-d SER M0N on firll: been contral.l:ed and agreed on, they might further be drawn on to facrifice and fo eat of the Sacrifices alfo with thofe Heathens, in token of confirming fuch a League, as was the known common manner and cull:om of each to do Yea, and tbofe that were more barbarous and inhuman among the Gentiles when they would put the more binding Force into their Covenants or fame fuch rtlorc folemn Confpiracy,_ they_ ufedJ.to facrifice a -Man, (a Sla~e I fuppofe) and cat hiS Flefh, and drmk hiS Bloodo together; which becaufe they judged the more ll:upendious, they jud~ed would carry with it the deepell: and moll: binding ,~~";)'':&- Obhgatton. Thus we read m Plutarch: Thofe R.oman Gallants entring into a :~:/h,"'"- Covenant, drank the Blood of a Man, whom firll: as a Sacrifice they_ had killed. "'""· And the fame 'Piutarcb C1ys of another Company, ( thofe Confptrators with K•1~.J='- Catiline) that they f.1crificed a Man, and did eat his Flcfh; fo to bind and unite ;;:,:::;ft';!;; each other, more firmly to ll:jck fall: and clofe together in fo great an Underta– =r>Wv. ~mg, by the moll: Cure and firmell: way that their R.el•g10n could mvent. And Pfd. 16. 4· makes an exprcfs mention of fuch among the Heathens, terming them, Their Drink.::Offirings of Blood. See alfo Ezek., 39· 17, 18, 19. Men and Nanons lefs barbarous, took Wme mll:ead of Blood, to confirm their Leagues after Sacrifices, it being the likell: and nearell: unto Blood, the Blood of the Grape. Now then, to bring all this home to the Point in hand : Chrill: our Paffeover (and fo our Sacrifice for us) having been Oain and offered up for our mutual Peace, bath inflitutcd and ordained us Believers to keep this Feall:, (it is the ApofHe's own Allufion, agreeing with, and founded on the Notion we have been _prolecuting ) and that to this end, That by partaking of it as a Sacrifice, and by fi1ewing forth his Death, we might hold forth. all the avowed Ends of that Sacrifice with application to our !elves. The eminent Ends of the one as a Sacrifice, correfponding and anfwering to the eminent Ends of the other, as a Feall:. A Fcnll: it is of God's providing, and be rhe great Entertainer of us at it, in token of Peace between Him and us; for He it was, who prepared the Sacrifice it fdf, and unto whom, as a whole Burnt-Offering, Chrill: was offered up. But God is not as one that fits down and eats with us, tho he fmelt a fweet f.1vour in it ; we arc the Guefis, and He the Mall:er of this Feall: ; and yet he thereby proci,Jims anJ profeffeth his being reconciled, in that he caufeth us to fit down at his Table. And this is the prime and moll: eminent fignificancy of it; and to hold forth this Intent thereof, as between God and us, others have profe– cuted this Notion. But there is another, (more conlpicuouOy fuited to the No· tion which bath been driven, and) which is no lefs in the infention of the Inll:i– tution it felf, and indeed of the two, more obvious to outward Sence, and that is, That the Perlons themlelves f9r whom it is prepared, that do vifibly fit down, and do cat and drink (in proper fpeech) the Bread and Cup together, that they are agreed, and at peace each with other. God is but as an invifible Entertainer, but our eating and drinking together is vifible to all the World; we outwardly fhew forth his Death, and do withal! as vifibly fhew forth this to have been the Intent of it. Yea, and if we could raife up thofe Nations ofold, both Jewsand Gcmilcs, and call together the moll: part of the World at this day, and fhould but declare, that this is a Feall:, efpecially a lacrificial Feall:, a Feall: after a Sa– crifice, offered once up for our Amity and Peace by fo great a Mediator ; the common Inll:inl.l: and Notion which their own Cull:oms had begot in them, would prefently prompt them, and caufe•them univerfally to underll:and, and fay among thcmleh•cs, Thele Men were at enmity one with another, and a Sacrifice was of– fered up to abolifb it, and to confirm an Union and Pacification amongll: them, and lo therefore they do further eat and participate thereof, and communicate therein ; a manifell: profeflion it is, that they are in mutual Love, Amity, and Concord one with another; and thereby further ratifying that Unity, which that Sacrifice had been offered up before for the renewing of. This is truly the Inter– pretation o( that folemn Celebration, even in the fight of all the Heathens, and unto the Principles of all the Nations, among whom Sacnfices were_m ule; yea, and this they would all account the ll:rongell: and firmell: Bond of limon, that any R.digion could afford. And add this : The more noble the Sacnfice was, as If • cl
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