that this were better borne in mind; that those who bring their children to the font would see that they themselves sought more grace at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, therein strengthening and refreshing their own souls, and setting that example to their offspring, which, when impressed in early years, by God's grace, would never be rubbed out by the world's wear and tear. For, mind ye well that He who said, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," and, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," said likewise, "This do in remembrance of me," and, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." So that there is, as it were, an inseparable connexion between these two Sacra

ments, which are the two breasts of our mother Church, whereby the children of Christ's kingdom are nourished up unto life everlasting. And well said he who wrote, "The grace which we have by the Holy Eucharist doth not begin, but continue life. No man, therefore, receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism, because no dead thing is capable of nourishment. That which groweth must of necessity first live. If our bodies did not daily waste, food to restore them were a thing superfluous. And it may be that the grace of Baptism would serve to eternal life, were it not that the state of our spiritual being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism." However, "life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end, they which by Baptism have laid the foundation, and attained the first beginning of a new life, have had their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them. Such

as will live the life of God must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, because this is a part of that diet which, if we want, we cannot live. Whereas, therefore, in our infancy, we are incorporated into Christ, and by Baptism receive the grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth, in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God, that we know by grace what the grace is which God giveth us; the degrees of our increase in holiness and virtue we see and can judge of them; we understand that the strength of our life began in Christ is Christ; that his flesh is meat and his blood drink, not by surmised imagination, but truly, even so truly, that through faith we perceive in the body and blood, sacramentally presented, the very taste of eternal life; the grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink." As expressed in the Church Catechism, and

never better, the inward part or thing signified by the bread and wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received, is "The body and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper;" and the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby, are, "The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the bread and wine."

Here, then, is a great matter laid before you; and, as you would continue in Christ's holy fellowship, and be partakers until your dying day of those inestimable benefits which by his precious bloodshedding He has purchased for you, you will surely see how well, and wise, and Christianlike a thing it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, and, in that fear which ends in perfect love, to connect the Sacraments of the Church together. Baptized into Christ, your remembrance of his death

will be continual, and, as often as ye may, at the Table of the Lord, ye will show that ye are one with Christ, and Christ with you. His all-atoning merits are the all in all of the Sacraments of the Christian Church; and they that draw nigh with faith and receive the Lord's Supper worthily, as sure as plant or tree doth grow, do "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

And now, having dwelt upon the two life-giving Sacraments together, I must turn more closely to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to which I said I should refer the words of the text. "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake Him." He of his mercy grant that there be not "a great forsaking in the midst of the land!" that we forsake not "the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is."