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TO THE TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF

The Lord's Supper

SECTION I

On the End and Institution of Baptism and the Lord's Supper

THER

HERE are two holy ordinances or Sacraments, appointed by Jesus Christ as most especial means of obtaining grace and salvation; which no Christian, who hopes to be saved, must wilfully neglect - These are, BAPTISM and the LORD'S SUPPER.

It must be supposed that you have already

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been made partaker of one of these Sacraments; namely, That of BAPTISM, by which you were admitted into the congregation of Christ's flock, were restored to the favour of God, and had the Holy Spirit communicated to you, for a principle of a new and spiritual life; in order to awaken you, and to direct and assist that

natural reason, with which | ing the reason of that

God has endued all mankind.

But forasmuch as you have done many things contrary to the promise made in your name, when you were baptized, and will stand in need of greater degrees of grace and assistance, to enable you to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to do your duty in that state of life unto which the providence of God shall call you; you are therefore now called upon to be partaker of the other Sacrament, that of the LORD'S SUPPER: by which, upon your sincere repentance, you may obtain the pardon of all your past sins, and such other graces as you stand in need of, to bring you to eternal life and happiness.

Take care, therefore, that you understand what you are called to as well as you are able; and God expects no more. For if you go to the Lord's Supper without consider

ordinance, and the very great concern you have in it, without seeing the necessity and blessing of a Redeemer, you will go with indifference, and return without such benefit, as you might otherwise hope for.

To prevent this, you should seriously consider what account the Holy Scriptures have given us of the condition we are in, both with respect to this life, and the life which is to come. That is, we are by nature sinners; and that as such, God cannot take pleasure in us and that if we die before we are restored to His favour we shall be separated from Him, and miserable for ever.

This will lead you to inquire, how the nature of man came to be thus disordered and prone to evil; for you must not imagine, that God, who is infinitely good, created man in such a state of corruption, as you now see and feel him to be;

but that he must have fallen into this wretched condition, since he came out of the hands of his Creator.

And so Scripture informs us. In the third

chapter of Genesis, we have this following account of the state of man, before, and after, the Fall: That Adam and Eve, from whom sprang all mankind, were created in the image of God; that is, holy and innocent; having a perfect knowledge of their duty, a command of their will and affections, and a power, through the grace of God, to do what they saw fit to be done.

In this condition they were placed in Paradise in a state of trial, with a promise of immortal life and happiness, if they should continue to fear, to love, to honour, and obey their Creator; as also with an express warning of the dreadful consequence of their disobedience. Notwithstanding which warning, they, through the temptation

of the devil, transgressed the commands of God; and, by doing so, they did not only forfeit all right to the promise of eternal life and happiness, but also contracted such a blindness in the understanding, such a disorder in their will and affections, as all their posterity feel to their sorrow; and became subject to sin, and the punishment of sin, which is misery and death.

Concerning the nature and greatness of this sin, we are to judge of it by the greatness of the punishment inflicted upon them and their posterity: For God, being infinitely just and holy, could not inflict a punishment greater than their sin deserved.

Now this was the occasion of that universal corruption and wickedness which you see and hear of in the world, and which you cannot but in some measure feel in your own nature. For, as the Scriptures inform us, Adam

1 Gen. v. 3.

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