SECTION III. The plea of too great sinfulness answered. THERE are others who plead their sinfulness as an excuse for not receiving the sacrament of the Lord's supper. They say, "we are too wicked to think of performing a duty so sacred. We are often harassed with evil thoughts; our angry passions and carnal lusts are sometimes strongly excited. We often speak unguardedly with our tongues, and occasionally do things which are opposed to the precepts of the gospel, and inconsistent with a profession of religion. We fear, therefore, that to approach the table, would be to add to our guilt, and increase our condemnation." This is an excuse which it may be considered difficult to answer, because it is offered by persons of very opposite characters. It is a plea which belongs in common to the bold and worldly-minded transgressor, and the timid, self-condemning penitent. And cannot safely be replied to, without making a proper discrimination between them. It may be asserted as a general truth which cannot be controverted, that, the Christian religion, including not only its doctrines and promises, but also its ordinances and institutions, is designed for the benefit of sinners. Jesus Christ came "not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Those only who feel themselves to be sinners, guilty and perishing, will duly appreciate him in his saving offices, or receive his Gospel as glad tidings of great joy. The more Christians know of themselves, the more ready are they to acknowledge the deep corruption of their hearts, and their manifold sins of omission and commission. They realize their daily need of the application of the blood of atonement, to cleanse them from guilt, and of the grace of the Holy Spirit, to subdue their passions and purify their affections. Whenever they address the throne of grace, it is as sinners, pleading for mercy to pardon, and grace to help in every time of need. Whenever they approach the sacramental table, it is, as sinners, who but for an interest in the great sacrifice and spotless righteousness of the Son of God, must perish without hope. And when they are about to enter the eternal world, and take possession of their heavenly inheritance, it will be with feelings of contrition in their hearts, and a prayer for mercy upon their lips. If it be true, therefore, that Christians are saved as sinners, from first to last, it necessarily follows, that the bare fact of our sinfulness, will not unfit us for the communion, or any other religious duty. There is, however, another incontrovertible truth, which must be stated in connexion with this subject. The Gospel is a system of holiness, no less than of grace. It holds out no encouragement, or hope, to those who love their sins and wilfully continue in them. It commands "all men, every where, to repent." It assures us, that "except we repent, we must all perish." The impenitent cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The Lord views them as his "enemies;" and "has a controversy with them," which will never terminate till they bow to the sceptre of his grace, or are "broken in pieces with the rod" of his justice. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." "The sacrifices of the wicked," that is, of the impenitent and obstinate sinner, "are an abomination to the Lord." Those, therefore, who plead their sinfulness as an excuse for neglecting the sacrament, and yet live in sin from day to day without repentance, and without earnest prayer for pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace; do impiously plead that as an impediment in the way of duty, which they are constantly and wilfully increasing. They offer as an apology for one sin, the acknowledgment that they are daily guilty of thousands. They beg to be excused from the performance of one duty, on the ground that they live in the neglect of all duties; and that "their hearts are fully set in them to do evil!" The Church does not invite you to come with your impenitent and rebellious hearts to the feast of reconciliation and love; but she asks, "wherefore do ye not repent and amend?” The unworthiness which you plead, being wilful and voluntary, is the greatest aggravation of your crime. If you are not fit to communicate, are you fit to pray? No! "though you should spread out your hands, God would not regard them-though you should make many prayers, he would not hear them." "Wash you; make you clean; cease to do evil; learn to do well;" or else presume not to come to the holy table. you are not prepared to communicate, are you prepared to die? No! as impenitent sinners, "the wrath of God even now abideth upon you," and if death, to which you are every moment liable, overtakes you in your present state, that wrath will come upon you to the uttermost. If To the excuses of the impenitent and unbelieving, we have no reply to offer with a view of soothing their consciences, and inducing them in their unrenewed state to present themselves as guests at the table of the Lord. No! they require, not a partial reformation of outward habits, only, but a radical change of heart, before they can be prepared for the acceptable discharge of this duty. By the insincere performance of religious acts, the unconverted are only adding sin to sin, and "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." We solemnly remind them that they "must be born again." We earnestly exhort them to "repent and be converted, that their sins may be blotted out." This is their appropriate work; their bounden duty; and until this is done, they cannot acceptably serve God on earth, or be prepared for admission to his kingdom in heaven. Their But there are some humble and contrite souls, who are kept back from sacramental communion, and deny themselves one of the most precious privileges of Christianity, under the influence of mistaken views of the qualifications required in communicants. It would be our delight to remove the scruples of these sincere but trembling disciples, and minister consolation to these "mourners in Zion." excuse is not an affected, but an ingenuous sense of unworthiness, deeply felt, and sincerely lamented. They look upon the privileges of attending on God's ordinances, and enjoying the blessedness of his people, not with indifference,—but as infinitely more desirable than all the possessions and pleasures of this world: but they have such clear views of "the plague of their own hearts," and such a humbling consciousness of the deficiencies of their best works, that they consider it presumption to believe that those privileges and that blessedness may be theirs. They ask, as in the language of the poet, “But may a poor bewilder'd soul Sinful and weak as mine, Yes! contrite, broken-hearted sinner, these blessings, rich and inestimable as they appear, are designed for such as thee. "God taketh the poor out of |