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54

HOLY COMMUNION.

But according to Him who is holy, who hath called you, be you also holy in all conversation:

For it is written: You shall be holy, because I am holy.

And if you invoke the Father, him who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every one's work, converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here;

Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible gold or silver from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers:

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb unspotted and undefiled. 1 St. Peter i. 15-19.

But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence; and the elements shall be dissolved with heat; and the earth, and the works that are in it, shall be burnt up.

Seeing then, that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness,

Waiting for, and hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat of fire? 2 St. Peter iii. 10-12.

HOLY COMMUNION.

The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord ?

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For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all we who partake of one bread. 1 Cor. x. 16, 17.

For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until he come.

Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.

Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep. many sleep. 1 Cor. xi. 26-30.

No man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church:

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Ephes. v. 29, 30.

HOPE.

And hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given us. Rom. v. 5.

For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth, why doth he hope for?

But if we hope for that which we see not, we wait

for it with patience.

Rom. viii. 24, 25.

Rejoicing in hope.

Rom. xii. 12.

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Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom. xv. 13.

And now, there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Cor. xiii. 13.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before,

I pursue towards the mark for the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. iii. 13, 14.

Waiting for the blessed hope, and coming of the glory of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus ii. 13.

Christ Jesus our hope. 1 Tim. i. 1.

Christ as a Son in his own house: which house are we, if we retain a firm confidence and the glory of hope unto the end. Heb. iii. 6.

Do not, therefore, lose your confidence, which hath a great reward. Heb. x. 35.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Wherefore, having the loins of your mind girded, being sober, hope perfectly for that grace which is offered you at the revelation of Jesus Christ:

(You) who through him are faithful in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. 1 St. Peter i. 3, 13, 21.

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Sanctify the Lord Christ in your heart, being always ready to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you. 1 St. Peter

iii. 15.

HOSPITALITY.

Pursuing hospitality. Rom. xii. 13.

Wherefore receive one another as Christ also hath received you to the honour of God. Rom. xv. 7. And hospitality do not forget; for by this some, being not aware of it, have entertained angels. xiii. 2.

Heb.

Using hospitality towards one another without murmuring.

As every man hath received grace, ministering the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 St. Peter iv. 9, 10.

HOUR OF DEATH.

The wages of sin is death.

Rom. vi. 23.

Now the sting of death is sin:

But thanks to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. xv. 22, 57.

For to this end Christ died, and rose again: that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Rom. xiv. 9.

If in life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.

And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. 1 Cor. xv. 19-21.

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Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath indeed destroyed death, and hath enlightened life and incorruption by the gospel. 2 Tim. i. 10.

For we know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven.

For in this also we groan, desiring to be clothed over with our habitation which is from heaven.

Yet so that we may be found clothed, not naked.

For we also who are in the tabernacle do groan being burdened because we would not be unclothed, but clothed over; that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Now he that maketh us for this very thing, is God, who hath given us the pledge of the Spirit.

Therefore, having always confidence, knowing that while we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, and not by sight:)

We are confident, I say, and have a good will to be absent rather from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

And therefore we labour, whether absent or present, to please him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil. 2. Cor. v. 1—10.

So, then, every one of us shall render account of himself to God. Rom. xiv. 12.

According to my expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be confounded: but with all confidence, as always, so now also shall Christ be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

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