The Communicant's Companion
whithersoever he goes; he has charged us to love one another, and the estate he has left us is so devised, as not to give any occasion to quarrel, but rather to be a bond of union. He has charged us to espouse his cause, serve his interest, and concern ourselves in his concerns in the world, to seek the welfare of the great body, and all the members of it. He has likewise charged us to expect and prepare for his second coming: his word of command is, "Watch." Now, in the Lord's Supper, we are reminded of this charge, and bound afresh faithfully to observe whatsoever Christ has commanded, as the Rechabites kept the command of their father.
The legacies left by the will, are hereby particularly consigned to us; paid in part, and the rest secured to be paid when we come to age, even at the time appointed by the Testator. What is left for us is not only sufficient to answer the full intention of the will, enough for all, enough for each; but is left in good hands, in the hands of the Spirit of truth, who will not deal unfaithfully with us; for, as Christ tells us, "we know him." Nay, Christ himself is risen from the dead, to be the overseer of his own will, and to see it duly executed: so that we are in no danger of losing our legacies, unless by our own fault. These are good securities, and upon which we may with abundant satisfaction rely; and yet our Lord Jesus, "more abundantly to show the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, has confirmed it by an oath, (by a sacrament, which is his oath to us, as well as ours to him,) that by all those immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation," that have ventured our all in the New
Testament.
2. It is the new covenant.—Though God is our sovereign Lord, and owner, and we are in his hand, as the clay in the hand of the potter; yet he condescends to deal with us about our reconciliation and happiness in the way of a covenant, that they which are saved may be the more comforted, and they which perish may be rendered the more inexcusable. The tenor of this covenant is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Salvation is the great promise of the covenant, believing in Christ the great condition of the covenant; now, this cup is the covenant, that is, it is the seal of the covenant. There seems to be an allusion to that solemnity, which we read of where Moses read the book of the covenant in the audience of the people, and the people declared their consent to it, saying, "All that the Lord hath said we will do, and will be obedient. And then Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it upon the people, (part of it having before been sprinkled upon the altar,) and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words."
Thus the covenant being made by sacrifice, and the blood of the sacrifice being sprinkled both upon the altar of God and upon the representatives of the people, both parties did, as it were, interchangeably put their hands and seals to the articles of agreement. So the blood of Christ having satisfied for the breach of the covenant of innocency, and purchased a new treaty, and being the sacrifice by which the covenant is made, is fitly called the blood of the covenant. Having sprinkled this blood upon the altar in his intercession, when by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, he does in this sacrament sprinkle it upon the people; as the apostle explains this mystery, Heb. ix. A bargain is a bargain, though it be not sealed, but the sealing is the ratification and perfection of it. The internal seal of the covenant, as administered to true believers, is the spirit of promise "whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption." But the external seals of the covenant, as administered in the visible church, are the sacraments, particularly this of the Lord's Supper. Sealing ordinances are appointed to