deemer's death at his table, in the hope of fharing with him his crown and his throne, in a higher ftate?

3. You ought to go to God, in this ordinance, as your exceeding joy; as you have in it the clearest and fulleft affurance of receiving from him all that is neceffary for your comfort and happiness, while you continue here. There are, in a strict fenfe, but two ends of going to God in his worship and ordinances, to express our sense of, and thankfulness for favours 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 bleffings we stand in need of, those 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 greatest 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 mor tified, than at a communion table. Is it not expressly defigned for your fpiritual nourishment, and growth in grace? And as the inftitution of thefe fenfible figns is a remarkable proof of divine condefcenfion, so I can hardly conceive any thing more wifely and happily calculated for this excellent end.

What can more strengthen 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 conscience, 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 crofs? 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 Chrift ⚫ conftraineth 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 Christ 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 weakness, like the all-fufficiency of Chrift? Col. ii. 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodi

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ly. 1 Cor. i. 30. Of him are ye in Chrift Jefus, ⚫ who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righte⚫ousness, and fanctification, and redemption.' I will not fo widely handle the fubject as to cite to you

all the paffages which show that the spirit 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 neceffary 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 neceffary provifion, is contained in it; and Chrift's body is the pledge. How gracious the promise! 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 • trusteth 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 shall be the munitions of rocks; bread

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fhall be given him, his waters 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 shall not

overflow thee; when thou walkeft through the fire, thou shalt 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. 2 Cor. iv. 16. For which caufe we faint not; but though ' our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.' Confider, especially, 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 his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how fhall he not with him alfo freely give us all things.' That God, who was fo lavish of his love, as not to fpare even his own Son, but gave him up to be despised, buffeted, and crucified for you, will not be so inconfistently hard, as to refuse the small gift in comparison 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 ufe and benefit the doctrine of Christ crucified is, and how high a place it ought to hold in our esteem. It is not only ufeful for affuring us of the pardon of fin, but makes us fuperior to all thofe fufferings, of every kind, which took their rise from fin. The path of a Christian 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. Thefe last maintain a fort

of bustle and conteft for worldly pleafure, and, with a sturdy felf-fufficiency, can, if I may speak fo, return the blows and buffets of adverfe fortune, while the feeble of Chrift's flock become funk and heartless 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 purpose 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 see how he expreffes himself in the following verse, 'Why art thou caft down, O my foul! and why art thou difquieted within me! hope in God; for I shall praise him, who is the the health of my countenance, and my God!

4th, I come, now, in the last place, to obferve, that this ordinance is a fource of joy, as it is a pledge and earnest of heaven; a fore-taste of that eternal happiness 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 bleffed manfions of