A Solitary Christian is a Contradiction

James Bannerman, The Church of Christ, Vol. 1, pp. 19-21:

We may assert, therefore, that that Christian society which we call the Church of Christ is a society formed by Divine appointment, even did we see in it nothing more than a body of men brought together by the constraint of the same faith and same affections wrought in them by the Spirit of God. But there is much more than this intimated in Scripture, on which we ground the assertion that the Church of Christ is a divinely instituted society. There are express commands in Scripture, leaving the believer no alternative in the matter, and requiring him to unite together with other believers in the outward and public profession of his faith before the world. He is not left at liberty to hide that faith within his own heart, and himself to remain alone and separated from his fellow-believers. It is the office of the Christian society to be a witness, by means of an outward and public profession, for Christ on the earth; and it is not a matter of choice, but of express obligation, with a Christian man to join with others in that public profession. The command is "to confess Christ before men;"1 and upon the ground of the command, then, is laid the foundation of a society, each member of which is called upon, whether he will or will not, to lift up a public testimony for his Saviour jointly with other believers; and that public profession is one to be made not merely with the lips, uniting with others in a common declaration of the faith believed. The outward ordinances of the Christian society are so framed and devised as to be themselves a significant profession of faith on the part of those who join in them; and communion in ordinances is with Christians not a matter of choice, but of express command. Christ has judged it proper to appoint that His disciples shall be solemnly received into His Church by the initiatory rite of baptism; so that the very entrance of life, or, at all events, the admission into the Christian society, shall be itself a public testimony to Him. He has enjoined the public and open commemoration of the central and most characteristic doctrine of His faith, by the celebration, at stated intervals, of the Lord's Supper; and as often as the first day of the week returns, the disciples are commanded "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together," but to unite in the outward and joint worship of the Saviour. In short, in the whole divinely appointed institutions and ordinances of the Christian society we see the provision made for, and the obligation laid upon, His disciples to be joined together into one outward body, and to form a common society of professing believers. That community is one, therefore, of Divine institution; and in the duty laid upon them, not as a matter of choice, but of express command, to become members of it, we see the ordinance of God for the existence and permanent establishment of a Church on earth. A solitary Christian is seen to be a contradiction in terms, if you view merely his faith as a principle of affinity naturally destined to draw to it the faith of other believers. A solitary Christian is worse than a contradiction, he is an anomaly, standing out against the express institution of God, which has appointed the fellowship of believers in one Church, and made provision in its outward ordinances for their union and edification. The Christian society is a kingdom, set up by express Divine appointment, and differs from every other society on earth in this remarkable fact, that the builder and maker of it is God.

1 Matt. x. 32; Luke xii. 8; John xii. 42; Rom. x. 9.

Meat and Drink for Our Souls

Herman Bavinck, The Sacrifice of Praise: Meditations Before and After Receiving Access to the Table of the Lord, pp. 38-39:

Therefore, that word can be and indeed is the meat and drink of our spiritual lives. It the medium, not the fountain of grace. God is and remains the giver and dispenser of all grace; no man, no priest, no word, no sacrament has been clothed by Him with the treasure of grace or commissioned to dispense her. Servants can give the sign and seal, but God only granted the sealed and signified fact. This only has God done -- and this also is grace -- He has in His free power and pleasure bound Himself under oath to grant with His word, which is administered in full accord with the meaning of the Spirit, unto each and every one, who believingly accepts it, Christ, who is the meat and drink of our souls, the bread that has come down from Heaven, the water of life, drinking of which we shall never again thirst.

But to be thus, that Word must be believed with a child-like faith and accepted in humility. Even as bread, however powerful and nourishing it may be, can only be profitable for the preservation of our natural lives then, when it is eaten with the mouth and received into the body -- even so can the Word of God be food for our souls only then, when it is accepted by faith and is implanted in our hearts.

A Holy Friendship

Jesus said to his disciples, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John 15.15). Jonathan Edwards, in a sermon entitled "The Lord's Supper is a Solemn Representation," makes the point that in our communion with Christ, we are his friends, and friends with one another. How sweet it is to when brethren dwell together in such unity (Ps. 133)!

Jonathan Edwards, Sermons on the Lord's Supper, p. 77:

The very design of the ordinance is a feast of Christian love and friendship. And what friendship is it? 'Tis not a civil friendship. There are other covenants and other friendships; but 'tis a Christian friendship, a spiritual friendship, a holy Friendship. 'Tis friendship with Christ and one with another. But how can they come and seal such friendship who are no friends? How can they seal peace who have never made their peace?

Apples of Gold

Edward Taylor, Preparatory Meditations:

42. Meditation Rev. 3.22. I WILL GIVE HIM TO SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE (1691).

Apples, of gold, in silver pictures shrin'de
Enchant the appitite, make mouths to water.
And Loveliness in Lumps, tunn'd, and enrin'de
In Jasper Cask, when tapt, doth briskly vaper:
Brings forth a birth of Keyes t'unlock Loves Chest,
That Love, Like Birds, may fly to 't from its nest.

Such is my Lord, and more. But what strang thing
Am I become? Sin rusts my Lock all o're.
Though he be ten thousand Keyes all on a string
Takes out, scarce one, is found, unlocks the Doore.
Which ope, my Love crincht in a Corner lies
Like some shrunck Crickling: and scarce can rise.

Lord ope the Doore: rub off my Rust, Remove
My sin, And Oyle my Lock. (Dust there doth shelfe)
My Wards will trig before thy Key: my Love
Then, as enlivend, leape will on thyselve.
It needs must be, that giving handes receive
Again Receivers Hearts furld in Love Wreath.

Unkey my Heart; unlock thy Wardrobe: bring
Out royall Robes: adorne my soule, Lord: so,
My Love in rich attire shall on my King
Attend, and honour on him well bestow.
In Glory he prepares for his a place
Whom he doth all beglory here with grace.

He takes them to the shining threashould cleare
Of his bright Palace, cloath'd in Grace's flame.
Then takes them in thereto, not onely there
To have a Prospect, but possess the same.
The Crown of Life, the Throne of Glorys Place,
The Fathers House blancht o're with orient Grace.

Can'an in golden print enwalld with jems:
A Kingdome rim'd with Glory round: in fine.
A glorious Crown pal'de thick with all the stems
Of Grace, and of all Properties Divine.
How happy wilt thou make mee when these shall
As a blesst Heritage unto me fall?

Adorn me, Lord, will Holy Huswifry.
All blanch my Robes with Clusters of thy Graces:
Thus lead me to thy threashould: give mine Eye
A Peephole there to see bright glories Chases.
Then take mee in: I'le pay, when I possess,
Thy Throne, and thee the Rent in Happiness.

Thankful Review

James W. Alexander in 1854 published Plain Words to a Young Communicant, since republished by Banner of Truth as Remember Him. It is a brief book but rich in spiritual wisdom. Following the celebration of the Lord's Supper at my church today, and in remembrance of the many mercies of our good God, I write to share this particular bit of post-communion wisdom from Alexander's little book:

34. Thankful Review

Through the tender mercies of our God, there are many cases in which the young communicant retires from the Table of the Lord, strengthened and encouraged. The cardinal truth of Christianity has been set before his thoughts and becomes incorporated with his faith. He has seen Jesus (John 12:21). His views of the infinite freedom of salvation have been made more clear. The evidences of his acceptance with God have become brighter. He is more disposed than ever before, to yield himself as a sacrifice, soul, body and spirit, which is his reasonable service (Rom. 12:1). Where any part of this is true, you have new causes for gratitude. It is 'the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit' (Isa. 48:17). Now is the time, to bless him for this grace, and to beg the continuance of it. Now is the time to set a watch against relapses, and to carry into effect the vows which you have made at the Lord's Table. In the future, you will look for the recurrence of this sacrament with a lively expectation, founded on experience.

Preparatory Meditation Before the Lord's Supper

Prior to celebrating the Lord's Supper this coming Sabbath day, I read a little of Edward Taylor's Preparatory Meditations before my Approach to the Lords Supper. Chiefly upon the Doctrin preached upon the Day of Administration. One from the first series of his meditations struck me particularly as worthy of contemplation:

Meditation 8: John 6.51. I am the Living Bread.

I kening through Astronomy Divine
The Worlds bright Battlement, wherein I spy
A Golden Path my Pensill cannot line,
From that bright Throne unto my Threshold ly.
And while my puzzled thoughts about it pore
I finde the Bread of Life in’t at my doore.

When that this Bird of Paradise put in
This Wicker Cage (my Corps) to tweedle praise
Had peckt the Fruite forbad: and so did fling
Away its Food; and lost its golden dayes;
It fell into Celestiall Famine sore:
And never could attain a morsell more.

Alas! alas! Poore Bird, what wilt thou doe?
The Creatures field no food for Souls e’re gave.
And if thou knock at Angells dores they show
An Empty Barrell: they no soul bread have.
Alas! Poore Bird, the Worlds White Loafe is done
And cannot yield thee here the smallest Crumb.

In this sad state, Gods Tender Bowells run
Out streams of Grace: And he to end all strife
The Purest Wheate in Heaven, his deare-dear Son
Grinds, and kneads up into this Bread of Life.
Which Bread of Life from Heaven down came and stands
Disht on thy Table up by Angells Hands.

Did God mould up this Bread in Heaven, and bake,
Which from his Table came, and to thine goeth?
Doth he bespeake thee thus, This Soule Bread take.
Come Eate thy fill of this thy Gods White Loafe?
Its Food too fine for Angells, yet come, take
And Eate thy fill. Its Heavens Sugar Cake.

What Grace is this knead in this Loafe? This thing
Souls are but petty things it to admire.
Yee Angells, help: This fill would to the brim
Heav’ns whelm’d-down Chrystall meele Bowle, yea and higher.
This Bread of Life dropt in thy mouth, doth Cry.
Eate, Eate me, Soul, and thou shalt never dy.

Altar-Wise, Table-Wise

Like the Vestments controversy between Anglicans and Puritans, the controversy over the placement of the communion table in the church is difficult for modern minds to comprehend aright because of its seeming insignificance. The location of the communion table of course is itself a matter indifferent. The Puritan Westminster Confession (21.6) teaches that "Neither prayer, nor any other part of religious worship, is now, under the gospel, either tied unto, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed." Yet, the battle for the placement of the communion table involved two distinct positions.

Samuel Gardiner articulates the contrasting points of view, History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of the Civil War 1603-1642, Vol. 7, pp. 14-15:

To the Calvinist the pulpit was clearly the first thing in the Church, the place where the Divine Word, through the intervention of the understanding, was dispensed to hungry souls. To those who recurred to older Church traditions the communion-table, or, as they loved to call it, the altar, was worthy of the highest reverence, the place where holy mysteries were dispensed which raised man into communion with God without the intervention of the understanding. The one party would have had the table either standing permanently under the pulpit or brought out occasionally for its special purpose, to be placed 'table wise,' or east and west. The other party would have had it placed permanently 'altar wise,' or north and south, in the place of honour at the east end.

Those aligned with Archbishop William Laud, who first laid the groundwork for his position in a 1633 Act of Privy Council applicable to the church of St. Gregory beside St. Paul's, London, later enforced in a 1635 ruling applicable to the entire Church of England, argued that the mystical nature of the communion table required its permanent placement at the east end of the church in a north-south direction, set apart with rails, as an altar, attributing thus Popish ceremonial significance to the table. Especially in the context of other Anglo-Catholic measures, Puritans understood the meaning of this as articulated in the December 11, 1640 'Root and Branch Petition':

16. The turning of the Communion-table altar-wise, setting images, crucifixes, and conceits over them, and tapers and books upon them, and bowing or adoring to or before them; the reading of the second service at the altar, and forcing people to come up thither to receive, or else denying the sacrament to them; terming the altar to be the mercy-seat, or the place of God Almighty in the church, which is a plain device to usher in the Mass.

They argued instead of a permanent fixture of the table in a north-south direction, that it be placed in an east-west direction and be moveable, without rails. The theological significance of this position is not that east-west is somehow invested with greater spiritual benefit than north-south; on the contrary, the Laudian altar-wise party claimed that point for themselves. One Puritan, Daniel Cawdrey, was known to place the table altar-wise but move it table-wise at communion (Tom Webster, Godly clergy in early Stuart England: the Caroline Puritan movement, 1620-1643, p. 220), thus making the point that the direction was a matter of indifference, except that to the extent that superstitious ceremonial significance was to be resisted and not conceded.

The battle for the placement of the table resulted in not only a war of words, but ecclesiastical and civil enforcement measures and, in some cases, physical violence. Why such conflict over the location of a table which Biblically signifies the unity of Christ's Church? By attributing to it sacerdotal significance, the question of placement of the table was moved from the realm of circumstantial adiaphora to an infringement upon the regulative principle of worship. And thus, it became a battle over the crown prerogatives of Christ to alone dictate the ordinances of worship.

As Matthew Poole rightly stated (A Seasonable Apology of Religion), "What Galen said of Physics is even truer of religion. There is nothing small and trivial in it."