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"of us." And as we have fo lately appeared at the Altar of God to renew our vows, and proclaim our obedience, let mebeg yourferious attention, whilst I endevor to impress upon our minds the many and weighty obligations we are all of us under, to live, with fuch vigilant, and pious caution, that "no evil thing **may, in future, be faid of us."

It was, indeed, with inconceivable fatisfaction, I perceived the willing mind," which fo evidently appeared amongst you, to declare your conviction of the truth, and exprefs your hopes, in the promises, of the Gospel, by affembling, almost all, with one confent," around the holy Altar. Imagination cannot form an earthly fcene more pleafing, than this house of God then exhibited. Though you may not all be poffeffed of the goods of fortune, or the acquifitions of knowlege, there are bleflings in referve for you, I trust, greater in value, than the empire of this world-" to fit

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at the right hand, and at the left hand," of your Redeemer, and your God. However mean and contemptible we may fome of us appear, through the obfcurity of our fituation, poverty of circumftar or deplorable ignorance, if

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"we discharge our duty in the state of life unto which it hath pleafed God feverally to

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call us," the time may be not far diftant, when the noble, the wealthy, and the learned, lamenting the want of that knowlege, which would have made them wife unto falvation, may exclaim, with indignant difappointment, "we fools counted their lives madnefs, and "their end to be without honor; but how are "they numbered amongst the children of God, "and their lot is amongst the faints!" But then we are to confider, that it is not the mere acto act of receiving the Sacrament which will recommend us to mercy, and entitle us to reward. "To ftrengthen our refolutions, to animate our endevors, and confirm our faith, let us reflect upon the declarations, and the promises we made, before we approached the facred Altar. "That we had truly and earnestly repented of our fins, that we were in love and charity with our neighbors, and that we intended to lead a new life," we declared in the moft folemn manner, in which creatures could exprefs themfelves to their Creator. If we relapfe into our former habits, if the drunkard again drown his faculties in intemperance, if the fwearer continue to utter his shocking

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imprecations, if the unjust perfift in his arts of deceit, if the flanderer restrain not his tongue from evil-fpeaking, we may fay of each what Peter faid to Ananias," thou haft not lied unto men, but unto God." "Did we not ac

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knowlege and bewail our manifold fins and "wickednefs which we, from time to time, "had committed against the Divine Majesty "of Heaven? Did we not declare them to be "grievous unto us, and the burden of them "to be intolerable?"-And can we wish to obliterate the remembrance of them, and render their burden lighter, and easier to be born, when we are repeating the fame fins, and the fame provocations? The neceffity of an uniformly pious life does not, it is true, accord with the unaccountable ideas many people entertain concerning the Sacrament-that it is neceffary it fhould be received at the three feftivals, and other stated feafons, as a good old custom that ought not to be broken. No! let no man ever pollute the facred bread and wine, with his unhallowed lips, who does not mean, henceforth, to become a better man who does not mean, henceforth, to regulate his conduct by the precepts of the Gofpel, and to practise every virtue it enjoins, and renounce every vice

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it forbids: if he communicates from any other principle, if he does not repent of his fins, and amend his life," he is guilty of the body and "blood of Chrift our Saviour-he eats and "drinks, dreadful denunciation! his own con"demnation, Judge, therefore, yourselves,

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my brethren, that ye be not judged of the "Lord." Befeech Almighty God to "create a clean heart, and renew a right spirit, with"in you," to enable you to fulfil your promifes, and keep your vows. "We offer and

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prefent unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our "fouls, and bodies"-fuch was the language of our lips, and of our hearts, I trust,-" to be "a reasonable, holy, and lively facrifice unto

thee, humbly befeeching thee, that all we, "who are partakers of this holy communion,

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may be filled with thy Grace, and heavenly "benediction." After having entered into fo folemn an engagement, will you violate it through wantonnefs, or trample on it with contempt; especially when you confider, that by fo doing, you are " provoking, most justly, "God's wrath and indignation against you?" It behoves us, indeed, Chriftians," who defire "to obtain, by the merits and death of Jefus Η Chrift,

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"Chrift, and through faith in his blood, for

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giveness of our fins, and all other benefits of "his paffion," to act with peculiar caution, that "no evil thing may be faid of us." Let every master of a family fet an example to his household, "fhewing himfelf a pattern of good "works," by his piety, his regularity, his equity, and juftice, in all his dealings and tranfactions: let him obferve the Lord's Day with the seriousness it demands, both attending public worship himself, and requiring his children, and fervants, to do the fame: let him on that day, more efpecially, acquaint himself with the revealed will of God, and inftruct his family in the most useful of all learning, "the

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knowlege of God unto falvation:" and, let him take care, that he does not exhort to virtues he neglects to practife, or find fault with the commiffion of vices to which he is himself addicted: let him fhew, in his whole behavior, what conftitutes a good man: whatever may be the prevalence of his difpofition, and turn of mind, whether exceffive paffion, gloomy fullennefs, fordid avarice, whatever be the "fin which easily befets him," let him guard ftrictly against it: let him mafter the unruly inclination

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