LECTURE XXI.

MATTHEW xxvi.

W

E are now approaching the last fad scene of our Saviour's life, which commences with the 26th chapter, and continues in a progreffive accumulation of one mifery upon another to the end of St. Matthew's Gofpel.

The 26th chapter, which will be the fubject of the present Lecture, begins with informing us that two days before the great Feaft of the Paffover, the chief priests, and the fcribes and the elders of the people affembled together unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and confulted that they might take Jefus by fubtilty and kill him.

Whilft they were thus employed, Jefus himself was in Bethany (a small village near Jerufalem) at the house of a perfon called Simon, whom he had cured of a leprofy; and here an incident took place which marks at once the manners of the country and the times, and places in a ftriking point of view the different characters of the feveral perfons concerned in it.

"As Jefus was fitting at meat in the house above mentioned, there came unto him a woman, having an alabafter box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head. But when his difciples faw it, they had indignation, faying, to what purpose is this wafte? For this ointment might have been fold for much, and given to the poor. When Jefus understood it, he faid unto them, why trouble ye the woman, for she hath wrought a good work upon me? For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this oint

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ment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I fay unto you, wherefoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there also fhall this which this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her."

There are in this little ftory feveral circumstances that deferve our notice.

The first is, that the act here mentioned of pouring the ointment on the head of Jefus, though it may appear trange to us, yet was perfectly conformable to the customs of ancient times, not only in Afia, but in the more polifhed parts of Europe. Chaplets of flowers and odoriferous unguents are mentioned by feveral claffic authors, as in ufe at the festive entertainments both of the Greeks and Romans, and particularly among the Jews, the cuftom of anointing the head feems to have been almost as common a practice as that of washing the face. For they are mentioned together by our Lord in his direction to his difciples on the fubject of fafting. "But thou, when thou fafteft, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear. not unto men to faft, but unto thy Father which feeth in fecret*."

But there was a much higher purpose to which the effuon of ointment on the head was applied to the Jews. It was by this ceremony that Kings, Priests, and Prophets, were fet apart and confecrated to their refpective offices.And for this reafon it was that our bleffed Lord himself, who united in his own person the threefold character of King, Prieft, and Prophet, was distinguished by the name of the MESSIAH, which in the Hebrew language means THE ANOINTED. It was therefore with peculiar propriety that this difcriminating mark of refpect was fhewn to Jefus by the devout woman here mentioned, though fhe herfelf was probably altogether unconscious of that proprie ty. Jefus however faw at once the piety of her heart, and the purity of her intentions, and with that fweetnefs of temper, and urbanity of manners which were natural to him, not only accepted her humble offering with com

* Matth. vi. 17.

placency, but generously defended her against the illiberal cavils of his faftidious followers. And then he added a promise of that diftinguifhed honor which should perpetuate this meritorious act of her's to all future ily 1 fay unto you, that wherefoever this Gofpel fhall be ages. "Verpreached in the whole world, there fhall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." This we know was no vain prediction; it has been moft literally and punctually fulfilled, and we ourfelves are witnesses of its completion at this very moment.

The next remarkable occurrence in this chapter, is the institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by our Saviour, when he was eating the paffover with his dif ciples.

The paffover was one of the most folemn and facred feafts of the Jews. It was fo called because it was established in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews from their bondage in Egypt, at which time the destroying angel, when he put to death the firft-born of the Egyptians, paffed over the houses of the Ifraelites, which were all markedwith the blood of the lamb that had been killed and eaten the evening before in every Hebrew house, and was therefore called the Pafchal Lamb.

This great festival our Saviour obferved with his difciples, the evening before he fuffered, and with them ate the pafchal lamb, which was a prophetic type of himself. For he was the real pafchal lamb that was facrificed for the fins of men. He was the lamb flain from the foundation of the world*.

The lamb without blemish and without fpott, as the pafchal lamb was ordered to be‡. There can be no doubt therefore that the pafchal lamb of the Jews was meant to be an emblem of our Lord. The flaying of that lamb prefigured the flaying of Chrift upon the crofs; and as thofe houfes which were fprinkled with the blood of the lamb were paffed over by the deftroying angel, fo they whose +1 Pet. i. 19. + Ex. xii. 5.

* Rev. xiii. 8.

fouls are sprinkled with the blood of Christ are faved from deftruction, and their fins paffed over and forgiven for his fake. And it is a very remarkable circumftance, that our Saviour was crucified, and our deliverance from the bondage of fin compleated, in the fame month, and on the fame day of the month, that the Ifraelites were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, by their departure from that land. For the Ifraelites went out of Egypt, and Christ was put to death, on the fifteenth day of the month Nifan.

I have premised thus much refpecting the paffover and the pafchal lamb, because it will throw confiderable light on the true nature and meaning of the facrament of the Lord's Supper, which Jefus now inftituted, and of which the evangelift gives the following account: "When the even was come, our Lord fat down with the twelve to eat the paffover; and as they were eating, Jefus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his difciples, and faid, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, faying, Drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Teftament, which is fhed for many for the remiffion of fins." This is the whole of the inftitution of this facred rite by our bleffed Lord, as recorded in St. Matthew's Gofpel; and nothing can be more evident than that when he brake the bread, and gave it to his difciples, and faid, Take, eat, this is my body; he meant to fay that the bread was to reprefent his body, and the breaking of it was to represent the breaking of his body upon the crofs. In the fame manner when he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, faying, "Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Teftament (or New Covenant) which is fhed for many, for the remiffion of fins ;" his meaning was, that the wine in the cup was to be a representation of his blood that was fhed upon the crofs as an expiation and atonement for the fins of the whole world. And his difciples were to eat the bread and drink the wine fo con. fecrated, and fo appropriated to this particular purpose, in grateful remembrance of what our Lord fuffered for their falvation, and that of all mankind; for St. Luke adds thefe affecting and impreffive words of our Saviour, this do in remembrance of me.