YeL\. 28.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 477
the word of God : Isa. Iv. 3, ' Hear, and your soul shall live.' There is the command, ' hear,' and the promise, ' your souls shall live.' Make conscience of attending upon the word, and this shall be a means to beget and increase the life of grace in your souls. Therefore now when I go to hear, I should say, Lord, thou hast commanded it, and thou hast promised a blessing ; with respect to thy command I come with obedience, with respect to thy promise I come with confidence. So in the institution of the passover they were to slay the paschal lamb, and sprinkle the blood upon the door-posts ; there is the command, and there is a promise, that the angel shall not touch them, Exod xii. Therefore 1 must obey and depend upon his promise : though there will be a great destruction and slaugliter this night, yet I know it shall not touch anything in my house. So Acts ii, 38, ' Eepent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the re- mission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' Fulfil the qualification, then take baptism for an assurance that your sins shall be forgiven, and that that life shall be begun by the Spirit that shall never be lost, but be perfected in heaven ; be willing to break off your sins and return to God ; then submit to baptism, and your sins shall be forgiven. So for the Lord's supper : Mat. xxvi. 26, ' Take, eat ; this is my body ; ' and vers. 27, 28, ' Drink ye all of it : for this is my blood of the new testament, wliich was shed for many for the remission of sins ; ' that is to say, this bread thus given and taken shall prove to you my body ; that is, it shall solemnly put you into possession of me, and all the benefits I have purchased for you in the body of my flesh. Thus the institutions everywhere run in a way of command and promise ; a command requiring something to be reli- giously and conscientiously done on our part, and a promise that God for his part will not be wanting, but will giv-e us the grace annexed thereunto. God might have enforced duty out of mere sovereignty, and appointed his worship as a task only, and for a testimony of our homage, and obedience, and dutifulness to him who is our creator and preserver. But all the ordinances are means to the obtaining some notable spiritual eftect, which God hath assured us of by promise. Well then, if we act suitably to God's institutions, and go about any part of worship in the right manner, we must act in faith and obe- dience, out of conscience of God's command, and in confidence of his promise. And faith hath an influence upon both, upon our obedience and confidence. Upon our obedience, for it doth urge our conscience with the authority of God : Ps. cxix. G6, ' I have believed thy com- mandments.' And it sways and inclines our hearts by a sense of our gratitude to God ; it so apprehends God's respects to us, that it makes us ready and willing to take all occasions to testify our due respects to God again ; as Moses w^as very faithful in observing all that which God had expressly enjoined him ; their faith had an influence upon liis obedience, and then it hath an influence upon our confidence, for Moses was firmly persuaded in his heart that this would be a means, that the destroyer which slew the first-born in every house of the Egyptians, would pass over the houses of the Israelites, and destroy none of them. Well then, let us go and do likewise ; by complying with God's institutions we may expect the blessings he hath promised ;
478 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. LXIT.
for Christ saith, ' Do this,' and bids me take and eat, and I am to believe it shall be ' the body of Christ ' to me, and that I shall be possessed of all the benefits obtained by it.
Thirdly, There are special reasons why the work and exercise of faith is required in the use of these sacramental signs. I have hither- to showed you the necessity and use of faith to all acts of religion in the general, now I shall show it more particularly as to sacraments. There is faith in prayer, and faith in the word, but especially in the use of the sacraments ; and here they have a foiu'fold use.
1. To interpret the signs according to the use and end for which they were appointed, and to discern the mysteries represented there- by, namely, that God doth as effectually give Cln-ist to the soul as he doth give bread and wine to the body ; or, to iise the apostle's phrase, to help us 'to discei-n the Lord's body,' that the eye may affect the heart : 1 Cor. xi. 25, ' He that eateth and drinketh un- worthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.' Now the Loxd's body may be discerned eithei- speculatively or practically. It is not meant speculatively, so as to be able to discourse of it, and to say, what is the meaning of the bread, and what is the signification of the wine. No, no, that is but a speculative discerning, a common knowledge and the fruit of histo- rical faith or tradition that is current among us ; the apostle means a spiritual practical discerning, such as stirreth up suitable reverence, as if we had seen him on the cross : Gal. iii. 1, ' Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you.' It is such a discerning as stirs up suitable aff'ections, a holy joy, and a delightful converse with him. It is such a discerning as is not opposite to ignorance, but to irreverence and slightness ; when a man doth not consider what he is about, he hath no true sight and sense of Christ in the duty. Many a man is able to unfold the mystery, that hath no spiritual discerning ; and therefore it is such a sight and sense of the mysteries, as doth impress a dread and an awe upon the soul, and a holy rejoicing and delighting in God ; for we do not come to Christ as a condemning lawgiver, which gave the laws upon Mount Sinai in a terrible manner, but we come to a feast, and we must come with a heart prepared for such a feast. He that bears no more respect to the sacrament than to an ordinary meal, or to common food, he doth not discern the Lord's body. But he that comes to it as to an institution of Christ, which represents Christ's death as a price given for our life and pardon, and accordingly comes with diligent preparation and serious thoughts, and feeds not upon the elements, but on Christ, he doth discern, or difference, or sanctify the Lord's body, and set it apart from all other things. The sight of faith is a lively thing, and begets such thoughts as stir up spiritual affections in our hearts ; that is to say, a more lively sense of the wonderful love of God and our Redeemer, a more thorough hatred of sin, a more fixed resolution for our duty, and obedience, and service, and revives and cheers us in a more delightful praising of God and our Bedeemer. These are the things which should accompany that discerning ; now that we may discern it so, there needs faith.