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IX.

Sacrament once was, it always will be, con- SERM. fequently it will not only be a Representation or Commemoration of Chrift's Sacrifice made to God; but it will be alfo a Confignation of all the great Benefits procured by that Sacrifice to all faithful Communicants. For fo our Saviour's Words imply: For he not only faid, Do this for a Memorial of me: i. e. Represent my Death in this Manner to the Father; but he faid alfo, Take, eat, This is my Body which is given for you; for you; and Drink ye all of this; for this is Blood of the New Teftament, which is fhed for you, and for many for the Remiffion of Sins: Intimating that by their partaking, in fuch, Manner, of his fubftituted or facramental Body and Blood, they should partake of, or communicate in, all the high Benefits, Graces, and Bleffings, which the Oblation and Sacrifice of his real Body and Blood was offer

my

ed to procure. For the facramental or fym

bolical Body and Blood, were inftituted to fupply the Place of the natural; and to be in Conftruction and beneficial Effect, the fame Thing with it *. And therefore after Confecration, they are called by the Names of what they are Pledges of, and are ordained to convey,

* Waterland on the Eucharift, p. 329.

N 4

because

$ ER M. because though not literally, yet in just Con

IX.

ftruction and certain Effect, they are the very Things which they are called, i. e. the Body and Blood of Chrift to all worthy Receivers : While they are made use of in the holy Service, they are construed and understood, (purfuant to the Divine Promife and Covenant) as ftanding for what they reprefent and exhibit. By partaking of the holy Elements we become one Flesh, and one Blood with Chrift, in the fame Senfe, as all the Members of the Church are one Body with him. We carry Christ about us, as being mystically united to him. His Body and Blood are confidered as intermingled with ours, when the Symbols of them really and strictly are fo. Confequently the Benefits are completely the fame; God, who accepts of fuch Symbolical Union, making it to all faving Purposes and Intents, as effectual, as any the moft real could be. Such was the End of the Inftitution of the Eucharift, and fuch is the high Privilege we are admitted to by it: If with a true and penitent Heart, and lively Faith, we receive that holy Sacrament, we then (as our Church speaks) Spiritually eat the Flesh of Chrift and drink his Blood; we dwell * Waterland, p. 199, 200.

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IX.

in Chrift, and Chrift in us; we are one with SER M. Chrift, and Chrift with us. What farther Bleffings that mystical Union must draw along with it, I have not now Time to fay: But having now fhewed that this Ordinance is not only a pofitive, but also a rational Service that it is fuch a one as the Reason of it, as well as the Command appears; we may hope that all who are influenced by Reafon, instead of questioning the Expediency of the Institution, and undervaluing or leffening it's Virtues and Effects; will obediently and diligently fubmit to the one, and with Joy and Thankfulness afpire to the other.

SER

SERMON X.

Jefus an High Priest of the true Ta

bernacle.

SERM.

X.

HEB. IX. 7, 11, 12.

Into the fecond [Tabernacle] went the High
Prief alone, once every Year, not without
Blood, which he offered for himself, and for
the Errors of the People..

But Chrift being come an High Pricft of
good Things to come, by a greater and more
perfect Tabernacle, not made with Hands,
that is to fay, not of this Building;
Neither by the Blood of Goats and Calves, but
by his own Blood, he entered in once into the
holy Place, having obtained eternal Redemp
tion for us.

T

O fhew you how truly our Jefus, as the Chrift, was, as a Prophet, so a Priest, as the Predictions concerning the Meffiah in the Old Teftament foretold he should be; I explained to you, in

my last,

the

X.

the Nature and Office of the High Priesthood SER M. amongst the Jews: Which, being a Priesthood inftituted by God himself, will furnish us with the trueft Notion of a Prieft; and being instituted as a Type of what the Meffiah was to do, when he came, will best inftruct us how far Jefus acted as the Meffiah, in his priestly Character, in what he has done, and continues to do for the Expiation of the Sins of Men.

The Time, which the Remainder of what is needful to be faid upon this Subject will require, will fpare me none for a Recapitulation of what I have faid already: For the Contents of my last therefore I must trust to your Memories: Only I fhall remind you that in defcribing the Office of the High Prieft of the Jews, I obferved to you that after the Sacrifice was offered, and the Blood of it shed in the outward Court, a proper Emblem of the Place of Mortality, the Priest was in the next Place to carry the Blood into the inmoft, or most holy Place of the Tabernacle, and there to fprinkle it upon and before the Mercy Seat. It was not enough for him, on this Day, to pour out the Blood on the brazen Altar in the outward Court; nor to sprinkle it before the

Lord

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