vantage. With a view to the approach-.. ing solemnity, and as suitable to it, I intend to set before you the nature, use, end, and design of the Lord's Supper, as selected from the 11th chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, the 23d, 24th, and 25th verses; in which Paul, an infallible apostle of Jesus Christ, gives us a particular account of it as he had it from Christ himself. His words

are these: "For I have received

of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do ye as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."

In which words we have the Author of this institution, the Lord Jesus; the time when he appointed it, "the same night in which he was betrayed." The institution itself, and the use, design, and end

of it; it is for a memorial and remembrance of Christ: "this do in remembrance of me."

We will cast the words into the following method and order, by considering, First, the Author of this institution; Secondly, the time when it was first appointed.

Thirdly, the institution itself.

And lastly, the use and design of it.

I will, first, observe the Author of this institution: and it is our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is, by essential union, one in the Godhead with the Father and the Holy Ghost; co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal" God over all, blessed for ever. Amen." "The Son of the living God." He, as God-man Mediator, who is "the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person, King of kings, and Lord of lords;" the head of his church, and the Saviour of his mystic body, whom he hath purchased with his most precious blood, is the author of this sacred means of grace.

He in whom, as God and man per sonally united, dwelleth all the fulness

of the Godhead" substantially, who is the one true and alone Mediator of his church, having "all power in heaven and earth," being filled, as Mediator, with "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" having a sovereign and indisputable right to ordain, settle, and command what ordinances he pleased, being Lord and King over his own house, the church; it pleased his Majesty to institute this sacred memorial of his sorrows, sufferings, sacrifice and death, as subservient to advance his own glory, and the real spiritual good, profit, and advantage of his beloved and called people. It pleased him also to deliver the plan and form of the administration of this his sacred ordinance, to this his beloved apostle Paul; who, as he received it from Christ himself, as risen from the dead and entered into heaven, being crowned and declared by his eternal Father to be "both Lord and Christ;" so he faithfully delivered it, giving the very same account of it which he had received concerning it from his Lord and Master.dar mi sk

If it be asked, when it was the apostle

received from the Lord Jesus this account of his sacred Supper; the answer is, he had it by revelation from Christ, either when he appeared unto him at his first conversion, and made him a minister and an apostle; or he had it from him when he was caught up into the third heaven, and heard things unspeakable and unlawful for him to utter. "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread."

The Prince of Peace, the Lord of Glory, the everlasting Father, even the great Shepherd of the flock, who is the author of their eternal salvation, instituted this feast. The consideration of which demands our reverence and esteem of it, as an essential part and branch of sacred worship; and it should teach us carefully to keep in view the end and design of Christ in his appointment of it.

I proceed, secondly, to consider the time when the Lord Jesus instituted and appointed it; it was "the same night in which he was betrayed;" which may

serve as a testimony to us, and lead us to take a view of his boundless, bottomless, incomprehensible love towards his dear, precious, and beloved children and people, whom the Father had given to him, and for whom he gave "himself to be an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour."

This circumstance of time is mentioned, not merely to point out to us that it was in the night when Christ celebrated it; but to signify that he foreknew all which was that very night to befal him. What griefs, sorrows, agonies, and sufferings he was to be invaded, surrounded, and overwhelmed with! He being about to stand as the representative, surety, and Mediator of his people, in their lawplace, room and stead; to bear the weight of sin imputed; to feel the whole curse and wrath of his divine Father, due to the sins of all his people, inflicted upon himself; to be betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, and forsaken by all his disciples. And yet, as though unmindful of himself, and of what he was to sustain for us to obtain and accomplish our