And thus we are then confidercd to be, when··ChriCt as-dying is communicotec!-– by us: For to !hew forth his Death, is the end of this Sacrament. The Seat therefore or Subjell: of partaking in this Communion, of Chri!t's Body and Blood, and.which is ordained for the publick participation of it, is not either lingle Cbri!tians, but a nwzy, nor tbo[e meeting as a fluid Company, like Clouds uncertainly, or as Men at an Ordinary, for running Sacraments, (as fome would have them) but fixed fetledly as incorporated Bodies. Which Inflitution having for its Subject fuch a Society, as then, when Chri!t's Death is to be !hewn fonh, cloth fuitably and correfpondently fet forth, how that the whole Church, the Image of which whole Univerfal Church ( thefe particular Churches do bear, as a late Commentator bath obferved upon that place) was reprefented in and by 0 """ r,;,;. Chrifl: dying ,for us, under this confideration, of being one Body then in •·'"' m•.-JHim. frcr.t fttrJttr Ami there is this ground for i~, That the whole of that Ordinance was inten· 15~: ~"i;;. ded to reprefent the whole of hts Death, and the Imports of tt, as f.1r os was pof.. """~f""'."'• lible. So then look as the Death it felf, and his bitter Paffion are reprefented ;~;,!~:;;~;. therein, both of Body, in breaking the Bread, which is the Communion of his t'"' iwag•– Body_; ofthe Soul in the Wine,which is called the Communion ofhis Blood; and ~·a;,, ;;,~o;;,; this is tlie Blood of the New Tefl:ament, fo expre!fed in a!lufion to that of the Old, in which the Blood was cho[en out, as the nearefl: vifible R.eprefenter of the inviGble Soul, that could be. The Life lies in the Blood, (for the Spirits, which are tlie animal Life, do run in it ) [o fpake the old Law, and the Poet ~~~ . Sangtline quJJrendi redit111 anifJJaq; litand11!Jl. He terms the Sacrifice of the Blood, the Sacrifice of the Soul ; and [o Wine was chofen, as the nearefl: refemblance of Blood, being alfo the Blood of the Grape. Vhg.ti.Jf.n,' As thus the Death it felf, in all the parts of it ; [o the Subjell: for which he died, his Body, and that under that very confideration he died for them, [as one Body J is in like manner as vifibly and plainly held forth; every particularChurch bearing by Infl:itution fbe Image of the whole Church, (as therein it hath alfo all the Privileges of it) fit!y !hewing forth thereby, not only that Chrifl: died for them fingly and apart confidered, (which yet is therewith held forth here, in that each perfonally cloth partake thereof) that might have been [ufficiently evi– denced, if every Perfon or Family apart had been warranted to have received and eaten this Sacrificial Feafl: alone, (as they did the Pa!feover, and the Sacri– fices, Levit. 7· 18-) but the Infl:itution is for many, which very word Chrifl: mentions in the Infl:itution, This is the 'Blood of the New Tcjlament, jhed for ma,y, which word I believe the Apofl:le had an eye unto, when he faid, We being many, are Partak,prs, &c. Chrifl: indeed principally aimed therein, to !hew, that his Intent in dying was for a Multitude of Mankind, the whole Body of his Elect; yet becaufe he inferts the mention hereof, at the delivery of thofe E)e– ments, and that the Ordinance it felf was fuited to hold forth this Intent, the Apofl:le takes the hint of it, and adds this Glofs and Con!truB:ion upon io, as glanced at in it: That according to the Infl:itution and Import of this Ordi– nance, the Partakers hereof are to be a many, ( not one or two alone ) and thefe united into one 'BodJ, to the end that thereby may be held forth this great Intendment in his Death, That he died .for the many of Us Church, a< one col!eaive 'Body. This however we are fure of, that this way of partaking this Supper, as in one Body, was to the ApofHe a matter of that moment, that we find him bitterly inveighing in the next Chapter, that the fame individual Church of Corintb, when they come together in one, for that and other Ordinances, lbould, of all Ordinances elfe, not receive this Ordinance together, in fuch a community ; but perverting that Order, !hould, even in that place appointed for the Meetings of the whole Church, divide them(elves into private feveral Companies, and fo make this as a private Supper, which in the nature and in– tendment of the Infl:itution of it, was tobe a Communion of.the whole Church or Body together : Infomuch that he Cays, This is not ·to eat the Lord's S11pper; E2 fr
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=