considered as his palace, there should be a table replenished with provision for himself and for his ministers. It was the command of God, that twelve of those cakes should be exhibited continually on the table of the sanctuary, to denote the twelve. tribes of Israel. This same number was kept up even after the revolt of the ten tribes: because there were always worshippers of the true God, scattered over the whole twelve tribes. These cakes, exposed continually in the presence of Jehovah, were an invitation given to the revolted tribes, to maintain his worship, and to serve him conformably to the rites which he himself had been pleased to prescribe by the hand of Moses. This was likewise the grand motive used by Abijah, king of Judah, to bring back the Israelites to their allegiance: 2 Chron. xiii. 9, &c.

In this same sense is the table of the Eucharist, likewise, the table of the Lord. In this same sense, we consider as the meat of God, or as the bread of God, these august symbols which are presented to us in the holy sacrament of the supper. These two solemn ceremonies have exactly one and the same end in view. The end proposed by the table of the Eucharist, as by that of the altar of burnt-offerings, or by the table of the shew-bread, is to form, and to maintain between God and us, an intercourse of familiar friendship; it is to form, between God and us, the most intimate union which it is possible to conceive as subsisting between two beings so very different as are the Creator and the creature. What proofs of love can be interchanged by two friends united in the tenderest bonds, which God and the believer do not mutually give and receive at the Eucharistical table!

Two friends intimately united, become perfectly reconciled to each other, when some interposing

cloud had dimed the lustre of friendship, and they repair, by warmer returns of affection, the violence which love had suffered under that fatal eclipse. This is what we experience at the table of the holy sacrament. That august ceremony is a mystery of reconciliation between the penitent sinner and the God of mercy. On the one part, the penitent sinner presents unto God a broken and contrite heart, Psa. li. 17. for grief of having offended him: he pours into the bosom of his God, the tears of repentance; he protests that if the love which he has for his God has undergone a temporary suspension, it never was entirely broken asunder; and if the flame of that affection has been occasionally smothered under the ashes, yet it was never entirely extinguished: he says to him with Thomas, recovered from his paroxysm of incredulity: My Lord and my God; my Lord and my God, John xx. 28 and with Peter, restored to favor after he had denied his master: Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee, John xxi. 17. And on the other part, the God of mercy extends his bowels of compassion toward the believer: he gives him assurance that his repentance is accepted, and speaks peace inwardly to his conscience, saying: Son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee, Matt. ix. 2.

Two friends intimately united, lose sight, in some sense, of the difference which there may be between their respective conditions. This, too, is what the believer experiences at the Lord's table. On the one part, though there must ever be an immeasurable abyss between God and us, we go to him as to our brother, as to our friend; shall I presume to add, as to our equal? And on the other part, God is pleased to lay aside, in condescension to our weakness, if the expression be law

ful, the rays of his divine majesty, with which the eyes of mortals would be dazzled into blindness. Jesus Christ clothes himself with our flesh and blood and of that community of nature makes up a title of familiarity with us; according to those words of the apostle: both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one for which cause he is no ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, Heb. ii. 11, 12.

Two friends intimately united, blend their goods and fortune, in blending their condition. This likewise the believer experiences in the holy sacrament of the supper. On the one hand, we devote to God all that we are: we promise him that there is no band so tender but what we shall be ready to break asunder; no passion so dear, but that we are determined to sacrifice it; no possession so precious, but that we are cheerfully disposed to resign, whenever his glory requires it at our hands. And on the other hand, God draws nigh to us with his grace, with his aid, and, to say all in one word, he comes to us with his Son: he gives us this Son, as the Son gives himself to us: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, John iii. 16: greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, John xv. 13.

Two friends intimately united, however well assured they may be of reciprocal tenderness, take pleasure in making frequent repetition of the expressions of it. Friendship has its high festivals, its overflowings, its extasies. This too is the experience of the saints at the table of the Lord. There the soul of the believer says to his Redeemer: I am crucified with Christ: 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, Gal. ii. 20. And there it is, on the other hand, that God communicates to the soul of the believer, the full assurance of his love: for the mountains shall depart, and the hills bė removed; but my kindn ́ss shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee, Isaiah liv. 10.

Thus it is, my brethren, that the altar of burntofferings, or the table of the shew-bread, and the Eucharistical table of the Lord's Supper, present the self-same mysteries to the eye of faith. Thus it is that both the one and the other are the table of the Lord, and that the repast served upon it, is the meat of God, or the bread of God. Thus it is, that in both the one and the other of those solemn ceremonies, the end which God proposes to himself is to form with men an union the most intimate and the most tender.

Having thus stated the first parallel proposed, that of the altar of burnt-offerings, or the table of the shew-bread, and the sacramental table of the Lord's Supper, we now proceed,

II. To state the parallel between the profanation of the altar, or the table in the ancient sanctuary, and the profanation of the sacramental table of the Eucharist: that is, to state the parallel between the duties prescribed to the ancient Jews, and those which are prescribed to Christians, when they draw nigh to God in the holy ordinance of the supper. As they trace the same important truths, they enforce the same practical obligations. What made the ancient Jews profane the table of the Lord? How came they to say the tuble of the Lord is contemptible? How durst they offer pol

luted bread upon his altar? It was, 1. Because they formed no just ideas of the end which God proposed to himself, when he enjoined the observance of those solemnities. It arose, 2. From their unwillingness to fulfil the moral engagements which the ceremonial observance imposed. Finally, 3. It proceeded from their wanting a just sense of the value of the blessings communicated by these. Now the sources of unworthy communicating, so common in the Christian world, are precisely the same. Want of illumination; want of virtue; want of feeling. Want of illumination, which prevents their knowing the meaning and design of our sacred mysteries. Want of virtue, which prevents their immolating to God all the vices which separate between him and them. Want of feeling, which prevents their being kindled into gratitude, and love, and holy fervor, when God discloses to them, at his table, all the treasures of felicity and glory. Three heads of comparison between the priests of Malachi's days, and many who bear the Christian name among ourselves. Three touchstones furnished to assist you in the examination of your own consciences. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.

1. Want of illumination. The priests of Malachi's days did not form ideas sufficiently just of the end which Jehovah proposed to himself, when he enjoined the presenting of offerings, on the altar of burnt-offering, and on the table of the shewbread. Expressly set apart for teaching those great truths to others, they remained themselves in a state of ignorance. They had no other qualifica