tend to enforce and illustrate all that I have advanced.

Nor shall I make any apology for the casual repetition of observations already made; for though inadmissible in a work of taste and imagination, repetitions are, in a long chain of argument, not only useful, but necessary in giving firmness to the connecting links.

We have seen that the multiplied ceremonies of the Jewish law were intended for a specific purpose, and that they were eminently adapted to answer the end for which they were instituted. In the coming of the Messiah, they were rendered no longer necessary, and were consequently abolished; but as human nature remains the same, and as man in his present imperfect state is incapable of complete abstraction, and stands in need of having his ideas connected and

embodied,

embodied, if I may so express myself, by means of sensible objects, the Divine Goodness provided, in the institution of the sacrament, such an aid as was in every way suitable to

our wants.

By the ceremony of the passover, which was instituted on the eve of their departure from Egypt, the children of Israel were reminded of their having been miraculously rescued from a state of slavery and subjection, and put in possession of the land promised to their fathers.

By the sacrament of the Lord's supper this ceremony was superseded; but however injudiciously it may have been sometimes explained, the correspondence between them is no fanciful illusion. It was evidently in allusion to the pascal lamb, that our Saviour was so often hailed as "the Lamb of God; the Lamb that "taketh

"taketh away the sin of the world." As that lamb was slain immediately preceding the event which gave to the descendants of Abraham an assurance of the accomplishment of all that God had foretold and promised, it might with propriety be considered as an emblem of Him whose death was so immediately followed by that resurrection to eternal life, which is the accomplishment of every promise, and the seal of every dispensation!

It was in the contemplation of his own immediate sufferings and death, that our Lord dispensed the cup of life to his disciples; giving them at the same time such an explicit intimation of the approaching event, as filled their hearts with sorrow. It was in vain that he then assured them that their sorrow should be turned into joy. In vain that he set before them

them the efficacy of his death, and the certainty of his rising from the grave to a state of immortal glory, in which they and all true believers should to a certainty participate. His words penetrated but did not convince their hearts. They mourned as those who had no hope: nor would any thing short of sensible demonstration have been sufficient to render faith and hope triumphant over death and the grave.

God did not require of human nature a faith beyond its powers. He who in all preceding revelations condescended to give such sure pledges of the truth of his promise, as destroyed the possibility of doubt, gave, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a glorious and satisfactory testimony to the truth of the promise of salvation. The sacrament of the supper was henceforth to be considered as a

pledge

pledge of immortality. It seals the promise of a joyful resurrection to all who zealously endeavour to render themselves the objects of that promise, and who prove their acceptance of it by the necessary qualifications. What the dispositions are which we must of necessity cultivate, we learn from the precepts of our Lord; and, lest these should not have sufficient efficacy, they are enforced by his example.

The first circumstance taken notice of by the apostle Paul, in his account of this ordinance, is exceedingly striking. He dwells particularly upon the period chosen by our Saviour for instituting this perpetual memorial of his dying love-" On the night

on which he was betrayed!”— What a humiliating memento of the depravity of human nature! what a glorious proof of the benevolence of the divine!