direct either steps which wander, or control and resolve doubts which may distract. And then will come the absolution. Absolution not again, in the error of the Romanist, personal and judicial, but absolution as pronounced by God's command, and offered by the minister whose authority is deduced from the God who gives it. Absolution is awarded in the mercy of God to all penitent sinners.

Come, then, ye that doubt, ye that stand trembling on the brink of that river of the mercy of God, and hesitate to plunge in. If ye still have scruples, why not search for their resolution at his hand who is appointed for this purpose? It will not, to say the least of it, diminish the present little desire you have for grace. It may strengthen and confirm it. It cannot add to your scruples, it may remove them. It cannot encrease your guilt; it may be the means under God of absolving it.

The

Seek, then, with a full heart; lay open your grief, and tell the tale of your sorrow. very act of opening your heart will bring com

fort; the very act of confessing sin brings shame, and shame brings humiliation, and humiliation brings grace in the sight of God, for he that "humbleth himself shall be exalted."

The end shall be peace. Pain there may be in the probing of the wound, and the knife may cut very deeply, and the piercing asunder of the bones and marrow by the word of God may cause you to wince and fret, but the end shall be peace, a sound conscience, and a soul at ease. The end shall be that in this life ye shall have knowledge of God's truth, and in the world to come LIFE EVER

LASTING.

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CHAPTER II.

THE EXHORTATION.

In the preceding observations, we have been considering THE WARNING which the minister is directed to read on all ordinary occasions previous to the celebration of the holy communion, that is, on the supposition that the congregation, as a body, or in proportion to their numbers, are good and regular communicants.

But, alas! we know that it is very seldom the case that the number of communicants is in just proportion with the number of the congregation. It is generally speaking but little more than that proportion which in the case of the ten lepers incurred our blessed Lord's rebuke:-" Were there not ten cleansed,

F

but where are the nine?" (Luke xvii. 17.) Yes, where are the nine?-all cleansed, all receiving from day to day the blessings of Almighty God both in temporal and in spiritual things, all healed of their sins in the pure water of Baptism, all regenerate and made children of God by adoption and grace, and yet one only in ten to give glory to God;-so that, as I just said, the ordinary occasion will be very quickly lost sight of. The way of preparation as above described, the examination of the conscience, the repentance, the restitution to and forgiveness of our neighbour, are all subjects which generally speaking are of no avail whatever: ears are deaf and hear not; eyes are blind and see not; hearts are gross and feel not. Either God's word is wilfully misunderstood, and men make pretended excuses, or it is foolishly misinterpreted, and men keep away from needless alarm; or else (which it may justly be feared is the prevailing reason) sins and habits of vice and worldliness are too dearly loved, and

men will not part from them--and so continually, Sunday after Sunday, they will behold the preparations made, the altar ready, and the minister of God standing by, and yet withal turn their backs, as though it were a business in which they had no part or share.

This we know; therefore the minister is supplied with a second exhortation, one more pointed and cogent, one which shall represent in colours not to be mistaken the exceeding great desire of God, that no one shall fail in this heavenly feast, the exceedingly urgent call of the Church that all should be partakers of this holy communion-how very anxiously she looks that the great privileges and blessings which she has in her power to bestow, shall not be offered in vain!

Therefore, let us make this second Exhortation the groundwork of a second meditation. Proceeding in the same manner as before, let us first carefully read over a certain portion of that which is commanded in the Prayer