ON COMMUNION IN THE LORDS SUPPER.
1. If the reader has received the Ordinance of Baptism, and; as above recommended, dedicated himself to God.--2. He is urged to ratify that engagement at the Table of the Lord.-- 3. From a view of the ends for which that Ordinance was instituted.--4. Whence its usefulness is strongly inferred.--5. And from the Authority of Christ's Appointment; which is solemnly pressed on the conscience.--6. Objections from apprehensions of Unfitness.--7. Weakness of grace, &c. briefly answered.--8. At least, serious thoughtfulness on this subject is absolutely insisted upon.--9. The chapter is closed with a prayer for one who desires to attend, yet finds himself pressed with remaining doubts.
1. I hope this chapter will find you, by a most express consent, become one
of God's covenant people, solemnly and most cordially devoted to his service;
and it is my hearty prayer, that the engagements you have made on earth may be
ratified in heaven. But for your farther instruction and edification; give me
leave to remind you, that our Lord Jesus Christ hath appointed a peculiar
manner of expressing our regard to him, by commemorating his dying love, which,
though it does not forbid any other proper way of doing it, must by no means be
set aside or neglected for any human methods, how prudent and expedient soever
they may appear to us.
2. Our Lord has wisely ordained, that the
advantages of society should be brought into religion; and as, by his command,
professed Christians assemble together for other acts of public worship, so He
has been pleased to institute a social ordinance, in which a whole assembly of
them is to come to his table, and there to eat the same bread; and drink the
same cup. And this they are to do, as a token of their affectionate remembrance
of his dying love, of their solemn surrender of themselves to God, and of their
sincere love to one another, and to all their fellow-Christians.
3. That these are indeed the great ends of the
Lord's supper, I shall not now stay to argue at large. You need only read what
the apostle Paul hath written in the tenth and eleventh chapters or his first
epistle to the Corinthians, to convince you fully of this. He there expressly
tells us, that our Lord commanded "the bread to be eaten," and "the wine to be
drunk, in remembrance of him," (1 Cor. 11:24,25) or as a commemoration or
memorial of him; so that, as often as we attend this institution, "we show
forth the Lord's death," which we are to do "even until he come," (1 Cor.
11:26) And it is particularly asserted, that "the cup is the New Testament in
his blood;" that is, it is a seal of that covenant which was ratified by his
blood. Now, it is evident, that, in consequence of this, we are to approach it
with a view to that covenant, desiring its blessings, and resolving, by divine
grace, to comply with its demands. On the whole, therefore, as the apostle
speaks, we have "communion in the body and the blood of Christ," (1 Cor. 10:16)
and partaking of his table and of his cup, we converse with Christ, and join
ourselves to him as his people; as the Jews, by eating their sacrifices,
conversed with Jehovah, and joined themselves to him. He farther reminds them,
that, though many, they were "one bread and one body," being "all partakers of
that one bread," (1 Cor. 10:17) and being "all made to drink into one Spirit;"
(1 Cor. 12:13) that is, meeting together as if they were but one family, and
joining in the commemoration of that one blood which was their common ransom
and of the Lord Jesus, their common head. Now, it is evident, all these
reasonings are equally applicable to Christians in succeeding ages. Permit me,
therefore, by the authority of our divine Master, to press upon you: the
observation or this precept.
4. And let me also urge it, from the apparent
tendency which it has to promote your truest advantage. You are setting out in
the Christian life; and I have reminded you at large of the opposition you must
expect to meet in it. It is the love of Christ which must animate you to break
through all. What then can be more desirable than to bear about with you a
lively sense of it? and what can awaken that sense more than the contemplation
of his death as there represented? Who can behold the bread broken, and the
wine poured out, and not reflect how the body of the blessed Jesus was even
torn in pieces by his sufferings, and his sacred blood poured forth like water
on the ground? Who can think of the heart-rending agonies of the Son of God as
the price of our redemption and salvation, and not feel his soul melted with
tenderness, and inflamed with grateful affection? What an exalted view doth it
give us of the blessings of the Gospel-covenant, when we consider it as
established in the blood of God's only-begotten Son! And when we make our
approach to God as our heavenly Father, and give up ourselves to his service in
this solemn manner, what an awful tendency has it to fix the conviction, that
we are not our own, being bought with such a price! (1 Cor 6:19, 20) What a
tendency has it to guard us against every temptation, to those sins which we
have so solemnly renounced, and to engage our fidelity to him to whom we have
bound our souls as with an oath! Well may our hearts be knit together in mutual
love, (Col. 2:2) when we consider ourselves as "one in Christ:" (Gal. 3:28) his
blood becomes the cement of the society, joins us in spirit, not only to each
other, but "to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both theirs and ours," (1 Cor. 1:2) and we anticipate in pleasing hope
that blessed day, when the assembly shall be complete, and we shall all "be for
ever with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4:17) Well may these views engage us to deny
ourselves, and to "take up our cross and follow our crucified Master." (Matt.
16:24) Well may they engage us to do our utmost, by prayer, and all other
suitable endeavors, to serve his followers and his friends; to serve those whom
he hath purchased with his blood, and who are to be his associates and ours, in
the glories of a happy immortality.
5. It is also the express institution and command
of our blessed Redeemer that the members of such societies should be tenderly
solicitous for the spiritual welfare of each other: and that, on the whole, his
churches may be kept pure and holy, that they should "withdraw themselves from
every brother that walketh disorderly;" (2 Thess. 3:6) that they should "mark
such as cause offences" or scandals among them, "contrary to the doctrine which
they have learned, and avoid them;" (Rom. 16:17) "that if any obey not the word
of Christ by his apostles," they should "have no fellowship or communion with
such, that they may be ashamed;" (2 Thess. 3:14) that they should "not eat with
such as are notoriously irregular" in their-behavior, but, on the contrary,
should "put away from among themselves such wicked persons," (1 Cor. 5:11-13)
It is evident, therefore, that the institution of such societies is greatly for
the honor of Christianity, and for the advantage of its particular professors.
And consequently, every consideration of obedience to our common Lord, and of
prudent regard to our own benefit and that of our brethren, will require that
those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity should enter into them, and
assemble among them, in these their most solemn and peculiar acts of communion,
at his table.
6. I entreat you, therefore, and if I may presume
to say it, in his name and by his authority, I charge it on your conscience,
that this precept of our dying Lord go not, as it were, for nothing with you;
but that, if you indeed love him, you keep this, as well as the rest of his
commandments. I know you may be ready to form objections. I have elsewhere
debated many of the chief of them at large, and I hope not without some good
effect.* The great question is that which relates to your being prepared for a
worthy attendance; and in conjunction with what has been said before, I think
that may be brought to a very short issue. Have you, so far as you know your
own heart, been sincere in that deliberate surrender of yourself to God,
through Christ, which I recommended in the former chapter? If you have, whether
it were with or without the particular form or manner of doing it there
recommended, you have certainly taken hold of the covenant, and therefore
should devote yourself to God, in obedience to all his commands. And there is
not, and cannot be, any other view of the ordinance in which you can have any
further objection to it. If you desire to remember Christ's death; if you
desire to renew the dedication of yourself to God through him; if you would
list yourself among his people; if you would love them, and do them good
according to your ability, and, on the whole, would not allow yourself in the
practice of anyone known sin, or in the omission of any one known duty, then I
will venture confidently to say, not only that you will be welcome to the
ordinance, but that it was instituted for such as you.
7. As for other objections, a few words may
suffice by way of reply. The weakness of the religious principle in your soul,
if it be really implanted there, is so far from being an argument against your
seeking such a method to strengthen it, that it rather strongly enforces the
necessity of doing it. The neglect of this solemnity, by so many that call
themselves Christians, should rather engage you so much the more to distinguish
your zeal for an institution in this respect so much slighted and injured. And
as for the fears of aggravated guilt, in case of apostacy, do not indulge them.
This may, by the divine blessing, be an effectual remedy against the evil you
fear; and it is certain, that after what you must already have known and felt,
before you could be brought into your present situation, (on the supposition I
have now been making) there can be no room to think or a retreat; no room, even
for the wretched hope of being less miserable than the generality of those that
have perished. Your scheme, therefore, must be to make your salvation as sure,
and to make it as glorious, as possible; and I know not any appointment of our
blessed Redeemer which may have a more comfortable aspect upon that blessed
end, than this which I flat recommending to you.
8. One thing I would at least insist upon, and I
see not with what face it can be denied. I mean, that you should take this
matter into serious consideration; that you should diligently inquire, "whether
you have reason in your conscience to believe it is the will of God you should
now approach to the ordinance or not;" and that you should continue your
reflections, your inquiries, and your prayers, till you find farther
encouragement to come, if that encouragement be hitherto wanting. For of this
be assured, that a state in which you are on the whole unfit to approach this
ordinance, is a state in which you are destitute of the necessary preparations
for death and heaven; in which, therefore, if you would not allow yourselves to
slumber on the brink or destruction, you ought not to rest so much as one
single day.
A Prayer for one who earnestly desires ins to approach the Table of the Lord, yet has some remaining doubts concerning his right to that solemn ordinance.
