SERMON LXXVI.

THE LORD's SUPPER PRACTICALLY EXPLAINED.

Doce me, Domine Jefu, facrum hoc inftitutum tali facro modo tractare, et conatus meos gratia tua adeo fecunda, ut indignus ufus corporis et fanguinis tui judicium, meum aut eorum qui me audient, nunquam aggravet; fed facrifici tui memores femper digni fieremus participes. Amen.

LUKE Xxii. 19.

The Words of Jefus Chrift when he ordained the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper:

ST

THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.

T. PAUL concludes his first epistle to the Corinthians with these remarkable words: -If any man love not the Lord Jefus Chrift, let bim be anathema maranatha.

Now, if the generality of Christians can hear these words without trembling, it must be either because they do not understand, or they do not confider them. For the meaning and the direction is this:-If any Christian amongst you shews by his life and behaviour,

a See Deut. xvi. 12. John vi. 26, 55, 53, 55. 1 John i. 7. and ii. 28.

VOL. IV.

B

1 Cor. x. 16.

that

that he does not love the Lord Jefus, let fuch a man be separated from your communion, as being under the displeasure of Almighty God.

I dare fay, that few Chriftians, when they hear these words, do think themselves at all concerned in them. We are all but too apt to conclude the best for ourselves, and to think it impoffible not to love Jesus Christ, by whose merits and mediation we hope to be faved. But let us not deceive ourselves. Let us rather, every man, afk himself-How is it that I behave myself to my benefactors, and to those whom I do really love? If any man has done me a very great fervice,-if a man has promifed me any great favour,-I love to speak of him, and of the kindness he has done or promised me,-I often think of him, and with a thankful mind,-and I fully refolve never to do any thing which may difoblige him.

Is it thus we love the Lord Jefus Chrift? Would to God we could all truly fay fo. However, let us confider what he has done for us, and fee how it will affect our hearts.

When the whole race of mankind was under the displeasure of Almighty God,-had forfeited all pretence to immortal happiness, and had become liable to eternal death,Jefus Chrift undertook to obtain our pardon, and to restore us to the favour of God.

But the fin had spread fo far and wide, that this could not be done without a fuitable fatisfaction to the juftice of God. God had declared,

clared, that the difobedience of Adam fhould be punished with death. His truth was at stake, and the offender, and all his pofterity, were under his difpleasure.

Jefus Chrift therefore, moved with compassion for fo great a calamity, left the glories of heaven, and took upon him our nature, that, as man, he might suffer what our fins had deserved, and that, as the Son of God, the fatisfaction might be fufficient for the fins of the whole world. In fhort, he laid down his life for us; and by that most worthy facrifice, he not only made our peace with God, and delivered us from eternal death; but obtained of God his father, an affurance of eternal life and happiness for all fuch as would become his faithful fervants.

And that fuch might be diftinguished from all others, he appointed an holy ordinance, to preserve the memory of these mighty blessings till his coming again; requiring all his faithful followers, all who expect any benefit by his death, to commemorate the fame after the manner he ordained the night before he fuffered.

will

Let us afk our own hearts,-Does this mercy deferve to be remembered by us?-or any Christian fay, that he loves the Lord Jefus Chrift, who will lightly turn his back upon that holy ordinance, which Chrift himfelf has appointed as the most acceptable way of fhewing our love to him, and our refolution

to continue his faithful fervants, for his mercies bestowed upon us.

And indeed it is for this reason that Jefus Christ ordained this holy facrament, that Christians, being often called upon, and obliged to remember the love of their dying Saviour, his bitter paffion, the occafion of his death, the mifery they have escaped, and the happiness he has purchased for them, might love him with all their heart and foul;-and that doing this as often as ever they should have an opportunity, their love might increase unto their lives end.

May not one therefore conclude, without any great uncharitablenefs, that fuch as do lightly turn their backs upon this ordinance, do not indeed love the Lord Jefus; and that, according to St. Paul's direction, they ought to be anathema, that is, separated from the communion of the faithful.

And though this would be called great feverity at this time, yet this was the practice of the primitive church, and it was agreeable to the law of the passover, the great figure of Chrift's death, and by God's express command; that is, that whoever did neglect to obferve the paffover, in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt, that foul should be cut off from among the people of Israel.

b

And verily, a Chriftian, who understands and confiders the importance of this ordi

b Numb. ix. 13.

nance,

nance, and is not hindered by fome very evil habit, or by having fallen into some scandalous fin, will no more turn his back upon the Lord's table, than he will dare to deny the God that made him, or the Saviour who redeemed him.

Here are fo many reasons to fhew the importance, the bleffing, and the neceffity of obferving this ordinance, that it will be needless to urge any more to fuch as have any true concern for their falvation.

This therefore being a duty and ordinance, which every Christian is obliged to as he hopes for falvation, to fhew his love of Chrift by commemorating his death after the manner he has appointed; the duty must of neceffity be fuch as every Chriftian, even the most unlearned, is capable of understanding, and performing worthily.

And indeed fo it is. For as the most unlearned Ifraelite under the law, when he was commanded to bring his facrifice to the altar, to lay his hand upon the head of the beast, confeffing his fins over him ;-as he did very eafily understand, that this was to put him in mind, that death was the punishment due to fin, that he himself deferved the death that that creature was going to fuffer,—that it was great mercy in God that he would accept fuch a facrifice for his fin, which yet he had good hopes he would do, fince he himself had or

< Levit. i. 4.

dained