vol. ix. 38
594 SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES.
DISCOURSE XVI.1
To whet our minds, and lead us to a particular exercise of faith and love in this duty, I shall add a few words from that Scripture which I have already spoken something to upon this occasion, namely, —
John xii. 32, — " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me."
This lifting up, as I said before, was the lifting up of Christ on the cross, when, as the apostle Peter tells us, " he bore," or, as the word is, he carried up, " our sins in his own body on the tree." Christ died for three ends: — 1. To answer an institution; 2. To fulfil a type; and, 3. To be a moral representation of the ivork of God in his death.
1. It was to answer the institution, that he who was hanged on a tree was accursed of God, Deut. xxi. 23. There were many other ways appointed of God to put malefactors to death among the Jews. Some were stoned ; in some cases they were burned with fire ; but it is only by God appointed that he that ivas hanged on a tree was accursed of God: and Christ died that death, to show that it was he who underwent the curse of God; as the apostle shows, Gal. hi. 13, " He was made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."
2. Christ died that death to fulfil a type. For it was a bloody and most painful death, yet it was a death wherein a bone of him was not broken; typified of him in the paschal lamb, of which a bone was not to be broken. Christ was lifted up on the cross to fulfil that type : so that though his death was bitter, lingering, painful, shameful, yet not a bone was broke ; that every one might have a whole Christ, an entire Saviour, notwithstanding all his suffering and rending on our behalf.
3. He was so lifted up that it might be a moral representation unto all; to answer that other type, also, of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness: so that he was the person that might say, " Behold me, behold me." He was lifted up between heaven and earth, that all creatures might see God had set him forth to be a propitiation.
" And I, when I am lifted up," — what will he then do? " When I have answered the curse, when I have fulfilled the types, when I have complied with the will of God in being a propitiation, ' I will draw all men unto me.'" It is placed upon Christ's lifting up. Now that is actually past ; nor was it clone merely while Christ was hanging on the cross. There are two ways whereby there is a representation made of Christ being lifted up to draw men unto him :■ — ■ 1 Delivered October 31, 1675.
SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES. 5^)5
1. By the preaching of the word. So the apostle tells us, Gal. iii. 1, that " Jesus Christ was evidently set forth crucified among them, before their eyes." The great end of preaching the word is, to re- present evidently Christ crucified ; — it is to lift up Christ, that he may draw sinners unto him. And, —
2. It is represented in this ordinance of the Lord's supper, wherein we show forth his death. Christ is peculiarly and eminently lifted up in this ordinance, because it is a peculiar and eminent re- presentation of his death.
Now there are two ivays of Christ's drawing persons to himself: — 1. His way of drawing sinners to him by faith and repentance. 2. His way of drawing believers to him, as to actual communion with him.
Christ draws sinners to him by faith and repentance, as he is lifted up in the preaching of the word; and he draws believers to him, as unto actual communion, as by the word, so in an especial manner by this ordinance. I shall only speak a word on the latter, — how Christ is lifted up in this ordinance that represents his death unto us ; or, how he draws us into actual communion with him.
1. He does it by his love. The principal thing that is always to be considered, in the lifting up of Christ, is his love. " Who loved me," says the apostle, " and gave himself for me;" and, " Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." I could show you that love is attractive, that it is encouraging and constraining. I will only leave this with you : — whatever apprehensions God in this ordinance shall give you of the love of Christ, you have therein an experience of Christ's drawing you, as he is lifted up, unto actual communion with him. It is of great concernment to you. Christ is never so lovely unto the soul of a sinner as when he is considered as lifted up ; that is, as undergoing the curse of God, that a blessing might come upon us. 0 that he who has loved us, and because he has loved us, would draw us with the cords of his loving-kindness! as God says he does, Jer. xxxi. 3, " Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love ; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee."