and powers : and never rest till it has had its perfect vv^ork within you, and " changed you into your Saviour's image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord""."]
m 2 Cor. iii. 18.
1 Cor. V. 7, 8. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us : there- fore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and loickedness ; hut ivith the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
CHRISTIANITY afifords us not only new grounds of hope, but also new motives to action, yea, the only motives that are capable of giving an uniform direc- tion to our conduct. The arguments derived from the excellency of virtue, the fitness of things, or even the certainty of rewards and punishments, never could produce any effects comparable to those, which have been wrought by the exhibition of a crucified Saviour. St. Paul, well knowing the efficacy of this topic, pro- posed it on all occasions. If he would enforce the duties of love, beneficence, or zeal, the love of Christ was both his pattern, and his plea. Thus, in the passage before us, having enjoined the Corinthian Church to excommunicate their incestuous member, he reminds them of the sacrifice of Christ ; and, in allusion to their accustomed method of eating the Paschal Lamb, exhorts them to celebrate the Chris- tian passover with becoming purity, both as to out- ward discipline, and inward affection. In considering his words we shall notice,
I. The representation here given of Christ —
Christ is here said to have been " sacrificed for us"—
[Sacrifices were appointed of God from the very fall of Adam as means of conciliating his favour, and expiating any offences which had been committed against him. The crea- tures sacrificed were put to death, and were always considered as dying in the place of the offender, who, by his transgression,