A DISCOURSE.

Do this in remembrance of ME, is a command by which our blessed Lord has put both the affection and piety of his disciples to the test. If they love him they will keep his commandments; for, to them that love, his commandments are not grievous. It is a peculiar excellence of the gospel economy, that all the duties it enjoins become the highest privileges to those that obey.

Among the ordinances prescribed by the gospel, that, commonly called the sacrament of the Lord's supper, has ever held a distinguished place; and the church of Christ, in all ages, has represented the due religious celebration of it as a duty incumbent on every soul that professed faith in Christ Jesus, and sought for salvation through his blood alone. Hence, it was ever held in the highest estimation and reverence; and the great High Priest of his church showed, by more than ordinary influences of his blessed Spirit on the souls of the faithful, that they had not mistaken his meaning, nor believed in vain; while, by eating of that bread, and drinking of that cup, they endeavoured to show forth his death, and realize the benefits to be derived from it.

If Jesus, in his sacrificial character, met with opposition from the inconsiderate, the self righteous, and the profane; no wonder that an ordinance, instituted by himself for the express purpose of keeping up a continual memorial by means of the most expressive emblems, of his having died for our offences, was decried, neglected, and abused. The spirit of innovation and error left no means untried to pervert its meaning, restrain its influence, and decry its effects; but the true followers of God overcameall by the blood of the Lamb, and by their testimony; and, for holding fast faith and a good conscience in reference to this

sacred ordinance, how many of them were cruelly tortured; and not a few, on this very account, gloriously maintaining the truth, were obliged to seal it with their blood.

The sanguinary persecutions, raised up in this land against the Protestants, in the days of that weak and worthless queen, Mary I. were levelled principally against the right use of this ordinance. It was not because our fathers refused to obey the then constituted authorities of the state, that they were so cruelly and barbarously oppressed and murdered; it was not because they were not subject to every ordinance of man, not only for wrath (for fear of punishment) but for conscience sake, that they had trial of cruel mockings; but because they believed concerning this divine ordinance as Jesus Christ had taught them, and boldly refused to prefer the ignorance of man to the wisdom and authority of God.

The abomination which maketh desolate had got into the holy place the state, corrupt and languid in every department, had resigned the administration of all affairs into the hands of a church illiterate and profligate beyond all example and precedent. In this awful situation of affairs, the genuine followers of God showed themselves at once, not in opposition to a tyrannical government, but in opposition to a corrupt and unprincipled priesthood. They would not, because they could not believe, that a little flour and water kneaded together, and baked in the oven, were the body and blood of the Saviour of the world-the God who made the heavens and the earth, and the only object of religious adoration !—" Away,” said the murderous priests, "with such fellows from the earth! they are not fit to live: let them have judgment without mixture of mercy, and anticipate their final damnation by perishing in the flames !"—And they, rather than defile their conscience or deny their God, embraced death in its most terrific forms; and, through the medium of Smithfield. flames, were hurried into a distinguished rank among the noble army of martyrs!

"Godlike men! how firm they stood!

Seeding their country with their blood."

In this most honourable contest, besides the vast numbers who suffered by fines, confiscation, and imprisonment, not less than 277 persons fell a sacrifice to the ignorance, bigotry, and malevolence of the papal hierarchy. Among these were one ARCHBISHOP, four BISHOPS, twenty one CLERGYMEN, eight LAY GENTLEMEN, eighty-four TRADESMEN, one hundred HUSBANDMEN, fifty-five WOMEN, and four CHILDREN, who were all burnt alive, and this with circumstances of cruelty and horror, which surpassed the bloodiest persecutions of pagan antiquity! But they conquered, and were glorious in their death; and have handed down to us, uncorrupted, those living oracles, and that holy worship, which were their support and exultation in the cloudy and dark day. Do their descendants lay these things to heart, and prize that holy ordinance, on account of which their forefathers suffered the loss of all things? Are we indifferent whether, on this point, orthodoxy or heterodoxy prevail? Or, what is of infinitely worse consequence, have we so neglected or misused this holy ordinance, until we have at length ceased to discern the Lord's body? Is it not to be feared that the sacrament of the Lord's supper has fallen into disuse with many, because they do not understand its nature and moral obligation? And can it be deemed invidious to express a fear, that possibly, much of the blame attaches to the ministers of the gospel, because they are remiss in urging the commandment of their Lord, and showing the high privileges of those who conscientiously obey it? To remedy this defect, as far as it relates to myself, I shall endeavour to set before the reader some observations on

I. The nature and design of this institution.

II. The manner of its celebration.

III. The proper meaning of the different epithets given to it in the Scriptures, and by the primitive church. And,

IV. And a few reasons to enforce the due and religious celebration of it, principally deduced from the preceding observations.

1. As our blessed Lord celebrated this ordinance immediately after his eating what St. Luke calls the passover with his disciples, and for which 1 shall, by and by, prove he intended it to be the substitute; it may be necessary to say a few words on that ancient rite, in order the more particularly to discern the connection subsisting between them, and the reference they have to each other.

The passover (DD pesach) was a sacrifice ordained by the Lord in memory of Jehovah's passing over (according to the import of the word) the houses of the Israelites, when he destroyed all the first-born in the land of Egypt; and was certainly designed to prefigure not only the true paschal lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed for us, 1 Cor. v, 7, but also the reception which those might expect who should flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them, by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. As this is a point of considerable importance, in reference to a right understanding of the nature and design of the Lord's supper, it may be necessary to show more particularly, both from the Scriptures and the ancient Jewish and Christian writers, that the paschal lamb was considered by them as a sacrifice of a piacular

nature.

God had required that all sacrifices should be brought to the tabernacle or temple, and there offered to him; and this was particularly enjoined in respect to the passover: so Deut. xvi, 5. Thou shalt not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, but at the place which the Lord thy God chooseth to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice. And this divine injunction was more particularly attended to in the case of the passover than in any other sacrifice; so that the ancient Jews themselves have remarked, that, even in the time when high places were permitted, they dared not to sacrifice the passover

name.

any where but in that place where God had registered his Thus Maimonides, in Halachah Pesach, c. 1. Dr. Cudworth, who has written excellently on this subject, has proved at large from the Scriptures and the ancient Jewish doctors, that the passover was ever considered by them as a sacrificial rite. To which may be added that Josephus, considered it in the same light, by calling it, voia, A SACRIFICE; and Trypho, the Jew, in his conference with Justin Martyr, speaks of gocaTOV TOU Taɗxa buɛiv, SACRIFICING the paschal lamb. Maimonides, in the tract above referred to, written expressly on this subject, speaks of the lamb as a victim, and of the solemnity itself as a sacrifice. Another of their best writers, Rab. Bechai, Com. in Levit. ii, 11, says, that "the paschal sacrifice was instituted in order to expiate the guilt contracted by the idolatrous practices of the Israelites in Egypt." And St. Paul puts the matter beyond dispute, by saying, το πασχα ημων υπερ ημων εθυθη χριστος, our passover, Christ, is SACRIFICED FOR us; væɛg nμwv, on our account, or in our stead. It is worthy of remark, that when the passover was first instituted, a lamb was slain in every family, not by the hands of a priest, for that would have been impossible, as only one existed who had been divinely appointed; but by the first-born in every family, who were all considered as priests, till the consecration of the whole tribe of Levi to this office; in consequence of which the first-born were redeemed, i. e. exempted from this service, by paying a certain sum to the sanctuary.

Justin Martyr, in his conference with Trypho the Jew, maintains this sentiment in a very strenuous manner, showing from the Scriptures, and the nature of this sacrificial rite, that it was a type of Christ crucified for the sin of the world. One circumstance which he asserts, without contradiction from his learned opponent, is, I think, worthy of notice; whether the reader may think it of much consequence to the present subject or not, "This