what they eat If you have not the light of knowledge so as to see what you eat in the Lords Supper which is the great Mystery of our Religion you do not then discern the Lords Body and so cannot be a worthy Receiver Now as for the Nature of this Holy Sacrament consider both the outside and also the inside of it The outside contains 1. The Sacramental Elements Bread and Wine 2. The Sacramental Rites or Actions The Sacramental Elements are Bread and Wine which being duly Consecrated are plain and visible Representations and Divine Memorials of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ But yet they are not bare Representations thereof they are not meer shadowy Significations and Resemblances For God doth not nourish and feed our Souls with thin and empty Shadows weak and languishing Representations or naked Emblems And therefore we must further look on them as real Pledges and Seals or Instruments of Conveyance of Christ and the fruits of his Death in a Mystical manner to the Faith of his People which comes to pass by Virtue of our Lords Institution whereupon he that duly receives the Elements receives the thing signified by them and vail'd therein As among Men a pledge confirms a contract and a Seal conveys an Estate House or Land by Virtue of the Law of the Land So by Virtue of Christs Institution the Covenant of grace is by the Sacramental Elements confirm'd betwixt God and the worthy Receiver and Jesus Christ with all his benefits truly exhibited and conveyed from God to the believing Communicant though not as through a Conduit Pipe as if they were Locally contained therein yet as an Estate is Conveyed from the Giver by Wax and Seal which is delivered by the Hand of his Messenger or as the Possession of a House is delivered by a Key and of Land by a Sod or Turf And so when Christ saith by the Minister Take This is my Body or my Blood he doth as much as say Take these they are to thee my Body and Blood i. e. real Pledges together with which I give thee my self according as a Man in worldly Matters doth by Pledges give the thing signified thereby as if he that 's about giving possession of a House should give a Key and say Take it here is possession of my House or delivering an Evidence Sealed should say Take this here is my Land And upon this account the Cup is called by the Apostle the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread broken the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 where the Apostle signifies to us that the Eating and Drinking of Believers in the Lords Supper is a real Communication in his Meritorious Death and All-sufficient Sacrifice and a true Participation of the Blessed Fruits of the Cross As among the Jews those that did eat of the Sacrifice did partake of the Altar ver 18. that is of the Sacrifice offered upon the Altar So among Christians to Eat and Drink by Faith in the Lords Supper is to be partaker of his Immaculate Sacrifice once for all offered up upon the Altar of the Cross The Covenant is as the Deed that intitles us to all the Riches of Grace and Regions of Glory but the Sacrament is the Instrument that doth Invest us therein The Sacramental Actions or Rites are on the Ministers part 1. The Consecration by Blessing and giving thanks 2. Breaking and Delivering And then on the Communicants part the Actions or Rites are Taking Eating and Drinking The inside of the Sacrament or the Spiritual thing Signified and Couched in the outward Sacrament this is Christ himself as offered up upon Mount Calvary together with the precious Fruits of the Cross which bare better Fruits to us than all the Trees of Paradise did as Olives of Peace and Reconciliation with God Clusters of the Grapes of Canaan Righteousness and Grace Joy and Gladness Life and Salvation The Elements of the Bread and Wine signifie the Body and Blood of Christ with the pretious Fruits thereof and the breaking of the Bread signifies the Crucifying or Sacrificing of Christ And the Delivery of the Bread and Wine Christs Delivering of himself with his Benefits And the Taking Eating and Drinking point forth the Communicants thankful accepting and using that pretious gift Here 's the glory and divinity of the mystery CHAP. XXXI Of the Ends of the Sacrament ENdeavour to understand well the Ends of this Sacrament Now for your more clear and distinct understanding hereof I shall premise this one thing viz. That this Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the true notion of it is a Feast and particularly a Feast upon a Sacrifice or a Feast upon that which was once offered up in Sacrifice to God namely the Body and Blood of Christ which are represented in the outward Elements of Bread and Wine And thus it is parallel unto or bears proportion with the Jewish Feasts under the Law which were made upon those things which they had first offered up in Sacrifice to God for it was an antient custom among the Jews as also generally among the Heathen to link Feasting and Sacrificing together and to Eat of the things which themselves had Sacrificed and so had a Communion therein This they did to signifie a Foederal or Covenanting Rite and solemnity betwixt God and Them as also a Covenanting League of friendship among themselves who did eat thereof This being premised you may more plainly understand the ends of this Sacrament which are these following The first end of this Sacrament is to be nourishment to our inward man or that the Divine Nature in us might thrive The end of a Feast is nourishment This Sacred Feast was instituted to nourish and feed the Soul to strengthen and increase its Graces Hence it 's exprest by Eating and Drinking 1 Cor. 11.24 25. Christ comes to the Soul as Melchisedeck to Abraham with Bread and Wine The very Body and Blood of Christ which were a Sacrifice as they were offered up to God in that one full and sufficient oblation upon the Cross are Meat and Drink for the Souls nourishment as they are offered unto us and set before us in the Dishes of the outward Sacrament and so Christ Crucified is truly and really but Spiritually and Mystically given to us in the Lords Supper to be our Nutriment as he was given for us in the Sacrifice and Oblation upon the Cross to be our propitiation and atonement Christs Flesh is Meat indeed and his Blood Drink indeed and do become one with us spiritually for our nourishment as our Bodily Meat and Drink do being turn'd into our substance here there is a kind of Divine Coalition into the same Nature hence our Saviour said He that eateth me shall live by me Joh. 6.57 It 's storied of Artemisia that she so dearly loved her Husband Mausolus that after he was dead she took the Ashes of his Urn and mingled them with her Drink and so
intomb'd her dead Husband in her living body A faithful Soul that is espoused to Christ doth this at the Sacrament Eating and Drinking there of her crucified Saviour by a Spiritual Commessation thus she lives by him and hath him as it were intomb'd in her Heart Therefore whensoever you come to this Heavenly Banquet come with this end that your Soul may receive increase and nourishment in Grace thereby that you may have Christ become one with you as your food doth whereby you thrive and grow But yet you must not think to get any nourishment from the out-side of the Sacrament from the outward Rynd or Bark or Skin of the Ordinance or by feeding on the outward Elements if you rest there This would be to scrape or lick the Dish only or out-side of the Cup to play with the Trencher and let the Meat alone and to go away whole and untoucht from the Table The second end for which this Sacrament was instituted is a solemn Commemoration of Christ and him Crucified or the celebrating a memorial of him in the Church thrâ—ughout all Ages Publick Feasts were usually made for the perserving the memory of some great Benefactor Now this Sacrament of the Passion is a publick Feast for the whole Church of God in all Ages and was it not instituted for to keep a perpetual memory of the Founder of it our dear Lord and infinite Benefactor This will appear by his own words at the first Institution do this in remembrance of me Luk. 22.19 i. e. of me as Crucified and Dying as Saint Paul expresly interprets it 1 Cor. 11.16 For as oft as ye do eat this Bread and Drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords Death till he come and therefore it was purposely ordain'd for the retaining a more special Memory of his Death and Passion For the Sacrament as I premised was a feast upon a Sacrifice and so it was ordain'd by Christ more particularly and specially to commemorate that oblation of himself upon the Cross for the Redemption of the World till he come to Judgment to eternize the memory of his great and infinite love and goodness in dying for us and to transmit it to all succeeding Ages and Generations The Lord hath so done this marvellous work that it ought to be had in everlasting remembrance Therefore in all your addresses to this Sacrament of the Passion come for this end to keep in a thankful and affectionate memory the great and infinite sufferings of Christ for our Sins Remember his Death and Passion through the whole Sacramental Action and that with the most enlarged and enravisht affections and meltings of Heart and the immortal hatred of those sins that put him upon dying for us and the shedding of His most precious blood one drop whereof is of more value than a Mountain of Pearl as big as the whole Earth The third End of the Lords Supper is a solemn renewing of the Baptismal Covenant The Feasts antiently made upon Sacrifices were generally used as I observed before to signifie thereby a Covenanting with God Therefore this Supper of the Lord being in the true notion of it as I said a feast upon the bloody Sacrifice offered by Christ upon the Cross for us it doth clearly insinuate to us that it was appointed to be a mutual stipulation or covenanting betwixt God and his Communicants hence Christ said concerning the Cup This is the New Testament or Covenant in my Blood i. e. the Rite or Solemnity of the New Covenant to declare and signifie the consent of parties thereunto and resolution to perform the duties of it insinuating thereby that as the Legal Sacrifices on which the People did eat were as Rites of an old superannuated Covenant so was this Sacrament a Rite of a New Covenant by using whereof we do testifie our engagements to perform it as God doth his for making us partakers of all the Blessings couched in it So that this Sacrament on Gods part doth signifie a solemn delivery of Jesus Christ his pretious Body and Blood together with remission of sins for which that blessed Body was broken and torn and that Blood spilt and all other fruits of his Death And on our part it signifies a free acceptance thereof and a hearty delivery of our selves up to the intire obedience of him as we ingaged in the New Covenant to do so that consequently one great End of this Sacrament is to be a pledge of our happy participation of the Body and Blood of Christ with remission of Sins Justification Adoption and Title to the Regions of Bliss and all other the inestimable benefits thereof Hence it 's called the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 where the Apostle doth plainly declare than the Sacramental Bread and Cup are assured pledges of our Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ i. e. of the Communication thereof to us if duely received Therefore in all your Addresses to the Lords Table go with this â—cope and End that you may have a part and portion in Christs Body and Blood remission of sins and reconciliation thereby with all other merits of the Blood of the Cross which God hath Covenanted to make over to you And go also with this intent that you may renew the ingagement and declare that you will stand to the terms of the Baptismal Covenant that you will keep firm and constant to that holy League and stand out in a holy War against all the Enemies of Christ and never revolt or go to the Enemies quarters but as a faithful confederate with him will alway fight under his Banner against the World the Flesh and the Devil and continue to be on Christs side or of his Religion to your lifes end The fourth End of this Sacrament is to be a pledge and improvement of that love unity and concord that ought to be among Christians Those that did feast upon the Sacrifices antiently as I before hinted did use to enter into a Covenant of friendship among themselves as well as betwixt God and Them And it hath been an universal custom throughout the World to make Covenants or Leagues of Friendship by Eating and Drinking together This blessed Supper of the Lord is really and truly a publick Love-feast and was designed by our Saviour for this end the promoting Love and Union among all his People and to shew that they should all cleave together in one Spirit as they have all been partakers of one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 If then it was a Love-feast and the feast still remain let not the love be excommunicated CHAP. XXXII Of Habitual Qualifications of the Communicants BEfore you make Addresses to this Heavenly Banquet see that you be habitually such a person as the Master of the Feast our Lord Jesus Christ would have his guests to be Therefore you must set some portion of time apart before the Feast Day to examin your self whether you be such a
upon the height of his Stature like Saul among the People there is none like him View him in all his excellencies he is white and ruddy the Chiefest among ten thousand fairer than all the Children of Men and your self will be complete in him Know for your encouragement that you shall have the richest Dowry in all the World for all that Christ and Heaven is worth shall be yours the Wife being interested in all her Husbands Goods he will advance you to a Kingdom and Feoffe you in all the riches of it Say then Lord if I had Ten Thousand selves I would give them all up to thee who hast shewed to me such wonderful Love as to offer to give up thy self to me I will take thee with all my heart I give my free and hearty consent let the Match be made and assure your self then that it shall be made up the Spirit of Christ will be assistant to Faith in Tying the Marriage knot CHAP. II. Of Living the Life of Faith 1. LIve the Life of Faith in a continual dependence upon God in Christ for all things necessary especially for the Soul Six hundred and Thirteen precepts have been observed to be in the Law of Moses by some of the Hebrew Doctors who had the leisure to number them and they tell us that they are all wrapt up by the Prophet Habakkuk in that one short sentence The just shall live by Faith Sure it is a very pregnant and comprehensive duty for Faith is an Obediential Affiance and so is a pair of Compasses one foot whereof viz. Affiance being pitch'd upon the Center which is God the other goes round in a perfect Circle of all holy Duties Faith surveys the whole Land of promise searches it out throughly spies out all the rich Treasures that lye in the golden mines of the promises and finds suitable provision in every case both for Soul and for Body which in it can fetch in time of need and so it hath work enough daily for a constant and continued employment because every moment we are under some spiritual want 2. As for temporal good things live by Faith in a holy dependency and indifferency resting contented with the will of God whatsoever it be A believer though the Bill of fare be short lives on the wise powerful and gracious providence of God not doubting but he shall have enough to pay for his passage thorugh the Sea of this World to Heaven How many live on the Trencher of Gods Providence in their maintenance who never live on that providence in a gracious dependance or by actings of Faith in a promise Do not most Persons live wholly by their Friends by their Credit and Interest in the World but where is the Man or Woman that Lives by Faith 3 Fetch in provision for your Soul daily by actings of Faith Let Faith make out to Christ for new supplies of spiritual strength grace and comfort in all your need Faith is our Purveyor till we come to the Mount of God and goes a Catering for us till we come to that Land that flows with Milk and Hony God is a rich Mine of Wisdom and Grace which can never be digged to the bottom and hath inexhaustible Treasures lock'd up in Christ continually lying ready by him only stays for Faith to come and fetch them He is not pleased to give us in a full supply of all at once but crumbles out his mercies and gives his blessings by retail to teach us by Faith to live upon him daily Manna fell every morning God could if he had pleased have given them as much at once as should have served them all the time that they were to be in the Wilderness but he would teach them by his daily gift to depend upon his Providence for it daily Thus God is pleased to deliver out to his dear Children every day a set allowance it may be but a Crum of hidden Manna a tast of his special Love when he could fill an Omer of it if he pleased it may be he reaches forth to a believer only some Grapes of the Heavenly Canaan when he could throw clusters thereof into his Lap. He could have so form'd the new-born Babe in Christ and have cast it into such a Mould in the New-birth as that it should have been perfect in that instant as Adam was in the moment of Creation but he will have this Babe of grace to go by degrees from Faith to Faith from Strength to Strength till it come to full perfection The king appointed a daily Provision of his meat and of the Wine which he drank to certain of the Children of Israel Dan. 1.5 Thus doth the King of Heaven he will not give all grace at once out of his Store-house nor let the Pot of hidden Manna be in our keeping he doth not think fit we should have his Royal Wine of spiritual Joy and Comfort in our own Cellars to go to when we please lest we should drink and forget our selves yea and him too lest it should fume up and make our Heads giddy or our Blood too rank our Spirits too high proud for it is no easie matter to carry the brim-full Cup of Consolation steddily and equally though the Soul have rich joy to day yet it may have none to morrow unless he please to send a draught of this Cordial Wine from his own Table And why is all this but to teach us to live by Faith and wait continually upon him for new Influences The wise Father keeps the stock in his own hands and gives not all at once to keep his Son in a dependence CHAP. III. Of the Life of Holiness LIve the Life of Holiness This directly follows the Life of Faith for all holiness springs from Faith and the more you live the Life of Faith the more you will live the Life of holiness Now if you would live this Holy Life you must do these five things 1. Get a principle of holiness you cannot live a Life of holiness unless there be first a principle of holiness within Can the Body stir or move without a principle of Life how can there be actual holiness in the Life where there is not first habitual holiness in the Heart 2. Make holiness the very work of your Life or devote your self to the work of holiness he lives a Students life or the life of a Scholar who devotes himself to his Studies You do then live a Holy Life when you make holiness the very business of your Life when the Course and Tenor and main Imployment of your Life is Holiness when you make a Trade of it Do you only perform Holy Duties by fits and starts do you make stops and pauses are you off and on and act holily only occasionally or in some certain good moods or on some Holy days this is not to live a Life of Holiness You must constantly imploy your self therein and follow after it in the
more but that you may be affected more 4. Hear the Word attentively and diligently because it is your Life Deut. 32.46 The things spoken do concern the Soul and are most Momentous how slightly and carelesly do multitudes of People hear the word Preached as if it were a matter of small concern Which might justly cause God to take away the word from us when the Mother sees that the Child doth but play with the Breasts she puts them up 5. Labour to be affected with the word I mean not with some elegant Expressions or pleasing Comparisons that are brought in a Sermon to tickle the fancy of a Delicate Hearer If these only affect you you get no good but suck wind rather than Nourishment The Bee lights not on the Rose which hath the freshest Colour and sweetest Smell but on the Thyme which is an Herb of little beauty A Devout Soul rests not on Truths curiously deckt with Eloquence but upon plain naked Truths to fetch Honey from It likes the most saving weighty and powerful Truths the Spiritualness of the matter the Holiness of Soul-Searching Doctrines such Doctrines as beat down Lust and Corruption But a formalist is only delighted with the History the Elegance of Language the quaint Notions or the Rational Evidence of the Discourse and so rests in the outward shell and tasts not the Kernell If these things only do affect you in hearing you did never yet really tast the goodness of Sermon-Milk or the sweetness and pretiousness of Christ in a Sermon which if once you had tasted how would your Heart be affected and ravisht with it It 's only the tasting of the Hony-Comb that makes one affected with it and to long after more 6. Ponder upon what you hear lay it up in your Heart so as to retain it Thus did Mary by Christs sayings she kept them all and pondered them in her Heart Luke 2.19 The word is a Jewel lock it up in the Cabinet of your Heart It 's pondering on the word in the Heart that doth make it Nourishment to you by Digesting of it and turning it into the Blood and Spirits of Holiness This is the Squeezing of the Hony-Comb of the word into the Heart which makes it yield abundant store of refreshing sweetness Yea and presseth it so that it slides down deep into the Heart so as it is made to abide there When the Minister hath laid on a healing plaister Meditation binds it fast on makes it stick and abide which otherwise would rub off again presently without doing any good it fastens on our Hearts the truths which we have heard 7. If you would profit by the word preached then pray for the Minister before you go to Church Col. 4.3 Eph 6 19. Pray to God to direct him to speak a word in Season to you that might be suitable to your Condition and work upon your Heart I am perswaded that one reason why People reap no more benefit by the word is because they do not before pray for the Minister or for a Blessing on the word that he shall preach to them Consider that thus praying for him you pray for your self if the Mother have a full Breast it is the benefit of the Child St. Austin praised God for furnishing his Nurse with Milk when he had perished without it O pray to God constantly before you go to Church that he would enable the Minister to do the work of a Spiritual Nurse well and then you will find that you will have matter to praise God for the good that you shall reap after by his Church Nursery 8. When you come home retire your self a little and repeat over to your self the most practical truths which you have heard make Application of them to your self and press them home upon your own Heart Think not how the Doctrine you have heard doth fit others this hinders your profiting by the word but think how it fits your self CHAP. XXIX Of Receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 1. NEglect no opportunity of being a guest at this Sacred Feast of the Lords Supper and take care that in all your Approaches to it you come worthily This would be a prime and most Soveraign means to your living well which is the design of all the Advice that I have given you O what Excellent and Heavenly Lives did the Primitive Christians lead while they received the Sacrament every day or every Lords Day They were thereby inflamed with such Zeal and Holy Courage that they were said to come from the Sacrament like Lyons breathing fire and hence in Cyprians time they had it every day that they might be the more animated to lay out their Blood for Christ This Sacrament saith Chrysostom is for the Noble Eagles that would have their thoughts on high it helps Souls mightily to mount up with wings as Eagles to run and not be weary to fly swiftly through difficulties and duties and to make them ascend up in a fiery Chariot of Love Christians may hereby be brought unto and preserved in a Holy Galantry of Spirit and briskness and liveliness in well doing and to move as in the Chariots of Aminadab with nimble vigor The Elixir of Christs Blood in the Sacrament will make the believer full of Life and Spirits Hereby a Christian saith Bernard is made more meek to be reproved more patient to labour more fervent to love more ready to obey and more Devout to give God thanks In a word your Heart by this feast of fat things and refined Wines will be more strengthned to the practice of all Holy Virtues to the mastery of all Corruptions and to the Conquest of all Temptations and support to go on in its work and way without sinking under its burthen 2. Besides how could you think that you live well if you should live in the neglect or omission of so great a Duty as this of Receiving the Sacrament which was the Request and Legacy of your dying Saviour with strict Command appendant and annext thereunto Do thus in Remembrance of me Would not that be a living in Rebellion against his Law a slighting of his Body and Blood while you have a Command to Communicate therein Unpreparedness may be your Sin but cannot be a warrantable plea for abstaining 3. Now that you may so make your Addresses hereunto as to come worthily be careful of these four following particulars 1. To know and understand the Nature and Ends of this Feast 2. To be such a Person as the Master of the Feast would have his guests to be 3. To make your self ready before you come to it 4. To behave your self so at it as becomes a guest at that Royal Banquet CHAP. XXX Of the Nature of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ENdeavour to get a right understanding of the Nature of this Divine Mystery so as to know what you feed on there All People love to have light when they are at a Feast to see
person or no i. e. whether you be a Real and Serious Christian one that is truly and in good earnest Godly When the King saw one amongst his Guests that had not on a Wedding Garment that was not Vested with the Robes of Christs Righteousness for Justification nor of Inherent Righteousness for Sanctification he commanded to take him and bind him Hand and Foot and to cast him into utter Darkness Math. 22.13 The Wrath of God will be up against such unworthy Guests as the King 's was against Haman at the Banquet of Wine and will give Sentence against them accordingly The Indians when they first came into these Northern Countreys thought Roses had been Fire Surely the Rose of Sharon will be really a Consuming Fire a devouring Flame to unworthy Communicants He that Eats and Drinks unworthily Eats and Drinks his own Damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 it 's as if the Apostle should say he swallows Damnation and this is more thâ—n to swallow down Flames here in the World It would be well for such if this Sacrament proved only an empty Feast to them but it proves mortal Poyson and like Poyson taken in Wine works with the fiercest Violence If you be an unworthy Guest at the Lords Table you will be guilty of the Body and blood of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.27 your Soul will be diepred in Blood I mention not this to dishearten you from going to that Blessed Feast for you ought to go but to persuade you to go as a worthy Guest that your going may be for your Everlasting Comfort and not for your Confusion CHAP. XXXIII Of Actual Qualifications MAke your self actually ready to come to this great Solemnity this Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper It 's not enough that you be habitually unlese you be actually prepared If you were invited to a Feast by some great Person you would not satisfie your self to go in your ordinary Dress though it were neat and handsom but you would put your self to some more than ordinary pains to spruce and trim up your self so as not to have a Hair amiss And ought you not to be more careful to Beautifie Deck and Trim up your Soul afresh by Special and more than Ordinary Devotions and Actions of Piety before you come to this High and Majestick Solemnity this Tremendous Mystery as Chrysostom calls it Before Meat it 's good to use some Exercise as Physicians say to stir up the Natural Heat for to promote Digestion And so before this Spiritual Feast it 's good to Exercise our Souls for the stirring up our Spiritual Appetite thereunto for the warming heating and quickning of all those Graces and Affections that are necessary for a worthy Communicant which are Faith Repentance Hungring Desires Love to God and our Neighbour Joy Thankfulness and Resolutions of New Obedience You must not only have the habit of these Graces but they must be made ready new scoured and prepared so as they may work more kindly at the Sacrament there must be a tuning of the Viol and a winding up of the Strings the several Faculties of the Soul Now you must rally up all your Affections all the Forces of your Soul and get them all in a ready Frame and due Posture for exercising themselves at this Sacred Solemnity You must premeditate before you go of all the work that you are to do at the Sacrament and so thereby fit your self for the better doing of it when you come there CHAP. XXXIV Of Suitable Behaviour at the Table of the Lord. BE careful so to behave your self at this Divine Feast as becomes one of the Lords Guests It 's not sufficient to get your Heart into a Devout Frame before you Approach to this Table of the Lord but it is requisite also that it be kept up in a Holy Tune in a right Disposition and suitable Deportment during the whole Solemnity It 's not enough to Trim up ones self to go to the Table of some Noble Person but there must be also a becoming Behaviour there lest Offence be given by any undecencies And therefore that your Demeanour here may be proper and becoming I shall instruct you how and in what particular Seasons or Passages of the Administration your Sacramental Graces respectively are to be exercised I hinted to you in the former Chapter which are those Graces that are most proper to be exercised at the Sacrament and shall now shew you in what Order and Method and in what season they are aptly and pertinently to be acted there When you are called up by the Minister to draw near to the Table of Blessing think you hear Christ himself by his Minister calling you up and bidding you welcom And then Exercise Humble Thankfulness and Joy together with hungring desires and let your Heart say Lord what am I that thou shouldst so far condescend as to invite me a poor Worm thy worthless Hand-maid to thy Royal Table And to admit such a wretched Creature to the Banquet of Spiced Wine who have deserved nothing but Gall and Vinegar to Drink My Soul therefore doth Magnifie the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the Lowliness of his Hand-Maid from henceforth all the powers of my Soul shall call thee Blessed Lord hast thou now called me into thy Banquetting-House I do promise here that while the King sitteth at the Table and I there with him my Spicknard shall send forth the smell thereof My Faith Desires Love and Thankfulness Yea all my Graces shall send forth a sweet and holy Perfure to please him O that the same Love that hath prepared a Table for me and now called me to it would prepare me for it and refresh my Soul with Love and Sweetness there At the Ministers reciting the words of Institution Separating and Blessing of the Bread and Wine whereby they are Consecrated Exercise Faith and Thankfulness and fervent Desires to God the Father and say Lord out of thine infinite Love thou didst separate and set apart the Lord Jesus from all Eternity and appointed him for our Redeemer and didst bless him with the Spirit above measure making him the rich Treasury and common Stock of Grace a Fountain over-flowing to the supply of all Believers Let him not be to me a lockt Treasure or a Fountain Sealed up but Bless and Sanctifie these Creatures of Bread and Wine to me that they may be the Body and Blood of Christ in effect to me for my Attonement Peace and Propitiation and pardon of all my Sins and convey Spiritual Life Nourishment and Comfort to me abundantly O let my Soul be steept in sweetness and let the Rock pour out Oyl into me even the Oyl of Grace and of Joy and Gladness also When you look upon the Bread and Wine after Consecration Exercise Faith to discern the Lords Body and look now upon them not as common Bread and Wine but as Sacramental Representations Spiritually Exhibiting the Body and Blood
of Christ look by Faith beyond these outward Elements and say Lord thou dost here send me a covered Dish of Royal Cheer from Heaven from thine own Table as to a Beloved Friend or Dear Child Teach me to take off the outward Cover and to see plainly and clearly the rare Delicates that are laid in it Let me so imploy my outward Senses in minding the out-side of the Sacrament so as to raise my Spiritual Senses to see and discern the inside thereof and the Glorious Mysteries couched in it And here exercise further longing desires after those vailed Mysteries and say As the Heart pants after the Water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul is athirst for God yea even for the Living God When you see the Bread broken and the Wine poured out then you see the lively Spectacle of a Dying Saviour Let then Repentance be renewed Faith Love and Resolutions for New Obedience and Holy Desires also Acted and Elevated in the Soul Represent now to your self in this Mystery what our Lord Jesus endured when he hung upon his painful Bed of Sorrows the Cross and say to your self canst thou look upon a broken Saviour without a broken Heart upon a bleeding Christ without a bleeding Soul Upon a pierced Jesus without a Heart pierced thorow with Godly sorrow for thy Sins that pierced him Doth not every Orifice made by the Nayls the Thorns and the Spear in that pretious tormented and pained Body and every drop of Blood that issued thence call aloud to thee for Repentance of those Sins that caused these Torments I do therefore here Vow and Covenant to take a revenge upon my Sins and give them their mortal wound and cause them to Bleed to Death using them as they used my Dear Lord and Saviour O what Streams of matchless Love were these that flowed from a Dying Saviour laying down his Life for me and do not these call for streamings of Love back again from my Breast towards him O that my Soul may be sprinkled with that Blood which issued from that Fountain of infinite Love O that it may be Bathed in that Blessed Bath set open for Sin and for Uncleanness Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there 's none upon Earth that I can desire besides thee my bleeding Saviour When the Minister comes and delivers to you the Bread or Wine look on him as doing it in Christs Name and here stir up Faith and Love to God Think with admiring Love how God in Christ delivers up himself in Covenant to you offering to be your God your Reconciled Father and Redeemer And believe with Joy and Thankfulness that you hear Christ by the Minister saying to your Faith Take my Body and Blood all the Riches of that Covenant which was Sealed with my Blood all the Blessings coucht in that Blessed Charter of the Gospel When you take these at the Ministers hands then let the Hand of Faith stretch forth it self to reach God and stir up your self to take hold on him and put forth intire Resolutions of New Obedience and say Lord by taking this I do Covenant with thee that I take thee with my whole Heart to be my Lord to be ruled and governed as well as saved by thee and I do here seriously devote my self both Body and Soul to the intire Obedience of thee When you are eating the Bread then lift up your Heart by Faith to God and say I believe Lord that thy flesh is meat indeed thou that didst Dye for me art the Bread of Life that shall nourish my Soul to eternal Life My Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my Mouth shall praise thee with joyful Lips And here by eating this Bread I do Covenant with thee to be thy Servant and Obedient Child for ever And when you are drinking of the Wine or immediately upon it say Lord thy Blood is Drink indeed O that my Soul may tast the refreshings of this Heavenly Wine O stay me with Flagons Comfort me with thy Love which is better than Wine I believe that thy Blood was shed for the Remission of Sins O that I may be washt from all mine in that Holy Laver And that I may hear the soft Voice of thy Spirit whispering to my Soul Daughter be of good Cheer thy Sins be forgiven thee Bless the Lord O my Soul and that is within me bless his Holy Name who forgiveth all thine Iniquities and healeth all thy Diseases When you look upon the Communicants receiving with you exercise Love to the Saints and say where the Carcass is where the Crucified Body of my Saviour is thither will the believing Eagles be gathered together and shall not I be joyned in love with all that Heavenly Flock and Holy Society These Eagles do all feed on Blood the Blood of a Crucified Christ and hath not this a Cementing Virtue to unite Affections These are the Friends of the Bride groom and shall not I make them my Friends Shall not the Beloved of my Saviour be the Beloved Ones of my Soul CHAP. XXXV What is to be done after the Administration is ended VVHEN the solemnity is over go home with a glad heart and a chearful Spirit and say to your self what did Haman go from Esthers Banquet of Wine with a glad Heart glorying in the honour of his being there And shall not I much more rejoyce and glory who have been in the Spouses banqueting House where his Banner over me was love and have been royally entertain'd by the King of Saints with the choicest delicates of Heaven When you are come home retire your self into privacy for a little time and ask your self what your demeanour was at the Lords Table and what happy fruit you have found of your being there What meltings or softnings of Heart What glimpses of Love What cherishing Beams of the Spirit What strength vigor and liveliness of Soul What secret springings and elevations of Spirit What spiritual quicknings and refreshings have you had at that Feast of Fat Things and refined Wines And according as you find it with your Heart upon this short tryal so do you answerably make your addresses unto God If you have found the efficacy of the Ordinance and sweet satisfaction there bless God for it and sing glory to God in the highest and pray earnestly to him that it may abide upon your Soul but if you find no Divine relishes no drops of sweetness but are come away with an earthy and drossy Soul then humble your self before God and labour to find out the Sin that was the obstruction and remove it 3. Be watchful afterwards lest the World or any trifling occasions damp those influences which you found at the Sacrament All persons are most careful of themselves after they come out of a hot Bath lest they shouid take cold When you have been at this Spiritual Bath of the Sacrament be exceeding careful that cold get not info