The Communicant's Companion (continued)
It was appointed to be a commemorating ordinance, and a confessing ordinance, and a communicating ordinance, and a covenanting ordinance.
I. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper is a commemorating ordinance.
This explanation our Lord himself gave of it, when he said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Do it for my memorial. Do it for a remembrance of me. In this ordinance he has recorded his name for ever, and this is his memorial throughout all generations.
We are to do this,
1. In remembrance of the person of Christ, as an absent friend of ours.—It is a common ceremony of friendship to lay up something in remembrance of a friend we have valued, which we say, we keep for his sake, when he is gone, or is at a distance; it is usual likewise to drink to one another, remembering such a friend that is absent. Jesus Christ is our beloved and our friend, the best friend that ever our souls had; he is now absent, he has left the world, and is gone to the Father, and the heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things.
Now, this ordinance is appointed for a remembrance of him; We observe it in token of this, that though the blessed Jesus be out of sight, he is not out of mind. He that instituted this ordinance, did, as it were, engrave this on it for a motto:—
When this you see,
Remember me.
Remember him! Is there any danger of our forgetting him? If we were not wretchedly taken up with the world and the flesh, and strangely careless in the concerns of our souls, we could not forget him. But, in consideration of the treachery of our memories, this ordinance is appointed to remind us of Christ.
Ought we not to remember, and can we ever forget such a friend as Christ is:—a friend that is our near and dear relation; "bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, and not ashamed to call us brethren?" A friend in covenant with us, who puts more honor upon us than we deserve, when he calls us his servants, and yet is pleased to call us friends. A friend that has so wonderfully signalized his friendship, and commended his love: he hath done that for us which no friend we have in the world did, or could do for us: he has laid down his life for us, when the redemption of bur souls was grown so precious, as otherwise to have ceased for ever. Surely we must forget ourselves if ever we forget him, since our happiness is entirely owing to his kindness.
Ought we not to remember, and can we ever forget a friend, who, though he be absent from us, is negotiating our affairs, and is really absent for us?
He is gone, but he is gone upon our business; as the forerunner he is for us entered; he is gone to appear in the presence of God for us, as our agent.
Can we be unmindful of him who is always mindful of us, and who, as the great High Priest of our profession, bears the names Of all his spiritual
Israel on his breastplate, near his heart, within the veil!
Ought we not to remember, and can we ever forget a friend, who, though he be now absent, will be absent but a while? We see him not, but we expect to see him shortly, when he will "come in the clouds, and every eye shall see him;" will come to receive us to himself, to share in his joy and glory. Shall we not be glad of any thing that helps us to remember him, who not only remembered us once in our low estate, but, having once remembered us, will never forget us? Shall not his name be written in indelible characters upon the tables of our heart, who hath graven us upon the palms of his hands? Surely we must continually remember our Judge