actions we are not practical, but merely professing, Christians, i. e. we are, compared with what Christians ought to be, what statues are to human beings; mere impotent resemblances: and to such examination will be burthensome upon any occasion; because, not having the life of their profession in them, they care not for the spirit which actuates that life.

I have, I hope, convinced you that it is your duty to take the Sacrament: and I have endeavoured to prove to you that although some persons have thrown obstacles in your way, and filled you with fears, when they ought to have excited hopes in you, that there is nothing in this holy rite, if you be sincere, to make you sad; but every thing to make you joyful. I have remarked to you that the examination required of you before taking the Sacrament is not severe; it is (with Christian love) presented to you, that by it you may try your own minds, in order to

discover whether you are real Christians, or only empty professors; or, such as pretend to be what they are not. I have now again to say that Christ instituted this Sacrament as well for the weak Christian as for the strong; as well for the sinner as for the saint; that he requires sincerity of heart, and that he will not judge of you as man judges, nor expect more of you than you can perform; that he delights in seeing his creatures, whom he has redeemed, around his table; and that "the halt, and the maimed and the blind" are not only acceptable to him, but that, in his " great love for mankind," he will "compel them to come in." Come, therefore, and approach his table with humble confidence, and be assured that he will receive you; for, if your hearts are sincere towards him when you take the Sacrament, your minds will naturally be in that state which will prove to yourselves that you eat and drink the sacred

"This do in

elements in remembrance of him; which is what he requires of you. remembrance of me."

Indeed, why should you fear taking the Sacrament if you do not fear going regularly to church and performing punctually your private devotions? since to pray without a serious and sincere determination to avoid sin and practice virtue, (particularly charity) with a belief in and a remembrance of the God to whom you pray, is to pray unworthily; to go regularly to church with any other than this determination and belief is to go there unworthily; and your worship in either case will not be accepted; and it requires no more than this pious disposition to take the Sacrament worthily.

at the

If you suppose it is expected when Sacrament table that you must be perfectly assured you have repented of every sin you have committed, you are mistaken; because there are of our sins with which we are not

many

you

even acquainted: so deceitful is the heart of man; but if you have repented of-that is forsaken-every sin you know yourselves to have been guilty of, and know also, that, to the utmost of your power avoid those and all others, you may be satisfied that your repentance is such as God will accept; again, when grieving for your sins, you may not always be sure that you do not grieve as much for the temporal inconveniences, or calamities, they may have brought upon you as for having offended God by them, which latter is the perfect spirit of repentance; but still, if you have forsaken those sins you have pleased God; and as pleasing God is the proper effect of repentance, you may assure yourselves of pardon and acceptance; and, when you pray, you pray for the pardon not only of what particular sins you have to your knowledge committed, but also of those which have escaped your recollection; even of those of which you are in a state of ig

norance as to their being sins, and which you may have committed without knowing they were sins; but if you pray sincerely, and with such a disposition as I have stated, and with faith in, and through the merits of your Saviour, you will receive pardon, and become fitting to perform all religious rites worthily and acceptably.

Now, what severity can exist in a law which requires us to forsake sin, when sin is sure to make us wretched; and embrace righteousness, which is as certain to make us happy? what severity is there in our being required to open our hearts to God as to a father; (for he has commanded us to call him father) to tell him all our sorrows, and implore him to relieve them; and, as we can do no good thing of ourselves, to implore him to give us grace to do good and avoid evil? which he has promised to do if we pray with sincerity. We are sufficiently zealous and importunate when entreating benefits of consequence from earthly