ページの画像
PDF
ePub

thee both into prison and to death. But JESUS checking his great forwardness said, Verily I say unto thee, Confident as thou now art, and I believe sincerely so, yet, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, till thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Alas! my Brethren, how dangerous is that confidence which a man places in his own strength! Peter was confident, that he should not fall, notwithstanding the warning he had from him, who knew what was in man*. As we proceed we shall see the result of it. But the history first directs our notice to another occurrence which demands a very particular attention. It is that of the institution of the Lord's supper: with which I intend, by Gon's blessing, to begin my lecture to-morrow evening.

And now having mentioned the Lord's supper, I am called upon by my duty, to remind you of the notice which has been given, that it will be administered to all such as shall be religiously and devoutly disposed, on Good-Friday, and on Sunday next, being Easter-Day; and that you are invited to partake of it. Do not absent yourselves from it with any of those

* John ii. 25.

various excuses, with which too many persons are apt to deceive themselves. Sacraments are generally necessary to salvation*: that is, necessary where they can be received. On this head you have no excuse. Do not misinterpret the word, generally, as if it were left to your own choice, whether you would receive it, or not. Where it is administered, you are positively enjoined to partake of it, and that by him who instituted it, even your Saviour himself, who has commanded us to do this in remembrance of himt,-in remembrance of all that he did and suf'fered for us sinful men.

May GOD make us willing to comply with this, and all other instituted means of grace here, that the hope of glory which they hold forth to us, may not be vain hereafter. Amen.

* Church Catechism.

+ Luke xxii. 9.

LECTURE VI.

Isaiah liii. 3, 7.

HE IS DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN; A MAN OF SORROWS, AND ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF: AND WE HID AS IT WERE OUR FACES FROM HIM; HE WAS DESPISED, AND WE ESTEEMED HIM NOT.

HE WAS OPPRESSED AND HE WAS AFFLICTED, YET HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH: HE IS BROUGHT AS A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER, AND AS A SHEEP BEFORE HER SHEARERS IS DUMB, SO HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH.

I CONCLUDED my last lecture with our Saviour's foretelling of the fall of Peter, as he had, just before, foretold the treachery of Judas: after which the history proceeds to relate the institution of the Lord's supper.

As JESUS and his apostles were eating, or just as they had finished the Paschal supper, JESUS took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye

all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I cannot better promote your edification on this subject, than by using the words of the venerable Bishop of London, whose lectures I have before had occasion to allude to, and am desirous of recommending to the attention of those, who may have an opportunity of reading them. "This", (says that amiable Prelate) "is the whole of the institution of this sacred rite by our blessed LORD, as recorded in St. Matthew's Gospel; and nothing can be more evident, than that when he broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples, and said, "Take, eat, this is my body;" he meant to say that the bread was to represent his body, and the breaking of it was to represent the breaking of his body upon the cross.In the same manner, when he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament (or New Covenant) which is shed for many, for the remission of sins;" his meaning was, that the wine in the cup was to be a representation of his blood that was shed upon the cross, as an expiation and atonement for the sins of the whole world. And his disciples were to eat the bread

and drink the wine so consecrated, and so appointed to this particular purpose, in grateful remembrance of what our LORD suffered for their salvation, and that of all mankind; for St. Luke adds these affecting and impressive words of our Saviour, This do in remembrance of

me.

"The Lord's supper therefore was evidently to be a solemn commemoration and recognition of the redemption and deliverance of mankind by the death of CHRIST, as the feast of the passover was of the deliverance of the Israelites from the destroying angel; and this supper of our LORD was from that time to be substituted in the room of the passover."

وو

The same respectable author concludes the subject with this most important observation; "Whoever reads with attention the first institution of the Lord's supper; who ever reflects that it was the very last meal that our LORD ate with his disciples, that the next day he underwent for our sakes a most excruciating and ignominious death, and that he requires us to receive this sacrament in remembrance of him; whoever, I say, can notwithstanding all this, disobey the last command of his dying Redeemer, must be destitute, not only of all the devout

« 前へ次へ »