mandment, That we should believe on the name of his Sou, Jesus Christ." The command of God, making it your duty to repent and believe, is as plain and binding as any precept of the moral law: And you may, with as much propriety, and as much safety too, say that you will be guilty of profanity, of Sabbath-breaking, of theft, of uncleanness, or of any other sin forbidden in the Decalogue-as to say, that you will not repent and believe the gospel. It is altogether a mistaken idea, that it is left at your option, whether you shall or shall not honour the Lord Jesus Christ, by confessing his name and commemorating his death. And it betrays more than mistaken ideas upon the subject,-it betrays a heart bent on wickedness, to neglect this duty, because you wish not the sphere of your indulgences to be contracted-and to bind yourselves to that tender and holy practice, which the profession of religion demands. All this, I repeat it, is your duty-your solemn duty and if you neglect it, you neglect it at your peril! Your sentence of rejection is already recorded on the inspired page! The final and allrighteous Judge has declared, that those who will not confess him before men, he will not confess before his Father, which is in heaven !t

:

The Judicial process must, in such a case, assume a form somewhat like the following:

Judge. Why did you not commemorate my sufferings and death, in obedience to my dying command?

* 1 Jo. iii. 28.

Mat. x. 32, 39.

Sinner. Because I was unprepared for that holy ordinance.

Judge. But, why were you not prepared?

Sinner. Because I rejected the gospel offer! refused to repent of my sins-to embrace a crucified Redeemer by faith, and devote myself to his service!

What an excuse!-The very excuse contains matter of indictment; and merits the damnation of hell!

But I have another consideration to urge; a consideration full of tenderness; and yet applicable to most of you who have not yet made a public profession of religion, by shewing forth the Saviour's death, in the communion of the supper. I allude to the relation in which most of you stand to the church of the living God. Baptized in infancy, you bear upon you the seal of membership. As members, you are bound to perform the duties of members, and to walk in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless. One of the leading duties devolving upon you, as members of Christ's church, is a public recognition of your relation to the church, and the Head of the church, in the devout celebration of the ordinance of the supper. Nothing can be more reasonable than the expectation, that all who have been baptized in infancy, will, at a suitable age, when they have become competent to examine themselves, and "to discern the Lord's body," attend to this duty. Nothing can be more just than that they should be censured, if

they continue to neglect it. The seals of the covenant belong to the children of the covenant: and it is at once their honour, their interest, and their duty, to make use of them.

But, in pressing this duty upon you, I am convinced that I cannot do better than to avail myself of the excellent remarks of a distinguished writer of the present day:

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Many young persons," says he, "imagine that they are not members of the church, until upon a personal profession of their faith, they join it in the communion of the holy supper. This is a great mistake. The children of Christian parents are born members of the church. Their baptism is founded upon their membership; and not, as some people suppose, their membership upon their baptism. On the same principle, when they arrive at the years of discretion, they may, in taking upon them their baptismal engagements, by a becoming profession of the Lord Jesus, demand a seat at his table, as their privilege, which the church cannot deny. Their allegiance to him, as their Redeemer, their King, and their God, is inseparable from their birth-right. The question, then, with them, when they reach that period of maturity, which qualifies them to judge for themselves, is, not whether they shall contract or avoid an allegiance, which has hitherto had no claims upon them? but, whether they shall acknowledge or renounce an allegiance, under which they drew their first breath? Whether they shall disown the Prince of Life, and waive their interest

in his church? Whether they shall disclaim the God of their fathers; forswear their consecration to his service; take back the vows which were made over them, and for them, when they were presented to him in his sanctuary; his blessed name called upon them; and the symbol of that "blood, which cleanseth from all sin," applied to them? Not whether they shall be simple unbelievers; but whether they shall display their unbelief in the form of apostacy ? That is the question and an awful one it is! As they value their eternal life, let them consider, that every hour of their continuance in their neglect of Christ, is an hour of contempt for his salvation, and of slander on his cross! How shall their hearts endure, or their hands be made strong, when he shall come to reckon with them for their treading him under foot, and counting the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing? Reckon with them he will! and precisely for their not owning him: For they cannot-no, they cannot shake off their obligations to own him; although, in the attempt, they may destroy themselves forever!

"According to this representation," I shall be told, "the condition of many of our youth is very deplorable. It is their duty, you say, to profess the name of Christ; and to seal their profession at the sacramental table. This they cannot do; for they are conscious, that they do not possess those principles and dispositions which are requisite to render such a profession honest. What course shall they

steer? If they do not profess Christ, they live in rebellion against God! If they do, they mock him with a lie! Which side of the alternative shall they embrace? Continue among the profane, and be consistently wieked? or withdraw from them in appearance, and play the hypocrite ?"

Destruc

For the UNBELIEVING shall

it

The case is, indeed, very deplorable. tion is on either hand. have their part in the lake of fire!* and the HYPOERITE'S hope shall perish!t God forbid that we should encourage, either a false profession, or a refusal, to make one. Their duty is to embrace neither side of the alternative. Not to continue with the profane, and not to act the hypocrite; but to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in truth, and to walk in him. "I cannot do it," replies one; and one, may be, not without moments of serious and tender emotion upon this very point. "I cannot do it!" My soul bleeds for thee, thou unhappy! but it must be done or thou art lost forever! Yet, what is the amount of that expression: in the mouth of some a flaunting excuse-and of others a bitter complaint -I cannot? Is the inability to believe in Christ, different from an inability to perform any other duty? Is there any harder necessity of calling the God of Truth a LIAR, in not believing the record which he hath given of his Son, than of committing any other sin? The inability created-the necessity imposed by the ENMITY of the carnal minds.

*Rev. xxi. 8.

Job viii. 18.