Surely believers are dear to Jesus Christ ; and good reason, for he hath paid dear for them : let his dying language, this last fare- well, speak for him, how he prized them. The Lord's portion " is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance," Deut. xxxii. 9* " they are a peculiar treasure to him, above all the people of the " earth," Exod. xix. 5. What is much upon our hearts when we die, is dear to us indeed. O how precious, how dear should Jesus Christ be to us ! Were we first and last upon his heart ; did he mind us, did he pray for us, did he so wrestle with God about us, when the sorrows of death compassed him about ? How much are we engaged, not only to love him, and esteem him, whilst we live, but to be in pangs of love for him, when we feel the pangs of death upon us ! to be eyeing him, when our eye-strings break! To have hot affections for Christ, when our hands and feet grow cold ! The very last whisper of our departing souls should be this, ♦
Blessed be God for Jesus Christ
SEItJf. XXI. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. $59
The second preparative Act of Christ for his own Death,
1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25,
*-The Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread : and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat ; this is my body, which is broken for you ; this do in remenu brance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
V^HRIST had no sooner recommended his dear charge to the Father, but (the time of his death hastening on) he institutes his last supper, to be the lasting memorial of his death, in all the churches, until his second coming; therein graciously providing for the comfort of his people, when he should be removed out of their sight. And this was the second preparative act of Christ, in order to his death : he will set his house in order, and then die.
This his second act manifests no less love than the former. It is like the plucking off the ring from his finger, when ready to lay his neck upon the block, and delivering it to his dearest friends, to keep that as a memorial of him : " Take this, fyc. in remem- " brance of me."
In the words read, are four things noted by the apostle, about this last and lovely act of Christ, viz. the Author, Time, Institution, and End of this holy, solemn Ordinance.
1. The author of it*, The Lord Jesus: It is an effect of his lordly power, and royal authority; Matth. xxviii. 18. "And Jesus • came, and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto " me in heaven and earth : Go ye therefore." The government is upon his shoulders, Isa. ix. 6. He shall bear the glory, Zech. vi. 13. Who but he that came out of the bosom of the Father, and is acquainted with all the counsels that are there, knows what will be acceptable to God ? And who but he can give creatures, by his blessing, their sacramental efficacy and virtue ? Bread and wine are naturally fit to refresh and nourish our bodies ; but what fitness have they to nourish souls ? Surely none, but what they receive from the blessing of Christ that institutes them.
2. The Time when the Lord Jesus appointed this ordinance. " In the same night in which he was betrayed :" it could not be sooner, because the passover must first be celebrated ; nor later, for
* The authority of him who gives the precept, is the reason of the precept.
£60 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM, XXI,
that night he was apprehended. It is therfore emphatically ex- pressed iv rr\ wxrt, in that same night, that night for ever to be re- membered. He gives, that night, a cordial draught to his disciples before the conflict : he settles, that night, an ordinance in the church, for the confirmation and consolation of his people, in all generations, to the end of the world. By instituting it that night, he gives abundant evidence of his care for his people, in spending so much of that little, very little, time he had left, on their ac- count.
3. The Institution itself; in which we have the memorative, significative, instructive signs> and they are bread and wine ; and the glorious mysteries represented and shadowed forth by them, viz. Jesus Christ crucified; the proper New-Testament nourish- ment of believers. Bread and wine are choice creatures, and do excellently shadow forth the flesh and blood of crucified Jesus; and that both, in their natural usefulness, and manner of prepa- ration. Their usefulness is very great ; bread is a creature neces- sary to uphold and maintain our natural life ; therefore it is called the staff of bread, Isa. hi. 1. because as a feeble man depends and leans upon his staff, so do our feeble spirits upon bread. Wine was made to cheer the heart of man, Judg. xi. 13. They are both useful and excellent creatures ; their preparations, to become so useful to us, are also remarkable. The corn must be ground in the mill, the grapes torn and squeezed to pieces in the wine- press, before Ave can either have bread or wine. And when all tliis is done, they must be received into the body, or they nourish not. So that these were very fit creatures to be set apart for this use and end.
If any object, It is true, they are good creatures, but not pre- cious enough to be the signs of such profound and glorious myste- ries : it was worth creating a new creature, to be the sign of the new covenant.
Let him that thus objects, ask himself, whether nothing be pre- cious without pomp ? The preciousness of these elements is not so much from their own natures, as their use and end; and that makes them precious indeed. A loadstone at sea is much more ex- cellent than # diamond, because more useful. A penny-worth of wax applied to the label of a deed, and sealed, may in a minute have its value raised to thousands of pounds. These creatures re- ceive their value and estimation on a like account. Nor should it at all remain a wonder to thee, why Christ should represent him- self by such mean and common things, when thou hast well con- sidered that the excellency of the picture, is its similitude and conformity to the original ; and that Christ was in a low, sad, and Very abased state, when this picture of him was drawn ; he was
SEIIM. XXh TttE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, 261
then a man of sorrows. These then, as lively signs, shadow forth a crucified Jesus, represent him to us in his red garments. This precious ordinance may much more than Paul, say to us, " I al- " ways bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus :* That is the thing it signifies.