The Communicant's Companion
and Lord, when, behold, the Lord is at hand, and the Judge standeth before the door. Thus must we show him forth till he come; for he comes quickly.
2. We are to do this in the remembrance of the death of Christ, as an ancient favor done to us. This ordinance was instituted on the night wherein our Master was betrayed, that night of observations, as the first passover night is called, (Exod. 12:42. margin,) which intimates the special reference this ordinance was to have to that which was done that night, and the day following. In it we are "to know Christ and him crucified," to remember his sufferings, and, in a special manner, to remember his bonds. All the saints and all the churches could not see Christ upon the cross; therefore, in this ordinance, that great transaction is set before us, upon which the judgment of this world turned: "Now is the judgment of this world." Here we remember the dying of the Lord Jesus: that is, (1.) We endeavor to preserve the memory of it in the church, and to transmit it pure and entire through our age, to the children which shall be born, that the remembrance of it may be ever fresh, and may not die in our hand. That good thing which was committed to us as a trust, we must thus carefully keep, and faithfully deliver down, to the next generation; evidencing, that we firmly believe, and frequently think of Christ's dying for us, and desiring that those who should come after us may do so too.
(2.) We endeavor to revive and incite the remembrance of it in our own hearts.—This ordinance was intended "to stir up our pure minds," (our impure minds we have too much reason to call them,) by way of remembrance, that, giving such an earnest heed to the things that belong to the great salvation, as the solemnity of this ordinance calls for, we may not at any time let them slip; or if we do, we may, in the use thereof, speedily recover them. The instituted images of Christ crucified, are, in this ordinance, very strong and lively, and proper to make deep impressions of his grace and love, upon the minds that are prepared to receive them, and such as cannot be worn out.
We see, then, what we have to do in our attendance upon this ordinance; we must remember the sufferings of Christ there, else we do nothing.
1st. This supposes some acquaintance with Christ crucified; for we cannot be said to remember that which we never knew.—The ignorant, therefore, to whom the great things of the gospel are as a strange thing, with which they are not concerned to acquaint themselves, cannot answer the intention of this ordinance; but they offer the blind in sacrifice, not discerning the Lord's body, and the breaking of it. It concerns us, therefore, to cry after this knowledge, and to labor after a clearer insight into the mystery of our redemption by the death of Christ; for, if we be ignorant of this, and rest in false and confused notions of it, we are unworthy to wear the Christian name, and to live in a Christian nation.
2d. It implies a serious thought and contemplation of the sufferings of Christ, such as is fed and supplied with matter to work upon, not from a strong fancy, but from a strong faith. Natural passions may be raised by the power of imagination, representing the story of Christ's suffering as very doleful and tragical; but pious and devout affections are best kindled by the consideration of Christ's dying as a propitiation for our sins, and the Savior of our souls; and this is the object of faith, not of fancy. We must here look unto Jesus as he is lifted up in the gospel, take him as the word makes him, and so behold him.
3d. The contemplation of the sufferings of Christ must make such an impression upon the soul, as to work it into a fellowship with, and conformity, to Christ in his sufferings. This was the knowledge and