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SERM. XX, fully discharge it when we die; confidering, as Christ did, we fhall be no more, but they are in this world, in the midst of a defiled, tempting, trouble fome world: it is the laft office of love that ever we shall do for them. After a little while we fhall be no longer fenfible how it is with them; for (as the church speaks Ita. Ixiii. 16. "Abraham is ignorant of us, and

Ifrael acknowledgeth us not") what temptations and troubles may befal them, we do not know. O imitate Christ your pat

tern.

Corollary 4. To conclude; Hence ye may fee, what a high afteem and precious value Chrift hath of believers; this was the treasure which he could not quit, he could not die till he had fecured it in a safe hand: "I come unto thee, holy Father, keep "through thine own name tho whom thou haft given me."

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Surely believers are dear to Jefus Chrift; and good reafon, for he hath paid dear for them: let his dying language, this last farewel, fpeak for him, how he prized them." The Lord's por "tion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance," Deut. xxxii. 9. "They are a peculiar treasure to him, above all the people of the earth," Exod. xix. 5. What is much upon our hearts when we die, is dear to us indeed. O how precious, how dear fhould Jefus Chrift be to us! Were we first and last upon his heart; did he mind us, did he pray for us, did he fo wrestle with God about us, when the forrows of death compaffed him about? How much are we engaged, not only to love him, and efteem him, whilft we live, but to be in pangs of love for him, when we feel the pangs of death upon us! to be eying him, when our eye-ftrings break! To have hot affections for Christ, when our hands and feet grow cold! The very laft whisper of our departing fouls fhould be this,

Bleffed be God for Jefus Chrift.

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Opens the fecond preparative Act of CHRIST for his own Death.

I COR. xi. 23, 24, 25. The Lord Jefus, the fame night in which he was betrayed, took bread : and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and faid, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. Af: ter the fame manner also he took the cup, when he had fupped, faying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, i remembrance of me.

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HRIST had no fooner recommended his dear charge to

the Father, but (the time of his death hasing on) he inftitutes his laft fupper, to be the lafting memorial of his death, in all the churches, until his fecond coming; therein graciously providing for the comfort of his people, when he should be removed out of their fight. And this was the fecond preparative Act of Chrift, in order to his death: he will fet his houfe in or der, and then die.

This his fecond act manifefts no lefs love than the former; It is like the plucking off the ring from his finger, when ready to lay his neck upon the block, and delivering it to his dearest friends, to keep that as a memorial of him: "Take this, &c. "in remembrance of me."

In the words read, are four things noted by the apostle, about this laft and lovely act of Chrift, viz. the Author, Time, Inftitution, and End of this holy, folemn ordinance.

1. The author of it *, The Lord Jesus: It is an effect of his lordly power, and royal authority; Mat. xxviii. 18. “And "Jefus came, and fpake unto them, faying, All power is given "unto me in heaven and earth: Go ye therefore. The govern "ment is upon his fhoulder." Ifa. ix. 6. He hall bear the glory, Zech. vi. 13. Who but he that came out of the bofom of the Father, and is acquainted with all the counfels that are there, knows what will be acceptable to God? And who but he can give creatures, by his bleffing, their facramental efficacy and virtue? Bread and wine are naturally fit to refresh and

*The authority of him who gives the precept, is the reason of the precept.

nourish our bodies; but what fitnefs have they to nourish fouls? Surely none, but what they receive from the bleffing of Chrift that inftitutes them.

2. The Time when the Lord Jefus appointed this ordinance "In the fame night in which he was betrayed:" it could not be fooner, because the paffover muft first be celebrated; nor later, for that night he was apprehended. It is therefore emphatically expreffed ev în vunt, in that fame night, that night for ever to be remembred. He gives, that night, a cordial draught to his difciples before the conflict: he fettles, that night, an ordinance in the church, for the confirmation and confolation of his people, in all generations, to the end of the world. By inftituting it that night, he gives abundant evidence of his care for his people, in fpending fo much of that little, very little, time he had left, on

their account.

3. The Inftitution itself; in which we have the memorative fignificative, inftructive figns, and they are bread and wine; and the glorious myfteries reprefented and shadowed forth by them, viz. Jefus Chrift crucified; the proper New Teftament nourishment of believers. Bread and wine are choice creatures, and do excellently shadow forth the flesh and blood of crucified Jefus ; and that both, in their natural usefulness, and manner of preparation. Their usefulness is very great; bread is a creature neceffary to uphold and maintain our natural life; therefore it is called the staff of bread, Ifa. iii. 1. because as a feeble man depends and leans upon his staff, fo doth our feeble spirits upon bread. Wine was made to chear the heart of man, Judg. xi. 13. They are both useful and excellent creatures; their preparations, to become fo useful to us, are also remarkable. The corn muft be ground in the mill, the grapes torn and fqueezed to pieces in the wine-prefs, before we can either have bread or wine. And when all this is done, they must be received into the body, or they nourish not. So that these were very fit creatures to be fet apart for this use and end,

If any object, It is true, they are good creatures, but not precious enough to be the figns of such profound and glorious my. fteries: It was worth the creating a new creature, to be the fign of the new covenant.

Let him that thus objects, afk himself, whether nothing be precious without pomp? The preciousness of these elements is not fo much from their own natures, as their ufe and end; and that makes them precious indeed. A Load-fione at fea is much more excellent than a Diamond, because more useful. A penny worth of wax applied to the label of a deed, and fealed,

may in a minute have it's value raised to thousands of pounds. Thefe creatures receive their value and eftimation on a like account. Nor should it at all remain a wonder to thee, why Chrift should reprefent himfelf by fuch mean and common things, when thou haft well confidered that the excellency of the picture, is it's fimilitude and conformity to the original; and that Chrift was in a low, fad, and very abafed ftate, when this picture of him was drawn; he was then a man of forrows. These then, as lively figns, fhadow forth a crucified Jefus, reprefent him to us in his red garments. This precious ordinance may much more than Paul, fay to us, "I always bear about in my body, the dying of the Lord Jesus :" That is the thing it fignifies.

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4. Laftly, Take notice of the ufe, defign, and end of this inftitution. Eis any suny avaμvnow, in remembrance, or for a memorial of me. O there is much in this: Chrift knew how apt our bafe hearts would be to lofe him, amidft fuch a throng of fenfible objects as we here converfe with; and how much that forgetfulness of him, and of his fufferings, would turn to our prejudice and lofs; therefore doth he appoint a fign to be remem. bred by: "As oft as you do this, ye fhew forth the Lord's death "till he come." Hence we obferve, fuitable to the design of this difcourfe,

Doct. That the facramental memorial Chrift left with his people, is a fpecial mark of his care and love for them *.

What! To order his picture (as it were) to be drawn when he was dying, to be left with his spouse! To rend his own flesh, and fet abroach his own blood to be meat and drink for our fouls! O what manner of love was this! It is true, his picture in the facrament is full of fears and wounds; but these are honourable scars, and highly grace and commend it to his 1poufe, for whofe dear fake he here received them,

"They are marks of love and honour t." And he would be fo drawn, or rather he fo drew himself, that as oft as his people looked upon that portraiture of him, they might remember, and be deeply affected with thofe things he here endured for their fakes. These are the wounds my dear husband Jefus re

*Our Lord, while in life, for commemorating his death, order ed the celebrating of a reprefentation of his facrifice. Aug. + Hæc funt infignia laudis.

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ceived for me. These are the marks of that love which passes the love of creatures. O fee the love of a Saviour! This is that heavenly Pelican that feeds his young with his own blood. We have read of pitiful and tender women that have eaten the flesh of their own children, Lam. iv. 10. But where is that women recorded, that gave her own flesh and blood to be meat and drink to her children? Surely the fpoufe may fay of the love of Chrift, what David in his lamentations, faid of the love of Jona than, " Thy love to me was wonderful, paffing the love of "women." But to prepare the point to be meat indeed, and drink indeed to thy foul, I fhall difcufs briefly thefe three things, and haften to the application.

First, What it is to remember the Lord Jefus in the facra

ment.

Secondly, What aptitude there is in that ordinance, fo to bring him to our remembrance.

Thirdly, How the care and love of Chrift is discovered by leaving fuch a memorial of himself with us.

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Remembrance, properly, is the return of the mind to an object, about which it hath been formerly converfant: and it may fo return to a thing, it hath converfed with before, two ways; fpeculatively and tranfiently; or affectingly, and permanently. A fpeculative remembrance, is only to call to mind the hiftory of fuch a perfon, and his fufferings; that Chrift was once put to death in the flesh. An affectionate remembrance, is when we fo call Chrift and his death to our minds, as to feel the powerful impreffions thereof upon our hearts. Thus, Mat. xxvi. 75. "Peter remenred the word of the Lord, and went out, and wept bitterly." His very heart was melted with that remembrance; his bowels were pained, he could not hold, but went out and wept abundantly. Thus Jofeph, when he faw his brother Benjamin, whofe fight refreshed the memory of former days and endearments, was greatly affected, Gen. xliii. 29, 30. "And he lift up his eyes, and faw his brother Benjamin, his mother's fon; and faid, Is this your younger "brother, of whom ye fpake to me? and he faid, God be gra❝cious to thee my fon. And Jofeph made hafte, for his bow"els did yern upon his brother, and he fought where to weep; and he entred into his chamber, and wept there." Such a

Memory is a power of renewing and recollecting these ideas, which formerly were impreffed; but afterwards, vanished, it is called by one name, Remenibrance. Keckerman. Synt. Phyf. l. 4. 6. 6. p. [mihi] 536.

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