How is Christ's Body and Blood present in this Ordinance Our Lord is Ascended into Heaven with his Human Body and the Heavens are to contain him till the Restitution of all things And therefore as the Bread and Wine are not annihilated or not destroyed nor changed into the Flesh and Blood of Christ according to the Romanists So nor present with in and under the Bread and Wine according to the Lutherans So that we need not say that the Body and Blood of Christ are at all present there for they are in Heaven But the Bread and Wine are the Signs and Memorials of the Sacrifice and Sufferings of Christ The Death of Christ and his Sacrifice upon the Cross with the Fruits and Effects thereof unto us are especially to be understood by his Body and Blood And it is in these that we have Communion in the Ordinance of the Supper The Expressions therefore which some Protestant Writers have used about the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in this Sacrament are very * See a Tract on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by Mr. John Hales of Eaton Colledge in Oct. unwary For thereby they seem to make Mysteries where there is no need at all of any It is true in the next Chapter it is said of the Bread This is my Body that is the Sign and the Memorial of it Yet here the Bread broken is said to be the Communion or the Communication of his Body that is A Solemn Rite instituted by God to communicate to us the Fruits and Benefits of Christ's broken Body or of his Sacrifice and Sufferings Represented by it That as verily as we are Treated at the Table with Bread and Wine so the worthy Receiver shall share in the Benefits of Christ's Death This is Intelligible and Plain 3. This will help us to understand what is meant by the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ By this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Communication as it may as well be rendred that we have in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Ordinance of the Supper Two Things may this Import 1. Our Participation of the Fruits of Christ's Death and Sacrifice That we share in the Priviledges of Reconciliation to God Forgiveness of Sin Peace of Conscience and the Promise of Eternal Life by Vertue of Christ's Death 2. That Others share with us therein or that we Partake of these Benefits with others For so it follows in the next Verse That though many Members we are all one Body and one Bread for we are all Partakers of that one Bread That is We are all one Church and one Body of Christ by Covenant Union unto him And of him we do all Sacramentally and Spiritually partake in this Ordinance As many Grains of Corn make one Loaf and many Members one Body We being many are one Bread and one Body The Church of Rome from that Expression might have as well argue That all Christians are substantially changed first into the Bread and then into the natural Body of Christ by partaking of this Sacrament As well as that the Bread is changed into the Body of Christ for all Christians are said to be but one Bread and one Body by vertue of their Communion in this Ordinance 4. Hereby also we understand how we have Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ by the Lord's Supper How we and others partake in the Benefits of his Death and Passion And that two ways As this Sacrament is a Sign and a Symbol of it and as it is a Means 1. It is a Sign of it All that eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup do thereby Commemorate the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ and profess to own that the Body and Blood of Christ offered upon the Cross is the Food and Nourishment of their Souls to Eternal Life That Christ is their Saviour and Redeemer That they hope for all their Acceptance with God in both Worlds only upon the account of the Sacrifice of Christ They professedly declare that living and dying they are and will be his They hope for Victory over Death and the Devil by the Cross of Christ and for a Glorious Resurrection from Death as the Fruit of his Death and Resurrection 2. These Words do import further That the eating of this Bread and drinking of this Cup are the Means appointed by Christ for our Communion in his Body and Blood We share in the Benefits of his Death and Sacrifice and by due Attendance upon this Ordinance the precious Fruits of his Death and the Gifts and Graces of his Spirit are augmented and encreased in us in order to our full and final Blessednes in the other World which this is preparatory to and fits us for As the partaking of things sacrificed to Idols was a Fellowship with Devilss 1 Cor. 10.20 So the partaking of that which was sacrific'd to God is a Fellowship with him * See Mr. Charnock 's 2d Vol. p. 759. And of the Divine Attributes p. 638. Prayer is an Act of Homage and Praise of Gratitude but we have not so near a Communion with a Person either by Petitioning for somewhat we want or by returning him Thanks for a Favour received as we have by sitting with him at his Table partaking of the same Bread and the same Cup. In all Nations the nearest Fellowship consists in things of this nature Take Eat manifests a Communion It would be an empty Mystery and unworthy of an Institution by Divine Goodness if there were not some Communion with God and Christ in it There would be some kind of Deceit in the Precept Take Eat and Drink this is my Body and Blood If there were not a Conveyance of Spiritual Vital Influences to our Souls For the narural end of Eating and Drinking is the Nourishment and encrease of the Body and Preservation of Life by that which we Ea and Drink I might consider this Ordinance as a Sign and Means of our Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ or of our sharing in the Fruits of his Death And amplifie it several ways 1. By considering on what Accounts this is a likely Means of such a Communion And 2. How Faith must be acted that it may be so as to us As to the former 1. As this Ordinance is Commemorative of the Sacrifice of Christ and being to be observed in Remembrance of him 2. As it is an open Profession of the Cross of Christ that we glory in it and therefore shew forth the Lord's Death that way professing our selves not to be ashamed of our Character as the Followers of a crucified Jesus 3. As it is a Renewal and Confirmation of the Covenant between God and Us through Jesus Christ Renewing our Engagements and Obligations to be the Lord 's for ever In the Celebration of this Ordinance we have a Special Opportunity for this it is a principal part of our Work at this Table 4. As it
is a fit Season for extraordinary Thanksgiving and Praise blessing God for Jesus Christ Which Thankfulness for Christ disposes and fits us for the Reception of further Grace as the Fruit and Purchase of his Death and so is the Means of our Communion in his Body and Blood Thus it is the Cup of Blessing and of Thanksgiving that we there Receive which Cup of Blessing upon such Accounts as these is our Communion in the Blood of Christ. 2. You will hereby the better perceive what is to be done on our part in order to this Communion 1. Our Faith must Eye the Authority of Christ enacting it We must act in Obedience to an Institution and Appointment of Christ It was a Remarkable Instance and Act of his Kingly Office to enjoyn this Memorial of his dying Love And the Season of its Institution is the more observable viz. In the close of his Publick Ministery of his Prophetical Office upon Earth and in his Entrance upon the Execution of the Principal part of his Priestly Office by being made a Sacrifice between both of these And to render both Effectual our Lord interposed an Act of his Kingly Office in the Institution of this Ordinance Accordingly it should be eyed and owned by us in order to our Communion with him therein 2. The Love of Christ must especially be Eyed and Attended to in this Supper as Exprest by his Death and Sufferings Of this we have here the most lively Representation with the Glorious Effects of that Love which are not Represented with such a Beauty and Lustre by any other Ordinance as by this The constraining Love of Christ in his whole undertaking is better discerned and tasted in this Ordinance than as it is proposed 〈◊〉 several parts in the Holy Scripture Here we are called to the particular Application of it He loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Rev. 1.5 3. The Soveraignty and the Wisdom of God in Instituting these External Signs and Elements of Bread and Wine must also be Eyed and Attended to They most fitly Signifie and Represent the great Things they are designed for and yet without a Divine Institution could have no Relation to the Thing signified How suitable is the plain matter of this Sacrament unto the holy Author of it We remember in this Supper his Body hanging on the Cross and therefore it was not fit the Sacrament of his Body should be sumptuous and rich upon the Table Nevertheless by Bread to strengthen and Wine to comfort all the Benefits of a crucified Saviour are fitly Represented and much better than they could have been by the choicest Delicates In order to this Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ we must take heed to our selves not to rest in the External Signs but to discern the Lord's Body to apprehend the Spiritual Import and End of this Divine Institution That by Faith we may Receive Christ and feed upon him so as to Experience the Communications of his Grace and Receive fresh Influences of his Spirit That we may Accept all the Benefits of the New Covenant which are here Offered and Sealed to us and that we may Devote Resign and Dedicate our selves afresh to be the Lord's to Obey him and serve the Purposes of his Glory while we live in hope of the blessed Recompence which he has Purchased and promised and is gone to prepare and which he will not fail to come again and bestow Until which time this Ordinance is to continue in the Church To shew forth the Lord's Death till he come Vse 1. The first Reflection I would make on this is upon the Sacrilegious Confidence of those Men who deny Christians the Means of their Communion in the Blood of Christ who rob them of one half of this Sacrament by denying the Cup of Blessing to the Laity The Cup is the Communion of the blood of Christ says the Apostle Drink ye all of it says our Lord. And yet the Church of Rome will not suffer the People to taste it But as one Errour makes way for another they pretend that by the New Doctrine of Concomitancy the Bread or the little Wafer which is not broken neither according to the order of Christ but put whole into the Peoples Mouths by the hands of the Priest This Wafer shall be enough for the People and by the help of a strong Imagination of the Authority of their Church the very Body Blood and Bones of Christ shall be contained under the Form and Appearance of Bread One would wonder how any Thing can be plainer both in this and the next Chapter and in the Institution it self as Recorded by the Evangelists than the Universal Obligation upon Christians to partake of the Cup as well as the Bread And what Authority can any Man or Number of Men have to alter such a Constitution May they not as well take away the Bread from the People as the Cup They will grant that for a Thousand Years after Christ it was the Sense and Practice of the Christian Church that the People should partake of the Cup too And for Fourteen hundred Years it can be proved that they did even from the Apostle's Time down to that of Thomas Aquinas in the latter end of the Thirteenth Century Justin Martyr Cyprian Nazianzen Chrysostom and all the most considerable Writers of the Ancient Church are express in their Testimony for it But what need we concern our selves about the Judgment of Antiquity When there is a Positive Institution of Christ and in a large Account thereof by the Apostle Paul in the Eleventh Chapter he speaks but one word of the Consecration of the Bread but uses divers Expressions to signifie the Excellency of the Cup. This is my Blood says Chrâ—st The Blood of the New Testament shed for the Remission of Sins of many His sufferings and the reality of his Death are in a most lively manner set forth by the shedding of his Blood Not to insist upon his bloody sweat in the Garden You know when he was whipt and scourged and crowned with Thornes he then shed Blood Blood issued from his hands and Feet when he was nailed to the Cross and from his side when he was pierced by the Roman Soldiers By the shedding of his Blood he lost his Life and without shedding of Blood there could be no Remission So that to deprive the People of the Cup is to take away the most lively and the most essential Representation of the Sufferings and Death of Christ The Doctrine of Concomitancy will not availe in this Case The partaking of the Bread only is not sufficient whereby to remember his Death For the Separation of his Blood from his Body was the means of his Dying This destroys the Distinction between the two Symbols which yet are very different in their Names in their Properties in their Vse and in the Time of receiving them Besides it is contrary to all the Rules of Language
to say I drink when I only eat But there is worse in it still For they seal up the Fountain of Christ's Blood from the People They pour it back again as it were into his Body and shut up his wounds as if his Blood were not shed for any but the Priests God has appointed the double Elements to increase the Consolation of Christians And we should not marvel sayes one that they who deny the Certainty of Grace and the Possibility of Assurance should deny the People the double Elements By their Doctrine they Preach but a half Comfort to Souls and by their Practice they administer but a half Sacrament to the Laity It is true They tell us that we read of this Ordinance under the Name of Breaking of bread We grant it But they may as well conclude That when Joseph Feasted and entertained his Brethren that he gave them nothing to Drink because it is only said That they did eat with him Can any one doubt but when we pray for our daily bread in the Lord's Prayer that we ask what is necessary for the Relief and Satisfaction of our Thirst as well as Hunger in that Petition Notwithstanding all that may be said against their Practice of denying the Cup to the People we read in the History of the Council of Trent when Communion in both kinds was proposed by those who were sent from France In the Reply made to that Motion They called the Cup for the Laity a Cup of Poyson And among other Anathema's in the Council of Trent there is one against all those that shall say That the Church had not good reason to take away the Cup from the People And yet they assign no Reason at all when there is manifestly as much Reason for drinking of the Cup as for eating of the Bread the same Authority requiring both The Cup of Blessing which we bless is the Communion of the Blood of Christ 2. With what humble Thankfulness should we use this Priviledge and obey this Order of our Lord Remembring him in this manner since thereby we have Communion in his Body and Blood The Night before he was betrayed he took Bread and took the Cup He Instituted the Feast and bid us Celebrate it in Remembrance of him You my Friends and Followers as if our Lord had said I am now about to leave you for the hour is at hand when I shall be Apprehended bound and Judged Condemned and Crucified and then I shall Rise again and go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God E're long I shall be received out of your sight you shall see me no more on Earth you shall not eat and drink with me any more as you have done But let me not be out of your mind when I am gone I have loved you and I will love you to the Death And to morrow you shall see the proof of my Love to you and to the lost World when I shall offer my self a Sacrifice for sin and lay down my Life for you And will you forget me That you may not I do institute and appoint this Solemn Memorial of my Death and leave it in Charge upon you and my whole Church to the end of the World upon all my Followers in all Ages to do it in Remembrance of me As often as you eat this Bread and drink this Cup of Blessing that you shew forth my Death till I come Accordingly the first Disciples of Christ did every Lord's Day make it a part of their Publick Worship But as the Zeal and Fervour of Christians abated the Frequency of Celebrating this Feast did abate too But some will be ready to say The Priviledge is so great I durst not adventure It is the Communion of the body and blood of Christ I am not fit for so great an undertaking My Conscience tells me I am utterly unworthy of so high a Favour My sins are so many and my frailties so many I durst by no means as yet adventure to come I Answer 1. That Sense of our Unworthiness and Unfitness which keeps us from the performance of a plain Duty is not true Humility It is not Presumption to do what we are required and to come when we are bidden though we are Unworthy to come We are unworthy of Food and Cloathing Will you therefore starve your selves or go naked Remember you are Invited and your Refusal thereupon may proceed from Pride if the Sense of Unworthiness hinder your Obedience to the Call of Christ It is a bold thing you think for you to come But is there no faulty Boldness in your neglecting to come when Christ has bid you remember him this way For this is not a Priviledge only but at the same time it is a Duty too And if your sense of your Unworthiness help you to come humbly and better prepared it is one of the best Characters of a worthy Receiver but it ought not to keep you from receiving altogether 2. You say you are unfit It may be you say true Will you continue so from year to year Is it not a Duty to fit and prepare your selves to repent of all sin and give up your selves to God in Christ as your God and Saviour and then renew your Covenant Do not you know that the Ignorant and the impenitent who are unfit to come to the Lords Table are unfit to die unfit for Heaven And will you continue in such a state wherein you are unfit to die And yet are uncertain to live an hour Your unfitness is your sin and will you turn it into an Apology for your other Sin It is the Duty of all real and unfeigned Christians to come to this Ordinance And it is the Duty of all to be such that they may come Not to Commemorate the Death of Christ this way as he hath appointed it is one sin To live in the neglect of due Preparation for it is Another Will your being Unprepared excuse your not coming when it is your duty to be such as may come How can you think God will forgive one sin because you commit another How can you expect he should pardon your neglect of his Table when all that you can say is that you neglect to fit your selves for it Men will not do their duty in other things and so are unfit for this Therefore 3. How is it that you are not as much afraid of disobeying this Command of thus Remembring the Death of Christ as you are afraid of doing it Unworthily You are afraid you should offend God by coming But ought you not to fear lest you offend him by staying away Should not a total neglect be apprehended a Fault as well as an undue Performance You do well to fear Unworthy receiving O be but as fearful to continue Unworthy and Unfit to receive This equal fear of Caution on both sides would make you diligent and solicitous to fit and prepare your selves And this concerns
Reason of that Name Passover is because of the Angels passing by their Houses and their consequent Deliverance out of Egypt passing out of the House of Bondage into Liberty And nothing is more usual than to give to the Cause the Name of the Effect Upon which Account Christ is called our Righteousness Wisdom Resurrection and Life c. But the same Name Passoâ—er is also given to those Lambs which were slain every year afterwards This Feast being Annually obserâ—ed in remembrance of that Deliverance of theirs out of Egypt This being a constant Memorial of the first Passover has the same Name given it with that to which it reâ—ated And this also is common in Scripture to give the Name of the thing signified to the Sign which represents it So the Jews are said to k ll the Passover that is the Paschal Lamb which was in remembrance of the Angels passing by their Houses and their consequent Deliverance out of Egypt Thus Circumcision is called the Covenant of God And the Rock in the Wilderness is called Christ And the Seven Candlesticks in St. John's Vision are the Seven Churches That is These are signified and represented by them 'T is therefore very absurd for the Romanists to insist upon these Words This is my Body to prove that the Substance of Christ's Flesh and Blood is in the Sa rament They may as well argue That the Paschal Lamb that Christ did eat with his Disciples was the same with that which was slain by the Israelites in Egypt Or that it was not an Animal because it is called a Passover Or that the Paschal Lamb was Transubstantiated into the Flesh of Christ because Christ is called our Passover and sometimes called the Lamb of God as well as the Bread in the Sacrament called his Body and the Wine his Blood Before I leave this Head I might mention the Historical Evidence that agrees to that of the Holy Scriptures concerning the Israelites Passover in Egypt and the sprinkling of their Door-posts with the Blood of the Lamb in that Memorable Night of their Delîverance For the better understanding whereof we may consider 1. That the Jews after the Death of Moses and Joshua were several times in Subjection to the Neighbouring Nations and could not have had the Confidence to keep up such a Sâ—lemn Memorial of this thing every Year if the matter of Fact had not been known to the Egyptians and their other Neighbours â—ound about to be true which yet the Jews continued to observe every Year till heir last General Dispersion And to this day they have something in Imitation of it wherever they are scattered upon the Face of the Earth Besides this 2. The Tribe of Levi were set apart by God and Consecrated to him in a Solemn manner in stead of the First-born of the People of Israel that were preserved in Egypt as you read Numb 3.12 13. For when I smote all the First-born in Egypt I hallowed unto me all the First-born of Israel They are mine and the Levites instead of them So that every Levite was a living Memorial of that Miracle 3. Besides the constant Law injoyned upon the Jews and observed to this day concerning the Redemption of every First-born among them and of unclean Beasts Numb 18.15 4. The Memory of the Death of the First-born in Egypt which gave occasion to the Ceremony of the Passover continued among the Egyptians even after the Death of Christ For * Haeres 18. advers Nazaraeos Epiphanius relates That at the same time of the Year the Night before the Israelites went out of Egypt when the First-born in Egypt were slain the Egyptians were wont to mark their Houses their Trees their Sheep c. with red by that as by a kind of Talisman thinking to avoid some such Mischief and Calamity as their Fathers experienced at that time and which the Israelites escaped by following the Advice of Moses to Sprinkle the Door-posts of their Houses with Blood Some such Custom as this continued in Egypt even after the Incarnation of Christ II. Having spoken thus much concerning the Jewish Passover Let me now consider our Lord's desire to eat of it With desire have I desired to eat of this Passover before I suffer With desire have I desired An usual Hebraism to signifie the earnestness and vehemency of his Desire The Evangelist Luke hath many Instances of this agreeable to other Expressions in other places as Heb. 6.14 In blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I wâ—ll multiply thee The Zeal and Earnestness and Ardency of his Desire is expressed by it Agreeable to that forementioned place which referr'd to his Death and Sacrifice Luk. 12.50 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished As if he could not live in Ease have no Rest or Quiet till he was made a Sacrifice And that is the first and great Reason of desiring this Passover 1. Because this was to be the Last before he Suffered Therefore he so earnestly desires it The near approach of his Sufferings did not at all abate his Resolution and Desire of Sâ—ffering but rather gave an Edge to his Affection He was so far from being disheartened by the near Prospect of his Crucifixion that the nearer he comes to it the more he desires it And therefore desires to eat of this Passover which was to be his last And then makes his Last Will and Institutes this Supper the same Evening being desirous every thing should be dispatched that was necessary or fit to be done before he Suffered It was the Last Night of his Life and the Night wherein he was to be Betrayed and foreknew he should be so Other Passovers Prefigured his Death this did both Prefigure and Accompany it for his Death was now in a manner present 'T was this that made him long and desire to eat this Passover Though at the same time he had so near a Prospect of his Amazing Sufferings in the Garden that Night and on the Cross the next day Could we understand the Agonies of his tormented mind that made him complain That his Soul was sorrowful even unto death and Pray with doubled and trebled Importunity that the Cup might pass from him we may then judge of his Love in desiring to eat of this Passover for this reason because his Last 2. Another Reason may be To give us an Example of Obedience And therefore being made under the Law he would exactly observe it And so for our sakes fulfil all Righteousness as in many other Instances of Subjection to his own Creatures of paying Tribute to his own Subjects c. And to teach us Humility a little before this he would wash the Feet of his own Disciples with those hands which just after this Passover had all Power in Heaven and Earth Solemnly given into them And not only as to the Moral Law But he stooped down to the very Fringes of
to be Saved by Faith in a Mediator as well as we The Gospel was preached unto them as well as unto us 2. Did Christ desire Fellowship with his Disciples Friends and Followers in the Passover What shall we think of those that despise such Institutions and look upon themselves as above such Ordinances as if they had a nearer and better way of Communion with God and Christ then this Remissness and Indifference as to these things Neglect and Carelesness in Preparation for them is likewise a degree of Contempt that deserves to be Reproved 3. Was Christ so desirous to eat his last Passover before he suffered for us because of his Willingness to Suffer What Ingratitude does this imply in our Backwardness and Cowardize when we are called to suffer for him 4. Did our Lord desire to eat this Passover because it was the last and consequently was Willing to be a Sacrifice for us What an Argument of his endearing Love does this afford us And how should it Enflame ours to him It was not from Ignorance of what he was to Suffer he fully knew what he had undertaken he perfectly understood what his Baptism of Blood did signifie and yet he earnestly desired it and was straitned till it was Accomplished He knew the Burden of Sin that he was to Expiate as a Sin-Offering when he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree as a Sacrifice to Divine Justice for us He knew the bitterness of that Cup which he was to drink of before-hand and yet for our sakes he desires it What Thankfulness do we owe for such inestimable Love He was willing to submit to such difficult Terms to bring about our Reconciliation to God He was willing to be obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross to turn away the Divine Displeasure from us and to restore us to the Divine Favour and Image again He was willing to be a Sacrifice for sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God through Faith in him He was willing to bear the Curse that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon us He was willing to be our Paschal Lamb to be slain and sacrificed for us that by the sprinkling of his Blood we might be delivered from Sin and Hell that by feeding on him as our Passover we might be Partakers of Spiritual and Eternal Life And even in the midst of his Agony in the Garden notwithstanding the strugling of his Humane Nature against the bitterness of the Cup which made him pray for the passing of it away yet as Mediator he was willing and therefore adds Not my Will but thine be done Father glorifie thy self O matchless and incomprehensible Love How should our Souls be Ravished with the Contemplation of it How hard and insensible are our Hearts if they feel no constraining Vertue in the Consideration of such Love If we do not Sacrifice our Lusts in Requital of his being a willing Sacrifice for us Shall not the Love of Christ which bubbles up in every Drop of his Blood and made him willing and resolved to shed it on our Account make us hate that Sin which he died to Atone for and to destroy Can we consider him Groaning Sweating Bleeding Dying for Sin and yet Retain an Affection to it And rush into it through the Wounds and Blood and Agony and Death of our Redeemer Shall that ever be sweet to us which put so much Vinegar and Gall into his Cup Let me add a few Words for Counsel and Direction 1. Did Christ earnestly desire to eat this Passover and have Communion with his Disciples therein How earnestly should we desire to have Communion with him in that Ordinance that succeeded to it which was Instituted by Christ himself the same Evening in the close of the Paschal Supper Is not a Spiritual Communion with him now he is in Glory as desirable as his Bodily Prâ—sence was when in a state of Humiliation Is it not the Spirit and Temper of all the Disciples of Christ in every Age of the Church to value and to desire such near Approaches to him How did the believing Jews prepare themselves for such a Solemnity as the Passover How did David's Heart pant and faint and long for Communion with God in the Services of the Temple Psalm 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the Beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple The Israelites were to eat the Passover in haste with greediness of desire Non lento Corde non languido Ore And is it not a Shame to us to have no Appetite for such a Feast Is â—t not for want of such Desires of Communion with Christ that we meet with so little Satisfaction when we come Let him that is a thirst come and such shall be filled when others shall be sent empty away but the hungry Souls shall not be sent empty away from the Lord's Table We may likewise heighten our Desires and Appetites when we come to this Table by considering For ought we know this may be the last Communion with Christ in such an Ordinance that we shall ever enjoy before it be fully accomplished in Heaven 2. Let us imitate Christ as our Passover Both in his Readiness to Suffer and in his Character and Qualification as the Spotless Lamb of God in Meekness and Patience and Submission c. Without this we can never prove our Interest in him 3. Let us thankfully Contemplate this Lamb of God as desiring to be Sacrificed for us Let us seriously and often consider the Voluntariness of his Death and Sacrifice the Fruits of his Suffering the Merit of his Cross How Acceptable his Sacrifice was to God how beneficial unto us What a Deliverance we have by it what a Bondage we are saved from what a Glorious Liberty he has purchased what a compleat Salvation we expect when all shall be fulfilled in Heaven These are proper Thoughts for those of us this Evening who have Feasted this Day on the Sacrifice of Christ Every one of us in particular not only in publick but in secret should bless God for Jesus Christ Admiring the Matchless Grace and Love of the Redeemer in being thus a Willing Sacrifice for us and calling us to Feast upon it having Instituted this Ordinance on purpose for that very end Lastly Live in the Daily Exercise of Faith on the Blood of Christ as the Lamb of God Sacrificed for us It was the sprinkling of the Blood of the Paschal Lamb that was the Mark of the Israelites Deliverance So the shedding of the Blood of Christ with particular Application by Faith is aâ— necessary for us Without it we cannot escape the Stroke of the destroying Angel Without it the Blood of Christ will call for Vengeance and his very Sacrifice and Sufferings plead against us We should every Day by fresh
shameful Cross and therefore retires here for Meditation and Prayer in order to it To bear the Curse of the Law and strugle with the Wrath of God the due Wages of our sin which he undertook to expiate And to Conflict with all those Sufferings Antecedent and Concomitant to such a Death needed such Preparation Yea the solemn Resignation of himself to the Will of God by Prayer in this Garden before he Offered himself upon the Cross was necessary as the accomplishment of a legal Type that prefigured it For all the Levitical Sacrifices were first consecrated by Prayer before they were burnt upon the Altar This Lamb of God the truth of all those Sacrifices the Substance of all those Types was first to devote himself to God by Prayer before he was nailed to the Cross And this Garden of Gethsemane being a solitary Place was fit for that purpose 3. I may add another reason He went thither because it was a place that Judas knew of where his Enemiâ—s might be sure to find him and so accomplish the eternal Counsels of God concerning his sufferings and Death Several times before this they endeavoured to lay hands on him but his hour was not come But now he was willing and resolved to dye And therefore knowing that Judas would betray him and having bid him do quickly what he intended to do he doth not go about to abscond and hide himself to prevent it He retires to this Garden which the Traytor was well acquainted with And when he comes with a Company to take him he tells them more than once He is the Person they seek for Let me make a few Reflexions on this particular As 1. Since our Lords Passion began in a Garden Let me caution you not to abuse your Gardens and places of Retirement and Recreation to vanity and sin but improve them by holy Meditation when you are walking there How often is Christ dishonoured in such places either when you are in Company or when are alone In company by intemperance in Banqueting or by vain or wanton Discourses or by uncharitable and backbiting Stories of others c. Or when you are alone by wanton and lustful thoughts by speculative uncleanness wicked projects c. But thus to retire into a Garden is to retreat from men and fall into the hands of the Devil Such persons imitate their Mother Eve in the Garden of Eden and hold a Dialogue with the old serpent Others who are less criminal are yet to be reproved that make no holy improvement of such places but only for Recreation and Pleasure to gratifie their Senses Every wise and good man loves sometimes to be alone and ought to be so for serious Meditation Now a Garden is a fit place for such a purpose and may be of excellent use to such an end And there is no Object can meet our Eyes or affect any of our senses there without giving us some Notices of God and directing us to some useful Instructions in reference to our selves if we did not want a holy heart and spiritual wisdom to improve them Especially in your Garden walks Meditate on the Garden of Eden and think of this Garden of Gethsemane Consider how Man sinned in the one and how Christ suffered in an Agony in the other First From the Garden of Eden you may take occasion to contemplate the State of Innocence the Entrance of Sin the Fall of our First Parents the Subtilty of the Tempter the Danger of Gratifying the Sensual Appetite from their Example in Eating the Forbidden Fruit the prevalency of Temptation when a near and Beloved Relation is the Instrument of the Devil to urge it c. Secondly Think of the Garden of Gethsemane too when you are delighting your self in some pleasant Walk in your own Garden Think how the Son of God lay prostrate on his Face in an Agony in this Garden of Gethsemane When you look upon a Fruit-tree especially a Vine or taste of a Grape remember the Blood of Christ that trickled from his Sacred Body If you are sometimes merry and chearful with your Friends in a Garden forget not how your Saviour was exceeding sorrowful My Soul is exceeding Sorrowful unto Death When you are cooling your selves in the Shade remember his Agony and Bloody Sweat under the Apprehensions of the Wrath of God due to your sin How his Soul boiled up as one of the Greek Expressions does signifie and his Blood broke out at every part of his Body with the extremity of the Heat You may consider how the First Adam was Tempted by an Evil Angel in the Garden of Eden and the Second was Comforted in his Agony by a Good one Adam's Sentence in the former was to get his living by the Sweat of his brows Christ by his Bloody Sweat in this procures our Life And let not such places be abused to sin and vanity that may so easily be improved to put us in mind of such Important Truths 2. In that this was a Solitary Place we may observe That it is fit to retire for Meditation and Prayer to some Secret Place from the Company and Observation of others There are many things which are proper enough and may become us in an Affectionate Prayer in secret especially for a Penitent which are not allowable in Social Worship or Publick Prayer with others As Prostration of our selves on the Ground Beating the Breast Extraordinary Sobs and Sighs Plentiful Tears and Passionate Expostulations with God c. which either Modesty or Prudence may restrain in publick may be used with greater Liberty in Secret where is no Temptation to Hypocrisie or vain-glory to abuse them And therefore our Lord directs us Math. 6. That we enter into our Closets and shut the door and then pray to our Father who is in Heaven who seeth in secret and will reward us openly 3. In that Christ retires here to prepare himself with the greater Solemnity for his approaching Death We may learn That whenever we have a Prospect of our Change at hand we should not content our selves with habitual preparation but use a more solemn distinct and actual preparation for it Our Lord no doubt was always in a Readiness for that which he knew was the great end of his Incarnation And yet the night before his Sufferings he retires into this Garden to prepare himself for that hour We should always so live as to be fit to die because every hour we make some steps towards the Grave Every thought every word is a Sand running from the Glass of Time We sleep every night in the outer Chambers of Death and should by Prayer prepare our selves for it even for that Image of Death And shall we not much more for Death it self when we have a Prospect of its approach in whose Arms we must rest Prisoners till the great Morning of the Resurrection If God give us Notice and Warning by Old Age or a dangerous Sickness or a languishing
Body or by any other method that we shall shortly leave this World Solemn actual Preparation in such a case is fit and necessary If God tell any of you by a Bodily Sickness your Change is near If the Decays and Infirmities of Old Age the most incurable of all Diseases tell you That you have not long to live that it is high time to set your Hearts and your Houses in order You ought actually to prepare solemnly to do so You that have one foot in the Grave already forget not this least the Devil trip up the other before you are Ready But you that have served the Lord from your Youth and have the comfortable Review of your past sincerity in walking with God you may rejoyce upon any such Summons that your Race is almost run Your warfare will shortly be accomplished you have but a few steps more of your pilgrimage to make a few Temptations more to resist a very little time longer of trial and conflict before you shall receive the End of your Faith and Hope and be for ever with the Lord. Should you not then with such a warning stir up the Grace of God quicken holy Desires strengthen Faith and exercise it about the Invisible World and solemnly resign your selves into the Arms of the Redeemer 4. Because this was the place that Judas knew of were he might find our Lord and betray him Let us take notice of Christ's willingness and Resolvedness to suffer Death and what an Obligation it lays upon us of Love and Gratitude to this Merciful Saviour This I shall a little urge as suitable to the past Solemnity of this day to make us Thankful who have been Partakers of the Memorials of his dying Love in the Sacrament of the Supper He was free and voluntary in Suffering He went to the place which Judas knew of though he knew Judas would come and betray him He freely offered himself in the Council of God to undertake our Redemption He voluntarily quitted his Fathers Bosom in the fulness of Time to assume our Nature and therein suffer and die He was not forced into a State of Poverty and Humiliation but for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might become rich The necessity of his Death arose from his own holy will his free Act and Undertaking which doth not lessen his Willingness but heighten the Obligation of it It had been Injustice to punish an Innocent who was unwilling to suffer in the place of a Criminal But he gave himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling Odour unto God for us He was not driven by force and violence as the legal Sacrifices unto the Altar But he comes to the Door of the Tabernacle he enters into this Garden that Judas knew of He endeavours not to go out of the way to escape their Malice but chuses a place that the Traytor was acquainted with He had a Baptism to be Baptized with and he longed for its Accomplishment He walked forth of his own Accord over the Brook Cedron with his Disciples into this Garden where he knew he should be taken And when they came to take him he permits Judas to kiss him which was the sign he had given them to distinguish the Person He twice tells the Officers That he was He whom they sought for He would not suffer an Apostle to use a Sword in his Defence though he could have commanded Legions of Angels for his Guard He proves that he might have escaped if he would for he speaks but a mild word saying I am he and they all fall to the ground as if he had come to apprehend them and not they him After this he would not work a Miracle to gratifie the Curiosity of Herod and make him his Friend in order to his Deliverance Yea he was silent under all the Accusations of the False Witnesses and afterward bore his own Cross as far as he was able towards the place of Execution And then he poured out his Soul unto Death and rendred up his Spirit to his Father saying It is finished It is finished And that last Circumstance is very considerable to prove his Willingness For we read that when they came to break his bones and found him dead which prevented the breaking of his Bones and accomplished the Prophecy concerning him which says A bone of him shall not be broken they wondered he was dead so quickly So quickly indeed when immediately before he gave up the Ghost he cried with a loud Voice Which sufficiently declared that no man took away his Life but that he voluntarily laid it down For having cryed with a loud Voice and thereby given sufficient Proof that his strength was not gone that his Spirits were not exhausted but he might have continued longer alive he then bowed his head in token of Reverence to his Father and gave up the Ghost which was a Circumstance so considerable that a Centurion who stood by observing it was thereupon converted and gave God the Glory But it may be objected though his coming into this Garden might be a Proof of his Willingness yet what passed there seems to intimate the contrary why else does he pray so earnestly that the Cup might pass from him if he was willing to drink it I answer That even in the Time of his Agony when he seemed most Unwilling as Man even when he prayed that the Cup might pass from him yet was he still willing as Mediator The Text says he began to be exceeding sorrowful and sore amazed saying My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death The Original words are very emphatical to express Sadness and Fear and such Affections of the Soul His Soul not his Body nor his Soul with Sympathy only with his Body For he was here alone in the Garden crucified as it were without a Cross His Body here suffered by reason of his Soul The whole Nature of Man had sinned and the Soul being the Principal in the commission of Sin the Redeemer who was to expiate sin suffered in his Soul My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even to death Insomuch that Clods of Blood dropt from him though there was no visible hand to strike him Which makes him pray and cry in such a manner to his Father for the passing away of the Cup Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Father save me from this hour Oh what Pain what Fear what Horror what dismal Apprehensions and cruel Sufferings must force such words of complaint from such an Heart as his But no wonder his Cries were so strong his Prayers so earnest his Complaints so loud and the Comfort of an Angel not sufficient for his support when the greatness of his Agony and the extream Sufferings of his Soul are above our thoughts to conceive who understand so little of the evil of sin and the vengeance due to it so little of the Terror of the Lord and the Power of his Wrath as a
and force according to our Faith The Arguments from God from Christ from our selves from the Divine Nature from the Example and Life of Christ from his redeeming Grace and dying Love from his precious Promises c. They all depend upon our Faith and have no force or power any further than we believe in Christ and heartily embrace the Gospel-Revelation Secondly It is by the Name of Christ or by Faith in him that we are Sanctified because in order to our Sanctification Christ is to be eyed and improved several wayes First The Blood of Christ must be eyed in order to our Sanctification Our Faith must be employed upon a Crucified Saviour As his Blood is able to cleanse us from all sins Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood Who gave himself for us that he might sanctifie and cleanse us by the washing of Water by the Word Rev. 1.5 Ephes 5.25 For as the Apostle argues from the taking away of Ceremonial Uncleanness by the Legal Purifications If the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean availed to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who by the Eternal Spirit offered up himself to God purge our Consciences from dead Works Heb. 9.13 Accordingly we find The Sanctification of the Spirit connected with the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus or as the purchase of his Blood 1 Pet. 1.2 Secondly Faith makes use of the Intercession of Christ and his Prayer in Heaven for this Effect The whole fruit of the Death of Christ whereof the Sanctifying Spirit is one Principal part is given out by the Father upon the Intercession of Christ What he merited on the Cross by his great Sacrifice he prays in Heaven may be applyed to Particular Souls as the fruit of it and upon the account of the everlasting value of his Death his Intercession founded on it is always Prevalent Thirdly His Promise and Covenant whereby he hath engaged to cleanse us from all Iniquity and to sprinkle clean Water upon us Ezek. 36.25 He hath promised his Blood shall be a Fountain open for sin and uncleaness Zach. 13.1 That Christ shall save us from our sins and be exalted to give Repentance and to turn us from our Iniquities and bring us back to God c. Fourthly Hereupon our Faith must eye the Spirit of Christ as the great Sanctifier of Souls and the Author of all our Purity This great Benefit which is promised in the Word purchas'd by Christ upon his Cross and bestowed granted and given out upon his Intercession is applyed by the Efficiency of the Eternal Spirit He Sanctifies our Hearts and Natures and continually vouchsafes holy Influences of Light and Life and Power answerable to the Duties Difficulties and Necessities of particular Souls in every Age and Place of the World This brings me to consider the other means of our Sanctification viz. Secondly By the Spirit of our God And that he doth two ways First By removing our Defilement and Pollution and Secondly As the Author of Actual Grace and Holiness First by the removing our defilement and pollution and accordingly he is promised sometimes as a Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap Mal. 3.2 and sometimes under the notion of Water Isa 4.4 Because all things under the Law were purged from their Typical Uncleanness either by Fire or Water What would abide the Fire was to be Purified by Fire and what would not was to be Cleansed by Water Numb 3.23 And here I might consider a Three-fold Defilement wherewith we are chargable First That of our Nature by Original Sin Secondly That which is contracted by Actual Sin Thirdly The Pollution and Defilement that cleaves to our best Duties So far as we are delivered from our Pollution as to either of these The Holy Ghost in the vertue of the Blood of Christ is the Author of it Secondly We may consider the Holy Spirit as the Author of Positive Holiness and Grace in the Soul and show First How he convinceth us of our need of it Secondly That he enables us to pray for it Thirdly To beleive the Value and Vertue of the Blood of Christ as able to procure it Fourthly How he makes use of the Word as the ordinary means of our Sanctification And Fifthly Sometimes enables us to improve Afflictions to promote the influence and efficacy of the Word to this purpose APPLICATION First From the consideration of what these Corinthians were before this Change we learn that some of the Worst and Vilest of sinners may be call'd and sanctified and find Mercy with God Such were some of you such Idolaters such Drunkards such Extortioners such Adulterers c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things such sins were some of you to express the heighth of their Wickedness Sins of a Crimson and Scarlet Die may be cleansed and forgiven The most polluted sinner may be purified by the Blood of Christ The most loathsome Diseases may be healed by our heavenly Physician The most unpolished Stones may be framed by the Spirit for a spiritual Building a Manasses a Mary Magdalen may be changed and justified God will hereby magnifie the Truth and Authority of his Word and the Power of his Spirit He will hereby bear Testimony to the Freeness of his Love and the Riches of his Grace He will hereby hearten and encourage the greatest Offenders to hope for pardon upon Repentance Isaiah 55.7 Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the Vnrighteous Man his Thoughts and turn to the Lord and he will abundantly pardon him He will hereby encourage Ministers in their Work though among a dissolute and perverse People For we preach in Hope that if the vilest of Men can but so far break the Snare of the Devil as to hear the Word we preach to them in hope of success We know not whose Hearts God will touch It may be the most Unlikely Person in the whole Assembly shall feel the Power of the Word Secondly What Love and Thankfulness do we owe to Christ And how should we Admire and Praise him for his Blood and Spirit unto which we owe this great Blessing of Sanctification That there is a Fountain opened for Sin and Vncleanness for the Men of Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for all Sorts and degrees of Persons and kinds of Sins That His Blood cleanseth from all sins Not only did so formerly but does so still Thirdly Learn where to go for this Benefit even to Jesus Christ. Beg to be Sanctified through the Merits of his Death and the Influence of his Spirit endeavour to be sensible of thy Filthiness and cry out Vnclean unclean Lord wash me throughly from my sins and purge me from all my pollutions Apply the Word of God and especially the Promises of the Gospel in order to thy being cleansed from all the Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 Fourthly What a Difference doth
Idols I say he leaves it unto themselves Verse 15. I speak as unto wise men Judge ye what I say That was the Case amongst many of these Corinthians they did not scruple to accompany their Unbelieving Neighbours and Acquaintance to the Banquets that they made in Honour of their false Gods They did not scruple to Eat with them of those things that were taken from their Execrable Altars as a Part and Remnant of those Sacrifices to Idols which were performed in the City of Corinth with all the Pomp of an Abominable Superstition This the Apostle shews to be unsuitable to their Profession of Christianity and that it could not agree with the Honour they had of eating at the Table of the Lord For these Heathens were seduced by Satan to make those Sacrifices and they were Devils whom they Worshipped as supposed Demi-Gods and in such Feasts they had a familiar Communion with them And I would not says the Apostle that you should have fellowship with Devils Verse 19 20 21. You cannot drink of the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils You cannot be partaker of the Lord's Table and the Table of Devils In the Words of the Text he leaves it to them to judge Whether it be not a most horrid Impiety to pretend to joyn these Two together the Divine Body and Blood of Christ with the Impious Sacrifices of these Idolaters For he makes the partaking of the Lord's Table not only a Testimony of our Vnion unto Christ and our Communion one with another as his Members but also a Testimony of our Disunion and Separation from all Idolatrous Worship The Cup of Blessing that we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread that we break c. Where we are to consider 1. The two Sacramental Signs the Cup and the Bread 2. What is to be understood by the Body and Blood of Christ 3. What by Commmnion in them 4. How the Cup and Bread in the Sacrament of the Supper are the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ And then I shall help you to Apply it 1. Concerning the Sacramental Signs the Cup and the Bread The Cup for the Wine in it by an ordinary Figure and the Bread which we break These are the two outward Elements in this Institution and neither of them must be omitted Whereas in Baptism there is but one outward Element here are two And there is good Reason for it 1. Because this Represents the Violent Death of Christ wherein his Blood was shed and separated from his Body It is therefore necessary there should be one Sign to Represent his Body and another Sign to Represent his Blood there having been a Separation by Death which is here to be Represented 2. The Lord's Supper being the Mystery of our spiritual Nourishment by Christ it was proper to employ both Eating and Drinking which are the two parts of our Corporal Nourishment and that could not have been entirely Represented by either of them alone The Cup of Blessing or Benediction which we bless or give thanks for i. e. Which we set apart by Prayer and Thanksgiving Blessing and giving of Thanks being often put one for another 1 Cor. 14.16 And in the Evangelical History Matth. 26. and Mark 16 What one Evangelist calls Blessing another calls Thanksgiving By vertue of which Blessing or Prayer by a Minister of Christ in his Name and according to his Example and Order That which before was common is set apart to an holy use and becomes the Sign and Seal of the Body and Blood of Christ The Cup of Blessing The Jews were wont at the Passover Feast or rather after it to drink of a Cup which the Master of the Family did bless i. e. Did pray over it or concerning it To distinguish this from that the Apostle says The Cup of Blessing which we bless which we Christians set apart in our Assemblies to shew forth the Lord's Death by And from this Passage of the Apostle this Ordinance is called by the Ancients the Eucharist upon the account of the Blessing or giving of Thanks Justin Martyr who lived but Fifty Years after the Death of the Apostle John calls it the Bread of the Eucharist in memory of the Passion of Christ Nay the Greek word for Blessing in this Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving of Thanks is sometimes used by the * See Mr. Daille in loc Ancients as the Name of this Institution Among others Cyril Bishop of Alexandria does often call it by the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cup of Blessing which we bless and the Bread which we break At the Feast of the Passover the Jews made use of such Bread as was flat and round and so was to be broken and cut asunder And the unleavened Bread among the Jews to this very day is of this kind Now our Lord Instituting his Supper the same Evening after the Celebration of the Passover we may suppose made use of the same sort of Bread That is As he changed the Signification of this Bread from that of their unleavened Bread to be a sign of his Body so he imployed the breaking of this Bread to signifie his cruel Sufferings in that body upon the Cross This Cup and this Bread even after Consecration For the Bread is not broken till after that is said to be the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ not his real Flesh and Blood For besides the Vanity of such a Sense and the Indecency and Uncomeliness of it yea the Contradiction and Impossibility of it It is against the express Testimony of the Apostle here and in other Places According to the new Doctrine of Rome Instead of saying here The Cup that we bless He would have said The Cup that we Transubstantiate and change into the proper Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ The Cup in which we leave not one drop of Wine But by pronouncing four or five little words fill it with the Body of Christ And is not this a strange way of blessing a Person or Thing to destroy the very Nature of the Thing that it shall be no longer what it was before The Bread was not blessed that it might be destroyed nor given to be eatâ—â—â— that it might cease to be before it was eaten 'T is to suppose God to put forth Miraculous Power to make his own Command of eating the Bread impossible The Bread that we break it is therefore Bread after it is broken after the Consecration and breaking it is Bread still For the Transubstantiation if there be any is upon the Consecration before it be broken But I hope most English Protestants are pretty well Instructed in this Truth and therefore I need not insist longer upon it 2. What are we to understand by the Body and Blood of Christ of which this is said to be the Communion
Forgiveness of Others If we have not had Love to our Fellow-Christians more excited in us to all that are Members of the same Body though they err and mistake though they diner from us though they be angry with us though they think hardly of us and speak hardly against us Yet if we have not had our Spirits brought to a Temper able to forgive them to pray for them and be ready to do them good c. We cannot say we have had Communion with Christ in his Ordinance For such Effects as these wiâ—l follow upon it Or rather it is in these things wherein a great part of our Spiritual Communion doth consist 2. If there have been any thing of this kind bless God for such a merciful Season For this is the Real Advantage and Good of any such Ordinance when it Rectifies our Spirits and betters our frame and subdues our Corruptions and recovers us from our back-slidings and gives us any thing more of the Divine Image and Likeness and makes us hate Sin more and love God and one another better This is the Real Advantage of such Seasons These are gainful Opportunities indeed where these Things are Attained where in any measure there are such Consequences of Approaching to the Lord's Table 3. Let us endeavour hence-forward to walk worthy of such a Priviledge and long for the Repetition of it Let us watch our Spirits this Evening and to Morrow and the following Week and Month that we may not presently lose the Savour of these things by secular and common Discourse and vain Converse When we go away from the Publick Worship let us spend the Remainder of the Day in such Offices and Exercises of Religion as may Assist us to prosecute our Great Design and may strengthen the Vows of God into which we have newly entred And let us shew we like his Fare and are pleased with the Entertainments of his House by desiring more such Opportunities and by Improving them when-ever they return One thing have I desired of the Lord says the Psalmist and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord for ever By this means we should endeavour to become growing thriving fruitful humble self-denying heavenly exemplary Christians walking worthy of our High and Holy Calling purifying our selves more and more from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit That our Hearts may be more fixed for God and Christ against all Competitors and under all Discouragements That Christ Jesus may have the more intire Possession of our Souls and the Service of our Lives That his Love being shed abroad in our Hearts nothing may ever be able to separate us from it That whether we live or dye Christ may be All in All to us Who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood To Him be Glory throughout all the Churches for ever Amen The Fifth Discourse Before The LORD's SUPPER THE Sin and Danger OF Unworthy Receiving From 1 COR. XI xxix He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself SO deep and General is the Corruption of Mankind that it may truly be said of very Many whose Carriage and Conversation is fair and unspotted that they are rather restrained by the Fear of Punishment than of Guilt of being Sufferers rather than of being Criminal Such an Errour it is true is injurious to the Dignity of the Divine Law and to the Honour and Authority of God's Government Nevertheless God doth so far Accommodate himself to our State as to Rule us by Moral Arguments that are proper to Influence our Hopes and Fears and therefore employs Threatnings as well as Promises and punishes some as Examples of Severity to warn others from the like Transgressions This Method the Apostle makes use of in this and the foregoing Chapter when he designed to Reform the scandalous Abuse of the Lord's Supper which these Corinthians were guilty of After he had Explained the Nature of the Institution and opened the Design and End of it he had Represented it as the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ He tells them what most manifestly follows from thence viz. The Greatness of the Sin to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup unworthily that if they do it without Self Examination they are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord They offend against the Lord Redeemer who hath appointed this Sacred Rite and even against his Body and Blood which are Signified and Represented by the Bread and Wine as the Memorial and Sign of it This to those that have any due Regard to the Authority and Love of a dying Saviour one would think should be Argument enough But least it should not besides the Declaration of their Sin he Denounces the Punishment of it in these Words That such do eat and drink Damnation to themselves Wherein we have First The Description of their Punishment who do unworthily partake of the Lord's Supper That they eat and drink Damnation to themselves Secondly the Reason of that Punishment intimated in the Nature and kind of their Sin That they discern not the Lord's Body Before I consider the Punishment of Vnworthy Receivers it will be proper to open a little the Nature of their Sin mentioned in the latter part of the Verse Not discerning the Lord's Body This may refer to the foregoing Expression of being Guilty of his body and blood and the one Phrase will give light to the other Such as receive Unworthily are Guilty of the body and blood of Christ because they do not discern and distinguish it aright They do not think of it as they ought They do not carry it suitable to its Excellent Nature and Vse and so they eat and drink Judgment to themselves by not discerning the Lord's body And thereby are Criminal against the Person of the Redeemer as cloathed with Human Nature and as giving the Memorials of his body and blood separated to betoken his Death and Sufferings For so we remember a crucified Saviour in this Ordinance It is therefore no wonder if such a Fault be severely punished That which we Translate Discern it is well known signifies to make a difference between one thing and another as Acts 15.19 So not to discern the Lord's body is not to difference and distinguish concerning it to look no further than the outward sense not to make a difference between common and sacramental bread not to eye the body and blood of Christ as signified by the Sacramental Elements not to remember or consider his cruel Sufferings which this should put us in Mind of This be sure is not to discern his body But few can be supposed so ignorant as not speculatively to discern and distinguish in this case But practically to do so is a greater mattâ—r it Imports to mind to attend to to esteem to honour to apply to use the body and blood of Christ and the sign and the Memorial
Consolation and full Assurance and raised Joys at the Table of the Lord never while we live yet the Authority of Christ requiring us To do this in Remembrance of him should be enough to determine our Practice against all the little Cavils and Objections that may be made against it O let us not be wanting in our Duty and the God of Love and Grace who is the Father of Mercies and our Gracious Redeemer of whose Compassion we have had such large and dear Experience will never be wanting to those who diligently and sincerely seek him THE END The Sixth Discourse After the LORD'S SUPPER OF Christ's Last Passover And its Accomplishment From LUKE XXII 15 16 17 18. With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you befoâ—e I suffer For I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God And he took the Cup and gave thanks and said Take this and divide it among your selves For I say unto you I will not drink of the Fruit of the Vine until the Kingdom of God shall come GReater Love hath no Man than this saith our Blessed Lord than to lay down his Life for his Friend To part with that for Another which of all things is the dearest and the most valuable to himself In all Ages of the Christian Church there have been some ready to give this Proof of their Love to Him who spake these words by not loving their Lives unto the Death when they stood in Competition with their Fidelity to Christ And with how much the greater Chearfulness and Alacrity Willingness and Desire they did it by so much the more powerful and constraining was the Principle of Love By this we may make some Judgment what manner of Love it was wherewith the Lord Redeemer loved us when he gave Himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling Odour unto God The Voluntariness of his Sacrifice argued the Excellency of his Incomparable Love Though his Death was Necessary with respect to the Eternal Purpose and Appointment of Heaven For it was by the determinate Counsel of God that the Messiah should suffer Death And though it were Violent with respect to the Instrumentality of Men in his Crucifixion they did it with violent hands Yet with reference to himself his Death was voluntary He made a willing Sacrifice of his own Life He laid it down None else could have taken it from him He gave himself a Ransom He became Poor He made himself of no Reputation He poured out his Soul unto Death It was not rent from him He was obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross This gave an extraordinary value to his Sufferings Upon this depended the Merit of his Sacrifice and the Efficacy of his Blood And this is one endearing Circumstance which heightens his Love and calls for our thankful Admiration He willingly offered himself in the first Council of Peace about our Redemption and undertook to suffer for us and make satisfaction to Divine Justice And after his Incarnation he always knew and frequently foretold his own Sufferings and Death He reproves Peter as if he acted the Devil's part when he would have disswaded him from it Yea he most earnestly desired this most bloody Baptism I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Luke 12.50 The night before his Sufferings he makes his last Will and Testament and leaves it with his Disciples Giving his blood to drink in the Sacrament to show hâ—w willingly he would pour it out the next dâ—y upon the Cross And on this Account he so earnestly desired to eat this Passover which the Text speaks of because it was the last before he should suffer Death And afterwards even the same Evening he goeâ— out into the Garden where he knew he should be betrayed And so in effect he brings himself to the Door of the Tabernacle to be offered to God a Sacrifice for us With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer As if he had said The Sufferings I have so often spoke of are now approaching The hour is at hand when I shall be betrayed and Crucified This is the last Passover I shall ever keep with you before I am lifted up from the Earth And therefore I most earnestly desire it because it is the last that will precede my Death Whereby I shall put an end to these legal Services which have all along referr'd to me and to the Sacrifice and Oblation I am to make for sin Henceforth I will eat and drink no more of the Passover Supper for my own Sufferings and Death is that which they signified and related to I am the true Paschal Lamb All the Rites and Observances about the killing and eating of it were but Typical of my Passion and shall now be fulfilled And here 1. I shall consider the Passover which our Lord desired to eat of 2. His ardent Desire to eat of this Passover and the Reason of it 3. The Company with whom he desired to eat it With you 4. The Time when Before I suffer 5. The Accomplishment of it in the Kingdom of God What we are to understand by the Kingdom of God and what by the fulfilling of it therein 6. His Resolution and Declaration That he would eat and drink no more so till it were Accomplished Lastly Some Reflections as the Application of the whole 1. Concerning the Feast of Passover You have the Institution of it Exod. 12. the beginning Where we find that it was appointed by God as a Memorial of the Israelites slavery in Egypt and their Deliverance out of it Former Miracles having been unsuccessful upon Pharaoh God intends to slay all the First-born of Egypt in one Night whereby in part the Curse of God pronounc't on Chaâ—â— is execâ—ted on his Posterity viz. the Egyptians in destroying All the First-born of botâ— Man and Beast The Israelites were ordered by Moses to slay a Lamb on the Fourteenth day of the First Month which answers to our March and to Sprinkle the Posts of their Doors with the Blood of that Lamb and to feed upon the Flesh of it in their several Families That very Night the destroying Angel strikes the First-born of every Family where this Command of sprinkling the Door-posts with the Blood of the Lamb was not observed On this you know they were delivered out of Egypt the Egyptians not only giving leave but dâ—siring them to be gone And this Deliverance being the Foundation of the Jewish State was to be perpetually observed by them in their Generations and to be an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12 42. The whole Institution of the Paschal Lamb is called by the Name of the Passover though it refer especially to the first Lamb in Egypt whose blood was sprinkled on the Door-posts of the Israelites Houses when the destroying Angel passed them by And the
the Ceremonial Law as an Example of Obedience And therefore the Skin of his Flesh was Circumcised and his Holy Mother Purified And he that was the true Passover would keep the Typical one And so as one well expresses it did obediently stand under his own Shadow 3. One Reason of his Desire to eat of this Passover might be to put an end to the Sacraments of the Legal Institution And therefore after the eating of the Passover he instituted the Lords Supper which succeeds in its room Which is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ the True Lamb of God the true Christian Passover in Remembrance of our Deliverance by Him from Sin and Hell from Death and the Devil Those things therefore that were but Types and Shadows of Him must cease after his Death the Truth and Substance of them being now Accomplished as I shall shew presently 4. Another Reason might be That he might have Fellowship and Communion with his Disciples And that leads to the consideration of the Third thing III. The Company with whom he desires to eat this his last Passover With You. The Jews tell us concerning the Number of those that were to eat the Passover That it was not to be under Ten for the whole Lamb was to be eaten Nor above Twenty lest they should need two Lambs Therefore our Lord sent word to one of his Disciples to prepare every thing for that Solemnity that the House might be searched if there were any Leavened Bread left in it Which they were wont to do very carefully in every corner saying Blessed art thou O Lord who hast Sanctified us by thy Precepts And then throwing a little Dust into the Air they used these words or the like If there be any leavened Bread in this House let it be as this dust cast into the Air. But the principal Reason of sending word before-hand might be because the Persons in the Family were to be numbred And it is not improbable but there were more Men than the Apostles and our Lord who were present at the eating of this Passover and it may be some Women too For 1. It is probable That the Man and his Family in whose House it was did eat of the Passover with Christ and his Apostles Secondly The Expressions of the Evangelist are very considerable concerning him that should betray him There is a Threefold Gradation He says first in the General One of you shall betray me And afterwards he comes nearer and says One of the Twelve Or of my Apostles often so called So that at the eating of this Passover there seemed to have been more present than the Twelve Apostles And afterwards he particularizeth the Person He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish Thirdly We read that the Virgin Mary and two or three other Women did usually accompany him and were then at Jerusalem to eat the Passover For the next day the Virgin Mary was standing by the Cross when our Lord was Crucified And it being the Jewish Custom for the Relations to join together at the Passover Supper it is not unlikely that she did eat the Passover with Christ And it being in the House of one of his Disciples she might tarry there that night while he went out from thence about Eleven or Twelve a Clock at Night into the Garden where he was betrayed and taken And she hearing of his being taken might go to the High Priests Hall and be at the Cross the next Morning at Nine a Clock With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer VVith You You my Disciples and Friends with whom I shall never eat another Passover Notwithstanding the Prospect of his Approaching Sufferings and Death He did not decline but earnestly desire Communion and Fellowship with them in such an Ordinance When he gave 'em the Cup 't is observable he bids 'em divide it among themselves The Scripture saith not that he gave the Elements into every one of their particular hands much less into their mouths without their touching the Bread or Cup with their own hands except we will admit that Christ chang'd the posture he was in and alway used at Meals and the Scripture saith not he did how could he reach it to so many as Eleven Persons in the same Posture IV. Let us consider the Time when Before I Suffer There is a great Controversie about the Time of this Passover It was certainly upon Thursday-night He being Crucified on the Fryday in the Forenoon though he did not give up the Ghost till Three in the Afternoon But the Question will be whether it was at the same Time that the Jews kept their Passover or a Day sooner And if it was a Day sooner How could the Paschal Lamb be killed which was to be brought to the Temple and be killed by the Priests between the two Evenings of the Fourteenth day the first whereof began when the Sun began to decline or as soon as Mid-day was past The other Evening was after Sun-set Some Learned Men think it is plain That the Time when our Lord did eat this Passover with his Disciples was the day before the Generality of the Jews kept theirs from Joh. 18.28 Chap. 19.14 For the better understanding of this you must know that the Time for the Observation of the Jewish Festivals was Regulated by the Appearance of the New Moon They had not Almanacks * Dr. Wallis of the Christian Sabbath in Answer to Mr. Bampfield Page 13. in those days as we have now to tell us before-hand when will be a New-Moon But if we may believe the Jewish Writers about the time when they expected a New Moon they sent Men to watch for it on the Top of some Hill or High place and he who could first discover a New-Moon was to tell the Priest and he to Blow the Trumpet to give the people notice that there was a New-Moon But in case of Cloudy weather if in Three days time from their first expectation no Man could see a New-Moon they did then venture but not before to blow the Trumpet without seeing it which must needs cause a very great Vncertainty and the same Moon be sooner seen at one place then at another and the Passover kept accordingly So that sometimes there was a Mistake of One day or more Now it hath been * Dr. Cudworth's Notion of the Lord's Supper Page 50 70 c proved out of Epiphanius and others that there was a Contention and Tumult amongst the Jews at this very Passover concerning the Time or the Day wherein it was to be observed and that the Senate had appointed a Day too late and had not determined according to the True Phasis or Appearance of the Moon 'T is manifest our Saviour kept the Passover on one Day and the Generality of the Jews on another perhaps he about a Fortnight before might see a New-Moon a Day sooner than they did And therefore we may
simply But 2. Let us consider more particularly how these Things with Relation to the Jewish Passover were accomplished by Christ as the Lamb of God to take away Sin And that will appear if we consider four Things 1. The Person of Christ as our Passover or Paschal Lamb 2. His Sufferings and Sacrifice 3. The Fruits and Benefits of them to us 4. The way and manner of our Participation of these Benefits 1. The Person of Christ who is the true Paschal Lamb. I shall not stay to consider the Resemblance of his Character to a Lamb for Meekness for Patience for Submission and Obedience He was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep before the Shearers is dumb so he opened not his Mouth Nor that the Pasâ—hal Lamb was to be without blemish sound and entire without Bruise or Maim Thus holy was Christ in his Conception and Birth and in all the Actions of his Life A Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 Holy harmless and undefiled separate from Sinners Heb. 7.26 Nor how the Lamb was set apart and chosen for three days and killed the fourth answered by Christ's being set apart to his Prophetical Office wherein he manifested himself for about three years before he offered himself a Sacrifice in the fourth year Those that write concerning the Types are large upon this Subject 2. We may consider his Passion and Sufferings the Fulfilling of it as to his Death and the Time of it The Paschal Lamb was to be Roasted with Fire Which might not only put them in Mind of the Hardships they endured in the Brick Kilms of Egypt but Prefigure the Sufferings of Christ as crucified and pressed when his strength was dryed up like a Potsheard and his Tongue did cleave to his Jaws Psalm 22.15 The Time also of his Suffering agreed with the Time of the Jewish Passover About the Ninth Hour or Three a Clock in the Afternoon the usual Time that the Passover was to be Killed 3. As to the Fruits and Effects of his Sacrifice there is a further Accomplishment of the Type For the destroying Angel is diverted from the Israelites Houses The Blood of a Lamb could not Merit or procure this but as it Represented the Blood of the Messiah Whereby the Wrath of God is quenched and we delivered from Satan the great Destroyer And as this was the Earnest of their Deliverance from their Bondage in Egypt By the Death of Christ we are set free from a much worse Slavery 4. Consider the manner how we partake of the Benefit and Fruits of Christ's Sacrifice Our Hearts must be sprinkled with the Blood of Christ as the Israelites were to sprinkle the Blood of the Lamb on the Door-post of their Houses They were to feed upon the Flesh of the Paschal Lamb We are in a Spiritual sense to do so with Reference to Christ John 6.53 They were to eat it with sour Sauce with bitter or wild Herbs Repentance for Sin must be joyned with Faith in a Saviour Vnleavened Bread was to be thrown out of the House And you know how the Apostle applies this unto those who are called to keep the Feast even that Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ at his own Table 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Not with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness But with the Vnleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth It was Remarkable as to the first Passover It was to be eaten in hast with their Loins girt Shoes on their Feet and a Staff in their Hand As Pilgims and Strangers here who are hastning to a better Country which God hath promised and which their Canaan may Mind us of and make this also Applicable to our Case Which will bring me to the Sixth and last thing Sixthly and lastly The Resolution amd Declaration of Christ to eat and drink no more of this Passover till it be accomplished Some think that the 18th Verse I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdome is misplaced and ought to come in after the Institution of the Lord's Supper as it is placed by the Evangelists Matthew and Mark. * 83. Homil. in Matthaeum Chrysostom thinks it Refers to his Eating and Drâ—nking with his Disciples after his Resurrection in this World That he would not any more Eat and Drink till he had suffered Death and was risen again And then to manifest the Truth of his being Risen he did condescend to satisfie and convince them in that manner But there is little ground for that Interpretation It is not improbable but our Lord may Allude here to the Custom of the High Priests who coming out of the Holy of Holies did keep a Feast of Joy with his Friends For if he were a Wicked Man say the Jews he died in the Place If a good Man he came out safe And then he Rejoyced with his Friends and kept a Feast where they were wont to drink New Wine To this Custom our Lord may Allude in this Expression thereby telling his Disciples That he should not sink in the Performance of what he underto k * Dr. Allix in the great Offering that he was to make to God his Father but come off with Success And then they should Rejoyce and Feast together He would drink new Wine with them in the Kingdom of his Father Some think the Evangelist Luke as to Christ's drinking new Wine Refers to the Lord's Supper that was to follow And as he Recites the Words they are more Intelligible than as they are mentioned by St. Matthew or Mark. He Annexes them to the Passover Cup though the other Recite this Passage after the Cup in the Lord's Supper But the Words might have been spoken by Christ before And 't is easier to Transpose the Words in Matthew and Mark to the unmentioned Occasion which was immediately before the Lord's Supper than to Transpose the whole 19th and 20th Verses in Luke before the 17th Verse which would also make it a Tautology By the Kingdom of God all the Evangelists seem to mean the Gospel Dispensation which was to Commence in the Lord's Supper as the first of that sort for the Baptism of John and of the Disciples of Christ before his Death was different from Baptism since the New Testament Baptism Acts 19.4 5. The Lord's Supper by Anticipation did signifie and shew forth the Lord's Death This is my Body broken for you He supposed it broken and himself sacrificed and the Passover fulfilled Jesus Christ being the Lamb of God Typified and Presignified by the Paschal Lamb till his Sacrifice of himself And so to put a Period to the former Oeconomy on which the Gospel Dispensation did ensue The Term New till I drink it New may be accounted for and that some of the Evangelists say that Day I 'll drink it New though it were the same Hour because it Refers to a different Period and Dispensation viz. The