existence, as members of the chosen flock, to their early initiation by circumcision, and the continuance of their communion in the privileges to which circumcision admitted them, to their persevering observance of the varied rites, by which they continually testified their adherence to their religion, renewed their covenant with God, and received the assurance of his continued favour to them. Their national welfare is in like manner repeatedly declared to be contingent on their punctual observance of the ceremonial of the law in all its details. An adhesion to the external and positive injunctions of the Lawgiver was to be with the Israelites, as it was with our first parents, the test of their hearts being right with God; the evidence of a disposition to obey, in the one case, their great Creator, in the other, their beneficent Protector and King, simply. Their faith in his veracity, on the one hand, in the commination of punishment, on the other, in the promise of blessings, was to be in both instances tried by their reverence for his external institutions. To neglect the services, by which the outward disposi

tion of their hearts was to be visibly displayed, was in both instances to be the prelude to the sure ruin of the despisers.

Upon the general importance attached to external services both in nature and revelation, it is therefore needless to dwell further. Suffice it to observe, that as from the universality of the existence of external rites in natural systems, we infer the reasonableness of such services as they appeared to minds unenlightened by revelation; so from their similar presence, and the stress laid upon them in the revealed dispensations of God's will, we obtain a divine sanction to the conclusions of a merely human wisdom.

But the reasonableness of the service of externals, as deduced from the fact of their universal observance, being admitted; an inquiry into the grounds of the respect thus universally paid to them will lead us to results of yet higher importance, in reference to our main undertaking. For if we now inquire, what gave to externals, whether in nature or revelation, their most real

c Acts xiii. 41.

importance in the eyes of those by whom they were observed; we shall find, that in both cases it was the expectation of benefits, either direct or implied. Without some anticipation of advantage to result from their observance, they would neither have obtained that universal reverence, which they have every where procured independently of revelation; nor that ready acquiescence, which, chiefly on that very account, follows our conviction, that they are imposed by a divine authority.

It will therefore be desirable to inquire, on what footing the expectation in both cases stands; how far it is justified in the religion of nature, and how far it is confirmed or extended in revelation. In the considerations to which this inquiry will lead us, we may hope to find a safe foundation for the anticipation of some benefits from the sacraments themselves; but we shall at all events be furnishing the most effectual antidote to prepossessions against the admission of any. For as these can only justifiably arise from an idea, either of the unreasonableness of the thing, or its incon

sistency with the known methods of Providence; they will be fitly answered by a correct statement of the grounds of human practice, and the course of the divine pro

cedure.

External religion then, of which the Christian sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper evidently form a part, may be divided into two great branches; that which is offered to the Supreme Being by the free choice and voluntary submission of his creatures, and that which is paid to him in discharge of an obligation expressly laid on them by him. From the former of these, however natural, and apparently congenital to the mind of man, it may be in some of its expressions, no other benefit to the individual offering it can safely be asserted, than that which is looked for in every self suggested act of piety, by which men hope to conciliate the object of their worship, and to secure to themselves such blessings as are adapted to their individual needs. In themselves they do no more than testify to the right intention and good disposition of him who offers them; and the hope of a

beneficial return rests only upon that internal conviction, so universally prevalent, that with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Inasmuch indeed as they are offered in a religious frame of mind, and with an actual desire of doing that, which the offerer is persuaded is acceptable to God, such acts of voluntary piety have a real worth; and though destitute of merit, in the theological sense of the word, may without arrogance look for a corresponding recompense of reward from Him, who accepteth the works of every man according to that he hath, and not according to that he hath nota.

Whatever further advantages, however, beyond the comfort derived from such pious expectations as the fitness of the service itself may seem to justify, may accrue from such observances, they must have some other foundation than the religious disposition and virtuous confidence of the worshipper; and they can rest on no other than the express appointment of Him, to whom the service is directed. A very general impres

d 2 Cor. viii. 12.