ought to have prepared himself better than he has, and with the ability to have done so, he has neglected to come to the commemoration of his Saviour's dying request in such a state as was required of him; let him not rest satisfied till, by an act of sincere repentance, he has brought God, for Christ's sake, to impute not to him the sinfulness of his omissions. And yet no one has any reason to despair, if he cannot bring with him to this holy feast all those contrite, and pious, and charitable dispositions that he wishes; nor to absent himself at once, if he does not feel them. It is the plain duty of every Christian to communicate, as much as it is his duty to frequent the house of prayer; to abstain from open or private sin; to keep his heart, or his lips, or his hands, in a due state of subjection and control. And if there be at times a sensible deficiency in the fervour of a man's devotions; a coldness and dulness of spiritual affections; a fear that his hatred of sin has not been deep enough, his resolution to amend not hearty

enough; still, for all this, so gracious a means of divine help, and such a furtherance on the road to salvation, as the Lord's Supper is, must not be neglected, if the general prayer and purport of the heart be "to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and keep his commandments." For any one habitually to keep away from this blessed ordinance, is habitually to profess, before God and the Church, that all other religious observances which he pays are not sincere ; that he does not mean to love God, or to fear him, when he professes to do so in the public prayers of the Church; that his private or public confessions of sorrow for sin, his private or public devotions of every kind, do not spring from a heart that is "whole with God."

How a Christian's examination in the matter of faith is to be conducted, how in the matter of thankfulness, and how in what relates to his being in charity with all men, before he presume to eat of the sacramental bread and drink of the sacramental

cup, we have not time to consider now. May we have time and grace allowed us to do so, my brethren, with every other point of importance in this holy rite; that, when the next occasion arrives for its celebration, we may come before the Lord our Saviour in such a state of preparation, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, as to receive the consecrated elements " verily and indeed," as pledges of our Saviour's love, and as the most efficient means of spiritual health and strength and salvation, through his precious bloodshedding and sacrifice!

E

SERMON V

ON THE LORD'S SUPPER.

1 Cor. xi. 28.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.

A PART of the duty of self-examination, previous to a Christian's partaking in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, came under our consideration last Sunday; namely, that part which related to repentance, and the stedfast resolution to lead a new life. My object was to shew, that the whole life of a Christian ought to be one of repentance and faith, of continual increase in holiness, of progressive advance in every thing that is pure, and lovely, and of good