The Communicant's Companion (continued)
1. In this ordinance we have communion with Christ, our Head.—"Truly our fellowship is with him." He here manifests himself to us, and gives out to us his graces and comforts; we here set ourselves before him, and tender him the grateful returns of love and duty. A kind correspondence between Christ and our souls is kept up in this ordinance, such as our present state will admit. Christ, by his word and spirit, abides in us: we by faith and love abide in him: here, therefore, where Christ seals his word, and offers his Spirit, and where we exercise our faith, and have our love inflamed, there is communion between us and Christ.
This communion supposes union; this fellowship supposes friendship; for, "can two walk together except they be agreed?" We must, therefore, in the bond of an everlasting covenant, join ourselves to the Lord, and combine our interest with his; and then, pursuant thereto, concern him in all the concerns of our happiness; and concern ourselves in all the concerns of his glory.
2. In this ordinance we have communion with the universal church, "even with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."—Hereby we profess, testify, and declare, that "we, being many, are one bread and one body," by virtue of our common relation to our Lord Jesus Christ; "for we are all partakers of that one bread, Christ, the bread of life," signified and communicated in this sacramental bread. All true Christians, though they are many, yet they are one; and we express our consent to, and complacency in that union, by partaking of the Lord's
Supper. I say, though they are many, that is, though they are numerous, yet, as a vast number of creatures make one world, governed by one providence, so a vast number of Christians make one church, animated by one Spirit, the soul of that great body. Though they are various, far distant from each other