On the Sacrament, January 2, 1743

To-day I pursued the subject of redeeming time, which I entered upon yesterday, attended with this awful circumstance, that a person known to me, who was well yesterday evening at five o’clock, died this morning before nine. This quickened me to struggle with my indisposition, which was partly the effect of walking in the wind, and of walking too fast. Nevertheless, I bless God, that towards the latter end of the discourse I found my heart much warmed, when addressing my exhortation to those who were under peculiar engagements. These, I further urged by the consideration of the dying love of Christ, and insisted upon this text at the table of the lord, “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Cor. vi. 19, 20. I observed the claim entered, “Ye are not your own.” We may advance that claim in the name of God upon the angels, if they are present in the assembly. We say it, and their hearts echo it back. “True, we are his — his, that made us, and hath made us happy; his, who hath preserved us so long, and continued to us those songs which we began when the foundations of the earth were laid.” But to them we could not add, as in the following words, ‘’ Ye are bought with a price.” To us it is applicable. The apostle says not, with what a price. He needed not. Surely it must be in the mind of every Christian here. “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, — but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Christ is the price sufficient and adequate to the claim. As in Zechariah, God commissioned his prophet to demand a price. The price given was that of a slave. And he speaks with indignation: “A goodly price at which I was valued by these wretches!”* So in present circumstances, it is a goodly price indeed. Do you refuse it, when Christ says, “Poor creature! know that thou wast undone; that thou wast sold to be a bond slave; that thou wast as a dead man before the Lord; and that I redeemed thee, that I gave my blood for thee: thou mayest remember what I suffered for thee. What have I deserved?” Would any of you say, “Lord, thou hast deserved somethinsr from me, and somethinfr I will render. Thou hast deserved that I should consecrate to thee some of my time, some of my possessions; that I should give up for thee some of my corrupt affections, and observe some of thy precepts.” Christ will not have such a divided service. You must be entirely his, or he will not own you to be his at all. “Well, Lord,” would some of us say,

* The common version reads thus: “A goodly price that I was prized at of them.” Zech. vi. 13.

“I allow thy claim; — m humble contrition I am thine. I am astonished at thy grace: I know not what to say; only receive me. Do me this honour; add this further favour to all the rest, to take me, and to dispose of me as thy property; — use me for thy glory as thou pleasest. I will labour for thee; I will suffer for thee, if it be for thine honour. I will submit to what may be more painful, in some respects, than labour, or than suffering, to be laid aside, as a vessel in which thou hast no pleasure. It imports not, if I may be thine, though I may seem for the present but as a broken vessel.” This is reasonable. Well then, while God continues your abilities and capacities of service, glorify him with your bodies and with your spirits, which are the Lord’s. Body and spirit are his! — He gave his body to be a sacrifice: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Matt. xxvi. 38. Thus has he purchased thy soul and body. Let the faculties of the mind and the members of the body be employed for him. And let this be your concern, that Christ may in all things be glorified in you, whether by life or by death. 1 Pet. iv. 11. Let the circumstances of both be the great Lord’s of life and death. Dost thou wish it. Christian? If thou consentest, it shall undoubtedly be so. He will accept the tribute which thou bringest him, humble as it is, and worthless as it may seem, thou shalt have the honour and pleasure of glorifying God now in a certain degree, and ere long thou shalt be glorified with him. “Amen, gracious Lord,” will the Christian say; “and in token that I desire it may be so, and hope and expect that it will, I now come to thy table.”

These sentiments were expressed in a very lively and efiectionate prayer. But when I came to break the bread, I was taken exceedingly ill, and rendered by faintness and a pain in my stomach, in a great measure, unfit to proceed. Indeed, I was not without some thoughts, but that 1 might have taken my flight from the table of Christ upon earth to his presence above. Cold clammy sweats were upon me; but if, as some said, a mortal paleness seemed fixed upon my cheek, I hope I can say that glory was in my soul. I revived a little, and felt an unutterable sweetness in sino;ins the hymn on the words of good old Simeon, as rendered by dear Dr. Watts; and I must say, that all the pleasure, which I might have had in a better state of health and spirits, in the after part of the ordinance, was far overbalanced by the unutterable delight which I enjoyed in consequence of being so interrupted. I cannot but think, that it was in some measure owing to the great fervour of my spirit in the former duties of the day, that this failure now happened, and I humbly hope that I may say, that I was in some degree consumed with the love of God. Gracious Lord, I thank thee for the visitation, and for the support under it. I thank thee that I am thine, in life or in death. And I humbly renew the solemn dedication of myself unto thee, as in a holy tranquillity of soul, and undissembled readiness to be disposed of as thou pleasest in this world, or in a better.