2. But more necessary in this ordinance.
church of Corinth, in order to a due preparation to this ordinance, was malice, 1 Cor. 5:8.
2. But more necessary in this ordinance.
(1.) It represents the union of believers together. The bread being made up of several grains compacted together: 1 Cor. 10:16, 'For we being many are one bread and one body.' As the bread is a mark and means of the communion we have with Christ,* and as we declare by the participation of the external signs, that we have a communion with the Lord, do we not also make, by the same means, a solemn protestation that we are of the same faith, the same religion, with those that partake of those symbols? And since it is the same bread which represents one Jesus, it also associates as into one body. This bread is appointed to be a band to tie us to Christ, and to tie us in affections to one another. This ordinance was instituted to solder believers together. They have the same nourishment, and therefore should have the same affection. Eodem sanguine glutinati, knit together with the same blood, as Austin saith of himself and his friend. The death of Christ is here represented, which is an engagement to this affection. In this his death is shown, which did meritoriously purchase this unity; in this we partake of Christ, in whom all believers are made one, engrafted in the same stock. It was the end of Christ's death to reduce all to a harmony, to still the war, not only in the members against the mind, but in his people one against another. Since we are to remember the death of Christ, we are to remember his will and pleasure at his death; when we remember our friends, we would at least remember their dying charge, John 15:17. Doth not Christ press this in his farewell discourse, 'These things I command you, that you love one another,' when he was making his will to man, and his will to God? This was part of that will he was to seal with his blood. As Christ upon the cross was the highest eruption of love, so this sacrament is the setting forth the highest pattern of it
(2.) No benefit of the ordinance without this grace. We have no communion with Christ without keeping this commandment: 1 John
3:23, 24, 'This is his commandment, that you love one another;' and 'he that keeps his commandment, dwells in him, and he in him.'
Passion is like a leaven that corrupts this ordinance to the soul; as anger hinders the concoction of bodily food in the stomach. When
Jerusalem is a quiet habitation, the tabernacle shall not be taken down, and God will be a place of broad rivers and streams to it, Isa.
33:20. The greatest gift next to Christ, was that of the Spirit, which descended when the disciples were ὁμοθυμαδὸν, of one mind, Acts
2:1. This being the design of the gospel, to knit men's hearts together in peace and love, those that have not this love are not cast into a gospel mould, and therefore not fit to receive advantage by a choice evangelical institution.
Let us examine ourselves as to this grace.
And that we may not mistake, every difference in judgment is not a sign of the want of this grace. Paul differed from Peter in opinion about the Jewish ceremonies, without any breach of love, Gal. 2:11.
Paul and Barnabas jarred so as to part asunder; yet neither of them can be supposed to be void of this, which their Master had so particularly enjoined them, Acts 15:37–39. It cannot be expected but differences in judgment will be among the most serious Christians, while the blindness of their minds is but imperfectly cured. The strings of an instrument are not all of one size, nor have the same sound, yet agree in a harmony; there may be an harmony in affections, though there may be a difference in opinions.
But this love is true.
(1.) When it is founded upon the grace of a person. That which is most lovely in Christ's eye should be so in ours; the grace and holiness of a person is respected by Christ, not his outward state and condition. It is a loving 'in the truth,' and 'for the truth's sake,' 2 John
1, 2. A love of a disciple 'in the name of a disciple,' Mat. 10:42. As
there is a common affection to God in men, because of his benefits, so there may be also some common affection in an unregenerate man to godliness, which may be the fruit of education, or an enlightened conscience, in some measure convinced that holiness is good.
Holiness and grace are so beautiful, that the wickedest man would have the appearance of it, and would be esteemed good. But it must be a choice and prevailing affection, out of love to Christ, whose image he bears, flowing from a love to God, a spirit of regeneration, from the seed of the gospel rooted in the soul: Gal. 5:22, 'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,' and is therefore set upon the meanest Christian, as the meanest box which hath a jewel in it, will be esteemed for the jewel's sake by those that understand it. The Corinthians were defective in this love, in despising the poor in their love-feasts, a miscarriage the apostle blames them for in this, 1 Cor. 11:22.
(2.) It must be a fervent love. 'With a pure heart fervently,' 1 Peter 1:22, not in appearance and faintly. The word the apostle useth,
Rom. 12:10, which is translated, 'be kindly affectioned to one another,' φιλόστοργοι, signifies a vehement affection. For as God loves nothing more in this world than his own image, so those that have the divine nature drawn in them are in this part like him; for God never draws any image unlike himself.
(3.) A love manifested most in their persecutions. To be ashamed of believers in their sufferings is, in Christ's interpretation, to be ashamed of Christ himself. At the last day, the trial of men is by their acts towards God's people in time of their persecutions, Mat. 25:41–
43, &c., as if the neglect of that which he calls his commandment were the great sin to be answered for then. It is not whether we visited them when in their houses, in state and triumph, or fed them when they had wherewith to do it themselves, but when in a state of want. If a man loves the graces of a believer, he will love him in suffering; for though suffering alters his outward condition, it alters not his inward relation or gracious disposition. Christ upon the cross