never be forgotten, he brake the bread, in token of '* his body given for men ;" and poured out the wine, in token of " his blood shed for them ;" and expressly commanded, that in all future ages this ceremony should be observed " in remembrance of him\" It was to be a " shewing forth of his death till he should come again" at the end of the world, to take all his redeemed people to himself^. The one great end for which he died was also in this way to be made known to all succeeding generations. The redemption of mankind was the subject of a covenant entered into between the Father and the Son ; the Son engaging to make his soul an offering for sin ; and the Father engaging, that, when this should be effected, his Son should see a seed who should prolong their days; and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands ; yea, " he should see of the travail of his soul, and should be satisfied'^." By the shedding of Christ's blood this covenant was ratified ; and the cup which was administered in remembrance of it, was to be to all mankind a memorial, that, on the Redeemer's part, every thing was effected for the salvation of men, and that all who would embrace the covenant so ratified should assuredly be saved. " The cup was the New Testament in his blood ;" or, in other words, it represented the new covenant which that blood had both ratified and sealed.]
2. As an instructive emblem —
[The killing of the Paschal lamb was not sufficient : the people must feed upon it, in the manner which God himself had prescribed. So neither is it sufficient that by the breaking of the bread, and the pouring out of the wine, we commemorate the death of Christ. Were the ordinance merely commemora- tive, that would have answered the end : but it is intended emblematically to shew forth the way in which we are to obtain an interest in the Redeemer's death. We must apply it, every- one of us, to ourselves: we must feed upon it; and by so doing declare our affiance in it : we must shew, that, as our bodies are nourished by bread and wine, so we hope to have our souls nourished by means of union and communion with our blessed and adorable Redeemer. Hence the command given to every one, to eat the bread, and to drink the cup. And a more instructive ordinance cannot be conceived ; since it shews, that it is by an actual fellowship with Christ in his death, and by that alone, that we can ever become partakers of the benefits which it has procured for us.]
But my text leads me to notice the Lord's Supper more particularly,
II. As still honoured with his pecuhar presence —
a ver. 19. ^' 1 Cor. xi. 26. « Isai. liii. 10, 11.
1401.] THE lord's supper. 555
When our blessed Lord said that '' he would no more drink of the fruit of the vine, till he should drink it new with his Disciples in the kingdom of God," he intimated, that there was to be at least some period when he would again hold communion with them in that blessed ordinance. In his life-time he did not : for, on the very day after he had insti- tuted it, he was put to death. Nor did he at any time during the forty days of his continuance on earth, after his resurrection. For, though it is true that " he ate and drank with his Disciples after he was risen from the dead^" yet he never again par- took of the Passover, or of the Lord's Supper ; but merely ate and drank, in order to shew that he was not a Spirit only, but that he possessed a body that was capable of performing all the proper functions of the body. Nevertheless, he had, and ever will have, communion with his people in that ordinance ; for he has said, " Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them :" and again ; " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."