taketh away the fin of the world (p)! Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away fin by the facrifice of himself (q). He bore our fins in his own body on the tree (r). Now, Chrift's death having thus the nature of a public facrifice, we may regard the fupper he was pleafed to institute, as a commemorative reprefentation of this facrifice, and as a feast upon it. 1. The Lord's fupper is a commemorative reprefentation of the facrifice which our Redeemer made of himself on the cross. This is the language of the inftitution itself. From that we learn, that the bread we eat, is (reprefentatively) the body of Christ that was given for us; and the cup we drink of, is (in the fame fenfe) the blood of Chrift which was fhed for us (). The death of Chrift was a true propitiatory facrifice, and, as fuch, is commemorated in the facrament of the fupper. But the Lord's fupper is not, and indeed cannot be, itself, fuch a facrifice as the Papists affirm; because it is a commemorative fign of it; and common sense will teach us, that the fign, and the thing fignified by it, cannot be the fame. However, as was just now observed, it is a representation of that facrifice; very faint indeed, but not infignificant and every time the believer takes the confecrated elements, he doth, as it were, lay his hands upon the facrifice represented by them, and plead with God, in virtue of it, for (p) John i. 29. (r) 1 Pet. ii. 24. pardon pardon and acceptance; hereby uniting his prayers, and all that he does in the fervice of God, to the interceffion of the great High Prieft, who is paffed into the heavens. The third and the ninth hours among the Jews, (their three anfwering to our nine o'clock in the morning, and their nine to our three in the afternoon), were called hours of prayers; because these were the times of the daily facrifice, and the burning of incenfe; when the people chofe to offer their prayers, that they might accompany the facrifices in the temple, and become more acceptable in conjunction with them. Thus, in all our approaches to the throne of divine grace, whether in public or private, on the day of facred reft, or at any other time, we should be mindful of the facrifice of the crofs, and the interceffion of our High Prieft, founded upon it, in the holy of holies above; and having an altar whereof they had no right to eat, who ferved the tabernacle, fhould by him, who was our facrifice, and is ftill our High Priest, offer the facrifice of praife to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name (t). But though the facrifice of Christ be a main ground of our hope, and what, being finful creatures, we are concerned chiefly to have respect to in all our religious performances; yet, when we behold this facrifice reprefented in the actions performed at the Lord's table, we feem to have a kind of signal given us to apply by faith to this (†) Heb. xiii. 10.—15, facrifice, facrifice, and a more than ordinary advantage and opportunity for the exercife of our faith in it. Hiftory gives us an account of an Egyptian nobleman, who, out of his great affection to the memory of his fon, had an image of him placed in the house; to which the fervants, having committed a fault, would flee for protection, finding it their best refuge from the anger of their lord. Here we, who have grievously offended God, take refuge by faith in Chrift himself, his once dead, but now ever-living Son. In the lively exercises of which faith we are very much affifted by the representation of our Saviour's fufferings exhibited to us in his fupper. "I have fin"ned, and blush to lift up my face to thee, (( my God; but fee here what thy beloved "Son hath fuffered for my fins! Let thy ju"ftice behold this facrifice, and, after that 66 fight hath difarmed it, let it then strike!" There are two things more especially which we are taught by the reprefentation of Chrift's facrifice in the facramental fupper, viz. the great evil of fin, and God's readiness to pardon it, which we are to confider as an argument of his great goodness. We fee the evil of fin in the sufferings of other men, and feel it in our own. But not all the infelicities. of human life, nor death reigning from Adam to the last generation of men that shall be upon earth, can afford that convincing, that affecting evidence of the evil of fin, as the fufferings and death of the Son of God. Muft he, that excellent perfon, styled the Son of God, God, to denote his dignity; and the Lamb of God, to fignify his innocence, die to expiate the guilt of fin? and how great then must that guilt be which needed fuch an expiation! And why am I, from the dolorous paffion of my Saviour, to take occafion to reflect on the evil of fin, but that I may be excited to hate it more than ever, and to refolve and watch against it? This, I am fenfible, is the end defigned; and I do now therefore renounce all league and friendship with fin, and, both out of hatred to that, and love to my Saviour, intend to purfue it to its utter and final deftruction. And great is the encouragement I have to do fo; fince, in the ordinance before me, I have a fort of ocular demonftration, that God is ready to forgive all fin; which fhews that he is as good, as fin is evil. Chrift died as a facrifice; and if this facrifice was not accepted, wherefore is this perpetual memorial of it? If infufficient, why is there not a repetition of the facrifice itfelf, but only of the reprefen-tation of it? Without controverfy, God is in Chrift reconciling the world to himself, and is actually reconciled to all that repent. The hope of forgiveness is effential to the religion of fallen creatures, and one of the first and most active principles of it; and where this hope is raised into affurance, as it is by the facrifice of Chrift, which we here commemorate, may it not be expected to be the fpring of the most chearful, most constant, and univerfal obedience? I can no more think, that God will reject my fincere and faithful fervice of him, though attended with many finful failings and defects, than that he will accept me, and be pleafed with me, if I continue in the habitual practice of any fin. His pardoning and receiving thofe that forfake their fins, and punishing, the more feverely, fuch as will not be perfuaded to do it, are equally plain from the inftance of God's love to finners, and hatred of fin. The death of Chrift renders fin more pardonable, but not lefs hateful, rather abundantly more fo. I will therefore hope in the mercy of God, becaufe Chrift died: but, for that very reafon that he died, I will not prefume upon it; for if fo much was done to the green tree, (to him that was righteous and innocent, and fo like green wood, not fit fewel for the fire), what shall be done to the dry (u); to thofe who, by impenitency in a finful courfe, render themselves veffels of wrath fitted for deftruction, as much fitted for it as dry wood is to burn? 2. The Lord's fupper is a feast upon a facrifice. It is called a feast, in allufion to the Jewish paffover; for Christ our paffover is facrificed for us (x): and as the Jews feafted upon their pafchal lamb, after it had been first prefented to God, fo do we, facramentally, and by faith, upon ours. This confideration of it will fuggeft feveral things of great ufe and importance to our thoughts. ift, As a feaft it is very expreffive of the (x) 1 Cor. v. 7. 8. (u) Luke xxiii, 31. communion |