for you That very body of Christ in which he suffered dyed rose again is offered to us in the Sacrament to be looked upon by faith The Sacrament is as the Ancients call it Verbum visibile a visible Word The Sacrament declares by visible signs and representations that which the Word doth in another way Now as it is a great sin to contemn Christ when he is made known to us in the way of the Word so it is a great sin to contemn Christ when he is revealed to us by his own signs and symbols which are of his own institution instituted on purpose by himself to make himself known to us 2. The Sacrament is appointed to confirm our union and communion with Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10. The ancient Church called the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Sacramentum unionis the Sacrament of Vnion because it is that special Ordinance by which our union and communion with Christ is strengthened and confirmed And our Saviour in effect tells us as much when he saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him Job 6.56 When we eat Christs flesh and drink his blood Christ dwells in us and we in him Now when we profess the nearest union and communion with the person of Christ and with the death and sufferings of Christ and we slight both his person and his sufferings this must needs be a great sin Thus have we heard now how Christ and his sufferings may be contemned there is another thing that may be added and that is 5. That Apostates such as fall from deny and renounce the faith of Christ they once presessed they do in an eminent manner pour contempt upon the sufferings of Christ Of these the Apostle speaks in a peculiar manner Heb. 10. and of these he saith That they account the blood of the Covenant by which they are sanctified an unholy thing He that apostatizes from the Christian Profession what doth he do but make a mock of Christ and his sufferings as if all that he had formerly professed concerning Christ and his sufferings were but a meer sable Now it concerns us greatly to see that we be not found in the number of such who are contemners of Christs person or of his sufferings and the reason is because great punishment is denounced on such Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace There is a sorer punishment shall be inflicted upon such who despise the person of Christ and contemn his sufferings and I verily believe this is one main cause of the Judgments which God hath already executed and will yet further execute upon the unthankful world because his Son hath been revealed to the world in this last Century of years more than in former Ages by that clear and great light that hath broken forth and yet men make no reckoning of Christ and of his grace but are grown worse and worse more profane and atheistical under the light of the Gospel that hath shone upon them As Idolatry was the great sin that God did avenge under the Old Testament upon the Jews that were then his professing people so the contempt of the Gospel wherein there hath been a plain and manifest revelation of the Son of God and of that grace and salvation which is brought by his death and sufferings seems to be the great sin that God is avenging upon professing Christians The end of the nineteenth Sermon SERMON XX. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Proceed now to another Consideration to shew the greatness of Christs Love in his Sufferings Consid 7 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That the Son of God so great a person should suffer such things as he did suffer for us The love of Christ doth not only appear from the consideration of the excellency of the person suffering but also from the consideration of the things themselves that he suffered for us that so great a person should suffer so much shame such reproach such indignity as he did for us this is that which commends Christs love to us Heb. 12.2 He endured the cross and despised the shame Isa 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting That the Son of God should suffer such things for us poor men that he should suffer such pains and torments in soul and body for us this commends his love to us The sufferings of Christ did far exceed the sufferings of any other man yea if the sufferings of all men were put together they are not to be compared with the sufferings of Christ and the reason is because Christ did suffer the very pains of Hell for us as we have heard Christ did not only suffer from men but he suffered from the hands of his Father it pleased the Father to bruise him he put him to grief Isa 53. Christ did not only suffer in his body but he suffered in his soul yea his soul-sufferings were the greatest sufferings there it was that he suffered dereliction there it was that he suffered the sense of Gods wrath no sorrows were ever like to Christs sorrows and yet these sorrows Christ did voluntarily and electively undergo for our sakes Our Saviour knew before-hand what his sufferings were like to be and yet he freely underwent them Christ did not rush upon his sufferings unawares but he knew what his sufferings would be and yet he was content to undergo them for our sakes Luk. 12.50 I have a baptism to be baptized with he speaks of the Baptism of his sufferings The Lord Jesus knew that he was to undergo such sore and grievous sufferings and yet he voluntarily underwent them he did not rum ignorantly upon them but he knew before-hand what he was to suffer and yet he chose voluntarily to suffer that which he knew would be so bitter and grievous to him It is a great alleviation of a mans sufferings not to know what he hath to suffer the contemplation of a mans sufferings before-hand is sometimes almost as great a suffering as the suffering it self that he is to undergo but yet the Son of God had the contemplation and foresight in his mind of the sufferings that he was to undergo for us yet he was content notwithstanding to under go them Mat. 16.21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew to his Disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
sufferings without this we have no life in us Let us therefore take heed how we have slight thoughts of the sufferings of Christ this is to slight them when we do not study the virtue of these sufferings when we do not see our need of them and do not apply our selves to them that we may be saved by them 4. Then are the sufferings of Christ contemned when we come unworthily to the Lords Table The Sacrament of the Supper it is the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ when therefore we rush upon the Sacrament in a rude manner we do in an eminent way contemn the sufferings of Christ The Supper of the Lord is called a shewing forth the Lords death 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come This phrase of shewing forth the Lords death implies three things in it 1. It implies the inward assent of the mind that we do indeed with our hearts and minds believe that Christ did dye and suffer such things for us as we read of in the Gospel 2. This phrase of shewing forth the Lords death implies the profession and confession of our faith before the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we owne it and profess it before the world that we believe such and such things concerning Christ 3. It implies our faith in our our reliance upon the death and sufferings of Christ for salvation that is our expectation of salvation by the death of Christ and by that means only All this I take to be implied in this phrase of shewing forth the death of Christ the Sacrament therefore being a shewing forth of Christs death when we come to the Sacrament we have to do with the death and sufferings of Christ in a peculiar manner if therefore we rush upon that Ordinance in a rude or unworthy manner we must of necessity contemn the sufferings of Christ because the Sacrament is the special and peculiar Ordinance that is appointed to represent to us the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and that this is one way of contemning Christs sufferings the Apostle is exceeding clear and plain 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. As much as if he should say Every unworthy Communicant every unworthy receiver at the Lords Table is guilty of no small sin he is guilty of the very body and blood of Christ that is he is as one that hath imbrued his hands in Christs blood he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. The Ancients expound it to this sense Every unworthy receiver and Communicant that comes in a rude manner to the Lords Supper is like Judas that betrayed Christ like the Jews that buffeted and spit upon him like to Pilate that condemned him and like the Souldiers that crucified him these dealt unworthily with the body of Christ and so doth every unworthy Communicant deal unworthily with the body of Christ The others indeed abused and dealt unworthily with his natural body but every unworthy Communicant deals unworthily with his sacramental body and the sin of the one is so much the greater than the sin of the other because many of them that had a hand in the crucifixion of the body of our Saviour looked upon him as an ordinary man they did not look upon him as the Son of God Hence doth the Apostle say If they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 But now rude Christians who rush irreverently upon this Ordinance do profess they believe him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the world and yet offer indignity to him They therefore that come unworthily to the Lords Table do in an eminent manner contemn the sufferings of Christ But here it may be useful for us to inquire What is it to come unworthily Who are they that come unworthily Whosoever shall eat this bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily 1 Cor. 11.29 The Greek word as Peter Martyr observes Indecenter parùm congruè minùs apposité signifies in this place as much as indecently not congruously not in that fit manner as he ought to do he eats and drinks unworthily that comes in an indecent manner without due preparation to this Ordinance I shall more particularly shew what this unworthy receiving is in two or three things 1. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we have not a due reverence of those great and sublime Mysteries that are set before us in the Sacrament Whoever shall drink this cup of the Lord saith the Apostle this Cup of the Lord here is an accent that it is the Lords bread the Lords cup the bread that we partake of in the Sacrament is the Lords bread and the cup that we drink of in the Sacrament is the Lords cup. Some may say so is all our bread the bread that we live upon daily is the Lords bread and the cup we drink of daily is the Lords cup it is he that spreads our tables for us and causeth our cups to run over But we must consider that the bread here spoken of the sacramental Bread and the sacramental Cup are called the Lords bread and the Lords cup in a peculiar manner it is that bread that is instituted to signifie and represent the Lords body and it is that cup that is instituted to represent the Lords blood therefore when we look upon the sacramental bread as common ordinary bread when we drink of the sacramental wine as common ordinary wine this is a prophanation of this Ordinance We ought to be sensible of the Mystery that is in this Ordinance namely that the Lords body and his blood are represented to us by the outward signs The ancient Church were wont to call the Mysteries represented to us in the Sacrament tremendous Mysteries O here are tremendous Mysteries indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we rightly consider what they are that are set before us in the Sacrament to see the incorporeal God assuming a humane body to see God personally inhabit in that flesh that suffered and offering that very body of his in which he was crucified dyed rose again and ascended into Heaven to be the food of our souls these are wonderful Mysteries indeed and yet these are the Mysteries that are represented to us in the Sacrament in the Sacrament we see the Son of God and God to have assumed a part of our flesh and then offering himself up in that flesh a Sacrifice for our sins and as we see the Son of God first giving himself for us upon the Cross so in the Sacrament we see him giving himself to us Here lyes the mystery of the Sacrament In the Sacrament we do not only see Christ giving himself for us but we also see
whom he found aliquid Christi something to the honour of Christ he would crown them with praises For Christ was the chief scope of his meditations and studies as it is of all faithful Ministers to turn Souls to him and enamour them with him delighting to dig in that Rock of Zion more than in a Rock of Diamonds These illustrious Truths about the Trinity and the Incarnation of our Lord he stiled Stars of the first magnitude and indeed it may be justly added they are the Sun of the Gospel heavens wherein he said he could meditate night and day and sometimes thought he was carried out too long insomuch that being in his Country-recess and upon the wing as bath been observed his nobler spirits towred up so high as to leave his animal spirits bird-limed in a maze below and having found sweeter food above the Firmament did soon forget the refreshment of his deserted body drawing nigh the flight of some of the Ancients of whom 't is storied they forsook the earth and found their Souls embalmed in the bosom of eternal Love The sweetness of these dainties nourished his conceptions that Aristotle hit right when he placed happiness in the contemplation of Truth Nevertheless he became through Grace the more humble verifying the excellency of sanctified knowledge that it grows most luxuriant in the sat vallies of humility It was said of one That he sailed so long upon the Ocean of Knowledge that at last he was tossed into the Haven of Ignorance and when arrived to the knowledge of more than most of Mortals determined to grave upon Minerva's Pillars Ne plus ultrà or Nihil scitur or to use Scripture-phrase That there is no finding out the Almighty to perfection in any of his ways or works But our Contemplator though he found new Regions of Light and Science above the Heavens was humbled by searches and exalted by humility and did much condemn such as dared to determine any thing of God without book not only when against but besides the sacred Oracles When any did irrationally and irreverently apply the term of Extension to an infinite Being or were so bold as to state peremptory Conclusions about the Decrees and Prescience of God undertaking to unlade the deep waters above the Heavens with their Brain-sick pan he used that of Bradwardin Si non possis minimum quomodo maximum If no Anatomist can unwinde the texture of the Brain of an Ant or discover the wisdom of that minute Insect how much less can any wade into or feel the bottom of those holy precious unfathomable depths of the Eternal God whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Or as that annexed at the bottom of Bernard Quomodo te si non meipsum The World is not yet come to an issue about the humane Soul and why will they burn their wings at the rays of the inaccessible Light He then put his experimental seal to that of the holy Burgundian Abbot Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloria He who charges the Seraphims of folly in comparison with his infinite Wisdom might upon their crying Holy Holy Holy cause his Sinai-voice to sound with imputations of grand Vnholiness and Vncircumcision to their lips and hearts This holy man found the eye of his Soul more dazled by prying into these radiant Mysteries than that of his body by gazing on the fiery Lamp of the material Heavens affirming that nothing did so effectually humble him no not his sharpest afflictions nor the bitterest cups make him so stagger into the dust as some glittering reflections of the Divine Majesty upon his Soul and cry out with Agur I am more brutish than any or with that other Saint I am like a Behemoth a great beast before thee But for points revealed in Scripture he took more peculiar pains and suckt more satisfying delight from the breasts of the Incarnation He endeavoured to open that Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh in so plain and familiar a way as the truth might bear that weak capacities might gather strength and those of greater light might find greater afflux of spiritual oyl to their Lamps from this Olive-tree in the Courts of God And I hope the Lord will raise up some other that hath walked from the Passiongarden in Gethsemane along with our Thorn-crowned Lord through the dolorous way to the Passion-mount of Golgotha and have found the Sympathy Nails and Spear in their own hearts that will lament his sorrows with so bitter a cry as to pierce the souls of many to entertain a bleeding Saviour within the chambers of their hearts It was his saying whose Treatise follows He knew no other bottom whereon to lay the stress of his Salvation than the Son of God incarnate most certainly true of all who spend their joys on his Incarnation and breathe out their believing sighs upon his Passion So that this having been his great study he said a little before his departure That though most were apt to look upon these as speculative Subjects yet he esteemed them as the most practical and the very heart and kernel of our Salvation involved in them In the delivery of these and other great Doctrines of the Gospel that he gave in Precept to his Son he gave in President to others in imitation of Christ who taught his Disciples as they were able to bear both as to gradual matter and as to a pleasant form in apt similitudes in his occasional walkings and constant heavenly teachings Thus our Author esteemed that character of an Orator to be no less useful than ancient To teach perswade and delight to teach by cogent Arguments to perswade by insinuating Motives and to delight with elegant Metaphors As the Lord himself speaks Eccles 12.10 I have used similitudes by my Servants the Prophets and that the wise Preacher sought to find out acceptable words as well as words of truth such as might be like Apples of gold in Pictures of silver as well as goads and nails fastned by the Masters of Assemblies such as may not so much please the ears as prick the heart as Jerom glosses Non placentia sed pungentia adding further Lachrymae auditorum c. The tears of Auditors are the Pearls of Preachers Such did our grave Author use not jingling Bells but deep Peals of repentance not bald and slovenly but apt and significant terms that the Lamb might wade and the Elephant swim in the fluency of his expressions When near the time of taking his flight to Glory having been versed in the Divine Methods of the Holy Spirit in the communications of Grace and the sensible instillations of it into the souls of men he treated of the Deity of the Spirit his procession from the Father and the Son and his powerful operations on the heart and being ravished with the effusions of the Spirit here went up to injoy his more plentiful infusions in the celestial Mansions Being nearer his time of recess
death and suffering in those words Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Though Christ did discover the verity and truth of humane nature in him by those expressions yet his will was not absolutely bent and set against suffering and that appears from hence That knowing it to be his Fathers will that he should suffer he did readily and presently comply with the will of his Father but when he saith Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me he shews that the verity and truth of our nature was in him that the inclination of nature was not to suffer he shewed this that humane nature as humane nature had no delight in suffering But now seeing it was his Fathers will that he should suffer he puts off nature as it were lays aside the inclinations of it and saith Not my will but thy will be done His Father willing suffering he wills it too not as I will but as thou wilt as much as if he should say If thou wilt have me suffer I am willing I am content to suffer Christ therefore as man willed his own sufferings but still as I said at first his humane will was governed by his Divine will so that it was the Divine will that willed his sufferings primarily and the humane will was carried out by the Divine will to will them in conformity thereunto 2. It was the Divine nature in Christ that did permit the humane nature to suffer If the Divinity had exerted it self and put forth its power and efficacy it could and would have prevented all suffering and death in the humane nature No man saith our Saviour takes my life from me I lay it down of my self Joh. 10.18 Had not Christ freely and voluntarily laid down his own life no man could have taken away his life from him And hence is it that the Ancients do often use this expression That in the Sufferings and Passion of Christ the Divinity in Christ aid rest that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it did not put forth its virtue for if the Divinity which was personally united to the humane nature had exerted its virtue it had certainly prevented all sufferings in the Humanity therefore the Divinity did suspend its influence that so the humane nature might be in a capacity to suffer The Divine nature did not put forth its strength and efficacy to restrain the sufferings of the humane nature And this shews the love of Christ that the Divine nature suspended its influence that so the humane nature might be in a capacity to suffer 3. It was the Divine nature that did strengthen and uphold the humane nature in suffering so great was the burden of our sins and Gods wrath that was due to us for them that it was enough to have sunk a meer creature if there had not been infinite and almighty power to support it Now the Humanity of Christ considered in it self being but a creature could not of it self have stood under the weight and burden of our sins and Divine wrath therefore was it supported by the infinite and almighty power of the Deity therefore is it said That Christ by the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 By the eternal Spirit that is Christ was supported by the power of the Deity in offering himself as a Sacrifice for our sins The second Consideration is this The Word the second Person in Trinity was united to the flesh when the flesh suffered the union between the two natures in Christ was not dissolved but it continued firm and inviolable in the time of Christs suffering Verbo inviolabili non sepâ—rato à carne passibili Hence is that of Leo The inviolable Word was not separated from his passible flesh therefore is it that our Saviour calls it his flesh his body The bread which I will give you is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Joh. 6.5 So in the words of the Sacrament This is my body which is broken for you the flesh that was given upon the Cross was his flesh the flesh of the Word his own proper flesh not another mans but the flesh of the Word the flesh of him that came down from Heaven I am the bread that came down from heaven and the bread which I will give is my flesh so likewise it is said This is my body Hence is that expression of Athanasius Caro illa trat corpus Dei. That flesh which suffered was the body of God not that God hath a body but thus we must understand it God was personally present with personally united to that body that suffered Another of the Ancients hath this passage Dominus gloriae erat in corpore quod crucifigebatur Epiphan The Lord of Glory was in that body which was crucified which was struck through which did suffer that body of his being no other but the Temple of the Word the Temple of the Son of God it was full of the Deity And hence was it saith he that the Sun beholding its Maker in the assumed body withdrew its rays and was covered with darkness So we read that in the time of our Saviours Passion there was a darkness over all the earth from the sixth hour to the ninth hour O what an astonishing Mystery is this How great a spectacle must this needs be to the holy Angels to see the Son of God and God that person whom they were wont to worship and adore in Heaven personally united to that flesh which was now hanging on the Cross and suffering in that flesh which he had assumed If this must needs be matter of wonder and astonishment to the Angels well may it be to us This is one of the things the Apostle speaks of when he speaks of the great Mystery of Godliness Without controversie saith he great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conspectus ab Angelis seen or beheld of Angels He appeared to the Angels How did he appear to them He appeared to them in such a way he never appeared before God was seen of Angels in mans nature he appeared to the Angels in humane nature this was such a sight as the Angels never saw before they never saw God in mans nature before the Son of God was incarnate therefore the Angels were struck with admiration at the novelty and excellency of this sight to see God made visible in flesh And as this was matter of great admiration to the Angels to see God come down into our nature so it ought to be to us and certainly as it was matter of wonder to the Angels to see God incarnate so it was matter of greater wonder to them to see God suffering and dying in the nature of man for man Vse 1 Learn to admire the infinite love of the Father and of the Son 1. Admire the
of a common ordinary man this is great contempt The person suffering for us was no other than the Son of God and God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 The sufferings of this person therefore were not the sufferings of a common ordinary person but they were the sufferings of him who was God-man they were the sufferings of the Word made flesh who gave his flesh for the life of the world Therefore to contemn so great and excellent a person and all that he suffered in love to us must needs be the greatest sin But here it may be inquired When is the person of Christ contemned and when are his sufferings contemned 1. Then is the person of Christ in a degree at least contemned when we have not honourable thoughts of Christ suitable to the dignity of his person that is to say when we stick in his Humanity without elevating our thoughts to his Divinity our faith must indeed begin at the Humanity of Christ but it must not stick or rest there but we must climb up from the Humanity to the Divinity When therefore we stick in the Humanity of Christ without elevating our thoughts to his Divinity this is not to have so honourable thoughts of Christ as we ought to have and so by consequence it is a kind of contempt of him Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me as much as if our Saviour should say You all take it to be your duty to believe in God You believe in God simply considered O but that is not enough as you believe in God simply considered so you ought to believe in God inhabiting in the flesh of the Son Consider what our Saviour saith in the ninth verse of that Chapter He that hath seen me hath seen the Father the meaning of that I take to be He that hath seen the Son incarnate with a spiritual eye with an eye of faith he that hath seen the Son incarnate as he ought to see him he hath seen the Divinity of the Father in the person of the Son the Father and the Son have but one and the same common Divinity Therefore if we see the Son aright with a spiritual eye with an eye of faith we shall see the Divinity of the Father in the person of the Son Though the person of the Father is distinct from the person of the Son yet the Divinity of the Father is not different from the Divinity of the Son though the Father and the Son be distinct as to their persons yet there is but one and the same common Divinity between them both I and the Father are one Joh. 10.30 He that supposeth the Divinity or Godhead of the Father to differ from the Godhead of the Son doth neither know the Father nor the Son When therefore we do not elevate our thoughts to the Divinity of the Son we do in a degree contemn Christ when we do not look beyond the veil of his flesh and behold that Divine person that took up that flesh we do not give Christ that honour we ought to do 2. Then is the person of Christ contemned when we do not believe in Christ for salvation Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God There is a great weight that lies upon that expression the name of the only begotten Son of God the reason why Unbelievers are condemned is because so great a person so excellent a person as the only begotten Son of God is revealed and offered to them in the Gospel and they refuse to close with him When the Son of God is propounded to men as the great object of their faith and so great and excellent a person as this is rejected by them this is the greatest contempt and this is that which brings condemnation upon men 3. Then are the sufferings of Christ contemned when men do not apply and betake themselves to the virtue of Christs sufferings to obtain salvation by them Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Joh. 1.29 Him hath God ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 The sufferings of Christ were the great propitiatory Sacrifice the only means to reconcile us to God Now when men hearken to the sufferings of Christ as a story meerly they can hear it discoursed of and repeated again and again that there was such a person that did and suffered such things but they do not look upon themselves as concerned they see no need of the merit and virtue of Christs suffering neither do they apply themselves to the sufferings and death of Christ that they may receive atonement by it this is to make the blood of the Covenant a common thing as the Apostles expression is in the fore-mentioned place It is as if so be men accounted the blood of Christ but as common blood and his sufferings no more than the sufferings of an ordinary man A like phrase the Apostle hath when he speaks of some that come unworthily to the Lords Table he saith They do not discern the Lords body 1 Cor. 11.29 Not to discern the Lords body is not to make a difference between the sacramental bread and common ordinary bread not to see the Lords body represented to us in and by that bread Not to discern the Lords body is not to owne and acknowledge the preciousness of that body that is not to be able to distinguish this body from another body not to see an excellency in it In like manner to account the blood of Christ the blood of the Covenant a common thing is not to see the preciousness of this blood not to have a high esteem of it and not to apply our selves for salvation to it They that do not see the infinite worth and preciousness of the sufferings of Christ that do not apply themselves to the death and sufferings of Christ so as to extract salvation from them they contemn the sufferings of Christ Our Saviour himself saith expresly Joh. 6.53 Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man you have no life in you Let us not think that it is an indifferent thing a matter of small moment whether we understand the worth of Christs sufferings and apply our selves to them yea or no. Our Saviour tells us plainly our salvation depends upon it Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man ye have no life in you That is unless ye have skill to make use of my sufferings and to apply your selves to the virtue of them ye have no life in you that is you have not the life of Justification nor sanctification in you here in this world neither shall you have the life of Glory hereafter therefore it is not an indifferent thing whether we be acquainted with the virtue of Christs
him giving himself to us for these are no vain words This is my body which was broken for you setting aside those gross conceits of the Papists That the bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ and that Christ is corporally present under the outward form of the Elements I say setting aside their gross conceits there is certainly a real though spiritual presence of Christ to every believing soul in the Sacrament The humane nature of Christ indeed is really present in Heaven therefore is it said Whom the heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3. Yet the virtue of Christs body and blood is still really communicated to every believing soul Corpus ipsum in quo passus est resurrexit yea not only so saith Calvin Not only the virtue of his Death and Resurrection but that very body that dyed and rose again this is offered to us in the Sacrament these are great Mysteries indeed Now not to have a due reverence to such great and sublime Mysteries as these are to come to these as if they were common and ordinary things or to come to them with a common and slight spirit this is to come unworthily 2. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we live in the practice of any gross sin or retain the love of any sin We profess by our coming to the Sacrament that we believe that Christ dyed for such and such sins and yet we love these sins or continue in the practice of those sins that cost Christ his life this is to offer the greatest indignity to the Son of God This is as if a Traitor should come to sit at Table with the King to dine or sup with him and yet never repent of his treason but retain a traiterous mind and intention in his heart all the while When a man sits at the same table to eat and drink with another it is a sign of friendship no one would willingly admit another to his table but whom he accounts to be his friend When we come to the Lords Table we profess the highest friendship to Christ now when we profess the highest friendship to Christ and yet retain that in our love and practice that is most directly contrary to the honour and glory of Christ this is the greatest indignity that can be This is that the Apostle calls the crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 What is this but crucifying Christ afresh and making Christ as contemptuous as possibly we can whenas we profess to expect salvation by the death and sufferings of Christ and yet in the mean time love harbour entertain and practise those very things we say we believe Christ dyed for Certainly every loose Christian that makes a profession of Christ and yet lives in gross open sins makes a plain mock of Christ and his sufferings for he professeth that he believes he shall be pardoned by the sufferings and death of Christ and yet he continues in the love and practice of those sins as if so be the end of Christs death were that men might continue in their sins and not be delivered from them 3. Then do men come unworthily to the Sacrament when they come without examining themselves Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup 1 Cor. 11.28 It is observable the Apostle opposeth this examining a mans self to his eating unworthily In the former verse he had said He that eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord now he adds But let a man examine himself so then if a man do not examine himself then he eats unworthily But it may be said Object What ought a man to examine himself about Concerning two things Answ 1. Concerning his state 2. Concerning the present frame and dispostion of his heart 1. A man ought to examine himself concerning his state whether he be in Christ whether he have a right to such an Ordinance 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobate We must examine our selves concerning our fundamental estate whether that be good yea or no to examine what standing we have in Christ 2. We ought to examine our selves concerning the frame and disposition of our souls whether we be in a fit frame to partake of such an Ordinance We ought to examine our selves whether our hearts be strongly bent and inclined to any sin whether we be under the power of any sin this is the examination of our repentance We ought to examine what the frame of our hearts is God-ward whether the bent of our hearts be towards God and the ways of God this is the examining of our other graces Now when we rush upon the Sacrament without reflexion and examination of our spiritual state this is unworthy coming And here let us observe That the children of God themselves may in a degree come in an unworthy manner for there are several degrees of unworthy receiving They that have slight and contemptuous thoughts of this Ordinance they that live in gross and scandalous sins they are guilty of unworthy receiving in the highest degree But then they that have true grace and do not retain in their hearts the love of any sin yet if they are remiss in searching into their hearts to find out their secret corruptions and to judge themselves for them they come unworthily in a lesser degree and God may correct his own children for their spiritual remisness in this kind The Apostle tells us For this cause many were sickly and weak and many were fallen asleep 1 Cor. 11.30 that is for coming to the Sacrament without due preparation Others who grosly profane this Ordinance that come to this Ordinance and live in gross sins and continue to live and dye in them God punisheth them otherwise he punisheth them with eternal condemnation He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself or judgment to himself as the word may be rendred The godly themselves coming in a rude and careless manner to this Ordinance may and oftentimes do bring the judgment of temporal chastisement upon themselves for not coming in a right manner to so great an Ordinance But such as are profane who come to this Ordinance and yet live in sin they eat to themselves the judgment of eternal condemnation Now to return unto what we first propounded to come unworthily to the Sacrament is one way of contemning Christs sufferings And if it be asked What is the reason of it why is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament a contemning of Christs sufferings I answer 1. Because the Sacrament is a plain revelation and exhibition of Christ crucified This is my body which was broken