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household ;- -a member of His Divine Body, deriving grace and merit from HIM. By the very act of coming to the Holy Communion, you renounce, before GoD and man, that proud unchristian notion of standing alone, being independent. You profess yourself to stand in continual need of all the means and instruments of Grace; the prayers, the intercession, the good example, of your brethren; all the helps which the SON of GOD has so graciously provided in His Church and Household.

Thus you see how the Holy Communion, the appointed sign and daily conveyance of spiritual nourishment in the Church of GOD-you see how this Sacrament tends to cure men of their proud imaginary freedom, and make them feel how far they depend, by CHRIST's ordinance, upon His Church. And surely, as to zeal in good works, every one who thinks at all on the subject, knows that one chief purpose of the Holy Communion was to encourage and strengthen men in that. On that very account it is, that so many Christian men and women shrink back from the LORD'S Altar, because they know, that worthy communicants endeavour to be zealous of good works; and to such zeal, such endeavour, they have not yet made up their minds; they had rather try a little longer, whether they may not do well enough by refraining outwardly from gross sins, and being about as good as their neighbours. They must be plainly told, over and over, that what keeps them from being communicants now, would have kept them from being Christians at all, if they had lived in the days of the Apostles. For, as you hear, St. Paul would then have told them, that the purpose of God in calling them to be Christians was, that they might be earnest in good works-the very thing which alarms them, and which they plead for their backwardness, when they are invited to the Communion now.

For, indeed, such an assemblage of reasons for holiness of life, as that blessed Sacrament presents, cannot be found any where else. The Son of GOD, dying for your pardon, the SPIRIT of GOD coming down to be your help, your own promises, and vows, and oaths, so solemnly repeated in the more immediate presence of the FATHER, the Son, and the HOLY GHOST-all this brought home to your very senses by the sight and touch of the Holy Elements, left by our SAVIOUR to be pledges of HIMSELF, to be, in effect and virtue, His own Body and Blood-must needs make

a serious impression on every heart capable of seriousness, and dispose it to serve CHRIST truly for the future; and besides all, and to ensure all, there is the secret invisible aid of God's HOLY SPIRIT, which, dwelling without measure in the Man CHRIST JESUS, fails not to be communicated more and more to all who worthily partake of that Bread and Cup. It is, as it were, a strengthening medicine, left to CHRIST's peculiar people, the Church, in order that they may be helped more plenteously to bring forth the fruit of good works.

Are you then weak in any part of your duty? come to that holy Feast with a sincere will and desire to be stronger, and you will by degrees be strengthened. But the truth is, too many of us, well-knowing where they are spiritually feeble, do not care to be made strong and sound. They had rather, in fact, continue weak, in order to have a sort of excuse for some wrong indulgence or evil passion. They decline God's bread, from a childish notion, that so they may be excused from doing God's work.

But the ALMIGHTY will not so be mocked, nor so permit His own peculiar people to make void His purpose in purifying them to HIMSELF. And lest the two Sacraments alone should fail in reminding them of that purpose, He has also condescended, as a careful Master, to appoint persons under HIM in His household; ministers of His holy Word and Sacraments, having power and commandment from HIM, on the one hand, to remind obstinate sinners that such and such things are sins, and that God has passed sentence on them in Heaven; on the other, to declare and pronounce to the penitent the absolution and remission of all their sins. The Apostles had, united to this, power to strike certain great and open sinners with sickness or other temporal punishment to deliver them for a while to an evil spirit for the hurt of the flesh, that the soul might be saved in the day of the LORD JESUS. And both the Apostles, and their successors the Bishops, used to turn men out of the Church, when their offences were notorious and open, shutting them, by public sentence, out of the solemn assemblies of Christians, from hearing God's word, praying with their brethren, and especially from receiving CHRIST'S sacred Body and Blood. This is called by our Church, in the Commination Service, "a godly discipline," and she greatly wishes it might be restored among us; which happy return to the

practice of the better times we may (if ever) then hope to see, when Christians in general shall have learned more humility and modesty, and be willing to trust themselves to the Church of CHRIST, instead of presumptuously seeking out each his own way of salvation.

I say, when men are spiritually more humble, we may hope to see "godly discipline" revived, sinners turned out of the Church, and openly humbling themselves before GoD: but until then we must wait with patience. This use, at any rate, we may make of what we read in the Scriptures concerning the discipline of the early Church; it may serve as one instance more of the stress laid on good works by HIM who enacted those laws for His people, our LORD and SAVIOUR CHRIST HIMSELF. HE it was who declared to His Apostles, and through them to all Bishops of His Flock, "Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted, and whose sins ye retain, they are retained:" and His SPIRIT instructed them to use that power in excluding great and open sinners from the Church. Could there be a clearer sign of the will and desire of CHRIST our King to have His Church without spot or blemish, "plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works?" And since He is still the same CHRIST, ruling in His household by the same SPIRIT, although unhappily the same outward discipline cannot at once be revived among us, still those who wish always to please their LORD, may do well to bear that discipline in mind, and order some parts of their conduct by it.

For example: one rule of that ancient discipline was, "If any man that is called a Christian be a fornicator, or a defrauder, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one, no not to eat ;" to avoid his company, and show him that you did so, on indifferent and ordinary occasions. Would it not be true Christian charity, if some of us would act on this rule a little more conscientiously than the world would teach us to do; treating those persons, who are notoriously guilty of what God has condemned, however usual-treating them, I say, with a kind of reserve, as though they were already excommunicated; as, no doubt, they are in Heaven? I say, this would be the truest charity, because it would give these unfortunate persons one chance more of repentance and amendment, as often as they saw Christian people, otherwise kind and gentle,

shrinking from them on account of their sins. Whereas, if, amid all their notorious guilt, they find themselves yet welcome companions even to such as profess to fear GOD, what can they possibly imagine but this, That good men, in their hearts, do not believe all that is said of the terrible consequences of such sins? And what effect can that have, but to embolden the sinner in his desperate course, and cause him, contrary to all our prayers, and contrary to all the will of our REDEEMER, plenteously to bring forth the fruit of evil works?

Even out of charity, therefore, to the sinner, Christians are bound in their ordinary dealings to mark and avoid profligate men; and if they would do so, not in party spirit, but thoughtfully and seriously, for conscience sake, they would be so far forwarding, each in his place, the purpose of their SAVIOUR in giving HIMSELF for them. They would be doing what little they can towards purifying the Church of GOD, and making it zealous of good works.

Only let it always be remembered, that little blessing can be expected on this or any other effort, which any man may make for the salvation of others, except he watch, in the first place, for his own. There let your Christian zeal begin, in rooting out bad habits, and quieting rude and violent passions; let that work go hand in hand with a charitable zeal to make other men better also, and both, by GoD's blessing, will be well done. A mind so disposed will go on, silently and gradually, from year to year, bringing forth the fruit of good works, till, in His own good time, He who inspired will plenteously reward it.

SERMON CXCIX.

ACCOUNT TO BE GIVEN OF CHURCH PRIVILEGES.

FOR THE SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT.

JOHN XV. 22.

"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin."

We are so used to have the means of grace continually (as we think) within our reach, that most of us, I fear, have come to consider them quite as a settled thing, a matter of course. It does not come into our minds, that we owe any particular thanks to the ALMIGHTY for casting our lot where we may have so rich blessings from the Gospel and Church of CHRIST; for giving us, not only the Bible, but the Prayer-Book too. We seldom or never recollect and examine ourselves, whether we be not loading ourselves with a heavy burthen against the last Day, every year, month, and week of our lives, by the little use we make of the Prayer-Book in particular.

In order to help Christian men in understanding their own guiltiness in this respect, Scripture has been very full in setting forth the inexcusable guilt of those Jews who lived when our SAVIOUR came, and threw away that great privilege of having HIM personally among them. Let us suppose any one of these, the year before our LORD's ministrations began: suppose a man in those times, living in the same careless way that the generality of people in all times seem to prefer, not indeed rejecting his

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