tihvaxy of t:he 'theological ^eminarjp PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 'iff V^V PRESENTED BY John M. Krebs BX 9315 .C427 1815 v. 7 Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680 The works of the late Rev. Stephen Charnock THE WORKS OF THE LATE REV. STEPHEN CHARNOCK, B.D. IN NINE V0LU3IES. WITH A PREFATORY DEDICATION AND MEMOIR, BY EBWAUB FAMSONS. VOL. VII. LONDON: PRINTED FOR PAYNES, PATERNOSTER ROW; CONDER, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YABD; WILLLAM!", STATIONERS' COURT; AND ROBINSON, SON, 4ND HOLDSWORTH, LEEDS. ISli, Devvliii-st, Printer, Leeds. CONTENTS. Page. The Lord's Supper, - 1 The Subjects of the Lord's Supper, -75 Unworthily receiviug of the Lord's Supper, - - - - )69 Self-examination, - 193 The Knowledge of Christ Crucified, 217 Christ our Passover, .-.-.---. 241 Voluntariness of Christ's Death, 311 The Acceptableness of Christ's Death, 335 The Necessity of Christ's Death, ...--- Ao^) The Necessity of Christ's Exaltation, 507 The Pardon of Sin, 5-jO THE END OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 1 Cor. 11. 26. FOR AS OFTEN AS YE EAT THIS BREAD AND DRINK THIS CUP, YE DO SHEW THE LORD's DEATH TILL HE COME. PART 1. REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. Introduction — Design of the Lord's supper — In what sense a me?norial of' the death of Christ — Ancient memorials — The necessity of them — JVhat in the death of Christ is particularly set forth — The painfulness of it — Intention of it — Its sufficiency — Acceptabkness — Efficacy — Hozv to he remembered — With reverence — Holiness — Mourning — Sense of the evil of sin — Faith — Humility — Thankfulness — For the love of the Father— Of the Son — For the costliness of his death — The gain of his death — His death should much engage our thoughts and affections. A HE Corinthians were a church planted by Paul, "watered b}' long preaching among them : But not- withstanding all his i>ains, he receives news of some corruptions crept in and overspreading that church, VOL. VII. B 2 THE lord's supper. Some that minded the welfare of the Corinthian church had stirred it up to write to Paul for the decision of several cases, which were controverted among them. In tliis chapter the fifth case comes to be handled, about the ordering their public assemblies. (1.) Concerning the carriage of men and women in the church. (2.) The celebration of the Lord's supper. (3.) The use and exercise of spiritual gifts, chap. 12. In ver. 17. the apostle makes a transition from the first to the second, and taxes them with their divisions which were the ground of their other miscarriages. Observe, Divisions in a church are usually at- tended witli sad consequences. They despoil the church of its beauty and ornaments, and many times are an occasion of sullying the beauty of divine institutions ; they here hindered a communion one with another. All communion is founded upon union ; divisions shook that and brought in gross miscarriages about the Lord's supper, a disorderly meeting, one taking before another, and making the Lord's supper a carnal feast; discovering more passion one against another, than a mindfulness of the sufferings of Christ ; and their unworthy receivings provoked God to send among them deadly diseases, ver. 30. For the reformation of those abuses, the apostle reduces them to the consideration of the first institution. Observe, In all reformations we are not so much to mind what this or that custom of the church is, when there is a clear word to walk by. Christ over- throws polygamy by reducing the number of persons married to the first institution. Mat. 19- 4, 9- God created male and female. This miscarriage was chiefly in their a-yoTrta, or banquets which they had before the supper, which were set up in imitation of Christ, who kept his last supper with his disciples, at the end whereof he instituted this sacrament. Intr^oduction, 5 Now m the eating of this, the rich brought their dainties, and eat to gluttony and excess, before the poor were met together, and left the scraps for the meaner sort, and thereby did shame^ them, ver. 22. i. e. did upbraid them with their poverty. Whence observe. 1. The community of goods or a voluntary levelling was not a stwuUug institution in Paul's time ; among the Corinthians you tind it not in use, there were rich and there were poor ; distinctions among men, nien "were proprietors of their own goods. 2. How soon will corruptions creep into the best church ? This mighty corruption, an epicurean car- riage, crept into this knowing and well gifted church betimes ; while the great apostle was living, who had the conduct of them, and of all the churches of the Gentiles. The devil will sow his tares where God sows his wheat. As he opposed Christ at the very entrance into his office, to make his mediation insig- nificant, so he will endeavour to corrupt a church at the first entrance of the gospel, to make it altogether fruitless. 3. Human ceremonies are not to be urged, especi- ally when they by abuse degenerate into superstition, carnality and profaneness. jlThe apostle, when he explains what he had received from the Lord, and delivered to the Corinthians, makes no mention of a divine institution of those a-yairai love-feasts, which they used in those days in imitation of the supper, ^vhich preceded the first institution of this ordinance. He speaks nothing in the defence of this custom, nor urges it upon them, but only presses the institution. Divine institutions, because of God's sanction, are not to be laid aside, though abuses creep in. What is man's must be discarded, what is Gods must be preserved. Tares ought to be separated from the "^vheat. This human ceremony might claim precedency t Slitcbting in lo«. B 2 4 THE lord's supper. of all others that wanted the stamp of divine autho- rity, and that by reason of its seniority, more ancient than all those of a later date in the church : yet it being but humdn in its original, is laid aside and not practised, that I know of in any church in the world. Paul proves here the divine institution, not any super- addition by the prudence of man. The apostle. 1 . Shows the end of the institution of this ordinance. In the repetition of the words of insti- tution, ver. 23, 24, 25. This do in remembrance of me. 2. He shows the ^wify of communicants, in the text: Ye shew the Lord^s death till he come. fThisis rendered as a reason why Christ commanded them to eat and drink in remembrance of him, because in that action he would have them show his death, and cele- brate his praise for his suft'erings in our stead. 'OcjaKir, As often, ^The Lord's supper ought to be o/^i'e;^ administered. The frequency is imphed, though how often is not declared. Christ's death is to be every day fixed in our thoughts, and to help our weak- ness, there should be a frequent representation of it to our sense, i. e. in such a way as Christ hath insti- tuted, not as man may prescribe. Ye. It is the duty of every particular person who communicates in this ordinance, to show Christ's death. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup. Eat, not see. This ordinance is not celebrated for the eye only, or for the ear ; there must be union, there must be communicating. Bread, cup. There is no transmutation, no tran- substantiation, bread still, cup still : the subject for the adjunct, cup for the wine contained in it. It is the same bread and cup after the consecration in re- regard of their nature, not of their use, dignity and efficacy. Bread, cup. The 6rte eaten, the other drunk : both must be communicated. Bread and cup t SKitcht. in lee. Design of the Lord's supper. 5 are not to be separated; christians liave a right to both. Papists have deprived the people of the cup, by the juggle of a concomitancy, because by parta- king of the bread, which is the body of Christ, they partake of the blood too v»'hich is in it. Christ plainly obviates this error at the time of the institution, when he adds in giving the cup, emphatically, Drink ye all of it ; Mat. 26. 27. and Mark 14. 23. expressly adds, They all draiik of it : which is in neither place expressed of the bread. As if our Saviour, foreseeing this error introduced into the world, as he did, would by a particular (aW) leave the authors of it without excuse. The most lively representation of his death, the comfort and end of it would be lost, which is sig- nified by his blood. Karay-^E/XXErE, Show. Some take it in the indicative mood, as our translators, Ye show. It notes to us, that by this ceremony tiie death of Christ is repre- sented. Some take it in the imperative mood, and then the words are to be read thus, Show you the death of Christ ; intimating, that it is an indispensible duty, that as often as we eat this bread and drink of this cup, we should have our thoughts and hearts full of the sufferings of Christ, meditations of him, and thanksgivings for him. It is not only a bare decla- ration of Christ's death, but of the benefits of it. Till he come. It is a perpetual ordinance in the church. Till he come. Till he show himself in his perfect majesty, thatwe may enjoy perfect glory with him. Till he come to judgment, when he shall come in that manner as he Avas taken up into heaven, Acts 1. 11. XVhen remembrance of his death shall be swallowed up in the vision of his person, and fruition of the highest fruits of his sufferings, when remem- brance shall be removed by sense. In the mean time it is a standing m^j^ument and memorial of the suflTer- ings of our Saviour, And by the way, we may observe, that the church shall continue to the end of the world, because these 6 THE lord's supper. mysteries are to be kept up till Christ put a period to this form of the creation. And the church only is the seat and subject of these institutions ; they were appointed for the church, not for the world, i. e. the unbelieving world. In the verse observe, 1. The action, eating, drink- ing. 2. The object, bixad, this bread, this cup. 3. The end of the action, expressed by a command, shorting the Lord's death. 4. Ihe frequency of it implied. 5. The durableness of it, till he come, Doctrine. I. The Lord's supper is chiefly institu- ted for the remembering and showing forth the death of Christ. II. The Lord's supjier ought frequently to be celebrated. III. The Lord's supper is a lasting and continuing institution, not to be put down at the pleasure of any men. For the first, Doctrine. The Lord's supper is chiefly instituted for the rememberiJig and showing forth the death of Christ. It is not a hare historical remembrance of the death of Christ. For then every profane man who assents to the history of Christ's death, and believes the acdng of this tragedy on the cross, and hath a notional belief of the ends of it, might be partaker of this or- dinance. But the apostle puts a bar to that, ver. 28. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread ; So, not otherwise : there would be no need of self-examination, if it were only an historical re- membrance. And further, a man could not then receive more unworthily, or incur a gieater damnation in this than in other ticts. But here the apostle fixes a particular guilt of the body and blood of Christ, when received unworthily, ver. 27. 29. As Christ's death was not a bare dying, but a death with high and glorious ends, so our remembrance of it is not to be a bare historical, but a practical re- membrance, and declaration. As Christ's remem- brance of the promises of his Father was not only an Design of t/ie Lord's supper. 7 assent to the truth of them, but a recumbency on him for the performance, so our remembrance of the death of Christ ought to be. It is not a speculative remem- brance only, as when a man sees a picture of a Prince, but such a remembrance as a man hath, when he sees the picture of a dear friend, absent from him at thattime; he remembersnotonly his person, butthemu- tual love between them, the actions his friend hath done for him, which stirs up a sense of gratitude at the time. In the handling this doctrine I shall shew, 1 . This is the end of the institution. 2. What it is in the death of Christ that is here remembered and shown forth, 3. How we should show forth this death, 1. The remembrance and declaration of the death of Christ is chiefly intended hereby. The scripture declares this in the time of institution, the night wherein he was betrayed. The words of institution, this is my body which is broken for you^Yer. 24. This cup is the new Testament in my blood which is shed Jar you, Luke 22. 20. t And the command, do this in remembrance oj me, evidences that all the preced- ing actions of bi'eaking, taking, eating, are comme- morative signs of Christ, to excite and confirm our faith in the apprehension of him and his merits. For the explication consider, (1.) God was always careful of appointing and preserving memorials of his favour. The pot of manna, and Aaron's budding rod were to be preserved in the ark, as standing monuments of Gods kindness. Stones were appointed to be set up for a memorial of the division of the waters of Jordan, to give the Israelites passage to the conquest of Canaan, Josh. 4. 5. \ The passover was instituted as a memorial of the Israelites affliction, and God's gracious protec- tion of them from the plagues of Egypt, tlieir security from the destroying angel, who was commissioned to take away the lives of the Egyptians first-born, and t Illyric io 1 Cor. 11. 22. t KelletR three-fold Siippei, p. 136. 8 THE LORDS SUPPER. indeed of all the wonders performed by God in their behalf in that memorable deliverance, as appears by the command for the celebration of it, Exod. 13, 8, 9. At this passover it is supposed by some, that they sa7ig the song of 3'Iosef!, Exod. 15. for the deliverance at the red sea, and after David's time the seventy eighth Psalm composed by Asaph, treating of the whole deliverance from Egypt and conduct to Canaan, and their own unworthy carriage towards God. And is there not much more reason for a standing memorial of that mercy of w hich all those were but the types ? It hath been the custom of all nations to have an anniversary commemoration of those heroes, who have been the instruments of some public happiness to them, and of all societies to com- memorate their benefactors. And is there any reason to deny that to the great benefactor of mankind, the Redeemer of the world, Emanuel God with us? Shall poor temporary deliverances among the heathen be remembered, such as the deliverance of the capi- tol by geese, as it was among the Romans, and shall not the great work of the redemption, the contrivance of God, the business of heaven, the admiration of Angels, the conquest of devils, and the delight of God, have special commemorations ? 2. These memorials are wc^^^y^rj/ ; Because of the 7iature of our affections y which rather follow the orders of our sense than the commands of our souls, and are more excited by sensible than invisible objects. Therefore the Jews had Christ in the swaddling-bands of types as well as in the womb of a promise, some- thing manifested to the eye as well as sounded in the ear. Most things we cannot understand but under sensible representations; we understand not God's power, goodness, justice, but by the objects we see those attributes conversant about. Hence are those frequent metaphorical resemblances of spiritual things in the scripture, and our Saviour sets himself forth to us under the notions of bread, wine, bride- Memorials of' his death necessary. 9 groom. When there is also such a distance between 0U-' heads and oiiv hearts, that we can roll the most saving truths in the one, without transniitting any part of them to the other ; there is need of something to quicken our affections ; seasonable memorials renew seasonable thoughts and affections. These memorials are necessaiy in regard of the inconstancy of our affections. We admire any thing at the tirst notice and arrival, we adore it at the first sights which by continuance groMS more familiar. What our affections rouse tiiemselves up to receive at the first approach, they afterwards beinp- glutted with the presence of, begin to flag, like the strings of an instrument that sound well at the first tuning, but quickly slack and need a watchful ear and careful hand to wind them up. We want therefore those memorials to keep up our hearts in a warm and glowing temper. In things that concern God's glory and our own salvation^ we are like table-books, quickly worn out, every intruding thought, like a sponge, dashes out what was written. When we see thing acted before our eyes, then we remember what was acted upon the cross. When Christ was risen from the dead, then the disciples remembered the word Christ had spoken to them, John 2. 22. We are naturally forgetful, naturally dull, and want actual excitements to awaken our sleepiness, and balance our unstedfastness. These memorials are necessary also in regard of the natural ingratitude and enmity we have to a cru- cified Christ, and the weakness of faith. What the world did, that does every man's heart naturally, account the cross foolishness. It is a matter of difii- culty to raze out our jealousies of God, and brino- God and the heart together; The tremblinfif believer is apt to look upon God as an enemy rather than a Father, and thinks Christ too glorious to entertain such a wretch. We need these memorials of the bounty of God and kindness of a Redeemer, to stifle 10 THE lord's supper our suspicions of him. Who can cherish unworthy reflections on God, when he hath represented to his eyes the strokes God inflicted on the redeemer? Who can resolve not to love Christ, who sees him bleed'mg^ breaking, dying for them? Gal. 3. 1. The disciples were afraid to perish, Mat. 8. 25, 26. when they had Christ in the same vessel with them ; they betrayed a weakness of faith, when they had Christ present with them, and had frequently beheld his miracles. How is our faith weak, when Christ is absent from us ? He hath therefore instituted a symbol of his spiritual presence, about which our minds might exercise themselves, as well as the eyes of men did behold his body : That we might urge our hearts to believe his kindness, and settle it upon our afl*ec- tions, and chide ourselves for our unbelief at the sight of bleeding love. 9. What it is in the death of Christ that is here set forth. ( 1 .) The painfulness of his death. It is the picture of him as he hung upon the cross ; a man of sorrows, broken and bruised by his Father in the day of his great wrath and great love, when his body was torn, his soul in a dreadful agony, his side pierced, his blood shed : the substance of these, by the breaking the bread, and pouring out the wine, are represented ; the burden of God's wrath lying upon him, and his groanings under it, are here shadowed. A picture represents the lineaments, looks, and sorrows ex- pressed in the face, which help the fancy and guide it into more lively apprehensions. The mind of man can conceive more than the eye of man can see : this does not of itself express the sorrows, cries, groans, agonies, strugglings of Christ ; but nothing can be more auxihary to our souls in the understanding, remembering, fancying of them, whereby the affections may be blown up, and impressions of a crucified Christ made upon our souls. Christ left behind him no other picture of himself but this. Here a wounded, Design of his death. 1 1 broken, bleeding Christ is presented. Here we may see the sufferings of his body, his pains upon the cross ; anc' here fancy may work about the incon- ceiveable troubles of his soul, his tieaviness to death ; how his soul zcas made an qfjering Jor sin, Isa. 53. 10. the wrath of God, tlie cup of bitterness, which if men or angels had but tasted, they would have staggered and fell headlong into hell. Here fancy may represent the piercing his temples by the thorns, and the wounds made in his body, which the Psalmist compares iojurroivs, Psal. 129- 3. This was the intent of the ancient passo'ver. The lamb was to be killed, the flesh roasted with fire, not boiled, the head, legs, purtenance, Exod. 12. 6, 7, 8, 9. which was to set forth the inexpressible sufferings of Christ in every part. Isaac on the wood, the sacrifices on the altar, the serpent on the pole, the striking the rock, were types prefiguring this, but differ from this sacranient: they were to prefigure what was promised, tins to commemorate what hath been performed. They were not properly memorials of this. They might in some sense be memorials to remember God of the promise, but this is a memo- rial to mind us of the performance. This \^as the intent of ihe elements in this sacra- ment. Bread signifies this suffering, as passing through various kinds of alterations, (a sort of suffer- ings,) to be made fit for food ; reaped when ripe, threshed when housed, ground to povvder and baked to be made fit for bread. The actions testifyed the painfulness ; bread broken discovers a broken Christ ; wine poured out discovers a bleeding Christ. The bread testifies the sufferings of his body, f The blood the agonies of his soul, because the spirits whereby the soul acts, are in the blood. (2.) The intention of this death for us. It is in this ordinance represented as a sacrifice-death. He ^ Goodwio's Pe«ce>iaaker, p. 55, h7. 12 THE lord's supper. is our passover sacrificed for us, 1 Cor. 6. 7, 8. In his institution it was, my body broken for you, 7ny blood shed for you, as an expiatory sacrifice for the satisfaction of justice, appeasing of wrath, and there- upon the remission of sin, and collation of everlasting righteousness. On the cross it was given for us; in the sacrament it is given to us, to mind us what he did for us. It is to show forth not only his death, but the intention of his death for us ; not for himself or any sin of his own, for he was harmless, imdefiledy Heb. 7. 26. and a lamb zvithout spot, 1 Pet. 1. 19. There was no more need of his dying for himself, than there is a necessity of our being glorious to make God happy. His sole intention was to be an offering to God for the removal of our guilt, the answering the charge of the law, the silencing the terrors of justice, to which we were obnoxious had not Christ interposed himself as a sacrilice for us, that both justice and mercy might be our friends. (3.) The siifficiency of this death for us. It would never else be remembered. We remember no more than what was done, we remember a whole Christ bro- ken. God by covenant with Christ could challenge no more, and justice after the striking of that match, could demand no more. Christ paid all that he had to pay, his whole body was broken, his whole soul bruised, his blood shed, he gave up all the treasures he had : and this is represented in the supper. The cup Christ drank was full, and by his death he brought a greater glory to God than ever lie had before. Whence arises a redundancy of merit, an overflowing merit for ten thousand worlds, were they in being and in a sinful state. (4.) The accept ahlencss of this death to God. All that Christ did, he did by order as his father commanded him. Had not his death been accepta- ble to his father, he would not have ordered us to remember it. The great actions Ciod has done for his people, and by which he has got most glory, and Efficacy of the death of Christ. 15 which have been most delightful to him, he would have commemorated ; the passover once a year ; but this, as being the memorial of a thing more plea- sing to him, often. It was a sacrifce to God for a szcect smelling savour, Eph. 5. 2. He ^vould have it remembered in heaven in the person of Christ, and remembered on earth in the symbols of his own appointment. His ressurrection God would have remembered by the change of the sabbath, but his death by a new and peculiar institution. Spices smell sweetest when pounded ; his death is the greatest pleasure to God ; he would have heaven and earth filled with the savour of it. The resurrection of Christ was consequent upon his death, but the foundation of our acceptation was laid in the cross. In the supper we remember this death to plead tiie acceptableness of it to God. (5.) The present efficacy of this death. It is now of efficacy, and will be to the second coming of Christ. W hy else should it be remembered ? To what purpose should we commemorate it, if it did not retain an everlasting efficacy i* if his blood, like wine, had lost its spirits, and his body, like bread, were putrihed and consumed since the departure of Christ out of the world ? f Some affirm, that that blood of Christ which was shed, was not drank up by the ground, or dried up by the sun, or steamed into vapours, but was gathered up again by the power of God, and put into his veins. His body saw no corruption, Act. 2. 31. Therefore no part of his body, not his blood which was sacred, the blood of God, therefore not to be lost. As the soul and body of Christ, though separated were united still to the person of the Son of God, his body being the body of the Son of God, his soul being the soul of the Son of God ; so also his blood, though separated from the body when shed, and had not its natural motion to perform its natural end for the supply of the t Dr. Jackson. 14 THE LORDS SUPPER. body, as the soul of Christ did not perform its natural end for the informing of the body when separated from it, yet not a drop of his blood was divided from his person. But howsoever this be, not a drop of that blood is lost as to the virtue and efficacy of it ; and therefore when either pardon of sin is sealed, or purifying grace conferred in this ordinance, it is not by the sole remembrance of his death, but by the power of it efficaciously operating for and in the soul. There- fore this blood is opposed to corruptible things, 1 Pet. 1. 18. intimating that the blood of Christ, in regard of its power and efficacy, does not corrupt. As the sun sheds his light every day about the world, yet remains a fresh spring of new light in the air every morning ; so this blood shed upon the cross, loses not its virtue, but is as operative, as if we had stood under the cross, and had it dropping upon our souls at the instant of his sufferings. He did once offer himself a propitiation for si)}, but he remains a propitiation for ever : the sacrifice was but once performed, Heb. 9. 28. & 10. 14. that shows the reality of it ; but it is often commemorated, to show the perpetual virtue of it. This efficacy is therefore shown forth in this ordinance. (3.) How we should show forth and remember this death. (1.) Reverentially. With a rerere;2ce of the holiness of God. God's hatred of sin is as high as his love to Christ, he hates sin as much as he loves his Son. He would never else have dealt so hardly with his Son for sin, whom he loved so dearly. He lamented t)ver the loss of Jerusalem, Jer. 1 2. 7, 8, 9- But to manifest his detestation of sin, he spared not his Son, had no relentings when he suffered for us. We should remember the death of Jesus with a reference of the justice of God. It was more that the Son of God should thus pour out his soul, than if the whole world had been hurled into hell. God struck him till justice had a full revenge, and struck Remembrance of the death of Christ. 1 5 him with that wrath, which would have thrown us into unquenchable flames. Not the pleas of an intinite mercy, a mercy God delights in, could stop the pleas of an inexorable Justice. What earthly father but would count the sufferings of his son, as thf rending of his own bowels, a destroying a model of himself? but to see an infinite gracious God rending the soul of a beloved Son, letting his enemies loose against him, standing by without any manifest relentings, and adding to that torture his OAvn frowns, even that God who cannot see his people afflicted without yearning bowels and a troubled heart, yet to seem unconcerned at the death of his only Son ; can we remember this without reverential adorations of the dreadful justice of God ? (2.) Holily. We must undertake such religious services with suitable dispositions of heart. Let none with irreverent hands touch those tremenda mysteria, which may make the hearts of sinners be broken with terror. With mourning hearts for sin. A broken Christ must not be remembered without a broken heart; a bleeding Christ and a hardened spirit, a sighing Christ and a senseless heart are unsuitable. Our passovermust be eaten with bitter herbs, with sorrow for past transgressions ; we should endeavour to be as much affected, as if we had heard every piercing groan in the garden, and numbered every drop of that bloody sweat which trickled down upon him, and been present when the soldiers so cruelly handled and pierced him. The springs of our sorrow should be opened and gush out ; for it was our sin he bore, and our debt he paid. The fixing cur thoughts intently on the death of Christ, would melt the ice in our souls. We should look upon him, till our hearts be setfl mourning as for a first-born, Zech. 12. 10. Again, we must commemorate the death of Christ with deep considerations of the cursed nature and demerit of sin. It must needs be l6 THE lord's supper. bitter, killing, condemning, cursed sin which brought Christ to such a bitter death. What a dreadful breach has it inade between God and us, that nothing but the blood of God can cement and solder? How are w« able to answer for one sin, when Christ endured so much for the expiation of the least, as well as the gi'eatest ? For death was due to the least ; had our sins had less guilt, yet since the least had been an offence against an inlinite God, Christ couid not have had a less suffering than essentially infinite to make an atonement for it. How can we poor potsherds stand under the stroke of an Almighty arm, when the human nature of Christ, though united to the deity, furnished with an eternal spirit, attended with a giTicious assistance, and assurance of a glorious success, startled at it, and hung down his head ? Our iniquities met upon him, Isa. 53. 6. like a mighty torrent that bears down all before it, and who but infiniteness could have stood against such a force? See how sin pressed him down, w ho upheld the whole fabi^ic of the creation hy the word of his power, Heb. 1. 3. and could without any pains have bore the weight of millions of worlds. Had not sin deserved so great a punish- ment, Christ should not have suffered it; a God of infinite compassion (and were there magis and mmus in that which is infinite, more stirred up towards Christ than towards all creatures) would not have laid so great a load of sufferings upon him, had not sin deserved it. Finally, this ordinance must be attended to with strong resolutions against sin. It is a sad thing to be Christians at a supper. Heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets. To come with a heart resolved to go un in impenitence, is to be worse than Judas, who was struck with remorse at the begin- ninij of Christ's sufferings, when he saw him con- demned. Shall he have relentmgs for his treachery, when he saw him ready to suffer, and we cherish Remembrance of the deatJi of Christ. 17 intentions to sin at the representations of his suffer- ings ah'eady fully executed ? We should then be not the receivers, but the murderers of Christ, tread him under foot, and make the table of the Lord a shambles, and bring the guilt of that blood upon our heads, which if sprinkled upon our consciences, would purify them from the guilt of all other sins. The Jews took the pussover standing, to shew their intentions to leave E^ypt : so must we resolve to leave all correspondence with those enemies which have murdered the Redeemer. The passover must be eaten with unleavened bread, no leaven of sin must be mixed with cur services, no leaven of hy- pocrisy with our lives> 1 Cur. 5.7, 8. We must eat his flesh and drink his blood, that we may live to the praise of his grace ; shew it forth in the supper, that wemav shew it forth in our lives. The thoughts of Christ's death should be an antidote against the poison of sin. (3.) Beiievingii/. We should in this act look upon it by faith, as the meritorious cause of our good. If we cannot believe wlien we see the price laid down for us and the ransom paid, when shall we believe ? We should profess our aiHicrence to him. The shewing forth his death is solemnly to cleave to him alone for the pardon of om' sins, the justification of our persons, and sanctification of our natures. There was to be in the passover a solemn publishing the nature of that deliverance, the great kindness of God in it, and the ends for which he delivered them. The Israelites that descended from Jacob were partakers of the altar, by eating of the sacri- fice, 1 Cor. 10. 18. i. e. they professed themselves to be of the Jewish religion and worship by eating with them. As they that eat of things sacrificed to idols in the idols' temple, did by that action profess themselves the worshippers of that idol, and had fellowbhip with devils in it. VOL. VII. C 18, THE LORDS SUPPER. Look up to Christ in liis death as a conqueror. It is the Lord's death, he was a Lord in his death, he was a king upon the cross as well as a priest, as he is a priest in heaven as well as a king. He has both his priestly garment and royal crown. The cross was his victorious chariot as well as the instrument of his execution. He then nailed our sins to the cross, he then triumphed over the powers of dark- ness, sin, Satan and hell, Col. 2. 14, 15. He was a conqueror in his death, spoiling the devil of his prey, and snatching the captives out of his hands. His death was his victory, his ascension his triumph. Regard it, shew it forth, not simply as a death, but a conquering death. Plead this death xcith God. This is believingly to shew it forth. This ordinance upon the earth is a counterpart of what Christ is now pleading and urging to his Father. Our pleas on earth should keep company with Christ's pleas in heaven. It is the best argument to prevail with God, who though he may deny our prayers, will not deny his Son's blood. It is the best argument to quicken our prayers. Present God with his covenant sealed, God will not deny his own hand and seal. Present him with this performance of Christ's priestly office, which is the only office he hath confirmed by an oath, Psal. 110. 5. He is a holy God, and will not deny his own oath. Plead this death, for such pleas honour his wisdom, glorify his love, own his truth ; plead it, and all God's attributes will plead it with you. God himself a^ ill join issue with you ; for God's attributes are the same with himself. This time is the fittest time to prevail with God ; when is a child most prevalent in his intercessien, but w hen he is most exact in his obedience ? This was the highest testimony of Christ's obedience^ Phi). 2. 8 and engages God as a Father to shew the choicest tokens of his love. As Christ was most obedient when he suffered it, we are most obedient Remembrance of the death of Christ. \9 when we believe it^ approve of it, and plead it. When Christ died, he deposited all his merits in the hands of his Father ; go therefore to God for the legacies Christ left at his death. Plead this death agaiust sin and Satan. Shew it against every charge. We are like to meet with many rubs, sharp and weighty accusations, too true for us to repel without the vigorous force of this death. Whatsoever accusation Satan can present against you, is answered here. Have v/e sinned ? Christ has suffered for sin : have we sinned many sins? Christ has shed much blood, not only a drop, -j Have we sinned great sins? the death of Christ for sin was the death of the Son of God. Can the sins of men be stronger to condemn, than tiie blood of God is to save? We have deserved hell, but Christ has suffered it ; the wrath of God, which is the spirit and quintessence of hell, lighted upon him. Christ's death will answer all the subtle cliarges of the devil, appease the terrors of a raging conscience, silence the curses of the law, and quench the flames of hell. (4.) llumhly. Consider in this representation what we should have suffered. Those strokes laid upon Christ were due to us, on us should those vials of wrath have been poured ; we should have been the mark of all the arrows of God's vengeance : The tragedy acted on Christ should have been acted on us. Had that justice which was due to us, seized us, we should have been held prisoners for ever; what power could have rescued us from almightiness ? Those terrors were marching against us, Christ then changed states with us, took our sins to answer for them, and gave us his righteousness to meet the justice of God withal ; he suffered the pains of hell, the wrath of God, and purchased heaven for us, which he might have kept without emptying himself, and sent us down to hell. The sufferings were endured by him, c ^ 20 THE lord's supper: but the right to them was ours; it was /or our trans- gresfiions he was wounded, for our iniquities he was bruised, for our peace that he zvas chastized, Isai. 53. 5. Consider the deplorable misery wherein we were. How deeply were we sunk into the mire, that nothing could y)lnck us out but the Son of God? How strong- ly was the stain of sin impressed in our souls, that nothing could wash it off but the blood of God? How enthralled to the devil, that nothing could give us liberty but the death of Christ? How obnoxious . to the w rath of God, that not the intreaties of Christ, but the voice of his blood only could pro- cure our redemption from the anger of that God, who had iniinite compassions, as well as infinite justice ? (5.) Thankfully. Such mercies as the death of Christ, require high and raised thanksgivings. It is the greatest disingenuity not to pay thankfulness for a free mercy ; the supper is a feast upon a sacrifice ; as feasts follo\A ed the Jewish sacrifices. Christ was offered to God as a sacrifice, and returned to us as a banquet. He was ground by the wrath of God to be bread lit for us to feed on. Bless God for his tote in offering up his Son to death. In this death God set open the flood-gates of mercy, and showered down the choicest blessings on the heads of believers. What is creating to redeeming love ? In creation God gave us a being, in redemption he gives u-'-> his Son, not only to live with us, but die for us, and afterwards to live for ever for our happiness. Let us bless Christ for his love in dying. Had not he drunk this bitter cup, we had not tasted a drop of mercy ; we had never triumphed if Christ had not died. What thankfulness is due to him, because he died for us ? How much greater thankfulness is due, since he bore our sins, which is more than The thoughts on the death of' Christ, 2 1 death? Who can express that dreadful conflict, when he did sweat clots of blood ? He bore the torments of hell in pondere, if not in specie ; the tantundem, if not the idem. The remembrance of it being commanded by him, witnesses the solemn pleasure he took in suffering death for us ; unwelcome and forced things would not be delightfully remembered by him, or ordered to be remembered by us as a mark of favour. The costliness of this redemption by the death of Christ should excite us to show it forth with thank- fulness. Our redemption this way cost God more than thousands of millions of worlds would have cost him. There was no need of shedding any blood to make them ; but the best that ever was or can be, w^as shed to restore us : a word would create tiiem blood must redeem us. It ha^j cost God more than all the angels in heaven ever cost him : and should it not be remembered with thankfulness P The gain we have by the death of Jesus should excite us to it. Death w^as bitter to him, but com fortable to us. His punishment was our discharge ; and he died for us, that ^ve might live with him. What gain we have by his resurrection and ascension, is originally from his death : it is by the blood oj' the lamb ihdit i[\e devil is overcome, Rev. 12. 11. By his blood are the promises sealed, by his blood all the treasures of grace, mercy, peace, happiness, riches of glory are gathered together for us. Use. 1 . If the supper be a showing the death of Christ it is then no sacrifice, but the commemoration of a sacrifice. Sacrifices imply some kind of expiation and atonement ; this is a natural notion. The hea then's thought by them to appease the anger of ttieir Gods. But the supper is not intended as an expia tion of sin, or a satisfaction to God, but a represent ing that oblation which Christ made of himself by death which was propitiatory, and therefore is rather a feast upon a sacrifice, than a sacrifice. In a sacri- 22 THE lord's supper. fice something is offered to God, in a sacrament something is exhibited to us. 2. How should the death of Clirist run much in our ihoughts, and oio' affections be raised! Such affections we should endeavour to have, as we believe those good disciples that stood by him, and saw him hanging and bleeding on the cross, had; and our affections should be of another nature; for it is a question, whether they understood the ends of his death, because none of them expected his resurrection. If we can see Christ pierced and not mourn, we may well question whether we have a spirit of grace i?i iiSj for such a frame is a proper fruit of this spirit, Zech. 12. 10. We should travel to the Mount of Olives, where Christ prayed and wept ; enter into the garden, the place of his agony. See how humbly he went bearing the cross, take notice of the pains he endured, the mocks and scoffs flung at him, conceive, if we can, the dolorous cries of Christ, when he had lost the sense and sweetness of his Father's love; and from thence let our affections get warmth. How should we set Christ before our eyes, and have the freshest remembrance of his dying love ! 23 PART II. ■FREQUENCY OF THE LORD's SUPPER. Howjrequent not determined — Cannot be determined for every one — Often celebrated in ancient times — Frequency agreeable to the nature of the ordinance and the christians wants — The author of it — 2 he time of institution — The ends of it shew the sin of neglecting it — Remembrance of Christ — A seal of the covenant — Renewing our covenant with God — Medium of communioii with God — Benefits of it — Weakeni7ig si?t — Increase of grace — A partner of divine love — Union with Christ. A HE Lord's supper is to be frequently cele- brated and participated of. As often, implying, it ought often to be done. For explication. 1 . How often is not determined. There is no fixed time for the administi'ation of this prescribed by any precept, no day commanded for it, but the celebration of it on the Lord's day was the primitive practice. No day fitter in regard of its separation to God, in regard of public meeting, in regard of remembrance, 24 THE LORDS SUPPER: both of the death of Christ and his resurrection, the battle and the victory, his death in the supper, his resurrection in the day. Nor how often on that day, is it determined by any precept, whether weekly or monthly. The performance is commanded by Christ, do this in remembrance of me, is urged by the Apostle in this chapter; but how often is not prescribed. Ciod was more punctual in the Jewish sacraments, circumcision was fixed the eighth day. The passover annually in j\larch. 2. Nor can there be a constant time Ji.red for every particular person. Because there are varieties in the cases of good men, who may by some emergency find themselves hindered one time, and not another. Sometimes men's various callings administer to one, more distractions than the calling of another, that they cannot rightly dispose t!ien:)selves, n:r spend so much time as is necessary to a due preparation ; and there is more fruit by one sacrament, when men come Avith a suitable frame, than by an hundred slightly approached to. Though the passover was annually fixed, and under a severe penalty to be celebrated ; yet there was a dispensation allowed to those that were under ceremonial uncleanness, or engaged in business on a journey, Numb. 9- 13. but those were diversions brought upon them by the providence of God, not contrived by themselves, which rendered them excusable. If any man had left his journey to that time, which he might have performed at another, and had delayed it on purpose that he njight avoid the attendance on that ordinance, I question whether he had been within the compass of God's indulgence : yet in those cases, though they were dispensed wdth at the first celebration of it on the fourteenth day of the first month, they were ordered to keep it tlie fourteenth day qj the next month, and not to stay till the next annual revolution, Numb. 9. 10, 11. Yet we find the passover omitted, all the time they ivere in the wilderness, as well as circumcision, and Often celebrated in ancient times. 25 some observe that there was but one passover kept all the time of Joshua. And so great were the cor- ruptions ia the Jewish church, that when Josiah came to the crown in the eighth year of iiis age, and began in the eighth year of his reign to set his heart towards God, 2 Chron. 34. 3. yet it was ten years before he could prepare them to keep the passover, which was kept in the eighteenth year of his reign, 2 Chron, 35. 19- It was commendable in him to restore it, sinful in the people to neglect it, since it was settled by a plain and standing command. 3. It was anciently often participated of. f Some think every day from that oi Act. 2. 46. They con- tinued daily with one accord in the temple, ami breaking bread from house to house, in analogy to the daily sacritice in the temple. Others understand it of their frugal and charitable entertainments of one another. That it was eveiy Lord's day, is out of question by the ancient writings declaring the custom of the church. And the breaking the bread, Act. 2. 42. which is understood by most of the sacramental bread, is joined with doctrine. They would lay in a tiati- cum and provision in those hard and stormy times, when they expected to be snatched away by the fury of persecutors before the next day of public meeting. And this was their custom to join this to other acts of worship on the Lord's day, And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. Acts 20. 7. And this w^as afterwards kept up in the church in the time of Justin Martyr, and by some in the time of Austin long after the other ; which practice per- haps was grounded on. And it shall be upon the eighth day, and so forward, the Priest shall make your burnt- offerings upon the Altar, and your peace-offerings, and I will accept you, saith the Lord; Ezek. 43. 27. a prophecy of gospel-times, and the cessation of the cere- t Mr. JoEcph Mede. 26 THE lord's supper: monial law of daily sacrifices ; by burnt-offerings being meant the Lord's supper, the remembranceof the great burnt-offering whereby our peace was made ; and by peace-offering, prayer and thanksgiving, which are called sacrifices in scripture, Heb. 13. 15. and on the Lord's day, being the eighth day following upon the seventh, the Jewish sabbath. It is likely it is not absolutely necessary that it should be administered eveiy Lord's day, when the word is preached ; the passover, the Jewish sacrament, was but annual though Moses, the law of Moses, was read every sabbath in the synagogue. The celebration came to be more seldom, because the frequency of it begat a coldness in the affections of the people, and the commonness occasioned too much contempt of it. The esteem and reverence of this ordinance was dashed upon this rock. The duty is extraordinary. They are tremenda mysteria ; great preparations are necessary to great duties ; affections must be much exercised, which are w^ound up to a higher pitch by the novelty and rarity, and flag by the commonness of an excellent thing. The com- monness of fasts in our days, and even at this time, has driven true humiliation almost out of doors. 4. Yet to be frequent in it is agreeable to the nature of the ordinance, and necessary jor the xvants oj a christian. By too much fasting we often lose our stomachs. The passover indeed was annual, God fixed it to that lime ; but they had their daily sacrifice, in the temple, which were types of Christ, and remembrancers to them of what was in time to be exhibited. We have none but this settled by Christ as an ordinance of commemoration of what has been exhibited ; therefore we ought not for the time to conform ourselves only to an annual custom. It is not to be neglected out of a wilful contempt, or a pretence of humility. Disobedience is not a part of humility, but the fruit of pride against God; and though a sense of unworthiness may be so great, The author of it. 27 as to hinder a free and chearful approach, and deter for a time, yet there ought to be endeavours to get rid of those clouds. We must not rest in lazy and idle complaints. That is no true sense of our own unworthiness, which hinders us from a necessary duty. Frequent it should be. The too much deferring does more hurt than the frequent communicating. The oftener we carefully and believingly communicate, the more disposed we shall be for it. t Abstinence from it can never be good, but e.v accidentia either for defect of a due disposedness, or to excite a greater reverence ; but to communicate believingly is good per se, in itself, Now that which is good in itself, is to be preferred before that which is good acciden- tally. If we abstain from it for reverence, we may the rather come for reverence ; for if it be worthily received, it increases our reverence of God, and af- fection to him. That is the best reverence of God, which owns his authority. It ought not to be neglected upon these reasons. 1 . Because of the author. It is a feast of God's providing, to which he invites us : to neglect it is a contempt of God's rich provision and gracious conde- scensions. The great God appointed not any trifling ordinance, his wisdom appoints none but what his power can make worthy instruments, his goodness will appoint none but what his love will make highly beneficial; the contempt of it is a slighting both of his wisdom and grace. It is a command imme- diately from Christ, and therefore the command of God, who hath approved of him and every thing he did, and set his seal to this commandment of our Saviour's and all the rest. Had it not been agreeable to his Father's will, he had not been ad- vanced to his royal dignity to sit upon his throne It is Christ's command, whom we are bound to obey t Snarez Vol. 15. Di»p. 69. $. 4. p. 889. 28 THE LORDS SUPPER: by virtue of our allegiance to him, by virtue of the salvation we hope for by him, by virtue of the affec- tionate obligations wo have received from him. It is his command whom we must own as our Lord, if we expect him as our Saviour, This do in remembranc4^ of me. Luke 22. 19. It is not left at liberty, do if you will, but this do. He is our Lord, and he is our Saviour : not only our Saviour, but our dying Savi- our. If his death be to be valued as the ground of our happiness, his legacies are to be esteemed as a part of our privilege. He that Avas going to lay down his life for us, would not appoint what was unnecessary for cur present state. Yea were it of no use to us, it is enough that it has bis sanction, whose sole autiiority deserves to be re- membered by us. It was the breaking a positive command in the eating the forbidden fruit, lost Adam paradise. If God pitches upon any means, though never so weak in themselves, they shall be effectual, and means seeming mere powerful in themselves, shall effect nothing. If tiie blast of rams horns be ordained for the oxerthrow of the walls of Jericho, Jos. 6. 5. they shall do that which he has appointed. If they be thought contemptible after God's order, all the battering engines in the world ehall prove ineffectual to gain the victory. If Jordan be appointed for the healing Naaman's leprosy, Q. Kings 5. 10. the waters of Abanah and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, shall never be medicinal. When God appointed lamps for the defeat of the ^Midiaiiites, Judges j. 20. had Gideon sli2;hted them as too weak, and assaulted them with his^ numerous host, he had received a rout instead of a victory. When God orde 's any instrument of con- veyance, all otlier means will be successless, and not only so, but God v.ill be offended, because his insti- tution is contemned ; and what can then reasonably be expected from a sli^rhted God ? 2. The time zvhoi Christ instituted it, shows it not worthy of our neglect. It was a little before his death. The ends of it. 29 The smne night in xvhich he 'was betrayed, he took bread. 1 Cor. 11.23. Good men (much less would a good and bountil'ul Saviour) do not use to employ themselves in trivial concerns, when they are near expiring. That which was instituted, when wrath began visibly to march against him, Judas upon the point of betraying him, and is to continue till his se- sond coming, is not without a desirable fruit. Had it been a needless ceremony, he would not have breathed out a word for its institution; had it been an institution of a light concern, some other time would have been chosen by him for the settlement of it. We may gather the necessity, as well as the value of it, from the time of its institution, which shows that there is something worthy in it of our esteem, and undesei'\'ing our neglect. The last words, actions, legacies of dying friends are never thought matters wholly to be neglected. Joseph's brethren questioned not their pardon from Joseph for the injury tliey had done him, when tliey used so powerful an argument as the command of their dying father, Thy fattier did command before he died. Gen. 50, 16, 17. And shall we undervalue, by a wilful neglect, the com- mands of a dying Saviour, settled by him just before he went to remove the wrath of God from us upon himself? 3. The ends of it declare the unworthiness of neg- lecting it. ( 1 .) The remembrance of Christ. This was the end and twice repeated, 1 Cor. 11. 24, 25. In the giv- ing the bread, ver. 24. In the cup, ver. 25. We are naturally unmindful of God, ungrateful to Christ, we need something to renew our remembrance of him. He hath left us this dark glass, wherein we may see his face till he return with a full glory ; and is it an aftection to him, never to look upon his picture, the medal of himself, wherein he has engraven the tracks of his dying love, all that he did, ail that he purcha- 50 THE lord's supper: sed, all his fulness, all his treasures, wherein we may behold him as a Redeemer, pouring out his blood for us, as a sanctifier pouring his blood into us, as a bene- factor opening his enriching treasures to us, as a sup- plier providing for all our wants? How can we say we love him, if we do not mind him? What value have we for him, if he be not in our thouf^hts ? Well, but we may remember Christ otherways without this ceremony. We may, but do we? Do you frequently ponder upon him? Are your thoughts of him edged with choice and ravishing affections to him ? Does not the body of death hin- der you from thinking of the Lord of life ? But sup- pose you are not one minute forgetful of his love, does it consist with your professed affection to him, to chuse your own ways of remembering him, and neg- lect his ? Suppose we had a friend who had redeemed us from the gallies, restored us from servitude, re- deemed our lives, reinstated us in a large inheritance, and was to take a long Journey, promising to return attain, leaving with us his picture, which lie would have us look upon at some special seasons, and ex- press in that method a particular mindfulness of him. Thouf^h we could not without anjinexcusable ingrati- tude/orget him, had we not that picture, yet it were but an unworthy return to deny the observance of so small an order to a friend to whom we owe ourselves. This is all the picture Christ has left of himself, he never appointed any images or crucifixes, never imprinted the features of his face upon Veronica's napkin. Is it not int^ratitude to neglect the remembrance of him in his own method, when he might have put hard conditions upon us ; and when it is not a mere sight of him, but a spiritual feast with him ; wherein we receive all the blessings of his death into our souls, as well as the wine into those of our bodies ? The primitive christians used commemorations of the mar- tyrs whose blood thev counted the seed of the chur ch; I^ a seal of the cocenant. 31 and shall the stated commemorations of that blood be neglected, which is the foundation, the price, and the purifying fountain of the church ? ('2.) It is a seal of the covenant, t This is the common nature of a sacrament, to be a seal of the righteousness or justitication with God by faith in Christ, Rom. 4. 11. As a seal affixed to writing, conveys to a man the lands and goods named in the Meriting. It is not only a sign which represents, but a seal, which confirms the benefit ; not a bare picture, but a seal whereby pardon and the whole design of salvation is passed over to us. This cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you, Luke 22. 20. It is a confirmation of the rich charter of God. There is a conveyance, Take eat, take drink, Take Christ with all his treasures, with all his graces. This is a pledge of the promise, a pledge given you for the glory to be bestowed upon you. He seals it to the eye by the elements, and to a believing heart by the Spirit. It seals not tlie truth of the death of Christ, or the truth of your faith. It supposes faith in the communicant, and supposes the death of Clirist in the institution ; but it seals the right of faith and the interest of faith. It is a seal of the righteousness of faith, of the interest of faith in that righteousuess it lays hold on ; as the seal of a deed seals the right and inte!'est of the person in that land conveyed to him by the deed. What there is in Christ, is sealed to us in the sacrament for our comfort ; the privileges he has purchased, and the graces he is endowed with ; and when you have this seal, you have arguments for prayer, and power to enforce them ; Lord, here is thy bow in the cloud, a sign that thou wilt not drown the world ; here is thy seal in the sacra- ment, a sign that thou wilt not charge my sin upon me, which hath been charged upon my Saviour. It was told me, that it was a body broken t Vidcson the Lord's supper, p, 3J4. 32 THE LORDS SUPPER: for me, blood shed for me ; I have taken it upon this account, I have taken this seal, I have covenanted to obey thee, I am willing and desirous, and I will be industrious to do it; be a God keeping covenant with me and truth for ever. The honour of God lies as a pledge in his seal, whereby strong consolation cannot be denied to those that lay hold upon Christ in it. As the passover was a pledge as well as a memorial^ a pledge of a spiritual as well as memorial of a temporal deliver- ance ; so is the supper a pledge of what is to come, as well as a memorial of what is past ; a pledge of all the fruits of the death of Christ yet behind. Should this then that is so desirable and confirming a seal, be neglected, which we may believingly plead as God's act and deed, when it is not a bare stamp of a seal which signifies nothing, but the image upon the seal, a seal to a deed which gives the assurance of the advantages in tiie deed, and an interest in the contents of the deed, and what is conveyed by it. (3.) It is a renewitig our covenant with him. It is a federal rite, wherein God exhibits on his part Chiist and his benefits to us, and we profess our subjection and obedience to him, laying more solemn vows upon ourselves. Whence they were called sacraments, the word signifying a military oath, whereby soldiers obliged themselves to be true to their general and the cause they fought for. And PUny says, he learned it of some christians, that at their meeting they did Sacramento se obstringcre, ne furta, ne latrocinio^ ne adulteria committcrent, kc. f Covenants are always mutual, something to be done by us as well as for us. God seals the benefits of the covenant on his part, and we seal to the duties of the covenant on ours. It strengthens us in the assurance of the benefits promised, and engages ustoa performance of the duties required. The exhibiting the signs is the seal on Gods riin. lib. 10. epist. 97. Is a comnniniofi with God. 33 part, our receiving the signs is the seal on our part. By taking them we acknowledge tliat we stand to the conditions, and rc-stipulate with God again that we will be his, and upon this striking hands with God, we claim a right and lay hold upon his seals, and plead them. You avouch God to he your God, Deut. 26. IG, 17, 18. obliging yourselves to a greater distance from sin, and detestation of it, divorce from it, to a njore quickened obedience, vigorous faith, holy life, and exacter service, fetching strength from the death of Christ in the supper to this end. Is not this desira- ble, to be in covenant with God, to have God in covenant with us, to have it more assured on botli parts, which is the felicity and security of a creature? (4.) It is a communion with God. As the partak- ing of things sacrijiced to idols was dt. fellowship with devils, 1 Cor. 10. 20. so the partaking of that which Mas sacriliced to God, is a fellowship witli God. There is in this action more communion with God (though not the sole act of coiumunion, as some say) than in any other religious act. Prayer is an act of homage, praise an act of gratitude. We have not so near a communion with a person, either by petition- ing for something we want, or returning him thanks for a favour received, as we trave by sitting with him at his table, partaking of the same bread and the same cup. In all nations the nearest fellowship con- sists in acts of this nature. The eating of the supper, as the eating of sacrifices, is a federal rite between God and the believer, signifying that there is a cove- nant of friendship between him and them. It is the Lord's table, and what feasted and cheered the heart of God in heaven, viz. the body and blood of Christ, God gives us to feast our souls on earth; so that we do in a manner eat and drink with him in this love-banquet. Take, eat, manifests a communion, Christ is really presented to us, and faith really takes liim, closes with him, lodges him in the soul, makes him anindweller, and the soul has a spiritual communion with him in VOL. VII. D 34 THE lord's supper. his life and death, as if he did really eat his flesh and drink his blood presented to us in the elements. Eating signifies taking in Christ as our own, his righteousness, and whatsoever is his in communion with him. Is this a privilege to be neglected? to sit at God's table, partake of his dainties, that which he most highly values and deserves, the value of the creature inlinitely above the sitting at the table of the greatest monarch on earth ; that which w as the sweet savour to God upon the cross, is offered to us as a least upon the table, and we eat that body and drink that blood which atoned God, and thereby have a communion with him in iiis pleasure and delight. 4. The benefits of this ordinance require frequency. As every thing has its use in creation, so likewise in redemption ; God made nothing in vain in the one, and appoints nothing in vain in the other. These benefits are many. ( 1 .) JVeahen'mg of sin. Not physically, but mo- rally. The lively representation and consideration of the death of Christ with all its circumstances, is a strong incentive and assistant to the mortifying sin in us, and there is no branch of the body of death, but some consideration or other fetched from the death of Christ, hath a virtue to destroy. How can any be proud, when he sees Christ lay down his life in the form of a mean man ? How- can he be covetous, when he sees Christ turning his back upon the profits of the world? Christ upon the cross viewed by a sparkling eye of faith, would work the same efiJect in our souls, which the looking upon the serpent in the wilderness, wrought in the Israelites' poisoned bodies, expelling the venom from the vitals and out-works of t the members, and abating the fury of a corrupt paroxism. Now as fea- thered arrows will fly further and pierce deeper, than when tliey are carried by their own weight only ; so such considerations, when helped by sensible repre- t AmyraUl Thes. Saliiiur. JVcaken'mg (f sin. 35 sentations, do more excite the faculty to a vigorous operation by a more sensible affecting the mind. The word declares the evil of sin, and the sacra- ment shows it in the person of our Saviour, sin is known by the word to he deadly, and it is seen to be so in the supper. Then is the soul most affected against sin, when God's indisination against it is ma- nifested, when it beholds Christ made a curse, and bearing all that the law denounces against sin, and sees the desert of sin and the terrors of wrath. Never does sin look so ghastly, and repentance so sorrowfully, as when (Jhrist and the soul meet toge- ther in this ordinance. The looking upon Christ opens the spring of sorrow, Zech. 12. 10. In this we take a crucified Christ, that we may have crucifiied sins. The very approach to this ordinance kindles reso- lutions against corruption, and smothers the flames of sin in the soul. Who that understands the nature of sin, and the evil consequents of it, would be without such a benefit? Are there no invading temptations to be routed, no indwelling sin to be expelled no dis- tractions to be settled, is there not still a root of bitter- ness always sprouting, an inward serpent always brooding^ an Egyptian furnace in our hearts sending out its sparks? Must not the root be more withered, the poison cast out, the indwelling sin tamed, the furnace quenched ? Do we not then need all the assistances to faith in the mortifying death of Christ ? As Christ upon the cross expiated sin, so Christ in the supper mortifies sin by his spirit, and purges those iniquities which are as a veil between the face of God and the joy of our souls. Faith acts more lively against its enemy, when it considers that the blood was shed for the soul, as to justify, so to sanc- tify. As there must be a removal of those humours which lurk in the body, whereby the vital principle is stifled, and growth rebated : so there must be a removal of those spiritual diseases which hinder the raising our heads higher towards heaven. D 2 36" THE lord's supper. (2.) Nourishment of the soul. In regard of the insen- sible decay of the spirits of the body, there is need of a continual supply to recruit them, and keep them up in their due vigour : our souls stand in no less need of being succoured by a feast of fat things full of marrow. The flesh has its provisions, and grace must have hers. In the nourishment of the body, the meat by the vital heat in the stomach, is turned into the sub- stance of the body ; so by a believing participation of Christ in the sacrament, we are turned into the image of Christ, and nourished up by it to eternal life. IJ is flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, John 6 55. he is given to us as nourishment, Take, eat, This is my body, as nourishment to be in- corporated with us, the bread is the sign of his body, and his body is the bread of the soul ; the element conveys vigour to the body, and the thing signified strength to the soul, and recruits it with new spirits. What bread and wine do physically convey to the body, which is strength, comfort, nourishment, that does the body and blood of Christ by faith convey to the soul, quickening, comforting, strengthening, clierishing grace. As the new creature is brought into being only by the power of Christ, so it is maintained by the blood of Christ only, and Christ has provided this to be both our meat and our medicine, our food and our antidote, to revive our souls, and cure and prevent our diseases, to repair the decays, which the remainders of sin and evil humours cause in our souls. It is not a naked remembrance ; that would be in breaking the bread, and pouring out the wine, by which actions are signified the death of Christ; but nutrition is intended, therefore the bread is eaten, the wine drunk ; our bodies need daily bread, the maintaining the life cannot consist with a total abstinence from food. Who but a mad- man would be so cruel to himself as to deny his faint body its ordinary relief, and its stated meals ? Are any of our souls so fat and Increase ami exercise of grace. 37 flourishing as to need no more spiritual food ? Are we grown up to the degree and state of angels, who never eat nor drink ? If we would not contemn the food of our bodies which common providence pre- pares for us, have we any more reason to conteam the food of our souls, which rich grace provides for us? As we cannot expect healthful nourishment from corn, but as dressed according to various methods; so we cannot expect nourishment from Christ but in the way of his own appointments. (3.) Increase and exercise of' grace. Christ is the storehouse and fountain of all the treasures of life and peace, but his ordinances are the channel. Though Christ has treasures to enrich us, yet he will choose the way of conveyance himself. By virtue of that principle whereby bodies live, they grow up to that stature which is convenient for them ; and their growth is promoted by those means which maintain life in them. It is eaten, it is drunk to promote our growth as well as maintain our lives. Grace is increased by Christ, he is the Jinisher as well as the author, Heb. 12. 2. and therefore the increaser of it, laying by degrees one stone upon another, till he completes it by the top stone ; dressing the plant to a greater flourishing. This ordinance therefore is of frequent use for the building up and bringing forth more lively and juicy fruits. The elements bread and wine, are not only nourishing but strengthening, and so is the thing signified by them. Some speak of a garden of balsam trees- in Egypt, which bring forth no fruits miless they be watered with a neighbouring fountain, wherein the blessed virgin was reported often to have washed our Saviour. It is true of grace, the balsam- tree in the soul, which will not thrive unless watered by the blood of Christ. Faith is increased hereby : as the oftener the word is heard, so the oftener sacra- ments are used, the more faith thrives. The same arguments which first persuaded us to assent to the THE LORDS SUPPER. truth of a thing, the more they are impressed upon us, the more sensible they are made to us, the more they continue and increase that persuasion; and according to the thriving of faitli is the vigour of all other graces. Where should we lind this vigour for our graces, but in the body and blood of him who is the fountain of all grace to us ? This was instituted indeed while our, Saviour was mortal, but it conveys a spiritual immortality to our souls, because it receives its strength and efficacy from his resurrection. It is here the smokin^ flax o may rise into a flame, and the bruised reed find its support and repair ; and the spirit may be renewed even in the infirmities of the flesh. If we come with weak grace and strong breathings, we may return ■with strong grace and full satisfaction. Do not little sparks need frequent and gentle blasts to blow them up? Proficiency is our duty, we must press forward towards the mark, we must run our race, it is our duty then to take our viaticum^ or provision to enable us thereto. Why do we come to the w ord, but to have grace either wrought or increased r Why should any believer then neglect the other means of God's appointment? Sacraments are the marts wherein we trade for an increase of our stock, as well as the w^ord. Since therefore we are subject to decays, and liable to changes and wants in our spiritual condition, we stand in need of a rooting and establishing ordinance. If we would maintain the fire, it must not be by removing the fuel. If our stomachs be lost, it is a sign our growth is stopped : Is our faith so strong that it needs no further con- firmation ? Our grace mounted to that height, that it needs no further steps ? Our desires so sharp, as that they cannot receive any keener edge ? It is an ordinance wherein grace is much exercised, and more unitedly about its object Christ, and were there no other advantage than this, to have an opportunity to strike up all our graces together, our clasping Sense and assurance of love hi/ it. 39 faith, and our melting repentance^ our flaming love, and our nimble desires ; it were enough to make the ordinance itself desirable to a christian, since there is an unspeakable comfort in the very name of him. But so excellent an ordinance cannot be without a more excellent benefit (4.) Sense and assurance of love often comes in by it. Wine is comforting. In no ordinance is Christ so particularly applied, Take, eat, this is my body. It concerns Christ to make them welcome to his table, that come with hearts thirsting for him : Christ was known by the breaking of bread, when tlie disciples knew him not before in his opening the scrip- ture, Luke 24. 30, 31. Gladness attended the keeping of the passover, 2 Chron. 30. 21, Q6. Great joy then in Jerusalem, not io the neglect of it. The primitive christians continued in their glad?iess of heart by breaking bread from house to house, Acts 2. 46. Much more surely by breaking bread with Christ in the supper. It is the most probable time of the Spirit's performing the great office, which is to bring things to remembrance, when we are engaged in an ordinance whose chief design is to bring Christ in his expiatory death to remembrance ; when the office of the Spirit and the end of the institution meet together, it is the most likely time for the Spirit to exercise his office and join in with the end of the sacrament, to show the high and heavenly things of our Saviour. There is a sweetness in a promise, but more in a promise drawn into covenant with all its ratifications. God's seal, as well as his oath, is for confirmation ; his word is sufficient ; but lest that should be stag- gered at, he has added his oath : if that should leave any doubts, he has fixed his seal, all which are the highway to a comfortable assurance. The sin within us and the devil without us, are always raising vapours, which gather into clouds, filling us with doubts, and hindering the sense of God's comfortable 40 THE lord's supper: face, staggering our hopes, and making us question that love which is grounded upon sa many promises. God has in this given us a pledge of his love and a ground of assurance, when we tiave Christ printed clearer in his sufferings and his love, visibly repre- sented as made a curse in our stead, a sacrifice bearing our sins in his body, and expiating them by his blood, and this Christ taken into our souls, and pleaded to God as our security. Thus has Christ given his body for us, and left his body with us as a pawn, a pledge for all we want, for all the good we can hope for. Sense of his love must be great, when the soul considers that his blood satisfied God, and may well satisfy it. When we eat and drink believingly, our souls delight themselves in fatness. And as the heart of God was satisfied with him upon the cross, so the heart of a christian is often replenished by him at a sacrament. What the gospel presents in words, the sacrament does in signs ; what the word presents to the ear, the supper does to the eye, to the taste, that we may have com- fort come in at all our senses. How often have drooping spirits met with comfort in the very action ? And met with hidden manna in sacramental bread, like a glorious Christ in a human body, and have had a full sense of a Saviour's love accompanying the visible representation of it.^ How often have his people heard him in it speak Peace, Peace, speak peace to them, and breathe peace in them, and kiss theci with the kisses of his mouth ? How often have their consciences been pacified, and their creeping joy found an elevation ? There have been mutual glances, Christ has struck a beam upon the soul, imprinted a clearer stamp of love, and the soul hath clasped its arms about a Saviour. And is such an ordinance fit to be neglected ? (5.) Union with Christ is promoted. As the bread and wine, being turned into our nature, become one with us ; so the body and blood of Christ Union with Christ promoted by it. 4 1 being by faith turned into our substance, make us one with Christ. As the bread and wine are physi- cally united to us, so we are spiritually united to Christ, Christ incorporating himself with us in a sacrament. He was our surety upon the cross, he is our advocate in heaven, and incorporated with us in the supper, in a spiritual, not a transubstantiate manner, / in thtm., John 17. 23, 26. Can we too often clasp about him } Can the union be too often renewed, and become too close and strait ? 42 PART HI. IMPROVEMENT. How fnuch the neglect of the Lord's supper is to be lamented — The necessity of inquiring info the ■reason of this neglect — IVas not appointed to be rieglected—They who neglect it cast unworthy reflections upon the Saviour — Other institutions may be dispensed with as well as this — Unfltness no plea — Neglect of the Lord's supper subjects to great loss and danger — Ejchortation to jrequent obser- vance of it — In obedience to the author of Jaith — The value of his friendship — Would often be found where he meets his followers — That grace may be strengthened — Satan foiled — Our debt of thankfulness discharged — That all its benefits may be enjoyed. ' JH.OW much is the Jieglect, ij not contempt, of this institutio7i to be beivailed? How sad a thing is it, that many for many years have turned their backs upon breasts full of milk? How has it been regarded, as if it were an abrogated law, a seal out of date, torn off from the covenant, as though The Lord's supper not to he neglected. 43 the institutions of Christ were miserable comforters, and it were a despicable privilege to receive enter- tainment at God's table ? (1 .) It concerns such to inquire, whether the reasom of their neglect be valid against a positive command. Since it is a command, Do this ; not only to re- member Christ, but to remember Christ in this method, Do this in remembrance of me: It is worthy their consideration, whether the ground of their neglect be such as will bear a divine scrutiny, and sustain the force of God's inquisition. They must be evasions past understanding, that can hold water against a di\ ine order : Though it may not always be frequented, yet it is not always to be omitted. No excuse was valid against the passover, but iin- cleanness or a journey^ and that not for an annual but a month's omission, Numb. 5. 13. But what light excuses have we to keep us off from a feast with God for many years, which we would not admit of to liiiider us from a feast with man? (2.) Was it appointed to be neglected? Did Christ take such care to institute it, and we take care to avoid it? Did he give such a positive order for no other end but that we should never regard it ? Can we say we value his word, when we slight his seal ? Is your faith so strong in his word, that it needs no strength from the seal ? Was not the faith of the apostles as strong at that time of institution as any man's, or at least in some few days after ? Yet it was not left ad libitum, you may do this, but do it. Christ is a better judge of the weakness of our hearts our proneness to forgetfulness, the difficulty to pre- serve faith as well as obtain it. And he instituted it, as an act of kindness, as well as authority, that it might be observed, not neglected by us. Were there no end of it, but only an act of his will, ac- ceptance is a civility we owe our Saviour. If he Jiad said, I pray you do this, could you have refused 44 THE lord's supper : it to him, that died for you ? Could you refuse it to him that endured the wrath of God for you ? What had become of you if he had not died ; all the angels could not have removed that load of wrath that lay upon you. If it be a command to do it, to neglect it is a sin ; for what is sin but a breach of God's command. It is a direct command, not drawn by consequence, as plain a command as any in the decalogue, Do it in remembrance of me, not, may do it, do it if you will, or, do it when you will. (3.) Hov.- can such free themselves from unworthy reflections upon Ch^iat ? It is either an act of wisdom or folly in him ; if of wisdom, why are we so foolish as not to observe it ? If of folly, why do we at all believe in him, whom we count a foolish Saviour? It was either an act of love in him or disdain ; if of love, why are we so ungrateful as not to regard it? If of disdain, why should we depend upon a person, whom we virtually charge with leaving a mocking ordinance to us just before his going out of the world ? We must either quite discard our faith, or discard our neglect. There is no doubt but it was both an act of wisdom and love in Christ ; the wisdom that conducted the course of his life, was not absent from him when he was so near his death, nor had his love which animated him to death the next day, forsaken him the night before; had he left his love, he might have j)revented his death. To neglect it then is to vilify Christ's institution, to disparage his skill and care of his church, as though there were no need of any representations of him, or as if something might have been ordered better : It is to charge Christ with a trifling insti- tution, it is to charge him with the greatest folly, that when he was to encounter with wTath and death, he could not find something else to busy him- self about; that he could not pitch upon a better thing to recommend to you, as a token of his care, Neglected because of its simplicity. 45 and a support for your souls ; if we will thus under- take to prescribe Christ what he should do : This is to be not his servants, to be guided by him, but his lords to rule him and give him his instructions, as though he were our, not his Fathers ambassador. How can we hope for the benefits he hath purchased, while we cast such reflections upon him, as if he were busy about just nothing? (4.) Is it neglected because the elements are so mean, and the thing so easy in itself ? Had any Israelite neglected to turn his eye upon the brazen serpent, the poison in his blood had digged his grave. What might they not have objected against it ? What good can a look upon a brazen figure do my wounds ? I want a plaister for my sore more than a cast of my eye. Brass will naturally inflame my distemper, not assuage it. Can the picture of a serpent cure the biting of a real one, and at such a distance ? This and more might have been objected against that, than against tins ; but such logic would have destroyed the dispute : Or is it easy, and there- fore fit to be neglected : It was our Saviour's mercy to make it so easy, who might have imposed harder conditions on us ; and shall we slight his tenderness, who was loth to burden us, and careful to relieve us? What would have been said, had it been as painful as the circumcising the flesh, or as distasteful as the bitter herbs of the passover : It is true it is common bread, it is common wine in itself; but it is conse- crated bread and consecrated wine in its use : It has the stamp of Christ upon it ; as the wax taken out of the shop has the seal of the conveyor, which the the purchaser would not part with for all the wax left behind in the hands of the seller. (5.) Or do we think Christ is come again, that we neglect it : The command vvas dated from the night before his death, and is to be in force till he return again. Was it his resurrection that is meant by his coming? WouJd Christ at such a time appoint an 46 THE lord's supper : ordinance, that was to last but three days, and never like to be put in ])ractice after his institution ? Or was it till he came in spirit ? He was coaie in spirit at Pentecost, before the apostle in the text urged the institution ; therefore come again cannot be meant of that. The ordinance then had ceased before Paul writ to the Corinthians, and he would never have restored an abrogated institution, A\ho was so vehement an opposer of an abrogated cere- monial law. Or till he come in spirit into the soul ? Was Christ in spirit in none of the Corinthians, who were a church of great graces and great gilts, as well as great corruptions ? Paul rectiiies their cor- rupt mixtures, but exempts not any from a due observance. (6.) Why does any one neglecter of it xvlio has Ja'ith, observe any other command or instUution ? Those that make not conscience of all known duties, make conscience of none. He that offends in one point breaks the whole law ; he that contemns one point of the gospel, violates the authority of the whole. I do not see how any part of the christian religion would be dear to any, Avho have so slight a regard to that which may claim an equality with any ordinance, and a precedency in our esteem in some respects, in regard of the positive command of our Saviour, the time when he appointed it, asid the length of its duration. Tilt I come. I doubt the apostasies of many, and the unfruitfulness in the lives of professors, may be charged upon either the neglect of this, or an unworthy carriage in it. He has little desire to gain Christ, or preserve Christ, that will have him in his own way, and not in Christ's way. What we desire, we should take a course to enjoy in the method of that person who only can fulril our desires. (7.) Or is it U7ifitness that is the cause of the neg- lect.'' Has any man heard of repentance, and faith, and holiness, and yet has nothing of them ? What The loss and danger of neglecting it. 47 a miserable case is this ! If you are not tit for this ordinance, you are not fit for heaven. What will you do when you come to die ? He that is not fit for the supper, is not fit for heaven, for the marriage-day of the lamb. Is not the unfitness from sloth, laziness, and unwillingness to take pains with the heart? If any man can say he has used all his industry by prayer and repentance to fit himself for heaven and for the ordinance, and done what he can, God requires no more than men are able to do. If unfitness to come be dangerous, is not a total omission as dangerous ? Will you plead your unfitness to God at the last day, as an excuse for disobedience ? What an excuse will this be, Lord, I would have been often at the supper ; but I was unfit, I gave way to a constant course of temptation, I never had an eagerness of desire for it, I w'as torn with various distractions, I let sin reign in in me, the care of a farm or trade diverted my thoughts from it !* What self-condemning excuses are those ? You know how firm they w ere to evade the anger of the king from those that made them in the gospel to excuse their not coming to his u'edding, Mat. 22. Or is it a perfect fitness that is not to be found within the circumference of the earth ? You will make God a hard master under the gos- pel to receive none but tiiose that have a perfect fit- ness for him. If any would be perfectly fit, the course is not to reject the means for it : diseases can never be cured with a slighting, but by using the remedy. (8.) Consider what you lose, and uhat danger you incur. Whatsoever benefits are stored up in a sacra- ment we lose by neglects; whatsoever obedience is in observing it, we lose the reward of : we lose the fruit of his love in it, and we deny the obligation of his authority, and the honour of obedience to it. God will not calmly and coldly sufier neglects. To detract from any ordinance of Christ, is in part to diminish the scripture, to deny part of his will and testament. Why was the neglect of the Jewish sacraments so 48 .THE lord's supper: severely piinisiied, that the persons -^vere cut off, not by a civil punishment, but by the hand of God, as the Jews interpret it? Is not the grace offended in our's as good as was in their's ? Our's may claim the precedency of theni in benefits, and therefore should in estimation. It is much, that when Christ hath graciously condescended to us, we should not thank- fully ascend to our own privilege. Well then. Why shall not the inconceivable love of a Saviour move you to the obedience of a command so easy, so beneficial, so alluring? You are bound to profess Christ, to remember him in your lives, who remembered you at his death. Do you think yourselves his members within the great cliarter of salvation which he hath purchased and sealed ? How- can any be members of his corporation, and disobey his orders ? Are you not entered by baptism, have you not vowed and promised your allegiance, and is the neglect of a known and positive command the w^ay to perform it ? Consider it is a law made by the purchaser of our salvation. Use. Is of exhortation to observe it and that frequently. Though a dying Saviour is remembered, yet a living Saviour is sought for in it ; and shall not we be as ready to seek a living Christ in the sacra- ment, as the women were to seek a dead Christ in the sepulchre ? Mat. 9.^. 1. The neglect of it does speak some light thoughts of it. Is it because of the meanness or the elements ? We may as well despise a great Redeemer, because clothed with the infirmities of a mortal body, as despise the spiritual representa- tions of him, because clothed with the meanness of earthly elements. God does always delight to convey great things through mean mediums. Gideon shall rout a Midianitish army with potsherds, with ear- then pitchers ; and the jaw-bone of an ass shall be more successful in the hand of Sampson, than a massy sword in the hand of Goliath. By the weakness of the cross God redeems the The loss and danger of 7?egiecth/g it. 49 world ; by the foolishness of preaching he converts a work], and conveys through earthen vessels a trea- sure wherewith to enrich iiis people, and a strength that makes confusion in the kingdom of darkness ; and by these elements, mean in appearance, he doth nourish the believer, still making those ordinances the pipes of his invisible grace. Or is it for want of a disposition ? If there be no faith at all, the cause is sad ? if there be no fitness for heaven, there is no present fitness to converse with Christ in his supper. Or is it but a \\eak faith r The more need then of a strengthening ordinance. Would we have a more elevcited frame of heart ? The way to ascend to the top of a pinnacle is not to run from the steps -which lead to it. Wlio is sufficient for these things ? But the more spiritually sensible we are of our own insuf- ficiency, the more confidence we may have in the sufficiency of a Saviour ; the more sensible we are of our disease, the more confident of the skill and affec- tion of our physician, and the more we should apply ourselves to his prescriptions. Let us consider some questions. (1.) ^\ ill any believer be guiliy of disobedience to the author of his faith ? Do this, is a word of com- mand, Luke 22. 1.9. Not left ad libitum, it is not you may if you ^^ ill as was said befoie ; but do it in remembrance of me. Do it if you will remember me. I will account you no rememberers of me, unless you do it. The conmiand was given to the apostles but to deliver it to the church, For I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you. 1 Cor. 1 1. 23. We must obey theconmiands given to the apostles, so far as they are practicable by us, as well as think to share in the comforts of the prayer Christ put up for us and his apostles, John 17. 20. The influence of what was spoken in their presence extended to all believers, and the observance of what was instituted in their presence is to be regarded by VOL. VII. E 50 THE lord's supper: all believers. God v.ould not only have the Israelites cleanse themselves, but be circumcised and eat the passover, when they were upon the borders of Ca- naan, before he would bless them with the victory, Josh. 5. 2, 10. God would have them renew covenant with him in the way of his own appointments, before they should have possession of Canaan. Suppose there Avere no benefit to be expected, though every institution of Christ is a m.ark of his love as well as a fruit of his authority, yet does not the greatness of Christ's love deserve our tenderness of his authority in his commands t If they had nothing of privilege but all of duty, love to Christ would make us often remember him, and obedience would make our love chuse the way of his own ordering, and not ways of our OAvn pleasure. Deus I'oluil, is a sufficient motivcj and we cannot free ourselves from the censure of dis- obedience, if we observe not his commands in the same manner that he enjoins them, in their circum- stances as well as their substance. (2.) Is Christ so ??iean a friend as not to be remem- bered ? The memory of a good friend should be very precious : is there any friend we have in the world can outstrip him in affection, and deserve a greater share in our first-born thoughts ? What was ever more advantageous to us than the death of Christ, by whom we have our life ? Than the agonies of Christ, to which we o^\e our freedom fi'om the wrath to come ? Do we not remember our own benefit in remembering our gracious benefactor, who bore our sorrows, that we might enter into his joy ; groaned under the cur- ses due to us, that we might triumph in his Father's love, and in his own glory ; who emptied himself to fill us, and received the wrathful strokes to free us ; who took our sins upon himself and cast upon us the robe of his righteousness, bore the load of our trans- gressions to enrich us with the treasures of his merits, endured our death to procure our life, and hung upon The loss and danger of neglecting it. 5\ our cross to advance us to sit upon liis throne. Is it not a great unkind aess to be unwilling frequently to remember so cordial and choice a friend ? Besides, is it not fit to remember him frequently, who remembers believers perpetually ? He regarded such in his last prayer, he remembers such in heaven to plead for them, he remembers them under their bespotting corruptions : shall not believers remember him, who hath laid in his blood a perfect foundation for their perfect holiness, and taken possession of an heavenly gloi^ for their perfect happiness ? He re- members them that v:ere enemies, and have too much enmity still ; and shall not they remember him who is a clear and perfect friend ? He bears their names np07i his breast, as Aaron did the ten tribes on the Ephod, Exod. 28. 12. and remembers even those who have crucified him ; and shall not they remember Christ w ho were never wronged by him ? Should we not rejoice to see the rainbow in the clouds, which is a siijn of Gods securing covenant against a des- troying deluge ? And shall we neglect the signs of God's securincf covenant ag;ainst an overflowino; wrath ? (3.) Why should mo not often be in those ways tvhere we may meet with our best friend ? Certainly he is as graciously present in this as in any other or- dinance. He is present with us in observing every thing xchich he hath commanded, Mat. 28. 20. and shall this be without a more special presence, when it was instituted for a more special remembrance of him ? He is present symbolically as a man by his picture ; he is present spiritually, the soul sees him by faith, as Abraham saw his day at a distance, and that with joy ; he is present by his efficacy, as the sun is present in the earth, though many hundred miles distant in its body. IViis is my body. This is my blood ; as sure as this is bread and this is wine, so surely by faith are you partakers of my body and blood in this ordinance. Can this be said of any F 2 52 THE LORDS SUPPER: other ordinance? Where is Christ so particularly present, so closely applied as in this? (4.) Have you no graces that need strengthening ? Have Ave not need of all the means to strengthen that faith vhich \\e shall have allthe need of in the hour of death to keep our souls from fainting under the stroke ? Is it not a debirable thing to have the bene- fits of Christ often applied to us, and our faith con- firmed ? Is all our leanness removed, that we need no more marrow and fatness? Are we so provided for heaven, that we need no more 'ciaticum in our journey thither ? Who would come but seldom to his stated meals ? He that would fast one day w ould scarce fast two but by force. We are yet in a jour- ney, and we need strength to go forward. We are beset w itli diseases, and we need medicines to cure us. W^e are often faint, and we need cordials to revive us. Are our souls so fully establislied, our affections so ready at our call, as not to need sensiiile objects sometimes to raise them ? A vigorous fancy helped by the sight of a picture mounts to a greater activity, so doth a spiritual faith. Can you then too often embrace the cross, drink of the blood of Christ, and put your hands into his wounds ? Is your faith so hearty, that it needs no cordials ; your love so hot, that it needs no breath for an higljer tiame ; your hopes so certain, that they do not sometimes reel ; and your obedience so quick, that it needs no spur ; and your standing so secure, that it needs no further settlement ? It is certain, that as if we would have faith, we must attend upon converting ordinances ; so if we would have strength of faith, we must frequent strengthening institutions. How would this sun shining upon our souls in his own orb, enrich us with his heat and light, suffer nothing to stand before it, and put out all those lesser fires, those foolish desires which aspire to other things, and weaken the soul ? After the Israelites were circum- cised, and had eaten the passover, then did Christ, The loss and danger of neglecting it. 5^ as captain of the Lord's host, appear to Joshua to encourage his heart, and strengthen his iiands against those enemies in Canaan, by uliicli our spiritual ene- mies are represented, Jos. 5. 7, 10, 14. It is by a frequent exercise of faith, according to the methods of Clu'ist, tliat uelievers would be as lions, as Chrysostoni says, breathing fire terrible to the devils themselves, llave you not found your uwn ex[>erience, or at least the experiences of utuers bear witness to this? Hou^ often hath the empty s^ul been rilled, the palsy hand cured, the tiiirsty he lit satisried, tlie feeble knees strengthened, a creepi^ig love changed its pace, and a cloudy soul been bright- ened ? The more believing at a sacrament, the more vigorous is the faith afterwards. As in eating ■•orpo real food, by the assimilation of meat to our substance by the chemistry of nature, and converting it into blood and spirits, the body is strengthened ; so by the feeding upon Christ by faith, the soul is stresigth- ened, and Christ becomes more and more mystically incorporate in the believer, Christ in them the hope oj glory. John 17.23. 1 in them, and thou m me. {5.) Why will any true believer i^ratity Satan ? The motions to hinder those that are gracious, must either be from God, or Satan : from God they can- not be, who is no enemy to tlie ordinance he hath appointed for them. It cannot be thought that God should decry his own institution, or call back his own invitation, or discourage a believer from the re- membrance of his Son in that ordinance, which hath been enjoined for that end. The spirit in his m..- tions acts according to the word, not contrary to it. They must then be from the devil, who is an ene!>'y not to be listened to. He endeavours to hinder the believer from the most spiritual duties, whereby lie may gain the greatest prorit. He kindles our curi r p- tions, shoots in his temptations, rills us with scruples, exhorts us to omit, defer, any thing to stave us oif from that which is the strengthening of our souls, and 34 THE LORDS SUPPER. a weakening of his kingdom. Swallow not therefore this poison, lest you please the devil, and displease the Redeemer. How will the devil triumph, if he can keep you in a constant omission of a known duty? If the frequent attendance be a means to strengthen grace, the neglects are a means to weaken, and the devil rejoices in the decays of grace, next to prevent- ing any grace at all. He feeds himself with hopes, that at last he may make such utterly insensible. 6. Why should any believer deny to pay Christ the debt of thankfulness for his great lo^ce, in that imy which he hath appointed? It is a thanksgiving, a thankful remembrance, therefore anciently called the eucharist. It is appointed as a feast to rejoice before God for the benefits we profess to enjoy by the death of Christ : as the eating of the sacrifice offered to an idol was a profession, that all that they had, came from the kindness and powerful influence of that idol. Shall not our souls be filled with hosannas for the greatest mercy that can be bestowed upon us, viz. a redemption from guilt, death, hell, and the wrath of God ? Shall we refuse a thankful acceptance of that honour to sit at his table, and to sup with our prince? Would not that person be accounted ungrateful, that should delight in the picking of straws, when his king calls him to his presence ? To conclude. Let the benefits of this ordinance persuade every believer to a frequency in it. They must needs be great and desirable upon a worthy and believing partaking, because the sin and danger are dreadful in an unworthy approach. If indeed we have no enemies to conquer, no weakness to strengthen, no sin to trouble us, no temptations to surround us, no damps to smother our assurance, no ebbs in our graces, no totterings in our faith, no coolings in our love, no emptiness to be filled, no doubts to be resolved. If we are in heaven, and are as angels in assumed bodies, then we are lifted above the end and intend- ment of it ; but this is no man's case in the world. The loss and danger of neglecting it. 55 It is a command ; to neglect it therefore is to despise his authority ; it is for our good, to neglect it tliere fore is to contemn his mercy; his institutions are attended with promises, to neglect them is to deny his truth. 56 PART IV. THE CONTENUANCE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. His twofold coming — Not his coming in the spirit — His ordinances not to be dispeiised with at the plea- sure of men — All ordinances to he continued in the church, then certahdy this — The necessity of ordi- nances— All the lazes of Christ are in Jorce till he repeal them — The covenant and the seals of it perpe- tual— The state of man requires the continuance of ordinances — His constant decays — His weakness — Improvement — Christ will always have a church in the world — His institutions must remain without addition or detraction — His love and bounty — His ordinances must not be contemned. VV E have handled two doctrines from the words. There is one more yet behind concerning the duration of this ordinance from the last clause, You show the Lord's death till he come. There is especially a twofold coming of Christ mentioned in scripture. 1. Coming in the flesh. 2. His coming to judg- ment. Both mentioned Christ was once offered to The coming of Jesus. 57 bear the sins of many, and he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation, lieb. 9- 28. Tlie one was to bear our sins, the other to glorify our souls; the one to expiate our guilt, the other to present us to God ^vithout any detilenient, the one to begin salvation, the other to perfect it ; the one to seal the promises, the other to perform them ; the one to put an end to the remembrance of sin by substituting himself as a sacrifice in the room of the legal ones, whereby there ^vas a remembrance of sin every year ; the other to put an end to the fruit of sin, afflictions and sufferings of his people. It is not his coming in the spirit, which is here meant. This had not consisted with the interest of Christ, the wisdom of Christ, or the end of the sacrament. 1. Not with the interest of Christ. Christ came ill spirit after his ascension at the time of the liberal effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles. Acts Q. was his coming to them, as he had promised, 1 will not leave you comfortless^ 1 will come unto yoUy John 14. 18. Would he so suddenly assemble the apostles at such a time, when that wrath wiiich he saw marching out against him, called for the em- ployment of all his thoughts, and his greatest care in the management of that work? When it was come to that issue, would he neglect his present interest and business to settle an ordinance so short-lived as the space of fifty days, when most of that time he intended to comfort them by his personal presence after his resurrection ? It had not consisted Avith his intei'est at that time to employ himself about that which should so suddenly expire. 2. Nor with the wisdom of Christ. To institute that so solemnly for his remembrance, that should be of so little use. It was to remember him in his absence all the time he should be in his Father's kingdom : a greater absence than that of twehe days must be meant ; for he was absent from them ^8 THE lord's supper. only during the time of his lying in the grave, and the time between his ascension and the descent of the spirit, if by coming here be meant his coming in the effusion of the spirit, He zvas seen of them forty days, speaking of the things pertaining to the king- dom of God, Acts 1. 3. (It is likely he was with one or other of them every day in that space.) Which it is probable were not to be put in execution till the coming of the spirit, which they were to wait for at Jerusalem, which was to endue them with power from on high, Luke 24. 49- Acts 1. 8. And though after the descent of the spirit, they continued in breaking of bread, yet not before, but only in prayer and supplication, (Acts 26 14.) for the power of the Holy Ghost, which was to commission them. And would Christ take such care to have a church before the fall of the Jewish church, and enable his apostles by his spirit in so miraculous a manner, to settle his commands among those that should believe in him, and this which is one of the greatest and most in favour to the church, so lately instituted, and for the commemoration of the fundamental benefit, to expire just after the promulgation of it ? That did not cease at the coming of Christ in the spirit, which we have no evidence that it was put in practice from the time of the first institution till the coming of the spirit. Did it consist with the wisdom of our Lord to give a command which was never to be practised ? (3.) Nor with the end of the supper. It was to be done in remembrance. How could they in so short a time forget him, in whose hands and sides they had seen the marks of the nails and spear ? How could they forget him whose death they had seen, and whom they had enjoyed again, by a mira- culous resurrection ? Besides, the spirit was come, and so this ordinance ceased before Paul writ to the Corinthians, and he who had been so vehement an 77/6' coming of Jesus. 59 opposer of an abrogated ceremonial law, would never have restored an abrogated institution. Nor is this coming again to be understood of the spirifs coming to a particular person. Then as soon as ever men come to be fit for this ordinance, they must wave it. If the coming of Christ here spoken of, be his coming in spirit to a soul ; as soon as ever he is come in spirit, they ought not to observe it, because they would break the command which is limited to such a time, the time of his coming. The spirit comes in the work of regeneration, in the work of faith ; to what purpose did Christ institute this, if the only subjects capable of it were ipso facto deprived of it, when they were first in a capacity for it? None receives good from this ordinance, but those that have faith. Indeed men in a croud may press upon Christ, and touch him ; yet only that person that touches his garments, and takes the elements by faith, receives virtue from him. What a madness is it to feed a dead man ; and if he should be restored to life, to deprive him of the means and nourishment to preserve that life? And again, if this were understood of the spirit's com- ing, it would then be instituted only for the refusal of the 'world. For such as had no mind to remember him, nor could remember him with any affection to him, or comfort to themselves, since they were alienated from him by their unbelief. We cannot suppose that Christ that night wherein he was betrayed, should take care only of his enemies. He prayed for his disciples, not for the world, he gives the supper to them, and in them as the foundation of the church, all that were to believe in him, not to the world, it is therefore "CiXQ second coming of Christ to judgment, that is here meant; when he comes in perfect majesty to bestow a perfect glory. When he shall come in that manner as hezvas taken up into heaven ^ Acts 1. 11. When the remembrance of his death shall be swallowed up in the vision of his person 60 THE lord's supper: and fruition of the ripe and com pleat fruit of his sufferinos. In the mean time it is a standins; memo- rial ui the surTeiings of our Saviour. The doctrine then is, That the Lord's supper is a lasting and co/U/niang institution, not to put be down at the pleasure of any men. It will not be repealed till Christ come. Another gospel is not to be expected, Gai. 1 . 6, 7. &c. and therefore while the gospel endures, the appendixes, the institutions annexed to it will endure. 1 he times of the gospel are called often in scripture the last dai/s, no other dispensation is to supersede it, and the ordinances in it are im- moveable things, not to be shaken, till Christ comes. He is not yet come, the institutions therefore he tran- smitted to us by the Apostles, are still of use. Nothing can put a period to them, but the coming of Christ, which no man can say is yet accomplished. The ordinances of Ciirist, are like the pillar of fire, and the cloud which guided the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness, and did not withdraw from them, till they entered into Canaan. When the church shall be perfected, when Christ shall appear to put the crown upon the head of the glori- fied church, and bring it into the promised inheritance, the clouds of ordinances will vanish, there will be no more need of them, the ends of them will be com- pleated ; there will be no weak grace to need strengthening, nor any indwelling sin to need mortifi- cation. In the reformation of the church, prophesied of in Rev. 21.3. The tabernacle of God is with merif and he will dwell ivith them. The ordinances are not to be abolished ; while God hath a tabernacle among men, he will have a worship, an instituted worship to help us in our natu- ral worship. The tie of homage the creature owes to God, cannot be unloosed. If a worship, then some modes and rites of Avorship. The tabernacle was the place of worship ; this cannot be meant of a state of glory in heaven, because it is a new Jerusalem A standing institution. 61 •ivhick comes doivn from hearen, ver. 1 . a state dis- tinguished from the state of glory in heaven. In the time of the reformation of tlie ciiurch, wliich is there promised, the Lamb is said to be the light of the church. The Lamb is tlie li^ht thtrcoj. Rev, 21,23. Christ is always called a lamb in allusion to tlie pas- chal lamb, and in that title his death, as a sacrifice, is always included. If the Lamb, as a dying sacrifice, be the light oi the city in that glorious state which the church does expect in a full and thorough reformation, the memo- rials of him as a lamb^ and so the niemorials of liis death, will be preserved till earth give place to hea- ven. And whereas it is said There shall be no tem- ple, ver. 22, /. e. no human and legal ceremonies, but pure ordinances. And the city had no need of the sun and of the moon to shine in it. f Men shall not serve God according to the equinoxes, and the course of the moon, as the Jews had their passover about the verp.al equinox in jMarch, and the obser- vation of the new moons, to show to them the times of worship. There shall be no earthlv constitutions, inventioiisofman,anythingthat smells of the legal cere- monies ; but God shall be glorious in his ov\n in.:^li- tutions, and the Lamb shall be the 7u\(vnc, the candle of it; the simple institutions of Christ shall be the light of the church ; all those ordinances, which sig- nify to us the love of the Lamb, the death of the Lamb, the benefits of that death, shall be kept up in purity and vigour. In the reformation of the church, the ordinances shall no more cease than they did in the fecond temple, which was a reformed chuich after tl.eir cap- tivity in Babylon ; and so reformed, that they never ran again to idolatry. But the ordinances of God continued in the temple till the coming of the Messiah to tabernacle among men ; so in the t Grot, in loc. 6'2 THE lord's supper: reformation from the idolatries and corruptions of anti-christ, which will be as it were the erection of a second temple, the ordinances shall continue till the coming of Christ to judgment. Christ intimates the continuation of this ordinance in the church till the consummation of all things, and the investing his people with the glory he had promised them, in his words after the institution of it, / wilt not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vi?ie, till I drink it new with you in my Father s kingdom, Mat. 26. 29. which he speaks to shew the nearness of his death, and to comfort them under the apprehensions of it, assuring them they should be with him in his Father's kingdom, partakers of his glory. It also implies, that no other institution was to intervene between that time, and their being with him in his Father's kingdom. The communication of himself should then be in a new manner. But till that time they must not expect any converse with him, but in those ways he had settled. The nearer Christ's coming is, the more will his ordi- nances be in practice. When the Israelites were upon entering into Canaan, circumcision and the passover were celebrated, which had been omitted all the time of their wilderness-condition. 1. All the ordinances of Christ are to continue in his church, then certainly this. The institutions of Christ in the gospel are said to be immoveable, such as cannot be shaken, He hath promised, saying. Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but the heavens. And this zcord, yet once more, signifies the removing of things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot he shaken, may remain. Yet once more, Heb. 12. 26, 27. Hag. 2. 6. For it is taken out of that place, the apostle following the Septuagint translation. Once more supposes, that that time being past, there should be no more change of laws in the church. The old institutions under the law are called ra aaXzvofjicva, tlungs that A standing institution. 63 are shaken, or fluctuating, uncertain. The evan- gelical institutions are opposed to those, as things that cannot be shaken, ra yi) ostles then with him, but to the church. AH the institu- tions settled in the Jewish church are often said to be ordinances for ever, i. e. during that dispensation, till God should give them their passport and send them away. But the gospel ordinances are to be in force till the conclusion of all thing's in the o world. 2. Sacraments were thought by God needful for men in all their several states in the world. Sacraments were judged necessary by God in inno- cent nature. The tree of life had a sacramental signification of lil'e upon Adam's obedience. Much more in lapsed nature have we need of those sensible things for the support of our faith in the promises of God. After the fall there v/ere various institutions brought in by degrees. Adam, and Abel, and Noah, had their sacrifices as significant of the Messiah promised to them, and expected by them. Abraham had an addition of circumcision. The passover and other rites were added under Moses. The Messiah takes away them and introduceth others, which are to continue, since they are the last days wherein God hath spoken to us by his Son, VOL. VII. F ^6 THE lord's supper: Heb. 1.1. and are not to be thrust out by any other dispensation. Not but these sacraments under the gospel are changeable in their own nature, if it seem agreeable to the good pleasure of God. f For there is a dif- ference between natural laws and positive laws ; natural laws do not proceed merely from the will of the law-giver, positive do. Those things which are evil in their own nature, are not evil because they are prohibited by the will of God, but because they are contrary to a rational creature as rational ; so that God cannot dispense with thenj, for then he would dispense with evil as evil, and so would deny his own righteousness, if he should allow that which is unjust in its own nature. But for positive laws which are not innate in nature, or grace, but proceed from the will and authority of God solely, they may be changed by the will of the law-giver : so the ceremonial law was changed, because it was neither good nor evil in itself, but had its authority solely from the will of God. But the moral law cannot be changed, because the duties it enjoins, are naturally good in themselves ; and the things it prohibits, are evil in themselves ; and this God cannot dispense with ; for then he should call good evil, and evil good. But God hath declared he will never change these. The end of all ordinances was to bring the worshippers to real holiness, which is the perfection of the soul; in innocency, to preserve men in it; in lapsed nature, to discover the necessity of it, and the way to it ; and therefore they must be observed under every dispensation for that end for which they were instituted. Now if these rudiments propor- tioned to the Jewish infancy were not to be violated by them under the severe penalty of the souls being cut oft' from among the people (which the Jews + Rivet in Genes. Exercit. 13, p 51. The necessity of sacraments. 67 understand of a cutting off by the hand of God) sure the more noble institutions of the gospel settled hv the Redeemer, being clearer representations of the love he hath shown to us, and the benefits we may expect from him, stand more stable, aud are big with greater motives to persuade men to tlie use of thenj, than those under the law ; which ^^ eie grievous in regard of their multitude and chargeableness, and obscure in regard of the distance of the thing sig- nified by them. They may seem to have had more reason to despise the institutions in those several ages, than we to slight the evangelical ordinances, since they are dignified by the more excellent dispensation they are annexed unto. And God always had some mediums through which to pour out the blessings of his grace upon the souls of his creatures. 3. All laws once settled are of force till iJieij be repealed by that authority xvhich enacted them. Christ as Lord of the church hath power to appoint insti- tutions, and none but he hath power to remove them, \and even he hath not power to remove them by any act but by that of his coming. Christ hath settled this till he comes, since his word is past, nothing but his coming can repeal it. His command is therefore in force, and ought to be observed, and it is in force till he comes, so that if an angel from heaven should bring us word of a repeal, we ought not to believe him, because Christ is not come, to which period of time it is to endure. Had it not been a high pre- sumption for any to abolish the ceremonial law among the Jexvs, till the promised seed was come, which was the period of its duration ? Galat. 3. 19. And is it not as high a presumption to look upon gospel institutions as null, before the time appointed for the coming of Christ to put an end to this scene of things, be fulfilled } but does not every man who looks upon this, or any other ordinance, as out of date, assume the power of abrogating, as much as in F 2 0'8 THE lord's supper. him lies, the laws of Christ? It is the obedience we owe our Lord, not to intrench upon his prerogative in the abrogation of his laws, any more than to usurp the authority of enacting any. It is enough it is his law, and while it is so, we ought to observe it, till he gives us a dismiss by giving that a repeal. All ordi- nances have their sanction and establishment from Christ's authority. The first Patriarchs, Adam and Noah, lived without circumcision, Abraham without the laws of Moses. But had God commanded the one to be circumcised, as he commanded Abraham and his posterity, and enjoined the other to observe the legal institutions, was his authority to be slighted ? Had they not been as much bound to use them as the Israelites were? God never gave power to any man to change his ordinances, or to dispense with them. The passover continued, till God superseded it by another institution. Circumcision, till God changed it into a more easy. The supper on earth must liold by Christ's autho- rity, till it be changed into the marriage supper of the Lamb, and never-fading delights in heaven. It must hold till earth be left for heaven, elements for substance and the person they represent. Who can upon a better account challenge an exemption from the observance of positive institutions than our Saviour, who had no need of them ? Yet how observant was lie of them, because they were established by divine authority : so that he calls his submitting to be bap- tized of John di. fuljUling of righteousness, Mat. 3. 15. If therefore we do acknowledge that Christ is come, and that he will come again, and believingly look for this coming of Christ, we ought to acknow- ledge it by such testimonies as he hath appointed. 4. The covenant is perpetual, and therejore the seals are perpetual, f The covenant indeed God made with Abraham and the Israelites, was the same cove- nant, and perpetual in regard of the substance of it ; ■t Zanch. in Los. 2. 9. p. 44, 45, 4: Let a man, avO^oyiroq favTov. An f Hebraism for every man. The apostle speaks it, saith Grotius, in regard of the disorders which were in the Co- rinthian church in mattei' of discipline. Do not believe, because no censures are passed up on you, and the foundations of Government are razed up in your church, that therefore you shall escape punishment for the contempt of those mysteries. No, God re- quires a worthy receiving, and will punish an un- worthy one. So that it is an universal duty upon ever}' christian that desires to approach the Lord's table, to set upon a serious examination of his heart and life, which the excellency of the mystery in its own nature requires ; an excellent ordinance requires a peculiar preparation. Every man, not every man in the world, but eveiy man in the church; not every heathen, but every man that pretends a right to the supper. t Estius. Self -examination. Til Examine himself, doiai^ivZ^Tw. Some understand the word of an artiticial exaiuination. As goldsmiths try metals by the touchstone, to discern beiVvcen what is true gold and silver, and what is counterfeit. But it is rather to be understood of a judical trial, a trial of matter of fact, a trial of state, a trial of graces. 1 . A trial of grace, whether it be inherent or no. It is a showing the death of Christ, there must be therefore a search, whether those graces which suit the death of Christ, and answer to the ends of it, be in the subject, as repentance, fa'tii, love to God and to our neighbour ; whether there be not a legal, but evangelical worthiness and a suitableness between the master of the feast and the guest, wiiether trie heart and life agree with the precepts of Christ ; what stamp of tlie Spu'it upon the soul and conver- sation. 2. A trial of the state, wlierein those graces are. Since the supper is not worthily received, but by an exercise of repentance, faith and love ; it is necessary to inquire into the state of those graces, and tiieir vigour or langour in the soul, that thev may be excited to manifest themselves in a suitable carnage to the master of the feast, and the grandeur of the ordinance we are to attend upon. By this are excluded from this ordinance. All persons incapable of performing this antecedent duty. Either in regard of natural inability ; as children, infants, who though anciently in the times of Austin, were admitted to this ordinance, yet against the rule of the apostle ; because by reason of the imperfection of their age, they were not capable of performing this necessary duty which was to precede. As children are not the subjects recipient of the supper, because they are not risen to a suitable degree of under- standing; so neither are mad men, because they have lost that understanding they had, and the great mysteries of religion must not be exposed to contempt. 78 THE lord's supper. And in regard of a negligent inability, as ignorant persons, who neglect the means of knowledge, or improve them not to furnish themselves with a sufficient stock of knowledge to this end ; so a man grown in age may be a child in understanding, and upon the same account is as incapable as a child of this ordinance; men therefore are unfit to come without a distinct knowledge of the doctrine of the gospel. All persons who cannot find upon examination any thing of a divine stamp upon them i?i the loxiest degree. Such are all unrenewed men, who have not one bruise in their souls, nor one breath of smoke and gracious desire towards Christ in their hearts. iVnd consequently all scandalous persons in Ufe, who are as incapable by their spiritual madness and con- tracted vicious habits, as men that are mad naturally by a distemper of their brain. This trial is for the finding lit qualifications for this ordinance, n ^oKifx^v, something sound and worthy, which such persons cannot upon examination find. This command of self-examination evidences to us, 1. That a christian may come tu the hiouiedge of his state in grace : otherwise it would be wliolly fruitless to examine ourselves. If we may know by the want of saving conditions, that we are in a state of nature ; we may know by the presence of them, that we are in a state of grace. 2. No necessity oi auricular confession; to tell all the secrets of the life to a priest. So let a man eat of this bread, and drink of this cup. So, not other- wise, it is a hedge planted against every intrusion so not without examination, and a fitness upon it. It is not an ordinance appointed for every man. There is a manifest distinction between persons capable of the word, and capable of the supper. Preaching is to be to every creature, every rational creature, Mark \6. 15, 16. Unbelievers are capable of the word, Believers only of the supper. The one Self-examination. 79 is to bring men into the family, the other to nourish them after their entrance. If any man find himself in a state of death, let him repent, believe, resolve a new and serious life, and so let him come, not else ; for Avithout those he can receive no fruit of spiritual grace in this ordinance. So let him eat, so let him drink, f The apostle here obviates an error crept into the Romish church, the taking away the cup, a custom unknown in the purest and primitive times of Christianity. Let him eat and drink, saith the apostle ; let him eat, but not drink, saith the church of Rome. How soundly doth the Romish church accord with the primitive church ! Drink ye all of this, saith Christ, Mat. il6. 27. Let the people not touch the cup, saith Rome. How valid with them is the authority of that Christ they profess to be the Son of God, and the supreme Head of the church ! The apostle, saith Estius, commands that none should partake without exami- nation ; but doth not command that every one should drink. I answer, either it is a command, or a permission. It seems to be a command. As the apostle commands the self- trial, so he commands the end of that trial, which is drinking the cup as well as eating the bread. If he commands the trial, he commands much more the participation, because in enjoining the means, he enjoins the end. We are bound to the use of means only in order to the end of those means. If the apostle commands the eating the bread, he commands also the partaking of the cup. The word so, S^c. being grammatically to be applied to both. It would be ridiculous to think that the apostle's language was in this strain. Let a man examine himself, and if he finds himself fit for this mystery, let him choose whether he will either eat or drink. He may do one or both if he will, or he may let it t DailU Melange deg Sermons, Serm. 88. p. 587. 80 THE LORDS SUPP£R: alone if he v. ill. Who would dare to put such a sense upon tile apostle's words ? If let be a word of coni- mand in the former sentence, it is no less in the lat- ter. If therefore he commands examination as a means, he commands communion as the end ; and communion much more, since the end is nobler than the means, and the means desirable for the sake of the end. But if it be a permission of the apostle (for that it must be at least in the judgment of any man) That ever}' one finding himself fit upon a trial, may drink of the cup as well as eat of the bread ; ^vhat power on earth should deny that, which the inspired apostle, and great doctor of the Gentiles permits? AVhat Pope or councils have authority to deprive any chris- tian of that, which the founder of the Gentile church hath upon record allowed unto them ? Wliat reason can be alledged that it is not as proper for the church now, as it was for the church of the Corinthians ? It was of use many centuries after the apostles' times, and is practised in all churches but that of Rome, wherein the denial of the cup was introduced about two hundred sixty odd years ago. What a blessing do we enjoy, to be freed from the anti-christian yoke, and enjoy those privileges, which the wickedness of men would deprive us of ! Bread and cup. The doctrine of transubstantiation was not then known in the church, f The apostle calls it bread and cup three several times, ver. 26, 27, 28. Our reason, our sense, our sight, our taste in- forms us it is bread and wine. The Papists tell us against reason and sense, that it is not bread, though it have tlie colour and taste of bread, but it is really the flesh and blood of Christ ; it is changed and trans- muted into his body and blood. It is indeed a sign of the body of Christ, a memorial of his broken cru- cified body, and of his blood shed. The v.ater in Daille Melange des sermons; scnu. §8. p. 2£3, ay- lay the benefits we expect, and be as a wall of separation, between the supplies of God and the wants of our hearts. We must inquire what vio- lations there have been of the covenant we made before, and bewail them : He is not fit to renew a covenant with God, who is careless of the former breaches of it. Dust will be contracted in a house, if it be not daily swept : Our houses are swept and cleansed more solemnly before the coming of invited guests. Do we invite Christ into our souls, and shall we not examine every corner, and search out the dirt and cobwebs which may be oflensive to him? The spirit of Christ is a dove, and doves love clean places. The Jews before the passover searched every hole and chink with a candle for any leaven that might lie hid, and threw it away as a thing to he abomi- nated. Have we not much more reason to inquire what old leaven hath swelled up our souls, find it out, and manifest our hatred of it? Whether we have not stored up some new nails, new spears, new gall which may afflict our Saviour, and be as bitter to him as the crucifixion : whether any thing hath crept in to impair our affections to God? The Habitual or ace, 129 o nature of the ordinance requin^-s this inquisition. A Belial in the heart, and Christ at a banquet, have no alliance. A carelessness whether we are defiled or no, is inconsistent with this feast; and if any evil has taken possession of our minds, it may hinder our sfnritual appetite, and a hearty feeding upon Christ. Let that be the matter then of a good man's inquiry, whether he hath kept to God as his sovereign, to Christ as his Saviour, and to the Holy Ghost as his comforter : Whether grace hath attained more strength, and sin more weakness ; whether the soul be more straightly or loosely within the bond of the covenant. And indeed true grace is like the angel of God's presence, which conducted the Is- raelites to Canaan ; it will not countenance any intruding lust, or pardon any iniquity, though it will beg God's pardon for it. These two inquiries are necessary to every man that hath habitual grace and fitness for this ordinance. But, S. We should inquire whether we have habitual grace or no : Whether there be those uniting glue- ing graces, t faith and love. He that comes to the supper without faith, saith good Mr. Tindall, is like a man that thinks to quench his thirst by sucking the ale-bowl ; it is but a piece of bread we receive, with out faith; the symbol of the body of Christy without the soul and spirit of Christ ; and so we have no more advantage by the ordinance, than the Jews which crucified Christ would have had, if they had eaten of his flesh, and drunk of the blood, which then issued from his body ; or than the beasts had, which drank of the rock (which typified Christ) as well as the congregation, Numb. ^0. 11, 1 Cor. 10. 4. which had no more benefit by it, than if they had drunk of any ordinary water. There must be an inward gi'ace as well as an outwaid ordinance, to t As D. Prrston calls thcin. VOL. VII. K 130 THE lord's supper. have a spiritual benefit. Plagues come out of the tejiipk, Revel. 15. 7. great judgments from ordi- nances carelessly and sinfully used. The word is the savour of death unto some, as well as the savour of life to others. Habitual grace there must be ; a perfection of grace is not required ; . if so, then none but the inno- cent angels, and glorified saints were fit guests. The most perfect soul indeed is not too good a vessel to receive the Lord of Life ; but God requires only of us a disposition of heart, suitable to the design of the ordinance, a deep sense of our misery, a lively sorrow for our crimes, a heart embracing his Son, a strong resolution to be at enmity with sin, and at peace with God : It must be a diligent trial, as we would try metals by the fire.-^ we may easily be deceived, and think that to be the echo of the spirit, which is but the hissing of the '\ serpent, and the wliispers of satan. The great grace which we should search for, is faith. We shall lay down some signs of it. 1. Nega- tively. 2. Positively. First, 1. Negatively. 1 . Faith is not a general acceptation of Christ or profession of him. Many men's faith is built only upon human tradition, education, or the laws of a nation. Men's living in a christian commonwealth, and owning the christian religion upon a secular account, is no evidence of faith, because what is entertained upon the score of interest, will upon the change of interest, be as soon cashiered as it was embraced. The ten tribes in Solomon's time profest the legal and temple-worship; but after Jeroboam had set up the calves at Dan and Bethel, they were as superstitious in the observing of them, which is evident by the complaints of the Prophets, especially t Culverwell. The nature oj faith. 1 3 1 of Hosea throughout liis whole prophecy. They were not forced to it so much by Jeroboam, as will- ingly revolted from God, They willingli) walked after the commandment, i, e. Hos. 5. 11. after the com- mandment to worship the calves. So easily are the vulgar induced to step into the religion of authority, and make any thing a God that their rulers would have so, thou2;h it be a calf. Faith is an act of the freest choice, not a disposition which is derived by inheritance and succession, from generation to ge- neration, as it is with people who will be of the same M'ays of their fathers; but it is a free election of Christ upon a sight of his excellency. 2. Nor is it a dogmatical faith, whereby we be- lieve the truth of the scriptures, and the divine authority of them. Indeed there must be a know- ledge of Christ, what he hath done, and what he hath suffered, else there is no taking of him as God presents him. True faith is never without this know- ledge, though this knowledge and assent seems to be often without true faith. There may be a faith to believe that Christ is the Son of God, without a faith to embrace him ; there may be an ointment poured upon the head, which doth not as Aaron's, run down to the skirts of the garment, to the heart and affections. Many may assent to the truth of a proposition, that Chrisi is excellent and lovely, who never bring their will to consent to espouse him ; and by a bare knowledge, there is not an union to Christ, any more tlian by a sight and knowledge of a star there is an union with that star. Some scriptures seem to place faith in assent in the judgment of some, Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God, 1 John 4. 2. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 12. 3. The apostle John in that, gives only the note of a true teacher as to matter of doctrine, viz. if he asserts that Christ is come in the flesh, is the true Messiah, the Son of k2 132 THE lord's supper. God, and righteous. And the other place speaks of the gifts of the spirit, not of the inward grace ; the assenting to Christ that he is Lord, is a gift of the spirit by a common illumination. And indeed in that age, an assent to a new, vilified and persecuted doc- trine, was a greater testimony of faith, than the high- est external professions can be in the age wherein we live. An assent is the first step ; but if it be not an approving, efUcacious assent thatoverpowers the will, it is no more than a condemned devil may have ; Put- ting on Christ, Rom. 3. 14. Leaning upon God, Isaiah 50. 10. Believing in Christ implies more than a naked assent, which is expressed well enough by a believing God or a believing Christ. 3. Nor is it a temporary joy in the doctrine of the gospel, that is true faith. This is higher than the former : the other being a glow-worm light in the understanding, and this a tlashy heat in the affections, and a joy in the matter revealed. Mat. 13. 20. The seed that was received into stony places, was receited with joy. Which may be occasioned by the novelty of a thing, the suitableness of it to some interest or carnal affection upon some present necessity. Such have been seen to revolt again. It is as a man's taking a servant whom he puts off again : or as the sending for a physician in a present fit, and rejoicing at his coming, and putting him off, after some ease, when the distemper is removed. 4. Nor is it a presumptuous persuasion of a secure and happy state. Many men's faith is a mere pre- sumption. They take it for granted, tiiat they have faith, feed themselves with an empty conceit, with- out making an exact scrutiny, and bringing it to the touchstone of the word, to try whether it be faith of the right kind. If faith Avere a persuasion of a man's salvation, then all that have not this persuasion are not believers, and then many a gracious pilgrim in this world, who iiath lived many years without it, or with a few glimmerings of hope, would be excluded The evidence of faith. 133 from that rank wherein he stands in the account of God. If it were only a persuasion, none of the child- ren of the /cingdo?n (iis Christ calls them Mat. 8. 12. those that live within the pale of the church) can be cast into utter darkness. For the command of belie\'ing would be no more than a commanding a man to be persuaded that his sins are pardoned, which would be the easiest thing in the world to a carnal heart. And God would command an untruth con- trary to his word, if he commanded us to believe that our sins are pardoned before we have those qualihca- tions, which are by the word requisite to the passing a pardoia to us. Faith is not an assurance, much less a common persuasion. Faith is our victory, assurance the tri- umph ; faith is an act of the whole soul, assurance of the mind only : faith consists in a direct act, assurance in a reflex act. Faith is not a proud persuasion ; for then one in arms against his creator mig;ht be saved in that state with his presumptuous confidence, as ■well as that soul that lies clasping the promises, and embracing the precepts. But secondly, Positively true faith may be eviden- ced. 1. In regard of the object. (1.) It is a taking Christ. The act of faith on Christ is as a marriao;e act. Marriage is an act between person and person, My beloved is mine, and I am his, Cant. 1. 15. The union between the soul and Christ is a spiritual union of persons, as in marriage, to which it is compared, Hos. 3. 3. The benefits by Christ are consequent upon it, as the estate follows marriage. The person of Christ is the object of faith, the promise is the encouragement to faith. (2.) Taking Christ as Christ : As appointed and anointed by God. As coming out from God, John 16. 27. Ye believe that I came out from God. Faith stands by the cross of Christ, beholds him bruised by 134 THE lord's supper. the Father for sin, and ventures upon Christ, because the Father hath set him out as a propitiation. If Christ be made sin for us, we must receive Christ as one that takes our sins uj)on him from the date of the covenant between God and him concerning redemption : As the saints of old looked upon him as taking sin upon him, and then slain, which was set forth in their sacrifices, laying their sins upon the head of the beast before it was slain, and in the scape-goat, whereon their transgressions were put, bejore he was sent into the zvilderness, Levit. 16. 21. This is one of the principal things faith doth eye; for what warrant, what comfort, what encouragement to accept of Christ, were it not for this, that the offended God hath appointed him the redeemer, and his death the way of restoration ? (3.) Taking Christ entirely, and that upon his own terms. To cleave to the cross and bear his yoke, as a prince and as a Saviour, taking him as God hath exalted him. Acts 5. 31. Where Christ saves as a Priest, he rules as a Lord, and directs as a prophet. We are exposed to wrath by the guilt of sin; Christ is a Priest to expiate it : we are captives to the power of sin; Christ is a king to subdue it: we are ignorant both of our misery and remedy ; Christ is a prophet to dispel the fogs of our ignorance. If we will be under the power of sin, we must be under the guilt of sin ; if we will keep our sins, Christ will keep his blood, and be no Saviour to them, that will be ser- vants to their lusts. In the work of faith, the soul feels the guilt of sin to burthen it, and accepts Christ to satisfy for it. It sees the defilement of sin that grieves it, and accepts Christ to purge it. It is sen- sible of armies of sin which over-run it, and fresh recruits from indwelHng corruption, and accepts Christ to conquer them ; and such a faith gives glory to God ; for by receiving Christ to satisfy for the guilt, it owns the justice of God which hath been provoked; by complying with the directions of Christ for walking The etidence of faith. 135 in the ways of God, it honours the holiness of God, which it iiad before vihtied ; by bringing all the cor- ruptions to be subdued by the royal authority of Christ, it acknowledges the power and sovereignty of God, against which it had before rebelled. Faith accepts Christ upon his own terms. 1 . To serve him. Faith eyes Christ as dying, and eyes the end of Christ's dying. What was Christ's end in dying, must be our end in receiving him. The great end was to redeem a people to himself, i. e. to his service, a people zealous of good works, Titus 2. 14. not only to do good works, but perform them with a zeal for the Redeemer. Faith hath always a holy ingenuity. To pay a service to him that hath paid the ransom, ana lay out its strength for him, from whom it hath received the mercy ; to own no other Lord but him, from whom it hath received the soul, the life, and all that it hath and hopes for. Faith takes Christ for a Lord, not to change him or barter him away for any other master, to perform the duties required, as well as to enjoy the dignities oftered. 2. To be saved by him. Many men would take Christ as a Saviour, but not upon his own terms, they would join something else with him, they would have Christ and salvation, but in their own way, that some glory may be ascribed to their endeavours, to the works of the law done by them : but faith is a willing- ness to be saved in Christ s way, merely by his grace. Faith is the band of marriage on our parts, marriage is but to one ; since nothing is so excellent as Christ, he will have no rival. The bed of Christ must be kept undeiiled. True faith which works by love, is so ingenuous, that it will never rob Christ of the ho- nour he paid so dear for, and thereby own him but as an half and imperfect Saviour. It will not stand before God by any other claim than that of Christ. 4. Taking Christ's righteousness is the formal act of it. Faith puts a value upon the righteousness of Christ, and after a deep sense of sin, sings in a tri- 136 THE lord's supper. umphant manner, In the Lord haxe I righteousness and strength. Isaiah 45. 24. This righteousness is entertained by true faith, because by it, the God whom the soul entirely loves, is exalted in all his attributes; saving faith xvorlis by love to Gody Gal. 5. 6. and therefore it is as deeply sensible of sii), because , it offends God ; so it cheerfully accepts the righteous- ness of Christ, because it is acceptable and delightful to God. Love to God operates in every act of faith : for since faith brings us to God, it brings us to affect that God ; and it is as impossible faith can act without love, as that a man can work without hands. The apostle, Phil. 3. 9. desires to be found in that righte- ousness, zvhich is through the Jaith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, values the righteousness of Christ, because it was the righte- ousness of God by faith ; so that this righteousness of Christ, is entertained by a true believer, because it is a righteousness which doth infinitely please God. As in the pleadings of this righteousness for itself, it useth the pleasure of God as an argument, so in the acceptance of it, it eyes it as a motive. And were there any thing in the world, that a believing soul could think it should honour God more, or please God better in, than in relying on Christ, it would do that. All true grace levels the intentions to the glory and delight of God. 2. Consider it in regard of the adjuncts of it. (1.) It is a mourning and penitent faith. The srongest faith is so. The stronger the faith, the deeper the sense of sin, Paul cries sorrowfully out, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? After he had closed with Christ by faith. It is the work of faith to keep alive upon the heart the sense of the guilt, and the evil of sin, to make the soul have vile thoughts of itself, and high thoughts of its deliverer. When the law of faith is in the heart, the heart of stone is turned into a heart of flesh, and the lion like disposition becomes lamb- The evidence of faith. 137 like, and as a child before God. The horror of con- science is removed by the sunshine of faith ; but the sense of the guilt and evil of sin is increased by the light of it. Abraham had the strongest faith and the deepest humility. How self-abasingly doth he plead vvitli God for Sodom's safety, and receive the promise from God with liis mouth in the dust, Atid Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him^ Gen. 17. 3. And is it not impossible for any believing soul to reflect upon the agonies, wounds, and dying groans of Christ, and his own vileness and sin for which Christ did undergo them, and not be filled with a godly sorrow and self-abhorrency ? A proud faith is as great a contradiction as an humble devil. (2.) It is joined with a high esteem and valuation of Christ. The soul prefers him in the mind and judgment above any thing that can pretend a claim to its affection ; it sets such a rate upon him, that all the treasures of heaven and earth cannot work it out of that esteem, To you which believe, he is preciotiSy 1 Pet. 2. 7. But how precious, the tongue of an apostle, no not of an angel, can express. So precious he is, that the promises of angels, the threatenings of devils, the allurements of the world, the pleasures of sin, yea and the hopes of enjoying ten thousand worlds, shall never persuade him to part with Christ. Alas ! there is no loss dejects him so much as his absence, no purchase delights him so much as his presence. The weakest faith can appeal to Christ, Lord, thou knour.st that I love thee, would love thee, grieve that I can love thee no more. Faith and love are the two uniting graces, and therefore cannot be separated. To an unbeliever he is without beauty and comeliness, nothing desirable in him; to others he is a pearl of great price, the head of the corner. Faith only sees the worth of Christ. It is joined also with high admiration of God for Christ, astonishment at the riches of grace, and treasures of 138 THE lord's supper. love. It works by love ; it makes use of this affec- tion to carry out all its services to God with thank- fulness. The love of God is as a law within the heart of faith, which makes it return to God as well as receive from him ; and it can receive nothing without glorifying the donor. (3.) It is accompanied with holiness ; it is there- fore called a holy faith, Jiide 20. It must have holiness as a concomitant, though not holiness as an ingi'edient in the justifying act. Faith engrafts the soul into Christ, the root of holiness, and it draws from him sap for holiness. Our implanting into Christ, is rather to make us fruitful, than to make us joyful. Actions follow life, and actions of the same kind with that life which the creature hath ; as vegetative life produceth vegetative actions, sensitive life sensitive actions, a rational life rational actions ; so a spiritual believing life, spiritual and believing actions. Faith is not a name, a picture, but a real principle : It is a working grace, and therefore obedience is called Me obedience oj faith, Heb. 11.8. Faith doth not only change a man's state, but alters his nature ; hence we are said to be purified by faith. Acts, 26. 18. As it goes forth to Christ, it is justifying ; as it bathes itself in the blood of Christ, it is sanctifying. Education may wash the feet, but faith only washes the heart. As we were in Adam, members of that corrupt root, we partake of his guilt and of his depravity. Being united to Christ, the second Adam, we partake of his righteousness and his fulness. It is a counterfeit faith which pretends to partake of the righteousness of Christ without a communication of the fulness of his grace. True faith employs the power of Christ in the subduing of sin. It is a fruit of the spirit, and the spirit does not produce one fruit without the rest. It is the root grace, the root is dead if it have no branches, no fruit. Faith is seated in the heart, and spreads itself to the whole The production oj faith. 139 man and all the actions, as lines from the centre. It begins in the understanding, but hath its perfection in the will, descends to the affections ; sends, like the soul, its influences out through the whole man. Though it be weak, it will have its motion. If it cannot go to heaven, it will cry to heaven. The remark Christ makes of Paul, an infant-believer, is, Bthold he cries, Acts 9. 11- As if he did not pray before in the times of his infidelity. His prayer now was of another colour and temper from his self- righteous, formal, cold praying before. (4.) It is attended with growth. It is still climbing, and cannot get high enough till it end in vision. True faith is always joined with prayer against unbelief. It increaseth in its acts, and in the fre- quency and vigour of them. It first sucks the breast, and afterwards can chew the manna; it is looking much and often upon Christ. It is at first accompanied with tremblings ; it may be God may hear me and supply me ; afterwards it comes more boldly, and loves to look Christ in the face, f And there is a growth in all graces proportionable ; for where there is life, all the members grow, the head doth not grow in knowledge, and the heart decay in love. 3. Consider it in the manner how it is wrought. The word works faith and preserves faith, and faith improves the word. It is not a gourd which grows up in a night, there is much tugging to persuade the soul to venture upon Christ. Great power would not create a world in a moment, but took time; great power doth not produce faith in an instant; there are preparations and conflicts before the hand of faith lays hold on a Saviour : And it may be said, as Isaac to his son, If this be venison, how camest thou by it so quickly ? If this be faith, how camest thou by it so suddenly, without much travail and •t Dr. Reynolds. 140 THE LORDS SUPPER. hard labour ? The word is the seed, the spirit the Bun that quickens it. By the word the spirit dis- covers the vileness of a man's nature, the sinfulness of sin, the fulness of Christ, and the freeness of his righteousness. By the word, the spirit opens our eyes to see our nakedness and misery ; the word pro- claims the articles of peace, silenceth our reasonings, answers our objections, stops the mouth of a cavilling sinner, justifies the terms upon which Christ doth offer himself. It is not a birth of nature, but by the operation of the Holy Spirit. That Spirit that con- ceived Christ in the womb of the virgin, doth pro- duce faith in the soul ; so that faith and Christ are produced by the same spirit, by the same power, by the spirit that conceived him, by the power that raised him from the dead. As there is a necessity of faith in the habit, so there is a necessity of the acting of faith in this ordinance. God will have our recovery in a way contrary to that of our fault; the fall was by believing the devil rather than God ; and God will have our recovery by believing God rather than the devil. By the ordination of God, there is as great a necessity of faith to partake of Christ at a sacra- ment, as there is of Christ to make a sacrament beneficial to us. (1.) Faith is of absolute necessity to legeneration, and only regenerate ones have a right to this ordin- ance. Faith is a radical vital grace ; as blood in the veins is to the body, so is faith to the soul. No regeneration without the spirit, and faith is the first grace the spirit infuseth ; no regeneration without the blood of Christ, and faith is the hyssop which sprin- kles that blood upon our souls. Faith engrafts us into Christ, whereas before we grew upon a dead stock; it is from Christ, who is life, that life is derived to us, and that by faith, Hive by the faith of the son of God, Galat. 2. 20. "We have no right to the ordinance till we have faith ; this only makes us The necessity ofjalth, 141 members of God's family. Till we are his children, we iiave nothing to do with his table ; they are as dead carcases that want faith, and what should they do with food. (2.) In all worship, faith is to be acted, much more in this. As in worldly actions we stir up the faculties of our souls, and the members of our bodies ; so in acts of worship we must stir up the graces of the Spirit. Faith must mix itself with every duty ; whatsoever is not of jaith, is sin, Rom. 14. 23. It comes from corrupt nature, or lefined nature, not from renewed and changed nature ; so instead of a welcome, we can expect to be entertained only with cloudy looks. To come to this ordinance without faith, is to draw water without a bucket, to work without tools, and to go to market without money. There is need of faith to give us admission into God's presence, HeO. 10. 22. There is need of faith to give us acceptance. (3.) Faith is the condition of the covenant of grace, the seal on our part, as the sacrament is on God's part. No other grace hath God culled out to make tiie condition of the new covenant, and indeed no other grace hath such a congruity and suitable- ness to that end, as this. When two parties are fallen out, there can be no iirm peace without mutual consent. God gives his consent by offering his Son, and sacraments as a seal ; we give our con sent by faith only, whereby we own, approve of, and lay hold on the mercy set before us. Tliere is no benefit by any thing in the world, but by accepting and receiving. The altar is a sanctuary, but men must lay hold on the horns of it. There are cities of refuge for some sort of malefactors, but they must run to them. God sets forth Christ as a propitiation, as a treasure of mercy ; there can then be no renewing the covenant, unless as God on the one hand reacheth out his mercy, so we on the other hand put forth our hearts to receive it. 142 THE lord's supper. (4.) Christ in this ordinance is represented as the object of faith. The serpent, as lifted up, was the object of the Israelites' sight, and upon that they were to expect healing from it ; so Christ as dying is the primary and immediate object of faith ; And being here represented as dying, it is not a naked representation, but that we may exercise faith upon him under that notion. It is not Christ as glorious, but as crucified, is the object of faith ; for as glorious, he is rather the object of love : but the formolis ratio of justification is Christ, as taking upon him the form of a servant, and becoming obedient to death upon the cross. In this sacrament Christ is represented as offering himself to God, and God offering that Christ to us. Christ's payment in performing the righteousness whereby we are justified, and God's accepting and imputing it to us. Christ's dying was intended by God as the object of faith, when he set him out upon the cross, Rom. 3. 25. And now he sets him out in the sacrament, there is the same rea- son for faith : and he is here represented more fami- liarly to our faith than the person of the Father, than the person of tlie Son of God in heaven, that we may have more distinct thoughts and apprehensions of him in all the business he did transact between the Father and us, which are the fuel to our faith. As he was set out in sacrifices under the Old Testa- ment, that those that then lived, might exercise their faith in the promised Messiah ; so in the sacraments of the New Testament, that we may exercise our faith in the exhibited JNIessiah. 143 PART IV. THE NECESSITY OF SORROW FOR SIN, AND LOVE TO GOD. JVhat the ordinance of tlie Lord's supper requires — A right state and frame oj heart — The propoted ends of the ordinance — hicrease of grace — Com- Jort — The origin of God i^ soj^roiv — Subjects of it — Its adjuncts — Necessity of love to God — Particu- larly in this ordinance — The fountain of happiness — Appropriation of Clirist — E.vcellence of God's love — The e.rercise of other graces depend upon love — Not to judge our state by a general love — By education — By temporary affections — Motive and objects of affection to be considered — The nature of our love — Its effects - Jfe must e.vamine our love to the saints — II hat constitutes genuine love — E.ramination and exercise of desire. HE second grace upon which we must examine ourselves, and which must be exercised in the ordi- nance of the Lord's supper, is sorrow Jor sin. This is necessary to the supper. The way to an heavenly repast, as well as the way to heavenly man- sions, is through the valley of Baca. 144 THE lord's supper. II. It is necessary to that which is required to the supper. It is necessary to every duty, all approaches to God without it are but impudent rushings into his presence ; repentance is Sanguis anima, the blood of the soul. As no sacrifice was pleasing under the law without blood, so no service under the gospel is pleas- ing without this. Nay, it is the soul of all the rest ; hence a broken heart is said to be above all sacrifices, Thou desireth not sacrifice, else xcould I give it, thou delightest not In burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Psal. 5\. 16, 17. God had appointed no sacrifice for presuniptuous sins, but brokenness and contrition was of force. We perform duties most lively, when a sense of sin is kept alive upon our hearts. The viler thoughts we have of ouj:- selves, the higher thoughts we have of God. There is nothing so much honours God in duties as an humble address. But in this it is very necessary, that we may with a broken frame suit God's appre- hensions of sin in the punishment of his Son, and Christ's apprehensions of it, when he breathed out his dying groans. To be hard and insensible then, is a sad sign of a distempered heart. The blood of our souls ought in a way of gratitude to be bestowed upon him, who hath bestowed upon us the blood of his body. As Mary washed the feet of Christ, as a preparation to his death, we ought to do the like in a preparation to the showing forth of his death. 1. It is necessary to that state and frame of heart, which every person ought to be in. Faith indeed is the condition of the new covenant ; but repentance is a necessary ingredient; faith and brokenness join hands together in their beings and exercises. The matter of the new creation is a heart of tlesh, which cannot be without a tenderness in the concerns of God's honour. The new nature cannot be without new affection, and a change of old sympathies into nev/ antipathies. An insensible soul hath no spiritual life, a living member will feel pain. It is necessarv to Exercise and increase of grace. 1 45 strong breathings after God; the humblest souls have the quickest tliglits heaven- ward. 'J'he fowls were created at first out of the neater, Gen. 1. 20. so are our winged desires from a Hood of lioly sorro^v. It is necessary to the ends of this ordinance. (1.) Exercise and increase erf grace. One end is to break the soul and tlie sin, and therefore there should be a preparation by repentance for such an end. If the soul be well heated before, a look of a dying Christ in the supper wiU melt it, and set the metal a running. There is in this ordinance the love and justice of God represented, folded in one another's arms; the strength of them single will do much, much more united. If we have not then a disposition to melt, we shall be more hardened, as things are by the sun, that have no inclination in their nature to be sof- tened. The end of this ordinance is to wound and slay sin by the power of Christ's death ; and sin mourned for, lies more naked to the stroke, than when it is folded and sheltered in our affections. We come to have clearer and deeper impressions from God ; and softened wax receives clearer and dee]:)er stamps than that which is hard. Every grace receives a fresh verdure by a stream of repentance; the fruit- fullest meadows have constant streams running through them. God s end is to represent to us the bitterness of sin, as well as his love in Christ, and indeed Avithout a sense of the former we cannot have a right estimate of the latter. What God aimed at in the death of Christ, he aimed at in the represen- tation of it to us; and a part of our worthy receiving consists in our having suitable affections to Christ; and we cannot be affected Avith his sufferings, unless we understand the gall and wormwood in iniquity. The bitterness of sin makes us taste the sweetness of pardon ; mercy would be too cheap, if given to an impenitent soul. While the taste of sin, the onions of Egypt, is in the heart, it Avill not relish the clusters of Canaan. We should have a suitableness to our VOL. VII. L 146 THE lord's supper. master. Christ is here represented as a maia of sor- rows, as one that with prayers, tears, and strong cries obtained an answer, and with blood obtained redemp- tion ; it is not fit we should be strangers to our master's temper and disposition, and hug the spear in our souls that pierced his heart. (2.) Comfort is another end, and communications of the love of God. And this is not to be had with- out repentance. The dejected humble Publican meets with God sooner in the temple, than the flou- rishing Pharisee that rushed in. The sun refresheth the earth when it is softened by ram, but otherwise doth parch and scorch it. God will not smile upon persons hugging their sins at a sacrament. The wine of consolation is reserved by God for drooping spirits. Job must abhor himself in dust and ashes before God will receive him, Job 42. 6. Though he is as will- ing as able to revive the spirit, yet not till it be hum- ble, Isai. 57. 15, 17. The fatted calf is not slain, nor to be eaten, till the prodigal be penitent. The lowest apprehensions of a man's self are accompanied with the highest revelations : IMoses and Paul were humble ; the one a mourner for his own and the sins of the people, the other a great self-accuser, and both had the highest communications. Mary was bathed in tears, when she heard that comfortable voice, Thi/ si?is be forgvcen thee, Luke 7. 48. Dark colours are the best ground for gilding. If we therefore have a slight humiliation, only a little pang of sorrow, we may meet with a wound instead of a healing remedy, and instead of balm be put upon a rack. We must cry Peccavi, before God will return an Euge. The soul that is most humble, hath the first sight of God at the supper. It will make us prize comfort. That soul that thinks itself a dog, will be sure to value a crumb. Repentance makes us have low^ thoughts of ourselves and our own deserts, and high admirations of Christ. When such an one meets with spiritual comforts at a supper, The origin of godli/ sorrow. 147 what wondering will there be ? That I that did not deserve a smile, should have an embrace; I that did not deserve a drop, should lose myself in an ocean ! Oh that I that deserved to be damned with a wit- ness, should meet with a seal of his love ; that for thd flames of hell, he should give me the clusters of heaven ! A deep sense of sin is the most powerful rhetoric to prevail with God. He would deny Abraham nothing, when he prefaced his intercession for Sodom with, I am dust and ashes, Gen. 18. 27- The comforts of Christ's blood are not dropt into, nor can they enter into a heart that cannot weep and bleed for sin. Since repentance is necessary, let us examine our- selves what of this grace there is in us. 1. What is the spring of our sorrow? Whether it be ingenuous, from a sense of wliat we ha\"e received from God, as well as what we have deserved at his hands. Whether it is a scorched sorrow from a sense of the fire of justice, or a melting sorrow from the kindly heat of mercy. The father's kind recep- ,tion, made his prodigal son's icy heart thaw the faster ; 1 have sinned against hearen, and hejore thee, Luke 15. 18. The prodigal is the emblem of the Gentiles, and their call to God and repentance towards him, which must be, because they have displeased him. Without a true spring, our cries and groans are of as little value, as the howling of wild beasts in a toil. It is then right, when it hath such a temper as the prodigal, I have offended a kind and loving father, wasted his goods, resisted his spirit, listed mvself in the service of the devil ; this father I have contemned, a bountiful hand I have kicked at, a heaven bespangled with stars of mercy I have turned my back upon. We may weep at the stoiy of Christ's passion, Avhen we are not really affected with our sin, the cause of his sufferings, and th^ displeasure of God. Our sorrow is right, when it is not merely for sin, as it is contrary to our happiness, but as con- l2 148 THE lord's supper. trary to God's holiness. This is a conformity to Christ, who mourned for the sins of men, as well as suffered for them, and mourned for them, not because he suffered for them, but because God Avas injured by them. There was not a grain of malice and ingratitude in sin but he understood ; he had also a clear conception of the holiness of that God, who was offended and injured by sin, and from those two parts of knowledge, joined with an ardent love to his father, and charity to man, he could not but have the m.ost enlarged sorrow for sin, and the highest detestation of it, both as it displeased God, and as it ruined the creature. 2. What is the subject of the sorrow ? Is it the sin of nature ? do we judge that the greatest sin, and not regard it, as the common people do the stars, imagining them no bigger than a candle, when they are of a vast bigness ? To bewail outward sins, and not that of our nature, is to have a philosophical frame of spirit, not that of a christian. Does the body of death draw from us the loudest groans ? Do we lay the axe to the root of sin, or are we mightily busied in lopping off the branches, without a regard of the root ? Are inward and spiritual sins the subject of our grief? Can we mourn as deeply for those sins, that none but God and our own consciences know, as for those which are visible to the eye of man ? Does our hardness of heart, formality, remainders of hypocrisy, and unbelief most afflict us ? Is our grief for all sins, and especially for that which hath been the master sin ? Do we oppose that which we have the greatest temptations to, as David had to the killing of Saul, which would have helped him to a crown, w hich therefore he calls his iniquity, Ps. 18. 23, 24. f Would we have the greatest Dalilah no more spared, than the smallest brat of Babylon ? And is the enmity so great, that t Muse. The adjuncts of godly sorrow. 1 4.9 ■we would destroy the power and strength of sin, which lies in that master iniquity? Do we stop our ears against the strongest pleas it makes for itself, and wish as much its death, as we do our lives? This is a testimony of repentance. Do we hate txiery sin because it is a falseness to God ? Psal. 119. 104. 3. What are the adjuncts of the grief? Is it in some measure proportionable to our sin, proportion- able not to the law, but to the gospel ? The first cannot be attained by us, because the injury done to God is infinite. What we cannot attain in the act, we should endeavour to attain in atfection ; where the sin is great, great must be the sorrow, They drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, 1 Sam. 7. 6. which some understand of the tears of the people. To drink in sin like water, and only to drop grief, will not agree. Is our sorrow permanent? Is it a true grief, or only a pang ? Like heat drops, or a rolling cloud, that goes away and never returns again ? Is our sin like David's, ever before us ? Psal. 51, 3. Have not many, a slight kind of sorrow, sprung up only by the seriousness and solemnity of tlie ordinance; a seeming falling out with sin, but a quick reconciliation, and receiving it into a stronger favour than before? Transitory affections are too frequent ; \v-e find the Israelites in the temple weeping and lamenting, fasting and praying because of their idolatries and false dealings with God, and shortly after returning to the commission of the idolatry they had bewailed. True repentance is always accom- panied with a detestation and a revenge, 2 Cor. 7. 11 . which is indignation, as a furnace heated seven times hotter, not a faint and a dying kind of anger. Is the league between sin and the soul broken? As God seals in this supper a covenant of grace, we should be prepared to seal a counterpart of duty. As God is ready to seal a pardon, not to remember our sins to condemn us; we should be ready to sign a 150 THE lord's supper. bill of divorce to sin, not to remember sin to commit it. Thirdly. Love to God is another grace we are to examine ourselves about. There is a necessity of this. Spiritual affections to God are required in all duties^ hut much more in this. The highest representation of a loving Saviour suffering;, ought to have a suitable return of affection. Duties are regarded, not by the multitude (for hypocrites may be much in doing) but by the affection ; sincere persons are only much in loving. All that God requires of us, is summed up into this grace, love, IVhat doth i/ie Lord thy God require of thee, but to love him and ser^ce him ? Deut. 10. 12. INIen may delight to pray from a natural eloquence, which is (if I may use the expression) but as the trimming of a mangy sacrifice ; and delight to hear with such a kind of affection as they w^ould a lovely song ; but every duty ought to be kindled and inflamed by the fire of love to God ; and a mite of service with this, is better than a talent without it This expels weariness in our duties, and makes God's injunctions our songs, Psal. 119- 54. And I observe in the next place that the object proposed in this ordinance, requires the strongest actings of affection. 1. Christ is here represented as the cause of our happiness, in the foundation of the benefits we enjoy, viz. his humiliation, death and passion. Here is Christ undertaking our salvation upon the hardest terms, here are the arms of the Son of God open upon the cross, the spear reaching his heart, with his affections streaming out to us in blood, when we w^ere his enemies, and had not a grain of affection to him ; and is it not fit we should be prepared to cry out with holy ravishments of affection, ivorthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive honour and glory ? This affection must needs be due to him, who reversed the sentence of our condemnation, made our E.vcelknce qf Gocf s lore. 151 peace, and bore our curse, had his hands nailed, his head pricked, his side pierced, his heart grieved, that by those marks we might be induced to love him. Who can challenge our affections, if he cannot, who undertook our recovery, when there was but a step between us and eternal death ? And how can we act such an affection, if we be not possessed with it? 2. Christ as appropriated to us in a way of loiion, is here set forth. Union to him, communion with him, both depend upon love in each party. A\"hat can express a nearer union of Christ to the soul, than to feed upon him, eat his flesh, and drink his blood. Thus to have him incorporated with us. This is as the breaking of a ring, the renewing of a contract betwen Christ and our souls, a prologue to the great solemnization of the nuptials to all eternity. Hence the entertainment Christ makes his people, is set out under the notion of a icedd'mg supper, IVlat. 22. 3. And being thus joined unto Christ, zee are one body, yea, one spirit with him, 1 Cor. 6. 17. Now as there can be no mystical union with Christ without faith, so there can be no moral union with him without love. With what violence can we run to him, how can we be f glued to him without this affection ? As Christ in this ordinance makes over himself to the believer to be his in love, so the believer must make over himself to Christ, to be his in all service, affection, and obedience. 3. The excellency of God's love in Christ is here represented. Here is God bringing his son from heaven to earth, from the earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, making his wrath find a passage to Christ's heart instead of ours, pouring out his blood to keep us from bleeding, and listening to the pleas of this blood in heaven, to answer the pleas of sin against us ; this being the highest elevation of 152 THE lord's supper. the love of God, was intended to draw out our love to him. Love therefore must be answered with love, not with enmity or a cold affection, we else run counter to the design of God. 4. All the promises are shewn to us in it sealed. All the promises of God bound up in the covenant of grace, are here confirmed and ratified. And is not this a time for the love of the soul to work ? Again, the graces to be exercised in this ordinance depend much upon love. Love is the spring of the soul A\hich moves every grace, and therefore it is called the fuljill'ing of the law. Faith hath no operation but by love, Galat. 5. 6. Faitli and love are united as well as uniting graces, faith is the hand, but love is as the spirits which move it. And as faith and love in the habit, so in the operations they are inseparable ; we must cleave to Christ, and be cemented to him by faith, but love must strength- en the hand ; the more we love, the faster we hold. Faith is not sincere, but when it testifies itself by the operations of love. True repentance flows from love. Mary's tears were most free, when her love was most hot. The more inflamed our love to God is, the stronger will be our hatred of sin, as that which is contrary to him ; the sweeter the remem- brance of Christ is to our affections, the more bitter is the remembrance of any offence against him ; and indeed without it, we may see the print of the nails, and put our fingers into tiis wounds Avithout any re- morse. Delight in Christ cannot be without it. Christ cannot be much in our thoughts, till he comes to lie nearest our hearts, and will never be our de- light, till he be our beloved. We cannot have high and raised thoughts of him, which are necessary for a transformation into his glory, without this : strange imaginations will intrude themselves and be welcome guests, unless this grace stand at the door to thrust them away. We cannot burn in our converses with God, unless this grace Other graces depend upon love. 153 set us on fire : nor can we have any heaveaiiness in this duty ; for it is by this affection that v.e have our conversation in heaven in any service. Nor can we have a strong appetite to Christ in a sacrament with- out it; the stronger the appreliension of and affection to any good, the more importunate will be our longings for it, and the quicker our motions to it, and the less can the soul brook any distance between that good and itself. To this I add, The 7uiti(re of the ordinance requires the exercise of love. It is an heavenly banquet and requires an heavenly frame. As love is the greatest grace in heaven, so it ought to be highly operative here. It presents us with God's love to us, and therefore calls for a suitable return from us. The heathens observed a suitable- ness in their sacrifices to the idols they worshipped. They would not offer a slow-paced creature to the sun, but an horse, because of the quick motion of that creature. God here wills the greatest good to us, and shall not we will the greatest good to God ? An enlarged God should make an enlarged heart. Nothing is more becoming, than that love should be recompensed with love, f Finally, No benefit can be by a sacrament without this grace. Communion with God is entailed upon it. He that loves me, shall be beloved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him, John 14. 21, 23. Not that our love precedes the love of God in the first efflux of it, but the degrees and acts of our love, kindled at first by the love of God, are rewarded with greater declarations of his love. Where love is acted to God, there both the Father and Son will combine together for such a soul's satisfaction, they will come and dwell there by the spirit in a more close, familiar, and strict communion t Nihil decentius quam ut amor amnre compensetur. 154 THE lord's supper. and more certain possession. Where there are the actings of love, though there should be no sense of any new income, this grace would bring a satis- faction in the very exercise. Now for the trial of this love. 1. Let us not judge ourselves by a general love. As there is a general love of God to man, a general love of Christ to mankind in dying and giving a conditional grant of salvation upon faith and repen- tance, and a particular love to the soul of a believer; so likeM'ise in man there is a general assent, and a particular serious assent to the truth of God ; and accordingly a general love upon the apprehensions of what Christ hath done in general. There is a com- mon love to God, which may be so called, because the benefits enjoyed by men are owned as coming from that fountain ; a love, arising from the appre- hensions which men commonly have of the goodness of God in himself; and a common love wrought in them to God, as to other things that are good. Again, men may have a false faith, and a false appre- hension of pardon of sin, when indeed no such pardon is granted to them ; so they may have pro- portionably, a false love upon such an ungrounded belief. 2. Nor let us judge ourselves to be lovers of God, because of our education. Many have no higher reason of their love to Christ, but because their forefathers professed him, and so upon the same score that any heathen loved his idol, an Egyptian his Apis and onions, or a Turk his Mahomet, or a Papist his images, do many titular Christians love Christ. As among the Papists many cleave to the popish principles, because their fathers did so ; so among us, many have no other reason of their ad- hering to the christian profession, and seeming affection to Christ, but the tradition handed to them by their parents. Motives and object of love. 155 3. Nor let us judge ourselves by any passionate Jits of love, which may sometimes stir in our souls. There is a love in the seni>itive part, Avhich is tlie passion of love, a love rather stumbled on than judicially talven up ; and those violent kinds of affections, whether of love, joy or sorrow, are not long-lived. But tliere is a love in the will, which is a rational love, which consists in a consenting to and chusing of Christ, and is always accompanied with a true faith. But let us examine. The motives and object of our affection. Do we love God for himself, or for his benefits ? To love Christ for the loaves, is common to the multitude. To love God for his outward mercies, is a natural love : to love him for himself, is a gracious love. To love him for his benefits, is rather to love ourselves, and love our own ends, than to love God. When the inducements to it are human, and not divine, it is a human, and not a divine love. Many love Christ's dowry, but not his beauty, his merit, but not his person ; as in marriages, many love the portion without affecting the person. True love is between person and per- son, not between person and estate ; that is a time moral love, the other is a true physical love, but is defective in the due rounds and ends of it. Not but there is and may be a love of what God hath and promises, and the benefits he confers ; this is a love of the reward. But when we love God m.erely for this, it is then amor mercenarius : when we love God for himself, and the reward in order to him, it is a genuine love, it respects other things for God, and God for himsef. True love is grounded upon a sight of God, a serious and deep consideration of him, comparing him with other things, viewing; those unmeasurable excellencies which are in him, upon which the soul doth judiciously conclude. That there is infinitely more sweetness and amiableness in God and Christy ]56 THE lord's supper. than in all the pleasures and profits of this world. Thus the spouse compares he?' beloved with other beloveds, Cant. 5. 9, 10. She considers what the world affords, and wherewith it allures, and after a diligent inquisition, the object of her love is Christ's person, the motive of her love is Christ's excellency; and such a love will embrace a crucified as well as a glorified Christ ; a condemned, as well as an adored Christ. Where God is loved for himself, every thing of God is highly valued, his word, his ways, his ordinances. Christ in his whole latitude is be- loved, in all his offices. In his death as a sacrifice, in his life as a pattern ; the power of his death, as well as the propitiation by it. And let us consider further, What is the nature of our love ? 1. In regard of the prevalency of it. Do we love Christ solely, supremely; doth this affection swallow up all other affections ; as Moses's rod turned into a serpent, did the rods of the Egyptian magicians ? Doth it like the sun, obscure the light of the lesser stars ? As God is the chief good in himself, he must be so in our esteem. A true conjugal affection to Christ excludes all other things from an equal in- terest in it ; an equal affection to Christ and the world are as inconsistent, and prodigious as two suns in the m orld. The heathens knew the necessity of a prevailing love to their idols, to be at an ex- pence for them. If the Israelites begin to be fond, though of a calf, they will deprive themselves of their jewels to serve it. This prevalent love of Christ is so necessary an ingredient, that it was the main lesson he pressed upon liis disciples. Self must be denied, Mat. 16. 24. Luke 14. 26. if we follow Christ ; all relations must be hated in comparison of Christ, if we be Christ's disciples. The soul of a man is too narrow, and limited to be intensely affected with, and strongly to pursue at one and the same time two different objects. The heart . Effects of love to Christ. 157 must be a throne reserved for Christ, where other things must sit at his feet. For as Christ sives him- self wholly to the soul, the soul must bestow itself wholly on Christ ; and as Luther, Mallem mere cum Clirisio, qiiam regnare cum Co^sare, I would rather perish with the interest of Christ, than reign in gran- deur with Caesar, A hopocrite wills Christ in subor- dination to inferior goods. A sincere votary to Christ wills inferior goods in subordination to Christy Do we thus love Christ in that which crosseth most the carnal inclinations and interest of corrupt nature? 2. In regard of the restlessness of it. Can nothing but Christ and the enjoyment of him content us ? Are there inquiries after him, industrious pursuits, unut- terable groans, that nothing can satisfy us, no not all the world without him ? Are we importunate, that he may be as a seal in our hearts, as well as we a seal in his heart ; that there'may be clearer engravings, stronger impressions ? A true lover rejoices that he hath any love to give to God, and grieves that he hath no more to bestow. His life is bound up in Christ, as Jacob's was in Benjamin. An hundred worlds cannot content him without his beloved. He. is upon his v»atch and guard against all temptations, which may disturb his affection or enjoyment, and accounts the missing of Christ worse than hell itself; all other things will be abhorred, and accounted as loss and dung, Phil. 3. 8. 3. What are the effects and concomitants of our love } Are we careful to please him, though with our own shame ? Christ's love made him take the form of a servant to pleasure man ; the souls love will make it take up the meanest shape to please the Redeemer, Christ cared not how much he was emptied, so he might discover his love ; the soul cares not how much, it is humbled, so it may testify its affection. It is like the strinn; of an instrument strained to the fame height with another, which will move when the other is touched. A true affectionate soul will be conformed 15S THE LORD^S SUPPER: to Christ in its motions, If I yet pleased men, I should not he the servant of Christ, Galat. 1. 10. In the state of unregeneracy he pleased men, but now as a servant he would please Christ his master. Are we in our bent and resolution careful to please God, without regard to the oppositions of the world ? As the sun holds on its race, though the clouds gather to hinder the shinins: of it. Are we desirous of his glory, as Avell as our own happiness? Would we rather lose what we desire, than defraud God of his right ? Our own happiness is but a created good, and therefore ought not to be loved for itself. Nor must we prefer the gift before the glory of the giver ; the glory of God is incomparably more' amia- ble than our own happiness can be. If a man does all for his own happiness more than for God's glory, it is certain he loves that more than God ; and if he serves God only for happiness, he sells his service to God, and he serves himself not God, for he intends only to advantage himself, not to glorify God. It was plain; that Dalilah loved not Sampson, when all her projects were to enrich herfelf, and gratify the Philistines in betraying him ; so if our projects be to satisfy ourselves, we are not lovers of God. Are the duties he enjoins, delightful to us? Do the com- mands which were before burdensome, cease to be grievous to us? 1 JoJui 5. 3. Are our duties not so much pressed by natural conscience, as sweetened by love ? Do we esteem lightly of every service we do ? True love never thinks it can do enough. Are we tender of his honour ? Do we account the enemies of God our enemies, Psalm 119. 21, 22. The Phi- listines loved their Dagon, when they would not ti'ead upon tlie threshold where he had received a disgrace, 1 Sam. 5. 4, 5. And how is our love as to constancy ? True love will not be quenched by the waters of afflictions, Many 'waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it ; Cant. 8. 7. it is a fire that triumphs over the wa- Lo'ce to the saints. 1 59 ters of the sharpest dispensations. When storms hang over the head, there is no repentance that ever his love was bestowed upon Christ. In this there is a suitableness between Christ's affection and the soul, in regard of the constancy of it. The creature's love hath its ebbs and floods. It is sometimes circumven- ted by temptation in regard of the acts and exercise, though not of the habit which recovers itself. As Christ's love hath intermissions in regard of the dis- coveries of it, though not in respect of the reality and truth of it ; both are constant. Fourthly^ Anotlier grace to be examined, is love God's people. This is the badge of a disciple, A nexo commambmnt I give unto you, that you love one ano- ther as I have loved you. John 13, 34, o5. This is the livery whereby men are known to belong to Christ, as a prince's servant is known by the badge he bears. It is not, as Erasmus notes, if you use this or that cere- mony, have this or that habit ; if you use the same meat, have the same title, but if you have tiie same affection. Tliis Christ left as his last will and testa- ment, as that which lay most peculiarly upon his heart to be observed by them, f ^Viien JMoses was to leave the conduct of the people, he gives them a commandment not to depart from the law of God. When John the Baptist quitted his function, he re- commended to his disciples the disposing themselves by the baptism of repentance, to receive the JXIessiah ; and by the observing this and their fasts, they were marked by it to be John's disciples. The commandment Christ gives them a little before his departure, is to love one another, as the special character whereby they should be known to be his disciples. Hence it is called his commandment as peculiarly his, as the conimandment to believe ; for they are both joined together. And this is his com- mandment, that zee should believe on the na^ne of his t Amyrant in loc. IGO THE lord's SUPPEll. Son Jesus Christ, and [love one another as he gave us commandment. 1 John 3. 23. As that which he took a special delight in. iVs if those two, faith and love, made up the body of the christian religion. In regard of this commandment the apostle tells the Thessalonians, 1 Tiies. 4. 9. that they were taught of God ; and this Christ presses again and again ; for he repeats it often in that last sermon of his, which he would not have pressed so much when he had so many things to deliver, if it were not necessary. -He calls it a new commandment, not only in regard of ihe renewal of it ; it having been as it were out of date, and wholly lost among the Jewish factions ; not only because it is more commanded in the gospel, as sacriiices Avere under the law more pressed than this ; but in regard of the pattern : before it was, Love thy neighbour as ihijself, but they had no such glorious exemplar, before the love of Christ came to be un- folded to the world. Now it is, Love one another as I have loved you. So powerful a motive was never af- fixed to the moral law, which commanded love ; former ages never had so fair and so full a copy for it as this. And so punctual were the ancient chris- tians in this, that Tertullian saith, it was the amaze- ment of the Heathens to see them Animo animaque misceri, their souls and minds united and mingled with each other ; and indeed the more believers love God, the more they will love one another. As lines, the nearer they are to the centre, they nearer they are to one another. 1 , This is necessary in all duties. Would we pray ? Our hands must be lifted up mthout wrath and doubt- ing, l,Tim. 2.8. Would we hear the word ? If we are swift to hear, M^emustbe slow to wrath, James 1. 19. Would we ofter a sacrifice at the altar ? we must Jirst be reconciled to our brother, Mat. 6. 25. Fire from heaven will not else kindle the sacrifice. One of the leading sins to be purged out of the church of Our love to the Saints. 1 6 1 Corinth, in order to a due preparation to this ordinance, was malice, 1 Cor. 5. S. 2. But it is more necessary in this ordinance as representing the uiiiori qfbeiierers together. The bread being made up of several grains compacted together, For ive being many are one bread and one bvdij. 1 Cor. 10. \6. 'f As the bread is a mark and means of the conmiunion we have with Christ, and as we declare by the participation of the external signs, that we have a communion with the Lord ; do we not also make by the same means a solemn protestation that we are of the same faith, the same religion, ^\ ith those that par- take of those symbols ? And since it is the same bread which represents one Jesus, it also associates us into one body. This bread is appointed to be a band to tie us to Christ, and to tie us in affections to one another. This ordinance was instituted to solder believers together. They have the same nourishment, and therefore should have the same affection. Eodeni sanguine glutinaii, knit together with the same blood, as Austin saith of himself and his friend. The death of Christ is here represented, which is an engage- ment to this affection. In this his death is shown, which did meritoriously purchase this unity ; in this we partake of Christ, in whom all believers are made one, ing-rafted in the same stock. It was the end of Christ's death to reduce all to a harmony, to still the war, not only in the members against the mind, but in his people one against another. Since we are to remember the death of Christ, we are to remember his will and pleasure at his death : when we remember our friends, we should at least remember their dying charge. John 15. 17. Doth not Christ press this in his farewell discourse, These things I commajul youy that you loi'e one another, when he was making his will to man, and his will to God r This was part of that will he ^vas to seal Avith his blood. As Christ ■f All!} rant in loc. M 162 THE lord's supper. upon the cross was the highest eruption of love, so this sacrament is the setting forth the highest pattern of it. And there can be no hmejit of the ordinance with- out this grace. We have no communion with Christ without keeping this commandment, This is hiscom- mandmoit, that you love one another ^ and he that keeps his commandment, dzvel/s in him, and he in him, \ John 3. 23, 24. Passion is Hke a leaven that corrupts this ordinance to the soul; as anger hinders the concoction of bodily food in the stomach. When Jerusalem is a quiet habitation, the tabernacle shall not be taken down, and God will be a place of broad riters and streams to it, Isai. 3'i. 20. The greatest gift next to tiiat of Christ, was that of the spirit, v\hich descended when tiie disciples were onoQvfxaZov of one mind, Acts 2. 1. Tliis being the design of the gospel, to knit men's hearts together in peace and love, those that have not this love, are not cast into a gospel mould, and therefore not fit to receive advantage by a choice evangelical institution. Let us examine ourselves as Jto this grace. And that we may not mistake ; every difference in judg- ment is not a sign of the want of this grace. Paul differed from Peter in opinion about the Jewish cere- monies, without any breach of love, Gal. 2. 11. Paul and Barnabas jarred so as to part asunder ; yet neither of them can be supposed to be void of this, which their master had so particularly enjoined them, Acts 15. 37, 38, 39. It cannot be expected but differences in judgment will be among the most seri- ous christians, while the blindness of their minds is but imperfectly cured. The strings of an instrument are not all of one size, nor have the same sound, yet agree in a harmony ; there may be an harmony in affections, though there may be a difference in opinions. But this love is true. 1 . When it is founded upon the grace of a person. What constitutes gemune lore. 1(?3 That which is most lovely in Christ's eye, should be so in ours ; the grace and holiness of a person is respected by Christ, not his outward state and con- dition. It is a loving i)i the truth andybr thctruth*s sake, 2 John 1, 2. A love of a disciple i/2 ///e Tz^wze of a disciple, Mat. 10. 42. As there is a common aftection to God in men, because of his benefits, so there may be also some common affection in an unregenerate man to godliness, A\hich may be the fruit of education, or an enlightened conscience, in some measure convinced that holiness is good. Holi- ness and grace are so beautiful, that the wickedest man ^^'ould have the appearance of it, and would be esteemed good. But it must be a choice and pre- vailing affection, out of love to Christ, whose image he bears, flowing from a love to God, a spirit of regeneration, from the seed of the gospel rooted in the soul, (The fruit of the spirit is lore, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,) Gal. 5. 22. and is therefore set upon the meanest christian ; as the meanest box which hath a jewel in it, will be esteemed for tiie jewel's sake by those that under- stand it. The Corinthians were defective in this love, in despising the poor in their love-feasts, a miscarriage the Apostle blames them for in this, 1 Cor. U. 22. 2. It must be ^l fervent love. IVith a pure heart fer'centlx), 1 Pet. I. 22. not in appearance and faintly. The word the Apostle useth, Rom. 12. 10. which is translated, be kindly affectioned to one another, vhich elevate him above others. As the apostle says, God makes lis to diffh^'f 1 Cor. 4. 7. i. e. he puts a difference between us and others, giving us graces more advantageous than unto them. 2. In opinion and esteem, when we value one thing more than another; so Acts 15. ^-God is said to put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles, ovhv ^imaivi, i. e. he hath treated them indifferently. So not to discern the Lord's body, is not to esteem and honour it as he ought, not to give it its due rank ; to entertain it, not as a singular and divine, but a common and ordinary thing. When men dis-esteem Christ, they count his blood as common blood, Heh. 10. 29- What is there translated unholy, is in the Greek koivov : so after the apostle had discoursed of the two elements, as representing the two parts of the sacrifice offered upon the cross, his body broken, his blood poured out, for a propiti- ation for sin, not to discern it, is to have no higher opinion of the body of the Son of God, the wonder of God's wisdom and goodness, than of a common thing, and a matter of no value. Or not discerning the Lord's body, is when our sense sticks upon the outward elements, and our spirits rise not up to view the merits and propitiation of Christ through the veil of the bread and wine ; as if the elements were the things only we were to feast upon. It is a spiritual feast, and therefore we discern not the Lord's body, when we have not spiritual meditations of the dignity of Christ, the atonement he made, God's wisdom, justice and mer- cy in the design of his death. As Christ does not put us off with empty signs, so he would not have us rest upon empty signs, but acknowledge his body and blood represented in them for those ends for which the one was broken, and the other slied. ChiZi'orthili/ receimng it. 175 The papists, to prop up their doctrine of transub- stantiation, draw an argument for it from this place; the body of Christ is in the sacrament in its proper substance, otherwise a man could not be guilty of his body and blood. '\ For no man could justly be con- denmed for not discerning the Lord's body from other meat, if that which he receives, were not truly the body of the Lord, but another meat ; and the unworthy receiving of the naked sign cannot make a man guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. § But this is no argument: Christ is wronged in that which hath a relation to him, as well as immediately in his own person. The rejecting the apostles, the messengers of Christ, is a rejecting Christ who sent them, Luke 10. 16. He that despiseth you., despiseth me ; and he that despiseth the commands of God delivered by man, despiseth not man., hut God., 1 Thess. 4. 8. Was our Saviour therefore substantially present in the persons of the apostles ? Were they not separated from his body, when he sent them to other parts, and gave them this as an encouragement ? How could he be with them, and absent from them in his body? ^\'hen he chargeth Saul with persecuting him, because he breathed out .slaughter against his di.scipks, Acts 9' 4. was the body of Christ thei'efore substantially in his disciples ? He that hath received the knowledge of the truth, and apostatizeth from it, treads under foot the Son of God. Is the person of Christ under the feet of these contemners ? To tumble a king's robe in the dirt, to counterfeit his seal, tread upon his crown, daub his picture, break down his arms in despite, offer violence to- his ambassador, is reckoned as a violation of the person and authority of a prince ; yet neither the person nor nature of the prince is really present in any of those things. They are indeed the marks t Eitins in loc. $ Daill^ Melange ties Sern ens. 176 THE lord's supper. of his dignity; and he that violates wilfully any of them, is supposed to be willing to do as much against the person of the prince, if it were in his power, as against any thing which bears his character. The substance of the body and blood of Christ is not in the bread and wine of the sacrament ; his exalted body is no more to be broken, nor, does it consist with his state of glory, to have his sub- stantial body shrouded under such mean elements : But the bread and wine are memorials and pledges of his body and blood, instituted by him as signs to signify him ; therefore he tliat receives them without a due respect to Christ, and handles them unworthi- ly, despising those things which are signided by them, is a contemner of the Son of God, since he hath no value for that which is a mark of his autho- rity and his love. Doctrine. Unworthy receivers of the supper con- tract great guilt, and incur great danger. In the handlino; which doctrine I shall show. I. What unworthy receiving is. II. The sinfulness of it. III. The danger of it. IV. The use. I. What unworthy receiving is. First, Something negatively is implied here. 1. Unworthy receiving is not proper only to a man in a natural state. The apostle chargeth here unworthy receiving, not only upon the professing, but the regenerate Corinthians, upon such as fell under the chastening hand of God for this cause, that they 7ni<^ht not he condemned with the world to an eternal punishment, 1 Cor. 11. 32. He sent temporal punish- ments upon them, that they might not undergo an eternal damnation; they were redeemed from eternal punishment, renewed in their souls, yet some of them were guilty of unworthy receiving. The apostle also puts the unworthiness upon the want of a self-examination, which a good man may by some ' -^'^-ineness and nedi^ence be deficient in, and as the What it is to receive it unwortfiuy. 177 sleepy church, Cant. 5. 2. may contract some rust in his graces, yea, and fall into some bemiring sin, as a neat man may into a dirty puddle, rendering ^ himself at present unfit for the entertainment of, and converse with some worthy friend. Sins of a higher magnitude, which a good man may fall into, make him at the present unlit for heaven, and therefore for an heavenly ordinance. David was no worthy attender upon the institutions of God while he lay in his impenitency, till his tears had Washed away his iniquity. Nor was Peter restored to the sweet- ness of converse with his master, till he had wept bitterly ; while a great sin remains unpurged, or the soul through negligence untrimmed, it is no fit guest for God. 2. Unworthy receiving is not to be measured by our sensible J02/ or comfort after receiving. Two men that have perfect health, have not equal sto- machs, nor appetites, and consequently not the same joy in their meals, yet both in health. We should more consider how graces are acted, than how com- forts are dispensed ; the former is our duty, and ne- cessary to a right participation ; the latter is an act of God's sovereignty, and not our duty. God's dispensations are not equal to all ; some have only tastes, others full draughts ; some may have more joy than strength, others more strength than joy. Mary had a strength of love to Christy before she had a joy of a pardon from him, Luke 1 . 47. Paul's grace was not weaker fourteen years after his rapture, though we read not of a second discovery of the third heavens to him. God was most pleased with our Saviour upon the cross, acting his faith in, and love and obedience to God, when he denied him sensible comforts from heaven, and was bruising his soul for sin. The life and exercise of grace is the root of joy, though the fruit itself be not always visible; we may seem to have a rebuke from God, when we are in VOL. VII. N 178 THE lord's supper. the strongest exercise of grace. The woman of Canaan had no sense of Christ's kindness, while she was acting a faith stronger than others, who had met with swifter rewards. Jacob had the honour to be termed a prince prevailing with God, in that wrestling, wherein he received such a touch from God, as made him halt all his life after, Gen. 32. .25, 28. If our souls can ascend like Manoah's angel in the smoke of thanksgiving and eWvations of spirit, and be melted and softened by a flame of love, there is a worthy receiving, though there be not a sensible comfort. But Seco7idlif, Positively, that is an unworthy receiving. 1 . When evil dispositions and beloved sins are not laid aside and forsaken. As there must be faith respecting the christian doctrine, so there must be repentance respecting the conversation. He eats unworthily that hath different ends from what Christ had in tlie institution, and wants the qualifications which Christ requires, who hath neither faith, nor repentance, no sense of sin, nor love to Christ to hold up to God. Common infirmities render us not unworthy, but voluntary defilements. Neither the poverty, blindness, or halting of one or other of those invited, Luhe 14. 21. Mat. 22. 10. was charged upon them, but only the attire that one of them came in ; such sordidness as he might have mended, not the lameness which he could not cure. Common infirmities are inseparable in this life ; but the great breaches and violations of the covenant are to be discharged. Every sin doth make some sepa- ration between God and us, (as the smallest body hath its shadow) but they are the darling sins that are a thick cloud between him and us. Those then are unquestionably unworthy receivers, that approach with a love to their lusts ; as Judas, who came with his covetous disposition and treacherous purposes. Such as lay aside their sins at present in the act, but What it is to receive it unworthili/. 179 not in the habit and affection ; that shake hands with them for a time, to fondle them afterwards. 2. When, though beloved sins are discarded, yet there is not a due preparation suitable to the quality of the institution. The apostle implies it in the precept he enjoins immediately after the declaration of the sin, Let a man examine himself, ver. 28. He that doth not trim up the graces he hath, that doth not search them out, and marshal them in order to entertain the master of the feast, as well as he who wants those qualifications necessary. An actual, as well as an habitual sanctification was required of Jesse's sons before the sacrifice, Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice, 1 Sam. 16. 5. Christ did sanctify himself before he made himself a sacrifice, John 17. 19. so should we before we com- memorate it. If the lamps be not trimmed, they will burn but dimly. If that he counts the wedding garment, be not brushed, it will be a slighting the Lord not to appear in our best garb. The Co- rinthians were chastised, not for want of grace in habit, but for want of grace in act. It is a disrespect to Christ not to put on a wedding gar- ment which we have in possession ; when graces and affections are not set on work, which the ordinance requires. A natural man is unworthy, for want of possessing those graces ; a renewed man unworthy, for want of acting them. The party that so offended, was not sent out to clothe himself, but punished for his neg- lect. Friend, how camest thou in hither ? Christ's worthy care in the institution must be answered with a worthy carriage in the preparation. He washed his disciples' feet before the institution, John 13. We should prepare our souls before the participation. When a good man's graces lie dead at the ordinances, he receives unworthily. What difference is there between a dead man, and one that does not exercise the acts of life ? When Christ reacheth out himself N 2 180 THE LORDS SUPPER. and our hands are not ready to take, our hearts not ready to embrace, it is an unsuitable carriage. We have no great esteem of the gales that blow, if we will not prepare and hoist our sails to be filled with them: and stand not ready to suck Christ's breast in his ordinance. (3.) It is an unworthy receiving, when we rest only in the ordinance, expecting from the work done, what we should expect only from Christ in it. V/hen we content ourselves M'ith Elijah's mantle, without asking for the God of Elijah. Thus the Jev^'S deluded themselves with their privileges, and displeased God with their neglect of him ; like Joab securing himself by laying hold of the horns of the altar without repentance for his murders. This is to derive from the sacrament the cause of our righte- ousness and justiticauon, and ascribe that to the naked elements and signs, which is only to be ex- pected and desired at the hands of God. This is a wrong to God, when we prefer the shadow before the substance, the shell before the kernel, satisfy our appetite, and take no notice of the master. Doth not he slight both the physician and the physic, that expects a cure from a medicine in his pocket, which he was to take into his body? Thelikeitis to Christ, to think that a corporeal feeding, without a spiritual relish, can nourish our souls; a chewing the elements with the teeth, without feeding upon Christ with the heart. This is evident, when we answer not sacra- mental engagements, as well as when we come with- out sacramental preparations. In that we slight the end of the ordinance, as in the other we slight the greatness of the institution. 4. When there is a carelessness and looseness of spirit, in the time of our attendance. Not discern- ing the Lord's body, say some. Not minding the Lord's body, but letting the thoughts run at rovers, which should be fixed upon Christ's dying. Not making a difference between this holy bread and What it is to receive it unxvorthily. 1 8 1 common refreshments in tlie behaviour of our souls. Our spirits sliould be low in regard of contrition, not in regard of a sordid demeanour towards God. To have base ends and starts in his worship; f to regard our own things in this act, and not the things of God ; to have unsettled and roving tlioughts, crosses the end of this ordinance. It is unworthy not to remember Christ, not to shew forth his death ; how can this be done without minding him? The master of the feast is not remembered, unless we look through the bread and wine to the broken body, and the shed blood of Christ. We esteem not him that we do not mind, we value not him that we do not with the weight of our souls intently lean upon. Not that any> man is free from roving while the flesh cleaves to him. The involuntary startings of the flesh, the involuntary injections of Satan, do not make us unworthy receivers. God regards the will- ingness of the spirit to affect us, and the weakness of the flesh to pity us. He knows our frame that we are but dusty and dust is apt to be removed with a blast of wind. But when the reins are let loose to the headstrong flesh, when we pull it not in, but fol- low rather than resist the motions; it is then that we make light of the dignity of this ordinance, and the great and glorious body of our Lord represented thereby. Neither can we understand every actual consent to such motions at the time of our attendance, to be the unworthy receiving, which makes us guilty of the body and blood of Christ, though it be an unworthy caiTiage; unless we should count all the ajKJstles to be unworthy receivers, who, if not in the time, yet presently after the first partaking of it con- tended among themselves about earthly greatness in the kingdom of the Messiah, as it is probable from Luke 22. 24. But when it is habitual, voluntary, and without a purpose of soul, and a setting the heart t Grotius. 182 THE lord's supper. to seek the Lord, 1 Chro7i. 22. 19. Such an one is not free from this character of an unworthy receiver. II. The s'mf Illness, of this. It is a contracting the guilt of the body and blood of the Lord. This unwor- thy carriage derives its original from that disposition which incited the Jews to a crucifying of him. Though there be not a blow struck at his person, there is the spring of as many blows as ever the Jews gave him. T>vversa peccata, par contumelia. What hath been said lately about the sinfulness of unbelief, might be applied to this case. I shall therefore say the less of it. Though there be a difference in the circumstances of the several sins, there is little or none in the contempt and indignity. He that doth despite to the image or arms of a prince, would do the same to his person, were it as much in his power. 1. It is an implicit approbation of the Jew's act in crucifying Christ. If we are not affected with that state of Christ, we consent to, and approve of that act of his crucifiers; not positively, but privatively ; not having that temper and affection of spirit which such an action doth call for from us. This is one way among many others, of being accessary to ano- ther's sin, by not having a regret at it. f He that makes light of the death of an innocent person, con- fess eth him a malefactor,, and that he deserves to be slain, sincebeing slain, he deserves so little regard; or at least he makes himself a malefactor, and gives just occasion of suspicion, that he would have been ready enough to have embrued his hands in that man's blood. The committing a sin is an approba- tion of all of the same kind that went before. Had it not been so, the guilt of the blood of all the prophets could not have fallen upon the heads of that genera- tion which mm^dered Christy Luke U. 47. Who- t Pemble p. 507. The guilt of unworthily remving it. 183 soever hath slight thoughts of tlie death of Christ, and neglects those duties so great a condescension calls for, partly consents to the savage usage Christ met with from the Jews : They were the authors of the first crime, and an unworthy receiver the abettor. 2. It tdccetds the sin of the Jews in some circum- stances, as well as that exceeded this in others : That was against his person, this against his propitiation; they did it against one they accounted a blasphemer, we do it against one we account, not only innocent but, a Redeemer ; the Jews tore his body, and an unworthy receiver, saith Chrysostom, deiiles it, by putting the body of Christ into an unclean vessel. The sin is greater, by how much impurity and defile- ment is more against his nature, than death and torment. 3. In regard of the relation the ordinance has to Christ. There is an analogy between the bread and the wine, and the body and Mood of Christ. The nearer relation any thing hath to God, the more heinous is the offence. To kill a debauched man unjustly, innocent of any crime to deserve death, is an affronting God in his image, Gen. 9- 6. To neglect uncharitably a member of Christ is greater, because it is a despising of Christ in his mystical body. Mat. 9,5. 45. This is greater, because it is an affront to his body and blood in the picture and representation of him. To fling the picture of a prince in the kennel, and stamp upon it with contempt, is treasonable in some places. A man of quality is not injured so much by breaking his earthen vessels, as by defacing and defiling his arms, the marks of his honour. It disparageth the ■whole covenant of grace, in unworthy usage of the seals of it. How base a disposition is it, to sit down at the table of a man with an hostile mind against mm! to stab the master of the feast at his own table, while he is treatino;, and entertaining us with dainties! 4. It ig a great sin, as it is against the greatest 184 THE lord's supper. testimony of his love. That hand which was after- wards pierced and nailed upon the cross for us, did first break this sacrament to us. He appointed it when he was to go out of the world, when he knew all things 'ivere given into his hands, John 13. 3.* when he knew he was to leave the world, and sit down at the rigiit hand of his Father; he would then do a work worthy of himself to declare his own libe- rality to us. It was the first fruit of the power gi'anted to him. It is a violation of that marriage- knot whereby Christ would have us be joined to him, and become his spouse. He only was the author of this : His crucifixion could not be without other hands, and the wickedness of many persons in bring- ing him to his sufferings. But this acknowledgeth him only the author. The motive of his sufferings was the satisfaction of his Father's justice, as well as his love to us ; this hath purely his own love for the spring of it. His suffering was a part of his obe- dience : But the only motive of this institution was his kindness. And the apostle prefaceth this insti- tution (as it may seem) with a manifestation of his love, haviiig loved his own, he loved them to the end, John 13. 1. as if he could not leave a higher pledge of his love than this : since he could not leave himself, he would leave his picture. III. The danger of this sin, He eats and drinks damnation to himself. As the sin is set forth in the greatest blackness, so is the punishment in the greatest dreadfulness. The sin subjects us to the same punish^ ment that was reserved for the crucifiers of Christ. God inflicts upon his own, temporal corrections; upon final unbelievers, eternal : He useth his rods on some, his axes on others. It is but reason the seve- rity upon the offender should be proportionable to the communications to the worthy receiver. Where his liberality is unworthily used, his severity shall be justly felt. He eats and drinks dmnnation to himself. Dam- The guilt and danger of umiorthilif receiving it. 1 85 nation is not the end of the ordinance, no more than it is the end of the gospel, or of Clu'ists coming into the world. The supper was appointed for iioly and beneficial ends ; but the unworthiness of the receiver, turns that into a sword whch was intended for food. Worms grew from tliat manna, which was intended for a blessing, when they used it not according to the connnand of God, Ejcod. 16. 20. Rain is to make the earth fruitful ; and where it meets M'ith a good soil, it opens the womb of the earth to bring forth wholesome plants : but where it lights upon a bad soil, it brings forth briars and thorns. It is not the fault of the rain, but the disposition of the ground, which produceth hurtful and venomous plants which are nigk unto cursing, Heb. 6. 7. So 'die ordinance is bread to strengthen, wine to refresh ; but where the wickedness of a man is mixed with it, there is poison in it ; a piercing hook under a delightful bait. The word is a sawur of life and a savour of death, 2 Cor. 2. \6. a savour of Hfe, when mixed with faith ; a savour of deattj, when mixed with unbelief. Where the blood of Christ does not cure, it inflames a wound ; where it does not save, it condemns. That which is not melted by the sun, grows into a greater hardness. Christ, as a sacrifice on the cross, was pleasing to God ; as the murdered innocent, a burden of guilt on the Jews : so as he is grateful food in the sacra- ment to a worthy receiver, he is the bane of an un- "worthy communicant, by reason of his unholiness. It was a sad cut to David to be guilty of the blood of Uriah, whose blood, though not shed by his hand, was designed by him to be spilt in the service of his country ; yet how was his soul galled for it, and his son afterwards in the head of an army against him for his punishment ? What a crime is it to kill a child in the womb, who never yet saw the light ? Wliat is it then to murder the Son of God in the signs of his body, the Saviour of the world, the King of glory, whose blood is inconceivably more precious than the 185 THE lord's supper. blood of all men, the life of all angels ; doth not this deserve a severe correction ? IV. The use. 1. The manner of duties must be regarded as well as the matter. The matter of this ordinance is par- ticipated by both the worthy and the unworthy recei- ver: the manner makes the ditference ; the same matter of prayer may be put up by two several persons, the one accepted, the other rejected ; one offers it with a wick- ed, the other with a sincere mind, Frox). 21. 27. The eating the passover, otherwise than it was writ- ten, was dangerous, and needed Hezekiah's prayer to God for a pardon of them, 2 Chron. 30. 18. He that came without a wedding-garment could have re- lished the sweetness of the meat; but intruding in an unbecoming garb, was turned out as unfit for the king's table. As God hath the love of a friend, so he hath the greatness of a sovereign : he will not be treated with as an ordinary friend, but sdnctijied in all that draw near to him, Levit. 10. 3. His gracious indul- gence must not diminish our awful thoughts of his majesty. Though it is a crucified Christ we remem- ber, one cloathed with infirmities, yet it is one that hath dropped his mantle, and is exalted at the right of the Majesty on high. Since he is God in heaven, •we must not be hasty to present ourselves in an unbe- coming garb before him, Let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God^ for God is in heaven. Eccles. 5. 2. Circumstances in worship are more than cyphers ; but if they were no more, take away all the cyphers joined with an unit, how is the sum curtailed to nothing ?t The voluntary omission of a circumstance, necessary to an action, doth not excuse, but aggravate. 2. The holiness of an ordinance will not ei'cuse our failing in it. Some are nourished by this ordinance, others pollute themselves. The fault is not according t Durand. The danger of unworthily receiving it. 1 87 to the holiness of the ordinance, but the disposition of the receiver. Before the destruction of the temple, Ezek. 10. 2. God saith, Fills thy hand with coalSy and scatter them over the city. The fire in the tem- ple, which they thought was to serve for the expiation of their sin, should serve for the destruction of the city. The temple hath thunders and lightnings in it as well as music, Rev. 4. 5. The most wholesome food sinks under the power of corrupt humoui's in the stomach. Nadab and Abihu were the true priests of God, they intended to offer incense to the true God. The incense was according to the mind of God, and the censers were of the consecrated vessels : they erred only in taking strange fire which God had not com- manded, and this cost them their lives, Lev. 10. 1, 2. We may have right ordinances, direct our addres- ses to the true God; but the holiness of those will not excuse the want of heavenly fire, the grace of the spirit, and the want of a due value of the mediation of Christ. 5. The sins of those that draw nearest to God are the blackest. Never was any thing termed a guilt of the body and blood of Christ, but the Jews' wicked- ness in cracifying, men's apostacy in denying '.him after knowledge, and the abuse of this ordinance, and that not only in the unregenerate Corinthians, but in the best that were guilty of those miscarriages ; he taxeth, whosoever eats and drinks unworthily. An universal particle. 4. The ground of our mischief is always in ourselves. It is not from the emptiness of the ordinance, that is a full cistern ; not from the shortness of God's grace, he is an over-flowing fountain : but from want of those graces or of exercising those graces which are the bucket to draw, and the mouth to drink. The plantain is not poi- sonous in its nature, but the venomous nature of the toad turns it into poison. Misery ariseth not from the insuf- ficiency of the sacrament, but the unworthiness of the receiver. That judgment is conveyed to one, when 188 THE lord's supper. grace conveyed to another, is our own fault. The door is open, but unbelief pulls to the door and locks it. The miseries rained down upon us are but the ascend- ed vapours of our own sin. Christ hath a hand to reach the benefit to us upon our worthiness, and a hand to inflict the punishment on us upon our abuse ; he makes himself a feast for the believer's faith, but the unbeliever makes himself a feast for th^ Redeem- er's Avrath. 6. We see here the base nature of sin. It change th the brightest ordinances, makes the waters of the sanctuary bitter, turns food into poison, and a cup of salvation into one of damnation. We frustrate God's expectations, when he looks for fruit ; then it is just he should frustrate ours, when we look for food. 6. If an unworthy receiver be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, a worthy receiver hath a special interest in the body and blood of Christ. He hath as much ad- vantage thereby, as the other hath guilt. The apostle speaks this to put a bar to the Corinthians' sin, to make them sensible of their unreasonable miscarriages, not to scare them from the ordinance, but to excite them to come to it in a becoming manner, so as to honour God and benefit themselves ; that they might sheath God's sword, and not draw it against themselves. Though the Red Sea swallowed up the Egyptians that would venture into it, yet it was a wall to preserve and deliver the Israelites from the hands of their ene- mies. He that receives worthily, eats and drinks salvation to himself, by the rule of contraries. The ordinance comes upon him like rain, fitting him to bring forth herbs meet for the use of him that dres- led him : and such a person receives blessing from God, Heb. 6. 7. Certainly that Christ, that never turned away a little faith without a blessing when he was upon earth, will much less now disappoint it, -when it is exercised on him. Since in heaven there is no dimunition of his compassion, there can be no increase of his severity to such a one. The guilt ami danger of urrjcorthily recemng it. 189 7. Should not all of us, that have at any time of our lives been partakers of t/iii ordinance, reflect upon ourselves, yea the best of of us ? Can any of us say, that we never contracted the guilt of the body and blood of Christ; that we always had worthy dis- positions for him ; that our minds were never Maver- ing, our hearts never cold, our affections never languishing, our spirits that should have been in heaven never sunk to the earth ? Is there not then a partial guilt? Yet God hath adm-itted us again and again, spread his table, filled his cup, put manna into our mouths, and his cup into our hands ; won- derful patience in God, to bear with a wonderful sin in us ! Deliver me from hlood-guiltiness O God, may be the cry of every one of us, as it was David's, Psal. 51. 14. How often have we wounded him that hath delivered us, killed him that hath saved us, abused that blood that was the price of no less than the redemption of our souls and bodies ? Who doth not condemn the Jews for crucifying the Lord of life in his infirmities ? And ought we not as well to condemn ourselves, for crucifying the Lord of life in his glory ? 8. How then should we take heed, whenever we approach to the Lord's table, of any unworthy de- meanour towards him, whereby to contract such guilt, and incur such displeasure ? How should we endeavour after as clear affections to Christ as he bears to us, y^'iih meltings of heart, and faintings of soul for him ? We receive benefit according to our worthiness. As we prepare our souls for God, so he prepares himself for us. Thou meetest him that rejoiceih, and works righteousness, that remembers thee in thy ways, Isa. 64. 5. He is a feast of fat things to them that have faith to receive him. If we value not the pledges of his love, we shall bear the marks of his indignation. .' ^wj fd Adam the first rebel of mankind, had the sweet- ness of a promise, and was not given up to that 190 THE lord's supper: justice of God which he had provoked, and the malice of that devil whose temptation he had swal- lowed. Nor was Peter, who in the denial of his loving master in so base a manner, had gratified the devil, given up to be winnowed by him. JBut the first that ever offended in an unworthy receiving the supper (if he did receive it) was without remedy given up as a possession to that devil who had animated him to his treacherous design. It is a dreadful eating, when attended with such a sin, and such a judgment. To receive worthily, is to be affected with the sufferings of Christ, the cause of those sufferings, sin, the end of those sufferings, redemption from the guilt and filth of sin, the acceptation of those sufferings by God, the con- firmation of the fruits of them, to cast ourselves into the arms of a crucified Saviour, washing our souls in his blood, pleading his merits before God, humbly and believingly applying them to ourselves. Let us then raise up our spirits, drink deep of the cup of salvation, drink abundantly of that love which is sweeter than wine. If we come before him in a becoming posture, with our hearts burning, our souls thirsting, our drooping faith may be then revived, our closed eyes opened, dark shades may fly away. The disciples that knew not Christ in the way, neither by the features of his countenance, nor the spirituality of his discourse, yet knew him in the efficacy of a sacrament ; if that were the celebration of it, as some think, which is mentioned, Luke 24. 30, 31. He withheld his grace before, to honour this ordinance with it. f Let then the bounty of Christ engage us : He hath not given us a hand or an arm, his head or his feet, a few drops of his blood ; but his whole body, his whole soul, his graces, his virtues, the fruits of his death, to be participated by us, to be insouled with us. He hath given him- t Lingeud. de Eucharist, p. 185. The guilt mid danger of unworthily receiving it. 191 self wholly for a sacrifice ; he hath given himself wholly in a sacrament; a greater gift could not be given on the cross ; a greater gift cannot be given at a table. He is given for our comfort, our re- freshment, our victory. The relation the sacrament hath to the sacrifice, and the benefits conveyed to us, call for a becoming carriage from us. Let us discern the Lord's body, which is the mystery and subject of the sacrament ; value it in its due rank, as the price of our redemption, the delight of God^ the admiration of angels, a body that hath nothing comparable unto it in the whole world. SELF-EXAMINATION. 2 Cor. 13. 5. EXAMINE YOURSELVES, WHETHER YE BE IN THE FAITH : PROVE YOUR OWNSELVES. KNOW YE NOT YOUR OWNSELVES, HOW THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU, EXCEPT YE BE REPROBATES? THE NECESSITY OF SELF-EXAMINATION. ♦ // is necessary to our comjort — It 'is necessary because there are common graces — Because there are counterfeit graces — Because every man is in a state of grace or nature — It is a duty that requires dili- gence and care — It is difficult — Natural imwilling- ness to it — Arising Jrom self-love — From presunip- tion — Self -examination is necessary as man is apt to be deceived — Many have been ruined by neglect of it — It is possible to hioxv our state — The folly of neglecting this duty — The marks of a true be- liever— The rule of examination — The first dictates of conscience — The assistance of the spirit to be sought — Caution against resting upon discovered graces — Exhortation to exercise direct acts of faith — To be frequent in the work of self-examination. A HE apostle having blamed the Corinthians for some enormities among them, and knowing there were some that had not repented of them, comes now to a conclusion of his epistle, and assures them, VOL. vii. o 194 self-examination: that if he should come again to them, he would not spare them, but be shai'p against them with his- ecclesiastical censures. And as for such who had not been guilty of those crimes, \^et had mean thoughts of the apostle, and would have some emi- nent proof of his apostleship, or of Christ speaking in him, ver. 3 ; he refers himself to them, and makes them the judges of it, whether tliey had not ft>und the mighty operation of Ciirist in him. For as thou