lamenting your unbelief, and crying to him for faith, Come depending on him for grace to communicate in a fuitable way, and for grace to take a hearty draught of the fword-fatisfying blood of the man that is his Fellow.

SERVICE at the TABLE.

NOW, believers, what was Mofes's work, when the angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire out of the midft of the bufh, Exod. iii. 2. when the bush burned with fire and was confumed? Why, fays Moles, "I will turn afide, and fee this great fight." That fame fhould be your work and exercile now, at a communion. table: "Turn afide, and fee this great fight!" What fight? The greatest fight that ever was feen, the eternal Son of God in the bufh of our nature, and this bufh burning in the flames of divine wrath, for our fakes, and in our room and ftead, and yet the bufh not confumed, O! with what holy fear ought you to look upon this great fight! Put of thy fhoes from off thy feet," fays God to Mofes," For the place where thou flandest is holy ground:" and Mofes hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. You may perhaps think, if you were as great a faint as Mofes, you would not be afraid; but, O the fight of God is an awful thing to the greatest faint on earth, and humbles them to the duft! But, if you be a faint at all, I will tell you, you will be reckoning yourfelf the greateft finner out of hell, the chief of finners; and if it be fo, fure I am, this great fight may be more wonderful in your eyes to fee the fword of divine wrath drunk in the blood of the glorious Surety, in your

room.

Solomon fays, "He that is furety for a ftranger fhall fmart for it," Prov. xi. 15., Behold the Son of God become Surety for you, that was a ftranger and alien; but he muft fmart for it: or, as it may be rendered,

He fhall be fore broken.' So was the Son of God, our Surety; he was broken in foul, broken in body, broken to pieces; and we have here the fymbols of his broken body; for, In the fame night in which he was betrayed,

he

4

he took bread," as you fee us take it here, after his example.

Now, fpectators; now, communicants; if you have the eye of faith, you might fee a broken Chrift reprefented under this broken bread; now you may hear God saying, "Awake, O fword, againft my Shepherd. All we like loft fheep had gone aftray; and we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord, the Lord of hofts, has laid on him the iniquities of us all." Sin brings down the fword of vengeance; but, behold your fin laid upon the Shepherd, and thereupon the Lord of hofts faying, "Awake, O fword, againit the Shepherd." O rate and ravishing contrivance! O admirable and amiable. contrivance! O beautiful and beneficial contrivance! Eternally bleffed be the Contriver! and eternally bleffed be the Shepherd! O infinitely kind and compaffionate Shepherd, that laid down his life for the theep, and feeds his flock like a fhepherd! Yea, feeds them with his flesh and blood! for, having broken it, he gave it to his dif ciples, faying, "Take ye, eat ye; this is my body broken for you; this do in remembrance of me,"-ME! what for a ME, is this? Who was it that was fmitten by the fword of justice? Why, it is even the Shepherd, the man that is God's Fellow, his own Son: we have finned, and he is fmitten for it; the fword awaked againft him, and we go free: O finner, finner! O guilty finner, filthy finner, wretched finner! who in all the world would have done that for you that Chrift has done? Who in all the world could have fuffered that for you, that Christ has fuffered! Q communicant, apply, apply his doing and dying to yourself in particular, and fay, O marvellous and matchlefs love! O boundlefs and bottomlefs love! "He loved me, and gave himfelf for me!" Or, if you cannot attain to the particular application, that he did it for you; yet, O wonder, wonder, that ever he did and fuffered fo much for any; for he fuffered the hell of all the elect; God made a gape or wound in the breast of Chrift, with the fword of his juftice, and then poured in a whole hell of wrath upon him. O! is it not good your part, to remember him, who remembred you when the fword of juftice was ready to be fheathed in

your

your bowels, and to drink in the blood of your foul? No fooner did the Son of God behold the fword at your breast, and the hand of juftice fetching the bloody ftroak, but he cries out, O Father, hold thy hand; let all that vengeance that is due to thofe poor guilty creatures, fall upon me; behold I open my breaft to receive the ftroak of juftice in their room. They have broken thy law, but here I am to fulfil it for them; they have enraged thy justice, but here I am ready to fatisfy justice for them; they have drunk up iniquity like water; but lo! I will drink up the gall and vinegar of thy vengeance for them: "Lo! I come;" let the fword light upon me with all its vengeance. Come, come then, my beloved Son, fays God, the Lord of hofts, you know what this work will cost you; will you ftand your hazard? Yes, yes, fays Chrift: what will I not do for thy glory, and for thofe miferable finners? What will I not fuffer for them? Let it be infinite vengeance, I bear it for them.-Content, content, then fays the Father; and therefore, "Awake, O fword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that my Fellow; fmite the Shepherd." Well, the Shepherd, the man, the wonderful man, is fmitten, and the bloody ftroak opens a wide gap in his heart, from hence ftreams a river of blood; "A river, the ftreams whereof make glad the city of God:" and of this river you are called to drink this day. Chrift having facrificed himself a peace-offering to the Lord of hofts, He, as the antitype. of Mofes, did fprinkle the blood of the facrifice on the people; and therefore," In the fame manner, after supper, alfo he took the cup, when he had fupped, faying, This cup is the New Teftament in my blood; this do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me; for, as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do fhew forth the Lord's death till he come again--Without the fhedding of blood there is no remiffion:" but there is blood fhed; take it, and remiffion of your fins with it; it is worthy blood, the blood of the man that is God's Fellow: the sword of juftice has got fuch a full draught of this blood, that it craves no more. As long as God's juftice is demanding vengeance, no man can ftand before God: but here juftice has no more to crave; for

is

the

the fatisfaction Chrift gave was full meafure, heaped up, and running over; he offered himfelf to God, for a fweet-fmelling favour; juftice was pacified and fatisfied, and love got a vent towards man and hence, instead of cup of wrath, you have a cup of love to drink. What was juftice feeking from Chrift, when the fword was running through his heart? Why, juftice was 'even pursuing him for your debt, and exacting all of the Surety that was due by you. May it not aflect the heart of any debitor, that has the leaft fpark or remains of ingenuity, to fee his cautioner dragged to prifon for his debt? But here you fee more, the fword of juftice not only arrefting your Surety, but running him through, and killing him. O may not this fill you with hatred of your fins, and love to your Surety, that was fo well pleased to be thus dealt with for you! Let not unbelief fay, that you cannot think that this blood was fhed for fuch a hellifh finner, fuch a wonderful finner as you; for it would not be fuch wonderful blood, if it was not for the cleanfing of fuch wonderful finners: be your fins what they will, lay them under the covert of this blood, the blood of the man that is God's Fellow; as fure as he was fmitten you fhall efcape; for, " He was wounded for our fins." True, when he was wounded by the awakened fword, he might have cried, O Father, thefe fins are not mine; thefe tranfgreffions are not mine; these faults and mifcarriages, thefe black crimes are not mine; why fhould I be fmitten for them? No, no: there was never fuch a word in his mouth. Love breathed out fome other language; I was content, as a Surety, to take all that fin and guilt upon me; and now, I am as content to bear the weight of all that wrath and vengeance that their fins deferved.' O mighty love!

Now, my dear friends, the time of a communion action fhould be a busy time. When you fee the sword of juftice awakened againft Chrift, O lay all the enemies of God, especially his enemies within you, under the ftroak of his fword of juftice: bring all your lufts and idols to the juftice of God, faying, Awake, O fword of juftice against these my fins and fmite them. What think

you

you of this love, believers? What think you of this love, communicants? What think you of this love, fpectators? If it had not been for this, inftead of weeping at a communion-table, you had been weeping in hell. Awake, O fword, againt my lufts, and give this luft a froak, and that Tuft a ftroak; Awake, O fword, against this pride and paffion of mine, and give it a ftroak; awake, O word, against that enmity, unbelief, and legality of mine, and give them a stroak; awake, O fword, against my atheifm, carnality, and worldly-mindeanefs, and give thefe a ftroak; awake, O fword, again my filthinefs and frówardnefs, my uncleannels and vilenefs of heart and way, my Delilah, fins, and O give them a ftroak.-Bring forth all your fins, and particularly the fins that eafily befet you, bring them forth to the fword, the fword of juftice, to be hewed in pieces, like Agag, before the Lord; faying, Lord, let the fword that awaked against my Lord, awake against my lufts, that they may be crucified with him. O take vengeance on thy enemies within me! O it will be a bleffed communion day if it were but a day of vengeance upon your fins and lufis. O cry down the vengeance of the fword of juftice upon them.

And as you should bring forth all your fins, fo bring forth all your wants: whatever you want to your own fouls; to your friends; to your family; to your child. ren; to your neighbours, and Chriftian acquaintances, that defire you to mind them; lay all your wants before the man that is God's Fellow; who, as he is the facrifice for your fins, fo he is the flore-houfe for your supply; "My God fhall fupply all your need, according to his riches in glory, by Chrift Jefus," Philip. iv. 19. Want you any thing for the church of Scotland? Our great want at this day is a spirit of zeal, a fpirit of love, and a found mind; the want of God's holy Spirit makes, much divifion and diforder; O cry down the Spirit! And do not wonder if the Shepherd be finitten, that the fheep may be fcattered; this was filled when all the dif ciples were offended because of him, in the night wherein he was betrayed; and all forfook him and fled: they were fcattered, every one to his own, like fo many timo

rous