Here we may receive the earnests of eternal bliss and joy. Heaven is the crown and centre of all the promises, and the perfection of all the good contained in them; all the blessings of the new covenant have a tendency to this, and are in order to it. Are we predestinated? It is to the inheritance of sons. Called? It is to his kingdom and glory. Sanctified? It is that we may be made meet for the inheritance, and wrought to the self-same thing. This, therefore, we should have in our eye, in our covenant and communion with God; that eternal life which God who cannot lie promises. We must receive the Spirit in his graces and comforts, as the earnest of our inheritance. They that deal with God, must deal upon trust, for a happiness in reversion, a recompense of reward to come; must forsake a world in sight and present, for a world out of sight and future. All believers consent to this; they lay up their treasure in heaven, and hope for what they see not. This they depend upon; and in prospect of it they are willing to labour and suffer, to deny themselves, and take up their cross, knowing that heaven will make amends for all: though they may be losers for Christ, they shall not be losers by him in the end; this is the bargain. In the Lord's Supper, Christ gives us earnest upon this bargain, and what we receive there, we receive as earnest. An earnest not only confirms the bargain and secures the performance of it, but is itself part of the payment, though but a small part in comparison with the full sum.

We here receive the earnest of our inheritance; that is, We here receive the assurance of it. The royal grant of it is here sealed and delivered by the King of kings. God here says to me as he did to Abraham, "Lift up thine eyes now, and look from the place where thou art." Take a view of the heavenly Canaan, that land which eternally flows with better things than milk and honey,—Immanuel's land. Open the eye of faith, and behold the pleasures and glories of that world, as they are described in Scripture, such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; and know of a surety that all the land which thou seest, and that which is infinitely more and better than thou canst conceive, to thee will I give it, to thee for ever. "Fear not, little flock," fear not ye little ones of the flock, "it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Follow Christ and serve him, and you shall be for ever with him; continue with him now in his temptations, and you shall shortly share with him in his glories. Only be faithful unto death, and the crown of life is as sure to you, as if it were already upon your heads. Here is livery and seizin upon the deed. Take this and eat it, take this and drink it: in token of this, "I will be to thee a God:" that is, a perfect and everlasting happiness, such as shall answer the vast extent and compass of that great word. "But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city."

Come now, my soul, and accept the security offered. The inheritance secured is unspeakably rich and invaluable; the losses and sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with it; the title is good, it is a purchased possession, he that grants it has power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life. The assurances are unquestionably valid, not only the word and oath, but the writing and seal of the eternal God, in the Scriptures and sacraments: here is that, my soul, which thou mayest venture thyself upon, and venture thine all for; do it then, do it with a holy boldness. Lay hold on eternal life, lay fast hold on it, and keep thy hold. Look up, my soul, look as high as heaven, the highest heaven; look forward, my soul, look as far forward as eternity, and let eternal life, eternal joy, eternal glory, be thine aim in thy religion, and resolve to take up with nothing short of these. God has been "willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel," and therefore has thus confirmed it, so as to leave no room for doubting, that by all these "immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." Take him at his word, then, and build thy hope upon it. Be not faithless, but believing; be not careless, but industrious. Here is a happiness worth striving for; "run with patience the race that is set before thee," with this prize in thine eye.

We receive the foretastes of it.—We have in this ordinance, not only a ratification of the promise of the heavenly Canaan, but a pattern or specimen given us of the fruits of that land, like the bunch of grapes which was brought from the valley of Eshcol to the Israelites in the wilderness; a view given us of that land of promise, like that which Moses had of the land of Canaan from the top of Pisgah. As the law was a type and figure of the Messiah's kingdom on earth, so the gospel is of his kingdom in heaven; both are "shadows of good things to come," like the map of a rich and large country in a sheet of paper. Our future happiness is, in this sacrament, not only sealed to us, but shown to us; and we here taste something of the pleasures of that better country. In this ordinance we have a sight of Christ, he is evidently set forth before us; and what is heaven, but to see him as he is, and to be for ever beholding his glory? We are here receiving the pledges and tokens of Christ's love to us, and returning the protestations and expressions of our love to him; and what is heaven but an eternal interchanging of love between a holy God and holy souls? We are here praising and blessing the Redeemer, celebrating his honour, and giving him the glory of his achievements; and what is that but the work of heaven? It is what the inhabitants of that world are doing now, and what we hope to be doing with them to eternity. We are here in spiritual communion with all the saints coming in faith, hope, and love, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn; and what is heaven but that in perfection? In a word, heaven is a feast, and so is this; only this is a running banquet, that is an everlasting feast.

Come, my soul, and see a door here opened in heaven; look in at that door now, by which thou hopest to enter shortly. Let this ordinance do something of the work of heaven upon thee, God having provided in it something of the pleasures of heaven for thee. Heaven will for ever part between thee and sin; let this ordinance, therefore, set thee at a greater distance from it. Heaven will fill thee with the love of God; in this ordinance, therefore, let that love be shed abroad in thine heart. In heaven thou shalt enter info the joy of the Lord; let that joy now enter into thee, and be thy strength and thy song. Heaven will be perfect holiness; let this ordinance make thee more holy, and more conformable to the image of the holy Jesus; heaven will be everlasting rest; here, therefore, return to God as thy rest, O my soul, and repose thyself in him. Let every sacrament be to thee a heaven upon earth, and each of these days of the Son of man, as one of the days of heaven.

—The Communicant's Companion