/ /T-^-fi 
 
 '2^" PBINCETON, N. J. 
 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agneiv Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 
 d. 
 
THE 
 
 ORDINANCES OF RELIGION, 
 
 8fc, 
 
THE 
 
 ORDINANCES OF RELIGION 
 
 PRACTICALLY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 AND 
 
 APPLIED. 
 
 BY JOHN DAVIES, B. D. 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. PANCRAS, CHICHESTER, 
 
 AND 
 
 AUTHOR OF " AN ESTIMATE OF THE HUMAN MIND," &C. 
 
 "A neglect of the Ordinauces of Religion of Divine appointment is the sure 
 syniptom of a criminal indifference about those higher duties, by which men pre- 
 tend to atone for their. omission." 
 
 Bishop Horsley. 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. HATCHARD AND SON, 18T, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1832. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/ordinancesofreliOOdavi 
 
''fC. APB.r ' 
 
 rwvv*"' 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF DIVINE WORSHIP. 
 
 Chapter I. — The Grounds and Obligations of Divine 
 
 Worship 17 
 
 Chapter II. — The Essential Requisites of Acceptable 
 
 Worship 33 
 
 Chapter III. — The Component Parts of Divine Wor- 
 ship 50 
 
 Chapter IV. — Family Worship 67 
 
VI 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Chapter T. — The Design of the Sabbath 85 
 
 Chapter II. — The Universal Obligation of the Sabbath 102 
 
 Chapter III. — The Peculiar and Appropriate Duties 
 
 of the Sabbath 120 
 
 Chapter IV. — ^The Benefits Attendant on a Due Ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath 138 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 Chapter I. — The Warrant of Baptism as an Ordinance 
 
 of the Christian Church , . 156 
 
 Chapter II. — The Symbolical Import of Baptism .... 1 73 
 
 Chapter HI. — The Privileges Sealed and Pledged in 
 
 Baptism 191 
 
 Chapter IV. — The Practical Obligations Involved in 
 
 Baptism 208 
 
Vll 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chapter I. — ^The Design of the Lord's Supper 226 
 
 Chapter IL The Universal Obligation of the Or- 
 dinance of the Lord's Supper 242 
 
 Chapter lIL-^The Preparation necessary for the Suit- 
 able Reception of the Lord's Supper 257 
 
 Chapter IV. — The Benefits Attendant on a Worthy 
 
 Reception of the Lord's Supper 273 
 

 INTRODUCTION. ^^/;a^t,v t^.i 
 
 The tide of human opinion seldom flows for any 
 length of time in one uniform direction. No 
 sooner has it reached its extreme limit in any line 
 of movement, than it begins a retrograde course, 
 and, subject to the cross currents and various ob- 
 structions, by which its progress is liable to be in- 
 terrupted, it travels with accelerated pace towards 
 an opposite point of the compass. In the ordinary 
 developement of the principles of human charac- 
 ter, as exhibited upon the enlarged and compre- 
 hensive scale of history and social economy, the 
 advancing flow of the ocean is not more certainly 
 followed by a reflux, than a set of extreme opi- 
 nions upon any great, difficult, and complex ques- 
 tion is found to be speedily succeeded by a train 
 of contrary ideas, equally perhaps wide of the 
 truth, and at variance with established fact. 
 
 From this process of oscillation, religion, which 
 under some of its manifold modifications can 
 never be wholly separated from the thoughts, 
 feelings, and affections of mankind, is not altoge- 
 ther exempt. In itself, indeed, as a combination of 
 eternal and unalterable truths, it is fixed, absolute 
 and immutable. In this respect, like the sun 
 occupying its central position in the midst of sur- 
 rounding worlds, religion does not vary its real 
 
XII INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tions as needless, and to confine its supposed 
 exercises and operations within the hidden sanc- 
 tuary of the heart. The extent, to which either 
 of these schemes has been carried, has greatly 
 depended upon the spirit of the age, the course of 
 political events, and the state of philosophy and 
 literature. In a time of comparative ignorance, 
 both secular and religious, when the whole intel- 
 lectual hemisphere is involved in mist, and men 
 are content to be the passive instruments of those 
 who are willing to be the depositaries of their 
 various principles and immunities, religion is 
 usually identified with technical observances and 
 sacramental rites. For a long series of years 
 after Christianity was publicly recognized among 
 the civilized nations of Europe, the spirit of piety, 
 where it was not altogether extinct, appears to 
 have almost universally deserted its appropriate 
 residence in the inner man of the heart, and to 
 have taken its lodgment among the wheels of a 
 ponderous and complex mechanism. The natural 
 consequence of such a transfer of vital energy and 
 force, was to produce a complete derangement of 
 function in the constitution of the Christian cha- 
 racter, and to generate a combination of move- 
 ments and attitudes, resembling rather the actions 
 of a species of spiritual automaton, than of a ra- 
 tional and intelligent being, whose conduct w^as 
 influenced by a principle of genuine and enlight- 
 ened devotion. Under such circumstances the 
 strength and validity of the religious principle 
 were estimated by the regularity and amount of the 
 attention, which was paid to outward ordinances, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XUI 
 
 and the grossest moral delinquencies were deemed 
 capable of being more than adequately compen- 
 sated by passing through a supernumerary ordeal 
 of will- worship and voluntary humility. This was 
 the reign of superstition — a reign of which it was 
 one of the most authoritative and pregnant maxims, 
 that " ignorance is the mother of piety." 
 
 The era of the doctrine of Forms in religion, 
 as well as in philosophy, seems now however, to a 
 great extent to liave passed away. The image of 
 papal superstition, which had so long been sustain- 
 ed by entwining itself with the cords of civil 
 despotism, has received an irrecoverable shock. 
 The few grotesque and unmeaning observances, 
 which are still retained as the necessary append- 
 ages of a sinking ecclesiastical system, have but 
 little hold upon the judgment of those, among 
 whom they are maintained ; and there is reason to 
 believe that the progress of knowledge and educa- 
 tion, combined with the more effective influence of 
 religion, will speedily break the few remaining 
 links of this portentous enthralment. 
 
 But there is a danger of an opposite character, 
 a danger peculiary incident to the times in which 
 we live. It is that of the disparagement or total 
 neglect of those ordinances of divine appointment, 
 as if they were so many beggarly elements, un- 
 worthy of an age of reason and liberty — of philo- 
 sophy and science. There is doubtless much of 
 this spirit abroad in the world at the present mo- 
 ment. With the abandonment of the superstitious 
 or unmeaning rites and observances of ecclesias- 
 tical imposition men have lost much of that deep- 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 felt veneration, with which it is necessary that di- 
 vine institutions, and wholesome usages, though of 
 human origin and arrangement should be regarded. 
 Besides those, who neglect the appointed channels 
 of divine grace, the sacramental and symbolic ordi- 
 nances of piety, through mere recklessness and a 
 desire to be free from their restraints, there is a 
 large class of persons, of a more intellectual cast 
 of character, who would reduce Christianity into a 
 religion of mere sentiment. Professing to sepa- 
 rate it from extraneous circumstances and adhe- 
 sions, they would define it as a deep feeling of the 
 heart, and they indulge in much illusive reverie, 
 while they attempt to develope this vague abstrac- 
 tion. That philosophy however is spurious, which 
 confines to one department of human nature, that 
 which is required to extend over the whole. That 
 science is empirical and unsound, which would 
 destroy the body under pretence of obtaining, by 
 that means, a clearer and more distinct view of the 
 spirit. That religion is false, which professes to 
 rise above ordinances, and would expect the end 
 without using the means. That alone is true to 
 the wisdom of God, and to the nature of man, 
 which adapts itself to the various susceptibilities 
 and requirements of the being, with whom it has 
 to deal. Christianity is not a religion of formality, 
 but in a proper sense, and within due limitations, 
 it is unquestionably a religion of forms ; and the 
 period is yet unknown, when it was practically 
 influential upon the character, while its rites and 
 sacramental institutions were totally neglected. 
 Independently of other considerations, it seems to 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 be paying the human lieart a compliment, to which 
 it is by no means entitled, to suppose it capable of 
 maintaining the religious sentiment, in all its 
 warmth and energy of action, without any aid 
 from external and ceremonial excitement. It is 
 true, indeed, that the law of the covenant must 
 be inclosed within this sacred ark ; but this by no 
 means supersedes the necessity of those symbols 
 of the divine presence, and of those acts of ritual 
 observance, which form essential and ostensible 
 constituents of the sublime service of the sanc- 
 tuary. They, who wilfully and obstinately neglect 
 the ordinances of religion, therefore, to all pur- 
 poses of devotional obedience neglect religion itself. 
 The instrumental agency, by which the opera- 
 tions of religion are carried on in the heart and 
 character of man, is progressive — rising to higher 
 degrees of simplicity, and independence of out- 
 ward forms, as its principles are unfolded, and its 
 nature is more clearly revealed. As the mind be- 
 comes more capable of appreciating spiritual and 
 eternal things, it doubtless stands in less need of 
 those means — those palpable forms and exhibi- 
 tions, which in a low and imperfect state of cha- 
 racter seem to embody them more distinctly to the 
 eye, and to impress them more deeply upon the 
 heart. With the progress of divine revelation, 
 and the developement of the great plan of human 
 salvation, the outward rites and symbols of religion 
 have become still more simplified in their charac- 
 ter, fewer in their number, and more siiblimated 
 in their import. The dispensation of the law^ was 
 more remarkable for nothing, than the multiplicity 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of its ceremonial institutions. Tiiat of the gospel, 
 though it has superseded and abolished the great 
 mass of the legal ordinances, is still a Medial 
 economy ; and it is only by a regular attendance 
 upon its prescribed means, that its blessings and 
 privileges can be secured. 
 
 To render the use of ordinances, however, 
 really beneficial and effective, they must be invari- 
 ably connected in the mind with their spiritual 
 import and design, as well as the practical obliga- 
 tions, which they involve. They must be consi- 
 dered as the component parts of a system of go- 
 vernment — of a plan of administration adapted to 
 the constitution of our nature, and the various 
 relations of our present existence. To exhibit 
 them in this interesting connection, is uniformly 
 attempted, though the author cannot but lament 
 with imperfect success, in the following pages. 
 According to this view, they are to be regarded 
 not as so many modifications of mechanical opera- 
 tion, requiring only to be brought to bear upon 
 human nature infallibly to work their own effects, 
 but as so many helps to devotion — as so many 
 ways of access into the divine presence, opened 
 through that m^^stic veil, which shrouds from the 
 eye of sense the glories of the Eternal Throne. 
 They are pledges deposited with the universal 
 church to encourage it, amidst the doubts and 
 sorrows of mortality, to wait for that brighter 
 economy, under which the glimmerings of an ob- 
 scure and indistinct reflection will melt into the 
 unclouded sunshine of direct and immediate 
 vision. 
 
ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 THE 
 
 ORDINANCE OF DIVINE WORSHIP. 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 The Grounds and Obligations of Divine Worship. 
 
 To a being utterly ignorant of the history and 
 economy of our world, there would doubtless be 
 something strange and unaccountable in the phe- 
 nomenon of so many persons meeting together 
 from Sabbath to Sabbath — uttering so many ar- 
 ticulate sounds — assuming so many attitudes and 
 positions without any visible object, to which their 
 attention appeared to be directed. They assemble, 
 they alternately read and listen, they prostrate 
 themselves upon their knees, and in some instances 
 the emotions of sorrow and grief — of joy and de- 
 light are strongly depicted in their countenances. 
 On surveying the length and breadth of our land 
 
 B 
 
20 
 
 lie institutions of every kind, both secular and sa- 
 cred, are discussed and examined with so much 
 freedom, and in many instances it is to be feared, 
 with so much levity and profaneness, and in which 
 men in general are so nmch readier to find an ex- 
 cuse for the neglect, than a motive for the perform- 
 ance of their duty, I trust that such a course of 
 practical investigation of a subject, which stands 
 intimately connected with our best and highest 
 interests may not be altogether without its use. 
 In the progress of this inquiry I shall be led to 
 consider the Grounds and Obligations of Divine 
 Worship — the peculiar Nature of the w^orship 
 which Jehovah requires — the Component Parts of 
 that worship — the Seasons, which have either been 
 divinely appointed, or appear best calculated for 
 its performance, and those Sacramental Institu- 
 tions, which may justly be regarded as appendages 
 of the general system. In the discussion of the 
 seasons more peculiarly allotted for the worship of 
 God, the design and universal obligation of the 
 Sabbath — its appropriate duties, and the benefits 
 calculated to result from its strict and conscienti- 
 ous observance will be considered at length. In the 
 present chapter I shall confine myself to a brief view 
 of the Gi'ounds and Ohligations of Divine Worship. 
 I deem it important to lay down a firm basis for 
 the whole inquiry in a clear exhibition of the ob- 
 jects, for which men are called upon to worship 
 the Lord their God. This is necessary, because I 
 am aware, there are persons in the world, who not 
 only habitually neglect the services of the sanctu- 
 ary, but even are disposed to deny that any real 
 importance or obligation pertains to tbem. I have 
 
21 
 
 conversed with individuals, who professed them- 
 selves unable to perceive any soHd reason of duty 
 or interest, why they should engage in the public 
 exercises of the Sabbath — individuals, who seemed 
 ready to exclaim with the daring scoffer — " Who 
 is the Lord that we should obey him, and 
 what profit shall we have if we pray unto him V 
 It is with a view of diffusing more correct ideas 
 upon this important and comprehensive subject, 
 and of impressing upon the mind of the reader, a 
 deeper sense of the paramount obligation by which 
 he is bound sincerely to worship God in his closet, 
 in his family, and in the sanctuary, that this dis- 
 cussion has been undertaken. 
 
 Among the grounds therefore, on which man 
 is justly called to worship the Lord I would men- 
 tion first — The relation of dependence, in which 
 he stands to Jehovah as his sovereio;n Lord and 
 Master. Worship in its original design is no- 
 thing else than the expression of that deep and 
 fervent homage, which a creature owes to his 
 Creator. This, therefore, is not a function peculiar 
 to our condition as sinners, or to our rank as men. 
 In some form or other it should run parallel with 
 rational and accountable exist enece. It is dis- 
 charged with profoundest reverence and deep- 
 est self-abasement in heaven, where the vari- 
 ous orders of intellectual and angelic being vie 
 with each other in the fervour of their love, the in- 
 tensity of their devotion, and the unreserved cor- 
 diality of their recognition. The exercise of di- 
 vine worship in some appropriate mode as an ac- 
 knowledgement of the transcendent glory and unri- 
 valled excellence of its object, is co-extensive with 
 
90 
 
 the moral government of God. From tlic highest 
 •herub or seraph in heaven, through the whole 
 scale of intellectual and spiritual gradation to the 
 meanest saint upon earth, the worship of the Eter- 
 nal and the Infinite is a sacred and bounden duty 
 as well as a delightful and characteristic employ. 
 This is a token of submission to the authority of 
 the Supreme — a badge of cheerful and honour- 
 able subjection to the government of the Highest 
 — an act of loyalty and attachment to the thione 
 of the immortal and invisible King, which pertains 
 to the very nature and condition of every intelli- 
 gent and dependent being throughout the uni- 
 verse. It is that by which Jehovah himself hath 
 appointed that his creatures should testify their 
 allegiance unto him — that they should acknow- 
 ledge him as their Greater — that they should do 
 him homage as the Author of their being, and the 
 Giver of their blessings : — as their Protector, their 
 Guardian, and their Friend, as the great first Pat- 
 tern and Exemplar of all perfection. The worship 
 of the Deity is the natural and universal language, 
 in which those feelings of gratitude, veneration 
 and affection engendered by the contemplation of 
 his character and attributes find appropriate utter- 
 ance. To man as originally occupying perhaps 
 the lowest place in the order of rational existence, 
 as having his foundation in the dust and as crushed 
 before the moth ; to man especially as a fallen and 
 guilty, but at the same time a redeemed and fa- 
 vored creature, this mode of acknowledging his 
 own unworthiness, of testifying his admiration of 
 the power and wisdom, of the grace and goodness 
 of Jehovah is a matter of most obvious and para- 
 mount obligation. 
 
23 
 
 He therefore, who wilfully neglects or per- 
 versely refuses to come and worship before the 
 Lord in that house of prayer where He has pro- 
 mised to meet his people, to receive their homage 
 and to communicate unto them the tokens of His 
 favor and love, is in reality guilty of direct rebel- 
 lion against Him, in whom he lives and moves and 
 has his being. He virtually abjures his allegiance 
 to the sceptre of the universal King. To all os- 
 tensible and practical purposes he denies his de- 
 pendence upon, and his obligations unto, the God 
 of the whole earth. He will not acknowledge by 
 a public and open avowal, that it is by the per- 
 mission and the sustaining energy of that gracious 
 Being he lives and breathes, that it is by His 
 power he is protected, that by His bounty he is 
 supported, and by his patience and forbearance he 
 is spared from day to day amidst so much of dis- 
 obedience and rebellion. He declares on the con- 
 trary in the constructive language of conduct that 
 he has no feeling of homage and adoration in com- 
 mon with the angels above or the saints below, 
 that he is independent of all higher authority and 
 control, that he wants no favor, and that he owes 
 no thanks beyond the range of the frail and help- 
 less beings of his own nature ; and that therefore 
 his presence shall grace no assembly of suppliants, 
 and that his voice shall mingle none of its notes 
 with that universal chorus of gratitude and praise, 
 which ascends from earth to heaven, resounds 
 through the vast empyrean and circumscribes the 
 bounds of creation. 
 
 Let us reliect therefore upon the heinous guilt, 
 the black ingratitude which marks conduct of this 
 
24 
 
 description towards the great and universal So- 
 vereign. Let us consider the stubborn pride, the 
 hardened impiety, which it involves, or at least 
 the reckless levity, which it incontrovertibly proves 
 and cherishes. I am perfectly aware and know 
 full well the meaning of the futile plea sometimes 
 advanced by persons of this character, that they 
 can worship God with equal benefit and acceptance 
 at home, or in the fields, or perhaps amid scenes 
 of a far more objectionable description : or, as they 
 sometimes pretend, within the sanctuary of their 
 own hearts. C'^) I can appreciate the absurd objection 
 that those, who are accustomed to frequent the 
 house of God and come to worship before him are 
 in no respect better than those who stay away. I 
 can also perceive the bearing of what is occasion- 
 ally advanced as a ground of absence, that it is 
 better to abstain from taking any part in the ser^ 
 vices of the sanctuary than to combine this habit of 
 attendance with general inconsistency and impro- 
 priety in other parts of the conduct. All these 
 pleas are but vague and inadequate excuses for 
 the neglect of a great and universal duty. They 
 are but a thin veil thrown over the real indisposi- 
 tion of the heart, over the innate enmity of the 
 carnal mind towards God. Nothing can justify 
 the habitual abandonment of this first duty of a 
 creature, but absolute and unavoidable neces-r 
 sity. 
 
 This will appear yet more evident, if we consider 
 farther, the Tendency of a sincere and regular at- 
 tendance upon the w^orship of God, and the ser^ 
 vices of the sanctuary to cherish a feeling of de- 
 vout reverence for Him, who is the object of ado^ 
 
25 
 
 ration. It was doubtless for the purpose of engen- 
 dering- and cultivating this habit of the mind and 
 of thus contributing to the production of all those 
 fruits of holiness and obedience, which naturally 
 spring from it, that the system of divine worship was 
 originally instituted. Although the particular 
 mode of expressing the homage due to a supreme 
 Being may, to a certain extent, be a matter of ex- 
 pediency, and be regulated by circumstances, yet 
 the original ground, the primary obligation of di- 
 vine worship lies deep in the nature of man as ca- 
 pable of being correctly influenced and affected 
 towards his Creator. The design of Jehovah in 
 requiring men to meet together at stated seasons for 
 the purpose of unitedly engaging in his worship, (^) 
 was not that they should go through a few vague 
 and idle ceremonies, that they should assume so 
 many attitudes, or perform so many evolutions — 
 that they should utter so much devotional phrase- 
 ology, and listen to so much of doctrinal or 
 practical instruction ; but the object was that their 
 understanding might be enlightened, that their af- 
 fections might be warmed and elevated — that the 
 attributes of God— the wretchedness and guilt of 
 man — the felicities of heaven, and the miseries of 
 hell — the stupendous wonders of redeeming love — 
 the compassion of the Father— the grace of the 
 Son, and the amazing condescension of the Spirit, 
 in relation to the several parts of the economy of 
 human salvation : it was that all these overwhelm- 
 ing and lieart-stirring facts and considerations 
 should be brought to bear upon the mind of the 
 worshipper. And experience is altogether in fa-^ 
 VOUf of this plan as being eificacious above ul| 
 
26 
 
 others, when accompanied with the divine blessincr 
 m brino^ino: men to a ^n.-.n,. /"c uiessmg, 
 
 God anri ; ^"^ acquaintance with 
 
 stai oAr "''"''^"^"- '^^^-^"^h tl^-^ subsequent 
 e'tmlfo^:^'™'^' !,^^P^--'-cl influeiLo 
 tne ti uth upon tneir mmds. This therefore is one 
 
 whether intellectnal nJ '^''"'f .« "s exercises, 
 ,.,1. "leiiectual, or more strict v devotional 
 
 ■wheij conducted with wisdom a„H ^ "evotional, 
 bi-iety and zeal lik^frf """'^y' "''"' *o- 
 
 whi.i, ,T '• *''' inestimab e volume bv 
 
 wh ch they are inculcated, are profitable for doc 
 >ine, for reproof, for correction and nstruction 
 
 to worship before the Ltd " "'°*'"'" '""'^ 
 
 fanher^ertab,id^^„J:llf ^;;:-^^^^^^^^^ 
 stitntion and express Command/ The^X 
 
 not,r:Tthfo°,T'r"^''''*^^' "<^ ''^"^-r 
 
 injunctions some of 1 1 besides innumerable 
 
 ^^cisive, „p4£™ n::/^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ed in holy writ beaiW ^ . . ""^ ^' '''"'' '^- 
 
27 
 
 our view and marking the successive stages of 
 their pilgrimage with altars erected "unto the 
 Lord, around which their families and depen- 
 dents met together for the purpose of partaking of 
 the devotional or sacrificial rite. We have the 
 Princes, the Prophets and the Priests of the Mo- 
 saic dispensation, surrounded with the whole com- 
 pany of the faithful, maintaining the worship of 
 the temple in all its sacred magnificence, and 
 deeming it their chiefest joy to mingle with its 
 crowd of suppliants and to swell the tide of its 
 symphonies. We have the example of the Savi- 
 our himself and his disciples, at the dawn of the 
 evangelical dispensation, attending the service of 
 the synagogue from one' Sabbath to another and 
 endeavouring to raise the will-worship of Phari- 
 saic formality and hypocrisy into wholesome scrip- 
 tural instruction and pure devotional adoration. 
 As the principles of the Gospel began to be more 
 fully developed in the establishment of churches 
 through the labours of the evangelists and apostles 
 we find the same practice observed and enforced 
 by more urgent injunctions. And thus upon every 
 ground of reason and authority, of duty and expe- 
 diency, of moral fitness and positive enactment are 
 we bound at all practicable and suitable seasons to 
 engage in the worship of God. He therefore, who 
 wilfully neglects it, stands condemned of a most 
 palpable and direct violation of one of the first and 
 most imperative duties, which a creature owes to 
 his Creator ; a duty infinitely enhanced in its obli- 
 gations by those engaging considerations, which 
 spring out of the covenant of grace 
 
 But the duty of Divine Worship is not only ab- 
 
28 
 
 solute and imperative, as founded in the nature 
 and relative condition of man and as explicitly 
 enjoined by God, but it is also Universal in its ob- 
 ligation and extent. In one of the predictive an* 
 nouncements of the prophet Isaiah all flesh is re- 
 presented as coming from Sabbath to Sabbath to 
 worship before the Lord. And this is in perfect 
 accoj'dance with what has already been declared 
 to have been the practice of the servants of God 
 in every age. It is a duty universal in its bearing, 
 as it has been obligatory under every dispensation, 
 under which true religion has existed and been 
 administered in the world. There have been those 
 who held that outward foi ms of worship were con- 
 fined to the Mosaic economy, and that under the 
 Gospel all external manifestations of homage 
 through the medium of ritual and ceremonial ob- 
 servances have been superceded and absorbed in 
 the profounder simplicity and the sublimer spirit- 
 uality of its character. This notion is founded 
 upon a totally false view of human nature and of 
 the great principles of the divine administration. 
 It is true indeed that the gospel is pre-eminently 
 a dispensation of the spirit, and that in accordance 
 with its principles no service can be acceptable 
 unto God, which is not characterised by a fervent 
 exercise of the affections, warmed and animated 
 by divine grace. But it is no part of the plan, 
 nor is it agreeable to the genius of the gospel that 
 all external tokens of homao-e and veneration 
 should be abrogated — that there should be no 
 public recognition of the majesty and authority, 
 of the grace and goodness of Jehovah — that the 
 lips should be closed from shewing forth his praise, 
 
29 
 
 that the fountains of penitential sorrow should be 
 sealed, and that the glowing energies of the love 
 of Christ shed abroad in the heart, should be smo- 
 thered in mute admiration. So far is this from 
 being the case, that the gospel enforces as a so- 
 lemn duty, and elevates into an exalted privilege 
 the practice of assembling together for the various 
 purposes of edification and instruction — of adora- 
 tion, prayer and praise. And it is while engaged 
 in these sacred exercises and occupations that God 
 has in an especial manner promised to meet His 
 people, and to bless them with all spiritual bless- 
 ings in Christ Jesus. Throughout the whole range 
 of those dispensations, under which it hath pleased 
 Him that religion should exert its controlling and 
 purifying influences in the world, an external sys- 
 tem of worship has been invariably instituted and 
 maintained. Under no plea of spirituality or 
 Christian simplicity therefore — on no pretext of 
 the liberty of the Gospel, and of its superiority to 
 the beggarly elements, which characterized a me- 
 chanical and superficial routine of service — on no 
 ground of self-sufficiency or imaginary elevation 
 in the scale of Christian knowledge, or attainment 
 is any man justified in neglecting those ordinances, 
 which form the medium of communication between 
 heaven and earth, and, as a mystic cloud, accom- 
 pany the Church of God, for the purpose of com- 
 municating the responses of his will, and of reflect- 
 ing the manifestations of his glory, throughout 
 every stage of its terrestrial pilgrimage. 
 
 The universality of this duty maybe consider- 
 ed farther as it is obligatory upon persons of all 
 ranks and conditions in life, persons of all circuni- 
 
30 
 
 stances, relations, and professions. In scripture 
 no exception is made, no distinction is recognized. 
 From the obligations of this primary demand of 
 heaven, no considerations of ^vorldly interest or 
 expediency, no conventional maxims of pride or 
 caprice can release. From the enjoyment of the 
 privilege of this sublime intercourse with God, 
 no urgency of professional duty, no accumulation 
 of secular employment, no vexations of domestic 
 care, no drudgery of oppressive and uninterrupted 
 toil, extending over the Sabbath, as well as the 
 other days of the week, ought to be allowed ha- 
 bitually and entirely to debar. After every allow- 
 ance for occasional difficulties and unavoidable 
 impediments it must still be maintained as a uni- 
 versal and uncompromising requirement of heaven, 
 that no consideration short of absolute inability 
 or of insurmountable and overwhelming necessity 
 should be regarded as an adequate plea on the 
 part of high or low, of learned or ignorant, of bond 
 or free, for abandoning the worship of the most 
 High. On the walls of the sanctuary of God it 
 stands inscribed, not more distinctly and legibly 
 in characters of material coloring, than with the 
 sunbeams of eternal truth, that "there the rich 
 and poor are to meet together, for that the Lord 
 is the Maker of them all." 
 
 The universality of the duty we are now con- 
 sidering, will appear yet more striking and une- 
 quivocal, if we bear in mind that under due modi- 
 fication it spreads over all time, and will form the 
 delightful employment of eternity. It is a most 
 important and animating consideration that those, 
 who are sincerely and devoutly engaged in the 
 
service of God in his temple here on earth, are 
 employed in the very same occupation, with due 
 allowance for the difference of character and cir- 
 cumstances, as absorbs the thoughts and affections 
 of the angels, and the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, within the precincts of that celestial 
 shrine, where the glory of Jehovah shines forth 
 with a beauty, a splendor and an intensity, which 
 no mortal eye could behold. In going to worship 
 before the Lord, therefore we are not only exer- 
 cising ourselves in the habits, we are not only 
 training ourselves for the society, we are not 
 merely tuning our harps, but we are already in 
 our feeble measure engaged in the work, we are 
 mingling with the melodies, we are antedating the 
 bliss of heaven. There, indeed, is no succession of 
 Sabbaths, for it is one Sabbath without end. 
 There is no return to the chilling atmosphere of 
 worldly pursuits and occupations, after conversing 
 with God on the mount, for there the beatific visi- 
 on of his glory knows no interruption. There the 
 sky is darkened with no cloud, the air is ruffled 
 with no storm, the bosom is wrung with no pang, 
 the heart is corroded with no care, the cheek is 
 moistened with no tear ; and amidst the serenity of 
 that light and the tranquillity of that blissful re- 
 pose, the children of God will employ themselves 
 in celebrating the praises of Him, who is the source 
 of their holiness, as well as the centre of their hap- 
 piness through ages without end. 
 
 I would only farther remark, that while a due 
 attendance on the worship of God, both public and 
 private must be maintained as an absolute and uni- 
 versal duty, binding upon men as the creatures of 
 
32 
 
 his liand and dependents upon his bounty — as 
 those, who have been spared by his mercy, and 
 have been redeemed by the blood of his Son, it 
 must also be borne in mind, that it is not a formal 
 and lifeless discharo^e of this imperative obligation, 
 that will satisfy the demands of Heaven, or secure 
 the great objects of the institution. In order to 
 realize the benefits it was intended to convey, 
 every part of the service must be spiritualized. 
 The sanctuary, which we frequent, must not be 
 unto us a worldly sanctuary, the service, which we 
 perform, must not be a mere bodily service — the 
 ordinances, of which we partake, must not be car- 
 nal ordinances, and the prayers, which we offer up, 
 must not be vain repetitions. The seal of the 
 Spirit on the contrary must be applied to every re- 
 cord of our proceedings, and the hue of heaven 
 must be spread over the whole complexion of our 
 conduct. It is thus that our bodies will become, 
 in the highest sense of the expression, temples of 
 the Holy Ghost — that our hearts will become 
 pure altars burning with the love of Christ — that 
 our tongues will become tongues of fire, proclaim- 
 ing in glowing accents the wonders of redeeming 
 grace, and that our path will be as the shining 
 light, which shineth more and more unto the per- 
 fect day. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Essential Requisites of Acceptable W&rsliijp. 
 
 There is an essential difference between a moral 
 and a mechanical process of operation. Tlie for- 
 mer is peculiar to rational and accountable beings ; 
 it is that alone which can be required as a duty, 
 which can be a subject of legitimate approbation 
 or censure, or be visited with reward or punish- 
 ment. Acts indeed, which ought to bear a moral 
 impress as performed by beings endued with rea- 
 son and understanding, may be out of the range 
 of that character through the absence of all deli- 
 berate exercise of thouo-ht and feelin"'. The 
 work may be done through the mere exertion of 
 physical power directed by custom or habit, and 
 thus be deprived of all the value and importance 
 which would have belonged to it, if executed un- 
 der the impulse of sound apprehensions and cor- 
 rect motives. If it be undertaken with false views 
 and for wrong purposes, it wholly changes its na- 
 ture ; and that which in its external bearing and 
 aspect would seem to be characterized by a high 
 order of piety or virtue, will be found, if closely 
 investigated, to involve no inconsiderable share of 
 impiety and turpitude. 
 
:34 
 
 In no acts or exercises of mankind is there a 
 greater liability to fail in duty through the want 
 of an accurate view of its nature and requisitions 
 than in those, which are innnediately connected 
 with the service of God. No part of our conduct 
 is more entirely dependent for its value and effi- 
 ciency upon the principles from which it emanates, 
 and upon the objects, to M^hich it is directed, than 
 this. Hence it is of absolute necessity that, in 
 whatever act of worship or service we may en- 
 gage, we should have a clear and definite know- 
 ledge of what Jehovah requires at our hands. 
 Through the want of this we may altogether miss 
 our aim ; we may misapprehend the design of the 
 whole scheme ; we may come short of the require- 
 ment at every point ; we may go astray from the 
 authorized line of movement at every step in our 
 progress; and thus the external discharge of duty, 
 though of paramount weight and obligation, will 
 become unto us an occasion of guilt and condem- 
 nation. It is not enough therefore that man should 
 simply know that he is bound by every principle of 
 nature and grace — of reason and religion to woi-- 
 ship and serve his Maker : it is not suflicient that 
 he should be thoroughly convinced of the obliga- 
 tions by which a creature stands pledged to his 
 Creator. This under some modification or other 
 appears to be a natural instinct of the human mind. 
 In addition to this general impression and to a dis- 
 position to acquiesce in its demands there must be 
 a clear and unequivocal apprehension of the nature 
 and character of that worship, which God will gra- 
 ciously accept : there must be a knowledge of those 
 indispensable requisites, without which no service 
 
35 
 
 can be pleasing unto Him, or be profitable to our- 
 selves. Having-, therefore, attempted in the pre- 
 ceding chapter to establish the grounds and obli- 
 gations of divine worship, I shall now proceed to 
 point out a few. of those essential qualities, without 
 which it can be no other than an empty form or 
 bodily service. 
 
 I would remark in the first place, that appro- 
 priate and acceptable worship requires, so far as 
 is compatible with our present circumstances and 
 endowments a Correct Knowledge of Him, who 
 is the object of it. " Ye worship ye know not 
 what," was the declaration of Christ addressed 
 to the woman of Samaria; and it is to be 
 feared that there are too many professing Chris- 
 tians, against whom a similar charge might with 
 truth be advanced. They have never perhaps at- 
 tempted to form any clear and distinct notion of 
 the Being, whom they meet to adore, or if they have 
 ever conceived any definite idea of Him, it is utter- 
 ly at variance with those sublime perfections which 
 essentially belong to his nature, and subversive of 
 those attributes which to us constitute all that can 
 be known of Him. Vividly to realize in thought 
 a Being, who gives no sensible indication of his ex- 
 istence except through the medium of his works — 
 who affords no external tokens of his presence, 
 which can be recognised by the organs of percep- 
 tion, is doubtless one of the greatest efforts of the 
 human mind.(^) In general there is a vagueness or 
 gross materialism attending our views of the great 
 and glorious Object of our worship, which is little 
 if at all removed from utter ignorance. Hence 
 under every form of Heathenim from the refined 
 
 c 2 
 
36 
 
 polytheism of Greece and Rome, to the most gro- 
 velling superstition of savage life, and even under 
 every dispensation of true religion preceding the 
 Christian, there was something presented to the 
 senses as a representative of the Deity, or as a ma- 
 nifestation of the cognizance he took of the homage 
 of his worshippers. Under the gospel every such 
 aid is removed, every such appeal to the sentient 
 part of our nature is withheld. We are thrown upon 
 the bare testimony of scripture, carried home to our 
 mind and conscience by the internal workings of the 
 Spirit and supported by the clearest deductions of 
 our reason. We are left to the realizing power of 
 that faith, which is the substance of things hoped 
 for, the evidence of things not seen. W^e have no 
 voice from heaven sounding forth in our ears and 
 announcing in terms of irresistible conviction the 
 name and character of Him, whom we profess to 
 serve. We have no symbol of the divine majesty 
 resting over our tabernacle — no vision of glory em- 
 bodied in perceptible shape over our altar and shin- 
 ing forth as a cloud of light from between the che- 
 rubim. Of all these outward means of acquaint- 
 ance and intercourse with God we are destitute. 
 But we have been blessed with privileges and ad- 
 vantages of a far higher order. We have the more 
 sure word of prophecy as centering in the person 
 and as verified in the actual incarnation, life and 
 death of the promised Saviour of the world. We 
 have the volume of eternal truth, which is through- 
 out a record of the character and perfections — of 
 the will and attributes of Him with whom we have 
 to do. We have the promise of the Spirit as the 
 peculiar and distiugu.ishsing characteristic of the 
 
37 
 
 evangelical economy, and as pledged, in answer to 
 our prayers, to lead us into all truth. 
 
 It is by a due regard to these varied means of 
 information that we are to obtain a correct and ade- 
 quate, though necessarily imperfect knowledge of 
 Him, whom we are bound to worship. From these 
 we must learn in the first instance that He is a 
 Spirit. We must be taught that the Being whom 
 from one sabbath to another we meet to worship, 
 is not such an one as ourselves, partly composed of 
 flesh and blood. We must learn to raise and pu- 
 rify our conceptions to the simple spirituality of his 
 essense. We must habituate ourselves to contem- 
 plate Him, as the high and lofty One tliat inha- 
 biteth eternity — as a Being who is confined by no 
 limits of time, and circumscribed by no boundaries 
 of space, but embraces both within the absolute in- 
 finity of his existence. We must accustom our- 
 selves to regard Him as not only extending his 
 knowledge over the whole range of creation, but 
 as One, who is present in our assemblies, with a 
 minuteness and accuracy, with a vigilance and 
 closeness of observation surpassing the combined, 
 the concentrated attention of the universality of 
 created minds. 
 
 Without such a knowledge of God as a Being 
 of spiritual essence, it is impossible that we should 
 render unto Him such worship as may be suitable 
 to his nature or acceptable in his sight. Our blessed 
 Saviour himself indeed distinctly declared that the 
 fact of the great Jehovah's being a Spirit rendered 
 it absolutely necessary that they who v/orship him 
 should perform that exalted service in spirit and in 
 truth — both requisitions obviously implying that He 
 
38 
 
 should be truly and correctly known. But to make 
 ^ur worship a suitable expression of the homage we 
 owe unto Him, we must not only know Him in his 
 essential nature as a Spirit and therefore as inca- 
 pable of being suitably represented or conceived 
 under any physical or material form, but we must 
 also know Him in reference to the various perfec- 
 tions both natural and moral, as they have been 
 usually distinguished, which belong to his charac- 
 ter, and form the foundation of the whole system 
 of his worship. We must know Him as a God of 
 infinite power in order to be impressed with those 
 sensations of holy fear and awe, without which we 
 cannot come and worship before Him with feelings 
 of becoming reverence ; as a God of inexhaustible 
 knowledge and boundless wisdom, without which 
 we cannot apply with confidence for his guidance 
 and direction ; as a God of unrivalled goodness, 
 faithfulness and love, without which our worship 
 would be the extorted homage of terror and hate, 
 instead of the spontaneous offering of the heart and 
 affections. We must not only know Him in his 
 revealed character as the God of nature and pro- 
 vidence, but also as he is presented in the bright 
 mirror of evangelical truth, as the gracious Contri- 
 ver of the beneficent plan of our salvation and as 
 willing, in virtue of that scheme, to reconcile the 
 world unto himself through the death and righte- 
 ousness of his Son. His glory as the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, trans- 
 gression and sin, must pass before us in all its 
 transcendent lustre, while we shelter ourselves 
 within the clefts of that rock without the interven- 
 tion of which we should be unable to sustain the 
 
39 
 
 blast of liis iiulignation, or the concentrated blaze 
 of his perfections. We must contemplate those 
 perfections as they meet in combined and aug- 
 mented brightness in the person of Jesus Christ ; 
 as they are reflected in warm and vivid radiance 
 from his Cross. We must thus know God, not as 
 some vague and magnificent abstraction of physi- 
 cal energy, and of moral beauty and loveliness 
 dwelling amid scenes of undefinable grandeur be- 
 yond the clouds; but we must view him as the God 
 in whose immediate presence we stand, and his at- 
 tributes in their direct bearing upon our own wel- 
 fare and destiny. Every conception of the imagi- 
 nation, in its endeavour to realize his presence, 
 every conviction of the judgment, every feeling of 
 the heart must be founded upon a clear view of 
 what He is in Himself and of what He has become 
 unto us. That worship only can command his ap- 
 probation, which springs, not from blind and un- 
 reflecting ignorance, but from an intelligent and 
 enlightened survey of his real claim upon our 
 homage. 
 
 In conjunction with a correct knowledge of God 
 as he has revealed Himself in his word, and as he 
 stands related to his people in virtue of the cove- 
 nant of redemption, our worship in order to be ac- 
 ceptable must be characterized by a deep Sincerity 
 of purpose. There is no kind of professed obedi- 
 ence to a divine injunction, which is more utterly 
 destitute of value, more widely removed from the 
 reality ; there is no species of hypocrisy, for which 
 Jehovah has expressed his abhorrence in stronger 
 and more unequivocal terms than that of an exter- 
 nal round of devotional services in which the heart 
 
40 
 
 bears no share. While we maintain the unquestion- 
 able and universal obligation of a public and sys- 
 tematic order of worship, as enforced by the com- 
 mand of God and as urged by every consideration 
 of duty and utility, let it not for a moment be ima- 
 gined that a mere process of bodily exercise is all 
 that we mean. Let it not be supposed that while 
 in their proper order we hold the expediency and 
 necessity of outward forms, we require nothing 
 more. Let it not be thought that because we press 
 upon men the importance of a regular attendance 
 on the services of the sanctuary, and of uniting in 
 the hallowed exercises of congregational worship, 
 we look for nothing beyond the mechanical obser- 
 vance. So far is this from being the case that the 
 outward act is required for no other reason than 
 because it is intended to represent, and is calcu- 
 lated to cherish, a deep and unfeigned homage of 
 the heart. The external structure and decoration 
 of the temple are important, only as forming the 
 decent and suitable enclosure of that sacred flame, 
 which is intended to burn upon the altar within. 
 The association of so many persons in the same holy 
 occupations is designed only to exhibit and promote 
 that union of minds, that amalgamation of heart 
 and affection which by mutual radiations of devout 
 and fervent sympathy may kindle those emotions 
 of gratitude and joy and love, that will ascend as 
 a cloud of grateful incence to the throne above. 
 The prostration of the body is acceptable on no 
 other account than as it is symbohcal of a profound 
 humiliation of the soul. The phraseology of pray- 
 er, in its varied forms of adoration, confession, 
 supplication, thanksgiving and praise, as uttered 
 
41 
 
 by the lips, is significant only as it is expressive 
 of the o-enuine sentiments,vvhich it professes and is 
 intended to convey. The whole body, in short, of 
 the outward forms and ceremonies and observances 
 of religion, can be of no other service and is de- 
 signed to answer no other purpose in the economy 
 of divine worship than to be a shrine for the inha- 
 bitation of that living spirit of piety, sincerity and 
 truth, in which its real essence consists. It is no- 
 thing else than a system of appropiiate organs, 
 adapted to our present character aud condition, 
 through the medium of which the principle of im- 
 mortality communicated from the Fountain of 
 eternal life above may discharge its varied func- 
 tions. 
 
 This being the case w^e cannot be surprized that 
 Jehovah should so frequently express not only the 
 utter futility, but even the deep abomination of a 
 formal and hypocritical act of worship in his sight. 
 Such a process is not only worthless and unavail- 
 ing for its proper end, but it is absolutely odious in 
 his eyes; and it is by so much the more unworthy 
 and affronting to his Majesty as it assumes the 
 character and attitude of a more direct and reve- 
 rential homage than any other mode of serving or 
 acknowledging Him That men should draw nigh 
 unto Him with their lips, while their hearts are far 
 from Him, that they should adopt the language of 
 contrition, veneration and thanksgiving, while 
 their carnal mind, in the mean time, is full of en- 
 mity against Him ; that they should bend their 
 knees before Him, while their hearts rise in rebel- 
 lion and proud contempt against his character and 
 government, He repeatedly declares to be in the 
 
42 
 
 highest degree offensive to liis mind. The sacri- 
 fice of the wicked, as -offered with insincerity of 
 purpose, He peremptorily asserts to be abomination 
 unto Him, and in language of indignant expostula- 
 tion with such persons, and of rejection of such ser- 
 vices, He exclaims to his professing people of old, 
 " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacri- 
 fices unto me, saith the Lord ? Bring no more 
 vain oblations : incense is an abomination unto me : 
 the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assem- 
 blies I cannot away with : it is iniquity even the 
 solemn meeting. Your new moons and your ap- 
 pointed feasts my soul abhoreth : they are a trou- 
 ble to me: I am weary to bear them. And when 
 ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes 
 from you : yea when ye make many prayers I will 
 not hear/' 
 
 To meet the demands and to rise to the con- 
 ditions of acceptable worship, it is not enough that 
 the character of the individual should be free from 
 gross depravity and vice: it is not sufficient that in 
 his approaches to God he should not be actuated 
 by any sinister or selfish motive. It is enough to 
 mar the service in which he is engaged, and to 
 render it utterly unfit for acceptance at the throne 
 of grace, that it should be wanting in that since- 
 rity, and simplicity of purpose, without which no 
 act of professed homage can be pleasing unto God. 
 There are many persons who from one sabbath to 
 another go up into the house of the Lord in mere 
 compliance with custom, combined, perhaps, with 
 some vague and indefinite impression that it is right 
 so to do. But they have no specific object in view. 
 They do not feel that they have there an impor- 
 
43 
 
 tant business to transact, that they have immedi- 
 ately and most solemnly to do with God. That 
 they are about to enter into his presence chamber, 
 and that interests of everlasting importance are in- 
 volved in the efficacy and acceptance of their sup- 
 plications. Amidst this vagueness of design and 
 desultoriness of feeling, it is a matter of no sur- 
 prise that the privilege of waiting upon God in 
 the duties of his worship is attended in their case 
 with no apparent benefit — that as they expect no- 
 thing, and desire nothing, they naturally receive 
 nothing — that successive sabbaths pass over their 
 heads, marked perhaps by a regular attendance 
 upon the means of grace, whilst their character 
 still manifests the same apathy and indifference to 
 the overwhelming realities of an eternal world. 
 To obviate this evil, and to render our worship truly 
 acceptable unto God, we must go up unto his house 
 with our eye more singly and uniformly directed 
 to his glory ; we must prepare ourselves for this 
 holy service by fervent prayer and devout medita- 
 tion. We must consider ourselves as those who 
 are to be admitted to an audience of the King of 
 kings, as those, who are to see, in the vivid reali- 
 zation of faith, the Lord of Hosts ; and therefore 
 ought not only to banish all malice and hypocrisy, 
 all pride and carnality from their minds, but also 
 to concentrate all the energies of their thoughts 
 and affections in the sublime occupation, on which 
 they are about to enter. Worship offered with 
 this simplicity of aim, with this sincerity of inten- 
 tion, by whatever imperfection it may in other re- 
 spects be characterized, cannot fail to be accepta^ 
 ble to Him, to whom it is presented. 
 
44 
 
 But to raise our worship to that tone of eleva- 
 tion, by which it ought to be characterized, to 
 impregnate it with the seed ofhfe and immortahty, 
 and to impart unto it that celestial unction, which 
 will cause the face of every adoring and listening 
 suppliant to shine as if it had been the face of an 
 angel ; this deep sincerity of purpose must be 
 combined with fervent Spirituality of Affection. 
 The worship of God, it should ever be borne in 
 mind was instituted for the express purpose of af- 
 fording us an opportunity of coming into closer 
 and more immediate contact with Himself. The 
 very circumstance that God is a Spirit is adduced 
 by our blessed Saviour, as the ground of an impe- 
 rative requisition, that they, who worship him 
 should worship him in spirit as well as in truth. 
 There must be an analogy — a congruity between 
 the homage, which is offered, and the essential 
 character of Him, to whom it is rendered ; without 
 which it must be utterly unprofitable and offensive. 
 It is not enough therefore that our worship should 
 be exempt from any gross deviation from sincerity 
 and truth. To be acceptable unto God it must 
 rise far above the negative merit, if we may use 
 such a term, of freedom from formahty, insipi- 
 dity and hypocrisy. It must bear upon every part 
 of it the impress of deep and fervent devotion. 
 Our offering must not be a cold and lifeless mass of 
 rites and ceremonies — of words and attitudes — of 
 matter and form ; but there must be a glow of in- 
 tense and holy feeling transfused through every 
 element, of which it is composed. It must be 
 heaven's own fire drawn down by the attractive 
 power and influence of prayer, to kindle the liv- 
 
45 
 
 ing sacrifice of our unreserved self-surrender, and 
 returning again in a pure flame of genuine and 
 ardent devotion. The very materialism of our 
 worship must be spiritualized. The very language 
 which we employ must be expressive of higher 
 thoughts, and more sacred feelings than it would 
 convey in its conventional import as applied to 
 earthly things. While we are engaged in this sub- 
 lime intercourse with God, our heart must burn 
 within us. The beauty of holiness, like a robe of 
 celestial purity and loveliness, must be spread over 
 the whole ranae of our services. The graces of 
 the Spirit in all their intensity and ardour — in all 
 their glow of holy tenderness — in all their energy 
 of combined and blended affection must pervade 
 our souls and impart a cast of spirituality to all our 
 words and actions — a reflection of that image, 
 which we now see only through the glass of ordi- 
 nances, but shall hereafter see face to face, and be 
 ourselves transformed into the same from glory to 
 glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. 
 
 We remark, as another essential characteristic 
 of divine worship — that it must be offered with a 
 Solemnity of deportment, attended with a decency 
 and congruity in the external Forms, in which it is 
 visibly embodied. It is possible, indeed, that 
 these requisites may be possessed and exhibited in 
 the utter absence of the spirit, by which they were 
 designed to be animated. We may go through 
 the exterior mechanism, we may perform the bo- 
 dily exercise of worship, with the utmost regularity 
 and propriety of demeanour, while in the mean time 
 every element of sincere homage and genuine de- 
 votion is a stranger to our bosom. W\' may pre- 
 
46 
 
 sent ourselves at the appointed hour within the 
 courts of the Lord's house, and be exceeded by 
 none in the decorum and apparent seriousness of 
 our conduct, but we may have neither the know- 
 ledge, nor the sincerity, nor the spirituality of 
 thought and feeling, which characterize the true 
 worshippers of the Father. 
 
 While, however, gravity, steadiness and sobrie- 
 ty of outward deportment may exist in the total 
 destitution of real seriousness of mind, and true 
 contrition of Spirit, it must at the same time be 
 held as an unquestionable maxim, that without 
 the former habitsof conduct, the latter endowments 
 of character cannot exist. Nothing can be more 
 inconsistent with that beauty of holiness — with that 
 moral elegance, if I may so express it, which forms 
 the drapery of public worship, than a habit of le- 
 vity, irreverence, or marked indifference, during 
 the period of professed attendance upon God, in 
 the duties of his immediate service. There is a 
 solemnity attaching to eternal things — there is an 
 awfalness in the acknowledged presence of the 
 Most High — there is a terror in the glance of om- 
 niscience — there is a dignity in prayer and com- 
 munion with God — there is a majesty clothing 
 every sentence, which is suitably uttered— every 
 act, which is appropriately performed in the wor- 
 ship of the Eternal, with which the veriest thought- 
 lessness of chddhood or youth, the veriest wan- 
 tonness of impiety or the veriest hardihood of 
 settled and inveterate profaneness alone will dare 
 to trifle. The eye that wanders in levity or stares 
 in idle vacancy, the muscles that yawn in listless- 
 ness or relax into an expression of unseasonable and 
 
47 
 
 unseemly mirth, the Hps that give utterance to 
 trifling and untimely communications in the midst 
 of converse with God and fellowship with Angels 
 — these are exhibitions of inconsiderateness, vanity 
 or recklessness, which ought never to present 
 themselves within the precincts of God's house. 
 To persons, who may be guilty of any of these ha- 
 bits, well indeed may we address the expostulation 
 of the wise man, " Keep thy foot, when thou goest 
 to the house of God, and be more ready to hear 
 than to give the sacrifice of fools : for they consider 
 not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, 
 and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything 
 before God." 
 
 In order to secure these habits of solemnity, 
 sobriety and reverential awe of the divine Majesty, 
 it is important that every thing in the outward ce- 
 remonial of our worship should be distinguished by 
 propriety, utility and obvious aptitude to the object, 
 for which it is designed. And on this not unim- 
 portant branch of our subject I rejoice to think 
 that our own Church has evinced singular wisdom 
 and discernment, forming its system of worship on 
 a plan equally remote from the pomp and pride, the 
 multitudinous forms and the gorgeous decorations 
 of the Romish ritual, and that unimpressive simpli- 
 city. Occasionally bordering upon baldness and 
 insipidity, which must considerably impair its effi- 
 ciency as a means of affecting the mind of man. 
 That every thing in the machinery of divine worship 
 should be performed decently and in order, is as 
 much an apostolical injunction, a command of God 
 as it is that we should not neglect the assembling 
 of ourselves too;ether. It is not less a matter of 
 
48 
 
 obvious wisdom and expediency that wo sliould 
 worship God through the medium of suitable and 
 appropriate forms than it is a matter of absolute 
 and imperative duty that we should worship Him 
 in spirit and in truth. We may safely assert there- 
 fore that as a mere round of ceremonial observan- 
 ces however impressive, the bare reiteration of 
 devotional formularies, however significant in their 
 import and however exalted in the tone of piety, 
 which they express, are of themselves utterly in- 
 efficient ; so the total exclusion of all external 
 aids, of all forms and systems in the present state 
 of our nature, renders a due and profitable per- 
 formance of the worship of Jehovah little short of 
 impossible. While heaven, and the heaven of 
 heavens cannot contain Him who is the olyect of 
 our adoration. He hath ordained that his people 
 here below should should seek him in temples made 
 with hands, and hath promised that by a devout 
 and diligent attendance upon the means, which are 
 there administered, they shall ascend as by a 
 mystic ladder to the footstool of his eternal throne. 
 Such appear to be the essential and indispen- 
 sable requisites to an acceptable worship of God ; 
 There must be, within unavoidable limitations, a 
 correct knowledge of Him, who is the object of 
 worship ; there must be a genuine sincerity of pur- 
 pose ; there must be a profound spirituality of af- 
 fection, and finally there must be a solemnity of 
 deportment attended with a decency and congru- 
 ity in the outward forms of worship. Without 
 these qualifications no act of worship can be really 
 acceptable to God or profitable to ourselves. We 
 must learn therefore to cultivate and pursue these 
 
49 
 
 habits. We must seek a more accurate and com- 
 prehensive knowledge of God, especially in those 
 relations, in which he stands to his people as their 
 God in covenant. We must examine ourselves 
 with closer scrutiny with respect to the prevailing 
 motives, by which we are actuated, while we draw 
 nigh unto God in the several duties of his worship. 
 We must endeavour habitually to live in closer 
 communion, in more intimate fellowship with God. 
 And lastly, we must exercise greater vigilance over 
 ourselves, while we are assembled in his house, 
 and thus the words of our mouth, and the medita- 
 tions of our heart, will ever be acceptable unto 
 Him, who is our Strength and our Redeemer. 
 
 D 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Component Parts of Divine Worship. 
 
 Throughout the whole range of the divine go- 
 vernment there is observable a twofold subserviency 
 of influence and operation, the one having a more 
 immediate bearing upon the maintenance of the au- 
 thority and the manifestation of the glory of the 
 supreme Ruler Himself, the other having a more 
 direct and exclusive reference to the welfare and 
 happiness of his creatures. Both these objects, 
 indeed, in their ultimate results, are inseparably 
 united and combined. They run parallel with 
 each other throughout the whole history of the 
 universe. They took their rise together in the 
 fountain of all being at the beginning of the cre- 
 ation of God. They were mutually blended by 
 his plastic hand in the very constitution of the 
 physical and moral world. And as they are re- 
 spectively developed in the course of nature and 
 in the administration of the gracious economy of 
 human redemption, they gradually enlarge and 
 swell that tide of beneficence, which will issue in 
 the eternal blessedness of all who are willing to 
 yield themselves to its direction. 
 
 In that department of duty, which we are' now 
 engaged in considering, this combination of bear- 
 
61 
 
 ing is very prominently displayed. It is unques- 
 tionable that the institution of divine worship was 
 intended and is most eminently calculated to sus- 
 tain the honor of the divine Majesty, and to bring 
 into impressive exhibition those attributes which 
 constitute the glory of the divine character on the 
 one hand, and to promote the best interests of man 
 on the other. Nowhere indeed do these all impor* 
 tant ends meet in more perfect harmony and coa- 
 lesce into a more friendly and effective alliance than 
 within the precincts of the sanctuary. Under the 
 Mosaic economy the temple at Jerusalem was the 
 great resting place of the glory of Jehovah, and the 
 scene of the purest and most exalted enjoyments 
 of his servants. Within that sacred and magnificent 
 structure they were privileged to meet Him in the 
 special manifestations of Himself, and so conscious 
 were they of the advantages accruing to themselves 
 from this sublime intercourse and so sensible of 
 the inexpressible pleasure with which it was attend- 
 ed, that whenever they were deprived of the oppor- 
 tunity of realizing it, they bewailed it as one of the 
 heaviest calamities. To the various exercises of 
 the Temple therefore they were attached by one 
 of the strongest links of their heart's affections. So 
 closely associated with Jerusalem, in their estimation, 
 was all suitable and availing worship, that, even in 
 the land of their captivity, when they set themselves 
 to seek the Lord, they directed their faces towards 
 the temple, where He had been accustomed to re- 
 veal Himself to their souls ; and their recollections 
 lingered with fond and melancholy satisfaction a- 
 round the courts, where the very atmosphere was 
 redolent of heaven and every stone appeared to be 
 
 d2 
 
52 
 
 marked with the footprints of the Eternal. This 
 feehng of intense, we might ahiiost say enthusiastic 
 attachment to the scene of the brightest display of 
 Jehovah's presence was doubtless founded upon a 
 sense of the benefits, which had been there received, 
 and a conviction that through the medium of no 
 other institution than that which was there cele- 
 brated could so vivid and consolatory a perception 
 of his excellency have been obtained. In the ex- 
 ercise of divine worship, in fact, there is a transfer 
 of resources, there is salutary circulation carrying 
 on between heaven and earth. The very tears of 
 repentance which are there shed, the very breath 
 of thanksgiving and praise, which is there exhaled, 
 when they have been carried upward on the wings 
 of faith and love, form a bow of the covenant in the 
 skies, reflecting the varied beauties of the divine 
 perfections, and bespeaking peace upon earth, and 
 good will towards men ; and they descend again in 
 showers of blessing to enrich and refresh the soul. 
 And if objects of such momentous importance as 
 the honor of God and the spiritual and eternal good 
 of man are so closely connected with a due dis- 
 charge of the duty of divine worship, it assuredly 
 exhibits in a still stronger light the supreme value 
 of the institution and the paramount necessity of 
 maintaining it. 
 
 In the two former chapters we endeavoured to 
 prove and to illustrate the grounds and obligations 
 of this duty, and pointed out the indispensable re- 
 quisites to its availing performance. We shall 
 now proceed therefore to a brief consideration of 
 the Component Parts of this sacred service in the 
 twofold relation already specified — firstas it has re- 
 
53 
 
 ference to the glory and authority of God, and then 
 as it stands more immediately connected with the 
 necessities and the future destinies of man. In the 
 worship of God it is evident, from the very phrase- 
 ology, in which it is expressed ; that we are not 
 to have exclusive regard to our own welfare. It 
 was obviously intended to be something in the 
 form of a return unto God for all that he has done 
 and provided for our good. 
 
 For the purpose of realizing this object, the 
 first thing which appears to be necessary, and 
 therefore thefirst component part of divine worship 
 is, Adoration of the divine perfections. This is 
 doubtless the first duty which a rational, dependent 
 and happy creature owes to a wise, powerful and 
 beneficent Creator.*.^) We may justly conceive it 
 therefore to have been the form, which the worship 
 of Jehovah primarily assumed. It was the cele- 
 bration of his lofty character and attributes, which 
 re-echoed throughout the vast concave of heaven, 
 when at the dawn of creation the morning stars 
 sang together and all the sons of God shouted 
 for joy. It was the celebration of his transcendent 
 excellencies, in strains of devout and rapturous 
 admiration, which first broke upon that silence, 
 wherein Jehovah had hitherto wrapped himself 
 amidst the deep solitude of his own being. It was 
 the delight of those pure and exalted intelligences, 
 with whom his creative energy had surrounded his 
 throne — -to acknowledge the perfections, to the 
 exercise of which they were indebted for all that 
 they were, and which shone forth with such con- 
 spicuous lustre throughout every region of the uni- 
 verse. They were eager to give vent to all that 
 
M 
 
 they knew and could proclaim of his power, wis- 
 dom and love. The strains, which thus primarily 
 issued from heaven, and trembled in delightful har- 
 mony to the harps of Angels, were speedily caught 
 by the inhabitants of earth, and our first parents 
 in their original condition, before they had yet oc- 
 casion to appeal for pardon and peace, were doubt- 
 less ready to mingle their voices with the anthem 
 of ang-ehc adoration. 
 
 During the earlier dispensations of religion we 
 find that the several forms of worship intended for 
 the use of individuals, or the church generally, 
 abounded with adoring acknowledgments of the 
 Majesty and benignity of the great Sovereign of 
 the world. We find the whole system of nature 
 brought into requisition for the purpose of cele- 
 brating his perfections. The sun, the moon, and 
 the stars — the air, the earth and the seas — the 
 mountains, the trees and the rivers — every thing, 
 in short, which is splendid or magnificent — which 
 is awful or sublime — which is beautiful or pictur- 
 esque — which is useful or salutary within the 
 whole range of the material universe, is called 
 upon, in its appropriate order, to do homage unto 
 Him. They are urged, in the language of devout 
 and animated metaphor, to perform their respec- 
 tive functions in harmonious and combined adora- 
 tion of Him, who gave their being, and endued 
 them with all their powers. It is in compliance 
 with these appeals, and to carry their designs into 
 effect, that we are required to meet together for 
 his worship. It is to cherish in our hearts and to 
 proclaim with our lips those sentiments of adoring- 
 awe, and of reverential affection, which Jehovah in 
 
55 
 
 his incomprehensible essence as the immortal, in- 
 visible and only wise God, and in his gracious and 
 beneficent relations to us as our Creator, Redeemer 
 and Sanctifier so justly claims at our hands, and 
 which it is not less our privilege than our duty to 
 yield. It is to prostrate ourselves before his 
 throne, and to acknowledge Him as the greatest 
 and the best of Beings. It is to extol Him, whom 
 we cannot fully know, but who, in proportion as 
 we are enabled to know Him, appears still more 
 worthy of our admiration. It is to he lost in ador- 
 ing wonder of that love, which human thought is 
 too confined to grasp, and human language too fee- 
 ble to express. It is to direct our contemplation 
 to the cross in union with the enlightened and 
 sanctified spirits of heaven and earth, and to be- 
 hold that spectacle of blended glories — of majesty 
 and benignity — of wisdom and power — of justice 
 and mercy — of wrath and love — which there blazes 
 with overpowering radiance upon the view, and 
 throws the lustre of the divine perfections over the 
 whole compass of creation, and around the whole 
 circle of eternity. It is for the purpose of thus 
 enlarging and elevating our conceptions of the 
 character and attributes of the God, whose we are 
 and whom we are bound to serve, that we are di- 
 rected to meet together, and to utter such thoughts 
 as we can conceive — such feelings as we can ex- 
 ercise in such words as we can command in the 
 order of his appointed worship. 
 
 Another branch of divine worship immediately 
 connected with the preceding, and having a more 
 direct reference to God himself is the exercise of 
 Thanksgiving for liis past mercies, and for the va- 
 
66 
 
 rious blessings which he has promised for us in the 
 covenant of redemption. If it be our duty, as it 
 unquestionably is, to adore with prostrate and re- 
 verential awe the boundless attributes of Jehovah, 
 we are doubtless placed under equal obligations to 
 bless and praise Him that those attributes have 
 been so uniformly exerted for our benefit. A 
 grateful acknowledgment of kindness from whom- 
 soever received, is a spontaneous dictate of nature, 
 and one of the first requirements of moral govern- 
 ment. Such a recognition is absolutely necessary 
 in order to the maintainance of a cordial and af- 
 fectionate understanding between a benefactor and 
 those upon whom his bounties are bestowed, and 
 proportioned to the extent to which benefits have 
 been conferred, forbearance has been exercised 
 and provision for future welfare, and security has 
 been made, is obviously the duty of thanksgiving 
 as an acknowledgment of these favors. In our in- 
 tercourse with our fellow men, and in the various 
 relations, by which we are connected with them, 
 there is, for the most part, some measure of mutual 
 obligation ; there is generally an opportunity of 
 making some practical and valuable return for 
 kindness shown ; and the reciprocity of favour 
 and friendship, which is thus maintained, forms 
 one of the most agreeable and delightful accompa- 
 niments of human life. But when we attempt to 
 compare the return we are able to make with the 
 profuse liberality, and the disinterested compassion, 
 which God hath exercised towards us, all measure- 
 ment is at an end, all proportion is lost. But the 
 very magnitude and variety of God's goodness to- 
 wards us in providence and grace, and our own 
 
utter inability to make Him any adequate return, 
 bind us by so much the stronger obligation to do 
 what we can, to offer unto Him such an acknow- 
 ledgment as comports with our character and 
 circumstances. 
 
 One of the primary objects in the institution 
 and therefore one of the most important and essen- 
 tial of the component parts of public worship, was 
 to deepen the feeling and to call forth the expression 
 of becoming gratitude for the divine mercies, to 
 collect, as it were from the assembled throng, that 
 tribute of thanksgiving, which is all that Jehovah 
 requires. Under the former dispensation, indeed, 
 more costly acknowledments were demanded. The 
 worshipper was commanded to bring with him an 
 "offering" when he presented himself within the 
 courts of the Lord's house. He was expected to 
 give some substantial proof of the depth of his con- 
 trition and of the sincerity of his gratitude ; and 
 under an overwhelming sense of the goodness of 
 God the Psalmist exclaimed " what shall I render 
 unto the Lord for all his benefits ? I will take the 
 cup of salvation and call upon the name of the 
 Lord." In our case, indeed, the external offering 
 has been superseded by the great sacrifice of Him, 
 who appeared in the fulness of time to offer Him- 
 self without spot, to God in our behalf. But the 
 obligation to present unto Him "the calves of our 
 lips." The incense of a devout and grateful heart 
 has thereby been infinitely strengthened and en- 
 hanced. When we meet therefore within the walls 
 of his house, it is to take a solemn review of God's 
 gracious dealings with us ; it is to read the inven- 
 tory, and to acknowledge the reception of those 
 
58 
 
 invaluable treasures, which he has laid up for us 
 in Christ, and is ready from day to day to dis- 
 pense for our benefit : it is to bear a public and 
 unequivocal testimony in the sight of heaven and 
 earth , in the presence of angels and men, to the 
 innumerable blessings which He is incessantly 
 pouring down upon us ; it is to recognise Him as 
 that Father of Lights, from whom cometh down 
 every good and every perfect gift ; it is above all, 
 tu thank Him for the unspeakable gift of his only 
 begotten Son ; for the means of grace, and the 
 hope of glory. 
 
 The means by which this department of divine 
 worship may be suitably and acceptably conduct- 
 ed, are obviously those by which emotions of fer- 
 vent and reverential gratitude may be most vividly 
 pourtrayed and most forcibly expressed. For 
 this purpose nothing can be more appropriate than 
 that those, who engage in this work should meet 
 together in fixt places, and at appointed seasons, 
 in order to unite and by uniting to kindle into a 
 stronger blaze, those feelings of gratitude and love, 
 which, abandoned to the chilly solitude of indivi- 
 dual reflection, are apt to sink into a state of inac- 
 tivity and languor. To thank God as we are re- 
 quired, and as we ought, it is not enough that we 
 should be coldly convinced of the obligation as a 
 question of duty, and as an affair of rational calcu- 
 lation. It is not enough that we should argue the 
 point as a first principle of government, or an une- 
 quivocal command of scripture : it is not sufficient 
 that we should give the reins to our imagination in 
 dreams of devotional sentimentality and romance, 
 and express in terms of vague generality, our ad- 
 
59 
 
 miration of the benevolence and goodness of the 
 Deity. All this is perfectly compatible with the 
 ntter destitution of all genuine gratitude in the 
 heart, of all acceptable praise from the lips. We 
 must go beyond the bare convictions of the under- 
 standing ; we must not be content with a few 
 sparks of our solitary kindling. We must enlarge 
 and multiply them by collision ; we must open our 
 hearts to the beams of the sun of righteousness as 
 they glow in the concentrated sympathies of an 
 assembled multitude, we must avail ourselves of 
 every subsidiary means of rousing our affections into 
 higher ardour, we must meditate upon the divine 
 goodness in its various modes of exercise, until the 
 fire of gratitude kindles within us and our mouth is 
 constrained to speak. We must provide ourselves 
 with words that burn in order to give adequate 
 expression to the intensity of our conjoined emo- 
 tions ; we must take advantage, so far as they 
 may be effective and appropriate of combinations 
 of fancy and of sounds of melody, to give a tone of 
 energy and liveliness to our praises. We must 
 endeavour to touch every chord, to rouse every 
 dormant susceptibility in our intellectual and mo- 
 ral nature. We must with the Psalmist call upon 
 our souls, and upon all that is within us, to praise 
 God's holy name. We must invite those around 
 ns to adore the Lord for his goodness, and for the 
 wonders which he doeth for the children of men. 
 In our thanksffivino-s we must endeavour to rise to 
 the magnitude and variety of our obligations. In 
 our anthems we must labour to become more deep- 
 ly imbued with the very spirit of those, which re- 
 echo throughout the choir above. In our music, 
 
60 
 
 both vocal and instrumental, we must strive to 
 catch more of the sweet hosannas, those strains of 
 pure and holy harmony, which float upon the gales 
 of the paradise of God. 
 
 Having thus cursorily surveyed those parts of 
 our worship, which stand more immediately con- 
 nected with the glory of God in the highest. We 
 shall now briefly notice those departments of this 
 exalted service, which have a more direct reference 
 to the welfare and benefit of man himself. These 
 indeed may not in the strict sense of the term con- 
 stitute portions of the proper worship of God ; but 
 as they are naturally connected, and in practice 
 have been usually associated with that homage of 
 devout adoration and praise, which we are bound to 
 render unto God ; they may without impropriety 
 be considered as integral parts of the system. Of 
 these the first which we shall mention is Prayer 
 for needed blessings. This division of the sacred 
 work of divine worship is indeed most closely al- 
 lied to the duty of thanksgiving for past favors. 
 It is moreover in its very grounds and in the whole 
 method of its discharge, a recognition of the Sove- 
 reign Majesty of Jehovah and of our entire depen- 
 dence upon his bounty and forbearance. It is an 
 act of compliance with his direction, of obedience 
 to his authority. The duty of prayer indeed is not 
 confined to the service of the temple. It is not a 
 mere public ceremony observed in accordance with 
 certain reasons of state and maxims of prudential 
 calculation. It is not a piece of empty and unmean- 
 ing formality — a scene of idle and imposing pa^ 
 geantry exhibited every seventh day to keep up the 
 appearance of devotion, and a shew of reverence 
 
61 
 
 for the Supreme. The exercise of prayer on the 
 contrary is a duty of daily and hourly oblio^ation. 
 It is coextensive with our necessities, and the effec- 
 tiial and availing performance of it, as essential to 
 our welfare, as our sins are numerous, our danger 
 imminent, and our dependence is absolute and en- 
 tire. 
 
 But although it be our duty, and our privilege, 
 as sinful and dependent beings, thus to pray with- 
 out ceasing, to be instant in prayer, to pray with 
 all prayer and supplication in the spirit, yet there 
 are seasons and circumstances, which invest this 
 sublime occupation, with a character of peculiar 
 weight and interest. Of the public services of the 
 sanctuary, and of the specific duties of the sabbath, 
 it has always formed a prominent and most delight- 
 ful part. So large and appropriate a portion of 
 divine worship did this holy work engross under 
 the Mosaic economy, that the temple was desig- 
 nated by the prophet, and subsequently denomi- 
 nated with a corroborating weight of authority by 
 our Saviour Himself — a house of prayer. Within 
 the walls of that house, which has been dedicated 
 to the service of God, his people assemble from 
 one sabbath to another for the express purpose of 
 calling upon his name. Here they meet in delight- 
 ful accord, in order to raise their united supplica- 
 tions — to join w ith one heart and one voice, and one 
 language, in pouring forth the commingled tide of 
 their emotions, which may ascend, like the sound 
 of many waters, in grateful and overpowering 
 melody, to the throne of the Majesty on high. 
 And if there be any thing, which can secure a 
 gracious hearing at the hand of God, and bring 
 
62 
 
 down a blessing; of pardon and peace and love, it is 
 this effectual fervent prayer of many rio-hteous 
 men, confederated, as it were, in lioly leaoue, for 
 laying siege to the mercy seat of Jehovah, and de- 
 claring in the language of humble and reverential 
 determination, that they will not abandon the 
 enterprize until He has graciously granted their 
 requests. If when two or three are thus met to- 
 gether in his name, his promise stands pledged 
 that he will be in the midst of them to bless them, 
 with what feelings of satisfaction and benignant 
 kindness does He look down upon a whole assem- 
 bly, whose every feeling is absorbed in the solem- 
 nity of prayer and as the voice of supplication and 
 thanksgiving alternately ascends to his throne, all 
 the people say, Amen, and praise the Lord. Amid 
 such a scene, if the heart be really in unison with 
 the tongue, the mystic vision of the apocalypse 
 would seem to be realized, wherein the new Jeru- 
 salem is represented as coming down from heaven, 
 and a great voice is heard saying. Behold the ta- 
 bernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell 
 with them, and they shall be his people, and God 
 himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
 
 In order, however, that men may be duly pre- 
 pared to enter upon the devotional services of reli- 
 gion, and be supplied with competent knowledge 
 and information to enable them to worship God in 
 spirit and in truth, it is necessary that with the 
 other departments of this comprehensive duty, sui- 
 table means should be contrived for the purpose of 
 Exhortation and Instruction. To meet this exi- 
 gency, and that nothing mightbe wantingto render 
 the worship of Jehovah an offering of rational and 
 
63 
 
 enlightened, as well as of devout and fervent ho- 
 mage, the word of God, and the exposition and 
 enforcement of its principles have been specially 
 provided. This is an appendage of worship, 
 though subordinate to those, which have preced- 
 ed, yet in the present condition of our nature of 
 the highest importance in itself. The volume of 
 inspiration, which is the foundation and the text- 
 book of all religious instruction, was given us to be 
 a standing record of the great truths pertaining to 
 our eternal peace and welfare. It is an epitome of 
 the universal history of God's dealings with man- 
 kind, a declaration of his whole counsel, a pandect 
 of all the laws and regulations of his moral govern- 
 ment. It flowed in direct communication from 
 the fountain of eternal truth, and is profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruc- 
 tion in righteousness, that the man of God might 
 be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good 
 work. And hence the reading of a portion of this 
 inestimable volume has in every age, since it was 
 penned, formed a part of the public worship of 
 God. Through the truths, which are taught and 
 the disclosures, which are made in this sacred book, 
 Jehovah may be considered as holding direct in- 
 tercourse with men. He addresses them in com- 
 munications, as purely and perfectly his own as 
 when he conversed with Adam in Paradise, and 
 when he spoke amidst the thunders of Sinai, or in- 
 scribed with his own finger the law of the ten com- 
 mandments upon two tables of stone. A solemn 
 and reverential Attention to his word therefore, 
 while it is read in the service of his sanctuary, 
 must be regarded as forming no unimportant con- 
 
64 
 
 stituent of that system of avowed and explicit 
 homage, which He hath instituted for the obser- 
 vance of his people. It is a tribute of veneration 
 for his character, of love to his truth and of wil- 
 lingness to be guided by his wisdom, than which 
 nothing can be more pleasing in his sight. 
 
 But as subsidiary to the written word, the ordi- 
 nance of preaching has always occupied a prominent 
 place in the scheme of the public services of the sab- 
 bath. The object of this institution is not to reveal 
 new truths — not to propound new doctrines — not to 
 enforce new obligations ; but to bring those which 
 have already been embodied in the records of inspi- 
 ration to bear in their concentrated light and influ- 
 ence upon the understanding, the heart, and the 
 life. It is to collect, to arrange, and to combine 
 the varied beams of truth, which are scattered 
 over the resplendent page of Revelation, and to 
 reflect them in all their illuminating and trans- 
 forming power upon the mind, character and con- 
 duct. It is to teach, to exhort, to warn and to 
 encourage with all long suffering and doctrine. It 
 is to point out the evil and enormity of sin, the 
 guilt and condemnation of the fall. It is to open 
 the eyes of the impenitent offender to the real 
 danger of his condition. It is to conduct the 
 lightning of Sinai to shiver the heart of stone. It 
 is to proclaim the glad tidings of redeeming love, 
 to unfold the mysteries of the everlasting covenant, 
 and to pour the balm of consolation upon the 
 broken and contrite spirit. It is to maintain the 
 claims of God and the soul, in opposition to the 
 engrossing vanities of the present world : it is, to 
 chase away the phantoms of time before the dread 
 
65 
 
 realities of eternity : it is to bring the vast con- 
 cerns of futurity under their varied aspects of 
 awful and appalling — of animating and refresh- 
 ing in all the vividness of their coloring before the 
 mind ; it is to urge men, without respect of per- 
 sons, to flee for refuge to the hope set before them 
 in the gospel, and that denying all ungodliness aud 
 worldly lusts, they should live soberly, righteously, 
 and godlily in this evil world, looking for the glo- 
 rious appearing of the Lord God, and of our Savi- 
 our Jesus Christ. Let the preaching of the gospel 
 be conducted upon these principles, and with a 
 view to these ends, and let it be received with 
 meekness and simplicity, with seriousness and 
 teachableness of spirit, and it cannot fail to be an 
 acceptable, as well as a useful and appropriate por- 
 tion of that worship, which is offered at the foot- 
 stool of the Most High. 
 
 Such appear to be the leading constituents of 
 that homage which we have already shewn to be 
 binding upon every created intelligence, and to be 
 characterized by knowledge and sincerity, by spi- 
 rituality of affection, and deep solemnity of deport- 
 ment. In its relative bearing towards God, it is 
 adoration, thanksgiving and praise : as it more 
 immediately stands connected with our own wants 
 and interests, it is prayer, supplication and instruc- 
 tion through the medium of the inspired word, 
 and of the appointed ordinances of preaching, ex- 
 position and practical application of the truth. 
 Have our minds then been filled with sentiments of 
 adoring and overpowering admiration, while we 
 contemplated the several perfections of Jehovah *? 
 Have our hearts accompanied our words, and our 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 voices, while we proclaimed in terms of rapture, 
 or in notes of harmony, the gratitude we owed unto 
 God 1 Have our prayers been truly entitled to 
 that name, by being the effusions of a deep and un- 
 feigned feeling of the heart. Have we been ac- 
 customed to listen to the word of God, and to the 
 preaching of that word, not in a light and captious 
 spirit, not for the purpose of being entertained with 
 novelty, or amused with variety, but with a sin- 
 cere and unfeigned desire of being led into all 
 truth '? If such have been our habits of thought 
 and feeling, then will the language of inspiration 
 be truly descriptive of our conduct — " Blessed be 
 the Lord God of Israel, for ever and ever, and 
 all the people said, Amen, and praised the 
 Lord." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Family Wo7'ship. 
 
 It is the prerogative of infinite Wisdom to render 
 a unity of means conducive to a variety of ends. 
 It is Omniscience alone, which, from a view of the 
 numberless capabilities and ultimate tendencies of 
 things, can so arrange their reciprocal bearings as 
 to render them tributary to a great diversity of be- 
 neficial effects, while they steadily proceed towards 
 the complete evolution of their eventual and most 
 important result. Like a stream, which finally 
 empties itself into the ocean, but in its progress 
 diffuses verdure and fertility over its banks, and 
 answers a multiplicity of purposes in relation to 
 the comfort and well being of man, the coi:rse of 
 the divine administration, while it is designed to 
 issue in the everlasting salvation of the church, 
 branches out into a variety of influences and ope- 
 rations, which are found materially to contribute to 
 the peace and security of human life here on earth. 
 In the dispensations of providence and in the 
 constitution of society, as resulting from divine 
 appointment, there is obviously wheel within 
 wheel, there is action and re-action, there is pre- 
 sent effect, and there is future consummation ; and 
 there is One, who watches and superintends the 
 whole with an eye, which sees the end from the be- 
 
 e2 
 
68 
 
 ginning — One, who directs every event, regulates 
 every movement, controls every instrumental a- 
 gency, and renders every operation directly or in- 
 directly subservient to the accomplishment of his 
 own gracious and beneficent design. 
 
 Of this system of procedure the institution of 
 Families, viewed upon scriptural principles, ap- 
 pears to afford a striking illustration. That such 
 an economy is attended with great and extensive 
 advantages of a temporal character, is obvious and 
 universally recognized. Under no other arrange- 
 ment can we imagine human nature in its present 
 condition as likely to enjoy so much of comfort 
 and happiness. No other plan can we conceive as 
 so well calculated to develope some of the best and 
 liveliest affections of the heart, to call forth the 
 noblest and most generous sentiments of our intel- 
 lectual and moral being, and to form the character 
 for the exercise of every social and manly virtue. 
 Families are so many enclosures secluded from the 
 tumultuous encroachments and thorouahfares of 
 public commerce, and sacred to the cultivation of 
 every calm, and tranquil, and benevolent disposi- 
 tion — nurseries of thoughts and feelings too deli- 
 cate and refined for the rough atmosphere of 
 worldly intercourse — temples of peace and concord, 
 whose music would cease to vibrate on the air, if 
 the strings of domestic union were cut in sunder — 
 scenes of mutual tenderness and attachment, in 
 which a thousand nameless charities are exercised 
 from day to day, that would necessarily wither and 
 die, if thrown upon the broad and unclaimed com- 
 mon of our general nature. For the nurture of 
 affections, which could have flourished in no other 
 
69 
 
 soil, but are found here to expand as in a genial 
 clime, families will thus be unquestionably found 
 pre-eminently favorable and congenial. 
 
 These however are only subordinate and se- 
 condary benefits, connected with this wise aud be- 
 neficent economy. The appointment of families 
 was intended to subserve still higher purposes. 
 The domestic circle was designed not merely to 
 call forth and to mature the exercise of reciprocal 
 kindness and relative affection, but also to be a se- 
 minary for training up the spirits of immortality, 
 having its model in that great family which after 
 Christ is named in heaven and earth, having God 
 for its Father and Ruler — Christ for its elder bro- 
 ther — and the Holy Spirit for the author and me- 
 dium of its union, sympathy and universal love. 
 Families, if rightly estimated, will thus be found to 
 bear a sacredness of character, and in their collec- 
 tive capacity to stand peculiarly related to the con- 
 cerns of an eternal world. They are not merely so 
 many aggregations of human beings united by va- 
 rious ties of affinity and dependency, for the purpose 
 of mutual aid, and support, but they are each of 
 them to be a church in miniature — a shrine for the 
 inhabitation of that eternal Spirit, who maketh men 
 to be of one mind in an house. They must obvi- 
 ously therefore be the scenes of all those offices of 
 piety and devotion, which are calculated to an- 
 swer the great end of the appointment. Among 
 these the regular worship of God must be regarded 
 as a first and indispensable requisite. We have 
 already investigated various points connected with 
 that homage, as an act of puljlic adoration and ac- 
 knowledgment. We are now therefore to consider 
 
70 
 
 the same subject as an act of family or domestic 
 service. With this view let us first inquire into 
 the Obligations of this important duty, and then 
 point out some of the jB^w^^s calculated to result 
 from it. 
 
 The duty of Family worship is obligatory in the 
 first place as an Acknoivledgment of the supre- 
 macy of Jehovah. Religion is nothing else than 
 a cordial and practical recognition of the various 
 claims of God upon our veneration, love and obe- 
 dience. As the means of eliciting and exemplify- 
 ing these habits of feeling and conduct, it is re- 
 quired to spread over the whole range of the cha- 
 racter, and to diffuse its influence over every rela- 
 tion and condition in life. In order to produce its 
 legitimate effect, it must be the basis of every so- 
 cial arrangement; the cement of every conven- 
 tional union ; the crown of every subordinate form 
 of earthly government. In every association of 
 human beings whether public or private, in every 
 department of the economy of life there is some 
 specific mode, in which the authority of this all- 
 pervading principle must be distinctly recognised 
 and displayed. And as the domestic union, the 
 family compact is the most intimate and endearing 
 of all others ; as it is that which extends the most 
 widely, acts the most constantly, and exerts the 
 most powerful influence over the character and 
 conduct of its members, it follows that in none is 
 the unequivocal maintenance, and the prominent 
 exhibition of the worship of Jehovah more impera- 
 tively demanded than in this. It is here, within 
 the retirement of this sacred inclosure, that the 
 character has the fullest and most unfettered op- 
 
71 
 
 portuiiities of being developed, that the secret 
 springs of action are brought to light, that the go- 
 verning principles of the conduct are embodied, 
 and that the law inscribed upon the heart is re- 
 flected in characters, which he that runs may read. 
 And if in this sanctuary of all that is authoritative 
 and influential in him who presides over its ar- 
 rangements — if in this refuge from the compro- 
 mising formalities and the distracting turmoils of 
 life there be no altar erected in acknowledgment 
 of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — 
 no perusal of his word — no reasonable service of 
 prayer and thanksgiving, in which every member 
 of the family may take a cordial and intelligent 
 share, in which the head of the assembled circle may 
 be led to feel and to confess that he is amenable to a 
 higher authority for the exercise of the temporary 
 power, with which he is invested, the servant may 
 be reminded, that there is a Master above, to whom 
 he is supremely accountable for the discharge of the 
 duties incumbent upon him, and the Child may be 
 taught that there is a Father in heaven, who looks 
 down upon his faithful and obedient children with 
 more than parental kindness ; if such be the total 
 absence of all ostensible recognition of a superior 
 Being, within what ough tto be the shrine of His 
 most deepfelt presence, the fearful presumption is, 
 that the flame of devotional affection is entirely ex- 
 tinct in the heart. 
 
 To the public worship of God there attach 
 many reasons and considerations which do not ope- 
 rate with equal effect in securing a due attendance 
 on the service of the domestic altar. Notwith- 
 standing the prevailing degeneracy of the times, 
 
72 
 
 the former has not altogether lost its hold upon the 
 collective and accredited opinion of the commu- 
 nity> It is supported in most cases where a higher 
 principle is wanting, by a sense of decency, pro- 
 priety and self-respect, and by the consciousness 
 that a certain measure of degradation in the e} es 
 of the most estimable portion of society would be 
 the inevitable consequence of its total neglect. 
 Worldly policy and all the results of education, 
 honorable principle, and social intercourse, as em* 
 bodied in the character, here for the most part 
 combine with religious duty. But in the depart- 
 ment of worship, which we are now considering, 
 no such auxiliary forces are found to yield their 
 aid. Here the practice, I fear, in an awful majo- 
 rity of instances, among nominal professors of 
 Christianity, has fallen into a state of utter desue- 
 tude ; and the very prevalence of the neglect, in- 
 stead of exciting a just alarm, only tends to give a 
 color of justification to its continuance and to lull 
 the conscience into a fatal and unreflecting security. 
 In a prayerless family there is something so ut- 
 terly inconsistent with a due and cordial acknow- 
 ledgment of Him, who is the supreme Governor of 
 the whole community of heaven and earth, some- 
 thing so much out of keeping with all the demands 
 and proprieties of the Christian character, that it 
 is difficult to conceive how those, who have the di- 
 rection of such a system of domestic economy, can 
 satisfy their own consciences upon a question of 
 such paramount importance. The absence of any 
 species of social offering at the throne of grace in 
 fact amounts to a practical negation of all religious 
 profession. On this point the very heathen have 
 
73 
 
 taught us a lesson, which may well cause many a 
 nominal Christian to blush, under a sense of his 
 inferiority/'') Among them there were not only 
 magnificent temples, stately altars and costly offer- 
 ings for the celebration of the public ceremonials 
 of their religion, but there were also household 
 gods, domestic divinities, to whom their homage 
 was daily paid, as supposed to exert a more imme- 
 diate influence upon their family concerns. But 
 among us, comparatively children of light, and 
 heirs of higher privileges, there are numbers, who 
 are content to spend weeks, and months, and years 
 without one distinct acknowledgment of God in 
 their families, who know not what it is to collect 
 their children, or their dependents in decent and de- 
 vout attendance around the throne of grace, who rise 
 in the morning and enter upon their various occupa- 
 tions without one act of suitable and collective ho- 
 mage to Him, from whom all their blessings flow, 
 who assemble round the evening hearth, but set up 
 no token, consecrate no banner, raise no Ebenezer, 
 no stone of remembrance, as a memorial of divine 
 care and kindness. While every other claim is cheer- 
 fully recognized, while the cordialities of mutual af- 
 fection are called into lively and vigorous exercise, 
 while the demands of friendship, and of social inter- 
 course, are readily and promptly conceded, God is 
 studiously excluded from the circle, and, with rever- 
 ence be it spoken, instead of being the constantly 
 adored inmate of the family, as He is its best friend 
 and benefactor. He is denied even the privilege of a 
 wayfaring man, who cometh in to tarry for a night. 
 The wicked and profane are described by the 
 Apostle, as those who are without God in the 
 
74 
 
 worltl; and where such habits, as we have just 
 specified, prevail, must we not say of those, with 
 whom rests the weiiijhty responsibihty of the duty, 
 that they are without God in their house. And if 
 they are witliout God in their house, is it not an 
 apprehension, for which there is too nnich founda- 
 tion, that they are without God in their heart? The 
 connection between family religion, and availing 
 personal religion is close, intimate and decisive. 
 And hence we argue the necessity, as well as the 
 obligation, of domestic worship, as an acknowledg- 
 ment of the supremacy of Jehovah, and an osten- 
 sible profession of a covenant relation, unto Him as 
 our God. 
 
 Another ground of obligation belonging to the 
 exercise of Family Worship is that it is a fulfil- 
 ment of Relative Duty. The performance of this 
 holy service is not only due as an acknowledgment 
 unto God, but it is also a means of grace which, as 
 it is calculated to be eminently conducive to the 
 spiritual welfare of the younger, and subordinate 
 members of a family, may be justly considered as 
 falling within the range of relative obligation. 
 The domestic constitution was doubtless instituted 
 and is eminently adapted for the furtherance of 
 the spiritual and eternal waltare of those, who are 
 placed under its jurisdiction. The head of every 
 family was designed to be also its priest and its 
 propliet, so far as the analogy of these offices may 
 be expressive of a duty to teach and to exhort and 
 to lead the devotions of a household. It is the bu- 
 siness of one, who occupies that arduous and re- 
 sponsible relation to convert his house into a tem- 
 ple, and to omit no prudent and justifiable means 
 
t6 
 
 of making' Jill the nictnhcuH of liirf family, in a subor- 
 (linalc Honse, a lioly pricHtliood — a |i(*c.iiliar jKjople. 
 On liiin rests flic wciMlily ol)li^al.ir)rj of training 
 tlic/n uj) for flu* Hcrvicc.'of (jlod Jirid l,li(t delights of 
 irriinortality. It is liis oflicc; to UrdvM tlierri both by 
 j)n'C(?j)t nrid fxairipK;, to HCAtk first the kingdom of 
 (i<)i\ ;iri(l his rii;lit(roiiHnrss — to hft ij|) a st;indard 
 of n li^ioiis profession ifiscrihed with charaetftrs 
 broad, j)alpabl(r and iinfHpiivoral within thrt walls 
 of his own hoiis(;. It is his to t(;ll in l;inMii;i;i;e the 
 most si^fiilicjint and decisive — "as for me and my 
 lioijse w(^ will sfMVo tiic Lord." It is his to lift 
 aloft th(.' toreh of <livine truth in all its purity and 
 bri<i;htness befon^ their ey(;s, and to allure them 
 l)y his j[)ersuasions, and to en^a^(* tlx-m by his in- 
 terccHsions to ('.host; those paths of wisdoin, which 
 an; j)atlis of ple;isantn(;ss, and her ways, which arc 
 ways of peacr;. It is his to br*, as it were, a m(;di- 
 um of intercoiirsr; between the»n and tiod^ — to be 
 their mouth in addntssif)^- iiim in lan^'iiaj^c of the 
 profoundest hu/nility, and of the most fervent ado- 
 ration. It is his to teach tlu; truths of tiod dili- 
 f;(;ntly to his children, and to talk of them, when 
 he Hitt.cMli in his Iioiih(^ and wlu^n hf^ walk(;th by 
 the way, and when he lielh down and wlieji he 
 risr^th up — to bind tlnMn i'or a si;;n uj»on his hand, 
 and to plae(; them as frontlets betw(;en his (;yes, 
 and to write; th(;m u|)on the posts of his house, and 
 on his ^at(;s. 
 
 Such is the ur^-ency, the extent, tlu; universa- 
 lity of that obligation, which devolves upon the 
 liead of a family to instruti, to (;xhort and to train 
 up its memb(;rs, whether childicn or domestics, in 
 the faithful and devoted service of (iod. Tliis is 
 
76 
 
 his bounden duty in the relative capacity, which he 
 sustains towards them, and for the wilful neglect of 
 this, if they perish, their blood will be required at 
 his hands. Nor is the obhgation binding only 
 upon one party in the domestic compact. It ex- 
 tends on the contrary to every member. If it be 
 the duty of one to assemble his household together 
 at the stated hour, for the purpose of calling upon 
 God, it is the duty of the rest to yield cheerful 
 obedience to the summons — to enter with simpli- 
 city and alacrity of mind upon a service, which is 
 equally interesting and important unto all — to listen 
 with reverence and attention to the scriptures, 
 which may be read or the instructions, which may 
 be grounded upon them, and to join with sincerity, 
 fervour and delight in the supplications or thanks- 
 givings, which may be offered up at the throne of 
 grace. Although the maintenance of domestic 
 worship be the especial business of him, who pre- 
 sides over the arrangements of a family, yet the 
 character and acceptableness of the service — its 
 tendency to answer the great end of its institution 
 will entirely depend upon the seriousness, the so- 
 briety and the earnestness of spirit, with which the 
 combined sacrifice is offered up. To be effective, 
 the intensity of the devotional emotion must pass, 
 like an electric shock through the whole circle, 
 and ascend as on wings of lightning to the very 
 bosom of God. The unction of the Holy One, 
 like the sacred oil on the high priest's garments, 
 must flow with a soothing and refreshing influence 
 from the head to the remotest extremities. Thus 
 viewed in its relative bearing the duty of worship- 
 ing God in our families, assumes a character of the 
 
most solemn and impressive obligation ; and it is 
 only by a cordial and affectionate union of feeling 
 in its dischai-ge, that Jehovah will be the God of 
 our families, and that we shall be his people. 
 
 In addition however to these general grounds 
 of obligation, the duty of domestic worship is bind- 
 ing as a compliance with the Obvious Intimations 
 of the divine will. I place this important service 
 upon the footing of implied injunction and indirect 
 declaration, rather than of positive precept, because 
 it is one of those duties, which must considerably 
 vary in the mode of their performance, according 
 to the dispensations of the Church and the prevail- 
 ing usages of society, and with reference to which 
 therefore specific commands would have been 
 neither necessary nor appropriate. The great 
 question of duty, respecting whi^h there could be 
 no difference in any age, or country, or condition 
 of life, is, that God should be distinctly acknow- 
 ledged and devoutly adored, as an essential and 
 indispensable part of the domestic economy of 
 every aggregation of human beings dwelling to- 
 gether under the same roof and recognizing the 
 authority of some leading and presiding member. 
 That such is the will of God, and that such under 
 necessary modifications has been the practice of his 
 people in every age of the world, and under every 
 economy of the church is evident from the whole 
 tenor of scripture. Family religion throughout 
 every period has formed one of the most distin- 
 guished features of the faithful worshippers of 
 Jehovah, and it sometimes happened, as in the 
 case of Lot and of Noah, that the piety of a de- 
 vout and holy parent, was rewarded by special 
 
78 
 
 marks of divine favour, extended to the several 
 members of his household. The venerable sages 
 of the patriarchal dispensation, whether they dwelt 
 in settled abodes or followed the leadings of pro- 
 vidence in migratory excursions throughout the 
 land of their pilgrimage, ever made it their first 
 care to commit themselves and theirs to the pro- 
 tection of their omnipotent Guardian by some act 
 of distinct and united homage. If they reposed 
 but a single night upon the green sod, with the 
 skies for their canopy and the stars of heaven to 
 light them to their rest, they never forgot to 
 erect a memorial to their God. They turned their 
 pillow into an altar, and in the absence of a more 
 costly gift, they offered upon it the sacrifice most 
 pleasing and acceptable of all others — the homage 
 of a grateful heart. As we advance with the pro- 
 gressive developement of the principles of true re- 
 ligion, we find the duty of domestic instruction 
 and of the devotional service, with which in order 
 to be effective, it must be associated, enforced with 
 proportionate solemnity and distinctness. We 
 find Joshua, in particular, declaring in language of 
 firm and holy resolution, " as forme and my house, 
 we will serve the Lord," thus pledging himself in 
 the presence of the congregation, and in the be- 
 half of his family,, that with them the worship of 
 Jehovah would be a prominent and distinguishing 
 badge of their profession. When the Jewish ce- 
 remonial had now been fully established, family 
 religion, through the medium of various domestic 
 rites and institutions, was brought out into fuller 
 and more palpable manifestation, and the morning 
 and evening sacrifice formed one continual memen- 
 
79 
 
 to, one significant symbol of that tribute of ho- 
 mage and praise, which every family owes to the 
 God, whom it professes to serve. And if we wanted 
 any other proof of this impressive service being 
 within the range of the direct and absolute de- 
 mands of God, we have only to recall to our recol- 
 lection the awful judgments, which he denounces 
 against the " families," which call not upon his 
 name. So perfectly in unison indeed, in reference 
 to this subject, has the will of God been with the 
 universal practice of his people, that the main- 
 tenance of family worship may be fairly asserted 
 to have gone hand in hand with the other appro- 
 priate duties of true religion throughout the whole 
 history of the church upon earth. On these grounds 
 therefore we confidently rest the obligation of the 
 duty, which we are now endeavouring to enforce. 
 We are bound to it by considerations the most 
 authoritative and commanding — as an acknowledg- 
 ment of the supremacy of Jehovah in an ostensible 
 profession of devotedness to his service — as a ful- 
 filment of an important relative duty, and finally 
 as a compliance with the most obvious intimations 
 of the divine will, as conveyed in unequivocal de- 
 clarations of his word, and embodied in the uni- 
 form conduct of his people in every age of the 
 world, and throughout every region of the globe. 
 
 It only remains that we notice briefly the Ad- 
 vantages calculated to result from a due and regu- 
 lar observance of a duty so decisive and paramount 
 in its oblio;ation. Amono- many that mioht be 
 specified, we may observe, in general, its eminent 
 and unquestionable tendency to promote the Spi- 
 ritual Welfare of the several members of a family. 
 
80 
 
 It is unnecessary to dwell upon the supreme and 
 unrivalled importance of this object, to point out 
 how greatly it exceeds — how far it transcends 
 every temporal and secondary interest. This may 
 be fairly taken for granted as forming a part of the 
 fixt opinions — of the deep conviction and delibe- 
 rate judgment of every man, who is not a stranger 
 to serious thought. The promotion of this object 
 should also be regarded as the imperative and 
 bounden duty of every head of a family. He is 
 within due limitations accountable for the spiritual 
 interests of those, who are placed under his direc- 
 tion and control. Whatever is, therefore, calcu- 
 lated to aid him in the exercise of a trust so sacred 
 and responsible — in the discharge of obligations so 
 weighty and comprehensive, must unquestionably 
 be considered as in the highest degree beneficial 
 and advantageous. If the care of the soul, as the 
 duty and interest of individuals, be the one thing 
 needful, that which has an obvious tendency to 
 advance its welfare and to secure its final salvation, 
 must evidently be deemed as the one thing really 
 important. 
 
 That the worship of God, conducted in a solemn 
 and edifying manner, is eminently conducive to 
 this great end, must be apparent from the very 
 nature and circumstances of the service. It is an 
 exercise, in which every thing is calculated to en- 
 lighten the understanding — to engage the affec- 
 tions and to impress the heart. It is a standard 
 lifted up for God, inscribed with characters, which 
 invite all to respect and honor Him. It is a testi- 
 monv borne in the most influential quarter to the 
 paramount claims and the transcendent excellency 
 
81 
 
 of religion. It exhibits it in its genuine character 
 and dignity, as entitled to the first and last thoughts 
 of the day, as ushering in the occupations of the 
 morning, and as sealing up the thoughts and feel- 
 ings at the evening's close, with the impress of de- 
 votional homage. It commands the attendance of 
 those, who might otherwise find no time for a due 
 regard to the things of eternity, it brings the word 
 of God before those, who might otherwise be ut- 
 terly ignorant of it ; it compels the most thought- 
 less, for a time, to reflect ; the most frivolous for a 
 while to be grave. It brings those to prostrate 
 themselves before the throne of grace, who else 
 might never bend their knees. It obliges those, 
 who might never pray for themselves, to listen to 
 the supplications and intercessions of others in their 
 behalf. It thus acts like coals of fire heaped upon 
 their head, softening them into penitence and love, 
 elevating them to faith and holiness. The young 
 it teaches from the earliest age to recognise the 
 God of their parents, to honor his name, to revere 
 his word, to lisp his praise, and indissolubly to con- 
 nect his service with every tender association of 
 home and of kindred, of a father's blessing, and of 
 a mother's prayers. It is calculated to humble and 
 to bring down the highest members of the house- 
 hold, when they are brought to confess in common 
 with the meanest, that they are poor and miserable 
 sinners, to elevate and dignify the feelings of the 
 lowest, when they perceive that they aj-e allowed 
 to kneel around the same throne, and to address 
 themselves to the same mercy seat. And corres- 
 pondent with the spiritual privileges and advanta- 
 ges thus connected with domestic worship, have 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 frequently been the blessings, which have actually 
 issued from it. Many there are, who can trace 
 their first religious impressions to this service, who 
 have continued through life to shine with the be- 
 nignant light of that flame, which was first kindled 
 at the family altar, and which will burn with in- 
 creasing brightness until it be lost in the splendours 
 of everlasting day. 
 
 As a subordinate and collateral advantage, of 
 no ordinary importance connected with the regular 
 and devout exercise of family worship, we may 
 mention that it is pre-eminently conducive to do- 
 mestic peace, harmony and m'der. Where any 
 number of human beings, surrounded with the or- 
 dinary failings and infirmities of our fallen nature, 
 are associated together in bonds of temporary or 
 permanent fellowship, it can scarcely be expected 
 that occasional collisions of feeling should not take 
 place, where neglect and impatience, authority 
 and disobedience, undue demand and inadequate 
 performance are brought into contact with each 
 other, it is hardly possible that irritation should not 
 in some measure be excited. If there be no healing 
 balm, no unction of the Holy One, to allay the in- 
 flammation, no oil of gladness and consolation to 
 smoothe the troubled waters; irritation will arise into 
 loud and unseemly altercation, and altercation will 
 pass into settled habits of wrath and hatred, of vari- 
 ance and strife. For the prevention of the growth 
 of these foes of domestic peace and comfort, I know 
 of no more effectual means, than the practice of 
 daily assembling together, with feelings of humili- 
 ation, benevolence and chastened delight around a 
 common altar. It was the system of the ancients, 
 
83 
 
 both Jews and Heathen, to establish peace or to 
 confirm their contracts by sacrifice. Parties which 
 had been at variance, met in the presence of the 
 Divinity, in order to bury their mutual animosity, 
 and to enter into a league of peace. C^) Thus the 
 family, which is collected at the commencement 
 and the close of every successive day, for the pur- 
 pose of united homage, has a choice opportunity of 
 reconciling its diflTerences, and of soothing its per- 
 turbed emotions. Upon the altar of that service 
 every hostile feeling, every angry passion, every 
 rebellious or overbearing disposition, every root of 
 bitterness, every noxious weed of envy, malice and 
 discontent must be cast in order to be utterly an- 
 nihilated and consumed. Within the shrine, which 
 incloses that altar, every thing is kindness, unani- 
 mity and concord — every thing is meekness, gen- 
 tleness and forbearance, every thing is forgiveness, 
 humility and love. And the very necessity of thus 
 meeting together face to face in the immediate 
 presence of the Most High, is the best security for 
 the maintenance of that serenity of mind and tem- 
 per — that holy sunshine of the soul, which is at 
 once the brightest reflection and the most soothing 
 anticipation of heavenly bliss. 
 
 If such then be the obligations and advantages 
 of this department of the worship of Jehovah, need 
 I say any more to urge it on attention and habitual 
 practice '? The prevailing neglect of this duty I 
 consider to be one of the crying sins of the land, 
 and I can imagine nothing that would secure a 
 more copious supply of national blessings, than if it 
 was universally adopted among us, and performed 
 with sincerity and devotion. Let us enter upon it 
 
 f2 
 
84 
 
 tlierefore, without procrastination or reserve. No 
 longer let us exhibit before our servants or children 
 the unseemly spectacle of a prayerless family. Let 
 our habitations be at once consecrated into temples 
 and our hearts into burning altars of gratitude and 
 affection. Then will the cloud of the divine pre- 
 sence rest upon our tabernacle, and when our 
 earthly house has been dissolved, we shall have a 
 building of God — a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens. (^) 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 THE 
 
 ORDINANT^E OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 The Design of the Sabbath. 
 
 The commandments of God have not unfrequently 
 been divided into two classes — the Moral as being 
 absolute, unchangeable and eternal in their obliga- 
 tion, and as incorporated into the very constitution 
 of things, and the Positive, as being for the most 
 part of temporary duration and expediency, and 
 deriving all their force from the authoritative will 
 of the Supreme Ruler. The former are necessa- 
 rily binding upon all rational and accountable 
 beings, inasmuch as independently of all direct in- 
 junction, they are essential to the welfare and pre- 
 servation of the species to whose character and 
 circumstances they apply. The latter, though 
 doubtless founded in the best reasons, and directed 
 to some important end, would not have been re* 
 cognized as directories of duty, unless they had 
 
86 
 
 been distinctly specified and enforced as such. The 
 moral precept carries with it an obligation obvious- 
 ly arising out of the established relations and the 
 eternal fitness of things. It would seem therefore 
 that it was embodied into a command because it 
 was previously right. The positive injunction, on 
 the contrary, is supposed to bear something more 
 of a fugitive and arbitrary, or as we would rather 
 express it, of a sovereign and temporary character, 
 as springing from some peculiar circumstances, 
 and adapted only to a limited period of duration. 
 
 Much, doubtless, of the apparent difference be- 
 tween these two orders of divine commands, arises 
 from our ignorance or imperfect apprehension of 
 their respective grounds and reasons. Both are 
 equally binding upon our observance and obedience, 
 because both are alike expressions of the divine 
 will, conveyed by somewhat different means, and 
 adapted to different circumstances and conditions 
 of our nature. The law delivered on mount Sinai 
 is an outline of the great principles of moral go- 
 vernment, a transcript of the mind of Deity, an 
 epitome of that constitution, which has been de- 
 vised and established by infinite wisdom for the 
 regulation of the intelligent universe — a code of 
 practical institutes, which is as immutable as the 
 nature and purpose of Jehovah, and capable of be- 
 ing adapted under slight modifications, to the di- 
 rection of the character and conduct of human 
 beings, under every successive economy, and amidst 
 all the revolutions of their earthly destiny. The 
 law of the Mosaic ritual, on the other hand, though 
 emanating from the same source, and directed to 
 the same general object, and therefore clad with 
 
87 
 
 the same authority, was avowedly intended only 
 for a particular and temporary order of circum- 
 stances,* and consequently ceased to be in force as 
 soon as the object of its institution had been at- 
 tained. It was designed to be only a shadow of 
 things to come. It was an atmosphere of clouds 
 surrounding the tabernacle of the church, during 
 the season of its morning twilight, admirably 
 adapted to refract the distant beams of the sun of 
 righteousness, but destined, as soon as that glorious 
 luminary had risen above the horizon, to melt 
 into the pure sunshine of evangelical light. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to remark that the 
 law of the Sabbath, has been embodied into the 
 first of these two classes. Although in the phrase- 
 ology, by which it is expressed, and in the minor 
 details of its injunctions, it bears something of the 
 character of a positive institution, as it was deve- 
 loped in its appplication to the condition of the 
 Jewish church, yet its very locality, as placed in 
 the centre of the decalogue, and the fact of its be- 
 ing nothing more than an amplified republication 
 of an edict, which was issued at the dawn of the 
 creation, coupled with the total absence of the 
 slightest hint that it was only a component part of 
 that system of types and shadows, which was to be 
 abrogated at the introduction of the more perfect 
 and substantial economy of the gospel — all these 
 considerations seem clearly to demonstrate that the 
 sabbath was not one of those byelaws, which were 
 intended to be coextensive with the prevalence and 
 duration of a preparatory ecclesiastical constitu- 
 tion, but that it was made for man in the univer- 
 sality of his nature, as bound to surrender a due 
 
88 
 
 proportion of his time to the immediate and exchi- 
 sive service of his Creator. This is the light, in 
 which we propose to view the Sabbath. If it be, 
 as we have endeavoured in the preceding chapters 
 to shew, the imperative duty of man to yield a pub- 
 lic and regular homage unto God through the me- 
 dium of the several modes of his appointed worship, 
 it is obvious that there must, in the present con- 
 dition of our existence as principally engrossed by 
 the affairs of time and sense, be a particular and 
 definite season assioned and consecrated to this 
 specific object. Independently of all direct intima- 
 tion to that eflfect, this would have unquestionably 
 appeared necessary to the suitable and availing 
 observance of the duty of divine worship. It is 
 this consideration therefore, which connects the in- 
 stitution of the Sabbath with those acts of adora- 
 tion, and those rights of homage which man owes 
 to his Maker, and as long as the latter are obliga- 
 tory, so long in a state of probationary discipline 
 will the former be undoubtedly in force. In the 
 discussion of this important subject — important in 
 itself and rendered doubly important by the lamen- 
 table neglect and profanation of the ordinance, 
 which so extensively prevails among us — I shall 
 be led to consider the Design and the universal 
 Obligation of the Sabbath — thepecuHar and appro- 
 priate Duties of the Sabbath, and the Benefits 
 calculated to result from its due and conscientious 
 observance. In the present chapter I shall confine 
 myself to the first of these points — The Original 
 Design of the Sabbath. 
 
 In illustration of this point I would remark, in 
 the first place, that it was designed to be a standing 
 
89 
 
 Memmial of the two most important events in the 
 whole history of the universe — the creation of the 
 world and the resurrection of the Saviour. It was 
 doubtless not without a specific object — without 
 some worthy end in view that Jehovah w as pleased 
 to spread the work of creation over six successive 
 days. He might with equal ease have called forth 
 the goodly frame of nature in all its completeness, 
 symmetry and beauty, and peopled it with the va- 
 ried forms of animated existence b}^ a single word 
 of his mouth, as by the more regular and tardy 
 process, which He was pleased to adopt. He 
 might have moulded chaos into form — He might 
 have replenished the ocean with its finny inhabi- 
 tants — He might have clothed the fields with ver- 
 dure and the forest with trees — He might have 
 spread the curtain of the sky and arranged the host 
 of heaven, as so many glittering lamps suspended 
 from the golden ceiling — without one moment's de- 
 lay, and without the slightest additional effort. 
 But it appeared right to his infinite wisdow to act 
 otherwise. He divided his mighty works into six 
 distmct portions ; and to every successive day its 
 own share of the effects of creative energy was as- 
 signed. (^) And when the whole had now been ac- 
 complished — when from the height of his essential 
 glory — a height raised far above all created exis- 
 tence He took a survey of the works of his hands, 
 and saw that every thing, which he had made, was 
 very good, He took a holy satisfaction in the con- 
 templation of the achievements of his combined 
 perfections. He was conscious of a pure and sub- 
 lime complacence in the view of that vast theatre of 
 beneficence, which He had just called into being. 
 
90 
 
 And in order to mark the delight, which He ex- 
 perienced in the survey, and to commemorate the 
 completion of his stupendous undertaking, it is said 
 that He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, 
 because that in it He had rested from all his work, 
 which God created and made. He was desirous 
 that a consummation so glorious and astonishing 
 in itself, and so honorable to all the perfections of 
 his nature should be remembered, amidst associa- 
 tions of the most fervent gratitude and the most 
 profound adoration throughout the whole history 
 of the world. He thus set apart one day in seven 
 for the express purpose of affording men an oppor- 
 tunity, throughout every future age, of reading the 
 magnificent volume of creation and of adoring the 
 attributes of Him, by whose counsel and might the 
 whole mass of its subject matter was elaborated 
 into form, its various sections were arranged and 
 its golden characters were engraved. The appoint- 
 ment of this day was thus intended to be an ever- 
 during record among men that it was no blind 
 chance — no fortuitous concourse of atoms — no 
 dark and lawless destiny, which gave us this beau- 
 teous and magnificent frame of things, but that it 
 was begun, carried on in successive order and 
 eventually consummated by Him, who is unfa- 
 thomable in wisdom, boundless in beneficence and 
 unlimited in power. 
 
 Under the evangelical economy, which on vari- 
 ous grounds, may be considered as a new moral 
 creation, the sabbath institution answers, with re- 
 markable propriety and effect, the additional pur- 
 pose of commemorating the resurrection of the Sa- 
 viour from the grave. Having, not without ade- 
 
91 
 
 quate grounds, been transferred to the day, on 
 which his glorious triumph over the powers of 
 death and the' grave was achieved, it brings that 
 most stupendous and interesting event before our 
 view, in the manner and under the circumstances 
 best calculated to strengthen our faith, to confirm 
 our hope, and to warm and elevate our affections. 
 It reminds us by its impressive and hallowed asso- 
 ciations of Him, who died for our sins, and rose 
 again for our justification. It leads us back to that 
 auspicious morn, which we may justly regard as the 
 herald of our highest hopes, the dawn of our bliss- 
 ful immortality. It fixes our attention upon that 
 which is the foundation of all our expectations, 
 the seal of our redemption, the pledge of our ever- 
 lasting salvation. Every seventh sun which rises 
 above our horizon, lights us to the tomb of Imma- 
 nuel, not however to mourn over his decease, not 
 to contemplate the expected author of our deliver- 
 ance inclosed within its indissoluble barriers, not to 
 weep over his cold and lifeless frame imprisoned 
 within its dark repository ; but to behold its door 
 burst open, the stone rolled away from, its mouth, 
 and its tenant leaving his bands behind him escaped 
 from its captive hold — to look with a firm and fearless 
 eye into its interior, and to see its solitude cheered, 
 and its gloom illumined by the presence of angelic 
 messengers, announcing that he is not there but is 
 risen, and thus to celebrate his victory, as afford- 
 ing strong consolation and incontrovertible evi- 
 dence, that we also, having rested awhile within 
 the same dark mansion, shall ere long rise trium- 
 phant, and finally be more than conquerors thiough 
 Him, that hath loved us, and given himself for us, 
 even the Lord our righteousness. 
 
92 
 
 Another object in the ori*]^iiial institution of the 
 sabbath, we may justly assume to have been, that 
 it might be an authoritative intimation of the claims 
 of God upon our time. It is true indeed, that all 
 our time, and every other talent, wherewith we 
 have been blessed, were originally derived from 
 Him, and primarily belong unto Him. But he 
 hath been pleased to relinquish a large proportion 
 of these gifts to our own exclusive and entire be- 
 nefit. By far the largest share of our time He hath 
 allowed us, in subordination to his will, to employ 
 for our own immediate purposes. Having spent six 
 days in preparing this beautiful and glorious struc- 
 ture of the material universe, for our convenience 
 and accommodation. He hath permitted us the use 
 of a similar period for the main pursuit of those ha- 
 bits and occupations which are more directly con- 
 nected with the supply of our own wants and the 
 promotion of our secular interests. And as He 
 himself rested on the seventh day, for the purpose 
 of contemplating the order and beauty, the sym- 
 metry and utility of the various works of his hands, 
 so He requires of us, that we should devote the se- 
 venth portion of our time, as a just and equitable 
 acknowledgment, that to him we are indebted for 
 the whole. This was no more than his wisdom 
 suggested, that He might rightly demand, and man 
 might conveniently afford. It is the tribute, which 
 he has deemed it fit to levy upon our time as part 
 of that revenue, to which he is entitled as our So- 
 vereign Lord. He has instituted and enforced it 
 in maintenance of that authority, which he unques- 
 tionably possesses over all the works of his hands. 
 The seventh day He claims as entirely and unre- 
 
93 
 
 servedly his own. It is the day, which in an espe- 
 cial manner the Lord hath made for Himself, the 
 day of his rest, of his calm and dignified repose, 
 after the six days' work had been completed. It 
 was intended to remind men that they are constant- 
 ly amenable to a higher power, that they are ac- 
 countable for every hour of their existence to Him, 
 by whom their days were numbered, that He has 
 demanded one specific portion as an intimation 
 that He might have demanded the whole, and that 
 it is impossible, without the grossest and most di- 
 rect sacrilege, to withhold from him any measure 
 of our time, which he might have required at our 
 hands. 
 
 In connection with and subordinately to higher 
 purposes, we may also conceive it to have entered 
 into the original plan in the appointment of a sab- 
 bath, that it should afford a season of needful Rest 
 both to man and beast. This indeed is one of the 
 first and most prominent ideas associated with this 
 holy day. It is that which is conveyed in the very 
 meaning of the term. The Sabbath is preeminently 
 a day of rest — a day of cessation from the ordinary 
 toils and occupations of the world. It is a day, 
 which has been carried down in uninterrupted ex- 
 emption from secular labour and business from the 
 time of innocence — from the lovely scenes of para- 
 dise until the present hour. It is a season gra- 
 ciously and condescendingly appointed for the pur- 
 pose of affording our minds an opportunity of re- 
 covering their tone, and our bodies of refreshing 
 and invigorating their strength. Of the enjoyment 
 of this repose Jehovah himself gave an example, 
 in that He rested on the seventh day, and hallowed 
 
94 
 
 it. The constitution of man in Ithe present state, 
 is not adapted to vigorous and incessant applica- 
 tion. It requires intervals of rest and comparative 
 inactivity ; not indeed that it may sink into lan- 
 gour and inertness, either physical or intellectual, 
 than which nothing can be more injurious and de- 
 structive, but that it may be maintained in a health- 
 ful and effective play — that it may recover its 
 wasted energies and gather strength for renewed 
 effort. It was with this view that the gracious and 
 compassionate Jehovah set apart one day in seven 
 to be observed during the whole continuance of 
 the present system, and guarded it by the most 
 solemn prohibitions, as a day of complete absti- 
 nence from the ordinary pursuits of life. Its object 
 was to relax at suitable intervals the sinews of la- 
 bour in order that they might be afterwards wound 
 up into a higher pitch of energy and tension. It 
 was to set the mind at liberty for a while from the 
 trammels of worldly thought and anxiety — to af- 
 ford it a calm and secluded refuge from the harass- 
 ing, encroaching and overpowering turmoils of the 
 world, that in this stillness of the moral atmosphere 
 it might more freely expand its wings, and rise in 
 holy contemplation and affection towards the realms 
 of uncreated light. 
 
 But a still higher and more important object in 
 the institution of the sabbath, was that man might 
 thereby have an opportunity of cordially worship- 
 ping his Creator, and of cultivating habits of closer 
 and more intimate fellowship with Him. This was 
 doubtless the great moral end of the ordinance to 
 which all other objects must be regarded as secon- 
 dary and subordinate. It was for this purpose that 
 
95 
 
 God not only rested on the sabbath, but also sanc- 
 tified it. He attached to it a character of peculiar 
 sacredness, that it might not only be commemora- 
 tive of past events, but also conducive to the ad- 
 vancement of the future welfare and security of 
 man. It was intended to be in the strictest sense 
 a religious, a holy, a spiritual institution. If no such 
 day had been appointed, if no season had been set 
 apart for the exclusive service of Jehovah, and the 
 pursuit of eternal things, if man had been left en- 
 tirely to his own discretion with respect to the por- 
 tion of time which he should have deemed it right, 
 or thought it necessary and convenient to assign to 
 the worship of his Creator, and the work of his 
 own salvation, the probability, rather the certainty, 
 is, that both would have been neglected, and a- 
 bandoned altogether. We find that with all the 
 awful sanctions by which the sabbath institution is 
 enforced in the divine commands — that with all the 
 barriers, which human laws have thrown around it, 
 for the purpose of more securely guarding it from 
 violation, still under some pretence or other, un- 
 der some plea of necessity or expediency, there is 
 a continual proneness in man to encroach upon its 
 sacredness, and to break down that broad and pal- 
 pable line of demarcation, by which it is separated 
 from other days. We find that human depravity, 
 impiety and indifference, like so many turbid 
 waves, are incessantly bursting and foaming over 
 that inclosure, which the divine law hath drawn 
 around the Sabbath ordinance, and attempting to 
 level every distinction between holy and profane — 
 between secular and sacred, and to deluge the 
 land with a Hood of immorality and vice. With 
 
96 
 
 many indeed between the twofold claims of plea- 
 sure and business — of indolence and worldly acti- 
 vity the difference is well nigh abolished. The 
 characters of sacredness which the finger of Deity 
 has so deeply engraven on the hallowed pillar of 
 the sabbath, and which have borne the brunt of the 
 varied elements of ungodliness and sin for nearly 
 six thousand years, have been almost entirely ob- 
 literated ; and estimated by their conduct the in- 
 stitution stands forth to the view as some faded 
 monument of past superstition, suspended indeed 
 over the altar of our churches, but having long 
 since ceased to be legible to the eye or authorita- 
 tive on the habits of the community. 
 
 And if with all these sanctions human and di- 
 vine surrounding the sanctuary of the Sabbath, it 
 be still found so difficult to guard it from profana- 
 tion, and to engage men to devote it to those pur- 
 poses of piety and spirituality, for which it was 
 peculiarly and exclusively designed, into what ut- 
 ter neglect would the worship of God have fallen, 
 what complete oblivion of the truths of religion and 
 of the concerns of another world would have cover- 
 ed the earth, if no such ordinance had been ap- 
 pointed. It was to prevent this overflowing of un- 
 godliness — it was to check the progress of this 
 Egyptian gloom — it was to afford men a regular 
 and frequent opportunity of calling their ways to 
 remembrance — of directing their attention, undis- 
 turbed by the occupations and encroachments of 
 the affairs of the present life, to the stupendous 
 realities of eternity — of engaging in the worship of 
 Jehovah on a day felt to be sacred and authorita- 
 tively devoted to that sublime exercise, and of 
 
97 
 
 cherishing those habits of intimate fellowship and 
 communion with Him, which are essential to the 
 maintenance of true religion in the soul, it was for 
 these several purposes that God was pleased, at the 
 very commencement of his moral government, to 
 appoint one day in seven for his especial service, 
 and to form, as it were, a connecting link between 
 the interests and associations of heaven and earth. 
 In this institution provision was made for the ho- 
 nor of God, and for fulfilling the highest destinies 
 of man. In its continuance under the Christian 
 dispensation, we have the inestimable privilege of 
 waiting upon God as revealed unto us in his Son, 
 of having the wonders of redeeming love brought 
 before our calm and deliberate survey, of dwelling 
 in hallowed recollection and with emotions of 
 glowing gratitude and affection upon the scenes of 
 Bethlehem, of Gethsemane and of Calvary, and of 
 stirring up in our hearts those gifts of the Spirit, 
 which, without such periodical excitements, would 
 be in danger of being smothered under an over- 
 whelming mass of carnality and earthliness. 
 
 As another element in the great Design of Je- 
 hovah, in the original institution of the sabbath, 
 we may mention again, that it was intended to 
 operate as an important instrument in keeping up 
 the Influence and Practice of true religion in the 
 world. If the ordinance of the sabbath has a ten- 
 dency to promote the objects, and to answer the 
 purposes previously specified, it follows as a neces- 
 sary consequence, that it should have the effect of 
 maintaining the interests and upholding the domi- 
 nion of holiness and piety upon earth. Indeed I 
 am persuaded that the appointment and due obser- 
 
98 
 
 vance of the sabbath, are not only calculated to ad- 
 vance, but that they are, always have been, and in 
 the present world, ever will be, inseparably con- 
 nected with, these objects. There has never yet 
 been a period in the whole history of the world, 
 and under any dispensation of religion, when true 
 piety was flourishing, and practically influential, 
 without being associated with a feeling of profound 
 reverence for, and a habit of strict and conscienti- 
 ous observance of the sabbath. Whether we con- 
 template the character of individuals, or the pre- 
 vailing habits of society, we shall find the sanctifi- 
 cation of the sabbath and influential practical reli- 
 gion spreading over the same extent, and rising to 
 the same level. Wherever that early intimation of 
 the divine will, which marked the conclusion of the 
 six days' work, is neglected, it may be admitted as 
 an induction confirmed by the experience of six 
 thousand years, that there religion exerts no pow- 
 erful, commanding and all pervading influence. 
 Point out to me the age, in which the sabbath was 
 wilfully and uniformly neglected and profaned, and 
 I will undertake to shew, that it was an age of ir- 
 religion, depravity and vice. Let the individual 
 be marked out, who was notorious for his disregard 
 of the appropriate duties of the sabbath, and I will 
 demonstrate, from other parts of his character, that 
 he had not the love of God shed abroad in his heart, 
 that he had not the fear of God before his eyes, 
 and that to walk in the commandments and ordi- 
 nances of God blameless, was not his habitual and 
 daily practice. The whole history of the church, 
 and of the world is, in fact, one vast chain of con- 
 nected and accumulated evidence that the sabbath 
 
99 
 
 in its various privileges, ordinances and effects, 
 was designed to be one of the chief instruments of 
 the divine government, one of the most efficient 
 means in the hands of the Holy Spirit, for the 
 maintenance and extension of the influence, and for 
 the practical exemplification of the principles of 
 true religion in the world. It cannot be doubted 
 therefore, that this was a leading object in the 
 mind of Jehovah, at the original appointment, and 
 in every subsequent confirmation of the ordinance. 
 I remark once more, that the sabbath in addi- 
 tion to other objects, for which it was instituted, 
 was designed to be a Type and a Foi'etaste of the 
 rest of heaven. The present life, at the best, is a 
 scene of much labour and toil, of vexation, anguish 
 and grief. It is a succession of anxieties and alarms, 
 of disquietudes and fatigues. Its days are days of 
 effort and exhaustion, and its nights are frequently 
 nights of watching. It is a pilgrimage through a 
 a wilderness, where the difficulties are many and 
 great, where the dangers are numerous and immi- 
 nent, where the enemies are powerful and malig- 
 nant, where the supply of spiritual sustenance and 
 consolation is scanty, and scarce adequate to the 
 heat and burden of the day. Under these circum- 
 stances, it is not a little cheering and gratifying to 
 the true Chiistian, to be forcibly reminded every 
 seventh day, that there is a rest which remaineth 
 for the people of God. The joyful and complacent 
 repose of Jehovah after the completion of his six 
 days' work, afforded a delightful emblem of that 
 soothing quietude, of that blissful tranquillity, 
 which the children of God shall enjoy after the 
 toils of life and the sorrows of mortality are past. 
 
 g2 
 
100 
 
 Of that scene of celestial serenity and joy, of peace- 
 ful and undisturbed enjoyment, the occupations 
 of a devotional and well regulated Sabbath afford 
 one of the most striking and vivid representations. 
 In this hallowed season we behold as in a mirror the 
 serene glories, the sublime and unfatiguing occupa- 
 tions of the heavenly world. In its still and noiseless 
 retirement, we have a picture of the sequestered 
 and meditative contemplations of the paradise of 
 God ; in its public ordinances — in its fervent and 
 devout supplications — in its rapturous praises and 
 its ardent thanksgivings it gives a realizing vision 
 of the scenes of the temple, which is above, where 
 the service never ends — where the Sabbath-sun 
 never goes down — where the worshippers are never 
 weary and the choral symphonies of Hosannah in 
 the hisrhest never cease to resound. Analogies so 
 striking and impressive could not have been over- 
 looked — objects so encouraging and important 
 could not have been left out of the design, with 
 which the sabbath was originally instituted. As 
 the sabbath appears so peculiarly calculated to sym- 
 bolize the rest and to antedate the bliss of heaven, 
 this is doubtless one of the manifold functions, 
 which the ordinance was intended to answer. 
 
 These appear to be the leading constituents of 
 that great and comprehensive design, with which 
 the Sabbath institution was established. And let 
 me put it seriously and pointedly to the conscience 
 of the reader, how far these objects have been rea- 
 lized and attained in his own case. Have you 
 been led by it to a devout and grateful contempla- 
 tion of those great events, the creation of the 
 world, and the resurrection of the Saviour, which 
 
101 
 
 it was primarily intended to commemorate 1. Have 
 you been engaged by it cheerfully to recognize 
 the claims of Jehovah upon your time, and your 
 every endowment 1 Have you regarded it, so far 
 as is practicable, as a day of rest for yourself and 
 those under your control, from the distracting occu- 
 pations, and the unseemly amusements and recrea- 
 tions of the world"? Have you availed yourself of 
 the inestimable opportunity it has afforded you, of 
 acquainting yourself with God and of cultivating 
 habits of closer and more intimate fellowship with 
 Him "? Have you endeavoured in your own con- 
 duct and by your own example to carry its object 
 into effect in the maintenance of the influence and 
 practice of true religion in the world. And finally 
 have you been accustomed to regard it as affording 
 not only a vivid representation, but also a sweet 
 and soothing antepast of the joys of the celestial 
 world 1; If these happy effects have been in any 
 measure realized in your case, then have you good 
 ground to hope that the gracious purposes of Jeho- 
 vah will not be lost upon you, but that at the ap- 
 pointed time you will receive the end of all his 
 dealings and dispensations towards you in the 
 blissful fruitions of eternity. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Universal Obligation of the Sabbath. 
 
 When any line of conduct or practical observance 
 is enjoined, which would seem to be at variance 
 with the secular interests or the prevailing habits 
 and inclinations of those, on whom it is enforced, 
 it is of the utmost importance that there should be 
 a clear perception of the grounds upon which it is 
 founded. If it be a definite and unequivocal re- 
 quirement of Jehovah, if it stand intimately con- 
 nected with the spiritual and eternal welfare of 
 those, on whose attention it is urged, too much care 
 cannot be taken that its principles be fully under- 
 stood, its reasons be duly appreciated, and its obli- 
 gation be distinctly recognized. It will not avail 
 to know the claims of such an ordinance, upon the 
 calculations of a doubtful and shortsighted expe- 
 diency. It is neither safe nor just to refer the case 
 to the bare speculations of human judgment, and 
 to place it upon the shifting and insecure footing 
 of custom, and conventional arrangement. If it 
 forms part of the service and homage, which we im- 
 
103 
 
 mediately owe unto God as haviiiii; received the 
 sanction and authority of his express connnand, tlien 
 it ought not to be viewed as deriving its force and 
 its practical significancy from the bare enactments 
 of human laws, although as subsidiary to a higher 
 power, and explanatory of the divine requisition, 
 these are perfectly admissible, and may be of 
 much advantage. (^) It is not right thus to trifle 
 with the great principles of human duty, to break 
 with a rash and inconsiderate hand, the broad seal 
 of the Eternal, which had been palpably attached to 
 any institution, in order to stamp it with the fee- 
 ble and fluctuating impress of earthly power, to 
 dash in pieces that table of the covenant, on which 
 it was inscribed by the finger of God, in order to 
 engrave it upon the perishable records of human 
 legislation, or human expediency. 
 
 To the subject before us, the duty of sanctify- 
 ing and strictly observing the sabbath, these re- 
 marks apply with peculiar force. There are those, 
 who deny the obligatory character of this sacred 
 ordinance, deeming it to have been like many of 
 the Jewish institutions, of a national and tempo- 
 rary character ; others without questioning its ac- 
 cordance with the general will of God, place it en- 
 tirely on the footing of usefulness and propriety, 
 and would limit its claims upon our observance by 
 the considerations, which are thereby suggested, 
 Emboldened by these gratuitous speculations, 
 some have been led to cast off the authority of the 
 sabbath altogether. Others are disposed to yield 
 it a reluctant homage, extorted by those legislative 
 prohibitions, which make the observance of the 
 sabbath a part of the established constitution of the 
 
104 
 
 land, and reduced to the lowest possible measure, 
 consistent with decency and social propriety. In- 
 stead of raising the standard of the sabbath insti- 
 tution to the high order of spirituality and devo- 
 tional sanctity, exhibited in the demands of scrip- 
 ture, they bring it down to a level with the most 
 ordinary prescriptions of human authority. In or- 
 der that the sabbath may be regarded in its proper 
 light, and realize its legitimate purposes, in order 
 that it may raise the mind to that tone of elevation 
 and abstraction from worldly cares and interests, 
 without which it cannot suitably hold communion 
 with God, that it may be surrounded with an at- 
 mosphere of purity and sacredness, which will 
 render it the most appropriate and congenial me- 
 dium for carrying on that sublime intercourse be- 
 tween heaven and earth, which it was mainly in- 
 tended to promote, it is necessary that it should 
 be associated in the mind with the immediate au- 
 thority of Jehovah. It must be viewed as emanat- 
 ing from his sovereign will, and as bearing on 
 every part of it, the impress of his unequivocal 
 sanction. It must be considered not as a mere 
 ordinance of man, to which submission is to be 
 yielded for the Lord's sake, as an acquiescence in 
 the general arrangements of civil government, but 
 it must be regarded as one of those primary obli- 
 gations which originated in an express declaration 
 of the Eternal mind, and which social habits, secu- 
 lar conveniences, and statutary enactments can 
 can only guard from gross violation and encroach- 
 ment. It is only by thus connecting the day with 
 the will and the authority of the Supreme, and by 
 viewing it as a portion of that moral regimen, 
 
105 
 
 which he hath instituted, as a wheel in that vast 
 machinery, which is moved and animated by his 
 spirit, that the great and glorious objects of its ap- 
 pointment can be really obtained. We have al- 
 ready considered the design of this institution as 
 it branches out into a variety of co-ordinate pur- 
 poses. We shall now proceed therefore to a more 
 particular investigation of the second department 
 of the subject — the Grounds upon which the ob- 
 servance of the sabbath is to be regarded as a duty, 
 universally binding upon men. 
 
 The perpetual and universal Obligation of the 
 sabbath may be argued first, from the Antiquity 
 of its institution. The peculiar sacredness of the 
 seventh day is evidently not the result of any re- 
 cent or modern enactment. It is not the effect of 
 any constitution of things, which arose at some in- 
 termediate period in the history of the world. It 
 is not like the sabbath of weeks, or the sabbath of 
 the jubilee, the appendage of a transitoiy economy, 
 an adaptation to an order of circumstances and lo- 
 calities, which was of necessity temporary in its 
 duration, and limited in its extent. The sabbath 
 of every seventh successive day, on the contrary, 
 as a day of rest, and holy contemplation, as a day 
 characterized by a peculiar sanctity, and conse- 
 crated to holy and devout occupations, is as old as 
 the creation itself. It was indeed the first day, which 
 the world in its consummation and perfection ever 
 saw. It was the starting point in the career of 
 nature. It was the day of dedication, in which 
 the vast temple of the universe was solennily set 
 apart for the honor and service of its great and 
 glorious Author. It was the day of holy and rap- 
 
106 
 
 turous adoration, on which the sons of God, the 
 intelHgences of heaven and earth were invited to 
 celebrate the Creation and to rejoice over the des- 
 tinies of a new born world. It was moreover the 
 first whole day in the history of man's existence, 
 on which his eyes were opened, after the work 
 of creation was completed, thus intimating, 
 that the first fruits of his time, the primary exer- 
 cise of his powers, were to be sacred unto the 
 Lord. It was the sabbath sun, which first unfold- 
 ed the landscape of a finished universe to his sur- 
 vey. It was the sabbath atmosphere which first 
 wafted the incense of his morning praises to the 
 throne of the eternal King. It was the sabbath rest 
 which gave him the first symbolical intimation of 
 that rest which remaineth for the people of God. 
 
 All this appears to be obviously involved in the 
 phraseology applied to the seventh day ; for it is 
 said that God rested on the seventh day from all 
 his works, which He had made, and that God 
 blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. That 
 the expressions of blessing and sanctifying here 
 employed convey the idea of some peculiar sac red- 
 ness being attached to this day beyond the other 
 days of the week, will, I conceive, be denied by 
 none : and that this act of consecration took place 
 at the very close of creation is equally apparent. 
 And if this be the case, it establishes the question 
 that the appointment of one day in seven to be kept 
 holy, and to be devoted to spiritual purposes, was 
 not an exclusive characteristic of the Jewish dis- 
 pensation. It was instituted many hundred years 
 before that economy was called into existence, nor 
 is there a single intimation contained in scripture 
 
107 
 
 that it was intended only to serve a temporary 
 purpose, and that after this object had been at- 
 tained it was to cease any longer to be in force. 
 The ordinance, in fact, with respect to its whole 
 spirit and substance, is coeval with the world itself 
 and with man, on whose observance it was enjoin- 
 ed. The bare act of God's resting on the Sabbath 
 day, seemed obviously to suggest that it was to be 
 always kept as a day of complete exemption from 
 the employments of life and to be pre-eminently 
 devoted to spiritual and divine occupations. But 
 Jehovah not only rested on that day, but He also 
 blessed it and sanctified it. He appointed and pro- 
 nounced it to be a day of special favour and grace 
 from Himself — a day, which would be a source of 
 abundant blessing to those, who would wait upon 
 Him — a day, which his people in all ages should 
 deem a delight — the holy of the Lord — honorable 
 and calculated to honor Him — a day, in which the 
 whole family of the redeemed would be privileged 
 to be glad and to rejoice. He also sanctified it — 
 He set it apart for sacred purposes— He ordained 
 it for the specific object of being employed in his 
 immediate service — in the performance of the va- 
 rious duties of worship and homage — of adoration, 
 prayer and praise. He marked it out from among 
 the other days of the week as that, which should 
 peculiarly belong unto Him in commemoration of 
 the great work which He had achieved and in 
 furtherance of the various interests of holiness, 
 piety and devotion throughout every future age in 
 every condition of the world, and under every eco- 
 nomy of religion. On this ground alone — that of 
 the original appointment of the Sabbath in the 
 
108 
 
 time of man's innocence, independently of all re- 
 ference to any particular dispensation, the obliga- 
 tion of the Sabbath would seem to me unquestion- 
 able and decisive. That we have no distinct ac- 
 count of the sanctification of the day in the brief 
 epitome which has been handed down to us of the 
 history of the patriarchal times affords no valid ob- 
 jection against its authority, because there is no 
 evidence whatever that the servants of God in that 
 remote period did not observe the Sabbath ; and 
 even if at any particular era the knowledge of the 
 ordinance was altogether lost, it would be no proof 
 that it was not originally instituted, or that it is 
 not absolutely and imperatively binding, when- 
 ever that knowledge is possessed. Indeed where- 
 ever the Sabbath is either mentioned or enforced 
 in scripture, it is always spoken of as an institution 
 well known and universally recognized as a duty 
 and not as a new appointment, which was then for 
 the first time proposed. And it doubtless adds no 
 ordinary force to the obligation of this holy day, 
 that wherever the worship of the true God or a 
 revelation of his will hath prevailed, there the due 
 observance of the Sabbath has been a standing 
 maxim of conduct. 
 
 The obligation of this holy day may be further 
 argued from the peculiar Solemnity, with which 
 the sanctification of it is enjoined in the law of the 
 ten commandments. It has been already stated 
 that the injunctions of the Decalogue collectively 
 considered are a brief and condensed expression of 
 the will of God in its bearing upon the character 
 and conduct of mankind in every age of the world. 
 They are a developement of the great principles of 
 
109 
 
 moral purity and rectitude drawn out under the 
 several heads of our duty towards God and towards 
 our neighbour, and adapted to every condition of 
 our earthly existence. It it therefore not without 
 paramount necessity — it is not without the most ex- 
 press and unequivocal declaration of the divine 
 will that we can venture to set aside any one of 
 these requisitions — that we can safely undertake 
 to repeal any article of that code, which was trans- 
 cribed from the living tablet of the eternal mind by 
 the finger of the Lawgiver himself into the two ta- 
 bles of stone. This is that law of holiness and 
 truth and everlasting rectitude, which Christ came 
 not into the world to destroy, but to establish, not 
 to abrogate but to fulfil, not to degrade from its 
 lofty sphere as representative of all that is pure 
 and just in the character of Jehovah, and as the 
 authoritative regulator of human conduct, but to 
 magnify and make honorable, by an undeviating 
 compliance with its demands, and by inspiring 
 new motives for an unreserved obedience to its 
 dictates. And it is in the very centre of this 
 pandect of divine institutions, it is on the first ta- 
 ble of this succinct, and comprehensive record of 
 human duty, that the law of the sabbath is in- 
 scribed — inscribed too with a fulness of detail and 
 an urgency of enforcement surpassing what is ob- 
 servable in any other of the ten commandments. 
 
 It is not merely however on the ground of the 
 perpetual force, and the inviolable sanctity of the 
 ten commandments, that we argue the continued 
 obligation of the sabbath as enjoined in that sum- 
 mary of duty. The very phraseology — the very 
 mode of expression there employed, appears to me 
 
110 
 
 to indicate beyond a doubt that the observance of 
 a Sabbath was not then first enjoined, but that it 
 was nothing more than a revival of an ordinance 
 which was divine and authoritative in its origin, 
 but had now fallen into a state of comparative obli- 
 vion and neglect. There is not the least symptom, 
 not the slightest hint that an institution so remark- 
 able as that of setting apart every seventh day 
 from all ordinary occupations — from all earthly 
 pursuits was now for the first time to be established 
 The first clause of the injunction — remember the 
 Sabbath day — is not merely intensive as designed 
 to impress the mind with a sense of the paramount 
 importance of this command, and of the danger of 
 neglecting it, but it also appears to be indicative 
 of the fact that the observance now so forcibly 
 urged, was only a restoration of what had before 
 been instituted — a reminiscence of what in the ab- 
 sence of written records, and amidst the prevelance 
 of almost universal idolatry and impiety and vice 
 had fallen into grievous neglect, if not utter forget- 
 fulness and desuetude. The season assigned for 
 the institution is equally confirmatory of the same 
 view. It is stated to be on the ground that in six 
 days God created the heaven and the earth and 
 rested on the seventh day, and therefore that God 
 blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Now 
 in estimating the object and force of a law it is a 
 maxim that it should be at least coextensive with 
 its reasons. And if the fact of Jehovah's having 
 rested on the seventh day after the completion of 
 the works of creation be here assigned as the pri- 
 mary and immediate occasion of the sanctification 
 of the Sabbath, it is obvious that the same cause 
 
Ill 
 
 had existed from the beginning of the world, and 
 therefore, independently of all other evidence, it 
 might have been fairly assumed, that the law had 
 been in force from the beginning. Whatever ob- 
 servance is instituted in commemoration of any 
 particular event, unless there be some overwhelm- 
 ing reason to the contrary, must undoubtedly be 
 considered as dating with the actual occurrence of 
 that event. The conclusion therefore unquestion- 
 ably is that the law of the Sabbath as delivered on 
 mount Sinai, however binding and immutable in it- 
 self, was not that, which first established the ordi- 
 nance, but only embodied in the form of a direct 
 and most urgent and impressive injunction that 
 which had been instituted from the beginning and 
 was about to continue to the end. And hence 
 Nehemiah, in enumerating the statutes and com- 
 mandments, which God gave unto his people by 
 his servant Moses, speaks of his having made known 
 unto them his holy Sabbath — obviously implying 
 that the ordinance had before existed as an appoint- 
 ment of Jehovah, and that the law of Sinai was 
 only a public and authoritative promulgation of 
 what had now become generally unknown. 
 
 I have dwelt upon this part of the subject some- 
 what more fully, because if it be once made appa- 
 rent that a sablaath had been enjoined from the se- 
 venth day of creation ; and that the law of Moses 
 was only a republication of the original edict, the 
 allegation of its having been abrogated, as part of 
 the Jewish economy, is at once removed, and the 
 institution forces itself on the judgment as an es- 
 sential accompaniment of true religion throughout 
 the whole history of the church under every sue- 
 
112 
 
 cessive dispensation. When indeed we consider the 
 terms of solemn and peremptory inj miction, in 
 which the duty of sanctifying the Sabbath is con- 
 veyed and enforced — when we bear in mind the 
 overwhelming; importance attached to it throughout 
 the whole of the old testament — when we recollect 
 the awful judgments, which are so frequently de- 
 nounced against those, who are guilty of its viola- 
 tion, and the blessings, which are so liberally pro- 
 mised to those, by whom it is duly observed — 
 when we hear Nehemiah remonstrating with the 
 nobles of Judah because they brought wrath upon 
 Israel by profaning the Sabbath, and Isaiah re- 
 peatedly pronouncing him blessed, who keepeth 
 the Sabbath, when we take all these circumstances 
 into consideration coupled with the absence of the 
 slightest intimation from the new testament that 
 under the gospel the ordinance would cease to be 
 in force, it is impossible, I conceive, to escape the 
 conclusion that the Sabbath combining with its for- 
 mer objects the additional design of commemorat- 
 ina: the Saviour's resurrection, is as oblisiatorv 
 upon us at this moment,- as it was upon the Jews 
 when the two tables of stone were deposited in the 
 ark of the covenant. Let us remember therefore, 
 the sabbath day to keep it holy — remember the 
 antiquity of its institution and the perpetuity of its 
 obligation. Let us remember the important objects 
 it was designed to answer — remember the glorious 
 and mighty events it was particularly intended to 
 commemorate. Let us remember the strict and 
 unbending rigor of its demands, the guilt attendant 
 on its violation, and the privileges connected with 
 its suitable and conscientious observance. Let us 
 
113 
 
 remember that it is the institution of all others, of 
 which the neglect is most general ; and in too many 
 instances the consequences of that neglect are 
 most fatal. 
 
 But once more the obligation of the Sabbath 
 may be argued from the Constancy of its observance, 
 wherever true religion has flourished and the know- 
 ledge of the character, the will and the attributes 
 of Jehovah has prevailed. We have already traced 
 the sabbath to its original institution at the 
 consecration of the vast temple of nature to the 
 glory and service of its Creator. We have viewed 
 it as rising, after a temporary eclipse, with in- 
 creased splendour upon mount Sinai, and embody- 
 ing its demands in characters of light and of impe- 
 rishable duration upon the first table of the cove- 
 nant. We have seen its observance enforced on 
 every page of the old testament scriptures with a 
 minuteness of detail — with an awfulness of denun- 
 ciation — with an earnestness of appeal and with an 
 exuberant richness of promise, which give it a 
 commanding and irresistible claim upon our best 
 and most conscientious regards. Travelling on 
 with the progress of ecclesiastical history to the 
 establishment of the christian dispensation, which 
 superseded the whole mass of the multifarious rites 
 and ceremonies of the Jewish economy, we find that 
 the seventh day, though altered from the former 
 in adaptation to the Saviour's resurrection, was 
 still in force, and was a day uniformly employed 
 for divine worship and other spiritual purposes. 
 The Lord's day or the first day of the week, as 
 equivalent to the ancient sabbath, is continually 
 mentioned as having been the season of some act 
 
 H 
 
114 
 
 of homage or religious performance. It was on 
 the first day of the week that Paul preached to the 
 disciples at Troas, who had come together accord- 
 ing to custom for the purpose of breaking bread. 
 It is on the first day of the week, as being the day 
 on which the members of the christian church as- 
 sembled for the discharge of the various functions 
 of divine worship, that the same eminent apostle 
 commands the Corinthians to lay by them in store 
 for the purpose of relieving their poorer brethren. 
 And it was on the Lord's day, thus denominated 
 in obvious reference to the Saviour's resurrection 
 from the dead, and identical with the Christian 
 Sabbath, that St. John was favored with those 
 sublime and prophetic visions, which are recorded 
 in the book of Revelation. It was while he was 
 absorbed in spiritual contemplation on the day pe- 
 culiarly appropriated to that and other congenial 
 exercises, that the mystic scroll of futurity was un- 
 folded to his view, on which were inscribed in sym- 
 bolic characters the progressive destinies of the 
 church, as long as there shall be a church upon 
 earth. Taking their precedent from apostolic 
 authority and example the primitive Christians, 
 so far as we are aware, universally adopted the 
 same practice, and it has flown down in uninter- 
 rupted succession, with such exceptions as tempo- 
 rary ignorance, idolatry or superstition might oc- 
 casion, through a period of eighteen centuries 
 until the present hour. However the sabbath may 
 have been neglected through indifference or pro- 
 faned through the overflowing iniquity and ungod- 
 liness of some of the darker epochs of the history 
 of the christian church, it does not appear that there 
 
115 
 
 was ever any systematic and combined attempt 
 among those who professed to receive the christian 
 revelation, to impugn the authority or to abrogate 
 the observance of the day. The universahty of 
 such an observance, or at least of such a recogni- 
 tion of duty carried down from the primitive era, 
 aud spread over every section of the christian 
 world, amidst all the diversity of discretionary 
 rites and institutions, must be acknowledged to 
 carry no ordinary weight in support of the absolute 
 and unrepealed obligation of the ordinance. Nor 
 does the absence of any direct injunction upon the 
 subject from the pages of the christian scriptures 
 warrant any other conclusion than that the ordi- 
 nance was so well known and so fully recognized 
 among the believers, as entirely to supersede the 
 necessity of such commands. Here incidental re- 
 ferences afford, if possible, a stronger evidence 
 than positive directions. 
 
 Another fact of a general nature, from which in 
 conjunction with more direct and unequivocal proofs, 
 the obligation of the sabbath may be argued, is its 
 remarkable adaptation to the character and capa- 
 bilities of man under every dispensation of religion, 
 and in every condition of society. Viewing the 
 sabbath as a great moral ordinance of the supreme 
 governor of the world, and designed to be coex- 
 tensive in its bearing and obligation with the pre- 
 sent system, it is important to survey it in its rela- 
 tion to the whole order of things, and to the pecu- 
 liar nature and requirements of man. And con- 
 templated in this light it may be fairly affirmed 
 that the sabbath is a most wise and ])eneficent in- 
 stitution. Even those who have denied or doubteil 
 
 112 
 
116 
 
 its obligation, as binding upon christians, readily 
 acknowledge its expediency, and even the necessity 
 of some similar appointment for the various pur- 
 poses it was designed to answer. ^^^) It seems to 
 mark out with the most consummate wisdom that 
 precise portion of time for the several duties of re- 
 ligion, which the laws of nature and the physical 
 as well as moral necessities of man combine in 
 pointing out as practicable and proper. One day 
 in seven entirely devoted to the service of God is 
 perfectly compatible with a due and adequate at- 
 tention to all the ordinary occupations of life, while 
 at the same time it appears to be obsolutely neces- 
 sary to the maintenance of the requisite influence 
 of religion in the soul. It was indeed remarked by 
 an illustrious English Judge, the learned and de- 
 vout Sir Mathew Hale, as the result of long obser- 
 vation and experience, " that he found his secular 
 affairs prosper in the subsequent week just in pro- 
 portion as he had been faithful and conscientious 
 in devoting the sabbath to the service of God." So 
 grievously mistaken are those persons, who allow 
 themselves to think and act upon the notion, that 
 they are really obliged to violate the sabbath in the 
 pursuit of their worldly callings. 
 
 Finally we argue, on grounds of general ana- 
 logy and presumptive evidence, the obligation of 
 the sabbath from its delightful Congeniality to the 
 feelings of all the faithful servants of God in every 
 age of the world. By such persons this holy day 
 has been always regarded as one of their best and 
 highest privileges — as one of the noblest institu- 
 tions — one of the choicest gifts of God to man. It 
 has been ever a day of joy and gladness to their 
 
IIT 
 
 souls. They have always called it a delight, and 
 have deemed it honorable above all other days. In- 
 stead of regarding it with a feeling of indescribable 
 tedium and weariness, which is characteristic of the 
 ungodly, they have found it a season of refreshing 
 from the presence of the Lord. By them the re- 
 turn of the sabbath has been hailed as an angel 
 visit — reviving, exhilarating and strengthening. 
 The periodical recurrence of this day marks the 
 successive stages of their pilgrimage—- the ascend- 
 ing steps of that mystic ladder, by which they 
 climb from earth to lieaven. It exhibits at short 
 intervals so many fountains of consolation — so 
 many spots of green pasture, where the soul may 
 be comforted and replenished, while it prosecutes 
 its toilsome journey through the waste howling 
 wilderness — through the scorched and arid soil of 
 this sinful and desolate world. 
 
 In the retrospect of the past the sabbath is as- 
 sociated with events in the hiphest deo-ree interest- 
 ing and important, and frequently calls up memo- 
 ries, which pass over the mind, like the shadow of 
 a cloud on a hot summer's day, with a soothing and 
 tranquillizing effect. In many instances it was the 
 day, in the language of allegorical representation, 
 of the soul's espousals unto Christ, and at every 
 return was characterized by some fresh token of 
 his love — some renewed manifestation of his faith- 
 fulness and truth. Oft does the eye look back' 
 ward to some favoured season in the course of re- 
 volving sabbaths, in which the rock of the heart 
 was struck by the rod of the divine word, and the 
 waters of repentance gushed forth — when the 
 manna of spiritual refreshment and support was 
 
118 
 
 poured down in rich and copious supplies — when 
 the vows of the covenant were pHghted at the altar 
 through the medium of their symbolic emblems 
 with a joy bordering upon rapture — when faith and 
 hope and love, blending their varied hues upon the 
 cloud of the divine promise, formed an arch of 
 glowing anticipation and dehght, which seemed to 
 compass the very heavens within its embrace. 
 Where then is the christian, that would willingly 
 give up his sabbath ; rather would he relinquish 
 every other day with all its gains and gratifica- 
 tions. To him this day of God is better than a 
 thousand. To remind him of its obligation is 
 scarcely necessary. It is sealed to him with highest 
 sanction in the inestimable blessings and consola- 
 tions, with which it is associated. It is inscribed 
 in characters deep, vivid and indelible upon the ta- 
 bles of his own heart. Audit cannot be that the 
 voice of the spirit thus speaking in the soul of the 
 believer, should not be a faithful echo of that, 
 which issues in louder and more definite accents 
 from the living oracle of his word. 
 
 Such are some of the leading grounds, upon 
 which the obligation of the christian sabbath ap- 
 pears immoveably to rest. We have argued the 
 perpetuity of its claims from the antiquity of its in- 
 stitution, as being coeval with creation itself — from 
 the peculiar solemnity, with which it is enjoined in 
 the first table of the law, associated with the most 
 urgent and reiterated appeals in its behalf through- 
 out the old testament scriptures — from the con- 
 stancy of its observance, wherever true religion 
 has prevailed and flourished — from its remarkable 
 adaptation to the nature and character of man under 
 
119 
 
 every dispensation of religion and in every condition 
 of society, and lastly from its delightful congeniality 
 to the feelings of all the people of God. If these 
 reasons be satisfactory and convincing, then let us 
 at once enter upon the strict practical recognition 
 of the obligation of this holy day. Let us yield it 
 entirely and unreservedly to the service of God in 
 its various forms of duty and privilege. Once let 
 us realize the blessedness attending its due and 
 devotional observance, and we shall need no further 
 arguments. We shall rejoice in it as a pledge and 
 a symbol of that rest, which remaineth for the 
 people of God. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Peculiar and Appropriate Duties of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 No written record, no general enactment, however 
 comprehensive, can distinctly specify the duty of 
 man in all its minute and subordinate details. Po- 
 sitive laws can only embody the great principles 
 and exhibit in broad outline the rules of life and 
 conduct. It is impossible that they should at the 
 same time be applicable to man, in the universality 
 of his earthly existence, and amidst all the varieties 
 and complexities of the present scene of things, and 
 descend into all the particulars arising out of the 
 every day transactions of society. To secure the 
 latter object there must have been enacted almost 
 as many laws as the human beings, who at succes- 
 sive periods have passed, and are yet to pass over 
 the stage of life ; and every general command must 
 have been ramified into a multiplicity of prohibi- 
 tions and directions as numerous as the actions, 
 and as various as the habits and conditions of the 
 individuals of mankind. Such minuteness of in- 
 junction, for any practical purpose, is obviously 
 
121 
 
 neither necessary nor possible. All that is requi- 
 site or expedient in a great rule of government, 
 designed for universal observance, is that the line 
 of demarcation be traced with sufficient clearness 
 and distinctness of coloring, to enable a conscien- 
 tious inquirer, to discover the will of the Lawgiver 
 and his own correspondent obligation. 
 
 In a book, like the bible, designed for the use, 
 not of one ao;eor nation — not of one exclusive dis- 
 pensation or profession of religion, but of all men 
 in all ages and under all diversities of outward cha- 
 racter and condition — a book containing within 
 comparatively so small a compass the whole coun- 
 sel of God, in relation to his human creatures, it 
 was to be expected that direct injunctions respect- 
 ing many departments of conduct should be of a 
 very general nature, and that many important pe- 
 culiarities should be left to necessary inference from 
 the great fundamental requisition. The command 
 to renounce the world, for example, is confessedly 
 expressed in language of palpable and unquestion- 
 able implication, rather than in terms of definite 
 and specific injunction. Yet no one, who is un- 
 feignedly desirous of knowing and practising the 
 will of God, in reference to this point, can be great- 
 ly at a loss in ascertaining his duty or doubt its su- 
 preme importance. The same remark is equally 
 applicable to the law, which directs children to ho- 
 nor and obey their parents, and to many other re- 
 quirements, which are conveyed in the broad form 
 of preceptive generalities, but leave the question of 
 the extent, to which they are intended to be en- 
 forced, and of the circumstances, under which 
 they are to be brought to bear upon the character 
 
122 
 
 and conduct to be decided by other incidental de- 
 clarations, and by the collective import of those 
 scriptural statements, which are found to illustrate 
 the subject. In the application of such important 
 directories to the regulation of the prevailing ha- 
 bits of life, something will undoubtedly depend 
 upon circumstances, to be estimated by the com- 
 bined exercise of an enlightened understanding, 
 and of a devout and willing heart. The great 
 object is to catch, if I may so speak, the spirit of the 
 law, or the institution, and to interpret its practi- 
 cal meaning by a direct and invariable reference to 
 its primary purpose and design. As in the animal 
 frame the form of every limb — the size and shape 
 of every bone, and the position and arrangement oi 
 every joint or muscle have a direct relation to the 
 wants, the instincts, and the habits of the being, to 
 which they belong, so that from a view of a minute 
 extremity of almost any living creature, the com- 
 parative anatomist can tell the peculiar charactei 
 of the whole body and the very element, in whicli 
 it is best calculated to dwell — as in works of archi- 
 tecture, the several compartments of a building 
 must be in keeping with the general style, in whicli 
 it is erected, and are correct and congruous in pro- 
 portion as they maintain a strict accordance witli 
 the original plan ; so in the endeavour to point oul 
 the line of conduct, which may best comport witli 
 the divine command we must firmly keep in view 
 the great and leading objects, which the law or the 
 institution was designed to answer. This is the 
 great principle of scriptural interpretation ; this is 
 the key by which we may unlock the mystery, in 
 which, in some instances, its real significaHcy or iti 
 
123 
 
 practical bearing is involved. This, in addition to 
 the great palpable demands, which stand out upon 
 the very surface of the law, will bring into distinct 
 and prominent exhibition a variety of lines, which 
 were before but dimly seen. By this means the 
 path of duty will become more clear and unequivo- 
 cal, and less opportunity will be afforded to impiety 
 and profaneness to violate the spirit of the law 
 without incurring the charge of a direct infraction 
 of the letter. The law of the sabbath indeed is 
 propounded with a fulness of statement and illus- 
 trated with a variety of references and appeals, 
 which almost preclude the possibility of mistaking 
 the extent of its obligations, and the leading duties, 
 which it enjoins. As however it is too obvious that 
 there are many persons, who are far from practi- 
 cally appreciating the mode, in which it was doubt- 
 less intended that the sabbath should be observed, 
 we shall now enter, in pursuance of the plan alrea- 
 dy proposed, upon a consideration of the peculiar 
 and appropriate Duties of the Sabbath, These we 
 shall endeavour briefly to point out under a twofold 
 aspect, negative and positive. We shall first shew 
 what habits, occupations and pursuits ought to be 
 laid aside as contrary to the letter or as opposed to 
 the spirit of this holy institution, and then mention 
 a few of those great duties, which are either abso- 
 lutely required or innocently allowed to be per- 
 formed on this day. 
 
 In illustration of the first of these general points 
 I would observe that all such secular business as 
 may be suitably and adequately pursued on other 
 days should be relinquished on this day. This ob- 
 servation indeed is expressive of a truth so clear 
 
124 
 
 and unquestionable — so fully borne out by every 
 page of scripture and so naturally springing out of 
 the very object and design of the sabbath ordinance 
 that as a vague and abstract proposition few would 
 think of denying it. No one, who can appreciate 
 the design and acknowledges the obligation of the 
 sabbath at all would hesitate for a moment in con- 
 ceding that it was intended to be a day of rest 
 from the ordinary pursuits of life, and that to de- 
 vote it to the regular prosecution of worldly em- 
 ploy is a palpable infraction of a divine command. 
 It is not often indeed that the profanation of the 
 day is carried to this entire length — that the whole 
 period of its duration is so completely replenished 
 with a succession of worldly occupations as to ob- 
 literate all distinction between it and other days. 
 In some departments of life — in some lines of busi- 
 ness this is unquestionably the case. To those, 
 who occupy these conditions, whether of labour or 
 of professional routine, a sabbath day, in the pro- 
 per sense of the expression, is a change, which is 
 never allowed to break in, with a refreshing and 
 exhilarating effect, upon the galling and debasing 
 monotony of their course — a sunshine, which never 
 throws its radiance across their path — a luxury, of 
 which through impiety, avarice or oppression they 
 know not what it is to partake. I would not affirm 
 indeed that there may not be occasionally processes 
 of labour, or duties of a professional character, 
 which it is necessary to carry on without intermis- 
 sion, and the continuance of which, so long as the 
 palpable and unquestionable necessity remains, 
 does not therefore encroach upon the spirit and de- 
 sign of the sabbatical institution. But such cir- 
 
125 
 
 cumstances and conjunctures are rare, and by judi- 
 cious arrangement combined with sincere desires 
 and vigorous efforts may for the most part without 
 any material inconvenience be obviated. 
 
 Leaving however such occupations as fall with- 
 in the range of absolute necessity, out of the limits 
 of our present discussion, there is still a mass of 
 multifarious secular engagements, which though 
 carried on with open and unblushing violation of 
 the ordmance and of the civil enactments, by which 
 the observance of it is enjoined, are really as need- 
 less in themselves as they are at variance with the 
 whole spirit and design of the appointment — en- 
 gagements, which spread with a dark and deep 
 and widening accumulation of guilt over the sce- 
 nery of sabbath habits and lour with portentious 
 gloom over the horizon of our future prospects. 
 The extent, to which the holy day of God is de- 
 secrated, by being diverted from its legitimate ob- 
 ject and design, and employed for purposes of 
 worldly convenience or advantage is truly awful 
 and appalling. If we could take the station of the 
 angel in the sun, and accompany that glorious lu- 
 minary in his career from the eastern to the west- 
 ern shores of our island, what a contrast would the 
 whole aspect of society present to the scene, which 
 would be realized, if the directions of scripture in 
 general, or the strict prohibitions of the fourth com- 
 mandment were carried into full effect — the former 
 enjoining us to turn away our foot from the sab- 
 bath, as from holy and consecrated ground, and 
 the latter forbidding any manner of work to be 
 done, by ourselves or those who are under our con- 
 trol, on that sacred day ! In many instances the 
 
126 
 
 temple of Jehovah would be found deserted as the 
 haunt of an obsolete superstition, and the shrines 
 of Mammon crowded with busy, active and de- 
 voted worshippers. But it is not necessary to 
 make such a circuit as we have supposed, to travel 
 as pilgrims of the sun, over the whole length of 
 our land in order to witness this scene of grievous 
 and unseemly profanation. We need only take 
 our stand at the centre, or direct our course through 
 any one of the broad streets of our larger towns, in 
 order to see worldly business carrying on with the 
 same activity, if not with the same openness as on 
 other days ! I am very far from laying the whole 
 blame of this most injurious practice upon the indi- 
 viduals, in many cases highly respectable and well 
 disposed, who dispense their commodities to those 
 who beset their doors and demand to be supplied. 
 The latter assuredly bear their full share of the 
 guilt, and to say the least, are deeply involved in 
 the charge of being partakers of other men's sins. 
 If there were no buyers, it is obvious that there 
 could be no sellers. I would however trace the 
 evil still farther. It arises doubtless in a great 
 measure from a practice which cannot be too ear- 
 nestly deprecated and too strongly censured, that 
 of paying the wages of labour at so late an hour 
 on the evening of the last day of the week, as to 
 preclude the possibility, at least, without extreme 
 inconvenience, of procuring the necessary supply 
 of the several articles of consumption until the 
 morning of the sabbath. This habit, for the most 
 part, perfectly needless and gratuitous in itself, 
 places both the other parties, the buyer and the 
 seller, if they are in any degree influenced by sound 
 
127 
 
 christian principle, in a most cruel and embarassing 
 situation. It in a manner obliges them to offend 
 God and to wound their own consciences — to do 
 violence to their better feelings and absent them- 
 selves from the ordinances of religion. It has a 
 direct tendency to harden their hearts — to secula- 
 rize their whole character and gradually to extin- 
 guish every spark of the fear and love of God, 
 which may have once been kindled in their minds. 
 It is recorded of Jeroboam as a distinguishing 
 characteristic of his profane and impious reign that 
 he made Israel to sin ; and I know not how the in- 
 dividuals, who follow the practice, to which I have 
 just alluded, can be exempted from the charge of 
 making their dependents to sin — how they can 
 escape the tremendous woe denounced against 
 those, by whom offences come. 
 
 It is not however the practice of buying and 
 selling only, though this appears to be the most 
 open, and extensively prevalent, which ought to be 
 relinquished as utterly inconsistent with the ge- 
 nuine character and purposes of the sabbath. The 
 system of travelling by public conveyances, on ob- 
 jects of business, or mere temporary convenience, 
 the habit of journeying from town to country, and 
 the reverse, with the view of extending the range, 
 or gathering in the produce of trade and com- 
 merce, the more retired occupations of balancing 
 accounts, or answering the demands of epistolary 
 correspondence exclusively connected with secular 
 interests and pursuits, are equally to be deprecated 
 as palpable encroachments upon the sanctity and 
 insurmountable barriers against the extension of 
 spirit and practical influence of the day. To talk 
 
128 
 
 of the necessity of such habits, except in some 
 most extraordinary cases is absurd. Let him, who 
 alledges such an excuse, snatch a few additional 
 hours from the rest, or the indulgence of other 
 days, and he will without difficulty find time for 
 the undisturbed repose and the more sublime and 
 delightful enjoyment of the appointed day of rest. 
 On the negative side of the question before us, 
 I would remark, that all such recreations, amuse- 
 ments, associations, and intellectual evercises as 
 are unsuitable to the spirit and design, and inter- 
 fere with the proper duties of the day, ought to be 
 entirely laid aside. If it be an evil, as it unquestion- 
 ably is, to employ the sabbath in the prosecution 
 of labours which are innocent and useful in them- 
 selves, and are wrong only as pursued at an improper 
 season, it is assuredly a much greater evil to devote 
 it to habits, which are allowable only within due 
 limits at any time, and at the best, in many in- 
 stances, are but of questionable propriety. Every 
 institution is liable to perversion and abuse, and 
 thus the sabbath itself, however gracious, noble 
 and exalted in design, and however salutary in its 
 legitimate tendency, yet from the very leisure, 
 which it affords — from the season of vacuity and 
 exemption which it brings round every seventh 
 day, has doubtless in too many instances been the 
 innocent occasion of originating the most atrocious 
 crimes, and of cherishing habits of indolence, de- 
 pravity and vice. Where persons, who are em- 
 ployed in some department of labour, science or 
 art, find that they have one seventh of their time, 
 entirely on their own hands, and are not disposed 
 to lay it out in the discharge of the appointed du- 
 
129 
 
 ties, and in the fruition of the pure and legitimate 
 pleasures of the day, they generally have recourse to 
 some method of killing it. According to their pecu- 
 liar taste, character and circumstances, they plunge 
 in reckless and degrading dissipation, lounge in va- 
 cant indolence, roam with idle gaze, assemble in con- 
 vivial parties beneath some public or private roof, 
 or they read and discuss the novelties and occur- 
 rences of the last week as recorded on the page of 
 some periodical journal ; and thus instead of turning 
 away their foot from the sabbath as an object of 
 holy and reverential awe they trample upon it with 
 a bold and heedless levity, as if it had been made 
 for the express purpose of affording them an oppor- 
 tunity of lavishing upon it all the wantonness of 
 their merriment. 
 
 I am not pleading for moroseness. I am not 
 advocating or recommending what may be termed 
 a puritanic rigor in the observance of an institution, 
 which was intended to be a season of calm, re- 
 freshing and elevated enjoyment. I am not assum- 
 ing that a grave and demure aspect on this or any 
 other day is the invariable index of a pure and de- 
 vout heart. The generous freedom, the sublime 
 spirituality of the Christian dispensation has dis- 
 engaged the sabbath from every thing which could 
 be considered as a bondage to ceremonial rites and 
 burdensome restrictions. But that the habits of 
 sportive and inconsiderate levity, which so exten- 
 sively prevail among us — that the pratice of assem- 
 bling together in the fields, as is frequently the case 
 with young persons, for the purpose of engaging in 
 various games and pastimes — that to sally out on 
 parties of pleasure, even at the very hour that the 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 congregation is collecting together for the worship 
 of God — that to meet in numerous and crowded as- 
 sociations around the convivial board, as is too often 
 the case in the upper departments of society — that 
 to frequent those haunts of intemperance, and ex- 
 cess, which I fear have too much multiplied among 
 us to answer any useful and laudable end, for the 
 purpose of vain and trifling, if not directly corrupt 
 communication, or for the perusal of those public 
 prints which are seldom free from some tincture of 
 scandal, blasphemy or outrage — that such habits 
 are unsuitable to the character, and diametrically 
 opposed to the whole spirit and tendency of the 
 sabbath, will, I conceive, be conceded by every 
 person of sober and reflecting mind : and if such 
 be their nature, there can be no question that they 
 ought to be at once and entirely relinquished. The 
 words of the prophet as prohibiting us from doing 
 our own ways, from finding our own pleasure, and 
 even from speaking our own words on a day, which 
 has been set apart for nobler occupations, and more 
 exalted delights, are so plain and decisive in the 
 line of demarcation, which they draw around the 
 inviolable sanctity of the sabbath, that he who runs 
 cannot fail to mark it. 
 
 The abandonment of such habits as have been 
 mentioned however, whether they be those of bu- 
 siness or pleasure, whether of indolence or labour, 
 whether of amusement or gain, forms but a part of 
 the obligations and affords only a negative view of 
 the duties of this holy day. The sabbath, though 
 a day of rest, was never intended to be a day of 
 complete vacancy ; for the inevitable consequence 
 would be, that it would speedily degenerate, like 
 
131 
 
 those, with which the Romish calendar is so thickly 
 studded, into a season of universal levity and dis- 
 sipation. Man is a being, which cannot be safely 
 or advantageously trusted with unoccupied time. 
 When therefore we have removed those engage- 
 ments and diversions, which are either distinctly 
 forbidden, or are palpably inappropriate to the sa- 
 cred hours of the sabbath, it is doubtless incum- 
 bent upon us to point out the occupations and en- 
 joyments, in which the day may be most suitably 
 and usefully employed. It is through the neglect, 
 or the want of a taste and a capacity for the delight- 
 ful employments and the legitimate duties of the 
 seventh day, that so many persons find it a day of 
 heaviness and insipidity, when they are prevented 
 from devoting it to some active pursuit of business 
 or pleasure — that to them it is a page in the book of 
 life, unfolding itself at regular intervals, and in- 
 scribed with mystic characters, in which they dis- 
 cover no meaning and feel no interest ; and there- 
 fore they contrive to fill it up with a grotesque and 
 spurious medley of unhallowed device. 
 
 To obviate such evil we observe that one of the 
 first duties, as well as one of the purest enjoy- 
 ments of the sabbath, is the Cultivation of a devo- 
 tional spirit, through the medium of that retire- 
 ment from the tumultuous scenes of life, and of 
 that habit of holy and undisturbed meditation upon 
 spiritual and eternal things, for which the sabbath 
 affords so delightful an opportunity. Amidst the 
 incessant din of worldly avocations and pursuits, 
 the still voice of the divine Spirit poured into the 
 ear of the soul, can be but very partially and in- 
 distinctly heard. The harmony of the spheres is 
 
 i2 
 
132 
 
 liable to be drowned by the louder dissonance of 
 earthly tumults and commotions. Exposed to the 
 unhealthy atmosphere of a sinful and carnal world, 
 and subject to the varied collisions of its tempta- 
 tions, cares and interests, the principle of grace 
 and holiness in the soul is liable to be enfeebled 
 and overborne by the hostile elements, with which 
 it has to contend. To meet this dangerous exi- 
 gency of our condition, the sabbath has been wisely 
 and most graciously appointed. On this blessed day 
 we have an opportunity of sequestering ourselves 
 for a while from the pressing demands of time and 
 sense — of retiring into the secluded sanctuary of 
 our own souls, where we may commune with our 
 own hearts and be still, where we may detect with 
 the eye of faith, in the light of the divine word, the 
 illusive vanities of the world — where we may hold 
 close and intimate converse with death, with the 
 judgment, and with the awful eternity, which is 
 before us — where above all we may have fellowship 
 with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ. 
 It is at such moments of high and sacred commu- 
 nion with the Father of our spirits, that religion 
 appears to be indeed a reality, that the care of the 
 soul is seen to be the one thing needful, that the 
 earth and its engrossing vanities are found to dwin- 
 dle into a point, and eternity to rise into a scene of 
 vivid and impressive and overpowering import- 
 ance, which for the while fills the mind with sur- 
 prise, that it should deem any other object worth a 
 thought, or deserving of a moment's anxiety. To 
 devote some portion of the sabbath, such a portion 
 as may lie spared from active duty to these sooth- 
 ing and 'elevating contemplations, is unquestiona- 
 
133 
 
 biy required of every man, who knows what it is to 
 think. Such a habit of calm and enlightened me- 
 ditation has a direct and most powerful tendency 
 to foster a devotional spirit, to invigorate every 
 sound principle, to confirm every holy resolution, 
 and to kindle into higher ardour every pure and 
 exalted affection of the soul. 
 
 But with the exercise of private meditation, 
 the public worship of God, and the celebration of 
 the appointed ordinances of his house must be in- 
 variably combined. These institutions of divine 
 authority and arrangement come as a delightful 
 relief to the more retired and solitary duties of the 
 sabbath. They bear an evident impress of the 
 wisdom and goodness of Him, by whom they were 
 ordained, If it be our duty, at proper seasons to 
 retire into our own closets, to hold intercourse 
 with God in secret, it is still more palpably and em- 
 phatically our duty, as it is more distinctly and 
 specifically enjoined, to go forth with his people, 
 and to engage in those ostensible acts of homage 
 and adoration, to which his blessing stands pecu- 
 liarly pledged. For the celebration of the worship 
 of Jehovah in his house, and in company with the 
 congregation of his people, the sabbath is not less 
 obviously adapted than it was doubtless originally 
 intended. To those, who avail themselves regu- 
 larly, and as frequently as circumstances permit, 
 of this delightful opportunity of drawing near unto 
 God, and enter with intelligence and affection into 
 the spirit of the several services of the day, there 
 is little danger that it should hang heavy as a bur- 
 den, which they will be anxious to shake off", by 
 plunging into some scene of more stirring and 
 
134 
 
 pleasurable occupation. By them the body of the 
 day will thus be employed in the immediate wor- 
 ship of God, and as they pass the threshhold of his 
 sanctuary, they will be ready to exclaim from their 
 own experience of its privileges — " This is none 
 other than the house of God — this is the gate of 
 heaven." On some occasions, Jehovah opens his 
 banqueting house, and admits them into a partici- 
 pation of richer pleasures and more exhilarating 
 delights. He spreads his table before them. He 
 invites them to draw near with faith, and to re- 
 ceive for their comfort and refreshment, the manna 
 of their Redeemer's flesh, and the wine of his a- 
 toning blood, as a pledge and a foretaste of that 
 celestial feast, at which they shall sit down with 
 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the everlasting 
 kingdom of their Father. With such opportunities 
 of intercourse with God in private, and of joining 
 the multitude of his worshippers in the varied pri- 
 vileges and exercises of his house, in listening to the 
 declarations of his word — that word, which hath 
 brought nobler and brighter discoveries to view,than 
 the ken of science and philosophy hath ever penetrat- 
 ed; in pouring forth the accents of supplication at his 
 throne, and in chanting the melody of his praise ; 
 in attending to the instructions of his messengers, 
 and in celebrating the dying love of his Son — with 
 such a multiplicity of resources, and such a succes- 
 sion of interesting engagements, who can complain 
 that the sabbath is a day of tedium and weariness, 
 with which they know not what to do 1 
 
 Besides however the retired occupations of the 
 closet, the exercises of domestic worship and the 
 public duties of the sabbath, there are other em- 
 
135 
 
 ployments of a most useful and beneficial charac- 
 ter, which may well be allowed to fill up such va- 
 cant spaces as may intervene between acts of more 
 direct and imperative obligation. Among these 
 subordinate duties of the sabbath, the pursuit of 
 religious knowledge by the diligent perusal of the 
 Bible, and of other books of a spiritual and devo- 
 tional character, and the communication of that 
 knowledge to the young, the thoughtless and the 
 ignorant, by means of Sunday schools, and institu- 
 tions of a similar description must undoubtedly be 
 considered as occupying a prominent place. No- 
 thing is more perfectly accordant with the whole 
 design, and the genuine spirit of this day, than the 
 endeavour to dispel the gloom of ignorance — to ex- 
 tend the light of truth to instruct the poorer and 
 less educated members of the community in the 
 great principles of the everlasting Gospel — to en- 
 lighten tlie blind, to strengthen the weak, to esta- 
 blish the wavering, to comfort the dejected, and 
 to break that fatal spell, by which sinners are 
 led blindfold to perdition. Nothing can be better 
 calculated to carry into effect the great purpose of 
 the institution, than to employ it in attempting to 
 enlarge by every just and legitimate means the 
 boundaries of the Redeemer's kingdom. 
 
 I finally observe, that such parts of the sabbath 
 as may without inconvenience be spared from the 
 immediate worship of God, and engagements of a 
 more directly spiritual character, may be innocent- 
 ly, advantageously and laudably employed in such 
 works of charity and brotherly love, as may urge a 
 more pressing claim upon the attention. We have 
 the authority and example of the Saviour himself in 
 
136 
 
 proof that acts of kindness, beneficence and com- 
 passion are not unlawful on the sabbath day. And 
 if there had been a scantiness of demand from other 
 sources, if the hours of the Lord's day were found 
 to roll tardily along, through the want of adequate 
 employment, the channel which we have now 
 opened, would alone be sufficient to convey them 
 in a most useful, salutary and honorable direction. 
 Where there are sick to be visited, where there are 
 poor to be relieved, and destitute to be supplied ; 
 where there are sufferers to be cheered by the gen- 
 tle voice of sympathy, and widows and orphans to 
 be comforted in their affliction, let no one allege, in 
 excuse for his desecrating the holy day of God, that 
 he is at a loss for more appropriate modes of dis- 
 posing of its supernumerary hours. If the sabbath 
 was as long as the sabbath of weeks, or extended 
 over the length of the jubilee, nay if its hours were 
 as long as so many years, it would still be infinitely 
 too short to realize the manifold objects, to which 
 it may be legitimately devoted. 
 
 Such appears to be the allowed and appropriate 
 mode, both as it relates to negative and affirmative 
 duties, in which the Christian sabbath is to be ob- 
 served. It is to be guarded with the most scrupu- 
 lous and conscientious exactness, from the en- 
 croachments of secularity, whether in the form of 
 business or pleasure : it is to be devoted entirely 
 and unreservedly to the glory of God, and to the 
 promotion of the good of man : it is to be one un- 
 broken series of delightful and elevating engage- 
 ments directed to these objects, gradually weaning 
 the soul from the affairs of time and sense, and 
 raising the tone of the mind and character to a 
 
137 
 
 closer approximation to that which prevails among 
 the sons of Hght and glory above. Let our sabbaths 
 he thus observed, and we shall be conscious of no 
 other feeling than that of regret, that they so 
 speedily pass away, and of ardent anticipation of 
 that sabbath without end, which awaits us beyond 
 the grave. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Benefits attendant on a due Observance of 
 the Sabbath. 
 
 When Jehovah conveys an expression of his will, 
 in the form of a positive injunction, it seldom hap- 
 pens that he does not at the same time afford some 
 intimation of the advantages connected with it. 
 His precepts and promises indeed, when reduced 
 to their first principles, and surveyed in all their 
 bearings, will be found invariably to involve each 
 other. When He commands, whether the blessing 
 attendant on cheerful and unreserved obedience 
 be expressly specified or not, we may be assured 
 that such will not be withheld. When He promises, 
 on the other hand, it always involves certain con- 
 ditions, the performance of which is indispensably 
 required as preparatory to the reception of the fa- 
 vors, which are held forth. Blessings of the most 
 stupendous magnitude are thus made entirely to 
 depend upon a compliance with preliminary de- 
 mands. Whatever God requires of his people as a 
 duty never fails, when practically recognized, to 
 issue in a privilege. Whatever He graciously 
 pledges Himself to do in their behalf assumes the 
 
139 
 
 fact of their cordially acceding to the prescribed 
 terms — terms, upon which alone He can consist- 
 ently visit them in the exercise of his loving kind- 
 ness and compassion. All the blessings of the 
 christian covenant are dependent npon such con- 
 ditions. The pardon of sin is necessarily associated 
 with the duty of repentance. The justification of 
 the soul through the imputed righteousness of the 
 Redeemer is entirely founded upon the exercise of 
 of faith. The everlasting salvation of the soul — 
 the consummation of the glorious work of redeem- 
 ing grace and love is the result — not indeed in the 
 way of merit or of mercenary acknowledgment, 
 but in the way of a fixed and established connec- 
 tion, of a sincere and active fulfilment of the re- 
 quisitions of the gospel. 
 
 Such is the gracious and beautiful economy of 
 the divine government. Throughout its whole ad- 
 ministration precepts and promises are connected 
 together by the golden link of the conditional de- 
 mand. The duty of strictly observing the sabbath 
 is thus frequently exhibited in the form not of a di- 
 rect command, but of an hypothetical supposition ; 
 and on that assumption is founded a promise of 
 most copious and abundant blessings. " If thou 
 turn away thy foot from the sabbath," saith the 
 prophet Isaiah — if thou regard the institution with 
 holy and reverential awe, if thou conscientiously 
 abstain from the violation of it, by relinquishing 
 thy ordinary pursuits and occupations, and by de- 
 voting its sacred hours to the various exercises of 
 piety, "then shalt thou delight thy self in theLord" — 
 then shall the observance of the institution become 
 emphatically its own reward — then shall the favour 
 
140 
 
 of heaven rest upon thee ; and thou shalt proceed 
 rejoicing and exulting in thy course, until thou 
 appear upon Mount Zion and in the city of the 
 living God. 
 
 Such appears to be the general bearing of this 
 emphatic declaration, and in accordance with this 
 view we shall now enter upon a fuller and more 
 distinct developement of the remaining and con- 
 cluding department of the subject of the sabbath — 
 the Benefits calculated to result from a due ob- 
 servance of the institution. We have already con- 
 sidered at some length the Design^ with which it 
 was originally appointed — the Obligations^ by 
 which it still continues to be in force, and the 
 Manner^ in which it is necessary that it should be 
 observed. These general heads of remark we found 
 to embrace most of those points, which are neces- 
 sary to estabhsh the grounds and to illustrate the 
 practical bearing and application of this important 
 institution. But it would not have been right nor 
 expedient to leave the question at this stage of the 
 investigation. It is not enough simply to maintain, 
 and to inculcate a duty of this comprehensive cha- 
 racter : it is not sufficient that we should mark out 
 the lines of prohibitary injunction, by which it is 
 designed to control and regulate the conduct, and 
 to circumscribe the actions of men. It is incum- 
 bent on us to follow it out into its various conse- 
 quences — to unfold its beneficial effects and to ex- 
 hibit in brief outline the numerous advantages, 
 connected with it. From this it will appear that 
 the sabbath is not a groundless and a mere arbitrary 
 appointment — that it is not an appendage of a 
 tiansient dispensation — that it is not a creature of 
 
141 
 
 human law — that it is not an old custom floating 
 down upon the stream of time from an age of igno- 
 rance and superstition, which may be observed 
 without benefit and neglected without loss or guilt. 
 It will be seen that it originated in the most bene- 
 volent motives — that it was instituted by the most 
 consummate wisdom — that it is pregnant, when 
 duly observed, with innumerable and transcendent 
 advantages, and that therefore it is not less our in- 
 terest than it is our duty to turn away our foot from 
 the sabbath. We do not indeed rest the obliga- 
 tions of the sabbath upon such grounds of expe- 
 diency as we can point out. The authoritative 
 force of the institution is based upon the positive 
 command and the express enactment of Jehovah : 
 and in tracing its advantages we can only notice 
 those, which palpably stand forth to the view, or 
 are pledged in the specific promise of the Most 
 High. These may be contemplated under a two- 
 fold aspect as they consist in an exemption from 
 various forms of evil and as they are realized in 
 direct and positive good. 
 
 Among the former class of benefits it is to be 
 remarked, that a due observance of the sabbath 
 day is the best security against the various temp- 
 tations incident to habits of Indolence and ill-di- 
 rected Leiswe. We observed at an early stage in 
 this discussion, that one of the objects of Jehovah, 
 in the appointment of this day, was to afford men 
 an opportunity of resting for a while from their 
 usual labours and occupations, in order to engage 
 with greater freedom of spirit, and greater concen- 
 tration of thought and affection in the several du- 
 ties of divine worship and service. When this 
 
142 
 
 season of calm and delightful repose is employed 
 for this exalted purpose, the effect is in the highest 
 degree salutary and beneficial. The sabbath be- 
 comes then a memorial of nobler blessings, a fore- 
 taste of sublimer joys, a resting place in a journey, 
 which conducts to happier scenes. But when its 
 great and leading objects are completely overlook- 
 ed, when its primary design as an institution esta- 
 blished for the purpose of promoting the glory and 
 worship of God, and the spiritual interests of man, 
 is lost amidst those, which were merely secondary 
 and subordinate ; when it is regarded merely as a 
 season of exemption from secular employment and 
 a species of periodical jubilee, on which the ordi- 
 nary obligations of duty and labour cease to re- 
 strain, then instead of a blessing, it is liable and in- 
 deed seldom fails to be perverted into an occasion 
 of grievous and aggravated delinquency. That, 
 which in the gracious purposes of heaven was in- 
 tended to be a pure and salubrious fountain to 
 cleanse the polluted, and to refresh the parched 
 and weary, becomes a reservoir of turbid and un- 
 wholesome elements, which send forth a dense 
 mass of pestilential effluvia, to defile and corrupt 
 the air. It must be perfectly needless to state, 
 while, this in many cases, is the unquestionable fact, 
 how entirely it is the result of human depravity 
 and perversion — how completely opposite is the 
 effect, when the sabbath is suitably observed and 
 the ordinance is directed to its just and legitimate 
 objects. We have already shewn the absolute ne- 
 cessity of such an institution in the present circum- 
 stances of our nature, in order to the maintenance 
 of the knowledge of God and of the influence of 
 
143 
 
 religion in the world, and since it has been wisely 
 and graciously established, our great object must 
 be to avoid the evils, to which this abuse of it may 
 incidentally give rise, and to secure the advantages 
 which it is so eminently calculated to afford. 
 
 On a general survey of human impiety and 
 depravity in some of their most noxious and re- 
 volting forms, it is impossible not to be aware that 
 a very large proportion of these evils takes its im- 
 mediate rise from the neglect, or the more palpa- 
 ble violation, of the sabbath. The mode, in which 
 the process of depravation is carrying on, is as va- 
 rious as the age, the character, and the circum- 
 stances of individuals. You may sometimes trace 
 it in the career of one, who commenced his course 
 in iniquity as a boy, let loose from every salutary 
 restraint, creating noisy disturbance in the vicinity 
 of the church, instead of devoutly and solemnly 
 joining in the services, which are conducted within 
 its walls, or rambling through the church-yard, 
 seeming to be no unapt resemblance of the wretch- 
 ed beings, which met the Saviour as they came out 
 from among the tombs. As you accompany him 
 in his further progress you will find the sabbath 
 invariably selected as his choice opportunity for 
 carrying into execution every darker purpose of 
 his reprobate and reckless mind. On the morning 
 of that hallowed day, instead of the neatness and 
 cleanliness of attire, which would intimate a readi- 
 ness to meet his fellow worshippers in the house of 
 God, and is no unfaithful index to the interior of 
 the mind and character, you will see him issue forth 
 from his dwelling, arrayed in the appropriate in- 
 signia of idleness and improvidence, and hastening 
 
144 
 
 to some scene of profligate resort, to mingle with 
 companions not deficient in the will or the ability 
 to make him tenfold more a child of hell than them- 
 selves ; and it is well, if he does not eventually 
 reach the climax of human guilt and ignominy in 
 the perpetration of some deed of dishonesty or 
 violence, which will forfeit his life or his liberty to 
 the outraged dignity of his country's laws ; while 
 he avows with his last breath that the season, at 
 which he was first initiated into the mysteries of 
 atrocious crime, was no other than the sabbath-day. 
 You may witness a similar process of degeneracy 
 in the case of a young female, trained up to no bet- 
 ter habits by parental wisdom, authority and ex- 
 ample, who spends the former part of the sabbath 
 in endeavouring to adorn her person and flaunts 
 away the remaining portion of it in gaudy finery, 
 in the most public places of commerce, as if deter- 
 mined to banish to a secure distance every serious 
 and considerate feeling, and bidding fair, unless 
 preserved by a miracle of divine grace, to end her 
 levity in a course of infamy and wretchedness, to 
 which I scarcely dare to allude. You may observe 
 the effects of the leisure and inactivity afforded by 
 the sabbath institution in many milder forms — in 
 the displays of vanity and shew — in the more eager 
 pursuit of pleasure and dissipating amusement — 
 in the thoughtless ramblings of the young during 
 the whole or the greater part of the day — in the 
 journeyings and convivialities of the rich — in the 
 unedifying and often corrupting associations of 
 those of a lower rank, and in the general indulgen- 
 cies of this holy day, w herever the design of the 
 ordinance is not duly appreciated and practically 
 acknowledii;ed. 
 
145 
 
 Amidst such an array of temptations — tempta- 
 tions, which in some form or other, assail every 
 hiiiiian being, and from which few, if any, escape 
 altogether unhurt, it is assuredly a matter of no 
 trilling importance to be effectually guarded a- 
 gainst their approach. Proportioned to the im* 
 minency of the danger, and the depth, and va- 
 riety of the evils liable to be incurred is the value 
 of the means, by which they may be securely ob- 
 viated. And we may justly rank among advan- 
 tages of the highest order, the habit of conduct, 
 by which the character may be preserved from the 
 deepest moral degradation, and the foulest stains 
 of guilt. This may be confidently affirmed of the 
 strict and conscientious observance of the sabbath. 
 I know of no more availing method of maintaining 
 the purity, the integrity, the sublime spirituality 
 of the character, of preventing the streams of 
 thought and affection from becoming stagnant and 
 putrescent, or from rushing forth in torrents of 
 vice and depravity over the whole extent of the 
 conduct. The careful and devout observance of 
 this holy day, will not only be a guard against evil, 
 but it will also be productive of direct and positive 
 good. The man who sanctifies the sabbath by re- 
 gularly devoting it to the various duties connected 
 with the worship of God, is surrounded by an at- 
 mosphere of comparative purity and health. In- 
 dependently of the higher principles of religion, 
 the fear and love of God, to the developement of 
 which the sabbath is so eminently favourable and 
 conducive, there is engendered in such a man a 
 feeling of modest and becoming self-respect, a de- 
 cency, a propriety, and an elegance of sentiment 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 and affection, which render him infinitely superior 
 to those, who at every call of passion, at every as- 
 sault of temptation, are ready to rush into crime, 
 or to plunge into sin. If there was no other ad- 
 vantage connected with a sabbath duly observed 
 than this general habit of mind, and the cast of cha- 
 racter resulting from it, I should still maintain that 
 its benefits were incalculably great As a barrier 
 set up against the inroads of temptation, as a 
 means of filling up a space of time, which had been 
 left vacant of employment, and would soon be in- 
 evitably replenished with the elements of cor- 
 ruption, I should regard it as a most powerful 
 auxiliary to national virtue and individual happi- 
 ness. 
 
 To the same class belongs another most impor- 
 tant benefit connected with the due observance of 
 the sabbath, that it is the most effectual preserva- 
 tive against being overwhelmed by the engrossing 
 cares and interests of the present world. Who, 
 that has made the attempt — who that is capable of 
 appreciating the nature of this arduous conflict, 
 has not felt the difficulty of the struggle'? Who is 
 not aware of the distracting influence of secular 
 anxieties and pursuits, when they are allowed to 
 take exclusive possession of the mind 1 W ho 
 knows not the intense continuity of emotion, with 
 which the various enterprizes of gain, ambition and 
 professional occujfation are apt to harass and en- 
 thral the breast'? Who, that has been brought 
 within the circle of its enchantment, has not felt 
 the fascinations of worldly pleasure and amuse- 
 ment 1 These, in confederacy with the inherent 
 tendencies and susceptibilities of corrupt nature 
 
147 
 
 are the enemies which war against the soul. They 
 press upon it from every side with a constancy and 
 pertinacity of assault, with a variety and an amount 
 of force, which, if it had been left exposed to their 
 uninterrupted violence, would inevitably effect its 
 destruction. The principles of religion, like the 
 seed sown among thorns, or scattered by the way- 
 side woidd either be choked by the multiplicity of 
 cares, and trials, and vexations, or be dissipated by 
 the levity and impetuosity of encroaching lusts and 
 passions. 
 
 The sabbath was provided and appointed by 
 divine wisdom — that wisdom, which well knew 
 what was in man, to be a place of seclusion and re- 
 treat, to which the soul might betake itself every 
 seventh day for the purpose of recruiting its 
 strength, and of repairing its wasted energies after 
 conflicting in unequal contest with the perturba- 
 tions and disquietudes, the cares and interests, the 
 pleasures and dissipations of the world. On this 
 day a truce has been imposed by the high autho- 
 rity of heaven upon the more direct warfare which 
 that great enemy in its various forms of business 
 and pleasure carries on against the soul. It is a 
 holy league stipulated in our favour for the express 
 purpose of affording us convenient opportunity of 
 carrying on, unmolested by the encroachments of 
 worldly care or occupation, our intercourse with 
 our Father, who is in heaven. And when the ob- 
 ject of the institution is duly realised and appreci- 
 ated, the effect is transcendently glorious and be- 
 neficial, and the end is fully accomplished. It is 
 indeed difficult to estimate too highly the soothing 
 and tranquillizing influence of a sabbath upon a 
 
 K 2 
 
148 
 
 spirit, which has been worn in the service of the 
 world during the precedin<>: week, into comparative 
 numbness and insensibility to the pure and deli- 
 cate enjoyments of an exalted fellowship with God. 
 It is delightful to contemplate it amidst the sere- 
 nity of the surrounding atmosphere, composing its 
 ruffled affections, and like the bird of the morning 
 preparing to rise on its pinions, in order to meet in 
 midway fellowship the hallowed choir above, and 
 to pour forth its notes of praise and thanksgiving, 
 while no jarring tumult of worldly business or de- 
 light intervenes to break their melody. On every 
 seventh day the impetus of earthly and carnalizing 
 pursuits thus receive a check, and their power be- 
 comes in some desrree enfeebled. The course of 
 this world, which is so apt to carry us along in its 
 turbid and destructive movement, is broken at in- 
 tervals ; which affords us time to reflect upon the 
 peril of our condition, and to contemplate the 
 dreadful gulf to which it conducts. By the peri- 
 odical cessation from other employments, which 
 the sabbath brings round, we are impressively re- 
 minded, that there is another and a better world, 
 that there are higher and weightier interests, that 
 there are purer and more substantial joys than the 
 present scene affords, that ere long time will be 
 swallowed up in eternity, and that we shall be sur- 
 rounded with realities of happiness, or woe which 
 will render all sublunary sorrows and delights as 
 insignificant as the bubbles upon the stream. 
 
 The benefits of the sabbath, when strictly and 
 devoutly observed, are however not confined to 
 the powerful influence which it exerts in obviating 
 the various evils attendant on liabits of indolence 
 
149 
 
 and worldly occupation ; they are of a more direct 
 and positive character. And among this latter 
 class we may remark, that this sacred institution is 
 calculated to be eminently beneficial in forming 
 habits of general Propriety^ Regularity and J^ir- 
 tue. That these habits of conduct are in them- 
 selves highly advantageous to individuals, as well 
 as to the community at large, requires no proof. 
 They are obviously the bonds of society and the 
 purest and most copious sources of domestic peace 
 and comfort. Their connection with the observance 
 of the sabbath, and with the discharge of its ap- 
 propriate duties, though not so palpable and ap- 
 parent, is yet certain and unquestionable. A feel- 
 ing of reverence and respect for the holy day of 
 God, may be fairly asserted to be a moral principle 
 of the most influential and practical character. It 
 is a germ of thought and feeling pregnant with the 
 most extensive and salutary results. It is a spring 
 of action which has a powerful effect in controlling 
 and reo'ulatino; the movements of the whole machi- 
 nery of the conduct. There is in fact, no external 
 ordinance of religion, which experience shews to 
 be so intimately connected with correspondent ef- 
 fects upon the general character, as that of the 
 sabbath. Few habits are so truly symptomatic of 
 the real state of the mind, as the mode in which it 
 is habitually employed. Fix your eye upon any 
 individual of your neighbourhood, or acquaintance 
 in any department of life, who is remarkable for 
 his conscientious regard for the sabbath, and for 
 his regular and uniform attendance upon the pub- 
 lic services of the sanctuary, and I am most ex- 
 ceedingly mistaken if you do not find him equally 
 
150 
 
 distinguished, if not by the genuineness of his 
 piety and the fervour of his devotion, at least by 
 the decency, the industry and the rectitude of his 
 general demeanour. Look around you on the other 
 hand, and. mark the man, who is noted for his de- 
 secration of the day, which is by pre-eminence 
 *' the holy of the Lord" — the man, who spends it in 
 sleep, or in work, in travelling, or yawning, in 
 drinking or gambling — the man who is rarely, if 
 ever, found at his church, or his chapel, and still 
 more infrequently at his Bible, or his devotions ; 
 and what are his prevailing habits during the other 
 days of the week 1 Granted — that he is not very 
 precise in the duties, which he owes to God ; but 
 is he more exact and conscientious in those, which 
 immediately relate to man 1 Is it to him that you 
 would look for a pattern of every social and domes- 
 tic virtue, of honor, benevolence and integrity, as 
 a man of property or professional engagement, of 
 rectitude, veracity and assiduity as a tradesman, 
 of industry and conscientiousness as a workman, of 
 fidelity as a servant, of sobriety and diligence as 
 the head or the subordinate member of a family, 
 of kindness as a husband, of affection and pru- 
 dence as a parent, or of dutifulness and obedience 
 as a child'? To look for such qualities in combina- 
 tion with gross sabbath profanation, and with ha- 
 bitual neglect and contempt of the appointed ordi- 
 nances of the sanctuary, would obviously be to seek 
 for light in darkness, virtue in vice, life in death. 
 It is true indeed that pride, necessity, or self-inter- 
 est may do much to cleanse the exterior of the 
 character, and to restrain the grosser excesses of 
 profligacy and indolence j but no means are more 
 
151 
 
 effectual in raising the general standard of mo- 
 rality, and in removing the deformities of indivi- 
 dual conduct, than the enlightened observance of 
 the sabbath. I should deem it a most important 
 step in advance therefore in parochial reformation, 
 as a component part of national virtue, if every in- 
 dividual could be persuaded to pay a decent re- 
 spect to the sabbath, and to be regular in his at- 
 tendance upon the public means of grace. Such 
 persons I should consider not far from the kingdom 
 of God, and though it be indispensably necessary 
 to enter into the spirit, as well as to perform the 
 outward duties of religion, yet much moral benefit 
 may be gained in improved habits of domestic and 
 relative conduct, v/here unhappily there is danger 
 the most awful and imminent, of coming short of 
 the great salvation. It is impossible that a man of 
 notoriously depmved and dissolute character should 
 regularly meet his friends, or at least his neigh- 
 bours in the house of God, without feeling the 
 dreadful inconsistency of his conduct. He will 
 stand abashed in the presence of God and the 
 congregation, and it can scarcely be otherwise, 
 than that he should either be induced to forsake 
 his vices, or abandon the place ; where he appears 
 from sabbath to sabbath, clad, as it were, in a robe 
 of white, proclaiming his own shame. The indi- 
 rect influence of the sabbath, and its various ordi- 
 nances, in thus purifying the outer court of the 
 human character, even where it hath not the effect 
 of consecrating its inner shrine is, I am persuaded, 
 incalculably beneficial to the community. 
 
 But another order of benefits arising from the 
 suitable employment of the sabbath, is that it has 
 
152 
 
 a striking and extensive effect in storing the niina 
 with religious knowledge and information. To 
 say nothing of the delightful opportunity which 
 this institution affords to persons of all classes and 
 conditions, to cultivate a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the great principles and doctrines which 
 appertain to their everlasting peace ; there is a 
 very large portion of the community, whose time 
 is so completely occupied during the other days of 
 the week, as to afford them but little leisure for the 
 purpose of reading and instruction. And if there 
 had been no periodical season specifically designed 
 and consecrated for those hallowed objects, they 
 must inevitably have sunk into a state of utter 
 ignorance and heathenism. Every trace of divine 
 knowledge would soon have been obliterated from 
 their mind, every ray of spiritual light would have 
 been quenched in the profoundest gloom. To ob- 
 viate so deplorable a calamity, and to keep alive the 
 knowledge of God upon the earth ; to afford the 
 faculties of the human mind an opportunity of ex- 
 panding in distinct and vigorous apprehensions 
 respecting the nature and attributes of Jehovah, 
 the mysteries of redeeming love, and the stupend- 
 ous destinies of the eternal world, the seventh por- 
 tion of our time has been cut off b}" an authorita- 
 tive edict of the Supreme from all common pursuits, 
 and dedicated to the exclusive purposes of disciplin- 
 ing the mind in the sublime science of religion. To 
 this we doubtless owe it that the lamp of truth has 
 not yet become extinct among us. To this our 
 youth are indebted for the instruction, the exhorta- 
 tion, the counsel, the reproof, the encouragement, 
 which are administered to them in sabbath schools, 
 
153 
 
 and institutions of a similar character, and for the 
 inestimable advantages connected with thevn. To 
 this the mass of our population are indebted for 
 the opportunity of attending upon the ordinances 
 of the sanctuary and the various means of grace ; 
 the preaching of the gospel, the celebration of the 
 sacraments, the perusal of the scriptures, and those 
 exercises of holy and undisturbed meditations, by 
 which they are enabled to mark, learn, and inward- 
 ly to digest the great truths which are thus urged 
 upon their attention. It is the sabbath which keeps 
 open the communication between heaven and earth, 
 and pours forth in regular and frequent succession 
 a flood of celestial light upon our desolate and 
 benighted world. 
 
 It may be finally remarked that the sabbath, 
 when devoted to its legitimate exercises and em- 
 ployments, is eminently calculated to cherish a 
 feeling of holy satisfaction and delight in spiritual 
 enjoyments. This is distinctly specified by the 
 prophet, as one of the results of duly sanctifying 
 the day. " Then," says he, " shalt thou delight 
 thyself in the Lord, and I will feed thee with the 
 heritage of Jacob thy father." A taste and a 
 capacity for the fruition of spiritual pleasure, for 
 the realization of a pure and exalted joy in the 
 contemplation of heavenly things, is doubtless one 
 of the most valuable and important of all blessings. 
 It was the loss of this which formed one of the 
 most decisive and melancholy characteristics of tlie 
 fall. It is the possession of this which constitutes 
 the most unequivocal proof of the existence of 
 divine life in the soul, and the alone meetness for 
 the enjoyment of the blessedness of heaven. What- 
 
154 
 
 ever means or exercises, therefore, have a tendency 
 to create this appetite for spiritual nourishment — 
 to excite in the mind this hungering and thirsting 
 after the pleasures of divine communion, must be 
 considered in the highest degree conducive to the 
 health and welfare of the soul. And what in the 
 whole range of means and instrumentalities is so 
 peculiarly and powerfully adapted to foster this 
 feeling in all its length and breath, its height and 
 depth of developement, as the comprehensive ordi- 
 nance of the sabbath'? Every thing in the cha- 
 racter, the design, and the occupations of this day 
 has a direct tendency to bring us into closer contact 
 with God, and to imbue our souls with a larger 
 infusion of the very spirit of heaven. The whole 
 extent and variety of its associations, the whole 
 order of its services ; its interesting and affecting 
 recollections ; its stillness, tranquillity, and seclu- 
 sion ; its solemn and devout assemblages ; its 
 supplications, praises, and thanksgivings ; its tide 
 of fervent and commingling sympathies ; its accents 
 of contrition, and its notes of melody ; its instruc- 
 tions, its warnings, and its invitations, all unite to 
 render it a broad and deep channel of communica- 
 tion, by which the believer is enabled to carry on 
 a delightful and refreshing intercourse with heaven. 
 It conducts us from this land of our estrangement 
 to the very threshold of our Father's house, and 
 teaches us to assay those occupations and enjoy- 
 ments, in which we hope to be engaged and ab- 
 sorbed throughout ages innumerable and eternal. 
 
 These are a few, and only a few, of the benefits 
 connected with the observance of the sabbath ; 
 and in the review of them, I trust the reader is 
 
155 
 
 ready to acknowledge, that God does not in this 
 ordinance call upon him to serve Him for nought. 
 We have only given some faint glimpses of the 
 advantages arising out of this blessed institu- 
 tion ; but if we could pass beyond the boundary of 
 our present existence, and witness the results of its 
 privileges as they extend into the vast perspective 
 of eternal duration, well indeed might we conclude 
 that obedience to the will of God, in this instance, 
 is our best interest, and that in keeping his com- 
 mandment there is great reward. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 THE 
 
 ORDINANCE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 The Warrant of Baptism as an Ordinance of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 Christianity in all its departments, whether cere- 
 monial or practical, may be truly pronounced a 
 reasonable service. Throughout the whole range 
 of its institutions and requirements, it deals with 
 man as a being indued with faculties of intelligence 
 and reflection. It invariably appeals to the mental 
 and spiritual, as well as in some instances to the 
 sensitive part of his nature. Where, as of neces- 
 sity must have been the case, it rises above the 
 level of his reason, and transcends the limits of his 
 present capacities and endowments, it never urges 
 on his belief, nor enforces on his practice any thing, 
 which is at variance with the clear apprehensions 
 of his understanding, or contravenes the decisions 
 of his unsophisticated judgment. Neither among 
 
157 
 
 the ordinances of the evangelical economy can we 
 discover any one, which is vague, meagre, and 
 insignificant. Every thing, on the contrary, which 
 forms a component part of this glorious dispensa- 
 tion, is pregnant with meaning, instinct with hfe 
 and interest, and replete with information and 
 instruction. By nothing indeed is the gospel 
 more remarkably distinguished, than by its com- 
 parative exemption from ceremonial pomp, and 
 circumstance, and a glittering retinue of attendant 
 rites. In the system of Christianity, viewed apart 
 from the appendages of human pride and supersti- 
 tion, religion appears in its genuine character of 
 sublime and artless simplicity — in its native form 
 of ungarnished beauty and lovehness — stripped of 
 the gorgeous costume of the Jewish economy, ar- 
 rayed in the sober garb of truth, and adorned 
 only with the transparent emblems of celestial 
 purity and love. 
 
 But while Christianity is thus readily acknow- 
 ledged to have cast off the typical robes and the 
 shadowy symbols of Judaism, it is not to be 
 imagined that in any dispensation adapted to the 
 present character and condition of our nature, 
 external rites and observances can be dispensed 
 with altogether. We must wait for a higher state 
 of existence before we attempt to sublimate the 
 service of God into a system of pure and absolute 
 and unmingled spirituality. As long as we per- 
 ceive only through the medium of our outward 
 senses, and are apt to receive our strongest and 
 deepest impressions through these channels of 
 communication, the wisdom of God has ordained 
 that some of the most important truths and facts of 
 
158 
 
 religion should be represented by palpable and ma- 
 terial emblems. This is the real import and design 
 of the sacraments. These institutions of divine 
 appointment are not to be regarded as mere me- 
 chanical processes and exhibitions directed to no 
 ulterior object, and involving no recondite and 
 spiritual significancy : nor are they to be viewed as 
 the necessary and absolute conveyancers of divine 
 grace and blessing. Their design is to afford a 
 lively and affecting representation of spiritual 
 objects and affections, and to seal them unto those 
 who are possessed of the requisite qualifications. 
 Under the gospel there are but two sacramental 
 ordinances of this character, Baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper. Of the first of these the words of 
 Christ addressed to His disciples express a direct 
 and authoritative institution, and with very slight 
 and partial, and comparatively modern exception, 
 it has existed in the Christian Church from the 
 first establishment of the gospel dispensation until 
 now.(^^^ An ordinance thus almost universal in its 
 prevalence, and so deeply important in its emble- 
 matic bearing and application, deserves our most 
 serious and devout consideration. And what ren- 
 ders such an investigation into its nature and cha- 
 racter more necessary is, that it is to be feared few 
 of those, by whom it is observed as a ceremony, 
 have taken any real pains to ascertain its meaning, 
 or reflect with seriousness upon its import. Many 
 persons there are, who bring their children to this 
 sacred ordinance in mere compliance with the 
 conventional practice of society, without any con- 
 ception of its inherent and independent claims ; 
 without any considerate idea of the solemn obliga- 
 
159 
 
 tions, which it involves, and without any expecta- 
 of those blessings, of which it was designed to be a 
 pledge. This is surely trifling with a divine and 
 most significant institution. It is to reduce to a 
 mere processwf mechanical and external operation, 
 what was intended to be in the highest degree 
 spiritual in its character. It is to lower into a level 
 with the most unimportant appointments of eccle- 
 siastical usage, one of the sublimest ordinances of 
 eternal wisdom. It is to desecrate one of the 
 hoHest mysteries of the Christian church. I would 
 almost say — it is to sin against that Holy Spirit, 
 whose purifying and sanctifying influences it is 
 immediately intended to represent. Urged by 
 these circumstances, I have been induced to insti- 
 tute an inquiry into the nature and character of 
 this ordinance, in connection with other depart- 
 ments of the general system of divine worship, 
 which have already engaged our attention. While 
 we are pursuing this discussion, let no one 
 imagine that baptism is a subject, in which he has 
 no personal interest or concern. Such a notion 
 would evince an utter ignorance of the real nature 
 and extent of this comprehensive institution. It 
 would betray a total forgetfulness of its practical 
 and universal bearing upon the character and of 
 the influence, which it is calculated, when duly 
 appreciated, to exert upon the whole range of the 
 conduct. It ought always to be borne in mind, 
 that though baptism, according to the views and 
 regulations of our own church, is an institution, 
 which peculiarly appertains to infants, its effects 
 are not to cease with infancy — that, on the con- 
 trary, it is to spread over the whole period of life — 
 
160 
 
 that it is an assumption of a profession, the laws 
 and principles cf which are binding upon man 
 throuohout every hour of his existence — that it is 
 an incorporation into a society, which pledges all 
 its members to an unequivocal and eternal compli- 
 ance with its requisitions — that it is an entrance 
 into a covenant, which is absolute, unchangeable, 
 and everduring. Hence it is the express injuction 
 of the church — an injunction which has too gene- 
 rally fallen into neglect, that baptism should be 
 administered publicly, in the presence of the con- 
 gregation, and in the vulgar tongue, that " every 
 man present may be put in remembrance of his 
 own profession made to God at his baptism." 
 
 With a view of carrying this important design 
 into effect — of enabling every individual, who brings 
 an infant — an object of so much interest and en- 
 dearment to the sacred font, to engage in the ser- 
 vice with seriousness of heart and intelligence of 
 mind, and of impressively reminding of their duties 
 those who have the vows of this covenant upon 
 them, we shall consider the subject under the fol- 
 lowing general divisions. The Warrant of Bap- 
 tism as an ordinance of the Christian church — » 
 the Symbolical Import of Baptism as emblematical 
 of spiritual blessings — the Privileges sealed and 
 pledged in Baptism — and the Practical Obligations, 
 which it involves. In the present chapter we shall 
 confine ourselves to the first of these points. That 
 Baptism is not a human invention, a beggar- 
 ly element adapted only to an age of ignorance 
 and superstition, but is an ordinance of the Christ- 
 ian Cliurch warranted by the highest authority is 
 obvious from its having been directly instituted and 
 
161 
 
 enforced hy Christ himself. Of the fact of (his ap- 
 pointment the direction given to the Apostles af- 
 fords unquestionable evidence. When the Savi- 
 our is now about to leave the world ; invested w ith 
 the plenitude of universal power, he calls unto him 
 his disciples and conveys unto them their apostolical 
 commission in the following unequivocal terms--" Go 
 ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost." In this language there is no 
 obscurity, no uncertainty of meaning. The direc- 
 tion is plain, palpable, and decided. It commands 
 the Apostles to carry the Gospel among all nations, 
 and wherever they taught or made disciples, they 
 were to receive the converts into the communion of 
 the church by the rite of baptism. This ordi- 
 nance, it is evident, was to be co-extensive with the 
 profession of the Christian faith, nor is there any 
 the slightest intimation afforded, that it was to 
 be partial and confined in its range, or limited in 
 its duration. Not the remotest hint is given that 
 it was an institution of a temporary nature, in- 
 dulged to the ignorance and psejudice of those, 
 who were just crossing the threshold of Judaism, 
 and emerging out of the comparative mi&t and 
 darkness of that shadowy dispensation, into the 
 pure daylight of evangelical truth, and to be 
 abandoned with the rest of the habiliments of that 
 infantine economy, as soon as the Christian church 
 had reached the niaturity of its knowledge, and 
 the meridian of its spiritual illuminations. It is 
 palpably and undeniably apparent, on the contrary, 
 that teaching and baptizing were to go hand in 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 hand — that no sooner had the mind been sufficient- 
 ly instructed in the truth, and the heart broug;ht 
 under its influence, than the profession of the faith 
 was to be sealed by baptism, and to render the ap- 
 pointment more clear and unequivocal, the form of 
 administration is distinctly specified. Those, who 
 were to be incorporated into the church by this 
 solemn initiatory rite, were to be received in the 
 name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There 
 was to be an acknowledgment of these divine per- 
 sons, as they subsist in the essence of Deity, and 
 as they bear their respective parts in the economy 
 of human redemptions^-) Accordant with this 
 injunction of the Saviour, we find to have been the 
 practice of the Apostles throughout the whole 
 course of their ministry. In the history of their 
 labours we find frequent mention of persons being 
 baptized into the faith of Christ. Sometimes 
 whole families are recorded as having undergone 
 this ceremony, and the Epistles of St. Paul and 
 the other Apostles, abound with references to this 
 ordinance, and to the effects, with which it was 
 expected to be attended. From these circumstan- 
 ces alone, it would be sufficiently manifest that 
 baptism is a divine and authoritative institution of 
 the Christian church. 
 
 Connect with these considerations the unques- 
 tionable fact, that under the Gospel the Sacrament 
 of Baptism has succeeded that of circumcision, 
 which prevailed under the dispensation of the Law. 
 It was the great distinguishing rite of the Jewish 
 community, as originally settled with Abraham, 
 that on the eighth day after their birth, the children 
 should be brought to be circumcised. This was 
 
163 
 
 an ordinance of God's own express appointment, 
 and whoever had not duly observed it, was not 
 considered within the pale of the church. During 
 the whole period of the Mosaic economy, this rite 
 was observed with regular and uninterrupted suc- 
 cession. And so great was the value and import- 
 ance, which the Jews generally attached to it, that 
 they imagined this alone would be sufficient to 
 secure their salvation It was that, to which their 
 mind clung with most tenacity, after it had now 
 been obviously superceded by the gospel. As it 
 was the appointed door of entrance into the sanc- 
 tuary of the visible church, they were apt to 
 imagine it to be equally necessary and effectual to 
 open the door of the kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 Strictly analogous to this initiatory rite of the 
 Jev»^ish church, is tlie Sacrament of Baptism under 
 the gospel. It was the abandonment of the former 
 as now virtually abrogated with the ceremonial 
 dispensation of which it formed a distinguishing 
 part, and the adoption of the latter as the badge 
 of the higher and more spiritual economy — it was 
 this substitution of one appointed rite for another, 
 which in the age of the Apostles was regarded as 
 the outward, ostensible act of transition from 
 Judaism to Christianity. So decidedly was this 
 the case, that the Apostle does not hesitate to 
 assert, that if the Galatians were circumcised, in 
 token of their adherence to the law of Moses, 
 Christ would profit them nothing. And although 
 there were instances, in which the observance of 
 the former ceremony was tolerated by the Apostles, 
 as a mere means of removing the prejudices, and 
 conciliating the regards of those, who were yet 
 
 l2 
 
164 
 
 imperfectly eiiliohteiied, yet it is manifest that this 
 was only a temporary concession, and that with 
 the complete establishment of Christianity that 
 painful lite, which was characterized by effusion 
 of blood, was to be exchanged for the milder pro- 
 cess of ablution in the emblematic laver of baptism. 
 The one was evidently intended to occupy the 
 place, and to answer all the purposes of the other. 
 And this brings us to a department of the general 
 subject of baptism of very considerable import- 
 ance — the right of infants to a participation in this 
 primary seal of the Christian covenant. If the 
 baptismal ordinance under the evangelical economy 
 was designed to be the counterpart, and to sustain 
 the analogous relation ofa substitute of circumcision, 
 as it existed under the legal dispensation, the ques- 
 tion is at once decided. And as the fact of such a 
 substitutional appointment, and of such an identity 
 of purpose, appears unquestionable from the whole 
 tenor of scripture, I know not how, upon any legi- 
 timate and tenable grounds, the conclusion is to be 
 avoided. If circumcision, as is acknowledged by 
 all, was a rite and a federal ordinance, to v>hicli 
 infants had a peculiar claim as the medium of their 
 admission into the privileges of the church, and if 
 this ceremony has been confessedly abolished since 
 the introduction of the Christian dispensation, it 
 follows, of necessity, that if they are excluded from 
 baptism, no external means has been provided 
 under the gospel for admitting them into the 
 church at all. The children of Christians, there- 
 fore, though born under a higher and more gracious 
 economy, are in a worse condition in reference to 
 sacramental privileges, than were those of the 
 
165 
 
 Jews. Until they had arrived at years of maturity, 
 they would have no visible or federal bond of union 
 whatever with the church of Christ. They would 
 so far be aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, 
 and though we do not say that they would be with- 
 out hope or without God in the world, they would 
 certainly be without covenant right to those peculiar 
 privileges, which are pledged to those, who have 
 been admitted by sacramental incorporation into a 
 union with the body of Christ. Even though we had 
 no intimation whatever, therefore, of the will of 
 God, or of the practice of the church at its first 
 establishment in reference to this subject — and we 
 know that there are various incidental hints of the 
 prevalence of infant baptism in the writings of the 
 Apostles, and no direct evidence to the contrary, 
 we should still have found it difficult to believe that 
 little children, whom the Saviour so graciously 
 took in his arms and blessed, declaring that of such 
 was the kingdom of heaven, were placed upon a 
 lower footing in respect of ecclesiastical privileges 
 under the gospel, than they had been under the 
 law. (13) 
 
 There appears to be no just reason to doubt, 
 therefore, that in bringing children to the baptismal 
 font. Christians have the same warrant, and the 
 same promise to encourage their hope and confirm 
 their faith, as the Jewish parents had in uniting 
 their infant offspring to the church of God by 
 circumcision. The necessity is the same — the 
 divine institution is as obviously binding — the 
 ground of expectation is as clear and ample — the 
 benign disposition of Jehovah and his readiness to 
 embrace in the arms of his mercy and love those 
 
166 
 
 who are thus early initiated into the profession of 
 his name and the acknowledgment of his authority, 
 are as fully and unequivocally attested in favour 
 of those, whom we bring into his temple, as in the 
 case of those who were introduced within the 
 bonds of his covenant at any former period, or 
 under any preceding dispensation in the history of 
 his church. We have the sanction of a positive 
 institution enforced under an economy infinitely 
 more exclusive and confined than that of the gos- 
 pel — an institution, which has now been undeniably 
 superceded by that which is authoritatively en- 
 joined. Let believers bring their children there- 
 fore — those objects of their anxieties and endear- 
 ments — those tender plants of hope and expecta- 
 tion, wlTich have been entrusted to their care and 
 training, to this fountain of emblematic purity and 
 holiness ; but let them bring them in faith — in deep 
 seriousness and sobriety of spirit — with a fervent 
 and devout desire that they may be born not only 
 of water, but also of the Spirit — that they may 
 indeed be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of 
 sin — that they may be sanctified from the womb, 
 and that the work of grace, which may now be 
 commenced in their souls, may be carried on with 
 uninterrupted efficacy and power until it be con- 
 summated in glory. Let them bring them to the 
 ordinance with these feelings, and they will have 
 the best proof of their warrant for thus acting in 
 blessings which will doubtless be poured down 
 upon their offspring. Regard not this act of 
 sublime, and spiritual, and impressive significancy 
 as an idle ceremony. Approach it not in a spirit 
 of levity. Touch not this emblem of the covenant 
 
1S7 
 
 with an unholy hand. Make it manifest, on the 
 contrary, by the seriousness and solemnity of your 
 deportment, and by the fervent sincerity of your 
 devotion, that you beheve yourselves to be acting 
 under the immediate sanction and authority of the 
 Most High. 
 
 As a further proof of the warrant of Baptism 
 as an ordinance of the Christian church, it may be 
 regarded as an act of holy Dedication^ in which 
 believers present their offspring unto God. There 
 is something peculiarly striking and impressive — 
 something remarkably congenial with all the prin- 
 ciples and feelings of a christian parent in the act 
 of thus solemnly and deliberately surrendering his 
 infant child, at this early dawn of his existence, into 
 the hand and to the gracious care of God. Those, 
 who can appreciate this exalted privilege, and de- 
 voutly avail themselves of the opportunity it affords 
 them, would feel that if there had been no such 
 ordinance appointed — that if there had been no 
 established and authoritative medium, by which 
 they might solemnly dedicate their children unto 
 God, it would have left a blank in the catalogue 
 of their privileges. Having been enabled in faith 
 to yield up themselves unto God, confessing that 
 they are not their own, but have been bought with 
 a price, they are naturally anxious to give their 
 children unto Him also. They would recognize 
 His superior claim to their services, and thus, if 
 possible, forestall them unto Him. They would 
 plant them at once in his vineyard, so that they 
 may grow up and flourish in his court, and bring 
 forth the substantial fruits of holiness and righte- 
 ousness in his service. For the exercise of these 
 
168 
 
 devout and fervent desires, the ordinance of Bap- 
 tism affords an appropriate and most delightful 
 opportunity. It calls upon Christian parents to do 
 that, v/hich their own feehngs would dictate. It 
 encourao;es them with Elkanah and the devout 
 Hannah, to bring their children into the house of 
 the Lord, and to present them solemnly unto 
 God, that they may be His for time and for eter- 
 nity — His to serve him faithfully and devotedly in 
 the gospel of his Son, while life remains, and His 
 to glorify Him and to be blessed and glorified in 
 Him throughout eternity. In this ordinance they 
 are invited to a covenant engay;ement, by which 
 they bind themselves in behalf of the children, 
 vs^hich He hath given them, that they shall be 
 trained up in His fear, and reared through the 
 days of their youth in His nurture and admonition. 
 It was with a view of securing the fulfilment of 
 this prospective stipulation that the practice of re- 
 quiring sponsors, who pledge themselves for the 
 Christian education of those, who in their infancy 
 were introduced into the covenant of baptism, was 
 adopted in the primitive church, and has since been 
 received and continued in our own. And it were 
 well if this solemn engagement was in general 
 more seriously pondered by those, who for the most 
 part are so ready to enter into it.<'^*) Nothing 
 connected with an ordinance so sacred in its origin, 
 so authoritative in its obligations, and comprehen- 
 sive in its demands, ought to be considered as a 
 mere matter of form. In case of the demise or 
 the wilful and palpable neglect of the parents them- 
 selves, it doubtless devolves as a solemn duty upon 
 those who voluntarily accepted of the trust, to 
 
169 
 
 use such means as circumstances admit \vith a view 
 of carrying into effect upon the objects of their 
 charge the vows, to which they pledged themselves 
 in their behalf. 
 
 As still further confirmatory of the Warrant of 
 Baptism, as an ordinance of the Christian Church 
 and especially as it bears upon the right of infants 
 to a participation of its privileges and blessings, 
 we may notice the Promise of God illustrated by 
 the conduct and declaration of the Saviour himself. 
 When Jehovah receives His people into a covenant 
 relation to Himself, He graciously vouchsafes to 
 embrace their children also within the general 
 range of the engagement. He pledges himself to 
 be a God unto them and to their children. And 
 although this federal stipulation does not amount 
 to an absolute and unconditional declaration, that 
 their offspring shall partake of the saving blessings 
 of the gospel, it certainly secures an extension 
 unto them of the important privileges connected 
 with a state of incorporation into His visible 
 church. The tenor of the divine promise is, that 
 these advantages shall be made good not only to 
 believers, but also to their seed after them. And it 
 is in the ordinance of Baptism, that this promise 
 receives its solemn and authoritative ratification. 
 Here Jehovah meets His people, and receives at 
 their hands those objects of their devout and affec- 
 tionate solicitude, which they are anxious to con- 
 sign to His care and to place under His fatherly 
 protection, into the bond of His covenanted mercies. 
 He admits them into a conditional interest in all 
 the blessings of the everlasting gospel. Within 
 this limitation He adopts them into His family. 
 
170 
 
 He unites them into an external federative alliance 
 with the great society of the faithful ; and in this 
 sacred relation to Himself, to His Son Jesus Christ, 
 and to the general body of His Church He pro- 
 vides for them every needful blessing. He secures 
 for them every requisite aid to enable them to love 
 and serve Him, and to prepare them for the full 
 enjoyment of His presence. It was in the spirit of 
 this benign disposition, and in exemplification of 
 the readiness, with which those who are presented 
 unto God are received into his favour, that the 
 compassionate Saviour of the world took the little 
 children into His arms and poured His special 
 blessing upon them. In every age and under 
 every dispensation of the church, in fact, children 
 have been the objects of Jehovah's peculiar care 
 and tenderness, and the two successive institutions 
 of circumcision and baptism were unquestionably 
 appointed to be the mear.s of admitting them into 
 outward communion with the church. In these 
 ordinances provision was made that they should be 
 rescued out of nature's uncovenanted alienation 
 and estrangement, and brought within the favoured 
 and privileged inclosure of the Church of God — 
 that the seal of appropriation should be fixed upon 
 them, marking them out as absolutely belonging 
 unto God in the state of unconscious infancy, that 
 they might learn with the opening dawn of reason, 
 and the progressive developement of their powers, 
 to regard themselves as His children, and to re- 
 cognize His paramount claims upon their love and 
 obedience. 
 
 These considerations are sufficient to establish 
 the Warrant of Baptism as a distinguishing ordi- 
 
na^nce of the Christian Church, and as embracing 
 within its evident range of application every age 
 and condition of mankind. This is demonstrated 
 from the fact of the ordinance having been directly 
 appointed and established by Christ himself — from 
 its having obviously succeeded circumcision, the 
 analogous institution of the Jewish church — from 
 its being a solemn aud public act of dedication, in 
 which professed believers devote and consecrate 
 themselves, or their offspring unto God, and from 
 the promise of God pledged unto believers and to 
 their seed after them as graciously illustrated in 
 the acts, and declarriions of the great Redeemer 
 of the world, while Ke sojourned here upon earth. 
 From an ordinance so gracious and comprehensive? 
 a variety of inferences of the deepest importance, 
 and of the most extensive interest and application 
 may be derived. We may particularly contemplate 
 as strikingly displayed in it the riches of divin(3 
 grace and the supreme benignity of the gospel 
 as a saving sclieme. The very commission, which 
 our Saviour assigns unto His disciples as he sends 
 them forth to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation , 
 affords a remarkable illustration of these s-enerous 
 and exalted qualities. He directs them to go and 
 teach all nations, or to make disciples of all nations;, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Hitherto the 
 manifestation of the love of God towards man had 
 been partial and confined — the labours of His most 
 zealous and devoted servants had been limited by a 
 providential appointment to one nation and country 
 — the covenant of circumcission was specifically 
 made with the seed of Abraham onlv : the streams 
 
172 
 
 of divine mercy thus flowed within comparatively 
 narrow channels, and diffused themselves over a 
 very circumscribed range. But now the grace of 
 God, like a river, which had long been forced to 
 pursue its way and to urge its course within closer 
 banks and over a more confined bed, bursts over 
 the feeble and temporary boundaries, which had 
 hitherto checked its current, and pours its refresh- 
 ing streams to the remotest extremities of the earth. 
 The gospel, as embodying that grace delights to 
 have free course and be glorified. It goeth forth 
 with an aggressive movement, and oflTers its bless- 
 ings gratuitously and indiscriminately to all the 
 nations of the earth. It invites them, irrespec- 
 tively of age, of country, of past character or con- 
 dition to the laver of regeneration. It throws open 
 to them the door of the sanctuary, and encourages 
 them to enter in — it urges them to yield themselves 
 unto the Lord — to recognize His boundless autho- 
 rity — to commit themselves and theirs entirely into 
 His hands, and to unite themselves to Him in the 
 bonds of an everlasting covenant, which is well 
 ordered in all things and sure. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Symbolical Import of Baptism. 
 
 To a mind thoroughly imbued with the spirit of 
 piety and devotion, the whole system of nature is 
 one vast, comprehensive, and diversified mass of 
 emblems, exhibiting to its view under various forms 
 and combinations, the several principles and doc- 
 trines — the precepts and promises of revealed 
 religion. Such a connection between the two 
 great departments of the divine government is not 
 altoo-ether ideal. The author of both schemes is 
 the same. The God of nature is also the God re- 
 vealed in the Scriptures. The great framer of the 
 universe is also the Father of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. He, who regulates and controls the 
 vast machinery of creation by laws, which are ab- 
 solute, irresistible, and uniform in their operation, 
 is likewise the Supreme Ruler of His church, and 
 the arbiter of its everlasting destinies. It ought 
 not to be regarded as a matter of surprize, there- 
 fore, that in many respects the phenomena of na- 
 ture, and the various events developed in the order 
 of God's providential government, should be found 
 
174 
 
 strikingly to symbolize with the concerns of reli- 
 gion, and the administration of the kingdom cf 
 grace. The affairs of creation, indeed, in their 
 diversified movements and operations, may be 
 regarded as a store-house of illustrations, exhibit- 
 ing under the most impressive aspects the great 
 facts of the spiritual and eternal world. The 
 scriptures abound with examples, in which the in- 
 spired writers avail themselves of this method of 
 conveying- the truths, which it was their aim to 
 teach or to inculcate. The allegorical representa- 
 tions contained in the Old Testament, and the 
 parables of our Lord in the New, may be con- 
 sidered as belonging to the same general mode of 
 embodying heavenly things in such forms of earthly 
 illustration as may carry them home with more 
 direct and vivid impression to the mind. 
 
 This is the end, not only of all parobolical 
 instruction, and of the extended references to the 
 objects and appearances of the natural world found 
 on the page of inspiration, but also of all those 
 external rites and institutions, which in a degree, 
 more or less, have been attached to the pure 
 essence of religion as a spiritual principle in every 
 age of the world. This was the design of the 
 numerous and diversified observances enjoined in 
 the Jewish ritual — the sacrifices — the abstinences — 
 the ablutions, which formed so conspicuous and 
 essential a part of the services of the temple. 
 Such observances had, for the most part, no in- 
 herent virtue or excellency, but each of them was 
 intended to be, as it were, a limb belonging to a 
 general and complete body of religious ceremonies, 
 throughout every portion of which a living princi- 
 
1T5 
 
 pie of truth, and holiness, and piety was to be 
 diffused. Without such an animating and all- 
 pervading spirit they would only hang, like de- 
 cayed and withered branches to that tree of life, 
 which has been planted in the courts of the Lord's 
 house, sapless, fruitless, and unsightly. In con- 
 sidering the nature aid object of the sacramental 
 institutions of the cluirch, we must never lose 
 sight of this distinction — a distinction so clearly 
 marked and so fully recognized by herself, 'in the 
 brief exposition which she gives of these ordinances 
 as comprising in their legitimate and efficient 
 character, an outward and visible sign, and an 
 inward and spiritual grace. A sacrament in its 
 genuine sense is a casket of palpable and material 
 exhibition, conveying under the broad seal of 
 heaven to those who are duly prepared for its re- 
 ception, a jewel of spiritual meaning and influence. 
 It is an ark of the covenant formed under God's 
 own immediate superintendence and direction, and 
 designed to contain in legible characters a com- 
 prehensive record of his will ; and if it ceases to 
 be regarded as any thing more than a mere frame- 
 work of outward visible device — if it be no longer 
 viewed as comprising, within its mysterious sym- 
 bols, truths of sublime and heavenly import ; in- 
 stead of that cloud of sacredness, which has rested 
 over it in the eye of the spiritual church, it may be 
 written upon it — Ichabod — the glory has departed. 
 The great difficulty in investigating the nature of 
 the Christian Sacraments is to avoid both extremes 
 — that of regarding them as mere material and un- 
 meaning exhibitions, and that of absolutely identify- 
 ing them with the grace of which they are in every 
 
1T3 
 
 instance the expressive signs, and in many cases 
 the direct channels. A connection closer or more 
 intiiiiate than this neither scripture nor experience 
 will be found to warrant. ^^^) It must never be for- 
 gotten that one principal object of a sacrament is 
 to teach truth, and to teach it by the most strik- 
 ing and impressive means, as well as to convey 
 grace. 
 
 In the former chapter we considered the War- 
 rant of Baptism as an ordinance of the Christian 
 church. In the present I propose to inquire into 
 the symbolical import of Baptism as emblematical 
 of spiritual truths, privileges, and blessings. Bap- 
 tism, as an outward act, is too well known among 
 ourselves to require any explanation or description. 
 It is an application of water to the person — whe- 
 ther this be done by sprinkling or by immersion, is 
 a matter of indifference, and is determined in either 
 way by no positive and absolute direction of scrip- 
 ture — accompanied by a distinct recognition of its 
 being done in the name of the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost. Many persons there doubt- 
 less are, who look no farther — who penetrate no 
 deeper into the spiritual meaning and import of 
 this rite than the eye of sense can reach. In the 
 water, which is applied in this holy ordinance, they 
 see nothing more than the material element — in 
 the words of sublime and significant import, which 
 are at the same time uttered they hear nothing — 
 they apprehend nothing beyond the articulate 
 sounds that are pronounced. To such persons the 
 ordinance to all spiritual and practical purposes is 
 a dead letter. Viewed, as tJiey behold it, it is a 
 puerile and unmeaning ceremony— no better than 
 
17T 
 
 any one of the " divers washings," in which tire 
 religion of the carnal Jews mainly consisted. To 
 the eye, which has been enlightened by scripture, 
 and purified by grace, however, this ordinance 
 appears in a very different light. 
 
 According to such an estimate Baptism may be 
 regarded as a symbol of our profession as Chris- 
 tians. Every church — indeed, every incorporated 
 society of men, must have some initiatory rite — 
 some distinguishing badge or token, by which its 
 members may be primarily introduced into it, and 
 their subsequent connection with it may be clearly 
 marked and recognized. In the Jewish church, as 
 has been already shewn, this rite was circumcision. 
 Whoever had undergone that ceremony, and had 
 not publicly and deliberately cast off his faith, was 
 considered a member of the general community, 
 and made a profession of the principles which it 
 held. In the Christian church the seal of incor- 
 poration is given and affixed in baptism. Pre- 
 viously to undergoing this solemn ceremony, no 
 one is entitled to be considered as a Christian even 
 in name. In the earlier periods of the history of the 
 church baptism was always considered as the com- 
 mencing point — as the first public and deliberate 
 assumption of the Christian profession. Such a 
 decided and essential change in the relative condi- 
 tion of the individual did they conceive baptism to 
 effect, that they frequently put off the ceremony 
 until they were now at the point of closing their 
 earthly pilgrimage. Those, who were unwilling, 
 or imagined themselves to be unable to cast off at 
 once and entirely the evil practices, to which they 
 had been accustomed in a state of heathenism, 
 
 M 
 
were loath to incur the additional responsibilities 
 imposed by baptism, until it now appeared that 
 they were beyond the [)ossibility of contracting the 
 guilt attendant on the violation of those responsi- 
 bilities. They deemed, and so far rightly deemed 
 that he, who is baptized, takes upon himself the 
 profession of the gospel in all its demands and 
 obligations. In this ceremony are visibly and 
 strikingly represented all the great principles of 
 the Christian profession. In this initiatory rite — 
 in this central point all the lines of truth and prac- 
 tical obligation seem to converge. He, who is 
 baptized, virtually professes and solemnly pledges 
 himself to believe every doctrine — to acknowledge 
 every demand— to observe every prohibition, and 
 to practice every duty within the whole range of 
 the Christian system. In the very act of incor- 
 poration into the body of Christ we make a pro- 
 fessed and unreserved surrender of our individuality 
 of character and conduct. We become united to 
 a head, from which we express our willingness to 
 receive light to inform and direct our judgments, 
 and a law to regulate our actions. As face an- 
 swereth face in water, so we may see reflected from 
 the pure and limpid surface of the baptismal font, 
 the varied features of the Christian profession in 
 outlines, which are definite, palpable, and unequi- 
 vocal. Every one of those who have undergone, 
 this rite, engages to abide by all the demands of 
 the Christian religion. We can appeal to him as 
 bound by these obligations, and in every instance 
 of deviation from the strictest and most riaid re- 
 quirements of the gospel, he stands convicted of 
 the most palpable inconsistency. He stultifies 
 
1T9 
 
 and denies his own profession. He gives the lie 
 to his own baptismal engagements. For, in 
 fact, all those who have been baptized in the 
 name of Christ, profess the whole of His religion, 
 and they are bound, if they would not be incon- 
 sistent with themselves, and would not brand a 
 mark of infamy upon their own foreheads in the 
 hallowed sign of the cross, to rise to the highest 
 level of the requisitions of the everlasting gospel. 
 But another most important feature of the Chris- 
 tian character, of which baptism may be considered 
 as a symbol, is the Regeneration of the soul through 
 the influences of the Holy Spirit. This indeed is 
 the great blessing, which that significant rite has 
 always been regarded as intended pre-eminently 
 to represent. In the ordinance of baptism, both 
 as a sacramental institution and as a material 
 act, the nature and the necessity of regeneration 
 appear to be very clearly and impressively exhi- 
 bited to the view. The very appointment of such 
 an ordinance demonstrates that man is by nature 
 in a fallen and depraved condition, and that he re- 
 quires a process of restoration and ablution in 
 order to render him meet for the enjo} inent of the 
 divine presence in glory. This was doubtless one 
 of the chief ends which it was designed to answer. 
 It was to teach the great doctrine of tlie deep de- 
 pravity of human nature, by presenting in visible 
 emblems before the eye, the means of its purifica- 
 tion. It was to impress upon the mind the all- 
 important truth declared in explicit and reiterated 
 assertion by the Saviour himself, that unless a man 
 be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God. The sign was appointed— the symbol 
 
 M 2 
 
180 
 
 was established-^not to supersede the necessity of 
 the thing signified — not to cherish the fatal delu- 
 sion that the baptism of water alone is sufficient, 
 and that all, which is understood by regeneration, 
 is absolutely and invariably conveyed in that ordi- 
 nance, wherever it is duly administered ; but it 
 w^as to lead the thoughts to something deeper and 
 more intimately connected with the inner man, than 
 the effusion of a few drops of water, accompanied 
 with the utterance of a few articulate sounds. It 
 was to aid the mind in its endeavour to realize the 
 conception of that mysterious change, which man 
 as a fallen creature must undergo before he is fit 
 for the society of the blest. It was to embody in 
 a palpable form what in abstract statement or sim- 
 ple requirement would have been too sublimely 
 pure to be perceived by the blunt eye of corrupt 
 mortality. It was to occupy the middle space 
 between things natural and things spiritual — the 
 ascending step from things earthly to things hea- 
 venly. It was to be a standing recognition of the 
 personality and influence of that Spirit, whose 
 goings forth were from eternity, and whose brood- 
 ing movements over the surface of a dark and 
 bewildered chaos educed light out of darkness, 
 order out of confusion, and harmony, peace, and 
 amenity out of the conflict of discordant elements. 
 The change of character effected in that process, 
 which is expressed by regeneration and symbolized 
 by baptism, must be deep, genuine, and universal. 
 It is equivalent to a new birth. It is the communi- 
 cation of a new principle — a principle of life, and 
 purity, and holiness, which will gradually spread 
 over the whole character, and develope its energies 
 
181 
 
 in giving a new impulse to all the powers and affec- 
 tions of the soul. It is a moral and spiritual crea- 
 tion, in virtue of which old things pass away and 
 all things become new. It is an emanation from 
 above — a ilow of light and love — of grace and 
 truth, issuing from Him who is the fountain of all 
 good, and poured into the regenerated soul with 
 an enlightening, renewing, sanctifying, and trans- 
 forming effect. By the powerful and salutary 
 energy which it exerts, it gradually transfuses itself 
 through the mind, and moulds the whole character 
 into a similarity with the divine image. It lifts off 
 the veil of natural blindness from the understand- 
 ing, and enables it to see every object connected 
 with the spiritual and eternal world in a new light. 
 It shews the evil and danger — the guilt and enor- 
 mity of sin. It exhibits to the eye of the soul the 
 beauty and excellency of holiness, and the superior 
 blessedness of those, who have sincerely devoted 
 themselves to the service of God. It destroys the 
 emnity of the carnal mind, and sheds abroad the 
 love of God in the heart in all the fervour and inten- 
 sity of a devout and grateful affection. It dispels 
 every corrupt and malignant passion from its pre- 
 dominant hold upon the mind, and displays itself in 
 all those fruits of the Spirit, which are equally 
 conducive to the glory of God and to the best 
 interests of man. It produces a habit of entire 
 dependence upon the blood and righteousness of 
 the Redeemer, as the grounds of acceptance with 
 God, and vindicates the character of the faith and 
 hope of the gospel by a life of universal holiness 
 and obedience. 
 
 This, in brief, is the nature of that regenera- 
 
182 
 
 tion — of that new birth, of which baptism is the 
 outward visible sign. Any sacramental blessing — 
 any renovating process, which falls essentially 
 short of this will prove utterly inadequate and un- 
 availing. In proportion to the depth of our fall 
 must be the height of purity and holiness to which 
 we must be raised. Correspondent with the ex- 
 tent of the blindness and ignorauce — the moral 
 defilement and insensibility, which sin had entailed 
 upon our nature, must be that work of grace upon 
 our souls, which alone can qualify us for the en- 
 joyment of the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 Such a transformation of mind and character it is 
 indispensably necessary that we should individu- 
 ally undergo. Witliout this the initiatory and 
 symbolical rite of baptism is but a shadow without 
 any counterpart of substantial blessing. It is a 
 cloud, under which, like the Israelites, we may 
 pass, but without receiving any spiritual strength 
 or refreshment. Let us not delude ourselves, 
 therefore, with the groundless and perilous notion, 
 that because we have been born of water — that 
 because we have put off, so to speak, the filth of 
 the flesh, we are exempted from the necessity of any 
 further purification. Let us remember that, in this 
 as well as every other observance, bodily exercise, 
 if unaccompanied with the life-giving Spirit pro- 
 fiteth little ; and that baptized but unconverted 
 Christians differ from unbaptized Heathens, only 
 in that the former are subject to an awful and 
 overwhelming weight of responsibility, which does 
 not attach unto the latter. Let us examine our- 
 selves, therefore, solemnly and deliberately, nor let 
 us rest content until in addition to the process of 
 
183 
 
 ablution in the baptismal font, we have the answer 
 of a good conscience, that we have been purified 
 from the pollutions of sin, and that in the healthy 
 and vigorous developement of the powers of the 
 new man, which has been created in us, wc are 
 daily growing in grace, and advancing with rapid 
 steps towards the fulness of the measure of the 
 stature of Christ. 
 
 But not only does baptism, as the introductory 
 rite of the Church, indicate our profession as 
 Christians — not only in the same character does it 
 hold forth to us in an emblem the most clear and 
 transparent, the great and important doctrine of 
 spiritual regeneration, but it also points out to us 
 the necessity, of the application of the blood of 
 Jesus Christ to the conscience for the removal of the 
 guilt of sin. In order to our deliverance and sal- 
 vation, we must not only be baptized with water, 
 but we must also be baptized with blood — the 
 blood as of a lamb without spot and without ble- 
 mish. The very fact of our being admitted into 
 the church in the name of Christ, as the Son of 
 God, implies a belief in Him, not merely as actu- 
 ally existing, but also as the appointed Saviour of 
 the world. As water is poured over the counte- 
 nance, or as the body is plunged, as was often 
 probably done in the primitive church,(^^) so the 
 atoning blood of Imnianuel must be spriiikled over 
 the mind and conscience. As the infant is brought 
 to the font, to undergo a ceremonial and emble- 
 matical purification, so must the believer betake 
 himself to the fountain of Christ's blood in order 
 that every stain may be removed, and that in the 
 eye of absolute and consummate purity, he may 
 
184 
 
 stand acquitted from every offence. With tlie ordi- 
 nance of baptism the blessing of a free forgiveness 
 as well as of complete sanctification, is sealed in 
 the engagements of a covenant, which on the part 
 of Jehovah is infallibly secure of its accomplish- 
 ment. The relative condition, into whi^h it in- 
 troduces, embraces within its comprehensive range 
 all the privileges of the everlasting gospel, and it 
 requires only a personal ratification of its provi- 
 sions, by the exercise of a genuine repentance and 
 a lively faith, to secure their actual possession. 
 
 When Jehovah directs that little children 
 should be brought unto Him, and presented unto 
 Him in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, it is a 
 clear and unequivocal intimation that He is wilhng 
 to receive them into his favour — that as the mate- 
 rial pollution, which may have attached unto them 
 is removed by the application of the natural ele- 
 ment of water, so the moral impurity, which ad- 
 heres to them, may be cleansed on their be- 
 taking themselves to that fountain, which was 
 opened for sin and uncleanness. Whatever may 
 be the depth— whatever may be the extent — what- 
 ever may be the enormity of our past sins and trans- 
 gressions — whatever may be the accumulation of 
 moral and spiritual defilement, which has gathered 
 in varied and inveterate incrustation upon our 
 character, we have only to apply by faith the blood 
 of an incarnate Saviour, and we shall be as pure 
 from every charge of guilt as Adam, when he 
 basked in the sunshine of divine favour, and 
 reflected in living lustre the radiations of the 
 divine image amidst the bowers of the paradise of 
 God, All this delightful and encouraging truth is 
 
1^5 
 
 taught and symbolically exhibited to the eye in 
 that ordinance, M'hich has been appointed to be 
 the door of entrance into the precincts of the 
 Christian church. Let every view of this sacred 
 institution, therefore, lead our mind to the cross, 
 on which the Son of God was baptized with a 
 baptism of blood in our behalf, and in order that 
 being sprinkled with that blood we might enjoy that 
 peace of God which passeth all understanding. 
 Let it direct our contemplations to the scene of 
 Immanuel's sufferings — to the deep sorrow of his 
 soul, as the streams of agony burst forth at every 
 pore during his conflict with the powers of dark- 
 ness — to the mixture of water and blood, which 
 issued forth from His wounded side as He lay 
 suspended on the cross — to his descent into the 
 grave — to his resurrection from the tomb — to his 
 ascension into glory, having led captivity captive, 
 and received gifts for men. Let it fix our eye 
 thus upon the Saviour and it cannot fail to have a 
 powerful effect in conforming us to his image, and 
 in bringing our whole character more completely 
 under the influence and control of His sanctifying 
 and renewing grace. 
 
 Closely allied to the facts already noticed as 
 symbolized in the baptismal ordinance, we may 
 subjoin that of Dying unto the world and Living 
 unto holiness. St. Paul frequently represents be- 
 lievers as having been buried with Christ by bap- 
 tism into death, and also as having by the same 
 process risen with Him through the faith of the 
 operation of God, who hath raised Him from the 
 dead. The ordinance of circumcision also, which in 
 its literal sense has been superseded by baptism, is 
 
186 
 
 employed in its spiritual import, by the same 
 apostle to express that great change, which takes 
 place in the character, when it is really brought 
 under the influence of that Spirit, whose peculiar 
 office and prerogative it is to crucify us unto the 
 world and the world unto us. The Colossians he 
 describes as those, who were circumcised with 
 the circumcision made without hands in putting off 
 the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision 
 of Christ — as those, whom being dead in the un- 
 circumcision of their flesh He had quickened toge- 
 ther with Him, having forgiven them all trespasses. 
 The same rule of spiritual application must guide 
 our views of baptism. In this institution there is 
 an evident desio;n to shadow forth that death unto 
 the world in its various tempations, allurements, 
 and sinful pursuits, which the christian is bound to 
 undergo. In baptism he emblematically dies with 
 Christ that he may spiritually rise w ith Christ. In 
 this hallowed stream the old man of sin is figura- 
 tively drowned, that the new man of holiness and 
 righteousness may emerge in all the freshness and 
 purity and glory of cleansed and renovated powers. 
 In this Jordan of divine appointment the leprosy 
 of sin, which has so deeply infected our nature, is 
 to be left, and when we have passed through this 
 washing of regeneration we are placed under a 
 most solemn and impressive obligation, to strive 
 habitually to be holy as God is holy — to be perfect 
 as our Father, who is in heaven, is perfect. 
 
 It was in the recollection of this that our own 
 church has required solemn vows to be made at 
 baptism, pledging the individual, who is thereby 
 received into the church by a prospective engage- 
 
187 
 
 ment to renounce the vain pomp and glory of the 
 world — the sinful kists and affections of the fiesh, 
 and to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant 
 unto his life's end. The baptismal covenant in- 
 deed, is pre-eminently a covenant of purity and 
 holiness. It transfers those, who enter into it from 
 a state of utter alienation to a state of professed 
 and federative relation unto God. It binds them 
 by most weighty obligations, superinduced by this 
 ordinance, to the abandonment of all sin and the 
 practice of all holiness. It cuts in sunder, when 
 its object is really attained, the tie of living sym- 
 pathy, by which they had been united unto the 
 world, and the ^vorld had been united unto them. 
 It produces a mutual disrelish and insensiiiility. 
 It reminds, or ought to remind those, who have 
 been brought within its bonds at every step in their 
 progress, that they have been at least symbolically 
 born for higher things than to be the slaves of 
 their bodies — that they are citizens of a more 
 glorious city, and heirs of a better kingdom than 
 this world affords; and, therefore, that they are 
 boimd by the most palpable demands of duty and 
 consistency to live above the world — to live as 
 strangers and pilgrims here below — to live so!)erlv, 
 righteously, and godlily in this present world, look- 
 ing for the glorious appearing of the Lord God and 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 These appear to be the leading points which 
 are symbolized or exhibited in emblem in the or- 
 dinance of baptism. It seals unto us our profes- 
 sion, pledging us to believe all the articles of the 
 Christian Faith. It displays in a very striking and 
 significant figure the regeneration of the soul 
 
18« 
 
 through the influences of the Holy Spirit — that 
 new birth without experiencing which the Saviour 
 of the world hath declared that no man shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven. It exhibits to the 
 eye of faith the application of the blood of Jesus 
 Christ as sprinkled upon the conscience for the re- 
 moval of the guilt of sin, and securing acceptance 
 with God. It finally enforces by the most solemn 
 and authoritative obligations, the duty of dying 
 unto the world, attended with habits of universal 
 purity of heart and life. These are the grand essen- 
 tials of the christian character, which baptism 
 emphatically teaches. They constitute the spirit 
 of those great truths, which it was designed to em- 
 body. They are manifestations of its divine in- 
 stitution and authority, and commend it not only 
 as a sacrament to be observed at our first introduc- 
 tion into the church, but also as an object of most 
 delightful, interesting and instructive contempla- 
 tion, and as calculated to Convey the most impres- 
 sive and salutary lessons to every agp and condi- 
 tion of life. Viewed under these aspects it is a 
 great remembrancer of duty — drawing forth to the 
 view and urging upon the attention of every indi- 
 vidual the solemn vows and obligations, by which 
 as a christian he is bound to be governed. 
 
 From this view of the subject we cannot fail to 
 be struck with the absolute necessity of the seve- 
 ral blessings here exhibited. This idea is implied, 
 indeed, in the very appointment of the sacrament 
 of baptism. When Christ asserted to Nicodemus 
 that unless a man be born of water and of the spirit 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God, it was no doubt- 
 ful or unmeaning asseveration. It is a fact which 
 
189 
 
 stands recorded in the word of eternal truth, that 
 we must be born again, if ever we would be ad- 
 mitted into heaven. We must be brought to a 
 cordial and unreserved reception of the great truths, 
 the fundamental principles of the gospel. We 
 must make an open and undisguised profession of 
 the gospel in the midst of a sinful world, and of a 
 perverse and gainsaying generation. We must not 
 only apply the outward emblem of the blood of 
 Christ, whether in baptism or the Lord's supper, 
 but we must really sprinkle that blood by faith upon 
 our consciences, so that we may have peace with 
 God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and may 
 rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We must 
 mortify our members, which are upon the earth ; 
 we must no longer yield those members as servants 
 of iniquity unto iniquity, but we must yield our- 
 selves unto God as those that are alive from the 
 dead, and our members as instruments of holiness 
 unto righteousness. We must endeavour habitu- 
 ally to shine as lights in the world — to rise to the 
 lofty demands of our character and profession as 
 Christians, and to make it manifest to all around 
 us, that we have not only been baptized with wa- 
 ter, but that we have been baptized also with the 
 Holy Ghost, and with fire. Let us also learn from 
 this subject to admire and adore the gracious con- 
 descension of Jehovah, in providing so many means 
 for our salvation ; for it is to this great and glorious 
 result, that all preparatory measures are intended 
 to contribute. To this end every external obser- 
 vance — every sacramental rite — every instrumen- 
 tal agency is designed to conduce. If we have 
 been directed to baptize our children, it is that we 
 
190 
 
 may respectively feel our obligation to seek for 
 those inward blessings of grace and love — of puri- 
 ty, holiness and truth, which alone can render us 
 meet for heaven. Let us look through all outward 
 means to that influence of the Eternal Spirit, whicH 
 alone can endue them with life or efficacy. Let 
 us penetrate beneath the veil — let us take with us 
 the blood of sprinkling and enter into the holy of 
 holies. Let us go boldly unto the throne of grace, 
 that we may have strength to help us in every time 
 of need. Having such an High Priest over the 
 house of God — even Jesus the Son of God, let us 
 hold fast our profession. And thus fixing the eye 
 of our contemplation steadily upon Him, who hath 
 entered for us into the. holy place not made with 
 hands we shall find ourselves transformed into the 
 same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of 
 the Lord. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Privileges Sealed and Pledged in Baptism. 
 
 In the discussion of ceremonial institutions, it is 
 a very delicate point to mark out the real position, 
 which they occupy in the economy of human sal- 
 vation. While we assert in the most decided and 
 unequivocal terms, that as outward observances 
 they are not the necessary conductors of the 
 spiritual blessings, which they represent — that in 
 this imperfect form of external operations, they 
 may exist apart from all experimental connection 
 with the inner man of the heart, there is a danger 
 lest we should inadvertently degrade them from 
 their due and legitimate rank in the order of ap- 
 pointed means. There is a danger lest we should 
 reduce them to a level with the usages of human 
 authority, and of ecclesiastical discipline ; lest 
 they should be divested in our estimation, of all 
 that mysterious significancy, with which it was 
 doubtless intended that they should be associated 
 in our minds. There is the opposite and moie 
 prevalent danger of resting in them, as points of 
 absolute consummation and perfection, as stamp- 
 ing upon the soul the blessings which they exhibit 
 in emblem, without the possibility of failure. St. 
 
192 
 
 Paul was unquestionably sensible of the import- 
 ance of a correct view of this subject, while he 
 argued the utter inadequacy of circumcision as a 
 security of acceptance with God. While the 
 Apostle was shewing the futility of such a notion, 
 and maintaining that they who had undergone this 
 rite mip'ht still be aliens from the commonwealth of 
 Israel — without hope and without God in the world, 
 he supposes an objector to ask — what advantage 
 then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of cir- 
 cumcision 1 St. Paul, without in any degree in- 
 validating his previous declarations, instantly re- 
 plies, " much every way ;" and proceeds to enu- 
 merate a variety of benefits, which he represents 
 as belonging by covenant engagement unto those, 
 upon whom the ceremony has been performed. 
 
 The same line of argument is applicable to the 
 ordinance of baptism. The language of our own 
 church as expressive of the spiritual import of this 
 institution, is peculiarly strong and emphatic. In 
 accordance with the general style of the apostolical 
 epistles, which were addressed to professing, and 
 doubtless for the most part true Christians — it 
 seems at the first view to take it for granted, that 
 the individual baptized has indeed been regene- 
 rated, and born anew of the Spirit. Bringing the 
 principle of a comprehensive analogy to bear upon 
 the interpretation of this passage, there can be no 
 question that the church intended in this case to 
 use the language, not of literal and absolute asser- 
 tion, but of charitable generalization. As the 
 whole service is obviously designed for real 
 Christians — assuming in the exercise of a broad 
 and expansive charity that they are true believers, 
 
193 
 
 so the baptismal part of it has an evident and in- 
 tentional adaptation to a state of actual purifica- 
 tion and ablution through the influences of the 
 Holy Spirit. The very fact of the church's direct- 
 ing its members, previously to the actual adminis- 
 tration of the ordinance, to pray that the infant 
 may receive the forgiveness of his sins by spiritual 
 regeneration, is indeed a proof that she regards 
 the separation of the outward sign from the inward 
 grace as a possible and not improbable case. And 
 having thus in faith pleaded a fulfilment of the 
 promise she assumes, while there is no evidence to 
 the contrary, that the promised blessing has been 
 vouchsafed — without however committing herself 
 to the dangerous delusion, that wherever the baptism 
 of water has been received, the baptism of the 
 Spirit has been simultaneously experienced. On 
 the supposition of the several conditions of the co- 
 venant being duly complied with, it is difficult to 
 to know upon what grounds the church would have 
 been justified in coming to a different judgment. 
 
 But although baptism, any more than circum- 
 cision, does not absolutely and invariably secure 
 the spiritual blessings, of which it was designed to 
 be a symbol, we may safely affirm of the former as 
 the Apostle does of the latter, that when duly and 
 faithfully administered, there is much profit con- 
 nected with it. The economy of the gospel, as 
 well as the general economy of nature and of pro- 
 vidence, is a system of gradations. In the de- 
 velopement of its principles there are stages of 
 relative advancement towards the realization of its 
 ultimate object — there are helps and advantages, 
 which, though they do not of themselves form an 
 
 N ■ , 
 
194 
 
 infallible pledge that he who is possessed of them, 
 shall be the subject of saving grace, yet will assur- 
 edly bring him into nearer contact with its influ- 
 ences — which, though they may not actually land 
 him on the shore of everlasting glory, will un- 
 questionably waft him nearer to the confines of 
 that shore. Of persons, who are possessed of 
 such secondary blessings — of such subordinate 
 benefits we may say, in the language of the Savi- 
 our Himself, that they are not far from the king- 
 dom of God. This is the light in which I view the 
 ordinance of baptism. It is a federal transaction 
 instituted by divine authority, in which certain pri- 
 vileges and blessings are promised on the per- 
 formance of certain conditions. 
 
 Among these we would specify that it intro' 
 duces those, who are the subjects of it, under the 
 gracious economy of the Christian covenant. A 
 relative change precisely analogous to this was 
 experienced by the Jewish infants, who underwent 
 the rite of circumcision. That significant and 
 expressive ceremony did not, as St. Paul repeat- 
 edly asserts, necessarily produce a change of heart. 
 It did not in every instance introduce a new prin- 
 ciple of life and holiness into the soul — it did not 
 of necessity destroy the enmity of the carnal mind 
 against God — it did not universally render those, 
 who partook of it, new creatures. But yet the 
 Apostle asserts that there was much profit in it 
 every way. It brought its subjects within the 
 range of a divine and highly-privileged economy 
 of ecclesiastical and spiritual government. It 
 rescued them from the desolate and abandoned 
 con^dition of an alienated and uncovenanted world. 
 
195 
 
 It brought them within the lines of a secluded and 
 consecrated inclosure, so that in virtue of their 
 relative condition as living under an economy of 
 spiritual privileges and advantages, they might 
 truly exclaim in the language of the devout psalm- 
 ist, " The lines have fallen to me in pleasant 
 places ; yea I have a goodly heritage." 
 
 Similar in its character, but still higher in the 
 order of its attendant privileges, is that change of 
 position which takes place when the seal of the 
 baptismal covenant is applied to the soul. The 
 individual, who passes through this initiatory pro- 
 cess, makes the same kind of transition as he who 
 leaves the wide field of savage, barbarous, and 
 lawless life, and is brought under a system of re- 
 gular and established government. Such a one 
 obviously undergoes a most important change of 
 relative condition, though he may still fall short of 
 the highest blessings and immunities of the social 
 compact into which he has entered. He is at 
 once placed in new circumstances — he is subject to 
 a new order of influences — he is bound by new 
 obligations and responsibilities, and he is invested 
 with new and most important privileges. He has 
 now reached a higher elevation in the scale of 
 being. He now breathes an atmosphere refined 
 and purified by the conjoined labour and art of 
 reclaimed and civilized humanity. He ceases to 
 depend upon the coarse and precarious produce of 
 his own individual efforts. He becomes clothed 
 with the higher attributes of social man, and enjoys 
 the incalculable advantages arising from the com- 
 binations of confederated wisdom and strength. 
 Such a transition of state, however, affords but a 
 
 N 2 
 
196 
 
 low and imperfect representation of that which is 
 effected by baptism. By that sacred institution 
 man is at once translated from one condition of 
 relative being to anotlier. He is transferred from 
 a state in which he lay helpless and unpitied — in 
 which he was exiled from all friendly intercourse 
 or communication with those who dwell under the 
 government of Jesus Christ, into a state in which 
 the special favour of Jehovah is ready to be exer- 
 cised towards those, who feel their need of it. In 
 baptism he swears allegiance and vows fealty to 
 to the throne of Him, who rules supreme over 
 the destinies of His church In that ordinance he 
 receives a seal, bearing- the signature of the Eter« 
 nal, which he is at all times entitled to employ as 
 his passport into the court of the outward privi- 
 leges of his house. He then takes his lot among 
 those, who are by profession the peculiar people of 
 God. He is incorporated into the commonwealth, 
 of which Immanuel is the presiding head, and by 
 whom all the members fitly joined together and 
 compacted by that, " which every joint supplieth, 
 according to the effectual working in the measure 
 of every part, maketh increase of the body unto 
 the edifying of itself in love." He is invested 
 with a right to all the ordinances and institutions — 
 to all the privileges and advantages of the visible 
 church. He has a fidl and unimpeachable claim 
 to all the benefits which Jehovah hath vouchsafed 
 unto those, who have placed themselves under the 
 external economy of the faith. The oracles of His 
 truth — the precepts of His law — the promises of 
 His gospel— the illuminations of His spirit, as em- 
 bodied in His word — the communion and fellow- 
 
19T 
 
 ship of His people — the various services of the 
 sanctuary — the exercises of united supphcation and 
 praise with those who are assembled in his name — 
 the participation of the affecting emblems of the 
 Saviour's body and blood in the eucharistic ban- 
 quet — the offers of pardon, peace, and reconcilia- 
 tion — the whole range, in short, of the means, and 
 agencies, and instrumentalities, which Jehovah 
 hath appointed for the purpose of bringing sin- 
 ners to Himself, belong by special and covenant 
 right to him, who has been introduced by baptism 
 into the economy of the Christian covenant. They 
 are his in virtue of that relation, to which he has 
 been admitted by baptism. They are sealed and 
 pledged unto him as the immunities and append- 
 ages of that gracious constitution under which the 
 affairs of the everlasting covenant are administered 
 here upon earth. 
 
 To such privileges those, who have been ad- 
 mitted into the church by baptism are universally 
 entitled. But with these advantages there are 
 connected responsibilities of the most awakening 
 and impressive order. If we have been introduced 
 into the visible church — if we have been brought 
 within the gracious economy of the Christian co- 
 venant — if we have become by profession and 
 federal relation subjects of the kingdom of Christ, 
 we are called upon i)y every consideration of duty, 
 consistency, and interest, to live habitually as 
 becometh those, who belong to this privileged 
 and exalted order of the human family. We are 
 bound cordially and practically to accede to those 
 terms of communion which the church hath pre- 
 scribed unto those who are admitted into its bosom, 
 
19S 
 
 and are incorporated into membership with it. 
 We stand pledged in the sight of God, and in the 
 presence of his people, to submit to all the rules 
 of the divine government — to receive and to re- 
 cognize the Son of God as our king — to take His 
 law for our directory, and His will as revealed in 
 His word for the moving and controlling principle 
 of our conduct. And this recognition, when car- 
 ried out to its legitimate consequences and results, 
 implies the hatred and abandonment of all sin — 
 the love and practice of all holiness. It involves 
 feelings of the profoundest reverence — of the most 
 fervent and devoted attachment — of the most ar- 
 dent gratitude and affection towards the Supreme — 
 habits of the most entire and unreserved self- 
 surrender — a train of actions, in short, gradually 
 accumulating and consolidating into an order of 
 character marked by whatever is pure, whatever is 
 just, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, what- 
 ever is virtuous, whatever is really praiseworthy 
 in the whole range of human relations and pur- 
 suits. 
 
 Connected with an introduction into the econo- 
 my of the Christian covenant is the privilege of 
 adoption into the Family of God. By nature the 
 universality of the human species is in a state of 
 estrangement from God. The bonds of the cove- 
 nant, under which its two first progenitors and re- 
 presentatives were placed in Eden, were burst in 
 sunder by sin. That element of disruption pro- 
 duced an entire change of relations between God 
 and man. It effected a complete overthrow of that 
 system of principles upon which Jehovah had pro- 
 posed to deal with His human creatures. It 
 
199 
 
 sprung a mine at the very foundation of that 
 scheme of moral government, which the wisdom 
 and goodness of the Eternal had instituted for the 
 developement of the faculties, for the exercise of 
 the affections, and for the promotion of the hap- 
 piness of mankind. It threw man into a wide and 
 apparently hopeless distance from all peaceful and 
 friendly intercourse with his Maker. It broke up, 
 through its disastrous influence, a vast gulph be- 
 tween heaven and earth, which no power short of 
 Omnipotence guided by boundless wisdom and 
 love could provide the means of crossing. Be- 
 yond that dreadful interval, which separates the 
 faithful and obedient universe from the rebellious 
 and disloyal portion of God's government, mankind 
 was now constrained to take its position. It is on 
 this account that all men are represented in Scrip- 
 ture as being by nature children of wrath — as 
 born in a state of alienation from God — as lying 
 under His just displeasure, and exposed to all the 
 tremendous and complicated evils, which were in- 
 volved in the original sentence of condemnation. 
 It is on this account that a chang:e of character 
 and condition is indispensably necessary in order 
 to the restoration of man to the position which he 
 originally occupied as an object of the favour and 
 love of God. 
 
 In the sacrament of Baptism there is a pledge 
 given that God is now willing to effect this great 
 and important change— there is an intimation af- 
 forded, that those who were by nature children of 
 wrath, may now become in character and relative 
 condition, children of grace — that they, who had 
 gone far off, may be brought nigh — that those 
 
200 
 
 whom God had hitliorto been constrained, in 
 vindication of His own character and dignity, to 
 regard as His enemies, may now be received and 
 recognized as His friends — that those wlio had 
 before wandered as prodigals far from their Fa- 
 ther's house, and the home of their own peace and 
 happiness, may now return and find a cordial and 
 welcome reception in the bosom of their Father's 
 love. Out of the deep ruins of the fall it has from 
 eternity been the gracious and benevolent purpose 
 of Jehovah to raise unto Himself a family, which 
 would be called by His name, and every member 
 of which would be adopted into His household. 
 This community may be considered either gene- 
 rally as consisting of those who have been received 
 into outward communion with His church, or spe- 
 cially as confined to those, who have been really 
 made partakers of his Spirit, and have received the 
 seal of His love upon their hearts. Every one, 
 who is united unto the church of God by baptism, 
 may be said, in the language of profession and 
 broad generalization, to be a child of God. He 
 has certainly been taken out from the mass of un- 
 professing and uncovenanted humanity. He has 
 been regularly presented to the Lord in His house, 
 amidst the solemnities of prayer, and the ap- 
 pointed ceremonials of the baptismal covenant ; 
 and as the ordinance is one of God's own immedi- 
 ate institution, it is impossible to regard it other- 
 wise than as a sea! of adoption into His family. It 
 is a warrant unto those, by whom it is received, 
 that they may regard themselves as the childien of 
 God — that they are entitled to look up unto Him as 
 their Father and their covenant God. It is a token 
 
201 
 
 unto them for good — intimating that they shall no 
 longer be frowned away from His presence with a 
 look of threatening displeasure — that the original 
 guilt and the inherent depravity of their nature will 
 no longer be allowed to interpose a barrier between 
 them and his love — but that He now welcomes 
 them into His arms — that they are privileged to 
 walk in and out among the members of His house- 
 hold — that they are entitled, through His grace, to 
 the spiritual provisions, which are furnished at His 
 table ; to the rich and varied means, which He 
 hath appointed for the nourishment and support of 
 those who belong to His family. It gives them a 
 peculiar claim to draw nigh unto God, to place 
 their wants and their difficulties before Him — and 
 to address Him with those feelings of reverential 
 boldness and filial confidence, which become those, 
 whom He hath been pleased to incorporate by bap- 
 tism into the body of His church. He hath pro- 
 visionally adopted them unto Himself, and He is 
 ready to enrich them with the treasures of His 
 house, to exert His various attributes of powei', of 
 wisdom, and of love in their behalf, and to supply 
 all their need out of the riches of His orace in 
 Christ Jesus. He is both able and willing to meet 
 their exigences, to give them strength against 
 temptation, to give them guidance and direction 
 in perplexities, to give them light in darkness, 
 support in weakness, comfort in distress, and a 
 hope full of immortality amidst the manifold trials 
 and temptations of this transitory scene. Admitted 
 into such exalted and endearing relation unto the 
 Most High, it were well, if they kept their relation 
 unto Him more steadily and uniformly in view. 
 
202 
 
 Then they would be no more content to vaunt 
 themselves in the privilege of a mere outward re- 
 lation to the church, and a nominal adoption into 
 the family of God, but they would endeavour to 
 be followers of God as becometh dear children. 
 
 But we may remark as another privilege of the 
 same general order, which is sealed in the sacra- 
 ment of baptism, that therein is affoi'ded an earnest 
 of the Spirit in his sanctifying and renewing grace. 
 This ordinance indeed stands peculiarly connected 
 with the influences of the Holy Spirit. The bap- 
 tism of water and the baptism of the Spirit, stand 
 in immediate juxtaposition in our Saviour's dis- 
 course addressed to Nicodemus, and no blessing of 
 the Christian covenant does it more prominently 
 exhibit to the view than that process of purifica- 
 tion, which is commenced in tlie soul at the mo- 
 ment of regeneration, and is progressively carried on 
 by the same divine Agent, that infused the original 
 principle, until it has reached its consummation in the 
 realms of perfect holiness and perfect happiness. We 
 assert not that a work of grace is actually begun in 
 every individual, who is placed by the rite of bap- 
 tism under the dispensation of the Spirit. Of the 
 influence of that Spirit we know from the highest 
 authority, that in its immediate mode of operation 
 it is secret and mysterious. In this respect we 
 know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. 
 Whether as a dormant principle — as a latent germ 
 it may in any case be implanted in the infant 
 mind — requiring the addition of ulterior means, 
 and the developement of the rational and voluntary 
 powers to be unfolded into effective action as the 
 means of regeneration, or whether it be communi- 
 
203 
 
 cated at a more advanced period in the progress of 
 the mental faculties, it is not for us to determine. 
 This, however, is unquestionable from the whole 
 tenor of the scriptural statements connected with 
 the subject, and from the analogy of the antecedent 
 ordinance of circumcision that in baptism a pledge 
 is given that the Spirit will be imparted in all his 
 renewing and sanctifying influences to those who 
 shall lay claim to the promise. In that federal 
 transaction God must be regarded as engaging 
 Himself to communicate in due season that, which 
 it obviously represents. Even if we view this 
 institution as nothing more than a mere sign, still 
 there must be something signified, which bears a 
 close and peculiar connection with it, otherwise the 
 sign will be perfectly nugatory and unmeaning. 
 We are justified, therefore, in assuming that those, 
 who have been brought within this bond of the 
 external form of the covenant, are persons who have 
 had the earnest of the Spirit — persons, who are 
 become thereby the depositories of a most import- 
 ant trust — persons, towards whom God has been 
 pleased to place Himself in the relation of a debtor, 
 and to whom He is ready, on application, to dis- 
 charge the full amount of those spiritual aids and 
 influences, to which He graciously pledged Him- 
 self at their baptism, and of which in that or- 
 dinance they received the earnest. We arejustified 
 in calling upon them to stir up the gift that is in 
 them — to lay claim to the promises and engage- 
 ments of their baptismal covenant — to appropriate 
 to themselves the rich inheritance of regenerating, 
 sanctifying, and transforming grace, to which they 
 then received a title. We may remind them that 
 
204 
 
 they were then admitted into the ark of Christ's 
 church — that the celestial dove symbolically de- 
 scended upon them as a pledge of its willingness to 
 take up its permanent abode within them, and that 
 it is still striving by every soft and gentle move- 
 ment, to win its way into their hearts, in order to 
 calm the turbid and impetuo s elements of the 
 passions, and to nestle with a soothing and tran- 
 quillizing influence in the inmost sanctuary of 
 their affections. We may assume all these im- 
 portant and interesting considerations as the 
 groundwork of an appeal to their consciences for 
 the exercise of every holy affection, and for the 
 manifestation in their life and conduct of all the 
 graces of the Spirit. 
 
 In the ordinance of baptism again is sealed the 
 comprehensive evangelical blessing of Union with 
 Christ. All the privileges of the gospel are indeed 
 inseparably combined together as embodied in 
 human character. They form together that bundle 
 of life, in which the soul of every believer is bound 
 up. The great master principle of relative com- 
 bination — that which exerts a plastic energy in 
 moulding the whole and in developing and arrang- 
 ing every subordinate component part is doubtless 
 union with Christ as the great head of life and in- 
 fluence. Of such union the sacrament of baptism 
 was unquestionably designed to be a seal. That 
 rite was appointed to be the special means of in- 
 troducing those, who had hitherto been strangers 
 to the covenant of promise, into an acknowledged 
 relation unto him and a visible profession of his 
 name. It is the badge of mutual recognition. 
 Every one, who through the medium of this ordi- j 
 
205 
 
 nance has been admitted into the church, must be 
 considered as a member, in a symbolical sense, of 
 Christ's mystical body. He has been incorporated 
 into that mass of aggregate humanity, which de- 
 rives its principle of fellowship and communion 
 from its professed relation unto Christ. He is 
 therefore entitled to all the outward privileges 
 and immunities peculiar to that order, and he is 
 bound to the observance of all the laws and obliga- 
 tions which form the governing principles of the 
 society. The very import of the Christian name 
 is' that of being thus united unto Christ. Such a 
 designation is not an arbitrary or unmeaning title 
 conveying no idea of character or relation. But it 
 is a term expressive of a special union with Christ, 
 and baptism is that initiatory rite — that authorita- 
 tive and standing institution, by which men are 
 legitimately put in possession of this sacred and 
 significant appellation. Of those who have been 
 thus received into the body of Christ, it may be 
 expected and fairly demanded that they should 
 cherish a feeling of holy and intense sympathy 
 with the head and their fellow-members — that 
 they should labour with vigour, constancy and zeal 
 to perform their appropriate functions in the gene- 
 ral economy of the system. 
 
 As crowning all other blessings we further re- 
 mark that in the ordinance of baptism is sealed 
 and conditionally pledged the Fruition oi everlast- 
 ing glory and felicity in heaven. All the rites and 
 observances — all the promises and requisitions — 
 all the precepts and practices of the gospel have an 
 ultimate reference to a future world. Whatever 
 intimation or security is given, therefore, that the 
 present or preparatory provisions of the gospel will 
 
206 
 
 be imparted, the same by implication is afforded 
 that its final and eventual result will not be with- 
 held. To what does that rich and diversified ar- 
 ray of means of grace tend, which God has so 
 bountifully provided for our spiritual necessities ^ 
 To what is that bright galaxy of privileges, which 
 encircles the firmament of the church, intended to 
 lead '? The whole is doubtless designed to illumine 
 the path of bliss, and to lead men on their way to 
 glory and honor and immortality. The various 
 elements of the Christian life and character upon 
 earth, are the pregnant principles — the undevelop- 
 ed constituents of everlasting life in heaven. The 
 church militant below is an embryo of the church 
 triumphant above. Adoption into the family of 
 God in the present scene of infirmity and imperfec- 
 tion is a pledge of closer intimacy, and of sublimer 
 fellowship with the Father of our spirit in a future 
 world of consummate purity and holiness. The 
 earnest of the Spirit in the heart is but the proof of 
 a reversionary interest beyond the grave, but a 
 confirmation of right — a ratification of a title to the 
 enjoyment of the purchased possession. The in- 
 heritance of the kingdom of heaven is in fact the 
 result of a long train of previous habits and pur- 
 suits. It is the last golden link of a chain of spiri- 
 tual blessings — it is the topstone of a building, the 
 first visible foundation of which was laid in the sa- 
 crament of baptism. In whatever cases therefore 
 the ends of that sacred institution are attained — 
 whenever the privileges, which it seals are actually 
 realized, there the blessedness of heaven will be 
 the infallible consummation of the series. 
 
 These appear to be blessings and privileges, 
 which baptism was designed to seal. To what ex- 
 
207 
 
 tent, if in any measure, have they been realized in 
 our own experience and embodied in our own cha- 
 racter 1: What proof — what practical evidence can 
 we give that we are subjects of the kingdom of 
 Christ — that we have been admitted within the bonds 
 of his covenant — that we have really been adopted 
 into the family of God, and from children of wrath 
 have been made children of grace — that we have 
 received the earnest of the Spirit, and that his work 
 is steadily carrying on in our souls — that we have 
 been united unto Christ, and that in virtue of 
 that union, we not only are free from condemna- 
 tion, but also walk, not after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit, and lastly that we are in a condition to be 
 heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ '? These 
 are the points of plain personal bearing and appli- 
 cation, to which all our inquiries must tend, and all 
 our discussions be directed. Knowledge without 
 experience will avail us nothing. Experience 
 without practice, were it possible, would profit us 
 still less. Let us examine ourselves — question our 
 own consciences solemnly and closely as in the 
 sight of God. Let nothing turn us aside from this 
 course of serious and deliberate self-scrutiny — 
 remembering that we, who have been baptized in 
 the name of Christ will, ere long, be summoned to 
 appear before the bar of Christ, and that as we 
 had neglected or realized the inestimable blessings 
 sealed in the baptismal covenant He will either 
 spurn us away from his presence as those whom He 
 hath never known, or He will receive and welcome 
 us into his bosom as the blessed children of his 
 Father to inherit the kingdom prepared for us from 
 the foundation of the world. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 The Practical Obligations involved in Baptism. 
 
 The religion oi Christ is distino'uishod tVom all the 
 various forms of philosophy ami superstition, which 
 at different periods have prevailed in the ^vorld as 
 being* altogether of a practical character and ten- 
 dency. It is not a system oi vague sublimity and 
 uudetinable grandeur — dealing only in remote ab- 
 stractions and universalities, but holding no direct 
 communion with the obligations and palpable reali- 
 ties of human existence. If it be true, as has been 
 said of an illustrious philosopher of antiquity, that 
 Ite brought down philosophy from heaven to 
 eiuth, because he endeavoured to draw away the 
 attention of nuinkind from wild and visionary spe- 
 culations, and to fix their thoughts upon what was 
 connected with the actual business and the import- 
 ant relations of human life, with far greater em- 
 phasis may a similar declaration be made respect- 
 ing the divine and adorable founder of our religion. 
 The gospel, indeed, is a system oi principles, which 
 touches man at every point of his intellectual and 
 moral being. It has brought to light truths, which 
 invite the contemplation, and will reward the ex- 
 ertion of the highest powers of his understanding. 
 
209 
 
 It hath disclosed to view, so far as they are capa- 
 ble of bein^ apprehended by the faculties of a 
 finite nature, the attrihutes of the .Supreme. It 
 hath, to a cori-siderable extent, unfolded the mys- 
 teries of his eternal councils. It hiath unrolled 
 the record 3 of the past, and unveiled the seerets 
 of the future. It hath discovered a new world 
 involving destinies, compared with which the 
 highest interests of time are but as the particles of 
 dust, which float in the sunbeam to thf>se vast and 
 countless orbs, which traverse the immensity of 
 space. 
 
 The gospel, however, does not lose amidst the 
 grandeur of its disco\ eries — does not forget amidst 
 the variety and extent of its sublimer communica- 
 tions — does not eclipse amidst the brightness of its 
 prospective revelations, the most minute and sub- 
 ordinate details connected with the cliaracter and 
 conduct of man in his present state of probation. 
 Xo part of its disclosures or institutions, indeed, 
 is designed to terminate in mere speculation. 
 Every thing, how remote soever it may at first 
 appear to be from contact with the outward ac- 
 tions, is intende<l to have a practical bearing. 
 Ever)' im[Xjrtant truth, which it hath revealed, in- 
 volves a correspondent obligation on the part of 
 man. And this is the case not only with respect 
 to the great principles of the gospel, but alsO with 
 all the rites and ceremonial observances, which it 
 hath enjoined. It Is altogether a mistake to ima- 
 gine that these are so many modifications of bodily 
 exercise, which are to pass awav and to perish in 
 the using, without exerting any permanent influ- 
 ence upon the conduct. Every one of them, on 
 
 o 
 
210 
 
 the contrary, must be considered, not as a warrant 
 of exemption from any further demand, but as a 
 call to duty — as a channel for the conveyance of a 
 louder and more effective appeal for the discharge 
 of the obligations which they impose. The voice, 
 which they utter, is a voice, which reminds us that 
 we have a great and arduous work to perform — 
 that we have powerful and malignant enemies to 
 encounter — that we have temptations to resist — 
 that we have sinful passions to mortify — that we have 
 evil propensities to restrain — that we have a path of 
 holiness and purity to pursue — that we have a race 
 of strenuous activity and exertion to run — that we 
 have a warfare to wage, and a victory to achieve, 
 involving our everlasting peace and security — 
 that, in short, we have a God to love and serve, 
 and a soul eternally to save. These are duties, to 
 which we are bound and pledged in a manner more 
 or less direct, by every principle and institution, 
 which belong to the gospel of Christ. 
 
 And if such be the character and tendency of 
 the principles and ordinances of the gospel gene- 
 rally, such in a pre-eminent degree is the bearing 
 of the sacred institution, which we are now con- 
 sidering. Baptism is a rite, externally surveyed, 
 very simple and unpretending. It was doubtless 
 intended generally to be performed upon infants ; 
 and unlike the other Christian sacrament, that of 
 the Lord's supper, which was appointed to be 
 celebrated at short and frequent intervals, it does 
 not admit of a repetition in the case of the same 
 individual. The reason of the difference, in this 
 respect, may be that baptism is an initiatory rite, 
 forming the door of admission into the visible 
 
211 
 
 church, and symboHzing a change of character, 
 which is tantamount to new birth ; whereas the 
 eucharist is a commemorative rite, shewing at 
 every renewed celebration the Lord's death, till 
 He comes. But although the baptismal ordinance 
 is to be only once celebrated, and for the most part 
 is performed upon those, who have not yet arrived 
 at a period, which would enable them to appreciate 
 its import, yet its influence is expected to spread 
 over the whole of life. We have already consi- 
 dered the warrant of this institution as an or- 
 dinance of the Christian church — its import as a 
 symbolical rite and the privileges sealed and 
 pledged in it. The most interesting, and perhaps 
 the most useful and important portion of the sub- 
 ject yet remains to be considered — the practical 
 obligations which baptism involves. In discussing 
 an institution of this nature, we are obliged to sur- 
 vey it under all its aspects, and to exhibit promi- 
 nently to the view some points, which bear no im- 
 mediate and direct relation to the duties of the 
 Christian character. In examining the obligations 
 of baptism, however, we are viewing it under that 
 relation, which clothes it with universal interest 
 and application. This is the most effectual means 
 of realizing the great end of the institution — to 
 inquire not merely upon what grounds and princi- 
 ples it is founded — what spiritual meaning it sym- 
 bolically embodies, and what privileges it seals and 
 pledges, but likewise to what practical duties and 
 obligations it binds its subjects. 
 
 Among these we would first mention an unre- 
 served Recognition of the fundamental principles 
 of the gospel, as centering in the Father, the Son, 
 
 o2 
 
212 
 
 and the Holy Ghost. I reckon such an acknow- 
 ledgment among the practical obligations of bap- 
 tism, because I consider it to lie at the foundation 
 of all holy and Christian practice. The recogni- 
 tion of the Father as the great fountain of Deity, 
 as the Creator, the Preserver, and Supreme Ruler 
 of all things, and the originator of the glorious 
 scheme of man's salvation — of the Son as having 
 readily undertaken and triumphantly accomplished, 
 in virtue of the mysterious union of the divine and 
 human nature in his sacred person the work of hu- 
 man redemption, and of the Holy Ghost as pro- 
 ceeding from the Father and the Son, and as ap- 
 plying by his grace the blessings of the gospel 
 unto the soul, is constituted by the Saviour to be 
 the very door of entrance into his church. Out 
 of this firm and broad foundation of evangelical 
 truth spring up all the extensive details and rami- 
 fications of the Christian faith. All the other arti- 
 cles of revealed religion are but so many corollaries 
 necessarily flowing from these great master prin- 
 ciples. A profession of belief in the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, as performing their re- 
 spective offices in the economy of human salvation 
 is, therefore, inscribed upon the very portals of 
 the Christian church, and every one, who would 
 enter into its sacred inclosure, is recpiired to set 
 his seal to that declaration, as expressing a correct 
 epitome of his faith. Unfolding this brief confes- 
 sion, and drawing it out into those more definite 
 and specific principles of Christian doctrine, which 
 it involves, the church requiies of the candidate for 
 baptism a distinct avowal of his belief in all the 
 leading articles of revealed truth. All those, 
 
213 
 
 therefore, who have been received into the church 
 through this medium, are engaged by the most 
 solemn obligations to receive and cordially to em- 
 brace the truths of the everlasting gospel. They are 
 bound to acknowledo-e with an entire and unre- 
 served acquiescence, the *great doctrines which 
 form the foundation, and bind together in firm and 
 beauteous harmony the superstructure of Christian 
 faith and character — the original fall, and the con- 
 sequent guilt and depravity of man — the atoning 
 sacrifice, and the justifying righteousness of the 
 Redeemer — the regeneration of the soul through 
 the influences of the Holy Spirit — adoption into 
 the family of God, and a course of progressive 
 sanctification, which will then only be consum- 
 mated, when that which is mortal has been swal- 
 lowed up of life. These and other collateral prin- 
 ciples of the Christian system they stand com- 
 mitted by their baptismal engagement cordially 
 and unhesitatingly to embrace. The scheme of 
 belief into which they have been initiated, and 
 which they continue professedly to hold, binds 
 them to an unequivocal recognition of all the ele- 
 mentary and component parts, which are essential 
 to the completeness and efficiency of the Christian 
 covenant. Every individual among us, who has 
 undergone the rite of baptism, until he has openly 
 abandoned his profession, must consider himself as 
 pledged, in maintenance of his consistency, to re- 
 ceive, with the fidiest assent, and the most perfect 
 conviction the totality of the evangelical system ; 
 and this, be it observed, is no unimportant part of 
 those practical obligations, for they are assuredly 
 practical in their bearing and influence, which the 
 
214 
 
 sacrament of baptism involves. And before we 
 proceed a step farther, it may be proper and ser- 
 viceable for us to inquire whether this preliminary 
 department of the jjaptismal ordinance has yet 
 been realized in our own character— whether we 
 have received into our hearts the truth of the gospel 
 in all its fulness and entireness — in all the length 
 and breadth, the height and depth of its systematic 
 symmetry, consistency, and beauty. Have we 
 received that truth in the love of it"? Have we 
 used our best endeavours, in dependence on divine 
 aid, to discover and apprehend it^ Have we cast 
 off' all our prejudices, and broken down those 
 strons: holds of falsehood and error, which ob- 
 structed its entrance into our minds 1 Have we 
 with the simplicity and teachableness of little 
 children opened our understanding and our heart for 
 its admission 1 Have we sought for it as for hid 
 treasure'? Have we dug for it with candour, 
 diligence, and fervent prayer, in those mines of 
 scriptural statement, where, like the precious ore 
 or the sparkhng diamond, it lies imbedded and 
 concealed from heedless eyes 1 Does it form the 
 most valued furniture of our mind — replenishing 
 the whole capacity of our intellect — forming the 
 subject of our most delightful and animating con- 
 templations — occupying the most prominent place 
 in our memories, and consecrating by its hallowed 
 presence, the retired sanctuary of our thoughts ^ 
 Such a reception of the truth as it is in Jesus, is 
 unquestionably obligatory upon every man, who 
 has taken upon him the vows of the covenant. 
 
 The knowledge of the gospel and a speculative 
 or intellectual assent unto the gospel as true, are 
 
215 
 
 not all that is required to meet the obhgations 
 which are imposed by baptism. As belonging to the 
 same class, therefore, we would mention the dili- 
 gent use of all the appointed means of grace , and 
 of spiritual improvement. When we consider the 
 variety, the extent, and the solemnity of the de- 
 mands which this initiatory symbol of the Christian 
 profession involves, when we bear in mind that it 
 embraces within the scope of its requirements the 
 w^hole range of the knowledge and the practice of 
 true religion, so far as it is necessary that it should 
 be embodied in the character, we must readily ac- 
 knowledge that no ordinary or languid efforts will 
 avail to rise to a level with the duties which it en- 
 tails. If it be an easy thing to be an experimental, 
 practical, and consistent Christian — if it be the 
 spontaneous and unaided result of the inherent 
 tendencies and susceptibilities of the human mind 
 to know, to believe, to do, and to abstain from 
 doing, all that is enjoined or all that is forbidden 
 in the record of the divine will, then may we be 
 exempted from the necessity of a careful and dili- 
 gent use of all the means, which divine wisdom 
 and goodness h^ive instituted for the communica- 
 tion of such additional light and influence as may 
 be needful to render the man of God perfect, 
 throughly furnished unto every good work. But 
 the very fact of our having undertaken in our bap- 
 tismal covenant so much more than we are natu- 
 rally able or willing to perform, and of our having 
 been engaged to responsibilities so far surpassing 
 the reach of our own unaided faculties, renders it 
 obligatory upon us to avail ourselves of all those 
 channels and instruments of divine appointment 
 
216 
 
 through which the requisite assistance may be 
 conveyed. As we are solemnly bound to realize 
 certain ends of spiritual knowledge, affection, and 
 and habitual practice, we are doubtless bound by 
 equal obligation to the conscientious and unre- 
 mitted use of the means, by which alone they can 
 be attained. And among these, with special re- 
 ference to the illumination of the understanding, 
 and the direction of the judgment upon the great 
 principles of the Christian faith, the study of the 
 Scriptures must be considered as occupying a pro- 
 minent place. The man who has been admitted 
 into the family of God by the door of baptism, 
 and yet habitually neglects to look into the book 
 of God, which was designed to be the directory 
 and guide, the lamp for the feet, and the spring of 
 spiritual refreshment and consolation to all the 
 members of that household, acts in the same man- 
 ner as the child who would never condescend to 
 look into a code of instruction, admonition, and 
 encouragement, which his father had drawn up for 
 his benefit. The Bible is the great statute-book of 
 the church of God, containing a complete and 
 authentic developement of those mighty princi- 
 ples of holiness, righteousness, and goodness, 
 which constitute the pillars of the divine govern- 
 ment, It is one of the most stupendous and last- 
 ing monuments of Jehovah's love towards man- 
 kind. It is a record inscribed by the pen of his 
 Eternal Spirit, and the great doctrines, which it 
 teaches and inculcates will continue to be in force, 
 when the vast volume of heaven and earth, whose 
 every page is so richly emblazoned with the mani- 
 festations of his power, and wisdom, and benevo- 
 
217 
 
 lence will have been wrapped up and have passed 
 away like a scroll. This inestimable treasury of 
 truth, this standing memorial of the mind of Jeho- 
 vah, it is our paramount duty as professing Chris- 
 tians, diligently and constantly to search. It is 
 the book of knowledge, to which we must have 
 recourse for light in darkness, and for guidance in 
 perplexity. It is the book of principles, from 
 which we must learn to draw forth rules for the 
 regulation of our conduct through all the varying 
 scenes of life. It is the book of facts, which brings 
 most impressively before our view the whole history 
 of God's dealings with his people ; and above all 
 it is the book, which testifies of Christ and his 
 salvation, and on this ground alone it ought to be 
 precious in the eyes, and dear to the affections of 
 all who are called by his name. 
 
 To render the study of the scriptures effectual, 
 however, for those purposes of instruction and 
 edification, which they were designed to answer, 
 it is necessary that it should be combined with 
 fervent and devout prayer. It is the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit vouchsafed in answer to prayer, 
 which impregnates the letter of Scripture with a 
 quickening and life-giving energy. To one, who 
 has been adopted, by covenant engagement, into 
 the family of God, and bears by external profes- 
 sion the relation of a child towards Him, the exer- 
 cise of prayer in all its forms of supplication or 
 thanksgiving ought to be considered a natural and 
 congenial employ. It is the most direct medium 
 of intercourse with his Father, who is in heaven. 
 It is the incense, which ascends in most grateful 
 odour to the throne above, and descends from 
 
218 
 
 thence in most rich and copious supplies of grace 
 and strength. It rises up in a glow of ardent gra- 
 titude and affection, and revisits the bosom from 
 which it issued, as a gale from the celestial para- 
 dise, with fragrance and healing on its wings ; so 
 that even if it should fail to be recognized as a 
 duty, it may still be regarded as a rich and inesti- 
 mable privilege. 
 
 Nor does the obligation rest in these more 
 retired exercises. With the habits of waiting 
 upon God, and seeking his blessing through the 
 medium of his written word, and of private prayer 
 must be associated a regular and devout attend- 
 ance upon the public duties of the sanctuary. It 
 is one of the specific charges laid by the church on 
 those, who enter upon the responsible office of a 
 sponsor, that they shall call upon those, for whom 
 they answer to hear sermons, and see that they 
 learn the great rudiments of Christian faith and 
 practice as epitomized in the creed, the Lord's 
 prayer, and the ten commandments, in order, as 
 we are told, that they may know and believe all 
 things, which Christians ought to know and be- 
 lieve for their soul's health. What is, therefore, 
 to be thought of those persons, who so completely 
 forget the covenant engagement made in their be- 
 half, that they habitually and uniformly neglect 
 every one of these means ; who know not what it is 
 to read the Scriptures — to pray, nor with any re- 
 gularity and seriousness of purpose and deport- 
 ment, to repair unto the house of the Lord in order 
 to meet Him in the high places of his sanctuary "? 
 Such persons obviously forget the profession which 
 they have made, and set at nought the means 
 
219 
 
 which Jehovah in his boundless compassion hath 
 estabUshed for the express purpose of affording 
 them the aid of which they stand in need. 
 
 In religion every thing must tend to practice, 
 and if the sacrament of baptism imposes an obli- 
 gation to make an entire and unreserved recognition 
 of the fundamental principles of the Christian 
 faith, and to make a diligent and conscientious use 
 of all the means of grace, it is with a view of lead- 
 ing to a great practical result. We remark, there- 
 fore, that the practical obligations of baptism em- 
 brace an entire Renunciation of the world in all 
 its pomps and vanities. This, indeed, is one of the 
 most prominent and palpable of all the vows and 
 engagements of that covenant. The world in its 
 present state of almost universal rebellion against 
 God, forms an interest embracing a numberless 
 variety of objects, totally at variance with his 
 service. He who would faithfully and zealously 
 devote himself unto God, therefore, must come to 
 a firm and unequivocal decision to renounce the 
 world. Simultaneously to serve both is utterly 
 impossible. He that would be a cordial and effec- 
 tive friend of the one, must inevitably be an enemy 
 of the other. The course of conduct which they 
 respectively prescribe, is so diametrically opposite, 
 that it is impossible to evince a practical attach- 
 ment to the one, without a proportionate abandon- 
 ment of the claims of the other. The world, in 
 the theological sense of the term, and as expres- 
 sive of that complex mass of feelings, habits, and 
 pursuits, which characterize those, who live only 
 for present interests and enjoyments, is invariably 
 represented in Scripture as set in hostile array 
 
220 
 
 against the church. So decidedly and unequivo- 
 cally is this the case, that St. John does not hesi- 
 tate to affirm, that the love of the world is absolute- 
 ly incompatible with the love of God. It is not 
 without reason, therefore, that the church requires 
 of those, who are admitted into union with it by 
 baptism, a virtual pledge, and if they have arrived 
 at years of discretion, an actual pledge, that they 
 will renounce the vain pomp and glory of a world 
 that lieth in wickedness. Hence the symbol of the 
 cross, which was inscribed at the baptismal font 
 upon the brow of the professed Christian, is a 
 standard lifted up by the Spirit of the Lord 
 against that flood of ungodliness and sin, with 
 which the world is impetuously carried forward to 
 destruction. 
 
 Let me ask my readers, and in the course of 
 this discussion I have been frequently led to urge 
 appeals of this description to their consciences — 
 let me ask them how far this momentous and com- 
 prehensive obligation has been practically recog- 
 nized in their own character and conduct. You 
 have vowed in the presence of God, and amidst the 
 solemnities of the sanctuary, that you would re- 
 nounce and abjure the principles, the maxims, and 
 the prevailing practices of this evil world 1: Have 
 you ever \^et commenced, and in any degree re- 
 alized the actual recognition of these engagements'? 
 Have you ever yet cast off the yoke of allegiance 
 to the authority of worldly custom and example '? 
 When you have seen a multitude running to do 
 evil, have you recollected those bonds of the cove- 
 nant, to which you are pledged, or have you al- 
 lowed yourselves to be dragged along by the im- 
 
221 
 
 petiis of the muddy and polluted torrent, which 
 bore onward by its force so many willing and de- 
 luded votaries 1 I would descend to the several 
 gradations of worldly sports and am^usements — to 
 the varied shades of that dark colouring, which in 
 the view of the Christian, and in the light of Scrip- 
 ture, still rests upon the face of secular society. 
 I would refer to the sabbath excursions and con- 
 vivialities — to the amusements of the theatre, the 
 race-course,and the gaming-table, and the innumer- 
 able train of evils, some of them of the darkest and 
 most malignant kind, which every man of reason 
 and reflection readily acknowledges to be closely 
 associated with them ; and I would ask you, how 
 your conduct has hitherto stood in relation to some 
 of these. To bring forward the practice of the 
 world as sanctioning these habits, is at once to 
 confess yourselves to be subject to an influence, 
 and to be in league with an enemy, which you are 
 solemnly engaged to renounce. Unless declara- 
 tions made, and vows pledged at your introduction 
 into the fellowship of the church be words without 
 meaning, and engagements without corresponding 
 obligations, you are unquestionably bound to re- 
 linquish every principle, every maxim, every pur- 
 suit, which is palpably at variance with the spirit 
 and practical bearing of the covenant, which re- 
 ceived in the symbol of the cross the seal of its 
 ratification at your baptism. It was to deliver us 
 from this evil world, as the apostle emphatically 
 expresses it, that Christ gave Himself for our sins. 
 And this object will be realized only in proportion 
 as, in fulfilment of our baptismal vows, we are 
 enabled to cast off the pomps and vanities, as well 
 
222 
 
 as the grosser alx)mination8, and the more direct 
 impieties of that world. 
 
 And this leads me to remark as another practical 
 obligation connected with the ordinance of baptism, 
 that it imperatively requires the crucifixion of the 
 flesh in its affections and lusts. So far as any 
 propensities of our nature in the mode, or the 
 measure, or the circumstances of their indulgence 
 are manifestly inconsistent with the will of God, 
 and hostile to our spiritual interests, we stand 
 pledged to God and to the church, as invested 
 with the responsibilities and external privileges of 
 the christian profession, unequivocally to renounce 
 them. They are the lusts of the flesh, which in 
 the present fallen and disordered condition of our 
 nature the Apostle specifically declares to war 
 against the soul. An essential part of the very 
 import of baptism as a sacramental emblem, as has 
 been already shewn, is to afford a symbolical ex- 
 hibition of a death unto sin and of a resurrection 
 unto a life of holiness and righteousness ; and the 
 practical obligations of the ordinance must doubt- 
 less run parallel with its typical design. Viewed 
 in this light baptism in fact brings its subject with- 
 in the range of all the demands of the gospel, and 
 of all the requisitions and prohibitions of the mo- 
 ral law. It spreads its claims over the whole man 
 in all the principles, affections and habits of his 
 intellectual and moral being. It requires him, 
 and so far as he is consistent, it binds him to mor- 
 tify the old man of corrupt nature in every element 
 of his power — influence and affection — to nail 
 unto the cross of Christ every sinful propensity — 
 every carnal desire and every corrupt tendency, 
 
223 
 
 and to bring every thought as the source of feel- 
 ing and action into captivity to the obedience of 
 Him. 
 
 And with this and indeed as forming an essen- 
 tial part of this process of crucifying the flesh 
 must be combined a course of strenuous activity in 
 doing the will and in promoting the glory of God. 
 Our christian profession is identified in our baptis- 
 mal service, with following the example of our Sa- 
 viour Christ; and as his life was one unbroken 
 series of acts of combined piety and benevolence — 
 acts incorporating in the most striking and im- 
 pressive form, the principles of the most fervent 
 devotion — the sublimest purity and the most per- 
 fect and extensive beneficence, those, who have 
 been baptised in his name are unquestionably re- 
 quired habitually to labour to tread in his steps, 
 and to abound in those fruits of holiness and 
 brotherly kindness, which are equally conducive 
 to the illustration of the glory of God and to the 
 advancement of the happiness of man. To follow 
 the example of Christ, to keep God's holy will 
 and commandments as they were kept in his spot- 
 less and unsullied life, to regard every faculty and 
 affection as sacred unto Him — to consider every 
 opportunity as well as every endowment as a talent 
 put in trust for his service, to present, in short, the 
 whole man including all the powers of body and 
 mind, and emerging in all the freshness, purity and 
 energy of regenerated nature as a living sacrifice, 
 holy and acceptable unto Him— these are the 
 highest triumphs of Christian principle — these are 
 the noblest and most perfect attainments of the 
 behever here below. And these are all, doubtless, 
 
224 
 
 virtually included in the extensive range of the 
 obligations of the baptismal covenant. 
 
 Lastly it is to be observed that the initiatory 
 rite of baptism involves a solemn obligation to ra- 
 tify the covenant then made, by a regular and 
 faithful attendance upon the confirmatory rite of 
 the sacrament of the Lord's supper. These two 
 institutions have a natural connection in the eco- 
 nomy of the christian covenant. He, who has been 
 made partaker of the first becomes thereby fede- 
 rally entitled to the benefits of the second. And 
 he, who disqualifies himself by his impenitence, 
 unbelief and impiety for participating of the sym- 
 bols of the body and blood of Christ, or neglects it 
 through heedlessness and indifference, virtually 
 forfeits the privileges, wherewith he was invested 
 at his baptism. The one was designed to be a 
 preparation and introduction into the mysteries of 
 the other. The symbol of baptism was affixed to 
 the forehead in infancy ; it is left to mature years 
 to determine whether it shall be ratified and sealed 
 in blood, or whether it shall be abandoned to be 
 utterly obliterated and effaced through forgetful- 
 ness and neglect. The sacrament of the Lord's 
 supper, affords a delightful recognition of the 
 validity and importance of that of baptism, and 
 united together they form most instructive and 
 significant emblems of that mingled stream of 
 water and blood, which issued forth with cleansing 
 and atoning efficacy from the Redeemer's wounded 
 side. 
 
 These I consider to be the leading practical 
 obligations involved in baptism. And well, in- 
 deed, may we exclaim in the view of them, who is 
 
225 
 
 sufficient for these things'? But let them be 
 surveyed in connection with the privileges which 
 are pledged in tlie same ordinance, with those gra- 
 cious engagements of spiritual help and strength, 
 which enter into the very essence of the institu- 
 tion ; and they will no longer appear impractica- 
 ble. The ordinance will then be seen in all the 
 beauty, harmony, and proportion of its spiritual 
 bearing as a divine appointment. It will then 
 appear to be based upon the authority of God — to 
 be a depository of most important and varied 
 truth — to be a seal of privileges and spiritual ad- 
 vantages of the highest order, and to be a law of 
 practical obligation — a rule of conduct embracing 
 within its extensive range the whole field of the 
 Christian character and conduct. Let it thus be 
 realized in our perceptions, and incorporated into 
 our character — let us learn thus to appreciate its 
 benefits, and to exemplify its obligations ; and 
 then, instead of a lifeless and unmeaning ceremony, 
 it will become unto us a living Epistle of Christ, 
 bearing, inscribed in indelible characters, our title 
 to an imperishable inheritance. 
 
PART FOURTH. 
 
 THE 
 
 ORDINANCE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Design of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 There is something peculiarly sacred in the com- 
 mands of a dying friend. Under such circumstances 
 every communication of thought or desire is in- 
 vested with a solemnity — every intimation comes 
 with a weight — every expression is watched with 
 a solicitude — every accent is caught with an eager- 
 ness, which in most cases are found to enter into 
 the deepest recesses of the mind, and to leave an 
 indelible impression upon the heart. The injunc- 
 tions and admonitions, which, coming from one in 
 the enjoyment of health, and in the prospect of a 
 long succession of future opportunities, might have 
 been treated with indifference and contempt, when 
 littered by the lips of one, who is seen to be on the 
 point of taking his final leave of earth, are asso- 
 ciated in the mind with an authority and a majesty. 
 
227 
 
 which it is deemed ahnost impious to disregard. 
 Both parties are then in a condition most favor- 
 able for the production of the desn-ed effect — the 
 one to impart, the other to receive instruction or 
 reproof. The directions then given seem to be 
 addressed by an inhabitant of another world, and 
 to bear something of the character and solemnity 
 of a voice issuing from the tomb. To neglect 
 them, to treat them with levity and unconcern, is 
 unavoidably felt to be a violation offered to the 
 dead. The last wish, which trembled upon the 
 lips, or was faintly breathed by the parting spirit 
 of a relative or friend, is treasured up with a care 
 and a tenderness in the inmost sanctuary of the 
 heart, and is dwelt upon with a fondness of pen- 
 sive and melancholy recollection, which cause the 
 observance of it to the utmost practicable extent to 
 be felt as one of the first and most sacred duties of 
 life. To a mind under due regulation and control, 
 and possessed of the ordinary sympathies of hu- 
 manity, it would assuredly be no trifling sacrifice, 
 no subordinate consideration, which would justify 
 the neglect of such an injunction. 
 
 And if such a command uttered by one, who is 
 about to yield up his spirit in obedience to the 
 universal law of nature, and without any view to 
 the benefit of those, whom he addresses, be at- 
 tended with an authority and a power of obligation, 
 which few would be found lightly to disregard, 
 with how much greater force and impressiveness 
 must it come from Him, who was about to surren- 
 der his life for the deliverance, and from a pure 
 and disinterested love, of those, whom He request- 
 ed to keep up such a memorial of his sacrifice. If 
 
 p 2 
 
228 
 
 dying wishes, even where there was no absolute 
 right to command, and no positive obhgation to 
 obey, be in general held so sacred and binding by 
 those to whom they were expressed, with what 
 scrupulous regard — with what affectionate grati- 
 tude and veneration ought His last injunction to 
 be observed by his friends and professed followers, 
 whose claims upon their remembrance were so 
 paramount and affecting. " Do this in remem- 
 brance of me," was the brief direction addressed 
 by our blessed Saviour to his disciples, as he par- 
 took of his last supper with them just before his 
 crucifixion. In this pathetic appeal He directs 
 them, and in them his followers to the end of time, 
 to retain a memorial of that painful and ignomini- 
 ous death, which He was so speedily to undergo, 
 by partaking, at stated periods, of bread and wine 
 as the specific emblems of his body and blood. 
 With that woeful tragedy, of which He was so 
 soon to be the subject, vividly depicted to his 
 eye — with a spirit torn and overwhelmed with the 
 most agonizing conflicts — with a heart overflow- 
 ing with the tenderest sympathy, and his counten- 
 ance beaming with the purest benignity and 
 loving kindness, He enjoins it upon them as his 
 last request — " Do this in remembrance of me." 
 
 This was the form of institution, in which the 
 ordinance of the Lord's supper was established ; 
 and in compliance with this specific command the 
 church of Christ at first adopted, and has continued 
 at suitable intervals to celebrate, this holy rite for 
 eighteen centuries. In our own division of that 
 church, the observance of this affecting ceremony 
 is an essential part of her discipline, nor does she 
 
229 
 
 recognize as her accredited members those, who 
 having arrived at years of maturity, and with suit- 
 able opportunities within their reach, do not ratify 
 their profession, by this additional seal of the 
 Christian covenant. In her earliest and best days 
 it is recorded, that the ordinance of the Lord's 
 supper was administered every successive sabbath 
 within her walls. (i^) Her anxiety that her mem- 
 bers should not neglect and disobey this affecting 
 command of their dying master, is amply testified 
 in that simple, fervent, and truly devotional ap- 
 peal, which she has directed her ministers to read 
 whenever the celebration of the ordinance is an- 
 nounced. 
 
 We would not, however, by any means urge 
 men heedlessly and indiscriminately to rush into 
 these sacred mysteries. We would not invite any 
 profane — any impenitent — any unbelieving — any 
 unholy person to put forth an unhallowed hand to 
 touch these symbols of the covenant. The eu- 
 charist is evidently an ordinance intended exclu- 
 sively for believers, and while it affords every en- 
 couragement to the timid, the sincere, and the 
 consistent professor of the Christian faith, it warns 
 the rash, the inconsiderate, the self-righteous, and 
 above all, the practically impious and immoral, 
 that they presume not in that state to appear at 
 this celestial banquet, as they would not aggravate 
 their present guilt, and expose themselves to a 
 more overwhelming visitation of penal vengeance. 
 With a view, therefore, of affording such as may 
 not have hitherto seriously considered this import- 
 ant subject, the means of forming a correct judg- 
 ment of its nature and character I propose to eoii'- 
 
230 
 
 sider — first, The Design of this Ordinance — se- 
 condly, Its universal Obligation as binding upon 
 professing Christians — thirdly. The Preparation 
 necessary for its due and suitable reception — and 
 fourthly, The Benefits calculated to result from it 
 unto those, by whom it is worthily received. The 
 present chapter will be devoted to the first of these 
 points. 
 
 I deem it the more necessary to inquire into 
 the Design of this sacrament as originally insti- 
 tuted by the gracious x\uthor and Founder of our 
 religion, as there is doubtless much ignorance and 
 misapprehension prevalent in the world upon this 
 part of the subject. Many persons imagine that 
 the ordinance of the Lord's supper was appointed, 
 not as a means of grace generally, and the efficacy 
 of which was to be entirely dependent upon the 
 faith and the other necessary qualifications of him, 
 who partook of it, but as a direct instrument of 
 salvation, as some mysterious charm attended with 
 a species of talismanic power, which seldom or 
 never failed to accompany it. Hence in the darker 
 ages of the church, when the lamp of scriptural 
 and evangelical truth shone but faintly and dimly 
 through the gloom, it was perverted to the basest 
 and most pernicious purposes of a corrupt and de- 
 grading superstition. C^^) In connection with the 
 sacrament of baptism, it came to be regarded as a 
 secure pledge of salvation. It was, therefore, 
 very frequently put off, as indeed in too many 
 instances is still the case, to the closing scene of 
 life ; and then it was received, sometimes after the 
 functions of physical and intellectual nature had 
 almost entirely ceased, as an adequate atonement 
 
231 
 
 for all past transgressions, and, in the impious 
 phraseology of the times, as the viaticum, the 
 travelling provisions, by the strength of which the 
 soul was to be sustained in its journey from earth 
 to heaven. And although the same language and 
 the same practice do not now prevail in all the 
 grossness of ignorant and avowed expectation, yet 
 it may well be a matter of serious and devout con- 
 sideration, whether the spirit of that fatal delusion 
 be not still abroad among ourselves to a most 
 grievous and melancholy extent. It is a fact too 
 obvious and notorious to require any specific proof 
 that those, who have been accustomed habitually 
 to neglect, and perhaps have never received this 
 memorial of a Saviour's love, when the hour of 
 dissolution appears to draw nigh, are frequently 
 anxious to partake of it, and leave no room to 
 doubt that they secretly regard it as possessed of 
 some expiatory and saving virtue. Thus the 
 sacrament, instead of being used as a symbol to 
 direct the mind to Him, whose dying love it so 
 strikingly exhibits, becomes the occasion of turn- 
 ing the eyes away from Him, and concentrating 
 the attention upon itself as virtually superseding 
 the need of Him. We mean not to intimate that 
 the celebration of this sacred rite, in the prospect 
 of speedy dissolution, is not in the highest degree 
 suitable in itself, and, if mixed with faith and love 
 in the reception, calculated to afford the purest and 
 most exalted consolation. It is only when it is 
 viewed in the light of an atonement, and received 
 without an adequate preparation of the heart as a 
 passport into eternal glory, that it becomes a 
 source of dangerous error and delusion. 
 
232 
 
 And if such be the misapprehensions, which 
 are widely diffused respecting this importantjques- 
 tion, it becomes of the utmost consequence that we 
 should entertain correct notions of its primary 
 purpose and design. In illustration of this point 
 we proceed to remark, therefore, that it was insti- 
 tuted by our adorable Redeemer, as a Seal of the 
 Christian covenant. In this respect it occupies a 
 place perfectly analogous to that of baptism in the 
 great economy of our salvation. Every compact 
 between two parties must have some sign — some 
 external and ostensible ceremony of ratification, in 
 order to render it valid and efficacious. In entering 
 into any federal arrangement, there are facts re- 
 cognized, there are obligations incurred, there are 
 pledges given, without which the whole scheme 
 would be nugatory. Thus in the gracious cove- 
 nant, which Jehovah hath made with his people, 
 there are certain seals appointed, which He deemed 
 necessary to give it force, and in receiving these 
 they may be considered as executing that deed, 
 by which they pledge themselves to the observ- 
 ance of all the demands and requisitions of the 
 treaty. 
 
 In the sacrament of the Lord's supper there is 
 an admirable suitableness and congruity to answer 
 these important purposes. In celebrating it there 
 is a direct and unreserved acknowledgment on the 
 part of man, that he is a poor and miserable sin- 
 ner. There is an evident recognition of the guilt, 
 in which he is involved, of the danger to which he 
 is exposed, and of the consequent necessity of 
 ^ee'm^ for refuge unto the hope set before him. 
 There is moreover, implied in it a cordial belief 
 
233 
 
 of the efficacy of the blood of Christ— of the 
 adequacy of his atonement — of the perfection of 
 his righteousness — of the completeness of the sal- 
 vation wrought out by Him — and of the availing 
 power of his intercession. The sacrament, when 
 viewed in this light, insteail of being a barren and 
 formal ceremony, becomes instinct with life, with 
 truth, and with hope. Instead of a mere combina- 
 tion of lifeless and material elements, it becomes a 
 system of vital doctrines — an epitome of the gos- 
 pel — a condensed summary of the stipulations and 
 provisions of the everlasting covenant — a symbolic 
 representation of the great principles of equity, 
 loving kindness, and compassion upon which man 
 is to be restored into his Maker's favour and 
 peace — an autograph of the Most High, in which 
 are traced in characters formed with a Saviour's 
 blood the terms, upon which sin may be forgiven, 
 and the soul everlastingly saved. 
 
 In this holy institution there is a striking and 
 impressive exhibition of the various blessings and 
 privileges of the Christian covenant. It confirms, 
 on the part of Jehovah, the gracious character of 
 the gospel as a saving scheme. It brings to view, 
 in all its transcendent glory and excellency, the 
 benignity of that scheme as originating in the 
 counsels of eternity, and as involving the surren- 
 der and voluntary sacrifice of the only begotten 
 Son of God. It displays in a most interesting and 
 engaging point of view, the sublime attributes of 
 Deity, as combined together in its formation and 
 accomplishment — the compassion which suggested 
 it — the wisdom which devised it — the faithfulness 
 which unalterably maintained its j)ur})Ose, and the 
 
234 
 
 power which carried it into effect. It exhibits in 
 a most marvellous and exhilarating light, the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in so readily enter- 
 ing into the views of divine mercy, and in so 
 cheerfully engaging in a scheme, which involved 
 such unexampled humiliation, suffering, and self- 
 denial. It expresses in a figure of the most signi- 
 ficant and comprehensive import, the incalculable 
 treasures of divine grace. It brings to view the 
 most prominent and important of those riches of 
 Christ, which in their full and entire amount are 
 unsearchable. It gives some some faint idea of 
 the length and breadth — the height and depth of 
 that love, which passeth knowledge. It unfolds to 
 the eye of faith the bright muster-roll of its pri- 
 vileges, as ratified by the blood of the covenant. 
 It' causes to converge into a focus of more than 
 ordinary intensity, the sun-beams of everlasting 
 love, as collected in the person of a crucified Re- 
 deemer, and thus pledges the inviolable truth of 
 those promises, which in Christ are yea and amen 
 unto all them that believe. 
 
 Besides, however, that the ordinance of the 
 Lord's supper seals the blessings of the covenant 
 on the part of God, and confirms the title of be- 
 lievers to the enjoyment of its saving provisions, 
 it also brings into the clearest light, and affords a 
 virtual acknowledgment of the state of man as a 
 sinner, and his obligations as a professing Chris- 
 tian. In this sacred rite there is a direct confes- 
 sion on the part of man, that he is a fallen and 
 guilty creature — that he has sinned, and come 
 short of the glory of God — that he stands con- 
 demned by the holy law of God — that of himself 
 
235 
 
 he is utterly unable to offer it any adequate satis- 
 faction — that he is therefore desirous of fleeing 
 unto Jesus as the only hope set before him— of 
 being washed in the fountain of his blood, and of 
 being clothed in his spotless righteousness. He 
 sets his seal to that covenant, by the tenor of which 
 he stands pledged to surrender himself unto God 
 as one, who is alive from the dead — as one who 
 has been bought with the inestimable price of the 
 blood of Christ — as one, who is no longer to live 
 unto himself, but unto Him that died for him and 
 rose again. At every renewed participation of 
 these sacred symbols of the covenant he takes, as 
 it were, a fresh oath — he adds a fresh signature to 
 the instrument by which he is bound to yield him- 
 self unto God, to obey his laws, to do his will, 
 and to serve Him faithfully in the gospel of his 
 Son. Thus it is that the sacrament is a Seal of 
 the Christian covenant — affording an outward 
 pledge and confirmation of the divine promises of 
 pardon, peace, and salvation, through the blood 
 of Christ, as the true paschal lamb of his church, 
 and binding the believer to a cheerful and unre- 
 served compliance with all the obligations and re- 
 quisitions of the same covenant. 
 
 Independently, however, of the general design 
 of this holy institution, it was doubtless intended 
 specifically to afford an Emblematic representa- 
 tion of the body and blood of Christ. It is, in- 
 deed, an invariable characteristic of a sacrament, 
 that it should bear a close analogy to the thing, 
 which it is intended to exhibit — that the outward 
 and visible sign should naturally lead the mind to 
 the consideration of the inward and spiritual grace. 
 
236 
 
 In the sacrament of baptism, for example, the ex- 
 ternal washing of water bears an evident and most 
 appropriate reference to that internal ablution 
 through the influences of the Holy Spirit, in 
 virtue of which the soul is purified from those 
 moral defilements, with which it has become so 
 deeply stained by sin. In the same manner the 
 bread and wine, which form the material elements 
 of the other sacrament, are obviously designed to 
 symbolize the two leading constituents of that 
 body, which was offered up on the cross for the 
 salvation of mankind. In the very distribution of 
 the sacramental emblems, indeed, our blessed Sa- 
 viour Himself most forcibly expressed and esta- 
 blished this representative connection, declaring in 
 the language of bold and striking metaphor, as 
 he brake and dispensed the bread — " this is my 
 body, which is broken for you;" and as He took 
 the cup, " this is my blood ;" or as the apostle 
 slightly varies the phraseology, " this cup is the 
 New Testament in my blood." In other words, 
 the wine contained in this cup affords a lively and 
 impressive representation of that blood, by which 
 the new testament or covenant is to be ratified. 
 So strong, indeed, is the figure here employed, 
 and so close is the analogy between the emblems, 
 and the objects intended to be represented by 
 them, that the church of Rome has founded and 
 upholds one of the most preposterous and irrati- 
 onal of all its heresies — the transmutation of the 
 bread and wine into the real body and blood of the 
 Saviour, upon the literal interpretation of this 
 language. Such an application of the terms, how- 
 ever, is not less at variance with Scripture, than it 
 
2ST 
 
 is contrary to the most obvious dictates of reason. 
 It is not less false in religion, than it is absurd in 
 philosophy. 
 
 The sacramental symbols are indeed designed, 
 and are most eminently calculated to bring vi- 
 vidly before the mind the tragical process of the 
 crucifixion of our blessed Saviour. The substance 
 of the consecrated elements of bread and wine 
 represents his flesh and blood. The breaking of 
 the former, was intended to exhibit the lacerations 
 of his sacred body, and the effusion of the latter, 
 represents with equal propriety and force, the 
 shedding of his most precious blood. In this, 
 therefore, above any other ordinance of religion, 
 the Lord Jesus is set forth evidently as crucified 
 among us. In this it was originally intended that 
 believers should innocently crucify unto themselves 
 the Son of God afresh, by contemplating his body 
 and blood through the medium of their symbolic 
 representations ; that their hearts might thus be- 
 come more deeply impressed with the view of his 
 agony upon the cross. 
 
 Another consideration included in the general 
 design of this sacred institution was, that it might 
 remain to the end of time, an affecting Remem- 
 hrancer of the Saviour's dying love. Viewed in 
 this light there is something peculiarly appropriate 
 and touching to the heart in this divine ceremonial. 
 The adorable Saviour was now seated with his 
 disciples at a banquet of holy love. They were ce- 
 lebrating the feast of the passover — a feast com- 
 memorative of the effusion of that blood of the 
 lamb, which being sprinkled over the door posts 
 of their houses, protected the Israelites from the 
 
238 
 
 ravages of the destroying angel . In the immediate 
 prospect of the shedding of his own blood as a 
 ransom for many, the Redeemer took that oppor- 
 tunity of establishing a similar institution as a 
 distinguishing characteristic of his church and 
 people, for the purpose of keeping in everlasting 
 remembrance that scene of bitter agony and death, 
 upon which he was now about to enter. He was 
 desirous that an event so deeply affecting his own 
 person, so strikingly illustrative of his compassion 
 and love, and so interesting and important in its 
 bearing upon the deliverance and salvation of man- 
 kind, should not be merely recorded in his church 
 as a matter of history. He was anxious that it 
 should not merely be handed down from age to age 
 by traditionary communication, or stand inscribed 
 among the historical facts of revelation ; but He 
 wished it to be embodied in something, which was 
 more palpable and affecting — something which 
 would more forcibly and directly appeal to the 
 sensitive part of our nature — something which 
 would afford a greater security of a frequent and 
 exclusive direction of the thoughts and feehngs of 
 his people to the scene of his dying love. He 
 therefore commanded them to keep in memory that 
 his precious death, until his coming again by the 
 periodical observance of a sacred feast, such as 
 they were then celebrating, and through the medi- 
 um of those elements of bread and wine, which He 
 was then dispensing. While the hearts of his dis- 
 ciples were now warmed with the glowing sympa- 
 thies of social intercourse and reverential affection, 
 He addressed them in language of inimitable sim- 
 plicity and pathos — " Do this in remembrance of 
 
23^ 
 
 me." " It is the last time that I shall have an op- 
 portunity of partaking with you of this fruit of the 
 vine, before I drink of that cup of suffering, which 
 is before me. My hour is rapidly drawing near. 
 Soon the body, which is now before you will be 
 broken, its temples will be lacerated with the 
 thorny crown, its side will be laid open with the 
 spear, its hands and its feet will be pierced and 
 nailed to the tree. Soon the vital current, which 
 now runs through my veins and warms my heart 
 in love and affection towards you, will be stream- 
 ing over the cross, being shed for you and for many 
 for the remission of sins. But I have one request 
 to make of you — I have one last and solemn injunc- 
 tion to urge upon you— Do this in remembrance 
 of me. Let this simple token of affectionate re- 
 collection never cease to distinguish those, who 
 call themselves by my name. Let this be a stand- 
 ing memorial of my death, and a pledge of bro- 
 therly kindness and mutual sympathy among my 
 followers throughout the remotest annals of my 
 church." 
 
 Such appear to have been the general design, 
 and the specific objects of the original institution 
 of the Lord's Supper. It was not intended to pro- 
 mote by any inherent efficacy, by any meritorious 
 influence the work of human salvation. It was not 
 appointed to supersede any of the inward principles 
 and graces, or of the practical evidences of the 
 christian character. It was not a passport signed 
 by the hand of eternal truth, and authenticated 
 with the seal of the promise to secure a safe con- 
 duct from earth to heaven, to those, who through- 
 out the whole of life had travelled along the way 
 
240 
 
 that leadeth unto hell. The sacrament in itself is 
 possessed of no such virtue or efficacy. But it was 
 designed to be a seal of the christian covenant — 
 to pledge the fulfilment of its promises to those 
 wlio have been brought within its terms, and to be 
 the medium, through which the believer may bind 
 himself to an entire self-surrender unto God. 
 It was designed to afford a striking emblematic 
 representation of the body and blood of Christ ; 
 and lastly it was intended to be an affecting re- 
 membrancer of the Redeemer's dying love. 
 
 And let me ask whether these be not objects 
 sufficiently important, in connection with the au- 
 thority, by which the observance is enjoined, to 
 secure the cheerful and devout compliance of those, 
 who call themselves by the name of Christ. Upon 
 what ground do we expect to inherit the blessings 
 of the Christian covenant, if we habitually refuse 
 to receive its seals ? On what principle can we 
 hope to be pardoned through the atoning death, 
 and to be cleansed through the blood of Christ, if 
 we turn away with contempt from those emblems, 
 by which they are so vividly represented ^ What 
 evidence can we have that the love of Christ is 
 shed abroad in our hearts, and constraineth us, if 
 we do not cherish and maintain an affigctionate and 
 grateful remembrance of Him, through the ordi- 
 nance which He Himself hath instituted for that 
 express and specific purpose'? Let us lay these 
 considerations seriously to heart, and answer to 
 our own conscience, whether our conduct, in refer- 
 ence to this subject, has hitherto been such as to 
 enable us to look forward with confidence to meet 
 the face of our judge. While, as a mere media- 
 
241 
 
 nical operation — as an act of formal and lifeless 
 service, the sacrament will profit us nothing, yet as 
 an expression of the divine will, as an appointment 
 of Christ Himself, as a remembrancer of his dying 
 love, it is in the highest degree necessary and im- 
 portant. Under these considerations it is an insti- 
 tution full of joy and consolation — of encourage- 
 ment and of hope, and its worthy celebration may 
 justly be considered as an antepast of those plea- 
 sures which are at God's right hand for evermore. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Universal Obligation of the Ordinance of the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 In the character of the Christian, duty and privi- 
 lege are dehghtfiilly blended together. They are, 
 indeed, so combined in the views of the under- 
 standing and the feelings of the heart, as to be- 
 come almost entirely identified in their influence, 
 and to cease to be regarded as distinct principles 
 of conduct. The mind of the believer has been 
 so moulded into a conformity with the will of 
 God — his tastes and predilections have been so 
 thoroughly assimilated to the moral attributes of 
 God — and his general habits have been brought 
 into such complete accordance with the law and 
 government ot God — his predominant desires have 
 been reduced into such a cheerful and unreserved 
 acquiescence in all the injunctions and demands of 
 God, that the sense of duty, however just and 
 legitimate in itself, is lost in the sublimer and 
 more animating impression of its being a privilege. 
 Duty, though it does not cease to bind, is not re- 
 garded so much in the light of a compulsory ser- 
 vice, as the liomage of a grateful heart, vhich de- 
 lights in having an opportunity to testify the depth 
 and sincerity of its emotions. To the tme Chris- 
 tian the very restraint enjoined by the divine law 
 is freedom of the purest and most exalted order. 
 
243 
 
 Instead of confining him to a train of habits and 
 pursuits, which are ungenial to his nature, the 
 gospel, in the various ceremonies, which it hath 
 instituted — the means of grace which it hath ap- 
 pointed, and in the devotional exercises, as well as 
 practical duties, which it enforces, only affords an 
 opportunity for his affections more freely to ex- 
 pand themselves, and for his activities to be more 
 vigorously put forth. The labour, the self-denial, 
 and the unreserved surrender of himself unto God, 
 whicJi it inculcates are, in fact, but a practical de- 
 velopement of the principle, which exerts the 
 most powerful and commanding influence on his 
 character. 
 
 But of all the departments of the Christian 
 character and conduct, there is no one, in which 
 duty and privilege more perfectly meet and har- 
 monize together, than that to v/hich our attention is 
 to be now directed. In the last chapter I endea- 
 voured to rescue the ordinance of the Lord's sup- 
 per from the abuse, to which it has been perverted 
 by superstition, and from those purposes of igno- 
 rance and delusive expectation, to which it is still 
 so frequently applied. We now proceed to con- 
 sider the obligation of the sacrament, as a divine 
 and positive institution, and fss a distinctive badge 
 of the Christian profession. 
 
 When we speak of the obligatory character of 
 this ordinance, the expression is doubtless to be 
 limited to real christians. This is one of those 
 privileges of the church, to which in its spiritual 
 import, and as involving t^piritiial blessings and 
 qualifications, believers alone are entitled. The 
 sacrament of tlie Lord's supper is not a mere ex- 
 
 q2 
 
244 
 
 ternal observance, expressive of a voluntary as- 
 sumption of the christian name. It is not one of 
 those means of grace, which are designed for the 
 indiscriminate use and benefit of all, who may be 
 brought within their reach, and to serve as chan- 
 nels of communication for the primary influences 
 of the divine Spirit unto the soul. This is not a 
 service of the outer court of the temple, to which 
 the whole mass of professed worshippers are alike 
 admissible. But it belongs to the inner sanctuary, 
 to the holy of holies, into which none but those, 
 who have been consecrated unto the Lord, and 
 have been sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, 
 are allowed to enter. It is a lite peculiarly ex- 
 pressive of that close communion — of that intimate 
 fellowship, which subsists between Christ and his 
 people, and of that bond of spiritual brotherhood, by 
 which they are mutually united unto each other ; 
 and while it is left to the conscience of each indi- 
 vidual to determine, under such limitations as the 
 evidences of his practical character and conduct 
 may establish, whether he be in a condition to par- 
 take of this sacred mystery, it obviously belongs 
 as a privilege to those only, who have been really 
 incorporated into the body of Christ. 
 
 But although the* sacrament in its direct and 
 specific intention, is binding only upon real Chris- 
 tions, let none upon that account imagine that they 
 are free from guilt, while they live in the neglect 
 of it. Many persons there are, who allow them- 
 selves to think that, because their character and 
 habits are avowedly such as render them unfit 
 recipients of this holy ordinance, it is in them per- 
 fectly innocent, if it be not a species of merit to 
 
245 
 
 abstain from it. It is true, indeed, that to partake 
 of it in an unworthy and unsuitable state of cha- 
 racter would plunge them deeper in guilt, and 
 make an additional item to the catalogue of their 
 transgressions. But they forget that the very fact 
 of their unfitness proclaims aloud the degeneracy 
 of their character, and the peril of their condition. 
 They do not reflect that want of meetness is no 
 excuse for noncompliance with an express com- 
 mand — that one order of defects does not make up 
 for another — that the sin of not being duly pre- 
 pared does not neutralize, much less elevate into 
 a virtue, the sin of disobedience to the last injunc- 
 tion of their dying Lord and master. They con- 
 sider not that the very circumstance of their being- 
 unworthy to appear at this heavenly banquet calls 
 upon them with so much greater urgency to make 
 their peace, and effect their reconcilition with 
 God-^to go to that fountain, which was opened 
 for sin and for uncleanness — to seek the wedding 
 garment of personal holiness and righteousness, 
 that they may be thus meet partakers of those holy 
 mysteries. If it be the duty of all real Christians, 
 as we propose to shew, and of such only in their 
 their present condition, to approach the table of 
 the Lord, in order to seal their covenant with God 
 with the impress of this holy rite, by so much the 
 more forcibly does it call upon men to become real 
 Christians. As long as they know and acknow- 
 ledge that they are utterly unfit for this sublime 
 duty and privilege of the children of God, they 
 know and virtually acknowledge, that they are 
 still in a state of enmity with God — that they lie 
 under his wrath — that they are under a sentence of 
 
246 
 
 condemnation — that they are in hourly peril of 
 being cast into hell, and of being everlastingly 
 excluded from the divine presence. They acknow- 
 ledge that they are in a condition, which involves 
 every thing which is spiritually forlorn and desti- 
 tute — every thing that is awful and terrific in the 
 unextinguishable wrath of God, and through the 
 utmost range of eternity. The very consideration 
 of their feeling themselves to be justly debarred 
 from this medium of affectionate communication 
 with God is a clear and unequivocal intimation of 
 the perilous position, in which they are placed. It 
 surely proves no ordinary delinquency attaching 
 itself to the character.of a child, that he should 
 find it necessary to shrink from his fathei's coun- 
 tenance — that he should not presume to seat him- 
 self at his father s table. Precisely similar to this 
 is the predicament of those persons, who are gone 
 to such a distance, and are in such a state of 
 alienation from God, as to place them out of the 
 range of that dutiful homage, in which their grati- 
 tude and affection should have delighted to mani- 
 fest themselves. Let us not suffer ourselves, 
 therefore, to be imposed upon by the delusive fal- 
 lacy, that because we may be in an unprepared 
 state, we therefore incur no guilt or blame by our 
 habitual neo^lect and disreo-ard of that celestial 
 feast, which we are called upon to celebrate. We 
 may be assured, that if we are unfit for this sacred 
 rite, then we are unfit for death — unfit for the 
 judgment — unfit for heaven, and fit only to be 
 " destroyed v,ith everlasting deatruction from the 
 presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
 power." 
 
247 
 
 HavHig offered these few explanatory remarks, 
 1 proceed to observe, that to the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper there attaches the obligation of 
 obedience to an Express Command. An attend- 
 ance upon this holy ordinance, where suitable op- 
 portunities present themselves, is not one of those 
 duties, which have been enjoined in terms so 
 dubious and indefinite, as to render it uncertain, 
 and in some degree, to leave it to the discretion of 
 individuals to determine, to what extent and under 
 what circumstances they are binding. Here, on 
 the contrary, the direction is unequivocal, peremp- 
 tory, and decisive — " Do this in remembrance ot 
 me." In th^ distribution of one of the consecrated 
 elements, the Saviour exclaimed, "Take, eat; 
 this is my body," and in dispensing the other, in 
 language still more comprehensive and express, 
 *' Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of the 
 New Testament, which is shed for many for the 
 remission of sins'' — a command, the universality 
 of which would seem to have been specifically de- 
 signed as vv^ell to reprove the indifference of those, 
 who totally neglect this ordinance, as to expose 
 the futility and impiety of that daring superstition, 
 which has presmned to limit the privilege of the 
 great mass of Christian believers to one portion of 
 the eucharistic banquet. From this form of ex- 
 pression attending the original and authoritative 
 institution of this ordinance, it obviously appears 
 that to approach the table of the Lord at suitable 
 and appropriate seasons, is not only a privilege of 
 exalted order, to which true l^elievers are entitled — 
 is not only a means of confirming and establishing 
 the various principles and graces of tlieir Christian 
 
248 
 
 character, which they are allowed to use — is not 
 only an appointed channel for the communication 
 of spiritual consolation and refreshment unto their 
 souls, of which they are not debarred from availing 
 themselves; but is a duty, which they cannot habi- 
 tually neglect, without being guilty of direct and 
 absolute disobedience. 
 
 I am persuaded that few of those persons of 
 moitl and reputable habits as members of society, 
 who are accustomed to neglect this affecting me- 
 morial of a Saviour's love, reflect upon the nature 
 and extent of that disobedience, which is involved 
 in the utter rejection of it. Besides that this con- 
 duct is in direct opposition to such plain and un- 
 equivocal injunctions as that already mentioned, it 
 amounts, when wilful and designed, to a deliberate 
 refusal of that federal sign, which was expressly 
 appointed and intended to be a ^distinguishing 
 badge of the professed disciple of Christ. It is a 
 virtual negation of all covenant relation and union 
 with Christ. It is to deny Him in the eyes of men, 
 in reference to that rite, in which above all others. 
 He expressed it as his last — his dying wish, that 
 He should be remembered, commemorated, and 
 recognised. It is to close the lips against that cup 
 of the new testament in his blood, which is reple- 
 nished with the overflowings of his compassion, 
 and is warmed with the fervours of his love. It 
 is to refuse a voluntary attestation to that record 
 of the Christian covenant, in which our names 
 were enrolled at the initiatory rite of baptism, as 
 pledging us to the confirmatory rite of the other 
 sacrament. It is to deny the sanction of our own 
 mature judgment to the solemn engagements, which 
 
249 
 
 were then entered upon in our behalf. It is virtu- 
 ally to declare that either we have no need of the 
 blessings, which are symbolized in that ordinance, 
 or that we will not ratify with our own spontaneous 
 act, and stamp with our own seal, the sacramental 
 test of that covenant, by which we become entitled 
 to the enjoyment of them. 
 
 All this is literally implied in a uniform and 
 habitual abstinence from approaching the table of 
 the Lord. It renders our whole cliaracter incon- 
 gruous and incomplete. It leaves our Christian 
 profession in a mutilated and imperfect condition. 
 It is to treat with neglect the most urgent and 
 affecting appeal that an incarnate Saviour ever 
 addressed to his people here on earth. It is to 
 disobey one of the most unequivocal and direct 
 commands, which stand on record within the whole 
 range of divine revelation. If, therefore, it had 
 been totally destitute of all spiritual meaning — if 
 it had been merely an arbitrary injunction of Jeho- 
 vah, marked by no congruity, promising no favour, 
 and conveying no benefit, but had stood forth to 
 our notice as a naked expression of the divine will, 
 it would still have been our duty to observe it. 
 Our obligation to comply with such an injunction 
 would have been paramount. But when the com- 
 passionate Saviour in urging the celebration of 
 this sacred feast, condescends to assign the reason 
 and object, for which He would have his disciples 
 *' do this" — when He reminds them that it was in 
 remembrance of Him — that it was for a memorial of 
 his glowing love and his bitter passion. When he 
 interweaves with the command circumstances so 
 painful and ovevpowering — when He identifies by 
 
250 
 
 a symbolic transformation, the bread with his own 
 body, and the wine with his own blood, it becomes 
 infinitely more impressive and engaging. The 
 obligation is thus not less permanent in its dura- 
 tion, than it is universal in its extent. It is en- 
 forced by an authority, which can neither be dimi- 
 nished nor gainsayed, and is to be coeval with 
 Christianity itself. To do this in remembrance of 
 a Saviour's death, therefore, is as binding at this 
 moment, as it was in the apostolic age. It is as 
 obligatory upon professing Christians of the pre- 
 sent day, as it was upon the disciples themselves, 
 and the very circumstance of being unprepared 
 for the reception of these holy mysteries, instead 
 of affording any justification for the neglect of 
 them, only aggravates the guilt of continuing in a 
 state of character, which pi'ecludes the present 
 possibility of suitably complying w ith this express 
 conuiiand. There is not an individual, at this mo- 
 ment, arrived at years of maturity, who is not 
 placed under the most solemn obligation, as a pro- 
 fessed follov/er of Christ, to vindicate the sincerity 
 of that profession by the ratifying seal of the sacra- 
 mental elements, and the very excuse of avowed 
 unw^orthiness or unfitness, only calls upon him with 
 a louder voice to repent, to believe, to seek for the 
 celestial impress of the Holy Spirit upon his soul, 
 that thus he may be a meet partaker of this sacred 
 mystery. 
 
 Another ground of most impressive and con^ 
 straining obligation belonging to the ordinance, 
 which we are now considering, is Gratitude for the 
 love and kindness, of which it forms so touching 
 and appropriate a memorial. The command of 
 
251 
 
 Christ was necessary to give this institution a force 
 and a binding authority. But after it had receiv- 
 ed the sanction of his appointment — after it had 
 been solemnly constituted one of the seals of the 
 new covenant in his blood — after He had affection- 
 ately urged it upon his people as an everduring 
 memento of all that He has done and suffered in 
 their behalf, it might have been imagined that a 
 sense of his unexampled beneficence and compas- 
 sion, would have been sufficient to secure its devout 
 and unvarying observance, without any direct refer- 
 ence to his positive injunction to that effect. Con- 
 sidering the grace of our Lord Jesus in becoming, 
 though originally rich in the possession of all the 
 glories of the heavenly world, yet for our sakes 
 poor — recollecting that work of wondrous humi- 
 liation — of self-denial and bitter agony, v^^hich He 
 so readily undertook on our account, it might liave 
 naturally been expected that our hearts should 
 have glowed with the most fervent desire to testify 
 by some specific act of public recognition, our 
 sense of our inexpressible obligations to Him. 
 When the hero falls in the maintenance of his coun- 
 try's cause, and on the field of what is deemed 
 honorable warfare — when the statesman dies, 
 whose talents had been long and usefully devoted 
 to his country's service, the nation is anxious to 
 evince its respect for his memory, and its acknow- 
 ledgment of his worth, by some lasting token of 
 its regard, which may carry down the record of his 
 name and of his achievements to generations yet 
 unborn — when the confessor resigns his spirit 
 under the tortures of persecution, or amidst the 
 flames of martyrdom, the church, in grateful re- 
 
252 
 
 membrance of his fidelity, enrolls him among the 
 most illustrious of her benefactors, and inscribes 
 his name upon the brightest page of her history. 
 Scarce, indeed, is an individual consigned to the 
 dust, but surviving relatives and friends are anxi- 
 ous to rear over his tomb some abiding memorial 
 of their srratitude and affection. 
 
 But w^here is the claim to be held in everlasting 
 and imperishable remembrance, which can equal 
 that of the eternal Son of God '? Where is the 
 love — where is the disinterestedness — where is the 
 beneficence — where is the faithfulness— the self- 
 denial — the suffering — the self-devotion — the sig- 
 nal triumph over the enemies of his church, which 
 can compare with His 1 Every other instance of 
 generosity and compassion — every other act of de- 
 liverance and salvation, when weighed against His, 
 is lighter than the small dust of the balance. 
 What love can equal that, which brought Him 
 down from heaven to earth, and engaged Him to 
 exchange the smiles of his Father's countenance, 
 the adorations of angels, and the overflowings of 
 heavenly blessedness, for a w hole hfe of unmingled 
 privation, and suffering, and reproach, terminating 
 only with his death ? What grief so oppressive 
 and overwhelming as that which weighed down 
 his spirit, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful 
 even unto death *? What pangs so exquisite as 
 those, which pierced his soul in the garden, and 
 wrung, as it were, great drops of blood out of his 
 melting and perspiring frame ? What season of 
 human calamity and distress could equal that hour 
 of darkness, in which the powers of death and 
 hell were let loose upon Him. What forms of terror 
 
253 
 
 and anguish can be conceived half so awful as 
 those hidings of his Father's face, under which 
 He was for a while doomed to suffer. What victo- 
 ry so complete as that which He announced with 
 his expiring lips, as He lay suspended on the 
 cross, and exclaimed, "it is finished." What 
 deliverance is worthy to be named with that, 
 which he achieved. And, finally, what benefits 
 can be put in the balance against that glory, and 
 honor, and immortality, which He hath purchased, 
 and inalienably secured for his people ! 
 
 Such are the claims of our adorable Lord and 
 Saviour, to be kept in our grateful and affectionate 
 remembrance. And what has He required us to 
 do in acknowledgment of his love and of our obli- 
 gation 1 If He had asked some great thing of 
 us — if He had commanded us to commemorate his 
 death by thousands of rams, and by ten thousands 
 of rivers of oil — if we had been demanded for this 
 purpose to give the fruit of our bodies as a testi- 
 mony of the gratitude of our souls ; though all, 
 and more than all we have, would have been his 
 due, yet such sacrifices He hath not asked at our 
 hands. All that He hath requested of us as a 
 memorial of the last bitter scene of his pilgrimage 
 here on earth is, that we should, at stated periods, 
 meet together around his table, and partake of 
 those elements of bread and wine, which He con- 
 secrated and appointed to be the representative 
 emblems of his body and blood. He desired no 
 proud monument of art to record his death — no 
 marble pillar to bear his name — no arch of triumph 
 to signalize his victory. The memorial, which He 
 chose, was a group of his faithful and devoted 
 
254 
 
 people, collected together like so many living 
 stones around his altar, to receive the tokens of 
 his love, and to have his name inscribed in im- 
 perishable characters upon the tieshly tables of 
 tlieir hearts. If his command, therefore, fails to 
 have its due effect upon us, let his love, and the 
 innumerable benefits flowing from it, prove avail- 
 ing advocates in his behalf, and compel us to ap- 
 pear as welcome and duly prepared guests at his 
 table. 
 
 Another ground of obligation pertaining to the 
 Lord's supper is, that it is indispensably neces- 
 sary to the consistency of the Christian profession. 
 This sacred observance, as has been already stated, 
 is one of the seals of the new covenant. They, 
 therefore, who wilfully and habitually neglect it, 
 do virtually put themselves out of the bond of 
 that covenant. They refuse to have its seal put 
 upon them. They reject the symbols of that body 
 and blood, by which it has been ratified, and thus 
 they openly declare that their Christian profession 
 is not so much their own voluntary act as the re- 
 sult of circumstances, over which they had no con- 
 trol. No man can properly be regarded as the 
 member of a visible Christian church, who does 
 not comply with its fundamental rites and observ- 
 ances. Those persons, who do not complete their 
 profession by partaking of the eucharist, must be 
 considered to all practical purposes as renouncing 
 the privileges of their Baptism. 
 
 The obligation to partake of this ordinance, 
 therefore, does not merely arise from a regard to 
 the will and command of God, but also from an 
 indispensable regard to the harmony and con- 
 
255 
 
 sistency of the Christian profession. The cele- 
 bration of this solemn feast under the gospel, is 
 analogous to the sacrifice of the paschal Lamb 
 under the law. At this and other festivals, as 
 they periodically returned, all the people of God, 
 all the households of Israel, were required to be 
 present to do homage to the God of their Fathers, 
 and to recognize afresh their relation unto Him, 
 as their God in covenant. Equally is it the duty 
 of those who call themselves Christians, in conse- 
 quence of liaving undeigone the initiatory rite of 
 Baptism, to come up into the house of the Lord, 
 and to consummate their church- fellowship, by re- 
 ceiving the other sacramental seal of their pro- 
 fessed union with Christ. This is one of the ap- 
 pointed methods of owning Him before men, to 
 which so much importance is attached. It is a 
 direct and unequivocal recognition of Him in his 
 mediatorial character, and in the various offices, 
 which He sustains in the economy of human salva- 
 tion. It is a solemn and deliberate avowal of faith 
 in his name — of reliance on his atonement — of de- 
 pendence upon his righteousness — of confidence 
 in his power and love, and of subjection to his just 
 authority. And as all this is demanded and im- 
 plied in a due reception of the sacrament, so the 
 reverse of such acknowledgment and belief is in- 
 volved with equal evidence in the neglect or re- 
 fusal to partake of it. A uniform and designed 
 absence from the Lord's table, indeed, after the 
 judgment has been adequately informed, and the 
 duty has been distinctly pointed out, cannot be 
 viewed otherwise thaii, in reference to one most 
 important particular, as a denial of Christ before 
 men, and therefore as liable to the guilt, and ex- 
 
256 
 
 posed to the dreadful penalty, which have been 
 denounced against such an affront. 
 
 I would remark once more that the obligation 
 to observe this sacred ordinance is apparent from 
 the practice of the church and the example of be- 
 lievers throughout the whole range of the christian 
 era from the age of the apostles until now. Of 
 the first christians we continually read that they 
 were assembled together on the first day of the 
 week, for the purpose of breaking bread, in re- 
 membrance of their Lord's command. And it was 
 for the purpose of regulating the manner of cele- 
 brating this feast of charity, and of correcting the 
 abuses, which at that early period had crept into 
 it, that the apostle entered into that elaborate dis- 
 cussion of the subject, which is contained in his 
 epistle to the Corinthians. Ecclesiastical history 
 informs us of the same fact, and bears testimony 
 to the unbroken continuance of the practice, with 
 slio-ht modifications of the manner and extent, 
 throughout every subsequent period. C^^) So jea- 
 lous indeed were the primitive christians in the 
 observance of this sacred duty and privilege, that 
 in an as e of bloody persecution it is recorded, that 
 they sometimes substituted water for wine, when 
 they were unable to use the latter without the dan- 
 ger of detection. And although this sacred rite 
 in common with every other was mutilated, per- 
 verted and abused during the darker ages of super- 
 stition, yet when the light of the reformation began 
 to dawn upon the world, it was restored to its pri- 
 mitive purity and simplicity ; and its legitimate ob- 
 servance was incorporated, as an essential element, 
 into the constitutional discipline of the church. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Preparation necessary for the suitable recep- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 In the two former chapters I endeavoured to un- 
 told the design, and to point out the obligation of 
 this holy ordinance. I now proceed to the third 
 part of the subject — the Preparation necessary for 
 its due and profitable reception. Of all the de- 
 partments of this divine institution, which can 
 claim our attention, this is perhaps the most im- 
 portant. Whatever may have been the specific 
 purpose of the Saviour in the appointment of this 
 distinguishing rite of his church — however obliga- 
 tory it may be upon his professed followers, its 
 design cannot be effectually secured, nor its claims 
 to our observance suitably recognized, without due 
 and serious preparation. Upon this, as well as 
 other points connected with this sacramental seal 
 of the covenant, very erroneous and injurious 
 notions have prevailed in the world. With many the 
 preparation for the sacrament has consisted, for 
 the most part, of a series of superstitious and self- 
 righteous a'ostinences, and of formal and unmean- 
 ing ceremonies. For a certain period of time 
 preceding the celebration of the appointed festival, 
 they have relinquished their usual occupations and 
 amusements — fully intending to resume them, 
 however, as soon as the solemnity was past. In 
 
258 
 
 addition to this, they have imposed upon them- 
 selves the task of repeating a prescribed amount 
 of devotional formularies and meditative confes- 
 sions ; while amidst all this imposing apparatus of 
 will-worship, and voluntary humility, the under- 
 standing was utterly ignorant of the genuine princi- 
 ples of the gospel as a saving scheme, and the 
 heart was a total stranger to its sanctifying influences 
 and effects. 
 
 Others there are who neglect all preparation 
 for the sacred feast, to which they are invited. 
 They view it simply as one of the outward forms 
 of the religion, which they profess, and enter upon 
 it in the same spirit, in which they engage in the 
 other public services of the sanctuary. They re- 
 gard it as part of the external machinery, which 
 has been set up, but inquire not into the qualifica- 
 tions, which it involves, nor into the ends, which 
 it is immediately designed to answer. With them 
 there is no serious and devout reflection upon the 
 awful responsibility which the reception of such 
 an ordinance implies — there is no poignant sense, 
 though there may be the outward profession, of 
 contrition for past offences — there is no deep con- 
 viction of sin fastening upon the mind — alarming 
 the conscience, and penetrating the heart : there 
 is no exercise of lively faith, of vigorous hope, 
 and of fervent charity : there is no grace of the 
 spirit called into active and expanded operation ; 
 and hence the ordinance, which was intended to 
 be a means of strengthening the principles, of 
 cherishing the devout affections, and of consolidat- 
 ing the whole character of believers becomes a 
 dead letter — a symbol of guilt and condenmation, 
 
259 
 
 instead of being a token of peace and reconcilia- 
 tion. The consecrated elements are thus divested 
 of all their spiritual meaning and application, and 
 become incapable of nourishing the soul, so that it 
 may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 The preparation, which is necessary to render 
 us meet partakers of this holy communion, may be 
 considered under a twofold aspect — as general, 
 relating to the universal principles, and indispens- 
 able requisites of the Christian character ; and as 
 particular or special — having a direct reference 
 to the peculiar nature and requisitions of the sacra- 
 ment proposed to be received. In illustration of 
 the first of these questions, it may be remarked, 
 that before we can be properly prepared to ap- 
 proach the table of the Lord, it is necessary that 
 we should institute a strict inquiry into our own 
 state and character, as we stand in the sight of 
 God. To professing Christians — especially to those 
 who are desirous of confirming their baptismal 
 covenant, by the additional ratification of the 
 Lord's supper, this may perhaps be deemed a 
 superfluous investigation. In the case of such 
 persons, it is generally taken for granted, that 
 whatever defects or imperfections may attach to 
 their character, they occupy a safe position with 
 respect to their state before God, and their future 
 desstiny. It is readily assumed, that in reference 
 to the great question, upon which their everlasting 
 peace and welfare depend, they rest upon a firm 
 and secure foundation. But if it be true that re- 
 ligion does not consist in a mere name, that Christi- 
 anity is of no avail, unless it be received into the 
 
 r2 
 
260 
 
 heart, and incorporated into the character — that a 
 great and important change must take place in our 
 nature, as well as in our relative condition, before 
 we can be objects of divine favour and love — then 
 assuredly is it no trifling or irrelevant question 
 connected with the subject, which we are now 
 considering, whether we be really of the number 
 of those, who are privileged to hold communion 
 with God through the medium of tb.is emblematic 
 ordinance. In proposing to approach the table of 
 the Lord, therefore, in fulfilment of the Saviour's 
 command, the first inquiry to be instituted is, 
 whether in the general estimate of our character 
 and conduct we are entitled, upon scriptural prin- 
 ciples, to regard ourselves as those who are at 
 peace with God, In order to determine this all- 
 important question, there are certain tests laid 
 down in the volume of inspiration, by the due ap- 
 plication of which we may arrive at a just and 
 accurate conclusion. Unless our character will 
 bear the scrutiny conducted upon thejse principles, 
 we are assuredly not in a condition, though this by 
 no means exempts us from the obligation, which 
 the command of Christ imposes, and our own 
 profession involves, to partake of these sublime 
 mysteries. 
 
 As an essential element in the general prepara- 
 tion, which we are now discussing, we would state 
 the necessity of our having experienced that 
 change of state and character, which in the lan- 
 guage of analogical illustration, is in scripture de- 
 nominated Regeneration, or the new birth. The 
 question here is not whether we have undergone 
 the svmbolical washins: of water — whether we have 
 
261 
 
 been incorporated into outward communion with 
 the church of Christ by baptism — whether the sign 
 of the cross is borne upon the front of our external 
 profession. It is not merely whether our character, 
 as members of society, be decent and respectable — 
 whether in the discharge of our relative duties we 
 be exemplary and correct — whether in our attend- 
 ance upon the public services of religion we be 
 regular and apparently devout — considerations 
 highly important in themselves : but passing be- 
 yond these outer courts of the character, and 
 penetrating into the inner sanctuary of the heart, 
 have we good ground to believe that we have ex- 
 perienced that renovating process, which in the 
 view of its effects, can with any propriety of lan- 
 guage be described as a new birth ? Have we 
 been made new creatures in Christ Jesus ? Have 
 we been made partakers of the Spirit of Christ, 
 without which we can be none of his? Have 
 we been really renewed in the spirit of our 
 minds '? Have our affections been diverted from 
 their native channels, which ran parallel with the 
 course of this world, and directed in pure and de- 
 vout aspirations to the things which are above '? 
 These are the questions, which we are to put to 
 our own consciences for the purpose of ascertain- 
 ing whether we have made that transition from 
 death unto life, without which we have no claim 
 nor meetness to be received as guests at the sacra- 
 mental table. The bread there dispensed is de- 
 signed and adapted for the cliildren of God only — 
 for it is they alone, who can be strengthened and 
 nourished up by it into everlasting life. The wine 
 there poured is intended only for the refreshment 
 
262 
 
 and support of those, who have become members 
 of God's family, by having been born of his Spirit, 
 and are therefore privileged to address Him, 
 " Abba Father." 
 
 In order, however, more fully to ascertain the 
 real state of our character, with reference to our 
 new birth, and the train of blessings and privileges 
 connected with it, we must proceed to inquire 
 whether we have sincerely Repented of our sins 
 past, inasmuch as this forms an indispensable part 
 of that general preparation — of that fundamental 
 qualification, without which no round of formal 
 observances — no range of self-righteous abstinen- 
 ces — no propriety of external demeanour can be 
 an effectual passport into the divine presence. 
 Repentance is usually represented in Scripture as 
 the turning point of the Christian character — as 
 the introductory step in the Christian life — as the 
 first movement of the divine Spirit, brooding over 
 the dark and confused abyss of the human mind. 
 Under the influence of this transforming and life- 
 giving energy, the varied elements of thought and 
 feeling, which had hitherto presented a promiscu- 
 ous scene of moral debasement and spiritual dark- 
 ness, begin to assume forms of symmetry and 
 beauty, and to be clothed in robes of light. Re- 
 pentance, where it is deep and genuine, effects an 
 entire revolution in the whole system of the charac- 
 ter. The principles and the passions, which once ex- 
 ercised an indisputable sovereignty over the soul, 
 have now been deposed from their usurped autho- 
 rity, and have been superseded in their predomi- 
 nant influence by those sentiments and affections, 
 which are the immediate fruit of the Spirit. 
 
263 
 
 In close union with repentance, Faith stands at 
 the very threshold of that new Hfe, which is the 
 foundation of all meetness for a participation of the 
 holy supper. It is by faith alone, indeed, as the 
 medium of spiritual nutrition, that we can eat the 
 flesh and drink the blood of Christ. And hence 
 in the hortatory address of the church directed to 
 those, who intend to partake of this holy commu- 
 nion, a lively faith is immediately connected with 
 a truly penitent heart as being indispensably neces- 
 sary to secure the great benefit it is calculated to 
 impart. Until Christ has been recognized and 
 cordially received as a Saviour indeed the ordi- 
 dance, which is peculiarly commemorative of his 
 atoning death, must be altogether inappropriate 
 to the character, and foreign to every predominant 
 principle and feehng of the soul. It is unto faith 
 as the organ of spiritual perception, and the 
 ground-work of every spiritual affection and emo- 
 tion, that this vivid and impressive exhibition of 
 a Saviour's love is peculiarly adapted. To the 
 eye of sense it is nothing but a process of mecha- 
 nical operation— dry, formal, and unmeaning. To 
 the view of unenlightened reason, it presents no- 
 thing but a vague ceremony — a species of solemn 
 pageantry periodically exhibited to the eye, but 
 conveying no clear ideas of its spiritual import to 
 the understanding, and no lively impressions to the 
 heart. It is faith alone, which gives it real signi- 
 , ficancy and force — which clothes it with the moral 
 dignity, and infuses into it the vitality of a divine 
 institution. It is faith alone, which can rend the 
 veil of the outward imagery — which can penetrate 
 the emblematic representation, and perceive the 
 
264 
 
 inward truth— which can look through the sign 
 into the thing signified, and pass on from the form 
 into the essence. It is faith alone, which can there 
 behold Christ crucified as evidently set forth — 
 which in the material element of bread can behold 
 his lacerated flesh, and in the liquid fruit of the 
 vine, can realize the effusion of his blood, and 
 thus by a spiritual, though not literal tiaiisforma- 
 tion of nature, can convert them into angels' food. 
 It is faith alone, which can see Christ as He is 
 there held forth to the view, in the glory of his 
 person — in the wonderful grace of his hmniHation — 
 in the efficacy of his atonement — in the complete- 
 ness of his righteousness — in the tenderness of his 
 compassion — in the immutability of his love, and 
 in the faithfulness and security of his truth. As 
 without faith it is impossible to please God, so 
 without faith it is impossible th-»t any should be 
 meet partakers of this holy mystery. 
 
 Let us examine ourselves, therefore, whether 
 we be in the faith — whether we have had power 
 given us to become the sons of God, by believing 
 on the name of his son Jesus Christ — whether we 
 have cordially acceded to the terms of the gospel, 
 by reposing with a fulness of recumbency, and an 
 exclusiveness of reliance, upon Him as a Saviour. 
 Let us inquire into the nature, character, and ef- 
 fects of our faith — whether it be not a vague, spe- 
 culative, indefinite, and uninfluential assent to the 
 declarations of scripture, or whether it be a realiz- 
 ing, vital, powerful, and practical principle, unit- 
 ing the soul in all its faculties and affections unto 
 Christ, and concentrating all our hopes and expec- 
 tations in Him as our Redeemer. Until we are 
 
265 
 
 enabled thus to lay hold upon Him, and are incor- 
 porated into Him as our Head, we have no claim 
 or title to any one of the blessings and privileges 
 of that salvation, which was wrought out by Him. 
 It is faith alone, which gives us an interest in 
 Him — which enables us to hold communion with 
 Him — which qualifies us to sit down at his table, 
 and to partake of the banquet of his love. It is 
 faith, which marks us out for his people, and 
 brings us within the bonds of his covenant, and 
 which in connection with hope and charity, consti- 
 tutes that indissoluble cord of love and fellowship, 
 that no created pow'er can destroy. On no question 
 of character therefore— on no point of necessary 
 preparation for the eucharistic feast ought our ex- 
 amination to be more close and rigid, than in refer- 
 ence to the validity and efficacy of our faith in 
 Christ. 
 
 These are tests of general character, and of 
 our real state before God. They are absolute, 
 universal, and indispensable requisites, without 
 which we cannot be the children of God, nor be 
 entitled to the privileges of his house. The re- 
 generation of the soul through the influences of 
 the Holy Spirit — a repentance deep, genuine, and 
 sincere — a faith in Christ vital, cordial, and influ- 
 ential, are elemental principles of the new crea- 
 ture, and until these be embodied in the character, 
 we must of necessity be strangers to the covenant 
 of promise — aliens from the commonwealth of the 
 saints, without hope, and without God in the world. 
 To become possessed of these in all their vitality, 
 energy, and practical efficacy, must therefore be 
 the foundation of all other preparation, for a 
 
266 
 
 suitable compliance with the Saviour's last com- 
 mand. 
 
 This, however, is not all that is required. We 
 must pass beyond these general points of requisi- 
 tion, and adopt a system of more minute and spe- 
 cific preparation. The sacrament of the Lord's 
 supper is an institution of a peculiar character and 
 design, and therefore requires a peculiar order of 
 qualifications in the recipient, in order that its ob- 
 ject may be realized to the full extent. It is not 
 enough that the soul should be in a state of se- 
 curity, as having been admitted into peace with 
 God, but it must be put into an attitude of special 
 readiness for an act of more than ordinary solemni- 
 ty — for a service, which is calculated above most 
 others, to bring it into a close and intimate fellow- 
 ship with God. In order to this, there must be 
 instituted a process of serious and honest self- 
 scrutiny, not only with respect to our state and 
 relative condition in the sight of God, but also 
 with reference to our prevailing habits, and dispo- 
 sitions of mind and character. This examination 
 must extend to every department of our conduct, 
 and must bring to the test of the unerring balances 
 of the sanctuary, all the principles, by which we are 
 guided, and all the motives, by which we are actu- 
 ated and impelled. It must embrace the whole 
 range of our character in the various aspects and 
 relations, which it bears both towards God and 
 towards man. We must retire in pensive medi- 
 tation and devout reflection into our own closets — 
 we must there call our ways to remembrance — we 
 must review the course of our past conduct — we 
 must survey in all their deep and unmitigated 
 
267 
 
 aggravation, our own past transgressions — we must 
 set in order before the eye of our own conscience 
 the dark catalogue of our offences, and contemplate 
 in the light of celestial truth the dread array of 
 our sins — we must take with us the candle of the 
 Lord, and penetrate into the deepest recesses of 
 our own hearts — we must enter into every secret 
 laboratory of thoqght and feeling, into every curi- 
 ous chamber of the imagination — we must in- 
 vestigate and try the whole by the standard of 
 unerring truth. 
 
 And in connection with this survey of our own 
 state, and of the principles of our own character, 
 we must bring under our most vivid and realizing 
 contemplation, the stupendous wonders of redeem- 
 ing love. We must meditate with profound and 
 fervent adoration upon the various attributes of 
 Deity, as engaged in the formation and accomplish- 
 ment of the plan of human salvation. We must 
 survey the love, the mercy, the wisdom, the 
 power, which originated, directed, and brought to 
 a triumphant issue the whole of that unparalleled 
 scheme of divine contrivance. We must trace it 
 to its benignant fountain in the Father's everlast- 
 ing love. We must pursue the stream as it flows 
 in one blended current of salvation, combining to- 
 gether the grace of the Son of God, and the in- 
 fluences of the eternal Spirit. We must mark its 
 progress as it displayed itself at intervals through 
 the medium of the promises and ceremonial insti- 
 tutions of the patriarchal and Levitical dispen- 
 sations, until, the fulness of time having now 
 arrived, it burst forth upon Mount Calvary in all 
 the copiousness of its resources and in all the 
 
268 
 
 clearness of its manifestation. We must with the 
 angels of glory, endeavour to look with a keener 
 glance, and penetrate with a deeper search into 
 the mysteries of our redemption. We must la- 
 bour, in some degree, to raise our ideas to the 
 sublimity and ineffable dignity of the object of our 
 contemplation, to catch something of the spirit of 
 purity, benignity, and love, by which the whole 
 scheme is so stiongly characterized. We must 
 endeavour to bring the matter home, from a remote, 
 indefinite, and unimpressive grandeur, to our own 
 hearts in all its reality, simplicity, and force. We 
 must fix our eyes with intense gratitude, and over- 
 powering admiration, upon the affecting spectacle 
 of the only begotten Son of God, suspended in 
 expiring agony upon the ignominious tree of the 
 cross, and aid our meditation with the view of that 
 striking memorial of his bitter passion, which was 
 specifically instituted by Himself. When our un- 
 derstanding has been exercised, our imagination 
 elevated, our memory replenished, and our affec- 
 tions enlivened and warmed with these sentiments 
 and reflections, we shall be better prepared to 
 partake of that feast of# sacred and heavenly love, 
 the express design of which is to impress them 
 more deeply upon our hearts. 
 
 The suitable preparation for this sacramental 
 symbol of the new covenant, however, is not to be 
 confined to mere retrospective views of our own 
 character and conduct, and to admiring contem- 
 plations of the love and compassion of Jehovah, 
 as displayed in the plan of our redemption. It 
 does not consist in bare exercises of the heart, 
 however genuine and profound. Much less is it 
 
269 
 
 sufficient to revel in mystic visions of divine love, 
 and to unfold the wings of our fancy in flights of 
 indefinite admiration. With the due and necessary 
 direction of all the faculties of our nature, to the 
 sublime objects of our contemplation, the prepara- 
 tion, which we are now discussing, must combine 
 what is more influential in its bearing, and more 
 practical in its effects. We would, therefore, no- 
 tice it as an indispensable requisite to just prepara- 
 tion for this ordinance, that there be a prompt and 
 entire abandonment of every hnoivn sin. If in 
 the prosecution of that strict and rigid scrutiny, 
 which we have already represented as necessary, 
 there should be discovered any habit of mind or 
 conduct, which is in direct opposition to the will 
 of God, but which had hitherto been disregarded 
 or overlooked, no man should presume to approach 
 the table of the Lord, without casting away from 
 him that abominable thing, which God hateth. It is 
 recorded by one of the most ancient and illustrious of 
 heathen poets, that the devout warriors and heroes 
 of antiquity, shrunk with a feeling of holy dread, 
 from engaging in any sacred rite, while their 
 hands were stained with blood. C^^) It was their 
 practice to wash away the pollution in some limpid 
 stream, before they ventured upon such a service. 
 And if such was the feeling of heathens in refer- 
 ence to physical defilement, occasioned by violence 
 and bloodshed, with how much greater solemnity, 
 circumspection, and care, ought we to cleanse our- 
 selves from those contaminations of sin, with which 
 we may have been infected, before we engage in a 
 duty so peculiarly sacred, so sublimely pure as that 
 which now claims our attention. If, therefore, on 
 
2io 
 
 a deliberate and honest survey of our past charac- 
 ter, we discover that any root of bitterness still 
 adheres unto us — that any evil propensity still re- 
 tains its dominion over us, whether it be some 
 constitutional infirmity, some besetting sin, into 
 which we are most prone to fall, or whether it be 
 some open violation of the law of God, in which 
 we have hitherto been accustomed to induIo*e — ■ 
 whether it be the sin of anger and hatred, of envy 
 and jealousy, of dishonesty and fraud, of intem- 
 perance and excess, of lying and deceit, of blas- 
 phemy and profaneness, or of impurity and licenti- 
 ousness — whether it be any one of these, or any 
 other out of that dark catalogue, which the Apostle 
 enumerates as constituting the works of the flesh, 
 let it be at once removed, as a dead limb, from 
 our character ; nor let there be a single act of 
 transgression, in which we wilfully indulge, to rise 
 in judgment against us, and to condemn us in the 
 court of our own conscience, while we kneel before 
 the altar of our God. At this banquet of celestial 
 joy and love, let us make it our endeavour to ap- 
 pear clad in the spotless and unsullied robe of 
 personal holiness aud righteousness. 
 
 In immediate connection with this universal re- 
 linquishment of past sin , there must be a firm re- 
 solution, in dependence on divine grace and 
 strength, henceforth to walk closely and humbly 
 with God. The celebration of the Lord's supper 
 is not only a remembrancer of the past, but is also 
 an express renewal of the covenant, which hath 
 been made between God and the soul. In this sa- 
 cred compact it is implied as a primary condition, 
 that we choose the Lord for our God, and that we 
 
2T1 
 
 yield ourselves unto Him as his faithful and obe- 
 dient people. It enters into the very essence of that 
 federal relation unto Him, to which we are intro- 
 duced by it, that we regard ourselves no longer as 
 our own — that we relinquish our own will, so far 
 as it may be inconsistent with his law, and that we 
 pledge ourselves to a cheerful, uniform, and uni- 
 versal submission to his authority. Before, there- 
 fore, we lay our hands upon his altar, before we eat 
 the bread and drink the wine of the covenant, 
 which is to be there ratified, and receive the seal 
 of appropriation, which is to be there aflftxed upon 
 our souls, we must come to a firm, deliberate and 
 resolute determination in our own minds, that 
 whatever may have been our past conduct, we shall 
 henceforth devote ourselves in cordial and unre- 
 served obedience to the service of God — that we 
 shall deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and 
 live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present 
 evil world — that we shall cheerfully lay ourselves 
 out in his course — that we shall zealously employ 
 every talent, wherewith He hath entrusted us — • 
 every opportunity, which He may afford us and 
 every faculty and endowment with which He hath 
 blessed us, in advancing his glory and interest in 
 the world — that we shall maintain habits of close 
 and intimate fellowship with Him by prayer and 
 devout meditation, and that we shall make it our 
 meat and drink to do his will. 
 
 Lastly, the preparation, which will render us 
 meet partakers of the eucharistic banquet, requires 
 that we should banish all malice and unkindness 
 from our hearts — that we should unreservedly for- 
 give those, who may have been guilty of any in- 
 
2T2 
 
 jury or offence against us, our enemies, persecu- 
 tors, and slanderers, if any such exist, and culti- 
 vate a feeling of universal benignity, kindness, and 
 good will. The sacrament is pre-eminently a feast 
 of charity. It was instituted at the conclusion of 
 an entertainment, in which brotherly love shone 
 conspicuous — it was intended to commemorate the 
 most striking manifestation of love — it was design- 
 ed to be a bond of love — it breaths an atmosphere 
 of love— it is a foretaste of those higher raptures 
 of love, which will glow in the bosoms of the Re- 
 deemed, when they shall have now been linked in 
 closer and sublimer fellowship with the Father of 
 their spirits in the everlasting mansions of the 
 blest. Nothing therefore can be more unseemly, 
 nothing more discordant with the spirit and de- 
 sign of the eucharist, nothing more incompatible 
 with the obligations, which it involves, than the 
 indulgence of a resentful, malignant, and unfor- 
 giving disposition of mind. If we would be suita- 
 ble guests at this celestial banquet, we must lay 
 aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and 
 envyings, and evil-speakings, and, like new born 
 babes, desire the pure and wholesome food which is 
 there dispensed, and by feeding on which in faith 
 and love, we may be nourished up into everlasting 
 life. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Benefits attendant on a worthy Reception of 
 the JLord*s Supper. 
 
 It does not lie within our province to determine 
 what it is right that Jehovah should prescribe for 
 our observance. As in the natural world there are 
 many things, of which we are at present incom- 
 petent to form a correct judgment, and the exact 
 position of which, in the general system of divine 
 goodness and benevolence, we are incapable of 
 tracing, so in the vast and comprehensive scheme 
 of the moral government of God, there are doubt- 
 less various precepts, the peculiar benefit and ad- 
 vantage of which we can now but very imperfectly 
 appreciate. In reference to such injunctions, our 
 duty is obviously to acquiesce with cheerfulness 
 and alacrity in the revealed will of God. For 
 every purpose of just and rational obedience, it is 
 enough for us to know that He is a God of infinite 
 power, and wisdom, and love — that His authority 
 over us is sovereign and complete — that His right 
 to our obedience is paramount to every other obli- 
 gation, and that His attributes afibrd an inviolable 
 pledge that His commands are all founded upon 
 principles of the most perfect rectitude and bene- 
 volence. Jehovah might, indeed, have established 
 laws, and appointed ordinances, which would have 
 no immediate relation to our interest. But in 
 
274 
 
 the geuei-al scheme of his administration, He hath 
 manifestly connected our own direct and palpable 
 advantage with the institutions, which He hath 
 enjoined i:pon our observance. 
 
 This is peculiarly the case with the ordinance. 
 to which our attention is now directed. We have 
 already pointed out the design of this institution. 
 We have endeavoured to exhibit its authority, and 
 the universal obligation which belongs to it, as en- 
 forced by the direct command of Christ Himself, 
 and as recognized in the practice of his church 
 throughout the whole period of its histor\-. As, 
 however, no means of grace can be avaihng — no 
 divine ordinance can be suitably and profitably ob- 
 served, unless the mind be properly qualified to 
 enter upon it, we proceeded to unfold at some 
 length the preparation, which is necessary for a 
 due reception of the sacrament of the Lord's sup- 
 per. Having thus brought forward such conside- 
 rations as may be deemed calculated to convince 
 men of the duty of engaging in this holy rite, and 
 of carrying into practical effect the Saviour s dy- 
 ing appeal to his disciples, it remains that we 
 should state some of those benefits, which, when 
 this sacred ordinance is celebrated in a spirit 
 of repentance, faith, and love, cannot fail to be 
 associated with it. This department of the subject 
 is in delightful accordance with that view, which 
 we are led to take of it by all the representations 
 of scripture, as w ell as the whole tenor of our o\mi 
 ecclesiastical service connected with it. While 
 the profane sinner, and the presumptuous formalist 
 are indeed, warned in the most a^vful terms ag-ainst 
 rushins: with unholy hands into these mysteries of 
 
2T6 
 
 the sanctuary, to the sincere penitent and deTout 
 believer it is invariably exhibited as a pledgee of 
 the most exalted blessings — as a warrant of the 
 highest hopes, and the most confident expecta- 
 tions — as a spring of the most cheering consola- 
 tions, pouring forth its refreshing streams to revive 
 the pilgrims of the desert, as thev are ready to 
 sink under the heat and burden of the day — as a 
 banquet of celestial delights, to strengthen the weak 
 and to feed the huno;rv — as an earnest of that 
 inheritance, which is incorruptible and undefiled, 
 and fadeth not away. And hence it has always 
 been re2:arded bv the true Christian, as one 
 of his choicest and most valued privileges — as one 
 of those channels of communication, which brought 
 him into nearest and closest intercourse with the 
 Father of his spirit — as one of those brooks, of 
 which he was allowed to drink along the way in 
 order to enable him to lift up his head. 
 
 Amons: the benefits calculated to result from 
 this ordinance to those, who partake of it with the 
 due and necessary preparation, I would notice, in 
 the first place, the Blessing, which mav justlv be 
 considered as invariably attendant on a cheerful 
 and cordial compliance with a divine command. 
 In our statement of the obligatory character of 
 this ordinance, we remarked that it was founded 
 upon an express injunction of the Saviour Him- 
 self — '• This do in remembrance of me."' This 
 is not a bare authoritative expression of will, 
 but it is an injunction immediately followed bv a 
 reason, and in that reason is doubtless involved an 
 important promise. Indeed the commands of God 
 universally are but promises of blessing couveved 
 
 s 2 
 
276 
 
 in tlie ibnn of precepts, and couched under the 
 more concise and impressive phraseology of simple 
 injunctions. The benefit, if not expressly stated, 
 is always understood as belonging to the fulfilment 
 of the proposed condition, and it is the business of 
 faith to supply the deficiency of the expression. 
 There is a very remarkable instance of the im- 
 portance, which Jehovah attaches to obedience, 
 in the case of the Rechabites, recorded in the pro- 
 phecy of Jeremiah. The founder of that pious 
 family had strictly i)rohibited his children and de- 
 scendants from drinking wine — a prohibition which 
 they observed with the most scrupulous fidelity 
 throuahout the whole line of their succession. At 
 God's command the prophet took a number of 
 them into the house of the Lord, and offered them 
 wine to drink, and when they had resolutely de- 
 clined, the Lord was so much pleased with the 
 reverential regard, which they paid to their father's 
 command, that He promised them a special bless- 
 ing, and He brings forward, in striking contrast, 
 the disobedience of the people of Israel to his in- 
 junctions, and the judgments, which He would 
 bring upon them, " Therefore, thus saith the 
 Lord God of hosts — the God of Israel — behold I 
 bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem, all the evil that I have pronounced 
 against them ; because I have spoken unto them, 
 but they have not heard, and I have called unto 
 them, but they have not answered." Jehovah 
 Himself indeed condescends, in very frequent in- 
 stances, to enforce his injunctions upon this very 
 principle, that they are for our good. "Serve 
 the Lord thy God, says He, w^ith all thy heart, and 
 
27T 
 
 with ail thy soul, to keep tlie conimandments of 
 the Lord and His statutes, which I command thee 
 this day for thy good." And his servant Moses 
 acknowledges on the part of tlie people of Israel, 
 " The Lord commanded us to do all these sta- 
 tutes — to fear the Lord our God, for our good 
 always." 
 
 If, therefore, we had no other advantage to 
 specify as connected with the devout observance 
 of this institution than that, which universally at- 
 tends a cordial compliance with a divine command, 
 we should still have sufficient ground to regard it 
 as a privilege replete with benefit, and pledging 
 to us the most exalted good. As we cannot re- 
 fuse such a compliance without rebelling against 
 the authority, and without incurring the displea- 
 sure of the most High, so it is impossible that we 
 should observe in a spirit of submission, gratitude, 
 and love, his own express command, without se- 
 curing, in a proportionate degree, his favour and 
 good-will. While the Saviour looks down from 
 his glorious throne above, or rather, while in virtue 
 of his omnipresence, He takes his position among 
 us, and watches the manner, in which his last com- 
 mand is regarded by his professed followers — 
 while he notices, with the keen and penetrating- 
 glance of omniscience, the levity and contempt, 
 with which it is treated by some — the unreflecting 
 indifference, with which it is dismissed from the 
 thoughts of others, and the almost universal neg- 
 lect, upon some ground or other, into which it 
 has fallen among the great mass of nominal Chris- 
 tians — in some cases through the want of due at- 
 tention to the subject— in others through the ab- 
 
278 
 
 sence of a correct knowledge of the obligation 
 and importance, which belong to it, and in a third 
 class, through conscious unfitness and a wilful in^ 
 dulgence in habits, which are utterly at variance 
 with its spirit and design, — while he witnesses these 
 things, it is impossible that He should not view 
 with peculiar satisfaction and delight, the conduct 
 of those, who, being actuated with a sincere desire 
 to please and honour Him, kneel beside his altar, 
 and receive with emotions of overpowering grati- 
 tude and affection, the tokens of his remembrance. 
 Upon such we may feel assured that his eye rests 
 with more than ordinary benignity and compla- 
 cence — towards such the bowels of his compassion 
 yearn with inexpressible sympathy and tenderness. 
 To such his promises are plighted, and his cove- 
 nant mercies are sealed in fresh attestations of his 
 love, and in bonds of inviolable engagement. Such 
 persons may, therefore, be justly considered as 
 enjoying a special blessing — as attracting to them- 
 selves an eye of favourable notice and regard, on 
 the very ground of their conscientious and faithful 
 observance of this divinely appointed ordinance. 
 
 We may again notice, as an essential and im- 
 portant benefit associated with this institution — 
 the salutary effect of the process of preparation, 
 as unfolded in the last chapter, upon the mind and 
 character. However obvious and apparent may 
 be the duties and requisitions of the Christian pro- 
 fession, we continually require to be reminded of 
 them by something, which is calculated to bring 
 them prominently before the view of the mind, 
 and to impress them deeply upon the conscience. 
 This, indeed, is one of the express purposes of the 
 
2T9 
 
 various rites, ceremonies, and positive institutions 
 of religion. They are so many remembrancers 
 of the great truths and obligations, which without 
 such aids, would be in danger of falling into utter 
 oblivion and neglect. They are so many pillars 
 set up at different stages in our pilgrimage — in- 
 scribed with the memorials of divine grace and 
 goodness, and of our own correspondent obliga- 
 tions. They are so many tables of stone, engra- 
 ven with the finger of Deity, and deposited within 
 the ark of his church, as authoritative expressions 
 of his will and purposes, and as standing records 
 of our duties and privileges. They are so many 
 embodied representations of those mysteries of our 
 faith, and of those requirements of our practice, 
 which in their naked character would transcend 
 our views by their sublimity, elude our grasp by 
 their abstruseness, or escape our recollection and 
 our regard, through their remoteness from all con- 
 nection with our outward senses. 
 
 Such is emphatically the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper. This comprehensive and affecting 
 ordinance brings the whole range of divine truth, 
 every requisite of the Christian character into 
 view. When surveyed under all its bearings and 
 modifications, there is scarcely a duty or a privi- 
 lege which it does not in some form urge on the 
 attention. It brings at successive intervals the 
 whole character, in its various relations and habits, 
 under consideration, and by this means operates 
 with a most powerful and salutary influence, in 
 rendering every department of the conduct an ob- 
 ject of special inquiry and regard. The process 
 of previous and preparatory self-examination. 
 
280 
 
 vrhich it requires, is most eminently calculated to 
 produce a more perfect acquaintance with the cha- 
 racter, in reference to its present state and future 
 prospects. It teaches the soul its need of a Savi- 
 our, by producing a clear conviction of the inade- 
 quacy of its own efforts. It points out the abso- 
 lute necessity of regeneration, through the influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit, of that repentance, which 
 is towards God, and of that faith, which is towards 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. It shews the evil and ma- 
 lignity of sin in a most striking and impressive 
 light, that it should require such a sacrifice as that 
 of the only begotten Son of God. It brings the 
 various principles and graces of the Christian life 
 and character into most active and vigorous exer- 
 cise. It gives new life and spirit to the whole sys- 
 tem. It breaks in with a salutary commotion upon 
 the stillness and the stagnancy of habits, which are 
 apt to subside into a corrupt sediment, defiling the 
 purity and darkening the bright transparency of the 
 character. It gives a heavenward direction to 
 every faculty and affection of the soul. It gives a 
 celerity and a promptness to every movement along 
 the paths of piety and truth. It imparts an in- 
 creased intensity to every holy purpose — an addi- 
 tional vigor to every good resolution, and raises 
 the standard of the whole character into a higher 
 point of elevation in the scale of spirituality, piety, 
 and of decisive and unequivocal devotedness of 
 the whole heart and soul unto the service of God. 
 It thus unfolds to the view the extensive panorama 
 of the Christian's defects and imperfections — of 
 his dangers, arising from the varied forms of temp- 
 tation, which beset him, and thus cherishes in him 
 
281 
 
 a spirit of watchfulness and dependence — of the de- 
 mands of God and of his own corresponding 
 obligations, and thus operates as an active stimu- 
 lus, urging him to more strenuous exertions and 
 inspiring him with such a deep-felt conviction of 
 the just claims of his Redeemer, as will secure 
 that he will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the 
 work of the Lord ; but that leaving the things, 
 which are behind, he will still be labouring to press 
 forward to the things, which are before, and to be 
 rising to higher attainments in the divine life, until 
 he has arrived at the fulness of the measure of the 
 stature of Christ. 
 
 Apart, therefore, from the actual participation 
 of the sacramental emblems themselves, the very 
 process of self-scrutiny, which it demands — the 
 course of serious and devout preparation, which 
 the due and acceptable reception of the ordinance 
 implies — the train of solemn meditation and re- 
 flection, by which it is usually preceded — the re- 
 linquishment of sinful habits and indulgences, 
 which is indispensable as a qualifying condition — 
 the contrition for past offences, the resolutions of 
 amendment, the forgiveness of injuries, the ex- 
 ercises of charity, the cultivation of brotherly kind- 
 ness and universal benevolence, which it so em- 
 phatically requires and enjoins — the faith, the hope, 
 the love, the graces of the Spirit in all their de- 
 lightful variety and combination, which the consi- 
 derate prospect of observing it is so eminently 
 calculated to foster — all these circumstances and 
 considerations, which form so many elements in 
 that process of preparation, which has been al- 
 ready described, cannot fail, independently of any 
 
282 
 
 ulterior result, to render the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper of the most important spiritual ad- 
 vantage to him, by whom it is suitably approached. 
 It gives a direction to the thoughts and feelings : 
 it gives a discipline to the mind : it gives a tempo- 
 rary training to the character, and a check to its 
 evil propensities, v^^hich must be in the highest 
 degree salutary in their effects, even if no further 
 benefit was to be derived from it. 
 
 But I would remark, that another very import- 
 ant benefit attendant on a devout and worthy re- 
 ception of the sacrament of the Lord's supper is 
 the obligation, which it is acknowledged and felt 
 to impose upon the character and conduct for the 
 future. This, indeed, I have no doubt, is one of 
 the principal reasons, why so many persons ab- 
 sent themselves from this delightful and animating 
 part of our service, neglect this unquestionable 
 duty, and rob themselves of this exalted privilege. 
 They are aware of the solemn obligations, which 
 it involves, though it does not of itself create ; they 
 well know that a peculiar sanctity of deportment, 
 and circumspection of conduct are expected of 
 those, who thus pledge themselves at the altar of 
 God ; they are at the same time conscious of the 
 delinquencies, which belong to their character, 
 and of the temptations, to which they are accus- 
 tomed to yield : they have come to no decided re- 
 solution, in dependence upon divine aid, to enter 
 on a change of conduct for the future; to put 
 out the right eye, or to cut off the right hand, by 
 which they had been so frequently betrayed into 
 sin ; they are too sensible of their own prevailing 
 principles and habits, to allow them for a moment 
 
283 
 
 to persuade themselves that they make any serious 
 attempt to subdue their evil passions, to mortify 
 their sinful affections, and to bring every thought, 
 and feeling, and action into captivity to the gospel 
 of Christ ; and hence they conclude, doubtless 
 with much comfort and satisfaction to their ovi^n 
 consciences, that as they are not fit, and have no 
 desire or intention for the present to become fit, it 
 is better for them to stay away, lest they should 
 be adding the sin of hypocrisy to the sin of sabbath 
 breaking, or the sin of intemperance, or the sin of 
 fraud, or the sin of oppression, or the sin of blas- 
 phemy, or the more general and comprehensive sin 
 of an entire foro-etfulness of God — of the neglect 
 of prayer, private and domestic, in short to the 
 utter want of the great, distinguishing and indis- 
 pensable characteristics of the Christian life. 
 These under some of their varied forms and mo- 
 difications are the real causes, why so many of 
 us, in direct opposition to our profession as Chris- 
 tians, habitually abstain from this seal and confir- 
 matory rite of the evangelical covenant. We are 
 unwilling, as we conceive it, prematurely to bind 
 ourselves by such a sanction, and to burden our- 
 selves with the additional weight of the obligation, 
 which it unquestionably imposes. 
 
 But although this consideration may have the 
 effect of deterring some persons from approaching 
 the table of the Lord — an effect indeed hardly to 
 be regretted, while they continue in such a state 
 of mind, it cannot be viewed otherwise than as 
 eminently beneficial unto those, by whom it is duly 
 appreciated, and who cheerfully yield themselves 
 to its influence. While it o})eratcs as a just and 
 
284 
 
 salutary check upon those, who have not yet come 
 to a resolution to deny all ungodliness and worldly 
 Justs, and to surrender themselves in willing and 
 conscientious obedience to the will of God, it acts 
 with a most powerful and advantageous control 
 upon the character and conduct of those, who have 
 deliberately placed themselves within the range of 
 its influence. It was from the dread of incurring 
 the peculiar obligation of this federal stipulation, 
 and from the desire of enjoying an exemption from 
 the more aggravated guilt, which was supposed 
 to characterize the sin, committed after the ordi- 
 nance had been received, that many persons in 
 €arly times put it off until the latest possible 
 period of life, when it would seem to be no longer 
 in their power to perpetrate any deed of open ini- 
 quity. Indeed, it frequently happens to the mi- 
 nisters of Christ, in their visits to the sick and the 
 dying, to hear persons declaring with deep regret 
 and self-reproach, that, swayed by some notions of 
 this kind, they had abstained throughout the whole 
 period of their past life, from complying with the 
 command of their Saviour, and that they are anxi- 
 ous, before the opportunity is irrecoverably lost, of 
 retrieving their past neglect. If they had addicted 
 themselves to the ordinance at a former period, 
 the demands of obvious consistency and propriety 
 would have been more than they were prepared 
 punctually to recognize ; and hence they lost all 
 the advantages, which such a recognition would 
 have secured to them. 
 
 In the case of devout, reflecting, and sober- 
 minded young persons, this symbol of a complete 
 and voluntary union with the church of Christ, 
 
285 
 
 frequently operates with a most wholesome and 
 influential effect. With such the participation of 
 the holy sacrament is a grand and important era 
 in their history. They then appear unto them- 
 selves to enter upon a new scene, to commence a 
 new life, and to subject themselves to new and 
 most important obligations. With them such an 
 act is a solemn, public, deliberate, and avowed 
 dedication of themselves unto the service of God : 
 it is the consecration of the hallowed temples of 
 their bodies for divine and holy uses : it is the 
 symbolic presentation of themselves, souls and 
 bodies, upon the altar of redeeming love, to be 
 a holy, and lively sacrifice unto God, which is 
 their reasonable service : it is a professed renun- 
 ciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil ; an 
 engagement sealed with the blood of the. ever- 
 lasting covenant, that they will henceforth yield 
 themselves unto God, as those that are alive from 
 the dead, and employ the members of their bodies, 
 as well as the faculties of their souls, as instru- 
 ments of holiness unto righteousness. Pledged 
 by such vows, and bound by such obligations, it 
 is impossible that they should not, in some degree, 
 feel the awful responsibilities of their profession, 
 and endeavour to rise habitually to the level of 
 their vocation. And thus by a practical recogni- 
 tion of their sacramental obligations, will their 
 profiting be apparent unto all men. 
 
 A fourth important benefit attending the faithful 
 and devout observance of this sacred ordinance is 
 the effect, which it is calculated to produce in 
 confirming and strengthening the various princi- 
 ples and graces of the Christian character. As 
 
286 
 
 the constituent members of the bodily frame require 
 to be recruited and invigorated by seasonable and 
 appropriate supplies of natural food, so those 
 endowments of the renewed soul, which may be 
 considered as forming the elements of the new 
 creature, must be sustained with a due proportion 
 of congenial nourishment, in order to be preserved 
 from languishment and decay. Breathing the 
 corrupt atmosphere of a sinful world, exposed to 
 the chilling blasts of persecution, derision, and 
 neglect on the one hand, and to the scorching heat 
 of temptation on the other, the soul will speedily 
 lose its high-toned energy of spiritual affection, 
 and sink into comparative impotence and ineffici- 
 ency — its expansive vigor of faculty will shrink 
 into torpor and imbecility — its uncompromising 
 firmness of purpose will relax and melt into feeble- 
 ness — its Christian graces will wither and pine 
 away — its glowing ardour will be quenched — its 
 faith will begin to doubt — its hope to tremble — its 
 love to grow cold, and its zeal to evaporate, unless 
 these several principles and affections be continu- 
 ally fed with fresh supplies immediately communi- 
 cated from above. It was for the main purpose of 
 conveying these invigorating supports that this 
 sacred festival was instituted. In this it is, in an 
 especial manner, that Jehovah spreads a table 
 before his people, inviting them to partake freely 
 of the rich provisions, which He hath made for 
 their wants. In this divine ordinance He sets 
 before them a feast of fat things — a feast of wines 
 on the lees — of fat things full of marrow — of wines 
 on the lees well refined. And they, who partake 
 of it in a spirit of humble and sincere waiting upon 
 
287 
 
 the Lord, shall thereby renew their strength ; they 
 shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run 
 and not be weary — they shall walk and not faint. 
 
 The last benefit, which we shall notice as con- 
 nected with this ordinance, is the refreshment it 
 affords unto the soul, as a foretaste of heavenly 
 joy. At its original institution, indeed, it was pe- 
 culiarly associated by the Saviour himself with the 
 blessedness of heaven, when he informed his disci- 
 ples that he would no more drink with them of that 
 fruit of the vine, until they drank it new with him 
 in his Father's kingdom. Around this sacred 
 board the children of God are assembled together 
 in holy and affectionate union, to receive from his 
 hand that bread, which may nourish them unto 
 everlasting life, and that cup of consolation, which 
 may comfort their desponding hearts, soothe their 
 troubled spirits, and refresh their weary souls, while 
 they are prosecuting their journey homeward. In 
 this sublime communion of all that is most pure 
 and exalted in their sympathies — of all that is most 
 animating and transporting in their anticipations^ 
 every storm of earthly passion is hushed — every 
 animosity is forgotten — every tumult of worldly 
 care and anxiety subsides — the elements of strife 
 have ceased to disturb and agitate the breast — the 
 sound of discord is unknown to the ear — the clouds 
 of fear and dismay no longer rise in dark and me- 
 nacing array before the eye. In this midway 
 scene between earth and heaven— on this mount 
 of spiritual transfiguration, on which the face of 
 every faithful and devout worshipper is illumined 
 with peculiar irradiations of divine glory, all is 
 calm, tranquil and serene. The atmosphere is blest 
 
288 
 
 with the felt presence of Him, who breathes peace 
 and harmony and melody all around Him. On 
 this, if on any spot, which has been blasted 
 with the curse of sin, angels and men may meet 
 together as on common ground, while the one 
 party ascends on the wings of holy love and con* 
 templation to the throne of the Eternal, and the 
 other descends along the mystic ladder of affection- 
 ate interest and benevolent regard, and thus their 
 mutual joys and gratulations swell into one blend- 
 ed tide of gratitude and delight— of adoration, 
 thanksgiving and praise, which affords the most 
 vivid representation as well as the most realizing 
 foretaste of the felicities of the heavenly world. 
 Lifting up our hearts unto Thee therefore, O thou 
 Father of our spirits, and in blest accord with those 
 strains, which are attuned to thy praise in thy courts 
 above, let us, through the medium of that sacred 
 ordinance, which thou hast appointed, "with an- 
 gels and archangels, and with all the company of 
 heaven, laud and magnify thy glorious name — 
 evermore praising thee and saying — holy, holy, 
 holy. Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full 
 of thy glory : glory be to thee, O Lord Most 
 High." 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Note (I) Page 18. — Amidst the endless diversities of 
 character and opinion, which prevail among mankind, it affordvS 
 a convincing attestation to the claim, which the Deity has 
 upon the public and united homage of his creatures, that 
 very few, if any communities of human beings have existed, 
 of whose social arrangements divine worship, either supported 
 by legislative enactment, or maintained by conventional habits, 
 bearing all the force and sanction of law, did not form a pro- 
 minent and distinguished part. Under every form, and 
 throughout the successive economies of revealed religion, the 
 service of God has been distinctly and unequivocally enforced; 
 and human governments, whenever they have been such as 
 made a profession of the true faith, have usually deemed it as 
 coming within the range of their just and legitimate functions, 
 to make a due provision for its maintenance. To exercise a 
 becoming zeal for the honor of God, and to take effectual 
 measures for the instruction of the people in the great doc- 
 trines and duties of religion, without encroaching upon the 
 important principle of the right of conscience — to combine 
 the advantages of different institutions that have prevailed 
 with such regulations as are calculated to obviate their inci- 
 dental evils, must be acknowledged by every one who has 
 calmly and impartially studied the subject to be one of the 
 most difficult and delicate questions, which can engage the 
 attention of an enlightened and christian statesman. With- 
 out further entering into the subject in this place, as being 
 unsuitable to the design of a practical treatise, it is impossi- 
 ble not to admire the delightful and elevated spirit which 
 breathes in the following sentiments connected with this con- 
 troversy, coming from one of the brightest ornaments — 1 will 
 
 T 
 
200 
 
 not say of nonconformity, but of the catholic church of 
 Christ. — " For my own part, I must profess not to have the 
 least doubt concerning the thinj^ itself which we and our 
 ministers do, and practise. It is only our common great con- 
 cern, to be very careful with what temper of spirit, and with 
 what design we do it. It should to the uttermost be endea- 
 voured to be done with all meekness and humility, with all 
 possible reverence to authority, abhorrence of the least real 
 contempt, and unfeigned regret, there should be any appear- 
 ance of it, though never so unavoidable ; with a design only 
 to glorify God, and promote the common salvation : not to 
 make or serve a party, or advance any other interest than that 
 of mere substantial Christianity and godliness. Let us covet 
 this temper of mind, and, where we see persons of real 
 worth, and of a true latitude and largeness of spirit, com- 
 mensurate to the Christian interest, that fall in with the 
 public constitution, value and love them nothing the less, 
 than if their judgments about these lesser things were never 
 so exactly squared with our own, and so much more, by how 
 much they may excel us in far greater and more valuable 
 things, And if it be our lot to suffer under the notion of evil 
 doers for doing what we take to be our duty, let it be accord- 
 ing to the doctor's wholesome counsel, with an unrepining 
 patience, and with much thankfulness both to God and our 
 rulers, that we have enjoyed so much tranquillity; and with 
 that cheerfulness that becomes those that expect a blessed 
 eternity; and to be translated ere long into a pure and peace- 
 ful region, where we are to serve God, in society even with 
 many of them who have been offended with us, without scru- 
 ple or trouble to ourselves or them. If with such disposi- 
 tions and aims we persist in our course, while our case is 
 attended with such circumstances as now it is ; 1 have no fear, 
 1 sincerely profess to you, of our acceptance with God, and, 
 sooner, or later, with all good men." Howe. 
 
 Note (2) Page 24. — Those who are accustomed either to 
 make light of the public ordinances of religion, or on the 
 most futile grounds to absent themselves from the services of 
 the sanctuary, will find their conduct, in refeivnce to this 
 
291 
 
 point, sketched with a strong and characteristic touch in the 
 following remarks of Dean Swift — a writer seldom classed 
 among those, who would be " righteous overmuch." — 
 " There is one moral disadvantage to which all preaching is 
 subject, that those who, by the wickedness of their lives, stand 
 in greatest need, have usually the smallest share; for either 
 they are absent on the account of idleness, or spleen, or hatred 
 to religion — or in order to doze away the intemperance of the 
 week; or, if they do come, they are sure to employ their 
 minds rather any other way, than regarding or attending to the 
 business of the place. 
 
 " There is no excuse so trivial, that will not pass upon 
 some men's consciences to excuse their attendance upon 
 the public worship of God. Some are so unfortunate 
 as to be always indisposed on the Lord's day, and think 
 nothing so unwholesome as the air of a church. Others have 
 their affairs so oddly contrived, as to be always unluckily 
 prevented by business. With some it is a great mark of wit 
 and deep understanding to stay at home on Sundays, Others, 
 again, discover strange fits of laziness, that seize them parti- 
 cularly on that day, and confine them to their beds. Others 
 are absent out of mere contempt of religion. And, lastly, 
 there are not a few who look upon it as a day of rest, and 
 therefore claim the privilege of their cattle, to keep the Sab- 
 bath day by eating, drinking, and sleeping, after the toil and 
 labour of the week. Now, in all this the worst circumstance is, 
 that these persons are such whose companies are most required, 
 and who stand most in need of a physician." 
 
 Note (3) Page 25. — There are many persons, who are 
 willing to acknowledge the duty of worshipping God in their 
 private and individual capacity, but are by no means disposed 
 practically to recognize the obligation of a regular attend- 
 ance in his house. Those, who are prepared to submit to 
 the authority of scripture, it is quite enough to remind of 
 the express and unequivocal direction of the Apostle. — 
 " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the 
 manner of some is." Such as may be accustomed to view 
 the subject in the light of reason and natural religion, mny 
 
 t2 
 
292 
 
 peruse with advantage the observations of Lord Kaimes on the 
 duty and benefit of public worship. — " The obligation we are 
 under to worship God, or to walk humbly with him, is found- 
 ed on the two great principles of gratitude and obedience, 
 both of them requiring fundamentally a pure heart, and a 
 well-disposed mind. But heart-worship is alone not suffi- 
 cient : there are over and above required external signs, testi- 
 fying to others the sense we have of these duties, and a firm 
 resolution to perform them. That such is the will of God, 
 will appear as follows. The principle of devotion, like most 
 of our other principles, partakes of the imperfection of our 
 nature; yet however faint originally, it is capable of being 
 greatly invigorated by cultivation and exercise. Private ex- 
 ercise is not suflicient. Nature, and consequently the God 
 of nature, require public exercise or public worship : for 
 devotion is infectious, like joy or grief, and by mutual com- 
 munication in a numerous assembly is greatly invigorated. A 
 regular habit of expressing publicly our gratitude and resigna- 
 tion, never fails to purify the mind, tending to wean it from 
 every unlawful pursuit." 
 
 Sketches of thk History of Man. 
 
 *' We worship God, we praise and pray to him : not 
 because we think that he is proud of our worship, or fond of 
 our praise or prayers, and affected with them as mankind arc, 
 or that all our services can contribute in the least degree to 
 his happiness or good : but because it is good forois to be so 
 disposed towards God; because it is just and right, and suit- 
 able to the nature of things, and becoming the relation we 
 stand in to our supreme Lord and Governor." 
 
 Bishop Berkeley. 
 
 Note (4) Page 35. — " The Divine Being is the only one 
 of these objects (the unseen objects of faith,) which a Chris- 
 tian would wish it possible to contemplate without the aid of 
 imagination, and every reflective man has felt how difficult it 
 is to apprehend even this object without the intervention of 
 an image." Foster. 
 
 The supposed existence in the human mind of an innate 
 idea of a Supreme Being, was considered at one period, and 
 
293 
 
 by one sect of philosophers, to be a decisive and adequate 
 proof that there is a God. The difficulties connected with 
 the attempt to form a distinct conception of Deity, without 
 associating that idea with images utterly unworthy of the 
 divine nature, and the consequent danger of resting the whole 
 evidence of his existence on a mere vague and imperfect no- 
 tion, formed independently of the light of revelation, or any 
 process of rational deduction are, however, sufficiently appa- 
 rent from the opinions expressed by the following profound 
 investigators of the philosophy of this important question. A 
 general impression of some superior Being, indeed, may be 
 considered as almost co-extensive with human nature, and, 
 although not innate in any distinct and specific form, can 
 hardly fail to be called forth in the progressive developement 
 of the faculties of the mind. So far it may fairly be consi- 
 dered as a collateral branch of the evidence of the existence of 
 Deity; but this affects not the question of the difficulty of 
 forming a correct idea of his nature as a purely spiritual 
 Being. 
 
 " How far the idea of a most perfect Being, which a man 
 may frame in his mind, does, or does not prove the existence 
 of a God, I will not here examine. For in the different make 
 of men's tempers and application of their thoughts, some 
 arguments prevail more on one, and some on another, for the 
 confirmation of the same truth. But yet, I think, this I may 
 say, that it is an ill way of establishing this truth, and silencing 
 Atheists, to lay the whole stress of so important a point as 
 this, upon that sole foundation, and take some men's having 
 that idea of God in their minds, (for 'tis evident some men 
 have none, and some worse than none, and the most very dif- 
 ferent,) for the only proof of a Deity; and out of an over- 
 fondness for that darling invention, cashier, or at least endea- 
 vour to invalidate all other arguments, and forbid us to hearken 
 to those proofs, as being weak, or fallacious, which our own 
 existence, and the sensible parts of the universe, offer so 
 clearly, and cogently to our thoughts, tliat I deem it Impossi- 
 ble for a considering man to withstand them. For I judge it 
 as certain and clear a truth, as can any where be delivered. 
 
294 
 
 that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the 
 the creation of the world, being understood by the things that 
 are made, even his eternal power, and God-head." Locke. 
 
 *' As for the existence of such a Being, how it comes to be 
 known unto us, or by what means we are assured of it, is not 
 so unanimously agreed upon, as that it is. For although some 
 have imagined that the knowledge of a Deity is connatural to 
 the soul of man, so that every man hath a connate inbred 
 notion of a God; yet 1 rather conceive the soul of man to 
 have no connatural knowledge at all, no particular notion of 
 any thing in it from the beginning ; but being we can have no 
 assurance of its pre-existence, we may more rationally judge 
 it to receive the first apprehension of things by sense, and by 
 them to make all rational collections. If then the soul of 
 man be at the first like a fair smooth table, without any actual 
 characters of knowledge imprinted in it ; if all the knowledge 
 which we have comes successively by sensation, instruction, 
 and rational collection, then must we not refer the apprehen- 
 sion of a Deity to any connate notion or inbred opinion j at 
 least we are assured God never chargeth us with the know- 
 ledge of him upon that account." Pearson. 
 
 " 1 am not to be persuaded by metaphysical arguments ; 
 such, for instance, as are drawn from the idea of an all-perfect 
 being, or the absurdity of an infinite progression of causes. 
 This sort of arguments I have always found dry and jejune ; 
 and as they are not suited to my way of thinking, they may 
 perhaps puzzle, but never will convince me." Berkeley. 
 
 " I grant it very difficult, nay impossible, for those to have 
 any true settled notion of a God, who search for an idea of 
 him in their fancies, and were never conscious to themselves 
 of any higher faculty in their souls than mere imagination. 
 Such may have imaginem Jovis, or Galeatae Minervse, as he in 
 Tully speaks, some idea of an idol in their minds, but none of 
 a true God. For we may as soon come by the sight of colours 
 to understand the nature of sounds, as by any corporal phan- 
 tasms come to have a true idea of God. And although some- 
 times an idea be taken for that impression of things which is 
 lodged in the phantasy, yet here we take it in a more general 
 
295 
 
 sense, as it contains the representation of any thing in the 
 mind; as it is commonly said in the schools that the Divine 
 intellect doth understand things by their ideas, which are 
 nothing else but things themselves as they are objectively re- 
 presented to the understanding ; so that an idea in its general 
 sense in wiiich we take it, is nothing else but the objective 
 being of a thing as it terminates on the understanding, and is the 
 form of the act of intellection : that which is then immediately 
 represented to the mind in its perception of things, is the idea 
 or notion of it." Stillingfleet. 
 
 Note (5) Page 53. — It was well remarked by an eminent 
 writer — " If I cjuld create such a being as man, the first thing 
 I should expect of him is, that he should fall down and worship 
 me." The voice of universal history, as expressive of the 
 practice of all nations — whether conreyed in those acts of 
 rational and impressive adoration, which have prevailed under 
 the successive dispensations of revealed religion, or addressed 
 in the howls and (iissonant vociferations of the savages of the 
 North Western Continent to the great Spirit, who is supposed 
 to rule the elements — whether uttered in the more refined idola- 
 try of Greece and Rome, or chaunted forth amidst the splendid 
 processions of the different avatars of oriental mythology — is 
 but a varied echo of the principle implied in this declaration. 
 
 Note (6) Pack 73. — On the practice of the ancient Greeks 
 and of other nations, so far as his knowledge of them ex- 
 tended, with reference to the exercise of domestic worship, the 
 testimonj- of Plato is decisive. Speaking of the means and 
 habits prevalent among them, which appeared calculated to 
 instill into the minds of their children an early knowledge of 
 their Gods, he remarks — avasTEXXoKTw n ■nXm Kxt aiXtms kxi irpos 
 
 ^vcr(A.xs iovTwy, zjpoa-x.vXiO'iis ot^cx. x.oct 'mpoaxwyno'cis aytaovTss te xmi ofuvrss 
 <EXA»)ywy x«/ ^ocfQccfuv TravTw* e» <TV^^ofctis •nx)iToix,s syoixtvuv v.xt ev 
 ivTrpocyixis, ovv ms ovx. ovtuv ocKK us •t/ (j.x\i<7tx ovtuv hxi adxf/.vi vrro'^txv 
 
 t)iltlo))Tuv us ovx. Bin 0£O(. — " When at the rising and setting of the 
 sun and moon, they observe the prostrations and adorations of 
 all the Greeks and Barbarians, whether they be in prosperity 
 or adversity, it can hardly be otherwise than that they should 
 be impressed with a conviction that the Gods really exist." 
 
 DE Legibus. 
 
296 
 
 Note (7) Page 83. — A remarkable instance of sanctifying 
 a family meeting, and of ratifying afresh the domestic contract 
 by a solemn act of divine service, occurs in the case of Moses 
 and his father-in-law Jethro, recorded in the book of Exodus. 
 Of the practice of confirming leagues of peace, and oaths of 
 reconciliation, by unitedly offering sacrifices on the altar, the 
 whole of heathen antiquity abounds with examples, which 
 must be familiar to the memory of every classical scholar. So 
 general was this custom among them, indeed, that opy.ix rciAmv — 
 to cut agreements made by oath, became the ordinary phrase 
 to express the process of making a treaty. Besides numer- 
 ous cases of this description mentioned by Homer, there is a 
 striking instance recorded by Plutarch, relating to the league, 
 which had been proposed and mutually agreed upon between 
 Pyrrhus, Cassander, and Lysimachus. — " Aot^opnaxs Se to» 
 
 Av<Tiyi.xy(ov o[jt.ius siromro tuv eipmyiv nxi avvyiia-ccv cos xtzrct a-(pa'yiu¥ 
 
 opy-ufjioryia-ovris" — " Having reproached Lysimachus for his 
 treachery, he nevertheless, consented to make peace ; and they 
 met for the purpose of ratifying it by oath over the sacrifices. 
 
 Life of Pyrrhus. 
 
 Note (8) Page 84 — The most suitable and edifying mode 
 of performing this important duty is, perhaps, to read a por- 
 tion of scripture, which should be briefly expounded and 
 applied. Where there may be a want of adequate ability to 
 go through this simple exercise, it would be well to select a few 
 pointed remarks from some practical commentator. The pre- 
 sent Bishop of Chester has recently published a portion of the 
 New Testament, with an exposition admirably adapted for 
 domestic worship, and it is hoped that his Lordship will pro- 
 ceed still farther with this useful and excellent work. This 
 should be followed by a simple, scriptural, and appropriate 
 prayer. If there be a feeling of incompetency to perform the 
 duty without such aid, the manuals of Jenks or Cotterill, or a 
 selection from the prayers of the church, under a slight modi- 
 fication, will be found well calculated for the purpose, 
 
 Note (8) Page 89. — Some very strange and unauthorized 
 notions respecting the successive periods of creation, have 
 been suggested by certain speculative adherents of a depart- 
 naent of inquiry which as yet can hardly be considered to have 
 
297 
 
 passed the age of infancy — notions, which appear calculated 
 at least greatly to embarass, if not entirely to explode every 
 principle of legitimate interpretation as applied to the Mosaic 
 cosmogony. When we see these theorists extending their 
 " line of things" into a series of incalculable amount and 
 duration, each distinguished by its appropriate order of phy- 
 sical formation and animated existence, in utter disregard of 
 the definite declarations of Him, who gave nature its being, 
 and all its properties, we can only place their visionary eras on 
 a level with the long-winded epochs of Hindoo Chronology. 
 To " purblind sciolists" of this description, as they Jhave 
 been justly called, the sublime appeal addressed to the 
 patriarch out of the whirlwind may well be directed. — 
 " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without know- 
 ledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand 
 of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when 1 laid 
 the foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast under- 
 standing. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou 
 knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Where- 
 upon are the foundations thereof fastened ? Or who laid the 
 corner stone thereof ?" 
 
 Revealed truth should never be thrust into needless opposi- 
 tion to the clear and unequivocal disclosures of demonstrative 
 and experimental science ; for it is impossible that they should 
 be really at variance. Whenever these oracles seem to con- 
 travene each other, there must be some mistake in the inter- 
 pretation. Within what precise latitude the words of Moses 
 are to be understood as expressive of the original process of 
 the creation, and arrangeinent of the material universe, may 
 be a subject of calm and deliberate inquiry, but it is certain 
 that geology has hitherto discovered nothing, which would 
 supersede their natural and obvious construction. Those, who 
 have been somewhat too ready to admit the contrary, should 
 be reminded, in the nervous language of Horsley, relating to 
 this question — that " it is one thing to write a history, and 
 quite another to compose riddles." That these views are 
 perfectly accordant with all that philosophy has hitherto 
 brought to light in this interesting field of observation, is 
 
298^ 
 
 sufficiently apparent from the following lucid and convincing 
 statement of Dr. Ure. The whole question of geological 
 formations, in fact, resolves itself into this — not what period 
 the present powers of nature, if left to their ordinary opera- 
 tion, would require to produce such results, but to what extent 
 those powers were employed or modified in the primordial 
 arrangements of the universe, and on this point we have no 
 definite information beyond what is contained in the inspired 
 volume. 
 
 " Many speculative writers have considered the record of 
 Moses as referring merely to the origin of the human race, 
 without at all defining the epoch at which either the earth or 
 the system of the world was made. This opinion seems quite 
 incompatible with the direct and obvious meaning of his nar- 
 rative of Creation. The demiurgic week, as it is called, is 
 manifestly composed of six working days like our own, and a 
 day of rest, each of equal length, and therefore containing an 
 evening and a morning, measured by a rotation of the earth 
 round its axis. That this rotation did at no former period, 
 differ materially in duration from the present length, has been 
 shown by Laplace in his Systeme du Monde. Hence it is to 
 be regretted that any commentators of Scripture, misled by 
 the fancied necessity of certain geological schemes of strati- 
 form superposition, should have vexed themselves and their 
 readers, in torturing the Hebrew words for day, and evening, 
 and morning, into many mystical renderings. That Moses 
 attached no such vague meaning to the creative days in Ge- 
 nesis, is evident from the language of the fourth command- 
 ment in Exodus. " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy 
 work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in 
 it thou shalt not do any work. . . .for in six days the Lord 
 made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and 
 rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sab- 
 bath day and hallowed it." Here, as every where else, the 
 Bible is its best interpreter, and will always enable any man of 
 common sense and unbiassed judgment, to arrive at a satisfac- 
 tory conclusion, while the dupe of critical refinement is stum- 
 bling in a labyrinth of Hebrew roots. 
 
299 
 
 " We may, moreover ask, why we should claim in behalf of 
 our globe, a more ancient origin than that assigned by the 
 inspired chronologist? Will its rank, dignity, and importance, 
 be enhanced by a remote genealogy? Is this a taint of the 
 pride of ancestry, common to the whole family of man ? But 
 how can it be safely gratified ? Even lynxeyed science can 
 pierce the dark veil of creation no further than common 
 vision. Her telescopic glasses, which pierce farthest into 
 space, have no time- penetrating power whatsoever. 
 
 " That Geometry can carry the eye far into the future and 
 the past, is a mere verbal fallacy. It can enable us to calculate 
 the relative positions of spherical masses, revolving at certain 
 rates in certain orbits for a series of ages ; but it reveals 
 nothing about the condition of these masses, in time past or 
 future, far less as to their origin. Had we been told that 
 Deity, in the beginning, created a chaos out of which sym- 
 metry was to be educed through a long series of material trans- 
 mutations, then philosophy might have profiered her conjecture 
 concerning the order of evolution; but ancient chaos is merely 
 a mythological fiction, disavowed alike by the word and wisdom 
 of God. The pristine reign of elemental strife and confusion 
 under that " Anarch old," is inconsistent with the Govern- 
 ment of Omnipotence. Chaos is, in fact, a dogma borrowed 
 by Pythagoras from the Persian Magi, representing the eternal 
 war that was waged between Ormuzd and Ahriman (Oromas- 
 des, and Arimanius) the uncreated principles of good and 
 evil, of light and darkness. Had these two contending 
 powers been equal, as they were diametrically opposite in 
 every aim and effort, then reciprocal counteraction must have 
 resulted, the equilibrium of death. Thus nothing could be, 
 for nothing would have been suffered to exist. It is marvellous 
 how Doctors of Divinity dared to introduce the heathen and 
 atheistical absurdity of a Chaos into their commentaries on 
 the Mosaic record of creation. With regard to the antiquity 
 of our earth, nothing can be known except what the Eternal 
 Spirit has deigned to reveal. Itaque salutare admoduni eufy 
 si inente sobria fidei tantum dentur, quce fidei sunt." 
 
 NoTB (9) Page 103. — The observance of the Sabbath as a 
 
300 
 
 "question of legislative enactment, has been recently discussed 
 in an admirable pamphlet by Mr. Conder, reprinted from the 
 Ecclectic Review. 
 
 Note (10) Page 1 16. — It was remarked by Bishop Horsley, 
 that in his day " an opinion had been for some time gaining 
 ground, that the observation of a sabbath in the Christian 
 church is a matter of mere consent and custom, to which we 
 are no more obliged by virtue of any divine precept, than to 
 any other ceremony of the Mosaic law." From that period I 
 fear that this opinion — dangerous and groundless as it appears 
 to be — has extended still more widely. It has recently received 
 the sanction, in an aggravated degree, of a writer, from whose 
 character and station better things might have been expected. 
 Nothing, however, in the form of novelty or originality has 
 been added to the evidence, on which it was founded, that 
 could retrieve it from the complete and overwhelming confu- 
 tation it received from the masterly pens of Horsley and 
 Milner and others, who took part in the controversy. '* It is 
 a gross mistake, says the first of these distinguished writers, 
 to consider the sabbath as a mere festival of the Jewish church, 
 deriving its whole sanctity from the Levitical law. The con- 
 trary appears, as well from the evidence of the fact, which 
 saered history affords, as from the reason of the thing, which 
 the same history declares. The religious observation of the 
 seventh day hath a place in the decalogue among the very first 
 duties of natural religion. The reason assigned for the in- 
 junction is general, and hath no relation or regard to the 
 particular circumstances of the Israelites, or to the particular 
 relation in which they stood to God as his chosen people. The 
 creation of the world was an event equally interesting to the 
 whole human race; and the acknowledgment of God as our 
 Creator, is a duty in all ages and in all countries, equally in- 
 cumbent upon every individual of mankind." 
 
 Among the later treatises which have undertaken to vindi- 
 cate the authority of the sabbath, those of Dr. Burder, Mr. 
 Gurney, and especially that of the Rev. Daniel Wilson, may 
 be mentioned as having ably and satisfactorily discussed the 
 question. The author's own dissertations, according to his 
 
301 
 
 usual practice of composition, were written before he had 
 perused any one of these. But he is not sorry to find that his 
 line of argument and illustration in many respects, as was^ 
 naturally to be expected, concurs with theirs. He cannot 
 resist the temptation of adding the following testimony to the 
 benefits of a due observance of the sabbath, alluded to in a 
 former page, from the venerable and illustrious Chief Justice 
 Hale, in whom 
 
 ♦' Our British Themis glories with just cause." 
 
 " I have by long and sound experience found, that the due 
 observance of this day, and of the duties of it, have been of 
 singular confort and advantage to me ; and I doubt not but it 
 will prove so to you. God Almighty is the Lord of our time, 
 and lends it to us, and it is but just we should consecrate this 
 part of that time to him ; so I have found by a strict and 
 diligent observation, that a due observation of the duty of this 
 day, hath ever had joined to it, a blessing upon the rest of my 
 time ; and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed 
 and prosperous to me ; and on the other side, when I have been 
 negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week hath 
 been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own secular employ- 
 ments ; so that I could easily make an estimate of my suc- 
 cesses in my own secular employments the week following, 
 by the manner of my passing of this day : and this I do not 
 write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound 
 observation and experience." 
 
 Note (11) Page 111.— Nothing is more certain than the 
 prevalence of this ordinance during the first centuries of the 
 Christian era., as the writings of Tertullian, of St. Cyprian, 
 and St. Cyril, and others of the early fathers testify. It very 
 soon degenerated, indeed, like the other sacrament, into a 
 superstitious observance, and very extravagant and often here- 
 tical notions were engrafted upon it. But this derogated not 
 in the slightest degree from its authority as a divine institu- 
 tion, nor from its import as a symbolic exhibition of that 
 process of internal purification, without which no one shall 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven. The views entertained of 
 the importance ot baptism, as well as of the propriety of its 
 
302 
 
 application to infants, even before they had attained the age, 
 at which circumcision was allowed to be administered, are 
 forcibly stated in an epistle of one of the most distinguished 
 fathers of the third century. — " Quantum vero ad causam 
 infantium pertinet^ quos dixisti intra secundum aut tertium 
 diem, quo nati sunt, constitutos, baptizari non oportere, et 
 considerandam esse legem circumcisionis antiquse, ut intra 
 octavum diem eum qui natus est baptizandum et sanctifican- 
 dum non putares, lenge aliud in concilio nostro omnibus visum 
 est. In hoc enim quod tu putabas esse faciendum nemo 
 consensit, sed universi potius judicavimus nulli hominum nato 
 misericordiam Dei et gratiam denegandam." Cyprian. 
 
 Note (12) Page lb'2. — The import of the baptismal form, 
 as originally addressed by Christ to his apostles, is thus accu- 
 rately expanded in an able and convincing little Treatise, on 
 the " Obligatory nature of the sacraments on scriptural 
 principles, by the Rev. George Bliss." — Go ye among Jews 
 and Gentiles, and proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the true 
 Messiah, anointed of God with a fulness of grace, and of the 
 Spirit without measure, and sent to be the Saviour and Re- 
 deemer of the world. Go ye among those who have never 
 known the true God, nor heard of the name of Jesus Christ. 
 Go and " turn them from dumb idols to serve the living and 
 true God," " turning them from darkness to light, and from 
 the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgive- 
 ness of their sins, and an inheritance among them that are 
 sanctified by faith that is in me." Go, and in the power of 
 my grace, (for lol 1 am with you always, even unto the end 
 of the world,) achieve this great, this glorious, this indispens- 
 able work ; and having gathered them into my school, and 
 made them my disciples, admit them by the significant rite of 
 baptism to a public and solemn profession of the doctrines 
 which I teach, and to the declared and assured hope of the 
 blessings which I promise ; " baptizing thein" as believers 
 " in the name of the Father," who receives all those who 
 come to him " washed" by the Son, and " sanctified" by the 
 Spirit ; '*' of the Son," whose " blood cleanseth from all sin ;" 
 " and of the Holy Gh»st," whose influence shall be shed 
 
303 
 
 abundantly on those who believe. Go, and thus do the work 
 of Evangelists and Apostles ; nor let your labours terminate 
 here ; but carry on the work you have begun, and having 
 taught them to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom he hath sent, and upon an intelligent profession of re- 
 pentance and faith baptize them in this name, instruct them 
 more fully in the nature of their new relations, " teaching 
 them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you.^' 
 
 The use of this form as deemed essential to the validity of 
 baptism in the second and following centuries of the Christian 
 era is unquestionable. In his account of the first of these periods, 
 Mosheim relates that " those, who were to be baptized (after 
 other ceremonies and confessions,) were received into Christ's 
 kingdom, by a solemn invocation of Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, according to the express command of our blessed 
 Saviour." The bearing of this remarkable phraseology upon 
 the fundamental doctrine of the divinity of the Son and Holy 
 Spirit, is, according to the view of Dr. Dwight, exceedingly 
 powerful and decisive. " In the commission here given by 
 Christ to his Apostles, it is impossible, that an attribute should, 
 with propriety or meaning, be joined with persons ; or a 
 creature with one or more Divine persons. No absurdity can 
 strike the mind with more force, than that Christ should di- 
 rect the Apostles to baptize iii the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Divine Power » Nothing but im- 
 piety can, so far as I see, be contained in a direction to baptize 
 in the name of God, and of a creature. What creature would 
 dare to associate himself wilh God in such an act of authority, 
 and thus presume to ascend the throne of his Maker?" 
 
 Note (13) Page 165. — So far as the scriptural authority of 
 the practice of infant baptism is concerned, the strongest 
 evidence in its favour — an evidence in my view perfectly satis- 
 factory and decisive — is doubtless deduced from the striking 
 analogy it bears to circumcision under the former economy, 
 combined with those numerous statements respecting the 
 baptism of whole families and other circumstances, which 
 appear palpably to involve it. If we pass on to that of the 
 
304 
 
 primitive church, which carries great weight as it may be pre- 
 sumed, on a question of mere fact, to convey the most correct 
 information, it would be easy to substantiate the prevalence of 
 this practice by citations, more or less specific and express, 
 from the writings of Justin Martyn, Irenseus, Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, Tertuilian, Origen, and Cyprian, all living at varied 
 periods of the three first centuries. The question, therefore, is 
 not one of ecclesiastical usage, for in this view of it there is 
 little or no difficulty. The circumstance, which has led many 
 persons to doubt the divine authority of infant baptism, 
 appears to be that the ordinance is generally associated in 
 scripture, whenever it is mentioned, with an actual profession 
 of faith. In cases of voluntary transition from Judaism or 
 heathenism to Christianity, which are alone distinctly recorded 
 in the new testament, this was obviously necessary, and is 
 deemed equally so in the present day. From this they have 
 been led to think that Baptism, instead of an initiatory rite of 
 admission into the privileges of the Christian church, and a 
 symbol of the highest spiritual blessings, was intended to be 
 applied in those cases only, in which faith was exercised, and as 
 infants are incapable of this, that they have no right to the 
 ordinance. But they forget that even in the case of the adult 
 we have no certain proof of faith ; and if baptism is not to be 
 administered except in cases of real conversion, it is manifest 
 that we should have no certain and absolute ground, upon 
 which we could administer it at all. The only difference, so 
 far as it is confined to this principle, is that the adult is ad- 
 mitted into the church because it is presumed that he is 
 sincere, and the infant because it is also presumed, in depend- 
 ence upon the divine promises, that in due time he shall be 
 brought to the exercise of the same faith. Actual and known 
 conversion is evidently not the basis of the administration of 
 the ordinance in either case. 
 
 Note (14) Page 168 — The object of the appointment of 
 sponsors in the primitive church, was doubtless to secure the 
 Christian education of those who were admitted into the pri- 
 vileges of the church by baptism ; and although there may 
 not be the same necessity for this office in the present condi- 
 
:305 
 
 tion of that cliurch, yet as there is nothing suparstltious or 
 iinscriptural in the usage, it may and unquestionably has been 
 frequently converted, where its obligations were duly recog- 
 nized, into an occasion of most important benefit. No en- 
 lightened member of our church views it in any other light than 
 that of a part of n system of ecclesiastical institutions, bearing 
 the sanction of a very remote antiquity. Sponsors are dis- 
 tinctly mentioned by Tertullian in the third century, wlio 
 speaks of the awful nature of the engagements, to which 
 they pledge themselves in behalf of those, whom they bring 
 to the baptismal font. 
 
 Note (15) Pagk 176. — There is no doubt but very extra- 
 vagant and unwarrantable notions of the spiritual efficacy of 
 the sacraments, began at an early period to prevail among the 
 ancient fathers. This arose, in some degree, from the indis- 
 tinctness of language. Expressions, which at first were used 
 metaphorically, were afterwards taken literally. Terms origi- 
 nally and properly designatlve of the inward grace, by a 
 natural and easy transition, men gradually applied to the out- 
 ward symbols. The spiritual meaning either wholly evapo- 
 rated in this process of transmutation, and nothing was left 
 but the outward form, or, if any remained, it was considered 
 to be absolutely embodied in the figurative emblem. Thus 
 the sacrament of the Lord's supper was deemed to be an 
 actual participation of the body and blood of Christ, and by a 
 similar translation of " Rhetoric into Logic," the water of 
 baptism was supposed to be transubstantiated into the influence 
 of the Holy Spirit as the instrument of regeneration. Ever 
 since the days of Nicodemus, indeed, men have been prone to 
 confound the literal with the metaphorical sense, or to lose 
 the spiritual in the literal meaning of the language em- 
 ployed upon this subject. The language of our own church, 
 which has been so grievously misunderstood on this point, is 
 manifestly framed, as in other instances, on the charitable 
 principle of supposing that the inward grace has accompanied 
 the outward sign, as long as there is no evidence to the con- 
 trary. But when she thanks God that the subject of bajjtism 
 has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, she no more means to 
 
 u 
 
306 
 
 assert absolutely that the child has been spiritually born aj^ain 
 than she does that every individual partaker of the elements 
 of bread and wine in the eucharist, has been really united unto 
 Christ by faith, when she directs her communicants to thank 
 God that they " are very members incorporate into the mys- 
 tical body of his Son." The meaning of terms, however, is 
 conventional, and if, to avoid an apparent contradiction, that 
 of regeneration was applied to baptism, and its invariably 
 attendant privileges, and another equally comprehensive and 
 intelligible, was employed to express that real change of na- 
 ture, without which no one can enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven, the integrity of Christian doctrine would remain in- 
 violate. That, which is of paramount importance, and mainly 
 incumbent upon us, is to impress upon men, whether bap- 
 tized or unbaptized, that unless they become to all practical 
 purposes " new creatures in Christ Jesus," outward symbols 
 and ceremonies, however significant and authoritative, will 
 avail them nothing. 
 
 Note (16) Page 183. — Whether baptism be performed by 
 sprinkling or immersion, appears to be quite unimportant. 
 In our own church provision is made for both practices, as 
 expediency may dictate. In the primitive church the latter 
 seems to have been most generally adopted, and, although it 
 has fallen into desuetude in our own, this, in the majority of 
 cases, is evidently a departure from its original intention. 
 
 Note (17) Page '229. — The original views and eaily pracr 
 tice of the Church of England, in reference to the participa- 
 tion of this sacred ordinance, are distinctly traced in the 
 following historical sketch by Bishop Beveridge. 
 
 " In the first year of that pious prince (Edward the VI.) 
 the Liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer, was first compiled ; 
 and in the second it was settled by Act of Parliament. In 
 which book it is ordered, that the exhortation to those, who 
 are minded to receive the Sacrament, shall be read : which is 
 there set down, much the same that we read now. But after- 
 wards it is said — In Cathedral Churches, or other places where 
 there is daily communion, it shall be sufficient to read this 
 exhortatipn above written once in a month. And in Parish 
 
307 
 
 Cluirclies upon the week days it may be left unsaid. Fol. 123. 
 Where we may observe, first, that in those days tliere was 
 daily communion in Cathedral Churches and other places, as 
 there used to be in the primitive church. And accordingly I 
 find, in the records of St. Paul's, that when the plate^ jewels, 
 &c. belonging to the said cathedral were delivered to the 
 King's Commissioners, they, upon the Dean and Chapter's 
 request, permitted to remain_, among other things, two pair of 
 basyns for to bring the communion bread, and to receive the 
 offerings for the poor ; whereof one pair silver, for every day, 
 the other for festivals, &c gilt. Dugdale Hist, of St. Paul's, 
 page 274. From whence it is plain, that the communion was 
 then celebrated in that church every day. And so it was even 
 in parish churches. For otherwise it needed not to be ordered 
 as it is in the Kubrick above mentioned, that in parish 
 churches upon the week days the said exhortation may be left 
 unsaid. And to the same purpose it is afterwards said, when 
 the Holy Communion is celebrated on the work day, or in 
 private houses, then may be omitted the Gloria in Excelsis, 
 the creed, the homily, and the exhortation. Fol. 132. 
 
 *' Next after that we quoted first, this Kubrick immediately 
 follows : * And if upon the Sunday or Holy day, the people be 
 negligent to come to the communion, then shall the priest 
 earnestly exhort his parishioners to dispose themselves to the 
 receiving of the Holy Communion more diligently, saying,' 
 &;c. which shews that upon all Sundays and Holy days people 
 then generally received : the church expected and required it 
 of them. And if any minister found that his parishioners 
 did not always come, at least upon those days, he was to 
 exhort and admonish them to dispose themselves more dili- 
 gently for it: and that by the command of the church itself; 
 whereby she hath sufficiently declared her will and desire, that 
 all her members should receive the communion as they did in 
 the primitive times, every day in the week if possible : and if 
 that could not be, yet at least every Sunday and Holy day in 
 the year." 
 
 Note (18) Page 230.— As early as the third century, ac- 
 cording to Dupin, the celebration of the eucharist was entitled 
 
308 
 
 a sacrifice, and it was administered even to infants under tlie 
 species of wine. Soon afterwards it began to be celebrated at 
 the tombs of martyrs, and at the obsequies of the dead, which 
 is supposed to have given rise to the masses performed in 
 honor of the saints. It was, however, Gregory the Great, in 
 the sixth century, whom Mosheim describes as one, " who 
 had a marvellous fecundity of genius in inventing, and an 
 irresistible force of eloquence in recommending superstitious 
 observances" — it was this renowned prelate, in an institution 
 called the canon of the mass, who overwhelmed this simple 
 and impressive ordinance with a profusion of pompous cere- 
 monies, which completely altered its character, and ultimately 
 converted it into one of tlie most effective engines of popular 
 tlelusion, and priestly craft. In passing through this degrad- 
 ing process of perversion and abuse, however, the ordinance 
 has lost none of its prior obligation and inherent grandeur. 
 
 Note (IIJ) Page 256. — ^That the sacrament of the Lord's 
 supper was intended to be celebrated throughout the entire 
 period of the Christian dispensation, is evident from the de- 
 claration of St. Paul — " As often as ye eat this bread and 
 drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death until He come." 
 The whole history of the church bears witness of its uninter- 
 rupted continuance, and it will doubtless remain a standing 
 monument of the love of Christ as long as there is a church 
 upon earth. 
 
 Note (20) Page 269. 
 
 " Xep(Ti S' octmroiaiv An Xsi^ttv oci9ovx oivcv 
 AiyLxri xxt XvOpu ireirxXacyiA.svov sv^sTxxaOxi. 
 
 I have a holy dread of pouring a libation of black wine to 
 Jupiter with unwashed hands ; nor is it right that one polluted 
 with blood and gore, should pay his vows to the cloud- 
 collecting son of Saturn. 
 
 Hector in Homer's Iliad. 
 
 F I N I e-. 
 
 MASDN, CIIICUESIF.R, 
 
LATELY PUBLISHED, BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 An estimate of the HUMAN MIND, being a Philo- 
 sophical Inquiry into the Legitimate Application and Extent 
 of its Leading Faculties, as connected with the Principles 
 and Obligations of the Christian Religion. — Two Vols. 
 Octavo, ISs. boards. 
 
 " The subject is liighly important, and the discussion of it has fallen into able 
 liands. IN'ot only will persons conversant with such studies, find in Mr. Davies's 
 \ olumes much that is striking and original, but even those to whom metaphysical 
 pursuits are new, will be gratified as well as informed, by the mass of powerful 
 argument and apt illustration which he has brought to bear upon his various 
 topics." — Christian Observer, November, 1828. 
 
 " The perusal of such Volumes as these, acts as a sort of gymnasium on the 
 mind, by which all its powers are strengthened, and all its moral qualities improv- 
 ed. To Students in Divinity we would, in particular, commend the Work. It 
 contains an immense store of knowledge upon all subjects connected with mental 
 science, especially in the bearings of that science upon man's moral nature and 
 destiny." — Evangelical Magazine, March, 1828. 
 
 " A great variety of topics of vast interest arc ably and eloquently discussed. 
 The reader, who only looks for dry argumentation will be agreeably disappointed, 
 as the work abounds with beautiful and frequently splendid illustration. Above 
 all, the author's views of Christianity are of the best kind ; enlightened, evangeli- 
 cal, and impTi^ss'ive."— Congregational Magazine, May, 1828. 
 
 " .... We have seen its coruscations playing around us in various quarters, but 
 in no case have the lambency and emanations been more steady and brilliant, thaD 
 in the Volumes now before us."— Imperial Magazine, August, 1828.