two last mentioned qualities of the spirit of faith, we perceive how a Christian's security is inseparably connected with a Christian's sanctification. He is secure no longer than while the spirit of faith is alive in him, and wherever that spirit lives, it sanctifies. Many other important characteristics of the spirit of faith might be enumerated; but enough has been said to supply us for the present, with abundant matter for self-examination. Who amongst you, my brethren, is possessed of this spirit? Consider the extent of your knowledge, your holiness, your joy in the Lord. Compare your attainments, and your experience, with the standard which God hath set up; and those perhaps, who have made the greatest progress will find how suitable to their case, is that petition which the apostles preferred, on being exhorted to the exercise of a difficult christian duty, "Lord encrease our faith."* Press this prayer, this short but comprehensive prayer, in reference to every part of your christian character; and for your encouragement, remember the language of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"* But ask with unwearied importunity; a delay is not a refusal: " men ought always to pray, and not to faint." * Luke xvii. 5. Gracious Lord grant unto us all, the spirit of faith; that believing, we may now enter into peace; "live the rest of our time in the flesh, not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God; and having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, "I know in whom I have bebelieved, and am persuaded, that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day," we may also so believe, and therefore be so persuaded to our great and endless comfort. * Luke xi. 11, 12, 13. 342 SERMON XIV. THE INSTITUTION, INTENTION AND NATURE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 1 COR. v. 7, 8. "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast." The ordinance of the supper of the Lord Jesus Christ ought to be a subject of peculiar interest to all those who profess and call themselves Christians, and yet unhappily it is very generally neglected. Multitudes there are who neglect public worship altogether, and even of those who come regularly to the house of God, how many, how very many constantly turn their backs upon the Lord's table! I look round now, and behold some hundreds of immortal souls; I look round an hour hence, and behold a little gleaning from the multitude left scattered through the church. Hundreds assembled to hear Christ's ambassador, and only tens remaining to feast with Christ himself. My brethren, this ought not so to be, it betrays a deplorable ignorance, or a still more deplorable neglect of our holy religion. I am willing to believe, that much ignorance upon this subject prevails, and I am therefore desirous at this time to offer to your attention some plain and useful information Let us therefore, consider I. The institution of the supper of the Lord. By what authority do we engage in it? We are here assembled this sabbath morning in a house set apart for the worship of God. "We render thanks for all the benefits we have received at the Lord's hands, we set forth his most worthy praise, we hear his most holy word, and ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul." All this seems very natural in creatures richly supplied and wholly dependant as we are. But why do we proceed to eat bread and drink wine together in the service of God? It will not suffice to answer, that our parents did it before us; that it is a custom; for why did our parents do it? How came it to be a custom? Unless I can find authority for it in the holy scriptures, I shall have no concern with it, no more than with the mass or the purgatory, or the holy oil of the Roman Catholics. This is of great importance brethren, we must realize the direct authority of God in the appointment of an ordinance of worship, or we cannot join in it acceptably in his sight. In the history of the life of Christ as recorded by St. Matthew, we read, "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins." In like manner St. Mark writes, "as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take eat this is my body. And he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them; and they all drank of it, and he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many." And St. Luke, "he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it and gave unto them, saying, this is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you." And the apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthan church, says, "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this |