own Son! and conquer my heart by the power of his fovereign grace! What returns of praise and gratitude are his due ? With what joy ought I to remember my Redeemer's death at his table, in the hope of fharing with him his crown and his throne, in a higher state?

3. You ought to go to God, in this ordinance, as your exceeding joy; as you have in it the cleareft and fulleft af furance of receiving from him all that is neceflary for your comfort and happinefs, while you continue here. There are, in a strict fenfe, but two ends of going to God in his worship and ordinances, to exprefs our fenfe of, and thankfulness for favors received, and as beggars for more. Now, my brethren, in this ordinance you are not only called to celebrate the love of a gracious and reconciled God, but to truft in the fulness of an all-fufficient God. That we may view this the more diftinctly, there are these two kinds of bleflings we ftand in need of, thofe that relate to our fpiritual life, and those that relate to our temporal comfort.

ift. Those that relate to the fpiritual life. What is the great defire of every real fervant of God in this houfe? Is it not to have your hearts more inflamed with the love of God, and more devoted to his fear? Is not fin your greateft burthen, and its remaining influence your greatest grief? Now, where can you have a more reasonable hope of getting your gracious difpofitions strengthened, or your fins mortified, than at a communion table? Is it not exprefsly defigned for your fpiritual nourishment, and growth in grace? And as the inftitution of these fenfible figns is a remarkable proof of divine condefcenfion, fo I can hardly conceive any thing more wifely and happily calculated for this excellent end. What can more ftrengthen your faith in a dying Saviour, than being allowed to look upon the figns of his broken body, and his blood poured out? What can speak greater peace to the confcience, than your being allowed and invited to receive him explicitly? "This is my body, broken for you." What can more happily ferve to kindle and inflame your love to God, than the immediate contemplation of his infinite love for you? Where can you take fuch a hateful view of fin, as a detefted object, as at the Lord's table,

where you fee it in your Saviour's fufferings? Where and how can you lay fuch a bond upon the confcience, as by receiving the feals of this facred engagement? How can you give fuch a deadly wound to your strongest lufts, as by nailing and affixing them to your Redeemer's cross? What motive of future obedience equal to bearing about in your bodies the dying of the Lord Jefus? See what the apoftle fays, 2 Cor. v. 14. "For the love of Christ con"ftraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for "all, then were all dead." Gal, ii. 20. "I am crucified "with Chrift nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Chrift "liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, " and gave himself for me." What remedy can you find for your own weaknefs, like the all-fufficiency of Chrift? Col. ii. 9. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God"head bodily." 1 Cor. i. 30. "Of him are ye in Chrift Jefus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righte "oufness, and fanctification, and redemption." I will not fo widely handle the fubject as to cite to you all the paffages which show that the fpirit of fanctification is a part of the purchase of your Redeemer, and one of his gifts to those who humbly implore it. Is it not well known, and do not believers at his table, fenfible of their own weakness, and confident of their Saviour's power, get their feet upon the necks of their enemies, and fay, "I "can do all things through Chrift ftrengthening me."

2d. They have here all things neceflary for their temporal comfort. They have a complete remedy for their cares, as well as their fins. As at the Lord's table you lay hold of the covenant of peace, fo there, if any where, you may fee, that it is ordered in all things, and fure; your food and raiment, and all necessary provifion, is contained in it; and Chrift's body is the pledge. How gracious the promife! your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things, Pfal. xxxiv. 8, 9, 10. "O taste and "fee that the Lord is good! Bleffed is the man that truft"eth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his faints! for there "is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do “ lack, and fuffer hunger; but they that feek the Lord,

"fhall not want any good thing." Ifa. xxxiii. 16. "He "fhall dwell on high; his place of defence fhall be the "munitions of rocks; bread fhall be given him, his water "fhall be fure." Deliverance from fuffering is contained in it, Pfal. xxxiv. 19. "Many are the afflictions of the "righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Strength and grace to fuffer with patience is contained in it, Ifa. xliii. 2. "When thou paffeft through the waters, "I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they fhall "not overflow thee; when thou walkeft through the fire, "thou fhalt not be burnt, neither fhall the flame kindle "upon thee." The fanctified ufe and improvement of fuffering is contained in it, Rom. viii. 28. "And we "know that all things work together for good to them that "love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Cor. iv. 16. "For which caufe we faint

not; but though our outward man perifh, yet the inward "man is renewed day by day." Confider, efpecially, that at the Lord's table you have an immediate view of the great foundation of reliance on divine Providence, Rom. viii. 32. "He that fpared not own Son, but delivered "him up for us all, how fhall he not with him alfo freely give us all things?" 2. That God, who was fo lavish of his love, as not to fpare even his own Son, but gave him up to be defpifed, buffeted, and crucified for you, will not be fo inconfiftently hard, as to refuse the fmall gift in comparifon of a little earthly good. He whofe foul was redeemed by the blood of Chrift fhall not lofe his body for a little bread.

I cannot help obferving, here, of what univerfal use and benefit the doctrine of Chrift crucified is, and how high a place it ought to hold in our esteem. It is not only useful for affuring us of the pardon of fin, but makes us fuperior to all those sufferings, of every kind, which took their rife from fin. The path of a Chriftian is fometimes thorny and difficult; and many of the weaker order of faints have even a greater fenfibility of the inconveniencies of life than fome thoughtless finners. These laft maintain a fort of bustle and conteft for worldly pleasure, and, with a sturdy felf-fufficiency, can, if I may fpeak fo, return the blows VOL. II. N

and buffets of adverfe fortune, while the feeble of Chrift's flock become funk and heartlefs under a frowning Providence. But is not the Lord's table a place of refuge? and is it not matter of experience, that they have found confolation there? Whatever their complaints have been, whether of fickness, or poverty, or lofs of relations, or the flanders of their enemies, they have adored the fovereign will of God in them all; they have been brought to a placid fubmiffion to his providence in them all; nay, they have happily feen and confeffed his wife and merciful. purpofe in them all. It was not without a view to his trials, that the Pfalmift, in the text, defires to go unto the altar of God, unto God his exceeding joy. And you may fee how he expreffes himself in the following verse, "Why art "thou caft down, O my foul! and why art thou difquiet"ed within me! hope in God; for I fhall praise him, "who is the health of my countenance, and my God!"

4th. I come, now, in the laft place, to obferve, that this ordinance is a fource of joy, as it is a pledge and earnest of heaven; a foretafte of that eternal happinefs which God hath prepared for his faithful fervants in the world to come. This, my brethren, ought never to be out of our view while we fojourn in this valley of tears.

This eternal joy is what our Redeemer has given us the fulleft affurance of. It is he who hath drawn afide the curtain, and opened to us a joyful profpect into the holy of holies, into the blessed manfions of perfection, purity, and happiness within the vail. In one of his laft difcourfes to his difciples, when he was about to leave them, he tells them, it was to be but a fhort feparation; for that he would come again, and carry them with him; and that they should never more be divided, John xiv. 2. "In my "father's houfe are many manfions; if it were not fo, I "would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you;" and not only hath he left the promife of his return, but hath inftituted this ordinance, on the one hand, to keep up the memory of his former appearance; and, on the other, to keep up our hopes of his fecond coming, and what he will then bestow, I Cor. xi. 23. "As often as ye eat this "bread, and drink this cup, ye do fhew the Lord's death

"till he come." It is intended to fupport the languishing faith of his people, and make them tread, with conftancy, in his ftrength, the fame paths of virtue and felf-denial that he did, in hopes of fhortly fharing his crown and reward, Heb. xii. 1, 2. "And let us run with patience "the race that is fet before us; looking unto Jefus, the "author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that "was fet before him, endured the crofs, defpifing the "fhame, and is fet down at the right hand of the throne "of God." And how highly proper is this inftitution for pointing us to the glorious iffue of our Chriftian conflict? In it, we have, at once, a proof of the certainty-of the excellence, and even fome perception of the nature of heavenly glory.

How certain and infallible is that happiness to the faints, which our exalted Redeemer, the Amen and faithful Witness, hath paffed his word for, and gone before, in our name, to take poffeffion of? Heb. vi. 19, 20. "Which "hope we have as an anchor of the foul, both fure and ❝ftedfaft, and which entereth into that within the vail, "whither the forerunner is for us entered."-1 Cor. xv. 23. "But every man in his own order, Chrift, the first "fruits, afterward they that are Chrift's, at his coming." However high an hope it may feem for fuch as we are, to afpire to a station fo near the throne of God, to his prefence and fellowship; yet it is not too much, after what is already bestowed upon us; after what Chrift hath done, it can beget no furprise, that this fhould be the conclufion of it; after he hath borne our fins in his own body, and with his own blood washed away our guilt; after he hath fanctified and cleanfed us by his holy Spirit, made us the children, and imprinted the image of his Father upon our hearts; after he hath kindled in our fouls a flame of divine love, and made us content with nothing but himself, and with no place where he is not; furely he will not leave us comfortless; he can have no other defign than to carry us to live with him, and reign with him for ever and ever.

Does not this reprefentation alfo ferve to fhow the excellency of the heavenly glory? It is called in fcripture, "the purchafed poffeffion." And, oh! my dear brethren,