1 Corinthians 5:13

REFLECTIONS

SEE, my soul! what corruptions the human heart is exposed to, and how the peace and prosperity of Church-communion, is liable to be interrupted by the improper indulgence of fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Oh! for grace to keep the heart with all diligence! Lord, do thou keep thy Church, thy people, with thy watchful care, for without thee we are nothing!

Blessed be God the Holy Ghost for this short but sweet portion in this Chapter, which calls upon us to behold Christ, our Passover, sacrificed for us; and to know our Lord in this most precious, and blessed office-character. Yes! thou dearest Jesus! methinks I would eye thee with unceasing delight, as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Thou wert, indeed, and art still, and ever will be, a lamb of the first year without blemish, and without spot. Thou wert taken out, as the Jewish lamb was; from among the flock, the One, the holy individual One chosen by God from among the people; holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Lord! give me grace to keep the feast on this, thy one, thine all-sufficient sacrifice, to thy praise and my unceasing comfort, during the whole of my time-state here below, until thou shalt bring me home to the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. Let there be no leaven found in my heart or house. Oh! for the Lord so to prepare me for this and every other holy ordinance, that I may make Christ my whole and sole Passover. Let me so paschatize and keep the feast upon my Lord's sacrifice, that both in doctrine, and in life, and conversation, Christ may be all, and in all. Jesus will preside at his own table, who both makes the feast, and is the feast, my New Testament altar, sacrifice, and sacrificer. And I shall sit down at his table with great delight here below; and ere long, at his table above, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the heirs with the whole Church of the same promise!