RECOMMENDATIONS.

DEAR SIR,

Stillwater, May 8, 1821.

I am pleased at the idea of your publishing Willison's Meditations and Advices; in doing it you will confer a benefit upon the church. I have often read it, I trust with profit. I know of no work better calculated to enliven the graces, excite the zeal, and promote the faithfulness of God's people. Like the sun it communicates light and heat. While it animates, it instructs; while it

searches, it encourages. The author had the happy art of so mingling the oil and wine, as to meet the various cases found in the church. This treatise ought to be in the hands of every communicant. I wish you success from God in this attempt to subserve his cause and people. Yours affectionately,

MARK TUCKER, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, MR. QUACKENBUSH.

Troy, May 9th, 1821.

SIR,

It is with pleasure that I learn, that you are about to republish the Rev. Mr. Willison's Sacramental meditations and Advices. It is a work of great worth, admirably calculated to enlighten the understanding, and warm the hearts of the followers of Christ; and prepare them for an acceptable approach to the holy communion. Under a full conviction that it will be of great use to the Christian Community, it is hereby recommended to their pious patronage.

JONAS COE, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Troy,

MR. QUACKENBUSH.

Lansingburgh, May 9, 1821.

TO THE CHRISTIAN PUBLICK,

Every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves his master, will thank the Publisher of this little volume, as an instrument in the hand of God for spreading before him, so great a treasure as Willison's Sacramental Meditations and Advices. Let all who have the opportunity, make a copy their own.

SAMUEL BLATCHFORD, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Lansingburgh. MR. QUACKENBush.

DEAR FRIEND,

July 1st, 1821.

I have read with pleasure and with profit, Willison's Sacramental Meditations and Advices, and think it well calculated to improve the mind, and warm the heart of the believer in Christ. I wish you success in its republication and more general diffusion. The work is highly esteemed, and is indeed worthy the serious perusal of every christian. With esteem, your friend, J. D. FONDA, Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Greenwich. MR. QUACKENBush.

PREFACE.

THE eternal Son of God, when taking his leave of an ungrateful world, instituted the sacrament of the Supper, as a lively resemblance and memorial of his bloody sufferings and death in the room of his people; and also to be a bright and lasting evidence of the amazing love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to perishing sin

ners.

As God once sent his Son into the world in a lowly habit, clothed with human flesh, to save sinners, so now he sends him in a homely dress, clothed with the elements of bread and wine, to assure us cf his love, and to engage us to come to him. Kings expect that their children will be respected, though their officers be neglected. Surely (saith Gol) They will reverence my Son; they will make him welcome, and hearken to him.

In this most august ordinance of the New Testament the great God approaches very near to us, and we to him; and yet it is to be deeply regretted, that many who profess to believe this, come to it with so little thought and preparation, and with so much indifferency and carelessness of spirit. Oh, shall we venture so near the great God, who is infinitely holy, in whose sight the heavens are not pure, and in whose presence the sun and stars are dimmed, and the brightest seraphims do gather in their wings, and account themselves as little flies before him! and shall we, who are creatures so mean and so vile, be careless and unconcerned, when we make the nearest approach to this great and holy God, that we can make on this side heaven.

Ought we not to go blushing, ashamed, and deeply humbled on many accounts, and particularly for our ingratitude for redeeming love, that love which passeth knowledge, and for our contempt of God's unspeakable gift, the greatest sin in the world; yea, we should go wondering that we are out of hell, for many thousands

are burning there who have not sinned so heinously, in making light of precious Christ, as we have done.

Moreover, Reader, consider, if you go to this ordinance unpreparedly, or with indifference, you not only make light of the Lord Jesus Christ, but you are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, 1 Cor. xi. 27. Surely that word may cause you to quake and tremble; bloodguiltiness of any sort is a dreadful sin, and especially to be guilty of the blood of the Lord. Murder is a sin that cries for vengeance on the actor, and gives God no rest till he punish it, Gen. iv. 10. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth. If it be a crying sin to murder a common person, what must it be to murder a king? Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless? 1 Sam. xxvi. 9. O then, what a crime must it be to murder the eternal Son of God, who is thy exalted King, thy everlasting Father, thy dear Redeemer, and thy God who gave thee a being. Child murder is a heinous crime, but what Christ-murder is, no tongue can tel!! If on him that slew Cain (that wicked man) vengeance should be taken sevenfold, what vengeance will be taken on him that crucifies afresh the Lord of Glory? This consideration should make all of us afraid of careless and unworthy communicating.

If we would communicate worthily, we must be earnest, not only for the life of grace, but also for the liveliness of grace; not only for the truth and sincerity of grace, but likewise for the activity and vigorous exercise of grace. So that believer himself doth not eat and drink worthily, unless the grace that is in him be excited and exercised at this ordinance. There must be not only faith in the truth of it, but there must be faith realizing, applying, appropriating, and making use of Christ's death and purchase in this ordinance. Not only must there be a disposition of soul to be humbled for sin, but there must be actual mourning and melting of heart for sin, and for particular sins, when we look on him we have pierced by them. Not only must there be a principle of love to Christ, but also an exciting of love to flame out to Christ, who loved us and gave himself' for us.

Worthy communicating being a work of such importance, the following Scriptural Meditations and Advices are humbly offered to Christians, as an help in their prep