230 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our -BLESSED LORD bondage, a bondage far worfe than the Egyptian, under whichyour fathers groan- ed, and will eflablifh you in the glorious liberty''of the children of God : do it in remembrance of me, who; by layingdown my life, will ranfom you from fin, from death, from hell, and, that you may enter immortality in triumph, will fet open the gates of heaven to you. After having given the bread to his dif- ciples, he alfo took the cup, and gave it to them; faying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the New Teftament, which is fliedfor many for the remigon offins. All ofyou,- and all of my difciples in all ages, mull drink of this cup, becaufe it reprefents my blood flied for the remilfion of the fins of mankind ; my blood, by which the new covenant between God and man is ratified: it is, therefore, my blood of the newcovenant; fo that this inftitution exhibits to your joyful meditation, the grand bafis of the'hopes of the children of men, and perpetuates the memory of it to the end of the world. He added, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom, Matt. xxvi. 29.. The moil illufirious, the molt moment- ous event that is poffible to engage the meditations of mankind, is the manifefla- Lion of the Son of God : to his life and death, his refurreciion and afcenfion into glory, we are indebted for our hopes and affurances of pardon, for our peace, for our happinefs: to procure our benefit, he made the moll amazing condefcenfion from the dignity he enjoyed withhis Father, by putting on the veil of flefh ; he poured divine inftrullion from his lips, and (hone forth with an all -perfect and all-lovely ex- ample: for our benefit, he fubmitted to a courfe of the moll cruel treatment of his bitter enemies, to the agonies of the crofs, and to the flroke of the king of terrors : for our benefit, he arofe again with power and luftre, afcended into the maniions of eternal happinefs, intercedes for us with 3 the Almighty, and holdeth the reins of government. And fhall the amiable, the excellent, the beneficial afl.ions of this Sa- viour, be buried in oblivion? Forbid it, gratitude, duty, interefl! Forbid it, every confideration that can affect the human mind !' With the greateft wifdom and goodnefs, this beneficent Jesus inllituted a rite, that fhould recall his love to our memories, and awake each pious paffion inour breafls ; a rite which, by the break- ing ofbread, and the pouring out of wine, fhould reprefent to us, in a {hiking man- ner, that moll: fignal proof of the affeétion, both ofhim and his heavenly Father, when his tender frame was expofed to wounds and bruifes, when flreams of the moll pre- cious blood iffued from his facred veins. And the more we reflex on this inflance ofdivine love, the more we fhall perceive that there was a peculiar propriety in pointing out, by a particular ordinance, a fah of fuels immenfe importance in the fyflemof revelation ! '.Nay, we may even venture to affert, that in fume dark and corrupt ages, when the Scriptures were little known by the common people, and hardly ftudied by the priefls, the death of our Saviour, had not the remembrance of it been renewed by the celebration of this facred ordinance, would have been almofl forgotten. We should alfo remember, that the va- nities of the world, the allurements of fen- fual pleafure, the charms of ambition, the fplendourof riches ; in fhort, temptations from prefent objets of every kind, have often too fatal an influence on our temper, and conduct; they have a melancholy ap- titude to draw the foul afide to folly, and to obliterate the imprefíions of things di- vine. It was, therefore, a wife, a kind intention of our great Redeemer, by a fre- quent repetition of the facran:ental feafi, to call back the wandering heart of man to a fenfe of his duty and obligations as a Chriftian. Betides, though the religion of the immaculate Jesus is altogether gentle, generous, and beneficent ; though it's whole
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=