to come he could neither expiate Sin nor procure Eternal Life No these are things which could only be accomplished and brought about by him who was more than a meer finite or Created Being even by the Lord Jesus Christ who was not only Man but God too you see then we are beholden to Christ for all He it is that fetcheth sinners from the lowest Hell and lodgeth them in the highest Heavens that snatcheth them from the deepest Misery and advanceth them to the highest Glory that poor finite beings are capable of O the great obligations that are upon us to walk thankfully all our days Every time we partake of this Supper-Ordinance we come under new and fresh obligations of thankfulness We that have been so lately feasting upon his love so lately put in mind of the great things he hath been doing for us before whose eyes Jesus Christ in the greatest expressions of his love hath been evidently set forth and Crucified amongst us and the blessed benefits of his Death and Crucifixion represented sealed and applied to us Our Blessed Lord would not have his love in doing and Suffering for us be forgotten by us and therefore hath appointed this Supper as a standing monument and memorial thereof to his Church When we eat the Sacramental Bread and drink the Sacramental Cup we are to do it in remembrance of him of what he hath done and suffered for us This was a kindness never to be forgotten at the Institution of which Supper we find he himself gave thanks * Rob. Communicant page 178. 1 Cor. 11.23.24 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he break it c. after the same manner also he took the cup. Now what was the matter or form of this thanksgiving is not expressed but it is most likely it was in reference to the work or action then in hand and not only for the bare outward Elements but more cheifly and especially for the inward Mysterys and excellent benefits to be represented and sealed by them For the Grace and love of God which he came to discover to Mankind and was now about to seal with his own Blood The Baptism he was to be baptised with was now approaching viz. his death wherein his Body was to be broken and his Blood shed for the life of the World and for the nourishment of the Elect which he delighted to accomplish or as he himself expresseth it was straitned till it was accomplished These were the things that were chiefly and specially the matter of his thanksgiving Now did Christ give thanks at the first Institution why then proportionably we are still to give thanks in all after Administrations of this Supper And not only just in the participation of it but after we have partaken we are to walk thankfully all the days of our lives considering ◠1. 〈◊〉 The inward moving cause of all which was the great love and mercy of God to us John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins Now this first inward moving cause of all viz. the love of God must not be overlooked because it is commended to us Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his love to us in that white we were yet sinners Christ died for us Some things are barely related to us but this is commended to us that we may be sure never to forget it and to be continual matter of praise and thanksgiving to us considering 2. The outward occasion or procuring cause which is Mans misery by reason of sin This was the outward occasion of Christ's coming into the World and doing what he did and suffering what he suffered He came to reconcile and propitiate God offended by Mans sin To remove that enmity that was betwixt God and us to appease the anger and wrath of God towards us now before this can be brought about and effected the Son of God must become Man obey and suffer bleed and dye to expiate our offences And doth not this afford us continual matter of thanksgiving Once more considering the effect and fruit and benefit of all that he hath done and suffered for us and that is life that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him This was the white that Christ aimed at in all that he did next to his Fathers glory was the salvation and life of poor sinners that we might live how why a life of pardon and acceptance in Justification a life of grace and holiness in Sanctification a life of joy and peace in Consolation and a life of bliss and happiness in Glorification These are things that our thoughts should be much employed about and affected with at the Table and shall we not henceforward look upon our selves as laid under the highest obligations of thankfulness of walking thankfully all our days We never have been so much beholden to any person but we are infinitely more beholden to the Lord Jesus Christ therefore the whole of our lives should be nothing else but continual expressions of thankfulness to Christ But here it may be asked how should we express our thankfulness To this I Answer 1. By often thinking of it our selves and speaking of it to others to his glory We are to express our Thankfulness to Christ for what he hath done by giving and ascribing all the Glory to him attributing and ascribing nothing to our selves but all to the riches of his Grace and freeness of his Love To look upon our selves as any ways deserving what he hath done for us doth greatly detract from his Glory and argues a base disingenuous ungrateful temper to be in us Alas Who are we or what are we poor worthless worms not worthy that he should spend a thought upon us and much less that he should lay down his Life and shed his Blood for us Pray let us a little reflect and consider what we were not long ago Dead in Trespasses and Sins wallowing in the filth and mire of Sin and Lust alienated from nay enemies to God and Christ poor and miserable and blind and naked cast out into the open Field to the loathing of our persons polluted and defiled in our Blood not worth the taking notice of Now than ever we should be the Objects of his Love who deserved to be the Objects of his eternal disdain and the everlasting Monuments of his Displeasure How ought this to be continually acknowledged by us to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace This is one way by which we express our Thankfulness for any kindness or favour receiv'd when we think of it or speak of it to the Praise and Renown of him that shewed it So this is one way by
A Plain Discourse Shewing how we are to WALK After the Lord's Supper Necessary for every Communicant From 1 Col. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Being the Substance of Several Sermons Preached to a Congregation in Hatton-Garden By John Horsman an unworthy Servant of Jesus Christ Vivimus non loquimur magna London Printed for E. Richardson at the Naked Boy in Blowbladder-Street over aâ—gainst St. Martins le Grand 1698. TO THE Serious Reader IT was not without great conflict and strugling within my self that this comes forth into Publick View being very sensible of my great unfitness for such an appearance for tho' as one says the plain thread bare suit may do well enough at home yet when persons go abroad a better habit is required and expected But such as have not this change of Apparel must be content with what they have If it be the bravery and gaudery of Language that thou expectest in the following Discourse thy expectations will be frustrated for however such a garb might suit the airy humour of the Age yet it would no ways be agreeable or suteable to the weightyness and gravity of the Subject treated on which is not to show how we may please Men but how we may please God how we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing I am not unsensible that this Piece will fall into divers and different hands and according to the hands it falls into such will be the Treatment it must expect By the Prophane it is probable it will be Derided For to such as have no sense nor relish nor savour of Spiritual Things and Serious Matters such things as these are will be the Object of their Scorn and Derision with whom the deep things of God are counted no better than Mysterious Nonsense And whatever hath but the Face and Shew of Seriousness with such it is accounted Canting and Affected Singularity By the Curious and Captious it is most probable it will be despised because such will not meet with that exactness and accuracy of Method and Stile with those flights and strains of Rhetorick which is most pleasing and grateful to this sort By the Learned it also may be but little set by because they will not find a Margin filled with Quotations of Fathers and Schoolmen nor with the Sayings of Poets and Philosophers It may possibly pass for a Plain Honest Well-meaning-Discourse And indeed were it otherwise it would not Answer its Title nor would it be so suited to that sort of Reader for which it was chiefly and principally designed viz. The Serious Reader For such it was chiefly design'd and to such it is humbly Dedicated Whatever relish it may have with others yet I hope it may be as Manna sweet to the Tast of all serious Christians How weak soever the manner of handling this Subject is yet the Subject it self is very weighty and seasonable The Duty press'd to is very necessary but too much neglected We are ready to take up with the Theory of Religion and the Speculative part of Piety but are too great Strangers to the Practical part thereof We may know many things and believe many things but yet if we do not put into Practice the things that we know and believe we only have a name to live but yet are dead We have only a form of Godliness but are strangers to the Life and Power of it We are for Reading and Studying and Hearing of Notions but the Apostle James his Advice is Not to be Hearers of the Word only but Doers of the Word also 1 Jam. 22. The Beauty and Power and Life of Religion lies in the Practice of it It is not enough that we make a Profession that we are taken into Church-Fellowship and Partake of the Ordinances of the Gospel unless we do adorn this Profession with a suteable and agreeable Walk and Conversation according to that advice of the Apostle Paul 1 Phil. 27. Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ The neglect of this among the Professars of this Age is very much to be lamented and bewailed Now to quicken and direct us herein is the main drift and tendency of the following Discourse And particularly how we are to Walk after that Great Ordinance of the Lord's Supper I hope it will not be judged to be altogether needless nor prove altogether useless And that it may not be altogether fruitless and successless I commend both thee and it to the Divine Benediction which crowns all our Labours and gives Success to all our Lawful Endeavours Paul may plant and Apollos water but it is God that giveth the increase for neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth any thing but God that giveth the increase I am Thine in our Blessed Lord J. Horsman A PLAIN DISCOURSE SHEWING How we are to WALK after the Lord's Supper From 1 Col. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing THESE words are the Matter of the Apostles Prayer for these Collossians In two things among others the Apostle did express and demonstrate his great love to them The first was in giving Thanks for them The Second was in Praying for them He gave Thanks for them and he Prayed for them v. 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you Now the matter of his Thankfulness for them he refers to Two Heads 1. Their Graces 2. The Means by which they are wrought Their Graces which were chiefly Three viz. Faith Hope and Love Their Faith by the Object Their Love by the Extent Their Hope by the Place v. 4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus there is the Object of their Faith and of the love which ye have to all the Saints there is the Extent of their Love and for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven there is the place of their Hope The Means by which these Graces were wrought which was the Word from vers 5. to vers 9. Thus much for the Matter of his Thanksgiving The Matter of his Prayer for them was this viz. That they might be filled with the knowledge of Gods will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God From whence we may take notice of this by the way that next to our own good and welfare we ought to rejoyce at and be concerned for the good and welfare of others Thus it was with this blessed Apostle He was not only thankful to God for his goodness to himself in particular 1 Tim 1.12 13. But he is thankful for Gods for goodness unto others We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for your faith in Christ and for your love which ye have to all the Saints and for the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven c. And then shews himself greatly concerned for their good and welfare in praying always for them For this cause we also since we heard of it do not cease to pray for you v. 9. See what concernedness he manifests and expresses for his Brethren his Kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9.1 2 3. I say the truth I lie not my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish my self accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the flesh It is a very strange expression but it notes his zeal and affection and concernedness for their good and welfare Rom. 10.1 Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved It is a great sign that Grace hath taken hold of our hearts when we are really concerned for the good of others that the same Grace that hath taken hold of us may take hold of others too By this says the Apostle John we know that we are passd from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 And truly our love to others cannot be more fully expressed and truly demonstrated than by an affectionate concernment for their spiritual good and welfare If they be wholly ignorant of God and Christ that they may be brought to a saving knowledge of God and Christ Or if they be such as have been in any measure brought to a saving knowledge of God then that there may be a dayly increase of it And this was the Apostles Prayer for these Colossians having heard of their Faith in Christ and their Love to the Saints and their Knowledge of God he prays that they may be filled with it in a dayly encrease of it for a stronger Faith in Christ and for a farther increase in the Knowledge of God He is not you see of a little narrow private spirit swallowed up in his own private concernments but of a brave noble generous spirit imploying his desires and endeavours not only to his own good but to the good of others too And this is one character and property of a gracious Soul of a sanctifyed person that he is full of constant and ardent desires after the good and welfare of others The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Member to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 Religious love seeketh not her own things 1 Cor. 13.5 We should not seek our own things as many do but the things which are Jesus Christ's viz. that which tends to his Glory and the Good of his Members Christians should serve one another by Love Certainly what a Man is in Religion he is relatively so If not fit to serve the Body than not fit to be of the Body He is no Saint that seeks not the Communion of Saints Having taken notice of this by the way I come now to the words themselves In which words we have not only the Apostle's Desire and Prayer for them but we may also read our own Duty in them and that is to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing This is the end of all our Knowledge of God and his will which in the 9th verse he desired they might be filled with Why filled with the Knowledge of God's Will Why That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing To this end we should be filled with the Knowledge of God's Will that our Conversations may be rightly ordered to the Glory of God that our Lives may answer the Profession we make and the Knowledge we have obtain'd and the Mercies we receive and the Means we enjoy The Papists would find Merit of Works in this Verse Both because holiness of Life is so much urged by it And also because here is the word Worthy used as if the Apostle should grant that they might be worthy of or Merit the Blessings of God Now to this might be returned a Two-fold Answer 1. That Merit cannot be founded upon Scripture 2. That it cannot be founded upon this Scripture First It cannot be founded upon Scripture The Scripture doth abundantly and in many places declare against it It cuts off and excludes all glorying and boasting in our selves as if by our worthiness we could procure any thing of favour at the hands of God or by our goodness any way recommend our selves to the favour and acceptance of God You see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise c. And all this that no flesh should glory in his presence But he that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28. Alas we are so indebted to the Divine Bounty and Goodness that gave us our beings both in Nature and Grace that when we have done all we can we are forced to acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants Luk. 17.10 Whatever good we do it is from God and therefore cannot Merit any thing at the hands of God 2 Cor. 3.5 So says the Apostle Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency it is of God 1 Cor. 4.10 For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou hast not received Now if thou didst receive it Why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Were there no other Scriptures these were sufficient to overthrow the Notion ef Merit 2. Nor can it be founded upon this Scripture This expression of walking worthy of the Lord cannot be applied to Merit by any means in as much as the Lord had bestowed many of his Blessings and Favours and Benefits already They cannot by any good Works afterward be said any ways to Merit what is past now it is very absurd to think that we can by any after good Works Merit what was given us before But we will pass by this and come to the true meaning of this expression To walk worthy of the Lord is no more than to walk suitably and agreeably and some way answerably and becomingly to the many-fold Favours of God vouchsafed to us which will be better understood by comparing it with the parallel places Eph. 4.1 I therefore the Prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Walk worthy of your vocation that is answerably and suitably and becoming your Calling as appears by the following words which fully explain it viz. With all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love c. This is such a kind of Walking as is becoming and agreeable to our High and Holy Calling Phil. 1.27 only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ This is the true meaning and explication of this Expression of walking worthy He means no more by