3. It is required that we suffer in imitation of Christ, as making him our example. We are not to take up the cross but with design to follow Christ. "Take up the cross," is but half the command; " Take up the cross, and follow me," is the whole command: and we are to suffer willingly and cheerfully, or we are the most unlike Jesus Christ in our sufferings of any persons in the world. Christ was will- ing and cheerful : " Lo, I come to do thy will. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished," saith he. And, —
4. We are to suffer to the glory of Christ.
These are things wherein we ought to endeavour conformity to the death of Christ, that we now remember. I pray, let none of us trust to the outward ordinance, the performance of the outward duty. If these things be not in us, we do not remember the Lord's death in a right manner.
How may we attain the strength and ability from this ordinance, to be made conformable to his death? that we may not come and re- member the death of Christ, and go away and be more unlike him than formerly ?
There is power to this end communicated to us, doctrinally, mo- rally, and sjyiritually.
There is no such sermon to teach mortification of sin, as the com- memoration of the death of Christ. It is the greatest outward in- struction unto this duty that God hath left unto his church ; and, I am persuaded, which he doth most bless to them who are sincere. Do
582 SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES.
we see Christ evidently crucified before our eyes, his body broken, his blood shed for sin ? and is it not of powerful instruction to us to go on to mortify sin ? He that hath not learned this, never learned any thing aright from this ordinance, nor did he ever receive any benefit from it. There is a constraining power in this instruction, to put us upon the mortification of sin ; God grant we may see the fruit of it ! It hath a teaching efficacy; it teaches, as it is peculiarly blessed of God to this end and purpose. And I hope many a soul can say that they have received that encouragement and that strength by it, as that they have been enabled to more steadiness and constancy in fighting against sin, and have received more success afterward.
There is a moral way whereby it communicates strength to us; because it is our duty now to engage ourselves unto this very work. Meeting at the death of Christ, it is our duty to engage ourselves unto God; and that gives strength. And I would beg of you all, breth- ren, that not one of us would pass through or go over this ordinance, this representation of the death of Christ, without a fresh obligation to God to abide more constant and vigorous in the mortification of sin : we all need it.
And lastly; a spiritually beholding of Christ by faith is the means to change us into the image and likeness of Christ. Beholding the death of Christ by faith, as represented to us in this ordinance, is the means to change us into his image and likeness, and make us con- formable unto his death, in the death of sin in us.
(1.) Take this instruction from the ordinance: — as you believe in Christ, as you love him, as you desire to remember him, sin ought to be mortified, that we may be conformed unto him in his death.
(2.) That we do every one of us bring our souls under an engage- ment so to do; which is required of us in the very nature of the duty.
(3.) That we labour by faith so to behold a dying Christ, that strength may thence issue forth for the death of sin in our souls.
DISCOURSE XIII.1
I HAVE generally, on this occasion, fixed on something particular that may draw forth and guide present meditation ; but I shall at present enter on what may be farther carried on, and speak a little to you about the nature and use of the ordinance itself, in which, it may be, some of us (for there are of all degrees and sizes of know- 1 Delivered April 18, 1675.
SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES. 583
ledge in the church) may not be so well instructed. God has taught us, that the using of an ordinance will not be of advantage to us, unless we understand the institution, and the nature and the ends of it. It was so under the Old Testament, when their worship was more carnal ; yet God would have them to know the nature and the reason of that great ordinance of the passover, as you may see in Exod. xii. 24-27, "And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this ser- vice? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover," etc. Carry along with you the institution; it is the ordinance of God, "You shall keep this service/' Then you must have the meaning of it, which is this, " It is the Lord's passover." And the occasion of the institu- tion was this, " The Lord passed over our houses when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered us out of Egypt." There is a great mystery in that word, "It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover." Their de- liverance was by the blood of a sacrifice; it was a sacrifice which made them look to the great sacrifice, " Christ our passover, who was sacri- ficed for us." And there is a mystical instruction : " It is the Lord's passover," says he. It was a pledge and sign of the Lord's passing over and sparing the Israelites, for it was not itself the Lord's passover. Christ says, " This is my body;" that is, a pledge and token of it. Under the Old Testament, God would not have his people to observe this great service and ordinance, but they should know the reason of it, and the end and rise of it, that it might be a service of faith.