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cy, according to the state in which it way and hereupon,

goes a6. How great and important a thing is it to die ; it being to go in fpirit to appear before God, and give an account of all that we have done in the body, and to be dealt with accordingly? How light foever the generality make of this, To die to fuch a purpose as this, is most awful in itself, and ought to be fo to us. With

what seriousness fhould we put the queftion, How are we prepared for fuch a change, and what is confequent upon it? What reafon have the most to lament, that they have made no better preparation hitherto; and with what ferioufnefs fhould we now begin?

And, in order to fhew you, how to do this, I will conclude with two or three directions for your affiftance.

(1.) Call yourselves to an account as to the state you are in, and the part you have acted: you are to come to a reckoning with God.

(2.) Let an intereft in Chrift be fecured now, as ever you would hope to find mercy in the great day of accounts. There is no having our perfons accepted, all objections against us filenced and thrown out, but as found in him, clothed with his righteoufnefs. To them that are in Chrift Jefus, there is no condemnation: but there is nothing but condemnation to all befides.

3. Beg of God the wisdom and faithfulness neceffary to discharge your flewardship well: you have need of both.

(1.) Of wisdom to know the value of the talents you are intrufted with, the will of your

great

great Lord concerning their improvement, the manner in which you are to employ them, and how much depends upon your employing them aright.

(2.) You have need of faithfulness; that fo you may act becoming your character, and may ufe the talents wherewith you are intrufted, as under the eye of God, whofe ftewards you are, with a fincere defire to please him now, and with an holy concern to find mercy from him another day.

(4.) Live in a ferious belief, that the day of your stewardship's ending, and the account to be given, is approaching: that it cannot be many years, and that it may be within a few days, that your fouls and accounts fhall both be called for.

And as the time is fhort, hear and pray, and walk and act as perfons waiting for your Lord. Bleffed is that fervant who when his Lord cometh, shall be found thus doing, and in this way receives the fummons that will e're long be given to every one of us, Give an account of thy stewardship.

SER

SERMON XV.

LUKE XXII. 15.

And he faid unto them, With defire I have defired to eat this paffover with you before I fuffer.

TH

HESE are the words of our Redeemer when drawing near the close of his life, and having his death in view, which we are now going to remember at his table.

It was in the night in which he was betrayed that Chrift thus fpake: letting us know hereby, how he stood affected to his approaching diffolution, and to what was to go before it, and. lead it on.

At the feventh verfe, we read that the day of unleavened bread came, when the paffover must be killed. And, verfe 8. He fent Peter and John, faying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And upon their enquiring, Where he would have the preparation made? He bids them, upon their entrance into the city, to follow a man they should meet bearing a pitcher of water, into the boufe where he entered in, and deliver this mef

fage

fage from him to the good man of the boufe, The Mafter faith unto thee, where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the paflover with my difciples? verfes 10, II. And as a proof of his omniscience and power, he tells them of the man's ready compliance with his defire. Hence obferve, when Chrift has a paffover to eat, he will not want an heart, nor a convenient place for his own, and his friends reception, verfe 12. And be shall shew you a large upper room furnished : there make ready.

Peter and John went and found the guide and house, and room, as he, their Lord, had faid unto them; for they that go upon Chrift's word and errand, ^need not fear a difappointment. Here, according to the order given them, they made ready the pallover, verfe 14. And when the hour was come, he fat down, and the twelve apostles with him; to whom he thus fpeaks, as in the words of the text, With defire have I defired to eat this paflover with you before I fuffer.

In the words we have vifibly two parts. I. The well-pleasedness with which Christ spake of the last paffover he was to eat with his difciples upon the earth, and the special welcome he gives to it; With defire have I defired to eat this paffover with

you.

II. The profpect he had of his fuffering and death, which were to follow his eating this paffover, and his hearty willingness to meet and go through them; With defire have I defired to eat this passover with you before 1 fuffer, i. e. after which I fhall eat no more, but be, myself, foon after crucified and flain.

Both these deserve to be diftinctly confidered. I. The well-pleafednefs with which Chrift fpake of the laft paffover he was to keep with his difciples immediately before his death, and the fpecial welcome he gives to it; With defire have I defired to eat this passover with you.

The inftitution of the paffover feaft, with the occafion of it, we have at large in Exodus xii. Pharaoh having hardened his heart against many. former plagues, and refusing to let Ifrael go, God refolved to bring him to it, by flaying all the first-born of Egypt in one night. At that time, the Ifraelites for their prefervation were ordered to flay a lamb, which was on the fourteenth day of the first month; and to sprinkle the pofts of their doors with its blood, and to eat its flesh in their feveral families.

That very night the deftroying angel was fent forth, and made dreadful work among the Egyptians, ftriking the firft-born of every family dead; fo that there was not an houfe where there was not one dead: but the houfes of the Ifraelites being fprinkled upon the pofts of the doors with the blood of the lamb, the deftroying angel paffed over them.

Upon this the Ifraelites were readily fent out of Egypt by Pharach and his people; and a commemorative feast on the pafchal lamb was ordered by God to be kept in their generations, as an ordinance for ever.

This feaft upon the pafchal lamb, from the firft occafion of it, called the paffover, referred to the lamb killed in Egypt, the blood of which was fprinkled on the door-pofts of the Ifraelites

I

houfes,

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