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be the duty of man. They differ in this, that moral virtue is eternal and unchange able, flowing from the nature and relation of things, and corresponding with the attributes of the Supreme Being.

Positive institutions, adapted to particular seasons and situations, have been changed, and they will one day cease. They were given to man in a state of innocence, in one form, after the fall in another, to the Hebrew nation in a third, and in a fourth, to the whole christian world. Moral virtue is an end, being the perfection. of a reasonable creature, subservient to the glory of the Creator. Positive institutions are means conducive to that end, as they impress upon the mind, some important truth, and warm the heart with suitable affections. The law given to our first parents, concerning the forbidden fruit, appears to have been designed for moral purposes. It seems adapted to remind them continually of the sovereignty of God over themselves, and over every creature which ministered to their happiness; to shew them the necessity of submitting to his will every faculty and passion of

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their nature, the pride of reason, and the importunity of the senses, the desire of knowledge, and the call of appetite. In this view, it was a perpetual lesson of moral virtue. The patriarchal sacrifices, the principal part of the Jewish ritual, and the sacraments of the Christian church, are each in their respective seasons, representations of one great event, symbols of religious truths, aids and incentives to moral holiness. They are the shadow, the body is the sacrifice of Christ. They point this way or that way, forward or backward (like the natural shadow), accordingly, as the substance is approaching, or is passed by. The sacrifices of ancient times, accompanied and supported the prophecies which foretold a coming Christ. The sacraments* of these latter days attend and confirm the history, which declares that he is come. The

* The word 'sacrament' signifies a military oath of fidelity and obedience to his general, which every Roman soldier was obliged to take. In a religious sense, it implies, a covenant or oath of allegiance and obedience to Jesus Christ, "the captain of our salvation." As the sacrament of baptism is administered to a christian but once in his life, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper is administered repeatedly, it is usual to distin

ceremonial observance foretelling, ceased on the arrival of the event foretold, the ceremonial observance commemorating, will never cease, until the event commemorated, shall have had its complete effect, in the day of redemption. It will shew the Lord's death, till he come again to judgment.

It is to be feared that the sacrament of the Lord's supper, has fallen into disuse with many, because they do not understand its nature and moral obligation, To remedy this defect, I will endeavour to explain to the reader, first, the origin and nature of this institution, secondly, the manner of its celebration, thirdly, the high privileges of those who conscientiously conform to it.

Our blessed Saviour, the evening before he suffered, eat the passover with his disciples. He celebrated it for the last time-" I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer, I will no more eat of it, until

guish the Lord's supper by calling it the sacrament, because in it communicants take the vow of the Lord upon them, and, in the most solemn manner, dedicate their bodies, souls, and spirits, to the service of their Maker.

it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." That is, I will no more eat of it, for to-morrow it will be fulfilled in the sacrifice of myself. After eating the passover, which prefigured his death, he ordained a new ceremonial observance, in commemoration of his passion. He instituted the holy communion. The feast of the passover being holden in the evening, was usually called the paschal supper, -the holy communion, instituted immediately after it, is called the Lord's supper. As Christ intended this ordinance to be the substitute for the passover, it may be necessary to say a few words on that ancient rite, in order the more particularly, to discern the connexion subsisting between them, and the reference they have to each other.

The passover was a sacrifice ordained by the Lord, in memory of Jehovah's passing over (according to the import of the word) the houses of the Israelites, when he destroyed all the first-born in the land of Egypt, and was certainly designed not only to prefigure the true Paschal Lamb, Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed for us, (1 Cor. v. 7.) but also the reception which

those might expect, who should flee for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them, by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.

As this is a point of considerable importance, in reference to a right understanding of the Lord's supper, it may be needful to shew, that the Paschal Lamb was considered, both by the ancient Jewish and Christian writers, as a sacrifice of a piacular nature. -Josephus calls it a sacrifice: and Trypho, the Jew, in his conference with Justin Martyr, speaks of sacrificing the Paschal Lamb. Memonides, in a tract, written expressly upon this subject, speaks of the lamb as a victim, and of the solemnity itself as a sacrifice. Rab. Bechai (com. in Levit. ii. 11.) says, "that the Pascal Sacrifice was instituted, in order to expiate the guilt contracted by the idolatrous practices of the Israelites in Egypt," and St. Paul puts the matter beyond dispute,"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," on our account or in our stead.

The manner of celebrating the Paschal Sacrifice, is particularly detailed in the Mishna, a monument of such antiquity, as cannot

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