(3.) There is more than this : they are not only considered as dis- tinguished, but as separate also ; — the blood separate from the body, the body left without the blood. This truth our apostle, in this chap- ter and the next, doth most signally insist upon ; namely, the distinct parts of this ordinance, — one to represent the body, and the other to represent the blood, — that faith may consider them as separate.
The Papists, we know, do sacrilegiously take away the cup from the people ; they will give them the bread, but they will not give them the cup: and as it always falls out that one error must be covered with another, or else it will keep no man dry under it, they have invented the doctrine of concomitance, — that there is a con- comitance ; that is, whole Christ is in every kind, — in the bread, and in the wine, — the one doth accompany the other : which is directly to
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overthrow the ordinance upon another account, — as it is to represent Christ's body and blood as separated one from the other. Our Lord Jesus blessed the bread and the cup, and said, " This is my body;" ["This is my blood;"] — which cannot be spoken distinctly, unless supposed to be separate.
Here, then, is a threefold limitation of the act of faith, even in this ordinance, in a peculiar manner restraining it to a special com- munion with God in Christ : — that it hath a special regard to the hu- man nature of Christ ; to his human nature as consisting of body and blood ; and as it respects them as separated, body and blood. Yea, —
(4.) It respects them as separate in that manner. You all along know that I do not intend these objects of faith as the ultimate ob- ject,— for it is the person of Christ that faith rests in, — but those immediate objects that faith is exercised about, to bring it to rest in God. It is exercised about the manner of this separation ; that is, the blood of Christ comes to be distinct by being shed, and the body of Christ comes to be separate by being bruised and broken. All the instituted sacrifices of old did signify this,— a violent separation of body and blood : the blood was let out with the hand of violence, and so separated ; and then sprinkled upon the altar, and then towards the holy place ; and then the body was burned distinct by itself. So, the apostle tells us, it is " the cup which we bless, and the bread which we break ; " the cup is poured out, as well as the bread broken, to remind faith of the violent separation of the body and blood of Christ. From this last consideration, of faith acting itself upon the separation of the body and blood of Christ by way of violence, it is led to a peculiar acting of itself upon all the causes of it, — whence it was that this body and this blood of Christ were represented thus separate: and by inquiring into the causes of it, it finds a moving cause, a procuring cause, an efficient cause, and a final cause; which it ought to exercise itself peculiarly upon always in this ordinance.
[1.] A moving cause; and that is, the eternal love of God in giving Christ in this manner, to have his body bruised, and his blood shed. The apostle, going to express the love of God towards us, tells you it was in this, that " he spared not his own Son," Rom. viii. 32. One would have thought that the love of God might have wrought in sending his Son into the world; but it also wrought in not sparing of him. Thus faith is called in this ordinance to exercise itself upon that love which gives out Christ not to be spared.
[2.] It reflects upon the procuring cause ; — whence it is, or what it is, that hath procured it, that there should be this representation of the separated body and blood of Christ ; and this is even our own sin. " He was delivered for our offences," — given for our transgres- sions,— died to make reconciliation and atonement for our sins : they
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were the procuring cause of it, upon such considerations of union and covenant which I shall not now insist upon. It leads faith, I say, upon a special respect to sin, as the procuring cause of the death of Christ. A natural conscience, on the breach of the law, leads the soul to the consideration of sin, as that which exposes itself alone to the wrath of God and eternal damnation, but in this ordinance we consider sin as that which exposed Christ to death: which is a peculiar consideration of the nature of sin.
[3.] There is the efficient cause; — whence it was that the body and blood of Christ were thus separated ; and that is threefold : — prin- cipal, instrumental, and adjuvant.
What is the principal efficient cause of the sufferings of Christ ? Why, the justice and righteousness of God. "■ God hath set him forth to be a propitiation, to declare his righteousness," Rom. hi. 25. Whence it is said, "He spared him not." He caused all our sins to meet upon him : " The chastisement of our peace was upon him."