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Our blessed Saviour's Last Supper, therefore, when the holy eucharist was instituted, and the first participation of it celebrated with the disciples, are events of this holy week too momentous to be hastily dismissed. Every thing, then requisite, for the establishment of that faith which was ever after to contribute to the great ends of the Messiah's appearance, so far as his personal presence was concerned, was drawing to a conclusion; and the hour was rapidly approaching when the blessed sufferer was ready to exclaim upon the Cross, "It is finished."

The institution of the sacrament of the symbolized body and blood of Christ on this occasion, was evidently intended to have the effect of comprehending all the circumstances of his love, and of his kindness for the fallen race of man. The evangelical Isaiah is warm and eloquent on this subject: "in all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old '." All this was implied in this sacrament, when our Lord was eating his last bread, and drinking his last wine with his attached friends. "Do this," said he, "in remembrance of me." Remembrance of the Saviour is, doubtless, a paramount duty; but this was only one effect of the institution, and that not the most important. Assuredly, it was

1 Is. lxiii. 9.

intended to take permanent possession of their hearts by faith. How could they forget all that had passed in their intercourse with each other? How could they forget the miracle of love, and a greater miracle there could not be; when he exclaimed, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly 1?"

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They had then met to celebrate the ancient and important Jewish institution of the Passover; the national deliverance of their ancestors from the bondage of the Egyptians. Here was a type explained by the occasion! Here, was the person foretold by their own Law-giver, the prophet whom the Lord God was to raise up at a remote period, like unto him2; that is, a deliverer like him. But unlike him in the mode of his deliverance; inasmuch, as spiritual redemption, redemption from sin, exceeds redemption from the heaviest chains of Egyptian slavery. Remembrance formed an essential part of the Jewish festival; and might lead the wise among them to a profitable recollection, founded upon such sacred truths as the prophets had spoken. But the institution of the Christian sacrament exceeds, both in its motive, and its effect, every Jewish conception; and indeed, every other sacred establishment from the foundation of the world. The authenticity of Scripture being proved and acknowledged, it stands, and ever will stand, an indelible

1 John x. 10.

2 Acts vii. 37.

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record of salvation. "Take, eat, this is my body." This is my blood of the New Testament, [the new covenant] which is shed for many for the remission of sins Can we desire more, either with respect to the institution, or the celebration? The perpetuity of the celebration is essential to the institution. Do this, in remembrance of me; in remembrance rather of his death than of his life; for, his life, however excellent, was in subservience to his death, which eminently illustrated his excess of love for the whole human race; "for, as St. Paul reasons upon this circumstance, as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, [that is, sacramentally,] ye do show the Lord's death till he come to judgment. Intimating both the frequency of commemorating the Lord's Supper, our obligation to communicate, and the pious motive to fulfil this duty; first, as a continued and indispensable memorial of his death; secondly, as a mean of grace, and the spiritual benefit which every sincere believer of the Gospel receives thereby. How invaluable a privilege, and how unwarrantable the neglect! If we forget to offer this memorial of our faith, we are indeed cold worshippers of Christ; and if we habitually forsake the communion of saints, we shall have no reason to expect the forgiveness of sins, an happy resurrection of the body, or life everlasting.

1 Matt. xxvi. 26. 28.

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2 Luke xx. 19. Grotius in locum. 31 Cor. xi. 26.

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XVIII.-The Prayer of Christ.

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The prayer of Christ!-With what wonder and astonishment do we view the Son of God, "the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person'," in an act of agony and prayer on the eve of his passion! we inquire with perplexed and tumultuous hearts, How can these things be? Human reason is dismayed, and all human argument fails. Yet a solemn and an availing truth awaits our meditation. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them "." As God, he could not suffer; and, of course, could not accomplish the terms of reconciliation predetermined by the will of the Almighty. As an angel, he could not suffer, whose spiritual nature was incompatible with human infirmity; but as the Son of Man, he could suffer; and "it became him by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings3. But Christ's sufferings were of a peculiar nature; as much above human comprehension, as they are incapable of description. Our blessed Lord divested himself of all celestial brightness, that he might conquer human nature by suffering in it, and for it; "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to

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1 Heb. i. 3.

2 2 Cor. v. 19.

3 Heb. ii. 10.

be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross1;" and "when he had by himself purged our sins," he resumed the supreme authority which he had with the Father before the world was, and "sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high".

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The unlikeliness of this great transaction is no argument against its truth. As well might we deny the act of creation itself, because our defective faculties cannot comprehend it. But, by reasoning, we can arrive at truth; although, even when attained, we may find it above the reach of our understanding. This, indeed, is the case in our present argument. The voice of revelation is the voice of truth; and no one but the declared sceptic will deny it. It may be considered, indeed, under different views, but the deductions of the wise, from the well authenticated facts of history, must invariably establish it.

Here then we find a solution of the prayer of Christ, if I may so say, in the day of his adversity. Our blessed Lord," being found in fashion as a man;" thus in assuming all the infirmities of our nature, and clothing himself in our flesh, he assumed also the feelings of a man; and those, in a more exquisite

1 Phil. ii. 6, 7, 8.

2 Heb. i. 3.

3 Shuttleworth's Trans.

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