Christ has indeed established ordinances to distinguish his people from the world, on the one hand, by that which signified, that they were not of it, but dead and risen with him; and on the other hand, gathering them on the ground of that which alone can unite them all—on the ground of the cross and of accomplished redemption, in the unity of the body. But if, instead of using them with thanksgiving, according to his will, we rest upon them, we have forsaken the fullness, the sufficiency of Christ, to build upon the flesh, which can thus occupy itself with these ordinances, and find in them its fatal sustenance, and a veil to hide the perfect savior, of whose death, as in connection with this world and with man living in the flesh, these ordinances so plainly speak to us.