tion to be the ministers of religion, except the tribe from which they descended, and the habit which they wore. Our prophet upbraids them with this gross and criminal ignorance: The priests lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts: but ye are departed out of the way: ye have caused many to stumble at the law, chap. ii. 7, 8. They had not only conceived false ideas of religion themselves, but they communicated these to the people. The prophet does not indicate precisely respecting what points the ignorance of those unworthy ministers was most conspicuous. But we may form a judgment of the case from the character of their successors, it was impossible to entertain ideas of religion more false than those which they propagated. How wretched was the doctrine of the Rabbins, who were contemporary with our blessed Lord, and of those of modern times! Miserable conceits; insipid allegories; imaginary mysteries; puerile relations. These constituted the great body of the Rabbinical theology. Would to God that such whims were to be found only among Rabbins! But we must not pursue this reflection. Nothing more is wanting, many a time, but a single, ignorant, prejudiced pastor, to perpetuate ignorance, and transmit prejudice, for ages together in a church. This was evidently the case in the times of our prophet; and this it was which dictated these keen reproaches: ye are departed out of the way: ye have caused many to stumble at the law: ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts, chap. ii. 8.

Want of illumination: the first head of comparison between the criminality of the priests of Malachi's days, who said, the table of the Lord is con

temptible, and the criminality of professing Christians, who profane the sacramental table. To profane the ordinance of the Lord's supper, is to partake of the symbols there presented, without having maturely considered the great truths which they represent. To profane the ordinance of the Lord's supper, is to communicate, without having any other ideas of the mysteries of the incarnation of the Son of God, which are there unfolded, than those which we had of them in the days of our childhood. To profane the ordinance of the Lord's supper, is to believe, on the faith of a man's pastor, or of his ancestors, that God sent his Son into the world, to redeem the human race, and to take no pains to be informed on what principles that doctrine is established.

To present polluted bread on the altar of God; to say, the table of the Lord is contemptible: it is the crime of that young man, who would account himself degraded by applying to the study of his catechism, by acquiring more perfect knowledge of his religion; who would rather continue to grovel in ignorance, than to employ the means necessary to the attainment of instruction. It is the crime of that head of a family, who is so far from being in a condition to communicate religious instruction to his children, that he himself is a stranger to it. It is the crime of that magistrate, who, under pretence of a load of public business, will not take time seriously to examine, whether there be a God in heaven, and whether the scriptures are of divine original and authority. It is the crime of that female, who, under pretence of the weakness of her sex, debases the dignity of her nature, and devotes her whole attention to the management of her domestic concerns. Look well to it, examine yourselves carefully. Is there no one among you,

who can discern his own resemblance in any of these characters? Is it a knowledge of the truth, or the power of prejudice, or compliance with custom, which induces you to assume the livery of Christianity? It is the doctrine of a learned divine, and the authority of your fathers; or is it the fruit of serious study, and enlightened persuasion? Want of illumination; this is the first article of comparison between the profane priests of Malachi's days, and profane Christians of our own times: you offer pulluted bread upon mine altar; ye say the table of the Lord is contemptible.

2. The priests of Malachi's days profaned the table of the Lord, in refusing to fulfil the moral engagements which the ceremonial observance imposed, in the symbols of a secret union with deity. While they were professedly uniting themselves to the Holy One of Israel, they entertained sentiments the most criminal, and were chargeable with practices the most irregular and impure. They participated in the table of the Lord, while their hands were defiled with the accursed thing; and they presumed, by offering to God a part of what they had forcibly or fraudulently taken away from their neighbors, to make him, in some measure, an accomplice in their injustice and rapacity. With this they are reproached in the 12th and 13th verses of the chapter from which our text is taken : ye have polluted my table, in presenting upon it that which is torn or stolen. They were partakers of the table of the Lord, at the very time when they were avowedly living in forbidden wedlock with pagan women. With this they are upbraided in the second chapter of this prophecy, at the eleventh verse: Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel, and in Jerusalem for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the

Yet

Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. They were partakers of the table of the Lord, at the very time when they were practising criminal divorces, and indulging themselves in sentiments the most barbarous and inhuman, toward persons whom the laws of marriage ought to have rendered dear and respectable to them. With this they are reproached in tho 13th verse of the same chapter: This have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regarded not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good-will at your hand. ye say, Wherefore ? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. They were partakers of the table of the Lord, while they impiously dared to accuse him, not only of tolerating vice, but of loving and approving it. With this too, they are reproached in the 17th verse of that chapter: Ye have wearied the Lord with your words: yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Want of virtue: a second point of comparison between the priests who said, the table of the Lord is contemptible, and professors who, to this day, profane the holy ordinance of the supper. Can any among you discern your own likeness under this character? Are you going to avow unto the Lord an inviolable fidelity; or, while you are partaking of his grace, have you a secret reservation disrespectful to his laws? Is it your determination to put in practice the great, the essential virtues of the Christian life; or do you mean to satisfy yourselves

with discharging the petty duties of morality, and with attending to the formal and less important obligations of religion? Are you going to declare war against every thing which opposés the empire of righteousness in your heart, or are you reserving the indulgence of some favorite passion, some Dalila, some Drusilla? Are you disposed to prescribe to your progress in grace a fixed point, beyond which it is needless to aim; or is it your fixed resolution, through grace, to be continually advancing toward perfection? Are you going to satisfy yourselves with vague designs; or are your projects to be supported by just measures and sage precautions?

3. Finally, the priests of Malachi's days profaned the table of the Lord, from their being destitute of a just sense of the inestimable value of the blessings communicated. It seemed to them, as if God put a price too high on the benefits which he profered; and that, every thing weighed and adjusted, it was better to go without them, than to purchase them at the rate of such sacrifices as the possession of them demanded. This injurious mode of computation is reproved in very concise, but very energetic terms, chap. i. 13. Ye said, What a weariness is it! and in another place, chap. iii, 14. Ye have said it is in vain to serve God: and what profit is it, that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? and at the very beginning of the book of this prophecy: I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? This was offering an insult to deity, if the expression be warrantable, in the tenderest part. He declares to us, that he stands in no need of our worship and of our homage; that, exalted to the height of felicity and glory, he can derive no ad