THE RIGHT RECEIVING. G7
speaking of the Jews, would do thus. Wo are ready to spit in their faces. Ay, but saith the text, ' they shall look upon him.' It is I that crucified the Lord of glory ; it is we that murdered him by our sins. And this should move us in a spiritual compassion, that we have imbrued our hands in his most innocent blood. That this might move the people in the old law, you see there was an innocent beast ; but before it was slain, the man that was to offer the sacrifice, was first to put his hand upon the head thereof, to signify that every one of our sins was the cause of this. Lev. i. 4, et alibi. This must be our mature consideration. We lay our hands upon the im- maculate Lamb ; we put our hands upon his head : we have murdered him. Let us then see whether this aflecteth us.
You should all say. Is sin so deadly and dangerous as this, that it will seize upon the Son of God himself, rather than sin shall be unpunished ? Is my sin a dart shot up into heaven to pull him down from thence ? Is my sin such a thing as this ? Is it so that it will make the Son of God to lie upon the ground ? and have I such a hard heart that it will not mako me to weep ? These, and such like godly cogitations, we should make when we see the bread and wine broken and poured forth. And let us go fuiiher. Do you not esteem of an oath, of an idle word, or such like sin ? This is that which made Christ to be crucified, and therefore is not to be dallied withal. There is the fii'st thing to be considered. When thou seest the bread bi'oken and the wine poured forth, it is a calling to mind of the sufiierings of the Son of God.
The second point. What is meant by these actions perfoimed by us ?
That is, what Christ did for us. But what is that to thee ? All thy comfort
standeth in the apprehending it unto thyself. Christ hath prepared a
medicine in the apothecaries' shop, ministering no comfort unless we apply
it to ourselves. This bread thus broken is given. Here God bringeth his
Son bathed in his blood. The Father seeth him in his gore blood, and
saith. Take him. What a wonderful comfort is this, that he should come
and say, * Take and eat.' Be it that God once moveth thy heart to receive
him, he meaneth as plainly as the minister doth, when he saith, take the
bread ; he oifereth him plainly and freely. This is his ofter, and will not
this be a great condemnation to the world ? So often as it is administered,
so often is condemnation read to a wicked man. Doth God offer his Son,
and will not thou take him ? 1 Cor. ii. 4, seq. The apostle there speaketh in
the ministry of the gospel, that we are not to think it a mean matter that
God sendeth a minister to make an offer of his Son, but we must think
that this is done by God himself. The apostle, 2 Cor. v. 20, saith, ' Now
then are we ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you,' &c.
Oh, say some, if I might hear Christ say thus much, or if I might hear but
God say so, I would receive him. The case is alike ; we are ambassadors
for Christ, we pray you in Christ ; as if God were present in person, we
say. Receive him, God beseecheth you to be reconciled. It were fit for us
to beseech him, but he cometh to our doors and oftereth us pardon ; and
therefore this will be condemnation, that where mercy is brought home, we
notw^ithstanding reject it. Well ! besides the offer, there is further the
actual delivery of it. Take, eat. They take, eat, and drink. What is
represented by this ? It representeth a further point, that we are not only
in Christ, flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, but that Christ is actually -^
delivered ; that we seize- upon him. When we see the bread and wine
taken, he meaneth that hereby we by faith do accept of Christ, and do lay '
* That is, = 'take possession,' a law term. Cf. note lb, Vol III., p. 531.— G.
68 THE RIGHT RECEIVING.
[ hold of him. Here is the foundation of our comfort, that a Christian man may say of Christ, that ho can bo assured of nothing so much which he posscsscth for his own, as ho may bo of him. His cloak upon his back, his house ho dwells in, his lands, yea, the blood in his veins, and whatso- ever ho hath, is not so much his ; ho cannot be so assured thereof as of Christ. Tako him. There is delivery and seizemcnt of Christ — as by the ring of a door — we are interested into heaven, and if he be ours, with him, wo have all things.
Nay, I will go further — for the Papists will go thus far — they will say Christ is to be delivered and received ; ay, but how ? After a gross caparnakalU- opinion, eaten really and bodily with the mouth. But Christ is transferred into me, and I into him, by faith ; we are made one with him, flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone ; as it is John vi. 54, * He that eateth my flesh, and drinkcth my blood, dwellcth in me, and I in him.' I would not have him for a while, but for ever. Well, he is planted into thee, and dwelleth in thee ; that as meat, by the wonderful work of nature, is turned into ourselves, so is Christ, by the supernatural work of grace, once being entertained, made one with us. We are one body, one flesh. He hath more assured hold of us than we have of him. We know the devil is strong, but he may not pull off a leg or an arm, or any of his mem- bers. He is stronger than all. We dwell in him, and he in us, and no man can take us out of his hands. And then that which is next, all com- forts shall be ours when we have Christ. We cannot have the benefits of Christ unless we have Christ himself; and therefore, in the Lord's supper, Christ saith not. This is justification, or sanctification, but This is my body, &c. We may not look for the graces of sanctification, justification, or redemption before we have Christ. If we have him, we shall with him have all things else. The apostle, Heb. iii. 1, 14, saith, * We are made partakers of Christ, if we keep sure unto the end, the beginning wherewith we are upholden.* The apostle useth the term of being partakers of Christ. We are made partakers of Christ if we constantly hold what we have begun unto the end. He saith not only we are made partakers of the benefits of Christ, but also of Christ himself, which is more than all the others. Now for the opening of this : will a man be nourished by bread if it be not eaten ? No ; but he must first eat and drink. So, faith, it is like unto an eagle that flieth up unto heaven, and there seizeth upon the Son of God ; and there hav- ing thus seized upon him, then cometh remission of sins, justification, sanc- tification, and redemption, many ble^ings, and a floodgate of all graces.