and Devils Nor need we wonder why God suffers these abuses for the permits them as he doth other sins to let Men see at last that their Condemnation is just Besides this makes those who use this Ordinance in pursuance of the right end of its Institution more glorious in God's Eyes for this hath still been the Privilege of the true Church of God to flourish like a Lilly among Thorns and what the Apostle saith of Heresie in general is most true of these Abuses There must be such things in the World that those which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. THE holier any thing is that is abused the greater is the Crime When Belshazar Dan. 5. 1. was resolved to be drunk had he made himself a Beast by drinking out of common Cups though the sin had been great and against Nature yet it might have passed unpunished here as other Villanies are but when nothing would serve his turn but to drink his Reason and his Wits away out of the Bowls of the Sanctuary and to add Profanation of the Vessels of the Lord's House to all his Crimes this allarmed the Divine Vengeance immediately and rather than not shew his Displeasure God thought himself obliged to be at the Charge of a Miracle which caused the fatal Hand upon the Wall and the King's Overthrow followed within a few hours after And if the Abuse of consecrated Vessels raised so great a Storm what must the abuse of consecrated Reason and Duties and Mercies do Sirs your Reason is a consecrated thing God hath set it apart for his use that you should consider and contrive how to get a share among the Blessed hereafter if you abuse it and will let it serve you for no other end but to teach you how you may grow rich and great and fill your Bellies with hid Treasures will not God visit for these things and will not his Soul be avenged on such Persons Your signal Mercies and Deliverances are consecrated things God hath set them apart to put you in mind of your Gratitude to teach you Submission to his Will and to walk humbly with your God if after these you are careless and live as regardless of your Duty as you did before will not God reckon with you one day for such abuses Should a poor Man take the Cordial you send him and fling it upon a Dunghil how would you resent it and can God like it do you think to see how like Mad-men you tear off the Cloaths he gives you to cover your Nakedness to see you live the reverse of his Designs to see you fight against him with his Mercies and as it was in the Case of the Daughter Jerusalem Ezech. 16-17 to see you take the fair Jewels of Gold and of Silver he hath given you and make to your selves Images of Men and commit fornication with them II. One great abuse of this Holy Sacrament is to fancy that like a spell it will charm sin out of your mortal Bodies so that you need be at no trouble to mortifie it The Sacrament indeed confers Grace but it is objectively as it contains very great Motives to a lively Faith and Hope and Charity and it confers Grace too as a cause without which Grace would not be convey'd because God hath promised in this Ordinance to be present and as the Dew of Hermon or as the Dew descends on the Mountains of Sion so here the Lord commands his Blessing even life for evermore But still it doth not confer Grace Physically as if the mere use of it would make you Favourites of Heaven and Children of his Love It 's Physick indeed which will work a Cure but then the Person that makes use of it must be qualified for it must be sensible that he is sick and willing to be cured of his Spiritual Diseases and then God will look upon him as a Father and manifest himself to him look upon him as a kind Physitian and make the Medicine effectual to him look upon him as a Friend and take him into his bosom and say to him as it is Es. 49. 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of Salvation have I helped thee and I will preserve thee and cause thee to inherit the desolate Heritages III. The abuses committed by some in this Sacrament must not tempt us to neglect the use of it If the abuse that others have been guilty of were a sufficient excuse to stay away we might as well argue that Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Books and Learning may not be used because ill Men have perverted the harmless design of them We should count that Man a fool that should resolve because a Man of such a Profession hath cheated him therefore he will never deal with a Man of that Profession again or because such a Person who pretended to strictness of Religion hath plaid the knave with him therefore he will never trust a Religious Man again The same absurdity would he commit that from the abuse that others have run into in the Holy Communion should resolve to abstain from it for this would be as much as to resolve to be mad because others are and have been so God hath furnish'd us with Faculties and Powers to discern the Dross from the Silver and the Tin from the purer Mettal and we have his Word to guide us in distinguishing the use from the abuse and as the temperate Man still drinks Wine though thousands in the World still pervert the use of that Creature so a good Christian can see no rational discouragement from coming to this Table though some have made it their bane and turned it into their own destruction The PRAYER O Most Gracious God who hast given us thine Ordinances for our Comfort and Edification and directed us how to use them to thy Glory Give me an Understanding Heart and a pure Mind that they may be a savour of Life unto Life to me Let me not touch these Holy things with unclean Hands but purifie my Soul and cleanse it from that filthiness which doth so easily beset it that I may be fit for thy Divine and Glorious Influences Lord without thee I can do nothing thou art the Vine and I the Branch convey thy Celestial Juice into this withered Branch that I may revive and bring forth much fruit and have my Fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. VI. Of Receiving the Lord's Supper Fasting and how far it is Necessary The CONTENTS It is a thing not absolutely necessary to receive the Lord's Supper fasting Several Reasons to prove the Assertion Yet to receive it Fasting is a thing very conventent because it quickens Devotion and is an Act agreeable to the mortifying Prospect of Christ's Death and warranted by the Practice of the Universal Church Total Abstinence from Food that Morning
the Honour of the true God which the Pagans did to their false and imaginary Deities Yet see the abuse of these Feasts of Charity 1 Cor. 11. 22. especially in the Church of Corinth in the days of the Apostles For St. Paul being busie abroad partly in Planting partly in Confirming Churches the richer sort of the Christians at Corinth began to think it below them to admit the poor to that Familiarity as to eat with them in these charitable Collations and therefore either prompted by their own Pride or encouraged by some false Teachers that had Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage would indeed send the Meat and Drink they had prepared to those Oratories or places of publick worship but when they came they superciliously separated themselves from the Poorer sort and ate and drank by themselves and so freely that many of them became drunk and in that condition had the hellish impudence afterward to come to the holy Sacrament If they left any thing at these Feasts the Poor might take it and make the best of it if not they were forced to go away hungry and too often discontented So early grew this abuse and though in Process of time these Feasts were used after the Eucharist and in many places in Church-yards at the celebration of the Memories of holy Martyrs at the Dedication of Churches and at the Funerals of holy Men and Women yet nothing could keep out Intemperance and Excess and Disorders for which reason the Church at last thought herself obliged to abolish and put them down which was done accordingly by the Council of Laodicea in the Year of our Lord 364. by the Council of Carthage in the Year 419. and by the Council of Constantinople in the Year 692. II. Whence Abuses of Holy things arise is no hard matter to guess for 1. We find them spring from an Itch of Novelty Men not contented with the plain and simple Truths God hath vouchsafed to Mankind are strangely tickled with new things which are often called Refinings or Improvements of old Truths under which plausible name they are easily swallowed down Hence rose the various Idolatries in the World that it became as modish to invent new Gods as it was to invent new Fashions in Cloaths and Habits Adam no doubt deliver'd the notion of one Eternal invisible God Creator of Heaven and earth and the decent worship of him to his posterity This notion being become common and stale the succeeding Ages thought themselves obliged to invent something new and counted it more gay and glorious to worship the Creator in the Creature and seeing the Sun and Moon and Stars that they were the brightest Monuments of God's Power they easily fell into the Worship of those Luminaries till the more brutish among the People adored them as Gods indeed and this novelty once broach'd one God brought in another and as Men were still fond of Novelties so they went on and fell a Worshipping deceased Hero's and Princes in whom the Image of the Supreme Deity resided and who had been famous for some notable exploits or benefits and from hence they still went on even to the Worshipping of Trees Herbs Plants Beasts Crocodils Fishes and creeping things one Age still thinking to out-do the other in new inventions of objects of Worship till it came to pass that those were counted most Religious that Worshipt the greatest number of Gods as the Athenians who had more Gods than any one City besides of which the Apostle takes notice Acts 17. 22 23. 2. Another cause of these abuses is an Opinion That God is pleased more with the Externals than the Internals of Religion an Opinion which Men are very apt to slide into because they find the Internal Devotion is troublesome and requires intention of the Mind and mortification of the Affections and the other is more easily performed To this Original the Corruptions that did over-spread the Jewish Church owe their rise who in despight of all the Warnings of the Prophets to the contrary laid the stress of their Piety on the strict observations of their Sabbaths new Moons Sacrifices Phylacteries and legal Purifications This gave Mahomet occasion to corrupt Religion for knowing what would please the sensual inclinations of Men he craftily drew People away from the Internal Worship and Consecration of the Souls and Affections to the Supreme Being and taught them to place all Devotion in these five external Acts of Worship Saying their Prayers five times a day keeping the Mouth Ramasan giving the hundredth part of their incomes to Pious uses Washing before Prayer and making a Pilgrimage if possible to Mecca And thus the Church of Rome at this day comes to deviate from the true Religion not only by adding new Articles of Faith to the antient Creeds but by turning the whole Worship of God in a manner into Ceremonies and external Services Saying so many Ave-Maries visiting such a Saint's Shrine Processions offering Wax-Candles to the Virgin Praying by Beads undergoing Penances c. 3. A Third cause of these abuses is a mistake of Fancy and Passion for true Religion and Revelation From hence have come all the barbarous attempts of Pretenders to the true Religien against Magistrates and a well setled Church and State From hence have risen all those Enthusiastical conceits both in this and former Ages whereby the Gospel it self hath been in danger of being overthrown From hence come those rude and undigested Notions of Hildegard Bridget Catharine of Siena Teresa St. Francis and others in Popery who by their Dreams and Visions have sought to establish the erroneous Doctrines of the Roman Church From hence it was that the Messaliani of Old pretended and made People believe that upon a Man's Regeneration or being purged from Sin the Devil and his Angels came out of his Mouth in the shape of Swine To say no more in Men and Women whose notions of Religion are crude and undigested and who are made up of a strong Fancy and stronger Passions Religion must needs run into Wild-fire and pervert the simplicity of the Gospel 4. A Fourth Cause is suiting Religion to our own Humours Lusts and Interest The Tartars therefore embraced the Mahometan Religion and rejected the Christian because the former gave greater liberty to the Flesh. This made the Heathens invent to themselves Deities that were favourers of their Vices And from hence it was that in the Primitive Church Basilides Carpocrates Valentinus the Nicolaitans and Archonticks denied the necessity of a Holy Life because they loved to wallow like Swine in the Mire and in all probability upon this ground it was that Hymeneus and Philetus as the Apostle informs us 2 Tim. 17 18. affirm'd and gave out that the Resurrection was already past because they were loath to be called to an account for their evil lives 5. False Teachers and turbulent Souls are another cause Discontented Men because they cannot be Great or Rich or have their Will
Messiah suffer without rending their Cloaths and what is more tearing themselves for the crime they had been guilty of The Graves burst their Bands as if they were concern'd to see Men harden'd against all impressions of Compassion The Angels we may without danger of Heresie believe stopt in the midst of their Hallelujahs and if ever there was sadness in Heaven we may suppose it was at this time The upper and the nether World seem'd to go into Mourning because their Lord and Master gave up the Ghost Thus much we are told by the inspired Writer Matth. 27. 51 52. And this makes the Death of Christ Jesus surprizing beyond comparison and surely such a Death ought to be remembred 4. It is a Death whereby the Person suffering merited Eternal Life not only for himself but all his Followers too A mighty Blessing but such as was a just reward of so deep an Humiliation It was for this Death that the Everlasting Father exalted Christ's Humane Nature above Powers Angels Principalities and Spiritual Creatures and in doing so declar'd what those whose Nature he had assumed if they did follow him in the Regeneration might come to after Death viz. Eternal Life and Glory And what greater Blessing can be thought of to enjoy all Blessings at once and to all Eternity To see God and to be ravish'd with his Sight for ever to enjoy Riches Honour Glory Power Dominion Pleasure Recreation Houses Lands in a most eminent manner or to enjoy that which is beyond all these in inexpressible degrees and without interruption without ceasing without disturbance without envy without fear without danger of losing it What can be greater What can be more satisfactory What can be more comfortable This the Son of God hath purchased by his Death That Death is the Messenger of all these Glories In that Death all these Treasures are amass'd and heap'd and piled up together and then it must be worth remembring nay it is impossible not to remember it where all this is believ'd II. How this Death is to be remembred at the Table of the Lord will deserve our next consideration And most certainly a slight transient Remembrance such as we pay to our friends and acquaintance which are absent at our common Meals or at other times as we have occasion to discourse of them is not sufficient here for that 's not at all agreeable to the Greatness and Profitableness of this wondeful Death It must be such a remembrance as 1. Refreshes our Memories with that marvellous Love that shines in this Death This Love must be called to mind even the Love of God the Love that mov'd him to the Kindnesses we see and taste and feel and have experience of The Love that mov'd him to give us a Saviour the Love that mov'd him to take pity of us when we lay in our Blood when we lay in Darkness and in the shadow of Death Love Love Love must here be the Motto the Watch-word and the dear Expression And as the Martyr in Eusebius being ask'd divers Questions about his Name Kindred Relations Family Country Parents c. still answer'd That he was a Christian so if here we should be ask'd what we think what we speak what we mind what we come for what we design what our business is or what we delight in Love must be the Answer to all these Questions Love must be the burden of our Song even the Love of the Holy Trinity a Love in which our Life our Happiness and all our Hopes are wrapt up a Love which nothing above and nothing below can give us any tolerable Image of There is nothing among all the Angels in Heaven nothing in the Sun or Moon or Stars nothing among Men or Beasts or Roots or Herbs or Stons or Minerals that can be said to be truly like it all comparisons are feeble all resemblances faint no Language can reach it no Rhetorick express it no Oratory describe it no Pencil draw it it surpases our Reason transcends the brightest Understanding puzzels the very Angels in Heaven and perplexes the Spirits of Light and Glory It is all Sea all Ocean all Light it hath no Bounds no Shores no Limits and the greatest that ever was said of it or can be said of it is St. John's Expression 1 Joh. 4. 16. God is Love Love it self all Love all Charity all Goodness and nothing but such perfection could have loved such poor pitiful Worms as we are God looks upon our giving a cup of cold Water to a Righteous Man as an Act of Love O then what an Act of Love must it be in him to give us himself to give us the dearest thing he had even his own Son Jesus wept over Lazarus Joh. 11. 35 36. and the Jews said See how he loved him But these Tears were but drops of Water Here the Lord Jesus is seen to weep drops of Blood for us O then see how he loved us We were blinder than Bartimaeus lamer than Mephibosheth fuller of Sores than Lazarus poorer than Job no Comliness no Beauty no Form no Excellency appear'd in us Adam's Fall had disfigurred us defaced us ruin'd us in this lamentable condition God loved us and gave his Son to die for us and shall not this Love be remembred in his Death 2. This remembrance requires calling to mind our Sins which were the cause of that Death It 's true the Love of God was the impulsive cause but our Sins were the instrumental cause these brought him to the Cross and whoever remembers his Death must necessarily remember that whereby this Death was effected and procured this was our Sin and the Infection that attended it But then if I remember my Sins in the remembrance of his Death how can I remember them without detestation How can I remember them without abhorrency How can I remember them without arming my Soul with resolution and arguments to fight against them Can I look on my neglects and not charge them with this Death Can I remember my Love to the World and not accuse it of having had a hand in buffeting and reproaching of him Can I think of my Pride and Wrath and not bid them look on the Wounds they made in that Holy Flesh Can I reflect on my wantonness and lustful Thoughts Desires Words and Gestures and Actions and not be angry with them for having struck Nails into his Hands and Feet And what is said of these particular Sins must be applied to the rest that we are either guilty of or most inclined to they must be so remembred as to be represented to our Minds in their odious shapes as having been accessory to his Death and if this be done we cannot but proclaim War against them and maintain that War all our days 3. With this there must needs be remembred the mighty Redemption procured and accomplished by this Death even our Redemption from Slavery a Slavery so much the worse because we were not
not frown on those that are weak in Faith I do not mean such as have no saving no working Faith and as refuse to work the work of God such are Infidels not Men weak in Faith Weakness of Faith supposes readiness to good works but the various doubts which attend it cause this weakness That there are such Persons as Children in Grace St. John assures us 1 John 2. 12. Yet even their Sins he is willing to forgive for his Names sake 2. Because this Sacrament was instituted for the strengthening of our Faith The weak in Faith are called and invited to it that they may grow more robust and lively and to this end Christ offers himself in this Ordinance as Spiritual Meat and Drink that living upon him and feeding upon him we may be brought up to greater perfection that our Souls may follow him with greater alacrity Grace may become more active and Faith more solid and more defecated from Hypocrisie And as here we contemplate Christ so we behold his extraordinary Faith in God that seeing it it may give us courage to tread in his steps His Father's promises to him as Man and Mediator were great and large and extensive God had promis'd that he should be King of Heaven and Earth that all Power should be put into his hand and that he should be as it were his Lieutenant-General Ask of me saith he Psal. 2. 8. And I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel There was little probability of the performance of these promises when he was mocked derided scourged beaten bruis'd and crucified when he was made liker a Worm than a Man the reproach of Men and despised of the People when all that saw him laugh'd him to scorn and did shoot out their Lips and shook their Heads saying He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him when many Bulls compass'd him and strong Bulls of Basan did beset him round when they gaped upon him with their Mouths as ravening and roaring Lions when he was poured out like Water and all his Bones were out of joynt when his Heart was like Wax and melted in the midst of his Bowels when his strength was dried up like a Pot-sherd and his Tongue cleav'd to his Jaws and he was brought into the dust of Death when Dogs compass'd him and the Assemblies of the wicked did enclose them when they pierc'd his hands and his Feet as David describes his misery yet in the midst of all these disasters he believ'd the promise of his Father would be punctually fulfill'd which makes the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews say that for the Glory set before him the promis'd Glory He endured the Cross and despised the shame Heb. 12. 2. His Faith bore him up under all these Floods of ungodliness so that he is not only the Author and Finisher but also the example of our Faith an Example set before us in this Holy Sacrament that we may light our Candle by his Fire strengthen our Faith by his Plerophory and Confidence and if this be the end of his being represented in this Ordinance the weak in Faith cannot be excluded nor can weakness of Faith make a Person an unworthy Receiver Nor Is it want of a total purity or of freedom from all Sin that makes a Person an unworthy Receiver It 's true the Gospel commands those who mean to receive worthily to purge out the old leaven 1 Cor. 5. 7. And putting off the old Man with all his deceitful Lusts Eph. 4. 22. and whoever hopes to be partaker of the benefits of Christ's death his purpose at least must be serious and unfeigned without partiality and Hypocrisie to renounce all Love and Affection to a sinful Life but still there is a great difference betwixt destroying the Reigning power of Sin and being free from all Sin of the former the aforesaid passages must be understood and the worthy Communicant must in sober sadness mortifie and resolve to mortifie the Imperial Power of Sin in his Soul so as not willingly and wilfully to yield unto the sinful dictates of the Flesh or of the World but to prefer his God and what he requires before his own Temporal advantages But from thence it follows not that the worthy Receiver must not be so much as subject to errors and inadvertencies and falls by surprize and before he can well recollect himself and therefore the want of such spotlesness is not it that makes a Man Eat and Drink unworthily at this Table 1. Because this Feast is not instituted for Angels but for Men. Angels have no need of such encouragements to Virtue they being determin'd to Goodness Were Men free from all Sin they would not stand in need of this Ordinance which is intended to make sinful Men good and good Men better Those that are whole need no Physician but the sick and as Christ is the Physician in this Sacrament so they are the sick he invites to come to him The best Man that is though he labours under no Chronical distemper yet he hath ailings still and infirmities about him which want the Physicians hand and Medicine which is here most Graciously tendr'd to him The Scripture of the Old Testament calls Man Enosh infirm weak sickly and though good Men are arriv'd to a far better state of health than Hypocrites and grosser Sinners yet who even of the strictest mortals can say I have made my heart clean so that no spot shall be seen there This Sacrament therefore being ordained for Men it must be granted that it is ordain'd for sinful Men not to encourage them in Sin but to make them hate it not only the bigger stains but even the relicts of it that remain in the Regenerate To this end Christ's Agonies and exquisite Torments are set before us in this Sacrament the Torments I mean our Sins inflicted and brought upon him that that sight may terrifie us and fill us with abhorrency of that which hath made the Son of God so miserable 2. No Sinners are excluded from this Sacrament that are willing to reform their Hearts and Lives Those that with Ephraim will have no more to do with Idols take with them words and turn unto the Lord saying Take away all our iniquity and receive us Graciously so will we render the Calves of our Lips Ashur shall not save us neither will we say any more to the works of our hands ye are our Gods as it is said Hos. 14. 2 3. Such are call'd by the great Shepherd of the Sheep not stubborn Sinners but penitent Sinners not obstinate Sinners but tractable Sinners not Sinners that will be miserable but Sinners that long to be deliver'd from their misery not Sinners that are resolved to walk
they help to prepare thy Soul for the Possession of that Inheritance which shall last for ever III. Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper is the best Preparative for Death No Man can die uncomfortably that makes it his Business as often as he comes to this Table to receive worthily Death cannot hurt him let it be natural or violent untimely or orderly for by this worthy Receiving he hath laid up a good Foundation against the Time to come Death may destroy his Body but cannot kill the Soul Death may fright him but it cannot undo him It may dis-lodge his Spirit but it drives it to a nobler Habitation It may expel the Guest but it gives him a Title to a better Building His worthy Receiving gives him an Interest in Christ's Death and because Christ lives he shall live also Death may come blustering and make a Noise but in that Whirlwind his Soul rides to Heaven Let his Death come by Sword or Famine or Torment or Fire or Water it makes no Alteration in his Happiness To him to live is Christ and die Gain And he knows who hath said I am the Resurrection and the Life The worthy Receiver never dies for he lives in Christ who abides for ever Christ will not suffer that Soul to perish in which he hath been pleased to make his Habitation He is concern'd to secure her Happiness and his Eyes are open upon her to do her good Her worthy Receiving arms her against the Fears of Death and scatters the Mists which Death doth cast before her Eyes Receiving worthily makes the Soul a sit Habitation for the Spirit of God and If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you Rom. 8. 11. IV. As the unworthy Receiver when Sickness or some other heavy Judgment lights upon him hath reason to believe that it is for his unworthy Receiving so he that wilfully neglects coming to this holy Sacrament may very justly conclude that all the Troubles and Miseries that befall him do in a great measure befall him for that Neglect 'T is hard to determine which is the greater Sin whether Receiving unworthily or not Receiving at all both will admit of great Aggravations And as these Sins are in a manner equal so it is not irrational to conclude that the Judgments threatned to the one may be inflicted for the other too As the Jews say of the Golden Calf that an Ounce of that Sin is an Ingredient into all the Calamities that came upon them so there is not a Cross that the wilful Neglecter of this Sacrament feels or endures but he hath reason to think that this Neglect contributes towards it and all his Miseries call to him though he will not hear the Voice not to neglect so great Salvation and if all these Calls cannot awaken him into a Sense of his Duty how must his Reckoning swell and how inexcusable must he be whom neither the still Voice of Prosperity nor the shriller Sound of Adversity can convince Take eat this is my Body and Drink ye all of this is a Duty as much as doing by others the same that we would have others to do us It will appear and be made out one Day that this was not an Evangelical Counsel only which the more Religious Sort that are ambitious of the highest Place in Heaven need only mind if they please It was said to all the Disciples that represented the Church-Militant And if thou professest thy self a Member of that Church thou art no more excused from the Performance of it than thou art from coming to Church and attending the other Ordinances of God But if these Motives cannot prevail God hath Enforcives which shall but from these Good Lord deliver us The PRAYER O God! When thou with Rebukes dost chasten Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth Hear my Prayer O Lord and give ear unto my Cry hold not thy Peace at my Tears Oh let the Afflictions which have befallen me and which thou shalt hereafter think fit to send upon me help towards the strengthening of my Faith in Christ Jesus Thou hast sometimes laid thy Hand upon me thy Afflicting Hand and I have taken no notice of it Thou hast smitten me and I have not looked up to Heaven from whence the Stroak did come Thou hast corrected me and I have not been the better for it I have been like a Beast before thee so foolish was I and ignorant Oh teach thou me Let me read my Duty in my Crosses And whatever Trouble comes upon me let that Trouble direct me to the Cross of my dear Master the Lord Jesus Enlarge my Contemplations of the Cross of Christ by the Crosses that knock at my Door Let these make me more zealous to participate of the Benefits of the Cross of Christ. In these Crosses and Troubles let me find Motives to come with greater Seriousness to the Table of my crucified Redeemer Let these prompt me to run to the Tree which yields the Fruit of Righteousness Let not these discourage me from loving thee but rather inflame my Affections to make thee my Hope and Fortress my Light and my Salvation Let me look upon the Joy that all my Troubles will at last end in and take Comfort in all my Tribulations Imprint this Belief upon my Soul that thou knowest better what is good for me than my Carnal Heart I am apt to hanker after the Flesh-pots of Egypt but let me see the richer Table in thy Kingdom I am apt to be fond of these outward Comforts Oh quench my Thrist after them Let me see clearly that to feed on thy Love is better Diet than this Earth affords Give me thy Peace not as the World gives but as thou usest to give thine own People Oh! give me what I want Thou knowest my Necessities better than I. Give me better things than my Flesh desires even those which may preâ—erve me by thy Power through Faith unto Salvation through Jesus Cheist our Lord. Amen CHAP. XX. Of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death the Second Temporal Judgment inflicted sometime on the Unworthy Receivers of this holy Sacrament The CONTENTS The Eucharist a Cure for all Diseases yet many continue weak and sick after it The Cause shewn to be in themselves The Signs of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death God inflicts these Spiritual Judgments upon Unworthy Receivers by degrees The Justice of it vindicated in four Particulars Spiritual Weakness and Sickness proved to be a greater Judgment than the Corporal Of the End of our Eating and Drinking worthily at this Table which is Spiritual Health and wherein that consists Spiritual Judgments more common than Men think or suspect Our Souls are capable of Diseases as well as our Bodies Several Instances and Proofs given of it The Cure of Spiritual Weakness