The Communicant's Companion (continued)
remembrance of Christ, of which blessed Paul was ambitious to "know
Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings," and we all, by our baptism, are in profession "planted together in the likeness of his death." Then we do this in remembrance of Christ effectually, when we experience the death of Christ killing sin in us, mortifying the flesh, weaning us from this present life, weakening vicious habits and dispositions in us, and the power of Christ's cross, both as a moral argument, and as the spring of special grace, "crucifying us to the world, and the world to us," when, in "touching the hem of his garment," we find, like that good woman, virtue comes out of him to heal our souls, then we rightly remember Christ crucified.
II. It is a confessing ordinance.—If the heart believe unto righteousness, hereby confession is made unto salvation. The Lord's Supper is one of the peculiarities of our holy religion, by the observance of which, the professors of it are distinguished from all others. Circumcision, which was the initiating ordinance among the Jews, by leaving its mark in the flesh, was a lasting badge of distinction; baptism, which succeeds it, leaves no such indelible character on the body: but the Lord's Supper is a solemnity by which we constantly avow the Christian name, and declare ourselves not ashamed of the banner of the cross under which we were enlisted, but resolve to continue Christ's faithful servants and soldiers to the end of our lives, according to our baptismal vow.
In the ordinance of the Lord's Supper we are said to show forth the Lord's death, 1 Cor. 11:26, that is,
1. We hereby profess our value and esteem for Christ crucified; ye show it forth with commendation and praise: so the word sometimes signifies. The cross of Christ was to the Jews a stumbling-block, because they expected a Messiah in temporal pomp and power. It was to the Greeks foolishness,