XIV.

SERM. We fee him in his whole behaviour affable, courteous, and eafy of access. He conversed familiarly with all who prefented themselves; and defpifed not the meaneft. With all the infirmities of his difciples he calmly bore; and his rebukes were mild, when their provocations were great. He wept over the calamities of his country, which persecuted him; and apologised and prayed for them who put him to death. Yet the fame Jefus we behold, awful in the ftrictness of his virtue; inflexible in the cause of truth; uncomplying with prevailing manners, when he found them corrupt; fetting his face boldly against the hypocritical leaders of the people; overawed by none of their threatenings; in the most indignant terms, reproving their vices, and ftigmatizing their characters. We behold him gentle, without being tame; firm, without being ftern; courageous, without being violent. Let this mind be in us which was alfo in Jefus Chrift; and we shall attain to honour, both with God and with man.

SERMON XV.

On the SACRAMENT of the LORD'S SUP-
PER, as a PREPARATION for DEATH.

Preached at the Celebration of the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper.

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MATTHEW, Xxvi. 29.

But I fay unto you, I will not drink benceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

W

ITH thefe words of our bleffed Lord, S ER M. the Evangelift concludes his account

of the inftitution of the facrament of the Supper. It is an inftitution which, folemn and venerable in itself, is rendered still more fo, by the circumstances which accompanied VOL. III.

X

it.

XV.

SERM. it. Our Lord had now, for about three

XV.

years, continued to appear in his public character, in the land of Judea. He had, all along, been watched with a jealous eye, by his enemies; and the time was come, when they were to prevail againft him. A few friends he had, from the beginning, felected, who, in every viciffitude of hist ftate, remained faithfully attached to him. With these friends he was now meeting for the last time, on the very evening in which he was betrayed and feized. He perfectly knew all that was to befal him. He knew that this was the laft meal in which he was to join with thofe, who had been the companions of all his labours, the confidents of all his griefs; among whom he had passed all the quiet and private moments of his life. He knew, that within a few hours, he was to be torn from this loved fociety, by a band of ruffians; and by to-morrow, was to be publicly arraigned, as a malefactor. With a heart melting with tenderness, he faid to the twelve Apostles, as he fat down with them at table, With defire I have defired

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to eat this passover with you before I fuffer *. And then, having gratified himself for the last time in their fociety, and having instituted that commemoration of his death which was to continue in the Christian church until the end of ages, he took a folemn and affectionate farewel of his friends, in the words of the text, I say unto you, that I will not drink benceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

As these words were uttered by our Lord, in the profpect of his fufferings; when preparing himself for death, and looking forward to a future meeting with his friends in heaven; let us, under this view, confider the facrament, which he then inftituted, as a preparation for all the fufferings of life, and especially, a preparation for death. It is fit and proper, that fuch folemn profpects fhould enter into the service which we are this day to perform, We have no reason to imagine, that they'

SERM. will render it a gloomy fervice.

XV.

A good and wife man is often difpofed to look forward to the termination of life. The number of our days is determined by God; and certainly it will not tend to shorten their number, that we employ ourselves in preparing for death. On the contrary, while our days last, it will tend to make us pass them more comfortably, and more wifely. Let us now then, as if for the last time we were to partake of this facrament, confider how it may serve to prepare us for the dying hour.

I. IT is a high exercife of all thofe difpofitions and affections, in which a good man would wish to die. He would furely wish to leave this world, in the spirit of devotion towards God, and of fellowship and charity with all his brethren on earth. Now these are the very fentiments, which the facrament of the Lord's Supper infpires into the heart of every pious communicant. It includes the highest acts of devotion of which human nature is ca

pable