SERMON XXV.

MATTHEW XXVI. 26-28.

AND AS THEY WERE EATING, JESUS TOOK BRead, and bLESSED IT, AND BRAKE IT, AND GAVE IT TO THE 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.

HAVING Considered the nature of the Lord's Supper, the ends for which it was instituted, and the qualifications for participating in it, I proceed, in the fourth place, to make some observations respecting—

IV. The motives which should influence us to the celebration of the ordinance.

And here we may notice

1. In the first place, the command of Christ. The precept, "Do this in remembrance of me," is enforced by divine authority; and is equally binding on us, as that which requires us to "love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength." The same disposition which would prompt us to the obedience of God's commands, in any instance, would induce

have nothing to do with the memorials of the crucified Saviour? O, let not this be your language! And if would dread to utter such with your you lips, let it not be implied from your conduct. May those, who have hitherto turned away from the communion of the body and blood of that divine Redeemer, who laid down his life for our sakes, no longer neglect his dying injunction. Come to his table, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving.

2. The honour of Christ should influence you to celebrate his sacred supper.

If, in remembrance of Christ, we celebrate this ordinance in obedience to his command, it will be with a design to honour him in our own hearts, and in the sight of others. When we consider the glorious person to whom we render this honour; what he has done, and what he has suffered for our sakes; the character of those for whom he laboured and suffered; the nature, the number, and the magnitude of the blessings which he procured, at such vast expense, for his followers we cannot fail to perceive, that not only authority, but benevolence also (benevolence operating in the most surprising manner) demands our obedience to this injunction of our Redeemer. Every ingenuous feeling of the mind is here addressed in the most powerful manner. The authority from which the precept is derived, is the highest ; the beneficence which enforces it, is unexampled. It is the behest of a prince to celebrate the love of a Saviour. Turn not, then, a deaf ear to him who