and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. 223 As loon as night approached, Jesus left Bethany ; and every thing being ready for him, at the time he entered into the city, he fat down at the appointed hour. But knowing that his fufferings was now near, he told his difciples, in the moil affec- tionate manner, that he had greatly longed to eat the paffover with them before he fuffered, in order to Phew them the firong- ell proofs of his love. Thefe proofs were to give them a pattern of humility and charity, by waffling their feet ; inftruét ing them in the nature of his death, as a propitiatory facrifice ; inffituting the facra- ment incommemoration of his fufferings ; comforting them by the tender difcourfes recorded in John xiv, xv, xvi. in which he gave them a variety ofexcellent direllions, together with many gracious promifes ; and recommending them to the kind pro- tethion of his heavenly father : With deelre, have dfred to eat this pafver with you before Ifufer : for Ifay unto you, Iwill not any more eat thereof, until it be fulled in the kingdom ofGod, Luke xxii. 15, 16. After our Lord had thus fpoken, he arofe from the table, laid afide his garment, like a fervant, and, with all the circum- fiances of an humble miniffer, waffled the feet of his difciples without diftineiion, though one of them, Judas Ifcariot, was a monfier of impiety, that they might at once behold a conjun&ion of charity and humility, of fell - denial and indifference, reprefented by a perfon glorious beyond expreffion, in their great Lord and Mailer. He chofe to wath their feet rather than their head, that he might have an oppor- tunity ofdifplaying a more humble pofture, and a more finking infianceofhis charity. The omnipotent Son of the Father lays every thing afide, that he may ferve his followers; heaven {loops to earth; one abyfs calls upon another ; and the miferies of man, which were almofi infinite, are exceeded by a mercy equal to the immen- fity of the Almighty. He deferred this ceremony, which was a cuftomary civility paid to honourable ftrangers at the be- ginning of their feafis, that it might be pre- paratory to the fecond, which he intended fhould be a feafi to the whole world, when all the followers of the bleffed Jesus fhould have an opportunity of feeding on his fiefs, and drinking his blood in a fpiritual manner. Peter modeftly declined it when our bleffed Saviour came unto him; but his Mafter told him, that ifhe refuted to fub- mit implicitly to all his orders, he could have no part with him. On which Peter cried out, Lord, not my feet only, but alfo my hands and my head. But Jesus told him, that the perfon who had bathed him- fell had no reafon to wafh any part of his body except his feet, which hemight have dirtied by walking from the bath. In order to teach us, that perlons converted do not (land in need of a total change of mind, but only to cleanfe themfelvesfrom the particular fins they conflantly commit through infirmity ; for it is abundantly evident that our bleffed Saviour fpake of a fpiritual waffling, becaufe he added, ya are clean, but not all. Ye are men of virtuous and holy difpofitions ; but not all : I well know that one of you will be- tray me. After our bleffed Saviour had finned this menial fervice, he afked his difciples, if they knew the meaning of what he had done, as the aélion was purely emblema- tical ? You truly, added he, He me Mailer and Lord, for I am the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world: but if I, your Mailer and your Lord, have condefcended to wafh your feet, you fure- ly ought to perform, with the utmoft pleafure, the humbleft offices of charity to one another. I have let you a pattern of humility, and I recommend it to you. Certainly nothing can more effeétually Phew us the neceffity of this heavenly tem, per of mind than it's being recommended to us by fo great an example: a recom- mendation which, in the prefent circum- fiances, was particularly feafonable; for the difciples having heard their great- Mailer
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