not only voluntarily, but with a fort of pride, have practifed upon themselves, in honour of dumb idols? Thy merciful Lord calls for no fuch teft of thy love to him. He makes this indeed a neceffary qualification for thy being his difciple, as it is in the nature of the thing, that thou keep his commandments: but either thou knoweft not what his commandments are, or must be obliged to own that they are not grievous. That I love my fellow-difciples, and cultivate a benevolent difpofition towards all mankind; that I be humble, meek, merciful, temperate; that I be not anxiously thoughtful about future time and events, lay not up for myself a treasure on earth, but in heaven, that my treasure being there, my heart may be there alfo: thefe, and fuch like, are the commands of the bleffed Jefus; who, as a means admirably adapted to my delightful progrefs in these and all other virtues of the Chriftian life, does further injoin a devout attendance at his table, there to receive the pledges of his love, and grace to help in every time of need. M Uft thou not acknowledge, O my foul, that thy Redeemer's yoke is eafy, and his burden light, if thou reflect, that, instead of those numerous rites and ceremonies which the Mofaic law appointed, and which rendered that fervice fo burdenfome, that an Apo fle ftle of Chrift fcruples not to call it a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear; the Christian church hath no other obfervances of a ritual nature, but those two fimple and eafy ones, (eafy to be understood, and as easy to be practised), of baptism, and the Lord's fupper; and that of these two the latter is only intended to be repeated? So little does our divine Mafter delight in abridging his followers of any liberty they can reafonably defire; and fo much is he concerned that their duty should be their pleasure, or a natural fource of it. The things recommended, and most strongly infifted on, by his gospel, are those weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and the love of God; things intrinfically good and amiable. And to the honour of this facrament of the fupper it may be observed, that though a pofitive inftitution, yet, to thofe who receive it in a right manner, it is of unspeakable use to promote the life of God in the foul, and the practice of all thofe virtues by which we refemble God in the converfation. Wherefore, O my foul. instead of being influenced by any objection of weak, or ill-defigning men, against the in ftitution itself, or any trifling excufes that may tempt thee to neglect the obfervation of it, or vain terrors which would rob thee of the pleasure it was defigned to afford thee; with all readiness obey the invitation to this facred feaft, and with all gladness of heart fet thyfelf to celebrate the love of thy Saviour in it! SECT. IV. NOR SECT. OR afk why Christ would have us eat and drink in memory of him, when we could remember him without any fuch ceremony. Confefs, O my foul, obliged as thou art, to have thy Saviour perpetually in mind! haft thou not found it too eafy and common a thing for thee to forget him, to lose thyfelf and the thoughts of an abfent Saviour amidst the cares, or amufements and delights of this vain world? It is not what thou shouldft do, is the question. Thou shouldst, there is no doubt, be ever looking unto Jefus, and embrace every opportunity of converfing with him in thy thoughts and meditations, without any other monitor or prompter than a grateful heart. This thou fhouldft do. But is it thus thou wouldst act, if left entirely to thy own difcretion and choice? Record this, O my foul, among the inftances of the kind and tender care of thy Redeemer, that he calls thee off from the pursuit of the world, hath made it thy duty to difmifs thy meaner paffions, and, in the abfence of thefe, to commemorate him in this folemn manner, and by these external figns; that thou mightst have thy thoughts of him better fixed, and thy affections more powerfully actuated and enlivened; and by this means be difpofed more naturally to remember him at other times, and in the ordinary courfe of thy life! From this facramental transaction, frequent ly ly and rightly performed, will proceed fuch a ftrong attachment to thy Saviour, such a prevailing bent in thy inclinations, as will make it next to impoffible for thee to live in an habitual forgetfulness of that Jefus, whose dying love, with unfeigned zeal and gratitude, thou haft so often fhewed forth in his fupper; he will dwell in thy heart by faith, have the poffeffion of all thy faculties, be precious in thy esteem, and dear to thy memory. And then further, attend to this as a confideration of no small weight, that the remembrance of Chrift in the holy communion, is not a private and folitary act, but of a public nature; a declaration of the faith of the Chriftian church, and of the high veneration it hath for a crucified Saviour; and fo is better fitted to do honour to his memory, and, as an everlafting monument, to fpread and perpetuate it in the world. And furely, O my foul, this must be a very great recom. .endation of this ordinance to thee, and to all the faithful in Christ, that, by publicly and constantly attending upon it, every one of you in fome degree helps to fupport the memory of your great Redeemer among men! Would not every one that remembers Chrift himself, have others to remember him too? Would he not have his love, dwell in the hearts, and his name upon the tongues of all men? And the little he can do to this end, must he not do, and be exceeding glad if he could do more? SECT. V. TH SECT. Hink again, O my foul, with what view our gracious Redeemer obliges us to remember him! He had fome design in demanding this of his followers, especially in appointing fuch a form of commemoration. Did this defign regard himself, or us? Was it for his own fake, or for ours, that he appears fo defirous of living in our remembrance? for the honour that will redound to him, or the benefit and confolation that we shall receive from hence? For our fakes, no doubt, was this intended; not properly for his own, who can gain nothing by us, and hath a dignity and greatness inherent in him, that exalts him far above all the motives of vain glory. How trifling and contemptible is the honour of having his name recorded by us, the offspring of the duft, and tranfmitted down from one generation of short-lived creatures to another, when the angels, thofe fons of light, furround him with their adoring multitudes, and make his praises the fubject of their immortal fongs! But this is the honour he covets, the joy for which he endured the cross, defpifing the fhame, to bring many fons unto glory, to reftore as great numbers as he can out of the ruins of the fallen race, to train them up in the paths of virtue and holiness, and then, the proper time for it being come, to bestow immortality upon them. For this end |