, that thou hast born me a man of strife, self. By dint of study, he acquires the know- and a man of contention to the whole earth," ledge of himself. Having acquired this im- chap. xv. 10. He does more. He forms the portant knowledge, he seriously and resolutely resolution of renouncing a ministry which has sets about personal reformation; and he makes become the bitterness of his life: "The word progress in it. He examines this new state of the Lord is made a reproach unto me, and a into which divine grace has introduced him; derision daily; then I said, I will not make and finding within himself the characters of mention of him, nor speak any more in his Christianity, he lays hold of its promises. He name," chap. xx. 8, 9. But God lays hold of becomes assured of its being in the class of him, by invisible bonds, and which he finds it those to whom they are made. And what is impossible to shake off: "the word of the Lord it to possess such assurance? It is to have an is made a reproach unto me, and a derision anticipated possession of all the blessings which daily; then I said, I will not make mention of are the object of it. It is to be already quick- him, nor speak any more in his name: but his ened, already raised up, already made to sit in word was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay," ver. 9. “0 Lord, thou hast deceived" (enticed) "me, and I was deceived," (enticed:) "thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed," ver. 7.

III. Finally, the believer is quickened, he is raised up, he is made to sit together in heavenly places, by means of the foretastes which he enjoys of his participation in the exaltation of the Saviour of the world. Should any one accuse me, of myself running under this head, upon that rock of the marvellous, against which I cautioned my hearers, under a preceding branch of my discourse, I would request his attention to the following series of propositions, which I barely indicate in so many words.

1st Proposition. God possesses a sovereign empire over all perceptions of our souls; he is able to excite in them such as he pleases, either with the concurrence of external objects, or without that concurrence.

2d Proposition. In the order of nature, God

I am persuaded that many among you have experienced in your vocation, something similar to what the prophet experienced in his. I am persuaded that many of you have been attracted by those irresistible bands, and have felt that sacred flame kindle in your soul, which the Holy Spirit communicates to the regenerated, and which puts these words into the mouths of the disciples, who were travelling to Emmaus, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Luke xxiv. 32.

not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; . . . . and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," Gen. xxii. 16 -18; Gal. iii. 8. Christians, true posterity of the father of believers, you have a reward similar to his.

"henceforth know I no man after the flesh," 2 Cor. v. 16. I have no connexion, now, save with that "Jesus, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named," Eph. iii. 15. Witness that immoveable hope, in the midst of universal desertion; "though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," Job xiii. 15, "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art 4. While he is partaking in the sacred mys- with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort teries of redeeming love, likewise, the believer me," Ps. xxiii. 4. Witness that faith which feels himself quickened, raised up, seated, to- pierces through the clouds, which the devil, gether with Jesus Christ." I cannot refrain, and hell, and the world spread around his bed however, from here deploring the superstition of languishing: "I know that my Redeemer of certain Christians, which mingles with this liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day part of our religious worship, and from repeat- upon the earth: and though after my skin ing one of the advices which I suggested at the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall opening of this discourse. Make not the suc- I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and cess of your communion to depend on certain mine eyes shall behold, and not another," Job emotions, in which mechanism has much more xix. 25-27. Witness that holy impatience to do than piety has. It but too frequently with which he looks forward to the moment happens, that a man shall apprehend he has of his dismission: "I have waited for thy salcommunicated worthily, or unworthily, in pro-vation, O God," Gen. xlix. 18. "Come, Lord portion as he has carried to a less or greater degree the art of moving the senses, and of heating the imagination, while he partakes of the Lord's Supper. The touchstone by which we ought to judge whether we brought to the Lord's table the dispositions which he requires, is the sincerity with which we have renewed our baptismal engagements, and the exertions which we shall afterward make punctually to fulfil them.

Jesus, come quickly," Rev. xxii. 20. Witness those songs of triumph, amidst the very sharpest of the conflict: "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ," 2 Cor. ii. 14. "Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight," Ps. cxliv. 1.

Witness, once more, those tender, those instructive, those edifying conversations which take place between the dying Christian and his pastor. The pastor addresses to the dying person these words on the part of God: "Seek my face;" and the dying believer replies, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek," Ps. xxvii. 8. The pastor says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon thee," 1 John iii. 1, and the dying person replies; "the love of God is shed abroad in my heart, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto me," Rom. v.

5.

It is true, nevertheless, that a participation of the sacrament of the supper is one of the situations in which a believer most frequently experiences those gracious operations of which our apostle is speaking in the text. A soul, whose undivided attention the Holy Spirit fixes on the mystery of the cross; and on whom he is pleased to impress, in a lively manner, the great events which the symbolical representation in the Eucharist retraces on the heart; a The pastor says, "Seek those things which soul, which, through grace, loses itself in the are above, where Christ sitteth on the right abyss of that love which God has manifested hand of God:" the dying person replies, "1 towards us in Jesus Christ; a soul which has have a desire to depart and to be with Christ,' learned to infer, from what God has already Phil. i. 23. "My soul thirsteth for God, for done, what is still farther to be expected from the living God: when shall I come and appear him; a soul, which feels, and, if I may use the before God?" Ps. xlii. 2. The pastor says, expression, which relishes the conclusiveness"Run with patience the race that is set before of this reasoning, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him, also, freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. Is not a soul in such a state, already "quickened, already raised up, already seated in heavenly places, together with Christ Jesus?"

thee, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith," Heb. xii. 1, 2. The dying believer replies, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown against that day," 2 Tim. i. 12. "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded 5. But it is particularly when the believer is that he is able to keep that which I have comgrappling with the king of terrors, that he ex-mitted unto him against that day," 2 Tim. iv. periences those communications of divine grace, 7, 8. "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and which transport him into another world, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of which verify, in the most sublime of all senses, God," Acts vii. 56. the idea which the apostle conveys to us of it, in the words of the text. Witness that patience and submission under sufferings the most acute, and that entire acquiescence in the sovereign will of God: "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it," Ps. xxxix. 9. Witness that supernatural detachment from the world, which enables him to resign, without murmuring, and without reserve, all that he was most tenderly united to:

Such are the wonders which the grace of God displays, in favour of those who are in earnest to obtain it, and give themselves up to its direction. And such are the treasures, unhappy worldlings, which you are sacrificing to a transient world, and its lying vanities. Such is the felicity which you experience, which you have already experienced in part, happy, happy Christians, whose condition is so far preferable to that of all the rest of mankind.

What now remains for me to do, after hav- | took delight in disclosing the most secret emoing employed my feeble efforts to draw you tions of my soul: and if it were still possible to God, by attractions so powerful: what re- for any thing to call me back, now that my mains, but to address my most fervent prayers God is calling me away, it would be the into him, and to entreat that he would be pleased clination I feel, to prolong the happy days to make known those pure and exalted de- which we have passed together. But though lights, to those who are, as yet, utter strangers the bands which unite us are close and ento them; and that he may, powerfully confirm, deared, they must not be everlasting. It was even unto the end, those to whom he has al- in the order of human things, either that you ready graciously communicated them. With should be called to close my eyes, or that I should this we shall conclude the solemn business of a be called to close yours. Providence is now deday of sacred rest. We are going, once more, claring the supreme command, that I should to lift up to heaven, in your behalf, hands pu- travel before you, the way of all the earth: it rified in the blood of the Redeemer of man- was my wish, before I undergo the irreversible kind. Come, my beloved brethren, support decree, once more to behold the persons whom these hands, should they wax heavy: perform I have ever borne on my heart, to call to refor us the service which Aaron and Hur ren-membrance the sweet counsel which we have dered to Moses, as we are attempting to render taken together, the connexions which we have the service of a Moses unto you. Assist us in formed: and thus too it is, that I would take moving the bowels of the God of mercy.- leave of the world. After having given away, And graciously vouchsafe, blessed Jesus, who, for a moment, to the expansions of my love on the memorable day, of which we are now for you, I rise above all the objects of sense; I celebrating the anniversary, wert "made higher am swallowed up of the thoughts which ought than the heavens; set on the right hand of the to employ the soul of a dying person, and I throne of the Majesty in the heavens;" and hasten to submit to the will of the Sovereign who presentest unto God, in "a golden censer, Disposer of life and death." the prayers of all saints:" vouchsafe, blessed Jesus, to give energy to those which we are about to put up, and to support them by thy all-powerful intercession.

Amen.

SERMON LXXVI.

FOR A COMMUNION SABBATH.
PART I.

MALACHI i. 6, 7.

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of Hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name, And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.

THOUGH the spectacle, which the solemnity of this day calls to our recollection, did not directly interest ourselves, it would, nevertheless, be altogether worthy, separately considered, of detaining our eyes, and of fixing our attention. Men have sometimes appeared, who, finding their last moments approaching, collected their family, summoned up their remaining strength, expressed a wish, in a repast of love and benevolence, to take a last, a long farewell of the persons who were most dear to them, and to break asunder, by that concluding act of social attachment, all the remains of that human affection which tied them down to the world.

What an object, my brethren, what a heartaffecting object does that man present, who, beholding himself on the point of being removed from all those to whom he was most tenderly united, desires to see them all assembled together for the last time, and, when assembled, addresses them in terms such as these: "It was to you, whose much loved society constituted the joy of my life, it was to you I

Jesus Christ, in the institution of this holy ordinance, is doing somewhat similar to the representation now given. His disciples were undoubtedly his most powerful attachment to the earth. The kind of death which he was about to suffer, demanded the undivided attention of his mind: but before he plunges into that vast ocean of thought which was to carry him through the sharp conflicts prepared for him, he wishes to behold again, at his table, those tender objects of his affection: "With desire," says he to them, "I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer," Luke xxii. 15. Had I not good reason for expressing myself as I did? Though this spectacle did not directly interest ourselves, it would be highly worthy, considered in itself, of detaining our eyes, and of fixing our attention.

But what closeness of attention, what concentration of thought does it not require of us, if we consider it in the great and comprehensive views, which animated the Saviour of the world, when he instituted the sacrament of the supper! Behold him prepared, that divine Saviour, to finish the great work, which heaven has given him to do. He comes to substitute himself in the room of those victims, whose blood, too worthless, could do nothing towards the purification of guilty man. He comes to fulfil that mysterious prediction: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened; . . . . . Lo, Í come; in the volume of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart," Ps. xl. 6—8. He comes to deliver up himself to that death, the very approaches of which inspire the soul with horror, and constrain him to cry out, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?" John xii. 27. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," Matt. xxvi. 36.

What shall he do to support himself in the prospect of such tremendous arrangements? What buckler shall he oppose to those envenomed arrows, with which he is going to be transfixed? Love, my brethren, formed the ge