FROM OUR INHERITANCE

(At the time of receiving the bread and wine:) — “Lord, I here appeal to Thy sacrifice against my sin, to Thy grace against my corruption, to Thy love against my fears, to Thee against myself. I believe Thy word. I remember Thy command. I adore Thy goodness. I wait for Thy salvation. Give effect to Thine own ordinance, and make it the seal of mercy, and the conveyance of life to me. Oh, Jesus, come to my heart.”

I go to the sacrament for mercy, and strength to keep mercy; to profess my faith in Christ, that I have pardon and peace with God, life and righteousness only by His death and merits; and to own my obligations to live unto Him that died for me, in faith, love, and self-dedication. I go to the sacrament for Christ’s love and likeness, for the benefit, and for the munition of the cross: to have the load of sin taken from my heart, and any other which Christ thinks fit, laid upon my back.

Was pardon, salvation, and life, received in the sacrament? Did I bid an eternal farewell to sin; and have I the poison of it expelled by the virtue of Christ’s body and blood?

I go to the sacrament to leave sin behind me, and receive Christ instead of it; and if I do the one, laying my sins on Christ, with a will to forsake them, I am sure of the other. Lord, grant me Thy peace, and all that comes with it, love, patience, resignation, thankfulness, deliverance from the fear of death, and a hearty longing for eternity.

I go to the sacrament for the pardon of sin, for the kindling of love, for the turning of my heart, for the renewal of my will.

I go to the sacrament for Christ’s love and likeness, for the benefit, and for the munition of the cross; to have the load of sin taken from my heart, and any other which Christ thinks fit, laid upon my back.

I go to the sacrament to know God and myself; to wonder at the reconciliation of strict punishment with free pardon; to see the greatness of my sin, and the greatness of my hope, in the greatness of the sacrifice therein represented; to sin no more, because I believe there is no condemnation for my sin; to be raised as high as heaven, and humbled in the dust; to be astonished at the mystery of Christ crucified, and to profess that I know less of God than ever.

Let me be daily thinking of the sacrament, daily in a state of preparation for it, daily living upon it, resolving to secure my portion in the love therein exhibited, by receiving it in faith and humility, as love and undeserved mercy, making it my pattern, and dreading the sin which could be expiated with no less a sacrifice.

(The day before the sacrament) Knowing and assuredly believing the promises of God made over to me for the forgiveness of my sins, through faith in the blood of Christ, I do, from a detestation of my sinfulness, and a hearty sense of my want of pardoning grace, accept His covenant of rest and peace; trusting in Him for the accomplishment of my whole salvation, in the way of gospel-holiness, by His Spirit; and resolving, without delay, to put myself into His hands for that purpose. And may the God of mercies keep me steadfast in this faith and engagement, and carry me on from strength to strength, that I may be one with Him, and with my Savior, and live for Him, and love Him with all my heart, and with all my soul.

Rev. Thomas Adam (1701–1784) was a godly divine and student of John Newton, who pastored a congregation in Lincolnshire for 58 years. Like John Newton, he remained within the Anglican Church all his life.

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