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favours to mankind according to his sovereign pleasure. And when he finally determines the destinies of men, according to the improvement which they have made of the privileges conferred upon them, it can be no imputation on his justice or goodness that he distinguishes with peculiar favours particular portions of the human race, and renders them capable of higher bliss in a future state of existence.To suppose that the Patriarchs on whom shone the peculiar blessings of heaven; that the favoured nation of the Israelites, to whom the law was given in its divine majesty and lustre ; and that Christians under the luminous and glorious dispensation of the gospel, were not rendered capable of higher degrees of virtue and happiness than the rest of mankind, would be to strip the favour and grace of God of their value and efficacy; and to render futile and contemptible the ordinances which he has appointed as the means of communion with him.

The Judge of the whole earth indeed will do right. The grace of God quickens and animates all the degenerate children of Adam. The mercy of the Saviour is co-extensive with the ruin into which sin has plunged mankind. And in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him." But where the gospel is proclaimed, communion with the church by the participation of its ordinances at the hands of the duly authorized priesthood, is the indispensable condition

of salvation. Separation from the prescribed government and regular priesthood of the church, when it proceeds from involuntary and unavoidable ignorance or error, we have reason to trust, will not intercept, from the humble, the penitent, and obedient, the blessings of God's favour. But when we humbly submit to that priesthood which Christ and his apostles constituted; when, in the lively exercise of penitence and faith, we partake of the ordinances administered by them, we maintain our communion with that church which the Redeemer purifies by his blood, which he quickens by his spirit, and whose faithful members he will finally crown with the most exalted glories of his heavenly kingdom. The important truth which the universal church has uniformly maintained, that, to experience the full and exalted efficacy of the sacraments, we must receive them from a valid authority, is not inconsistent with that charity which extends mercy to all who labour under involuntary error. But great is the guit, and imminent the danger, of those, who, possessing the means of arriving at the knowledge of the truth, negligently or wilfully continue in a state of separation from the authorized ministry of the church, and participate of ordinances administered by an irregular and invalid authority. Wilfully rending the peac and unity of the church, by separating from the ministrations of its authorized priesthood; ot

stinately contemning the means which God in his sovereign pleasure hath prescribed for their salvation, they are guilty of rebellion against their Almighty Lawgiver and Judge; they expose themselves to the awful displeasure of that Almighty Jehovah, who will not permit his institutions to be contemned, or his authority violated, with impunity.

Let it be, therefore, thy supreme care, O my soul, to receive the blessed sacrament of the body and blood of thy Saviour, only from the hands of those who derive their authority by regular transmission from Christ, the supreme and divine head of the church, the only legitimate source of power in it. Thou wilt then enjoy the assurance, that this holy sacrament, which derives all its efficacy from the accompanying power of Christ, administered by those to whom he hath given his commission and authority, will be acknowledged and blessed by him to thy comfort and salvation; will, if humbly and devoutly received by thee, be the sacred mean and pledge of his pardoning mercy and strengthening grace. By preserving thy communion with the authorized priesthood; by revering that ministerial authority, and submitting to those sacred institutions which thy Saviour established, thou wilt maintain the unity of the church; and thus fulfil the high injunction of the Saviour and his apostles often repeated and earnestly enforced. The humble and obedient member of his church

on earth, thou wilt finally be advanced to those glorious rewards which he hath prepared, in the church triumphant, for all the devout and faithful members of his mystical body.

Deplorable, indeed, in this degenerate day, is the state of the church, where sect ariseth against sect, and altar against altar; where the apostolic government and priesthood are invaded and violated; ordinances administered by invalid authority, and thus stripped of their efficacy; and that sacred "body" which should be "one" with its divine "head" rent and divided by numberless schisms. Let it be the subject of thy earnest prayers to God, that, by shedding on the church the divine spirit of peace and concord, he would heal the divisions that now deface her glory. Let it be the object of thy earnest solicitude and exertions to restore all who profess themselves Christians to that apostolic government and priesthood, which were so long the inviolable glory of the universal church. The church would then shine forth, as she did in the primitive. ages, in the splendid garments of glory and beauty; and, attracting the nations within her spiritual fold, would become a praise throughout the earth. "Jerusalem would be as a city that is at unity in itself. Thither the tribes would go up, even the tribes of the Lord, to testify unto Israel, and to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." Christians, communing with the authorized ministers of the church,

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by the participation of the sacraments and or-、 dinances duly administered by them, would be united "as one fold under one shepherd;" from their divine head they would derive life, strength and salvation; partaking at the same hallowed altar of the sacred body and blood of their Saviour, they would be nourished and prepared for the transcendent and eternal bliss of the church triumphant in heaven.

THE PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God! who hast "built thy church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;" teach me ever to bear in mind, that in thy wise and sovereign Providence thou hast made this church, the only channel through which thy covenanted mercies are conveyed to a fallen world. Blessed be thy name, that thou hast called me into a state of salvation; and, through the sacrament of baptism, conferred on me a tle to the spiritual and exalted privileges of thy holy church. Impress on me the awful guilt and danger of forfeiting, by disobedience, by impenitence, or by neglect of thy holy ordinances, my title to the inestimable privileges of my Christian vocation. In the exercise of lively penitence and faith, may I humbly and thankfully partake of the ordinances of thy church; and thus maintaining my communion with it, derive from Jesus, its divine head, pardon, grace, consolation, triumph, everlasting glory. May I ever value, above all worldly distinctions and pleasures, the inestimable privilege of being a member

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