OMITTING those things which concern the public administration of this sacrament, (for the reasons before intimated part ii.) I shall here only give you some brief directions for your private duty herein.
[Sidenote: What are the ends of the sacrament?]
_Direct._ I. Understand well the proper ends to which this sacrament was instituted by Christ; and take heed that you use it not to ends for which it never was appointed. The true ends are these: 1. To be a solemn commemoration of the death and passion of Jesus Christ, to keep it, as it were, in the eye of the church, in his bodily absence till he come, 1 Cor. xi. 24-26. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the holy covenant which was first entered in baptism, between Christ and the receiver; and in that covenant it is, on Christ's part, a solemn delivery of himself first, and with himself the benefits of pardon, reconciliation, adoption, and right to life eternal. And on man's part, it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his benefits, upon his terms, and a delivering up of ourselves to him, as his redeemed ones, even to the Father as our reconciled Father, and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour, and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier, with professed thankfulness for so great a benefit. 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means, by which the Spirit of Christ should work to stir up, and exercise, and increase the repentance, faith, desire, love, hope, joy, thankfulness, and new obedience of believers; by a lively representation of the evil of sin, the infinite love of God in Christ, the firmness of the covenant or promise, the greatness and sureness of the mercy given, and the blessedness purchased and promised to us, and the great obligations that are laid upon us.[71] And that herein believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these graces, and might be provoked and assisted to stir up themselves to this communion with God in Christ, and to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ.[72] 4. It is appointed to be the solemn profession of believers, of their faith, and love, and gratitude, and obedience to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of continuing firm in the christian religion. And a badge of the church before the world. 5. And it is appointed to be a sign and means of the unity, love, and communion of saints, and their readiness to communicate to each other.
The false, mistaken ends which you must avoid are these: 1. You must not, with the papists, think that the end of it is to turn bread into no bread, and wine into no wine, and to make them really the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. For if sense (which telleth all men that it is still bread and wine) be not to be believed, then we cannot believe that ever there was a gospel, or an apostle, or a pope, or a man, or any thing in the world. And the apostle expressly calleth it bread three times, in three verses together, after the consecration, 1 Cor. xi. 26-28. And he telleth us, that the use of it is (not to make the Lord's body really present, but) "to show the Lord's death till he come;" that is, as a visible representing and commemorating sign, to be instead of his bodily presence till he come.
2. Nor must you with the papists use this sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father, to propitiate him for the quick and dead, and ease souls in purgatory, and deliver them out of it. For Christ having died once dieth no more, and without killing him there is no sacrificing him. By once offering up himself, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin: having finished the sacrificing work on earth, he is now passed into the heavens, to appear before God for his redeemed ones.[73]
3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the sacrament, to confirm some confederacies or oaths of secrecy, for rebellions or other unlawful designs; as the powder-plotters in England did.