Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

subscriber to the erection of several chapels and public libraries in the island, and repaired many of the vicarage houses which had fallen into ruin.

In the year 1734 the Bishop published the present work, which has since passed through very numerous editions, and has been universally esteemed for the simplicity of its language, and its unaffected piety. Indeed, the marked feature, in the writings of Bishop Wilson, is simplicity, pure, genuine, and unaffected-simplicity of sentiment, and simplicity of language. He wrote like one who could have written in a very different style of composition, if he had not preferred utility to ornament.

In 1751 and 1752 the Bishop held his last ordinations; and in the following year he consecrated a Chapel at Ramsey, and his son preached the consecration sermon.

But the hour was now approaching, when this truly primitive and excellent Bishop was to reap the reward of his labours. His constitution, originally strong and vigorous, began to show evident symptoms of decay; but his cheerfulness continued unabated, and his piety seemed to gather strength as he approached his dissolution.

A

student who slept in the room adjoining the Bishop's bed-chamber, frequently overheard at midnight the prayers of this holy man. He frequently heard him exclaiming, in the words of the Psalmist, "I will arise at midnight and give thanks unto Thee. Praise the Lord, O my soul." At others he selected passages from the Te Deum. "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory." His death took place on the 7th of March, 1755, in the ninety-third year of his age, and the fifty-eighth of his consecration. His coffin was made from one of the elm-trees which he had planted soon after his coming to the Isle of Man, and which a few years before his death he ordered to be cut down, and sawn into planks, to be in readiness to receive his remains.

**For a more full and interesting account of the life of Bishop Wilson, the reader is referred to the Rev. Mr. Stowell's Life of the Bishop, published by Messrs. Rivington.

ΤΟ

THE TRUE UNDERSTANDING

OF

THE LORD'S SUPPER;

WITH PREPARATORY DEVOTIONS,

INTENDED FOR THE

USE AND BENEFIT OF YOUNG COMMUNICANTS.

SECTION I.

HERE are two holy Ordinances or Sacra

THERE

ments appointed by Jesus Christ, as most especial means of obtaining grace and salvation; which no Christian, who hopes to be saved, must wilfully neglect. These are, BAPTISM and the LORD'S SUPPER.

It must be supposed, that you have already been made partaker of one of these two Sacraments; viz. that of BAPTISM; by which you were admitted into the congregation of Christ's flock, were restored to the favour of God, and had the

Holy Spirit communicated to you, for a principle of a new and spiritual life; in order to awaken you, and to direct and assist that natural reason, with which God has endued all mankind.

But forasmuch as you have done many things contrary to the promise made in your name when you were baptized, and will stand in need of greater degrees of grace and assistance, to enable you to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to do your duty in that state of life unto which the providence of God shall call you; you are, therefore, now called upon to be partaker of the other Sacrament,—that of the LORD'S SUPPER; by which, upon your sincere repentance, you may obtain the pardon of all your past sins, and such other graces as you stand in need of, to bring you to eternal life and happiness.

Take care, therefore, that you understand what you are called to, as well as you are able; and God expects no more.

For if you go to the Lord's Supper without considering the reason of that ordinance, and the very great concern you have in it,—without seeing the necessity and blessing of a Redeemer,

-you will go with indifference, and return without such benefit as you might otherwise hope for.

To prevent this, you should seriously consider what account the Holy Scriptures have given us of the condition we are in, both with respect to this life, and the life which is to come. That is, that we are by nature sinners; and that, as such, God cannot take pleasure in us: and that, if we die before we are restored to His favour, we shall be separated from Him, and miserable for ever.

This will lead you to inquire, how the nature of man came to be thus disordered, and prone to evil; for you must not imagine that God, who is infinitely good, created man in such a state of corruption, as you now see and feel him to be; but that he must have fallen into this wretched condition since he came out of the hands of his Creator.

And so the Scripture informs us. In the third chapter of Genesis, we have this following account of the state of man, before and after the Fall;

That Adam and Eve, from whom sprang all mankind, were created "in the image of God," that is, holy and innocent: having a perfect know

« AnteriorContinuar »