thee impute thy sin to Christ justice will impute it unto thy own self View these these things and weigh them impartially possibly they may prevail to the convincing of the heart of its sinful state and of the certainty of a future imputation of sin unless it be prevented by repentance And lest thou shouldst flatter thy self that there is little or no danger in appearing before God under imputed sin I advise thee to consider Sect. 3. The greatness of thy danger as it will appear in thy Sacrifice See if thou mayest not descry 1. Death as certainly following thy Sacrifice as imputation of sin did follow the substitution of a Sacrifice He must die who took thy sin upon him he cannot escape who is thy Sacrifice If Christ taking thy sin on him could not have the Cup pass from him thinkest thou there can be any thing but death awaiting thee under thy sin is not here danger is not here great danger I know not what may be accounted danger if death be not I know not what is greatest danger if death under imputed sin be not 2. Was not the Death of Christ thy Sacrifice full of sorrows and grief he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 and if his life were spent in sorrows I am sure his death was full of them Look on him his in agony in the garden explain me the meaning of those unparalleld drops of blood tell me the story of his enemies cruelly buffetting spitting crowning him with thorns and forcing those into his tender temples his blessed head These were preparatory griefs was ever grief like this this thy sin deserved this thou must if Christ had not suffered thou must have been the scorn and triumph of Devils who forever would torment and wrack thee What then judgest thou of death thus aggravated what thinkest thou of the grief and pain of his soul when hands and feet were nailed to the Cross when he hanged there under the sharp pains of a lingriug death what grief was that breath'd out it self in that My God My God why hast thou forsaken me I speak not of the acuteness of his pains which the School-men speak of Let me obtain thy sober thoughts of the sorrows of our Dying Saviour and Sacrifice and then say whether there is danger and how great the danger of thy sin is then say canst thou think of thy danger without fear and astonishment what will become of sinners under the burthen of sorrows which their sins deserve and God will heap upon them 3. View the person who thus suffered view him I say in all his Interresse in the Father's love in all the Priviledges of his nature person and office in all the perfection and excellency of his obedience and see whether any one or all these could exempt him from or defend him against that flame thy sins had kindled and which his blood alone must quench or it will burn for ever and when thou hast thought of this then tell me thy danger 4. Was not his power and strength the power and the strength of a God united to the Humane Nature to support it and yet for all this his Fears Dangers Sorrows were enough to try all his power and albeit he conquered yet not without a bitter conflict How then couldest thou have escaped or born these dangers Thus make an unconvinced heart look on sin in it's Sacrifice make a self flattering secure fearless heart look on the certainty and greatness of it's own danger in the sorrows and grief which fell upon Christ our Sacrifice when thou hast proceeded thus far in this Matter bring thy self to determine these two things 1. whether thou canst bear all the misery which sin deserved and all the sorrows this Sacrifice did sustain Canst thou bear the displeasure of the Almighty if thou think'st thou canst I pity and mourn for thee if thou thinkest thou canst not then 2. say canst thou find out a way for thine escape if the infinit wise God hath not found out any expedient beside this dost thou think thou canst find it out well then if it be intollerable and thou canst not bear it if unavoidable and thou canst not fly from it what remaineth but being shut up under sin as the Scripture speaketh thou shouldst also be shut up in Prison reserved for the day of Execution without any hope in thy self for thou readest thy guilt in the Imputation of sin to thy sacrifice thou readest thy death and danger in the death of thy sacrifice thou readest despair in the unsupportableness of the misery and in the unavoidableness of it's approaches thou art undone and miserable in thy self which cannot but end in consternation of mind and amazement and likely may break out into such enquiries who can dwell with devouring Fire with everlasting Burnings who shall deliver us from wrath to come how shall I escape such great misery what shall I do to be saved Is there not yet Balm in Gilead is there not a Physician there may not this wound be healed dost thou begin thus to fear and enquire I send thee to this Sacrifice for hope and help Sect. 4. 4. Although the death of thy Sacrifice did preach thy danger and thy helpless state in thy self yet doth it also preach help for thee in another it proclaimeth hope of escape for here is a Sacrifice for sin and where a Sacrifice is admitted the offence may possibly be remitted and the offender may be reconciled They that sought out and prescribed their own sacrifices for their Gods maintained their false hopes by this mean And the carnal Jew mistaking the nature of his sacrifices kept up his presumptuous hopes by the same means concluding his peace was made because the sacrifice is offered But he among the Jews who understood the Institution Nature End and Use of the Propitiatory Sacrifices did obtain at first and did maintain unto the last a sound peace between his God and his soul Where there is an appointed sacrifice there is an open and plain declaration of our apprehensions that 1. Our sins are expiable 2. That sacrifice is the way of expiation And 3. That this sacrifice is believed by us fit to expiate our offence These are the common if not universal suppositions of all sacrificing offenders Now beside these common inducements of our hopes let me acquaint my Reader with two things 1. That God hath admitted this sacrifice whose Death we commemorate in the Sacrament Albeit he checked the formal Jew and rejected the Idolatrous Heathen and their sacrifices witha Who hath required this at your hands yet he never will discourage any one who tenders to him by a hand of faith this Propitiatory Sacrifice He will admit this if thou canst present it to him by faith Lift up therefore the feeble hands the drooping head the fainting heart there is hope nay assurance that sins may be expiated For 2. This Sacrifice is of God's own
Abraham might come on us Gentiles Again the Apostle Rom. 8.3 tells us God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh In which words you read expresly that God sent his Son and that he sent him in the likeness of sinful flesh not by inherent vice but like it through imputed guilt and obnoxiousness to the Curse both which lay on all flesh that had sinned and both which was laid on him who thus appear'd in the likeness of sinful flesh in which capacity he appear'd not only to the world which judged him whom they knew not nor only to his enemies who did maliciously slander him they hated but he presented himself to God in our stead bearing our Sin and Curse for removal of both which he was made a Sacrifice an Expiatory Sacrifice which the Text expresseth concisely by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our Interpreters in the Margin have rightly explained A Sacrifice for sin this being the proper import of the phrase as is evident to all who are able and willing to compare the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Greek Translation of it by the Lxxii In the places cited as Levit. 4.3 14.28 32. Numb 6.11 16. cap. 7.16 22 28 34 40.46 c. Neh. 10.33 Ezek. 40.40 42.13 Psal 40.6 In all which and many more which might be cited The Greek Interpreters use the same phrase the Apostle doth when he assures us God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh that by him made a Sin-offering or a sacrifice for sin he might condemn sin but save the sinner In one word he that was sent to be a sacrifice for sin must die and bear the imputed guilt of the sins of the persons for whom he is a sacrifice and consequently die under a Curse To these add we that of the Prophet Isa 53.5 where the Prophet doth thrice over in very emphatical words foretell what the Jews would judge of Christ under his sufferings they would esteem him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stricken b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smitten and c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflicted of God as if he had been a notorious sinner stigmatized by the just hand of God inflicting Curses on him Thus the blinded malice of the Jews lead them into blasphemous mistakes of the person and the surferings he underwent d The Gattaker on Isa 53.4 They thought him thus handled by God in a way of vengeance 〈◊〉 his sins The Jew understood the import 〈◊〉 â—heir own language but they understood 〈◊〉 â—he true cause of the dolorous curses and sufferings the Messiah died under Whatever wrath curse or vengeance is implied in the phrase he did bear it to remove it all from us we sinned and should have died accursed but he was made a Curse to free us Again vers 5. the Prophet tells us he was wounded for our transgressions so we read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tho. Gattaker Annot. in loâ— but some observe the word denoteth a polluted person or one that is prophaned Now by the Law every polluted thing or person was judged accursed When the Rulers of the Sanctuary are prophane and God punisheth for it Jacob is made a Curse Isa 43.28 And of the polluted defiled or prophaned the Law determineth he shall die the death Exod. 31.14 He shall be cut off Lev. 19.8 22.9 Numb 18.32 So that by the Law a polluted person is in danger of that death which the Law calls a Curse and when such are used as polluted they are cut off and die under a Curse denounced by the Law And thus was Christ wounded for our transgressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we had really polluted our selves and were prophaned by our sins which we had committed But He the Holy One of God was first burthened with our imputed sins lookt on as one standing in the stead of polluted ones and used as they deserved that they might be blessed which they deserved not Thus also vers 6. He laid on him the iniquity of us all Guilt imputed and punishment inflicted from both which the consequent is The person so used dieth an accursed death which is 〈◊〉 we are to prove Since then God laid 〈◊〉 iniquity of us all on his Son who was 〈◊〉 tent to bear it we may very confiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 conclude that our iniquity will be the cause of his death and that this death will have a Curse intermixed with it that it may be sufficient to redeem us from the Curse due to our iniquities There is one place more which I might urge viz. Phil. 3.7 He took upon him the form of a servant and in that capacity did humble himself unto death even the death of the Cross saith the Apostle which passage possibly is not enforced to speak other than its own proper sense if it be thus explained He took upon him the form of a servant i. e. put himself into the state and condition of an accursed person and so died for them he loved and represented The Scripture doth sometimes use this manner of speech to express a Curse on a man or on his posterity so a Gen. 9.25 26. Cham's Curse is expressed so is the Curse of b Gen. 25.26 Esau expressed The elder shall serve the younger applied by the Apostle to prove Jacob and his seed blessed and to evidence Esau and his seed left out of the blessing and consequently abandoned under a Curse Israel's misery in Aegypt emblem of a cursed state was servitude in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of bondage Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of a servant in which Christ appear'd bespeaks his appearance under a Curse for us And in this conjecture on this place I am confirm'd by the authority of Erasmus on this place Jam quod accepit formam servi non proprin referri videtur ad buinanam naturam assumptam sed ad speciem similitudinem hominis nocentis enjus personam pro nobis gessit dum slagellatur damnatur crucifigitur Now saith he that he took the form of a servant seems not to be referred properly to the taking of the Humane Nature but to the taking of the species and likeness of a guilty person whose part he bore for us when he was scourged condemned crucified Thus far that learned Pen. But let this conjecture be of what weight it will be there are places enough already urged to make good the Truth Christ in our stead appear'd under a Curse and so died an accursed death that by this means we might live in hope of a blessed life and as the Text hath it that the blessings of Abraham might come on us Gentiles and that we might receive the Spirit viz. both of Sanctification to enliven us to our duty and of Adoption to ensure us of an hoped reward and so be delivered from servitude and misery of sin in
Sacrament until he take us to the Glory of the Father or come again to us in the Glory of the Father Every Sacrament is a taking out a Certificat that Christ died and was buried but that he is risen from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 53. Every time the Bread is broken in a Sacrament we tell the world that our Lord was cut off out of the Land of the Living The pouring out of the Wine speaketh his powring out his blood unto death and for proof hereof we produce his Testament and last Will the last Will of our great Commander who made it In Procinctu when he was girt and in his Armour just ready to enter the conflict wherein he laid down his life for us The excellent Moralist and Historian Plutarch tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. it was the custome with the Roman Souldiers to make their Wills when they stood in Battel-aray Facientibus Testamenta in procinctu veluti ad Certam mortem eundum foret Velleius Paterculus lib. 2. I am sure when they went on a hard and dangerous design the more considerate amongst them made their last VVill as the Roman Historian reports of their Souldiers assaulting Trebonia in Spain Our great and Glorious Captain knowing that his hour was come and that he must dye for us disposed thus his estate by VVill or Testament which proveth the truth of his Death as fully as any VVill duly proved by course of Law proveth that the Testator is dead Now certainly good evidence to the truth of Christ's death must needs be very suitable to our publick declaration and Profession of his death and so must suit with this first End of the Sacrament which is to shew forth his Death until he come The valid and irreversible Testament proveth the Death of the Testator Now such a Testament we have exhibited in the Sacrament and who employs his thoughts on this meditation employs them so as they agree with the End of the Sacrament 2. Secondly Christ intended the renewal of our lively affections toward him Dying for us as another end of the Sacrament of his body and blood He did therefore appoint this Ordinance to continue after his Death that it might keep the affectionate remembrance of his love alive in our hearts He would not have his Death forgotten neither would he have it kept in memory without the vigour and strength of our love His friends were dead in sin and misery at that time he remembred these dead friends with life of affections and now his living friends must not remember him with dead affection A lifeless affection is next neighbour to no affection and to remember with such affection is very little more than quite to forget Now none of us should so forget our Dying Lord we could not see him dying as they did Luk. 23. v. 27. who followed him to Mount Calvary and saw him with their bodily eyes yet in every Sacrament of his Supper he is evidently set forth dying among us and so every one of us must remember him every place in the Church may put us in mind of our Lord but the Table and the Cross do more particularly and lively set our remembrance on work Sic oculos Sic ille manus c. Let me ask the question did you ever lose a dear friend who made you a Legatee in his Will or appointed you Executor of it how did your affections stir move yea melt your heart when you read over the Will when you came to demand your Legacy did you receive it with dry eyes Let us bestow our affections in reading over Christ's Will as we would bestow them in reading over the Will of a tender careful Friend and then I am sure we shall frame our hearts to this second end of the Lord's supper and demean our selves as Christ expects we should at his table We shall remember him with love for his loving remembrance of us we shall remember him with desires of his return and coming in glory to make good all that he hath bequeathed to us to put us in possession of all that which the Sacrament representeth and sealeth to us we shall say make hast come quickly oh Lord. 3. Thirdly A solemn publick and constant return of Thanks and Praise to the Lord is a third end of this Sacrament Christus voluit sacram suam coenam esse mortis passionis suae nostraeque per eam à peccato morte diabolo liberationis perpetuum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrae ea propter gratitudinis observantiae publicum Testimonium Ludoy Cappel Thes Salm. de Liturg. Ling. Ignot part 1. th 5. Christ would have his holy Supper be a perpetual remembrance as of his Death and Passion and as of our deliverance from sin death and the Devil so of our gratitude and observance would he have it be a publick Testimony as that Learned Professor hath expressed his sense and apprehension of this matter We can scarce meet with any one person amongst the lowest and meanest Professours of Christian Religion so little instructed in the nature and end of this Ordinance as not full well to know and openly profess it is an Ordinance appointed for continuing a thankful Remembrance of our Dying Lord. We cannot read any Writer Popish or other but in their writings of the Sacrament every page is full of it the most usual name of it is Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Syriack Version hath borrowed this Greek word to express it self in Act. 2.42 20.7 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which soundeth out Gratitude and Thankfulness so some render and translate Bread in Acts 2.42 10.7 broken in the Sacrament and call it the Breaking of the Eucharist but I will spare my time pains and paper and appeal to thy pretences and professions who goest to the Lord's Table I know thou canst not acquit thy self to thy Brethren with whom thou communicatest nor to thy own Profession unless thou declarest thy desire to remember thankfully the Death of thy Lord. Now the Love of Christ remembring thee by Will in his Testamentary disposition hath in it very many strong and prevailing perswasives to thankfulness and will certainly awaken the sober considerate soul unto gratitude and so will excellently well suit with the season and the duty of feasting with our Lord. Of which more shall be said in our following discourse if the Lord give leave Mean while the greatness of our legacy the freeness of love in the legator the unworthiness of the legatees the certainty of our future receiving it the present enjoying more if so be we would set our selves with more diligence and search to enquire into the deed of gift our Lord hath made to us These I say will certainly perswade us to constant acknowledging our debt of thankfulness to our dying Lord. Our life should be
see then it is self-deceiving flattery to hope for the love and favour of God whilst I love my sin and continue in it if I will have his love and escape his hatred I must leave off sin for he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.6 He hateth the evil way Prov. 8.3 I must either leave the evil way or perish in his hatred For none ever escaped perishing who by continuing to sin provoked his displeasure and wrath against them Resolve therefore as becomes a man O my soul fly and hasten thy flight from wrath to come prevent the misery of being hated and accursed of thy God cast off thy sin cease to do evil and then God will cease to be angry There cannot be any thing in sin to compensate thee to reward thee for the loss of the favour of God Sin can never heal the wounds which the hatred of God will make in thy soul Poor creature thou wert better have all the men on Earth and all the finite invisible powers of light and darkness to hate thee thou mightest bear this than have one God to hate thee thou canst never bear this In fine therefore saith the believing serious and considerate soul I will not hazard I will not run the venture and danger of divine displeasure of the hatred of an Almighty God for I see in the Curse which my Lord lay under what I must lie under for ever if I will by continuing longer in sin own my former sins pull the punishment of them upon my self and love that which my God so perfectly hateth I will every day labour to hate that with perfect hatred which my God hateth I will seek his love by a present separation and divorce from sin I will this day renew my purpose and attempts to leave my cursed sins for God hath renewed my thoughts of his hatred against sin by the renewed remembrance of Christ dying a Curse for my sin Fourthly In the renewed thoughts of this kind of death The Believer hath the renewed sight and evidence of a death hanging over the head of every sinner which of all deaths is the most dreadful which is fullest of horrours and soul-tormenting fears Death is the King of terrours though represented and cloathed in the lest dreadful manner it can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotel No kind of death but is terrible enough but of all this is the most terrible and only to be feared it is this at the heels of the other that makes it dreadful It is a most undoubted truth that every one continuing to sin and so dying shall die under a Curse for his own sin though the sinner should live to an hundred nay to many hundred years yet if he live and die a servant to his sin he shall die accursed and this we may be sufficiently assured of by the accursed Death of our Lord for he died so for as much as the sins of God's Elect and chosen ones were laid to him he was loaded with them and all the guilt of them was charged on him and therefore was he punished therefore he died in such a manner He was made a Curse because the guilt of our sins was laid on him and punishment due to that guilt inflicted on him Nothing more certain He was wounded for our transgressions Isa 53.5 He bare the sin of many ver 12. He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 And all this evidently set forth before our eyes so that the serious and considering soul soon comes to this conclusion that whoever doth bear the guilt of sin he must die a Curse for it and he needs no other proof of it but this Christ did bear guilt and this brought him to a cursed Death Now then he begins to argue the case with himself Can I continue in sin and not bear the guilt of sin Can I yield my self a servant to sin and yet not be accounted a servant of sin Can I do the works of iniquity and not be thought by judicious and wise men a worker of iniquity How much more will the just and righteous God occount me so When I do any fact for which the Law of man will call me to account can I do the fact and the Law not impute it to me It is most sottish folly to continue in the service of sin and to flatter my self that I shall not be accounted a servant of sin or to hope I shall not be loaded with the guilt of my sin And it is no less folly to think that we may lye under the guilt of sin and yet not sink under the importable burthen of a Curse No no either I must leave my sinning or I must die that Death which of all is the most terrible I must be a Curse under the wrath of God Now therefore resolve what thou and I shalt do God proposeth a Christ dying a Curse for thee to encourage thee to leave sin or to shew thee what thou must trust to if thou live in sin He preacheth to thee this Doctrine Life through Grace if thou wilt obey if thou wilt renounce thy evil way for then thy Saviour shall be thy Peace bear thy Guilt and endure thy Curse or else Death if thou wilt still refuse to convert and leave thy sin And let me tell thee it is Death with a Curse and consider thou whether thou canst endure it and let me ask thee these few questions 1. Dost thou not believe that there is somewhat more in Death when it is sharpened with this sharp and piercing sting Dost thou not think that the Curse doth add unto the dread and fear of Death When God proclaimeth any one blessed in death dost thou not perswade thy self that God taketh away much of the terrour of death if so then certainly when God addeth a Curse with death he addeth terrour to it and thou must confess it also if thou wilt consider it Now then say Canst thou contentedly think of dying for thy sin Canst thou think of doing more than dying for thy sins Vntil that time be come wherein thou canst say thou wouldest be willing to suffer more than death for sin thou should'st not be willing to serve sin any more in thy life I know when we come to die we shall judge sin unworthy of such a pledge of love or service as one pang or one fear or one sigh for its sake oh then we shall say He loved sin too much who for sin's sake added the lest pang to death Whatever thou dost therefore leave to sin lest tlou add the misery of a Curse to thy death 2. Let me ask thee Is there no manner of dying which is a terrour to thee more than ordinary If thou wert now to die and mightest chuse thy death wouldst thou chuse any that were full of pains or loathsomness or both these continuing long Are there not some kinds of death from which
thou prayest to be delivered and what kinds of death are these are they not those wherein God's hand would most immediately and most publickly and with most displeasure appear against thee wouldst thou not account it worse than death to be long dying with such a tormenting lingring and loathsom disease as Sylla the Roman or as Maximinus the bloody persecutor or as Herod the great whose story is better known to thee eaten up of worms Would not others be ready to say of thee That God had indeed set his hand against thee that God judged thee unfit to live among common men and unworthy so good a death as the death of common men how would this trouble thee This was the thing wherewith Job's friends did most aggrieve him that they would conclude God's hand against him as against an enemy But now let me tell thee The afflictions of Job nor the woful death of a Sylla or a Herod have no such evidences of God his displeasure and wrath in them as the easiest death of an accursed sinner hath in it For other deaths may and usually are inflicted by other means this is inflicted by the immediate hand of God alone and can thy heart endure or thy hands be strong when God shall do this is not his wrath as he is He alone can bless and he alone can curse and this shall be known to the sinner in the day wherein God will appear against him think then whether sin deserve so well that thou shouldst not only die but die a Curse for it whether there be any thing in sin to fortifie thy spirit against the terrours of God's immediate furious rebukes and slaying of thee Who dieth a Curse dieth under the revenging strokes of an infinite God Look then how much there is in infinite Power and Justice more than can be in finite so much indeed is there in dying a Curse for sin more than in naked single dying For 3. Thirdly Let me ask thee one question more Doth not Death a cursed Death reach the soul and kill this no other disease but is in the body and is the disease of the body and kills the body and so vanisheth But who dieth a Curse dieth in his soul that is his soul is separated and disjoyned from that sweet communion and fellowship with God which is the true life of souls and Angels When God slayeth these wretches and makes them sacrifices to his offended Justice he slays them with this Depart from me ye cursed Matth. 25.41 Now is it not more dreadful to die thus a Curse than barely to die or if thou couldst die and be willing to lose the life of thy body for sin sake canst thou also be willing to lose the life of thy soul for sin's sake This is another arrow in this quiver and which woundeth deeper than any other The soul dieth when the man dieth a Curse for sin and let me tell thee albeit foolish and inconsiderate slaves of sin will cast away their souls for sin the wise and considerate Believer judgeth his soul and the life of it infinitely too good to be so spent and wasted The death of the soul is so much more dreadful than the death of the body as the soul is more worth than the body thou mayest not then continue in cursed sins for they will bring down upon thy soul a death of all most dreadful cease therefore to sin that thou be not a curse for thy sin Fourthly Let it be considered after all this if this do not convince enough whether thou couldst be willing to die more than once for thy sin Would not a thousand deaths one after another be too much to undergo for sin He that dieth a Curse for his sins shall die more than ten thousand times for them he shall be ever ever dying as many daies nay hours nay moments as are in eternity so many times shall the miserable deplorable cursed sinner die in the acute fresh and renewed pangs of soul every lash of conscience every dolorous remembrance of what he suffereth for shall be a death unto him This makes it death indeed and if thou canst not love thy self so little as to chuse to be ever dying thou must not love thy sins so much as to be ever serving them Say then if thou canst not but fear endless dying I must fear and fly endless sining who dieth a Curse for his sin is as long dying as his soul is living and that is for ever and ever Fifthly and lastly Can any thing sweeten the thoughts or allay the bitterness of such a Death Can there be any thing wherewith others may or thou mayest bless thy self after God shall have so cursed thee Consider what a loss it is which is so great that nothing can lessen it say then though possibly thou couldst endure somewhat for sin's sake yet I can never endure a Curse for it which is more than to die it is to die under the immediate avenging hand of God it is to kill my soul That is to be as often dying as are moments in eternity and all this without any recompence and sweetning allay I cannot chuse so to die therefore saith the considerate Believer the renewed thoughts of my Lord 's dying a Curse renew my apprehensions of the danger of sinning any longer this renews my dislike of sin and I must needs reolve to leave it FINIS ERRATA'S PAge 44. l. 24. for woad r. word p. 70. l. 28. r. hither to p. 73. l. 21. r. Imperfections p. 104. in the margent r. communionis r. christianorum p. 112. l. 9. r. provision p. 123. l. 21. for his r. this p. 143. l. 13. r. imbitter l. 14. dele i before alwaies p. 189. l. 3. r. another p. 221. l. ult r. no. Part 3. p. 22. l. 34. r. easily p. 27. l. 28. for in r. and p. 36. l. 34. for 1. r. in p. 39. l. 3. r. might p. 58. l. 5. r. peace p. 61. l. 7. r. virtue p. 77. l. 17. r. account p. 78. l. 3 1. r. thou Books Printed for and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside IN the Press a hundred Select Sermons by Dr. Tho. Horton Sermons on the whole Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians br M. J. Daille translated into English by F. S. with Dr. Tho. Goodwin's and Dr. J. Owen's Epistles Recommendatory An Exposition of Christ's Temptation on Matth. 4. and Peter's Sermon to Cornelius and Circumspect Walking by Dr. Tho. Taylor A practical Exposition on the 3d Chap. of the 1 Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly Man's Choice on Psa 4.6 7 8. by Anthony Burgesse An Exposition on four select Psalms viz. The fourth Psalm in eight Sermons The forty second Psalm in ten Sermons The fifty first Psalm in twenty Sermons The sixty third Psalm in seven Sermons Forty six Sermons upon the whole eighth Chapter of the Epistle of the Apostle
Lev. 5.6 7 15. Joh. Hoornb Socin Confut. Vol. 2. l. 3. c. 1. p. 562. The words of the Learned Hoornbeeck cited in the margent shall suffice for clearing the text to Scholars and the true reading of the words of the text in our translation shall suffice the unlearned In a word or two if thou believest that this Chapter foretels the sufferings of thy Saviour if thou believest that this text speaketh of his death if thou believest that he is come so long ago and died so long since thou needest only read plain English He hath then in his Death made his soul an offering for sin and this was foretold by the Prophet not in this verse only but also in the 11th and 12th verses He shall bear their iniquity Ita in caput Hostiarum olim reatus offerentium quasi manibus imponebatur luendus caeremonialiter ibi in Christo vere Joh. Hoornb lib. 3. vol. 2. Socin Confut. c. 1. and he shall bear the sin of many So of old the guilt of those who brought the Sacrifices was as it were laid on the head of the Sacrifices by their hands that it might be punished Observe then how Sacrifices of old times did bear the iniquity and sin of those that brought the Sacrifices So did Christ dying bear our iniquity and our sin He did bear them truly they ceremonially as the learned Author noteth To these passages of Isaiah let us farther add those of David and Paul compared together and we shall there find David foretelling what Death Christ should die and Paul explaining what Death he did die Psal 40.6 7 8. with Heb. 10.5 6 7 8. When he i. e. Christ cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldest not c. putting the very words of the Psalmist and thereby assuring us that the place was to be understood of Christ who was hereafter to be born and die whenas David wrote this and who was now born and had died whenas Paul wrote this or rather interpreted these words of Dauâ—â— leading us from the Sacrifices under the Law to Christ our Sacrifice and from the Death of those ceremonial and inefficacious Sacrifices to this real and meritorious Sacrifice ver 10th and 12th Now the whole discourse of Christ's dying a Sacrifice for us had been mislaid on David's words if he had not prophesied that Christ should die a Sacrifice for us Either this kind of Dying must be in the Prophetick words of David which are the Apostle's premisses or it could not Logically be put into his Conclusion Sect. 3. Thirdly Christ to die for us a Sacrifice was promised to the Church and if it were promised it may well be concluded that it either shall be accomplished which is as little as an unbelieving Jew will gather from the promise but not so much as a believing Christian must gather who is verily perswaded that our Jesus the true Messiah is already come and hath died for us and died a Sacrifice fo us according to the promise which is made to Sion Zech. 9.11 As for thee by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the Pit wherein is no water In the words you have a relation of a double deliverance set forth in figurative expressions 1. First A relation of their deliverance out of the seventy years Captivity which God wrought for them for the Covenant sake he had made with them in Christ this was a temporal deliverance The 2. Second deliverance is spiritual and wrought by the Lord Jesus dying and sheding his blood for us Now it is plain This 1. Blood denoteth a death whoever it be that it is spoken of 2. Blood of a Covenant speaketh the Death of a Sacrifice in the blood whereof the Covenant was confirmed and ratified and it is therefore called the Blood of the Covenant this I will a little farther treat and clear It was a very ancient rite of making and confirming Covenants in the blood of Sacrifices offered up at the time when the Covenants and their terms or conditions were assented unto and approved Possibly the Feast we read of Gen. 26.30 made by Isaac was after a Sacrifice offered when he made a Covenant also with Abimelech and confirmed it by Oath However we are assured it was a rite among the Politer Nations of the Earth as in Homer who brings in his Graecians and Trojans making a covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 3. Carm. 94. 105. and confirming it by Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but these are alien and forein we have surer testimony Exod. 24.7 where a Covenant is mentioned and this Covenant wrote in a Book and read to the people who therein heard the terms God proposed and to these the people answer All that the Lord hath said we will do and be obedient they give their assent to the Covenant on which Moses forthwith sprinkleth the people with the blood of the Sacrifices which were offered on the Altar mentioned ver 4. and were brought by young men of Israel ver 5. This blood is called eminently the blood of the Covenant ver 8. applied by St. Peter 1 Ep. 1 cap. 2 ver to Christ So then the Covenant confirmed in blood leadeth us to a Sacrifice dying and sheding its blood in which sprinkled according to the Rite or Custom the Covenant is confirmed So that to me there remaineth no farther scruple in this point If any would have it cleared that this blood is to be understood of the blood of Christ I shall refer them to the context viz. ver 9. and 10. and unto Isa 61.1 where the like delivering of the like prisoners is mentioned and unto the Heb. 13.20 where this blood of the Covenant is called the blood of the everlasting Covenant And let them who desire farther satisfaction consult Commentators on the place Sect. 4. Christ's Death was the Death of a Sacricrifice for so it is historically declared and asserted in the history of his Life and Death and in the writings of his Apostles penn'd on this subject since his Death and Resurrection They that have wrote the story and they who have improved it assert the same I do Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he i. e. Christ ver 24. appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself And again ver 28. Christ was offered to bear the sins of many places so full and clear that nothing needs be subjoyned for explication Christ expresly named and he is offered a Sacrifice and this an Expiatory Sacrifice and he that offered it up was the same with the Sacrifice He offered up himself a Sacrifice c. So again Heb. 7.27 this speaking of the Sacrifices offered up often underthe Law viz. offering for the peoples sins he did once when he offered up himself What the daily weekly monthly and yearly reiterated Sacrifices of the Levitical Priests could not effect though they were continually offered
to excite our languishing graces and to strengthen our infirm graces which ought to be more especially found in us and acted by us in our approaches to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as shall particularly be be shewed in these that follow Sect. 1. Repentance is unquestionably a Sacramental Grace None is fit to commemorate the Death of Christ who repenteth not of the sin which occasioned his Dying The weeping eye and mourning heart are exceeding lovely to the Lord at his Table A Repenting soul is a welcome guest there Now let me trace Repentance through these paths and see as we go how it may be suitably fitted with improveing arguments from Christ our Sacrifice 1. Repentance beginneth ordinarily in a conviction of sin not in general only but particularly in the convictions of our owne sin The righteous need no repentance Mat. 9.13 it is the Sinner which is called to repent so long as a proud Pharisaical opinion of our own Righteousness is maintained by us we shall never embrace the practice of Repentance 2. Apprehension of danger either attends or flows from this conviction of the sinner and this forwardeth his repentance the shameful cursed death sin deserveth and the sinner feareth in the midst of his sorrows hath strong influence upon the soul to grieve for self-undoing sin Although a secure unconvinced sinner blesseth himself and feareth no danger the awakened convinced Penitent apprehends greatest danger from his sin 3. Consternation of mind or Amazement at the sight of sin and danger unavoidable for ought the man can do of himself for his own help this I might call if none will be offended at it a seasonable and profitable despair of our selves while we consider our selves and observe what we have done what we deserve what God hath threatned and what millions do and must for ever suffer for sin 4. A mixture of Hope that there may be and of Desires that there should be and of enquiry whether there be not some effectutal help remedy to be obtained The awakned soul doth as it were look about to see what or whence it's help may come Enquireth what shall I do to be saved How shall I escape c. Now when it descryeth mercy to be had upon it's Humbling of it self before God upon condition of sorrow for what is past and of hatred of sin for time to come the Penitent soul set's it self to exert all these and in a vigorous constant uniform exerting these consisteth the whole life and Practice of Repentance And I hope I shall cleare it Christ considered Dying our Sacrifice will be an awakening consideration preparatory to and promoting of this Repentance in its farther Exercise and Growth Sect. 2. Christ Dying a Sacrifice well considered will conduce much to the Convincing us of a state of sin and that we were in particular involved in it we were sinners and the righteous Law of God imputed the sin to us and the righteous Judge whose it was to execute the Law accounted thee and me and every one of the children of Adam as we are transgressours of the Law if thou seest not this look to the Lord Christ a Sacrifice for sin and ruminate what answer thou canst make to these few Questions 1. What need had there been of a Sacrifice for sin if there had been no sin to expiate by Sacrifice There is certainly sin committed where 't is necessary to take away wrath by a Sacrifice There is sin of the soul wheresoever an offering for sin is appointed Tell me then seeing Christ was made an offering for sin what was thy state and mine and what was the state of all men for whom he became a Sacrifice 2. Couldest thou escape the imputation of sin when Christ a Sacrifice for sin could not escape it Could he not be a sacrifice for sin by a voluntary susception of our cause but he must bear our guilt and shall we judge it likely reasonable or indeed morally possible that our wilful transgressings of the Law should be passed over not imputed If thy sins were imputed to thy sacrifice doubtless they had been imputed unto thy self if thou hadst not had a sacrifice Stand then a while and view this No need of Sacrifice to expiate where no sin is but alas I needed such a Sacrifice No need of Sacrifice where no guilt is imputed but I see my sin I see 't is imputed I must not delay or trifle in this matter my sin is evident its imputation is certain it will be laid on my own head or on my Sacrifice and oh how impossible is it I should escape the imputation of it if I carelesly neglect this great Sacrifice For 3. Whose is the guilt is it his or is it mine who deepest in the guilt he who did no guile or I who am full of guile who nearest the crime he who never did it or I who very wickedly committed it Did God impute it to him and can an unhumbled sinner think God will not impute it unto the committer of the sin 4. With whom was God angry who was it against whom offended justice was most incensed was it against him that was the Sacrifice or against him that needed the Sacrifice and brought it undoubtedly the Sacrifice can bear no other displeasure than what it bears for him whose Sacrifice it is and for whom it is offered And canst thou hope guilty offenders may escape when guiltless victims are charged with another's guilt and suffer another's punishment 5. Who hath greater share in the Love of God had Christ thy Sacrifice for sin or hadst thou for whom he became a Sacrifice I know thou wilt not pretend a comparison with Christ the only begotten of the Father thou darest not think but his share was greater in his Fathers love as his love obedience and likeness to his Father was greater infinitely more excellent than thine was or could be Tell me then if God imputed sin to the Son of his Love when his Son had undertaken to bear the fault and punishment of offenders will he thinkest thou spare those who hate him and might justly be hated of him 6. Would God admit his Son his eternal Delight to be thy Saviour on no other terms than that he should as a Sacrifice take upon him and bear the sins of his people imputed to him that they might not be imputed unto them and dost thou not believe canst thou perswade thy self to imagine that thou mayest though a sinner yet not be charged with thy sin Dost thou not clearly discern that God will charge sin either on the sinner or on his Sacrifice In a word or two whoever knows that Christ was made a Sacrifice for sin knows also that they were under a state of sin for whom he was made a Sacrifice and if thou art a Christian and professest that Christ was thy Sacrifice thou dost thereby confess that thou wert under a state of sin that unless mercy toward
for future and doth for present sufficiently influence our Faith to quiet revive quicken and support the soul under fears languishings dulnesses and sufferings Go then aside and take a view of the particulars and meditate on them in the certainty which Christ suffering and dying our Sacrifice hath given to us concerning them and when thou hast so done observe well whether thou art not perswaded to believe in hope against hope and whether thou art not enabled to believe the Promises without staggering and to say thou faintest not because thy afflictions are light and yet do work out for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while thou art able to look to and see both him that is and the things that are invisible such a Faith will be our victory by it we shall more than conquer Having discoursed somewhat on the Improvement of our Divine sorrow and our Faith in the Commemoration of Christ Dying our Sacrifice I have made way for the Improvement of our Peace and Quiet of soul likewise 3d. Grace improved viz. Peace of Soul for this is a sweet fruit of our sound Repentance and sincere faith and carry's a proportioned dimension with the increase of those Graces But I purpose to attempt a more particular discovery of the influence Christ's Death our Sacrifice hath upon the Tranquillity and Peace of the soul of a Communicant who discerneth this Death as it was a Sacrifice and under that notion improveth his Redeemer's love to him Now if I can shew my Reader that there is in this Sacrifice somwhat sufficient to remove all that disquieteth the soul I need take no further care to perswade an opinion that Peace will follow Let the storm cease and a calm will follow if the Earthquake end the old Foundations will stand firm and well setled Let that be removed which alarmed the soul and all will be in Peace Amongst other lesser which I pass over there are four grand disquietudes of the soul 1. Danger of divine displeasure and wrath in condemnation for our sin The drawn sword of Divine vengeance hanging over the head is enough to affright all peace out of the heart and to fill it with amazing horrour and overwhelming terrours How did Adam's fears seize him when his sin had laid him open to that threat Thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 then his guilty conscience did chase Ea conscientia est quae filgat terret accusat damnat Parentes nostros Certissimum testimonium Deum tandem ultorem futurum omnis mali Fagius in cap. 3. Gen. 8. affright accuse condem him forebode a severer Judge and Avenger whom he could not escape or shun whom he could not stand before whom he feareth and flieth The Apostle elegantly expresseth the disquietude of a self-condemning heart by the trouble of bondage Heb. 2.15 The fear of death kept them in bondage all their life the expectation of death was death to them or ere they died and they scarce lived because they continually tortured themselves with the preapprehensions of a hastening death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot which to secure nature is the greatest of terrours though ignorance of what is consequent to death did hide the most dreadful part of death from the eyes of nature Psal 55.4 Psal 116.3 yet in David's phrase terrours of death will make the heart sigh under pain and fill it with trouble and sorrow too unless the heart be assured of the the removal of guilt the freedom from condemnation Joh. 8.21 24. Rev. 2.11 that the man dieth not in his sins nor shall be hurt of the second death No man's heart was strong under the apprehensions of the wrath of an Almighty and Eternal God nor can the greatest cheats of the world I mean hypocrites who can counterfeit almost every thing put on the counterfeit of boldness Isa 33.15 when they see the everlasting burnings and the devouring fire they are then surprized with fearfulness 2. Loss of the wonted sweetness of Divine favour and the refreshing expresses which God by his spirit did formerly give to the soul When once the soul hath been favoured with an acquaintance and knowledg of a Heaven upon earth it cannot without disquietude live on earth without it's Heaven Darkness cannot but greatly afflict the soul which enlightned once did rejoice in the light of God's Countenance shining on it What is said of the great darkness which fell on Abraham in his sleep Gen. 15.12 may be verified of all the desertions which fall upon the children of Abraham they are attended with horrour and trouble When God hid his face from David he was troubled Psal 30.5 and his soul refused to be comforted Psal 77.2 his spirit was overwhelmed ver 3. so troubled he could not speak ver 4. All which proceeded from the spiritual desertion he then lay under God hath cast off and he feared it was for ever ver 7. that he would be favourable no more c. verse 8 and 9. So that when David had lost the sense of God's love he could find peace or joy in nothing about him An Idolater once expostulated with a great deal of trouble you have taken away my Gods and do you ask what aileth me But whilst we deride or pity his blindness we should resent the real troubles of the soul which hath lost the sense of the Love of his God and Father and indulge him in a more than usual trouble for the suspence or intermission of his desired rest and peace wherein he found though imperfect yet a growing happiness and in David's words expressed his felicity He heard the joyful sound and walked in the light of God's countenance Psal 89.15 but now feareth his misery will recall his former happiness only to prove him as much sunk in woes as he was exalted in joys above other men Miserrimum est fuisse felicem this disquieteth the soul that it hath been what now it is not blessed 3. Sense of sinful weakness and suspition of worse insincerity and want of uprightness in its duties and the exercises of its Devotion towards God are a trouble to the soul in its reflections on its services and examination of it self it seeth sin adhere to every one of its best workes and it seeth imperfection still dwelling in its perfectest graces so that when he findeth to will yet how to perform he findeth not as Rom. 7.18 On which observation of his defects he judgeth himself in a miserable perplexity and under apprehensions hereof crieth out wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. ver 24. This worthlesness of persons and performances is the subject of the Church's complaints Isa 64.6 We are all as an unclean thing And our iniquities as the wind have taken us away iniquities saith David in his complaint prevail against me Psal 65.3 And elsewhere prayeth God would search him and try him and see whether there be any
is a matter of justice not to condemn a person for whom satisfaction hath been made and it is matter of mercy to acquit him through another's sufferings who stood condemned for his own offences or if we judge as fit we should that neither the justice or mercy of God will permit he should be condemned for whom Christ died a Sacrifice we can conclude no less from such a death than the absolution future acquittance of a Believer whose Sacrifice Christ died who hereby hath as Isa 43.4 born our griefs and carried our sorrows i. e. the punishment due to our sins for the which he hath suffered and made satisfaction Say the Generva Notes in loc yet what follows ver 5. is fuller Vt integrae essent res nostrae nobis bene esset c. placuit c. verbera plagas quas nos commeriti eramus filius susciperet c. Castigatione verberibus filii reconciliati sumus Patri efferbuit ira Patris Fozerius in loc He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed The strokes and blows which we deserved the Son took upon him to the end that our affairs being restor'd it might be well with us c. by the chastisement and stripes of the Son we are reconciled to the Father and the anger of the Father hath asswayed and ceas'd towards us Whoso can look with the eye of faith on Christ thus dying Chrîstus Dominus pro peccatis nostris dolore affectus est ergo peccata nostra deleta ergo ira Dei remisit conseditque ergo reconciliatus enim nobis ergo pax integritas salus omne bonum in nos dimanavit Fozerius may in the words of the late mentioned Commentatour triumph Christ the Lord was grieved for our sins therefore our sins are blotted out the wrath of God is appeased and ceaseth God is reconciled to us therefore peace restitution salvation and every good thing hath flowed in to us But one thing possibly may be suspected viz. Albeit such an atonement and reconciliation be made now yet may not wrath at last break forth in fury to the utter condemnation of the soul which now hath its pardon To this I shall answer by subjoyning 4. That Christ Died a Sacrifice which he himself offered through the Eternal Spirit to the end that he might purge our conscience from dead works that we might serve the Living God as Heb. 9.14 By which one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Which great Truth the Apostle confirmeth by an Argument drawn from the very letter of that Covenant which is confirmed in this Sacrifice according to which Covenant God promiseth remission of sins so ver 17. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin ver 18. The ground whereof is the perfect Reconciliation wrought for those to whom God doth grant remission of sin so that hence I may justifiably argue from the real expiation made at first to the perpetual continuation of it by the blood of this most perfect Sacrifice Let our Faith therefore be directed to fetch our absolution from guilt and condemnation let us ensure this to our selves through Christ dying our Sacrifice and take that comfort to our selves he hath by one offering for ever perfected them that are sanctified And he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Sect. 2. 2. The second Disquiet of the soul I mentioned was a fear lest it should lose the refreshing apprehensions and sweet enjoyments of the Divine Favour how much this would disturb the peace of the soul I am not here to discourse having said all I intended already on it But now it is my business to shew that Christ's Death as our Sacrifice is sufficient to prevent this fear or to secure unto the soul an enjoyment of the Divine Favour which I now attempt to shew 1. In that this Sacrifice duly apprehended by us doth very much abate of the ground of our fears of the withdrawing the Divine Favour from us Now the apprehension of the dread and terrour of spiritual desertions ariseth from our doubts that they are but precursory to a final and eternal displeasure that they are but the Primordia dolorum the beginnings of sorrows that the full measures will be at last for everlasting poured out upon the soul Oh this afflicts This Will God be gracious no more is the sword which wounds to the heart and whilst this fear abides on the soul it can take no rest Now see Christ our Sacrifice hath atoned vindictive displeasure reconciled us to God delivered us from wrath to come so that undoubtedly these present seasons of darkness are but seasons These sorrows may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Christ in the merit of his blood doth ever appear for me with God though God appear not to me now as of old yet I shall enjoy him 2. Christ Dying a Sacrifice for us hath now changed the nature of all our afflictions and turned them into wholsom corrections and into necessary exercises of our graces not onely our outward afflictions are so changed that there remaineth not any deadly poyson in them but our spiritual troubles among which this I speak of is to be accounted chief these are much more altered in their nature as indeed it was expedient they should for as they sink deeper into the soul and do more speedily seize the spirit and have an immediate influence on the soul so they would be of more dangerous consequence if they retained an unrebated poyson in them These would undo the soul whereas outward afflictions can approach to the soul but intermediately and being kept still about the outworks can only disquiet alarm cannot kill the soul nor its comforts Now we are beholden to the excellency of this Sacrifice for this By this sacrifice our afflictions are rendered only corrections whatever is vindictive and which the soul cannot beare is derived upon our Sacrifice being hereby secured from wrath For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 The Apostle argueth from our reconciliation once effected unto our salvation in due time to be accomplisht And happy they who have Christ once dying a Sacrifice to make their peace but ever living a merciful and a faithful High Priest to maintain their peace with God Such he is to all for whom he is a Sacrifice 3. In midst of spiritual desertions Christ our Sacrifice preserveth inviolate the state of our peace though we have not the sense and sweetness of that peace The Covenant of peace between God and the soul standeth unaltered still and this in the vertue of this blood of Christ our
see then our duties are compared to incense and if the native scent of our duties cannot be pleasing to God yet the superadded sweetness of Christ's incense will render them very acceptable to our God though their savour be unpleasing which ascends with them out of our hands yet the savour which they carry with them ascending from the golden Altar doth delight the Lord do not give way then to discouraging fears that imperfect duties and unsavoury offerings will estrange God from thee God hath removed this fear also the Sacrifice of Christ will perfume thy Sacrifices which now become acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.4 3. Thirdly That there may remain no scruple or fear beside what he doth reconciling our persons to God and ennobling our Dutyes through the excellency of this Sacrifice he hath by the same Sacrifice made an atonement or expiation for the sinful defects of all the duties of Believers Although it is true so many culpable defects adhere to our duties that God might in the strict examination of them justly reject them yet he will not impute these defects to the persons nor for them reject the duties of his Saints because in Christ's Sacrifice he hath received an atonement and will pardon those defects an atonement and will pardon those defects to his children Let us then hold fast our profession of particular hope and delight in duties as of the general Doctrine of the Gosple Seeing we have a great High Priest who is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Now the Apostle presents us with Chrst as having Sacrificed and with the blood of that Sacrifice entring into Heavens i. e. to intercede for us in the vertue of that excellent Sacrifice so that we may well take boldness to draw unto God with hope that neither unworthiness of persons nor the worthlesness of duties shall ever be able to divert divine acceptance seeing that if the intercession of a High Priest of a Great High Priest in the Heavens in the presence of God if the intercession of Jesus the Son of God can prevail for the removeal of whatever might possibly impede our acceptation both we and our obedience shall be acceped In sum art thou a believer dost thou by faith commemorate the death of Christ thy Sacrifice dost thou believe there is vertue and worth in this Sacrifice how much vertue thinkest thou in it certainly either there is enough to reconcile thy person to recommend thy services to pardon thy sins or else Christ died in vain for as good not at all as not to purpose will be verified in this case he died a Sacrifice that he might bring these to good effect viz. That we might be reconciled that our duties might be a sweet smelling Sacrifice that our sins also might be pardoned which either are attained by the vertue of this Sacrifice or else Christ doth not attaine his purposes of love towards true believers which who but an infidel dares to surmise Sect. 4. 4. The fourth and last disquietude of the believing soul I mentioned to be the return of his doubts and fears lest God should with-hold the most desirable mercies and comsorts of this present state and hide good things from him who hath forfeited them all Many are the fears of those who shall never be condemned who have enjoy'd the light of God's countenance who are perswaded God accepteth their persons and duties also unto all the purposes of rewarding them hereafter who yet are apt to sear overmuch the stroakes of a smart rod here or the darkness of this present condition Now the Sacrifice of Christ well considered would remove all such fears and perplexing jealousies for 1. This Sacrifice removing sin removeth what would hide good things from us When the blood of this Sacrifice hath effected our reconciliation God will not think any mercy too good or great for us He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things also Rom. 8.32 Facilius enim dare amicis factis quam adbuc hostibus facilius omne quam filium dare Grot. in loc It is easier to conceive he should give to us made his friends then when we were enemies and it is easier to give every thing then to give a Son On a just stating matters it will appear that the Sacrifice of Christ removing guilt removeth the ground of all perplexing tormentful fears of what nature soever I do not say it removeth them actually I know the contrary by observation But I say there is no justifiable ground for such wracking fears of future occurrences in our life for the Believer hath through this Sacrifice a Covenant of Promises 2 Cor. 1.20 with 1 Tim. 4.8 both of this life as of that to come ratified and confirmed to him 2. This Sacrifice gives the believer a justifiable title to every mercy whether temporal or spiritual that he is capable of receiving and enjoying with safety and good to himself as with gloty to God and if any one particular mercy notwithstanding the believers desire of it and earnest labour after it be with-holden it is because his weak foresight and small scantling of wisdom cannot discern what the All-seeing Eye of God doth see and what his Infinite Wisdom knows viz. that it is fittest for the present to with-hold that particular desired mercy and to reserve it unto a season wherein it will be a choicer mercy and more advantageous Now a small measure of patience might quiet the heart in the absence of such blessings if the man would reflect upon his condition so well setled by Christ his Sacrifice that he hath by this a title to every good and that the time and the manner of entring on the possession of this good is assigned by the Lord in greatest love to us that we should not by our haste snatch an unseasonable blessing nor by our sloth lose a seasonable mercy It cannot enter my thoughts what may pacifie the soul dispel murmuring discontents and prevent perplexing fears if these will not viz. Christ by his Sacrifice hath reconciled me to the Eternal God and wrought me into such favour with God that he hath made over himself to me to be mine for ever and he hath assigned me with his Elect a portion in his alsufficiency and because I know not what measure and what season is fittest for me he doth employ his own Wisdom to determine both so that I know he hath love enough to give more if his Wisdom saw it not greatest love to give but so much 3. The hovering fears and doubts from uncertainties whether we shall enjoy our desired mercies for this present state might be scattered did we consider that this Sacrifice of Christ was not only expiatory of guilt but also a Peace-Offering In which kind of Sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portio Domino Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portio
vast estate of which he had the absolute disposal He was Lord of Heaven and Earth and could give what ever he pleased of the one or other unto his peculiar people It is true he acquired a new title and right by his death but it is as true that he had an unquestionable title and right to all both the Glory of Heaven with the grace that prepares and fits for it and to the goods of the Earth with power to give to best pleased him He did veil his glory and in the daies of his flesh forewent the exercise of that glorious royalty which was his due equally with his Father but he never did disseize or dispossess himself of that inheritance which by the right of eternal generation from the Father and which by the right of creation jointly with the Father he was and will be still seized and possessed of thus the Heavens were his the Earth also Heb. 1.2 He was heir of all things Now could it be likely or indeed imaginable that so great an heir seized of such an estate should die and not dipose of it had it not been wisedom to dispose of it to some or other if he had had no dependances that needed it the worth of the estate would have advised this if the indigency and want of the kindred had not perswaded to it But Indeed Sect. 2. 2. This great heir had a very great kindred and alliance Psal 2.8 who were even poor enough for the greatness of his kindred they were scattered over all the earth Rom. 15.11 Psal 110.3 Rev. 7.9 Heb. 11.12 he hath some of all Nations they were as the dew from the womb of the morning an innumerable company which no man could number as the sand on the sea shore so was his kindred to be And as they were many Rev. 3.17 so likewise were they exceeding poor they wanted much for they had by prodigality spent all they had wasted their goods God gave them a good portion did set them up bravely furnished but all was gone unless a little which the mercy of their Creditor spared to them to live upon There was a Judgment taken out only mercy forbore the Execution Now could such a mulof poor needy kindred be forgotten and neglected think you by such a Dying Friend and how should he have shewed himself of the kindred but by giving them legacies at his death If their unworthy deportment was such as would disengage any other yet it could not disengage him who would do what best became his affection not what best suited with their deserts Take therefore this farther into consideration Sect. 3. 3. That this great Heir had a most hearty and unparallel'd affection of pity and love for all his poor kindred He loved them with a love greater than the love of women he did bear the love of a friend a father of a husband his love to his was so great none could have greater for it was that caused him to die for them Now having thus loved his own he loved them to the end and love hath a good memory it will not easily forget I am sure Christ did neither abate of his love nor forget them he loved which perswadeth me to conclude that this great Heir so dearly loving his poor kindred would certainly provide for them and leave a Will or Testament behind him which they should all be the better for which I the rather incline to believe he would do because Sect. 4. 4. His poor kindred needed some such due lawful and valid Act or Deed to convey his estate unto them For Christ knew and he hath given us to know that we were not his Heirs at Law nor could we have claimed or recovered any part of it by the Law we had lost all our right made forfeiture of all we once were possessed of and God the great Governour and Lord of all had as we know Kings sometimes do given all the estate of the condemned Traitors to his Son and by especial gift had estated him in it Ask of me Psal 2. and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in him Our sin was our death and cut off all our claim and title to every desirable good Peccatum abolevit Naturalem eam communionem quae Creaturam cum Creatore consociabat Thes Salm. de trib Foeder sect 33. Sin abolished that Natural Communion which joined the Creature in friendship with the Creatour as the Learned Professors of Saumur observe And God hath set forth this emblematically in the dispossessing and ejecting Adam out of Paradise Whatever God bestow's now he bestow's it in and through Christ with him he giveth all things also This being the case of Christ's poor friends what more likely way of befriending them than by Will what surer way than by ordaining his last Will and Testament since they had no title by Law preceding his gift nor could they have any title any other way He gave it therefore by Will that it might be sure to come to them Sect. 5. 5. This great Heir died in perfect memory and with wisedom that excelled the measures of the wisest men who set and keep their houses in order he died not as some men do of a disease that should disable him to ordain his last Testament but was his own man unto the last he manifested this in his care of his mother his charity towards the sinful murtherers for whom he prayed c. I would add more proofs but that it would wrong your Christianity and call that into question He is not worthy the name of a Christian that is so much a stranger to the Death of Christ In a word he as well knew his friends needed he should give to them as he knew his enemies needed he should forgive them as he did in pity pray for the one so he did in love and care provide for the other And dying friends usually do provide in their last Will or Testament especially if they have what Christ had Sect. 6. 6. Time enough to dispose of his estate Some wise men leave their friends whom they dearly loved ill provided because the surprize and suddenness of death preventeth them But our Lord this great Heir of all things could not be surprized he knew when his hour was how it approached he knew all that concerned others he knew what was in Man and therefore could not but know all that concerned himself and his Death Out of all which circumstances I do adventure to conclude That Christ did before his Death ordain his last Will and Testament and in it provide for his poor kindred out of that vast estate which he was seized of which he possessed and inherited in the right of his infinitely Excellent Nature his Primogeniture his Powerful Creation and the Donation of his Father when Man
a perpetual thanksgiveing to Christ but a Sacrament is the solemne day of Thanksgiving which Christ hath appointed He did find the Jews keeping the Passeover so he hath ordained the Christian Feast of his supper in the stead thereof and so to be kept the Apostle tells us that he received of the Lord what he delivered to his Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.16 and he delivered unto them this cup of Blessing this minds you of the greatest gift God could give and must not be lookt on without your heart in your eye Go too then think as you can of him who hath made you heirs by his will speak of it as you can Inusitatâ incognitâ quadam felicitate I mistake if you do not think say this came to pass by an unusual and wonderful happiness as the Historian said of that will which made the people of Rome heir to a Kingdome Be you as just to the Remembrance of your Lord and shew it in your thankfulness 4. Fourthly Another great End of the Sacrament and which Christ intended in appointing Coena in eum finem comparata est ut sit communioris charitatis Christianonum vinculum inter ipsos Th. Thalm. de usu coen Dom. dis 1. sect 42. it was that union and communion might be preserved and continued among Believers It doth therefore bear the name of a Communion and Christ hath prepared this Spiritual Feast to keep up spiritual friendship Christ would have but one Table for Believers that Believers might have but one heart for each other Christ hath put them all together at his table that they might keep all together in love and be but one Mark well with what text the Apostle urgeth this Union and Communion among Saints 1 Cor. 10.17 We being many are one body for we all partake of one bread But now alas that is made a cause of contention and separation which was appointed a means of union and Christian friendship of which I might justly complain were this fit time and place But I conclude this in the words of the Learned Professours Sacra Synaxis est dilectionis fidelium inter se contesseratio quaedam P P. Salmur de usu neces coen Dom. Disp 1. Sect. 42. The holy Communion is a certain signal mark of the love of the faithful one to another Now I say the last Will of Christ dying a Testator conduceth unto this and therefore the meditations of Christ dying a Testator will suit with the Sacrament and do well become a Communicant View but a while oh ye quarrelling Believers how you have all one common great friend ought you not be one in him Have you not all one title and may you overthrow your Brother's hope without overthrowing your own are all men careful to preserve unity whose welfare is endangered by discord and will you be less than men In one word Christ hath put you all into his own Will and made you Legatees Joint-heirs how well doth one Will become them who are thus one in the Will of Christ oh divide not in your wills and affections you are undivided in the Will of Christ suit your considerate thoughts to the blessed ends your Dear and Dying Lord intended to promote enlarge your thoughts on the particular considerations and respects in which he died draw down these respects unto the several graces and duties which they will awaken and strengthen and I hope in a Sacrament you shall find your Profession and Faith confirmed your Affections enlivened your Thankfulness enlarged your Union and Communion with Saints strengthened and secured by a due application of your meditations to the Death of Christ dying a Testator and so will find by experience what I have said that these thoughts well suit a Sacrament because they well suit the ends of the Sacrament CAP. III. Christ's Testament Influenceth our Graces I Am now to treat my Reader with the entertainment of his thoughts on the third proposal which pretends to make it appear that due considerations of Christ's dying a Testator making his will and comprising all his friends in it may improve the growth of grace such reflections on this kind of death do well comport to the communion they do also well advance the graces of the communicant they do befit the solemnity they benefit the solemnizer which I shall attempt to illustrate and prove in the genetal by these following arguments Sect. 1. 1. First 1 Argument That which awakens the soul to a diligent search and enquiry into the word and into its own state will advance the growth of grace Grace is of such a nature it growes best when most searcht as health by medicines which penetrate the secretest places of the disease and expel the most hidden hurtful humours our spiritual Balm healeth best when self-examination openeth our wounds and maketh way that the Balm may sink and soak to the bottom Now the consideration of Christ dying a Testator and making his Will or Testament will awaken us to such a search enquiry It is almost natural to us when our rich friends dye to enquire what Will they made and who are remembred and what they are remembred in especialy when they hear that all the kindred and all the friends are remembered in the Will and have somewhat given them upon this the considerate Christian begins his search of these two things at least 1. The last Will of Christ which is contained in and to be gathered out of his word And next He 2. Searcheth his own Pretences to the Friendship and Kindred of Christ for the word assures him that the Lord Christ hath bequeath'd all to his Brethern and Friends Hence 3. A Third thing is concluded by the considerate Christian viz. The strengthning his alliance to Christ and making it more firm and sure which is most effectually and only done by adding grace to grace and bringing forth fruits of grace thus will this search occasioned by this Death of Christ improve grace Sect. 2. 2. That which answers the doubts and which removes the disquieting fears of the gracious soul doth improve grace in the soul Doubts are the souls earth-quakes which shake the foundations and weaken the superstructure these doubts once well removed and these fears once well blown over the soul resteth on a good strong solid foundation and all that is laid upon it standeth the faster and steadier These disquieting fears are Languores animae The consumptive decaies of weak grace let these be taken away and grace recovers to a healthful vigorous and strong habit they are part of that spirit of bondage which attends a weaker and less grown grace and as these fears are dispelled and the prevalence of the spirit of bondage abateth so the Pharrhesia that boldness and child-like confidence of grown grace increaseth with an increasing measure of the spirit of Adoption from which springeth an universal increase of grace Atque
were it all to be done over again Now this doth add new evidence of the certainty of the Promise and ought to add new degrees of strength to our Faith How sure must those Promises be which are the Promises of one unchangable and who repenteth nothing which he hath spoken Away then with unbelief and doubts banish them all from thy soul If thou wouldst but love thy Lord in truth of heart if thou grievest for thy deadness and non-proficiency if thou strivest to walk more worthy of thy relation unto Christ and of his love to thee be not too much dejected Thy Lord foresaw this and hath provided a pardon for and help against it and notwithstanding all the baseness thou confessest and bewailest in thy self Christ would make the same VVill if he were to make it anew and give thee as much as he hath done Raise up thy Faith therefore and at the Sacrament be think thy self Here are the Promises reduced to the form of a last VVill that they might be sure and they are so disposed by my Lord who foresaw all that can discourage me and who would not change any thing were all to be new done Surely he intends as he speaketh is in very good earnest he will perform that at last which he would not change or alter in the least Oh then I must perswade my self it is all truth which is in these Promises and I should believe them more stedfastly if I did understand them more clearly None can have such equal ground of believing his friend none shall equal me in believing Christ my friend and Lord. 6. Lastly let it be considered for ensuring the promises they are the legacies of one who is sole and supreme judge of all pleas and causes which can arise concerning our Right and Title to them Symbol Nicen. John 5.25 We believe that he shall come to be our Judge is an article of our faith and the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son having appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 who was adjudged by man unto death died and was buried but rose again and shall come to judge Quick and Dead whose sentence shall stand for ever good so he hath a Prerogative Royall peculiar to himself for others last wills are by other men decided if any thing of controversy arise concerning them No man is judge in the case and plea of right between those he hath made joint Legatees but one is the Testator and dieth another is the Judge and interpreter of the Testament whence it doth not seldom fall out that the Legatees are defeated of their right and lose the gift of their Friend and the mind of the Testator is not fulfilled because it is either not understood by the judge or because it must not be understood although indeed it is well enough known this therefore leaves some uncertainty in a man's claim and the event upon trial is sometime a disappointment But here is no such uncertainty in the event for he is Judge who is Testator and he is to declare his own mind of whom we expect the gift and who certainly doth well understand his own mind Besides in expecting and claiming the Legatee shall assuredly have all the favour shewed him that hee needeth It is a rule in law that wills should be interpreted in the more favourable sense That love which was so great to give the Legacy will be great enough to adjudge it to the Legatee Moreover it is not possible that a case should arise between the Legatees of Christ wherein the one should gain and the other lose for such are the gifts of Christ that they are intire and whole to each one none hath the less for any ones having much so the controversy shall never be but between the soul and its unbeleif fears and doubts between the soul and Satan accusing and impleading it And in this case Christ being Judge of his own Will you may soon say what favourable gracious and merciful judgement he will give and how surely he will adjudge their title good whose faith love and desires sue for it to him Awaken thy self then and look on what sure ground thou standest who hast Promises so full of certainty and unchangeable truth Let thy soul admit no more unbelief than the Promises confirmed by Christ framing them into his last VVill and Testament do admit uncertainty Let not unbelief enter until thou seest uncertainty attend thine expectation from the Will of Christ Reason with thy soul propose the case to thy serious thoughts At a Sacrament I do remember the Death of my Lord Dying and making his VVill wherein is given to me all that which the Sacrament representeth to me remission of sin peace in believing strength to walk with God and after my drinking this wine with his people at his Table Luke 22. The drinking it new with him in his Father's Kingdom This Ordinance is as all other Ordinances of Christ are exceeding full of grace for every one that heartily willeth it and this fulness of grace is bequeathed by VVill this VVill valid and to be judged if any case arise by him who made it Come then Will Christ think you enervate his own Will Can it be imagined that he will not see it performed who lives to be his own Executor who would make no other if he were now to die and make his VVill again Fear not oh believing soul thy claim will be adjudged good doubt not thy Plea of right he is Judge who gave thee the right stagger not through unbeleef He did designedly give thee all assurance possible not to prevent any unfaithfulness in himself but to prevent all infidelity in thee Not to confirm his own word by any new arguments or new bonds which might be sure to hold if others did break for his word and promise is faithfullness and truth but to confirm thy faith and that if unbeleef broke through some yet it might not break through others if it did prevail with the soul against any one it might not prevail against every one of the encouragements and perswasives to believe Weigh well the certainty of those promises which are confirmed by the last will of such I say of such a Testator who changeth not who cannot be overruled by any superiour Judge and then say how great your perswasion of the truth of them should be It should be great faith that hath such great assurance and strong perswasion which hath such perswasives Oh that our faith were porportioned to the ground of faith laid down before us in this very matter there can be no colour of doubt where these grounds and perwasives of our belief are rationally considered Bring therefore to the Sacrament an extract of the promises set them in order before your eyes see them all summarily contained in that one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 22.20 This is
to the soul For they are desires fixed upon a good which is in some degree already enjoyed Christ and his benefits are ever enjoyed whilest sincerely desired These messengers of the soul seeking for Christ are sent by Christ himself who is with the soul much as he was incognito with the Disciples before he made himself known in breaking of bread The soul desireth Christ absent but these desires are raised in the soul by Christ present And as a Friend in a disguise sometime visits and feasteth with his Friend cheering and comforting him and minding him of his absent Friend and raising wishes and desires after him as absent who indeed is present with him and entertaineth him so doth our blessed Lord satisfy the desires of them that love him and that long for him He is enriched by Christ who truly desireth the riches of Christ These the advantages of the Christians desires oh then let out thy desires fear not to set thy soul in a longing fit for Christ whilst thou longest thou shalt enjoy and ere long thou shalt see how much thou hadst of him all that time wherein thou thoughtest thou hadst no more of him than an empty desire or hungring wish for him thy desires are like the Mariners approaches to the spicy Islands the sweet and delicate odours assure them they are not far off and delight them untill they set foot upon the shore so Christ assures and delights the desirous soul so Christ sends abroad the sweet perfumes of grace and glory These refresh the soul untill its arrival where it shall live upon full satisfactions which is a 3. Third excellency in which the believers desires after these Legacies of Christ do exceed all the best desires of other men who must ever write over them lesse in hand than in Hope Minuit praesentia famam the believer on the contrary must write this as the motto of his possessed desires great in Hope greater far in hand or as the Queen of Sheba said in another case 1 King 10.8 It was a true report which I heard in my own land but the one half of their glory was not told me These things which draw out the desires of other men are like the Apples of Sodom beautiful and please the eâ—e at distance but they moulder into ashes when the hand gathers them and they who feed on them feed on ashes Such are honours such are pleasures such are the riches of this world and of men of this world fully uncertain when we purpose to seek them fully vexatious whilst we are seeking them fullest of torment and disappointment when they are grasped and possessed yet our desires after them are passionate and earnest our contrivances to obtain them are solicitous and secret our pursuit vigorous and unwearied But Christian here is honour a crown bequeathed here is joy an eternal feast on the fruit of the true vine in the Kingdom of thy heavenly Father here are treasures bequeath'd an inheritance a Kingdom and all proposed to thy desires with transcendent advantages they are certain that thou mayest pursue them with Hope they do refresh whilest thou art pursuing that thou mayest not languish and faint they satisfy fully and eternally that thou mayest never repent thy labour Look on these and let them have but as much of thy desire as there is of desireableness in them above all other things and then I am sure thou wilt desire them above all and rest in them after all Awake Awake oh my soul and before thou make thy approach to the Lord's table look over the last Will and Testament of Christ thy Lord see there is pardoning mercy to take away death which is the desert of sin there is purifying mercy to take away the filth of sin to dry up the poisonous fountain of sin there is pacifying mercy to take away inward distracting troubles there is interceding mercy to procure acceptance of all the good thou dost there is preserving mercy to keep thee from falling away and perishing there is crowning mercy to encourage thy expectations and satisfy thy best and largest desires In a word here is Christ's Spirit his Righteousness his Kingdom with eternal life given by Will and last Testament and all these tendered to thee as Christ's Minister tenders the body and blood of Christ to thee all these things are delivered to thee in the copy of Christ's will sealed unto thee at the Sacrament and thy desires are now expected Good things and possible yea certain and ensured to thee if thou wilt but heartily desire them Awake therefore a sincere wish a strong longing after them that they might statisfy thee All these are thine if thou wilt be Christ's oh then desire he would unite thee to himself that thou may'st be one among them that are one with Christ these shall be heirs to these great things these must be of Christ's kindred and alliance this alliance is not by natural consanguinity it is by a foederal covenant Union and this Union is effected by us for our part by willingness and desire say then art thou willing to lose and miss these great things or dost thou think them unworthy of thy desire or rather dost thou not wish thou couldest desire them dost thou not feel thy heart kindly bubling forth such affectionate desires as these after Christ oh that I were of that happy family which are so blessed with Christ oh that my name were written in the will oh that there were a blank where I might secretly or openly write mine own name there then I would as Jacob yet without offence steal a blessing oh that there were some would shew me how I might imbody my self with this houshold and kindred why now if such desires stir behold here is a short but a sure method Longings and desires after nearer Vnion and closer conjunction with Christ heary desires of communion with Christ will do this great work and ensure this exceeding rich blessing to thee Blessed are they who thus hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfyed Thus renewed meditations on the common in centives of desires and renewed meditations on the peculiar and extraordinary incentives of our desires in likely-hood can do no less than increase our desires after this most desireable Union to Christ CAP. V. Sect. 4. Love and esteem of Christ Improved by his Dying a Testator A Fourth Grace improveable by the meditation of Christ's Death as such a loving and bountiful Legator Love and Esteem of Christ 4th Sacramental Grace improved is love and high esteem of his person and concernment There are some graces which may be better spared in part or in whole others that are more needful for a communicant at the Lord's table joy in believing may be little perhaps none yet the soul not unfit for the Sacrament But the grace of love to Christ with an high esteem of the person and concernments of Christ is so needful
enriching us it doth exceedingly enhance our worth honour we therefore are highly obliged to contend for his honour we rightly judge the son bound to plead the honour of his dying Father and we do as rightly judge the Christian much more bound to plead the honour of his dying Lord whose Testament hath made him a Son and gave him a share both in the honour and wealth of the family 2. In the last Will of our Dying Lord we read his Zeal and strength of affection for our peace our comfort our safety and our happiness all which falleth to the ground and vanisheth if the Legacies of our Lord fail us we had need therefore with Zeal contend for his honour not as though our plea would in any thing ratify or confirm for as we cannot give so neither needs he to derive ought of his authority from us he hath received all power from his Father But yet after the manner of men be it spoken we are bound to assert and defend the glory of his authority and power of disposing and bequeathing to us and to others whatsoever he hath by Will and Testamentary disposition left to us and to them If he had given what was not his to give we must either soon have parted with it or for ever have missed of it but herein lieth our advantage and comfort that the large Legacies of our Lord to us are as the fruit of so much Zealous love for us so they are the Acts of Soveraign power delegated to Christ by the Father as our Lord himself intimateth to us Luk. 22.29 As the Father hath appointed unto me so I appoint a Kingdom unto you Our Zeal then for the honour of Christ doth as well maintain our hope comfort and interess as it doth maintain his authority and what man would suffer the power to be nulled which gave him a rich and inestimable Legacy 3. The least degree of good bequeathed to us by the Will of our Testator in his will remembred by us in the Lords supper doth greatly surpass all the Zeal we can bear to his glory and honour read over his will and see there is justification in his blood shed for remission of sin assurance of peace with God secured by the frequent remembrance of the blood of sprinkling Sanctification consolation and future glory all these promised by him who being Mediator of the Covenant hath reduced the whole to the form of a Testamentary disposition and confirmed it by his death Now when thou art going to a Sacrament consider and judge with thy self should I not be very Zealous for his honour who hath given many inestimable gifts to me am I not less than the least of grace bequeathed is not remission of my sin greater love than my love can requite is not Hope of glory greater than mine obedience can ever equall shall I then ever think I have affection enough or have done enough for his honour by whom I have received what I have already by whom I shall receive what I hereafter expect No! No! I must be ever blowing my love into a greater flame of Zeal for his honour and yet his love and Zeal for me will outshine and overpower all mine for him 4. View the Will of thy Testator be perswaded to remember that he is now living in glory and beholdeth all that Love and Zeal which thou carriest in thy breast which thou expressest in thy life toward him he is not like other men who dying know no more of the deportment and behaviour of befriended survivours thou canst not bury the knowledge for dust hath not blinded the eye of the Lord he lives for ever and he knows how thou receivest improvest and resentest his Love and Zeal for thy good and with what face wilt thou appear before him one day if thou hast not been hired shall I say or bought with so great price into the love of and into a Zeal for thy beneficent liberal and incomparable Friend and Lord I observe Jacob dying recommended the care of his burial to Joseph above all his sons it was likely because cause Joseph more than any of his sons was debtor to the love and care of his Father for a double portion bestowed on him of all men we who have a double portion by Christ a portion of blessings on earth and in Heaven should zealously perform his will we must account it sacredly inviolable and shew it in shewing forth his praises 1 Pet. 2.9 CAP. V. Sect. 6. Joy Improved on Christ Dying a Testator A Sixth grace well suiting the Lord's supper 6th Sacramental grace Improvable Joy and Improveable on account of the Lord 's Dying a Testator is joy and gladness in the Lord and in his goodness It is confessed by all that it well suiteth with feasts of love that the guests should joy together and rejoice in their Friend who is equally Friend unto them all The soul which cometh burthened with sins and sorrows confesseth he should rejoice in the Lord and is well pleased that others do it whilst he cannot it is a spiritual joy which well becometh this spiriritual feast I do not say the heart is unfit for it who doth not rejoice I know the spiritual hunger and thirst of the soul speaketh the soul fit and such may such indeed ought to come yet when hunger and thirst after the Lord are accompanied with joy in the Lord the soul is better is more throughly prepared for this feast this commemoration of their Dying Lord. Now the Christian's joy beside the general motives of joy arising from the general nature of the object of delight and joy as goodness in the thing enjoyd propriety whereby it becomes ours and possession or presence of it with us according to our present capacity and exigency whether refreshing repairing or filling us or in what other manner of operation it affecteth in which the Christian joy and the delight of other men do agree The spiritual joy of the Christian hath great advantages from the last Will and Testament of his Lord As 1. First the transcendency of them If there were any blessings better than others in the possession and at the disposal of their Lord surely these should be given among the beloved Friends Servants attenders complemental visiters and such like common Friends possibly may be put off with common gifts but the best shall be distributed unto the best Friends A Kingdom in glory the spirit of Adoption remision of sins increase of all grace and consolations through faith c. are the choice blessings bequeathed to believers in Christ's Will and represented ensured and in praelibations or foretast conveyed to believers in the right reception of the Lord's Supper let it be therefore throughly considered and when either of those forecited mercies appear contained in his Will ask your selves whether the least of these do not deserve the highest pitch of your joy are they not better worth your delight than
all the worldling can delight in how much do spiritual mercies excel temporal how far do Heavenly priviledges excel earthly so much certainly may the joy of believers in their Lord excel the joy of carnal men for whilest the common bounty of a Dying Lord gives sensible outward and temporal good to mankind the special grace and love of their Dying Lord and Saviour giveth believers all spiritual mercies in heavenly things Oh my soul believest thou there is love enough in the good will of Christ to make thee a Legatee and dost thou not believe there was treasure enough in the hand of Christ to make thy Legacy worth thy delights and joy 2. Look over the rich gifts of thy Lord and say my propriety and title to all is as sure as they are needfull There is nothing can pretend to equal them in either of these two necessary and certain and therefore no joy can be warrantably equall with the joy of a believer what ever our eye seeth here among the visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temporary and every one of them can make themselves wings swift enough to fly out of our reach but what Christ hath bequeathed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the invisible things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal in his hand who can hold them and in his right whosoever enjoyeth them shall never lose them Look then on thy title and tenure in that title and right thy Lord had to what he gave thee and then as thou mayst laugh with scorn and derision at the impleadings of any of thy spiritual adversaries so thou wilt surely laugh with delight and joy in the love of thy Lord and in thy inviolable propriety to every good thing he hath bequeathed Fox Act. and Monu An. 1553. Entring of Qu. Mary The will of a man may possibly be evacuated and the Legacy lost I know a Kingdom was once bequeathed by Will which did the Legatee no more service than to hasten the possession of what Christ hath given which could not be lost though the other was with the life which by a Royal will should have enjoyd it Such uncertainty and hazads attend other Legacies those Christ gives are sure No man shall take your joy from you Joh. 16.22 The object of such joy will well justify the greatness of it 't is a delight none can imbitter 3. Note well the present possession of these gifts and Legacies This will enhance thy joyes No man can rationally rejoice in any thing which is not somewhat present to his Hopes or to his hand either the object of our delights must be in actual possession or else ensured to us in reversion Now in the actual possession of these good things given and bequeathed to us there is somewhat that excels the manner of possessing all other goods As 1. Other goods are present under a Law of mutability and change to the worse these shall only change to the better 2. Other goods are possessed with anxious cares lest they should and with tormenting fears that they will fail us at our need But the Legacies our Lord hath given are possessed with assurance that they shall best bestead us when we most need them 3. Other goods present do but satisfy our sensitive appetite or flatter the errours of our deceived reason these satisfy the necessary desires of a rightly informed mind and will 4. Other goods present do often cloy over-load impair and weaken the possessors of them as we see it too often in voluptuous persons that are wearied with and wasted by their own delights the goods bequeathed by Christ are never burthensome in their presence possession or use Thou then who seest thy Lord's bounty and who tastest the sweetness of the present possessed goods with these advantages over and above all the enjoyments of the worldling enjoyn thy self to rejoice more abundantly in that thou dost so much enjoy it is warrantable thou shouldst excell them in thy affection whom thou excellest in thy possession 5. Other goods are evermore lessened by their presence and enjoyment flowers the sweetest and beautifullest do insensibly waste their sweetness is still expiring until all be gone their beauty fadeth till they shrivel into uncomeliness Not so here for we do or might daily draw out more sweetness discern more beauty and find greater satisfaction in these excellent things bequeathed to us by our Lord. The more we are acquainted with them the more we desire delight in and are satisfied with them they grow upon us in the use continuance and search after them what thou hast of them is a pledg of more thou shalt have view then these particulars and thy judgment will determine That the excelling worth of the things the excellency of thy tenure and right the excellency of the presence and approximation of them with immutability security satisfaction renewed sweetness and growing content do call aloud for an excelling degree of joy and delight in them CAP. V. Sect. 7. Gratitude Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator 7. THE Seventh Sacramental grace I mentioned is Gratitude and thankful returnes to the memory of our Dying Lord. In this point I labour not for a proof it is confessedly owned by all who own any thing of the excellency continued usefulness and efficacy of the Sacrament It is the Eucharist and very unfitly named if thankfulness be not required to fit us for it 'T were strange if the generality of Christians should mistake in a practical point of such daily occurrence It succeeded in the room of a Sacrament which required high measures of Gratitude and it is the standing memorial of the greatest benefit obtained for us it is a standing pledge of our greatest expectation viz. Of the blessed Hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour for herein we shew forth his death until he come It becometh us to be thankful but why so particularly to Christ a Testator what is in that more than ordinary or if you shew not more than ordinary incentives to thankfulness yet what particular sufficient juducements are there to this in Christ's Dying a Testator to confirme his last Will 1. Look see what he hath as a Testator done for you and me He hath bequeathed to us a participation with himself in every excellent thing we needed or are capable of He hath conveyed to us by his last will pardon and justification through his Death and obedience He hath conveyed Sanctification and purifying grace through the spirit which he poureth out upon us since he died and rose again ascended and sitteth on the right hand of the Father He hath conveied consolation and joy through the spirit of Adoption and will give the possession of that inheritance of glory which as yet is reserved for us in Heaven and which is duely ensured to us in the Sacrament In one word the whole Covenant of grace framed into a Testament is confirmed by
he will farther proceed These being but the beginnings of sorrows are a part of the Curse issuing from the Law and inflicted by one who hath power to fence his Law by them Thus Christ exposed himself to the sad consequences of our imputed guilt and being pleased to interrpose himself between us and the praevious penalties of our sin was made a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs whilst he did bear our griefs and carry our sorrows Isa 53.3 4. The oppression and injustice he did meet with from the world was a fruit of that Curse he was made for us These things did he suffer in life whose love to us brought him to bear the Curse 3. Thirdly Christ made a Curse for us compriseth the exquisite pains and open shame of his Death for our sin It is death which is most legibly the execution of the Curse of the Law on sinners and as then they find themselves accursed indeed when their own guilt hath in death overtaken them so he that made himself a Curse for them found in his death on the Cross the weight of that Curse which he did bear for sinners Therefore do I suppose it was by Divine Providence ordered that the kind of death Christ did undergo should be in the sentence of the Law an accursed death that we might more clearly discern the import of it and see as our deliverance by it so our danger without this death of Christ He was cut off from the land of the living Isa 53.8 And when this was effected it appeared that for the transgression of his people this stroke was upon him as that verse hath it Though the impenitent sinner be alwaies under the smaller measures of a Curse yet when he dieth Solomon observeth he dieth accursed The sufferings our Lord Jesus Christ underwent in his life were likewise the scattering drops But the black and violent showre of our deserved Curse was poured down on him at his Death Fourthly and lastly Christ made a Curse and in death bearing it was to suffer under the strokes of vindictive Justice pleading the cause and vindicating the honour of the Law and Law-giver which by the transgressions of sinners had been contemned and violated This as hath been observed already is one ingredient in the Curse and herein do chastlsements greatly differ from punishments strictly taken for in chastisements there is no vindictive justice avenging the quarrel in order to satisfie Divine Justice to attone the wrath of God it is all in order to the humbling melting purifying us that we may seek and obtain mercy But now when vindictive punishments strictly taken are executed it is in order to the cutting off and destruction of the obdurate sinners they as enemies lying under the wrath of God and his curse which is most evident in the execution of the last unchangeable sentence of Condemnation past upon the impenitent unbelieving and self-destroying world at the day of God's dreadful Judgment Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 You do not I hope doubt whether it be the veâ—geance of an angry God which the damned in Hell suffer and there is as little ground of doubt whether they suffer this vengeance in Hell to satisfie the Divine Justice neither is it to be doubted but all they suffer is comprised in that Curse pronounced Depart from me cursed Now then answerable to what hath been said as the condemned under their own deserved Curse suffer in order to satisfie Divine vindictive Justice for their own offences so Christ made a Curse and bearing the Curse for us did bear it in order to make satisfaction for us that we might obtain deliverance and that avenging wrath might not fall on our heads since that we are no more under the Curse deserved by us but under the Blessing procured for us by Christ He trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath alone his stripes were so smart and grievous that by them we might be healed Isa 53.5 God did not spare him when he gave him up for us Rom. 8. Let this then suffice for these particulars In summe To be made or bear the Curse is to stand charged with guilt to be threatned with punishment to be cut off by the execution of that punishment to the end Justice may be satisfied on the person who is made a Curse So that you may now see what it was that Christ was made for us and what he underwent for our sakes He took upon him our sins in the guilt of them exposed himself to the dreadful threats of a severe but most righteous Law and whereas sin inevitably must be punished he submitted himself to that also and in love to us saved us from ours by his own punishment wherein he satisfied Divine Justice and averted that Curse which inevitably would have fallen on us from the wrath of God provoked against us by our sins by this 't is clear Into this capacity he put himself the Law found him and under this capacity process went out against him and he died for us to redeem us from the Curse and to invest us with the Blessing I pass now to the second thing proposed viz. To the confirmation and proof of this 2d General proposed That Christ did die thus for us a curse was both threatned and executed upon him 2 Cor. 5. ult He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us There is an elegancy in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He made him sin The Apostle doth not say he made him a sinner but he made him sin that it might the more evidently appear how he did bear what was threatned against sin the Curse coming on us as an effect or consequent of sin He who was made sin for us exposeth himself to that sad effect and taketh on him the Curse due to us and being found so charged must die to remove the Curse from us This Text of the Apostle in effect then saith That Christ had our sins imputed to him bore the Curse of them and that for our good viz. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him That we might be accounted and treated as righteous ones which in effect is the same with what we have already said That Christ was made a Curse and so died for us that we might with righteous ones live and possess the blessing It is not to be doubted that Christ made sin for us was thereby made a Curse for us and therefore died bearing that effect of our sin vindicating the honour of the Law which we had transgressed and satisfying the Law-giver whom we had provoked In a word Christ made sin for us underwent the Curse our sin deserved and the Law threatned that in our stead he might satisfie Justice and that mercy might give the blessing which we needed and the Gospel promiseth or in the Apostle's own words that the blessing of
which lyeth a Curse indeed Now this duly considered will promote the increase of our graces The Communicant who can meditate on Christ dying a Curse for us may thereby excite his graces and exercise them to an improvement of them such meditations will be as lesser streams to a River which they greaten whilst they run in the same chanel A brief specimen of this will satisfie I hope and set the soul on work wherein for his help I shall shew him an Essay in a rude draught of this in eight following particular Graces which well become a Communicant 1. Humility and Self-abasement is unquestionably a Sacramental grace 1. Sacramental grace improved a grace we should Bring to exercise at and improve by the Sacrament of our Lord dying for us And the consideration of his death represented under the circumstances of a Curse is a very suitable and a likely means to effect this For it doth represent to our thoughts not only the sufferings of our dearest Lord and friend but convinceth us that it was our sin which procur'd this to him and that we must have been miserable for ever if he had not thus died Thus our sin and misery is set before us and these will humble a soul these will bow the generous courage and stoutness of the noblest and highest mind Misery alone cannot break the courage of a virtuous and innocent mind Nil conscire sibi c. A soul clear and approv'd to its self is an impregnable fortress And the spirit of a man will bear these infirmities Indeed a base and degenerous mind breaks into shivers under a load of crosses But the soul under sorrows or in danger of deserv'd misery reflecting on its own guilt and looking through the vileness of sin on the greatness of its sorrows is the more humble because more refined and excellent in it's temper principles and aims True lowliness of spirit or humility that is genuine may possibly first gush out in a tear from pain But it 's constant running is in tears for sin Misery may broach the vessel but it is sin that keeps it running Misery may make the best despised in others eyes sin makes him despised in his own Men will tread on a distressed fortune but the humble soul will tread on its sinful self And now serious Reader cast thine eye upon Christ made a Curse and suppose for thy self and then tell me what is first reflected on is not thy misery the title page of that great Volume of sorrows which Christ did bear for thee when he was made a Curse and underwent it in thy stead wa st not thou in danger of that Curse didst thou not dwell on the borders of an eternal infinite misery and wast thou not every moment in danger to be haled and thrust headlong into a prison of wofullest darkness and unspeakable sorrows Did not the Curse laid on Christ hang over thy head It was thy sin thy misery that Christ lay under and this will humble thee if thou hast any spark of spititual ingenuity if there dwell any generous dispositions within thy breast 1. For what is it to be cursed but to lye under the transgression of a righteous Law and what will abase an ingenuous spirit if the baseness of sin will not Humility is the judgement or opinion of its little worth arising from due sense of sin Humility what Thus did Moses instruct Irsael to be humble Deut. 9.7 12 22. 23. 24. shews them how great their sin had been and leaves then to say how little their opinion of themselves ought to be tells them how near they were to utter ruine when nothing but a Moses and his prayer was between them and the execution of that word Deut. 9.6 14. I will blot out their name from under Heaven Let thy soul renew the memory of thy sin when thou renewest thy thoughts of Christ's dying a Curse Remember thy sins and do as they Ezek. 20.43 Gen. 41.9 Loath thy self for all thy sins The remembrance of a fault made a Courtier blush In a Sacrament thou seest Christ dying an accursed death in his Curse thou dost or shouldest see thy own sin and with Ezra in another case Ezra 9.6 Thou shouldest be ashamed and blush to look up to Heaven For 2. Thou most righteous and just hast condemned me and judged what my fault is how great how vile it is in the Curse my Saviour did bear for me It was not a rash hasty and inconsiderate passion of a man that cursed the sinner but it was the just deliberate sentence of a wise and holy God who never curseth one that deserves to be blessed who never curseth before the creature hath sinned and deserved it How inquisitive is a good disposition if he be cursed as David by a Shimei 2 Kings 2.23 or as the Prophet reproached by the Boyes of Bethel or by a contemptible beggar How ready are best natures to enquire into the cause Have I given an occasion to this reproach Have I deserved it And how is he abashed and ashamed that any reason is pretended for unreasonable railing Now much more abashed is the ingenuous spirit when a sober man when a judicious observer of his own words as well as of other mens carriages shall condemn and adjudge him worthy of a Curse But here it is the Lord who adjudged thee to a Curse and canst thou remember this and not be humble and not reflect upon thy sin which provoked so just a Wisdom and such deliberate Justice to execrate thee David was humble when Shimei cursed because it might be God had said to him Curse David When thou receivest the Sacrament thou remembrest Christ whom God made a Curse for thee there God tells thee Thou hadst been forever cursed if Christ had non been once cursed There thou mayest see a holy wise just and infinitely excellent person displeased with thee and provoked against thee and surely such a sight will I am certain it should make thee abhor thy self and be humble 3. Farther thou hadst a fair and open tryal of thy Cause and it now stands in the greatest Court of Record in the world It is there registred that thou art the son or daughter of a tainted blood a child of an accursed stock In the first Adam God tryed and cast thee and told thee what thou must expect in the second Adam he shewed thee this Record stood firm the sentence unrepealed and if the blood of Christ dying and bearing the Curse for thee had not washt out the stain thou hadst remained still under a curse and stain It is accounted a glory in an Antient Family that the blood is not stained with any treasonable practices against the Soveriagn and it is a disparagement and diminution of their glory and greatness that the blood is embased by disloyal designs and attempts When thou receivest the Sacrament and seest Christ dying an accursed death
remember this Thou art minded of thy stained blood and of the recorded atteindure that God brought in against thee Here thou seest what judicial process should have been made against thy self see it and be humble 4. And thou mayest do well to remember what proof and evidences were against thee too ere God adjudged thee to this Curse which thy Saviour underwent for thee the notoriousness of the fact the self-silencing conviction of Conscience thy Father against thy Mother Adam against Eve thy own family evidence against thee in this matter Thou canst find no pretence of an exception to the witness Here thou mayest reflect upon thy own adjudged baseness and be proud if thou canst when thou hast reflected on thy self Whoever thou art who rightly perceivest the mystery of this Ordinance and dost rightly receive it thou art evidence for God against thy self and confessest the matter that thou deservedst to die for thy sins in that very capacity and notion that Christ died for them If he died an execrated cursed death for thee The Sacrament is a memorial of thankfulness to God and to Christ for sparing thee and letting thee escape whilest the blessed Son of God died in thy room Consider this and be humble 5. Consider lastly How humble thy heart and hand ought to be when thou receivest Christ in the Sacrament since from him alone thou receivest deliverance from a Curse None would none indeed could deliver thee but Christ Thou couldst not send for another Physician to heal thy distemper Here thou couldest not as in a Market seek a better bargain No He alone who was made a Curse for thee was able to deliver thee he was over all God blessed for ever able to restore accursed creatures to blessedness and to invest them with happiness Be then as ingenuous toward Christ thy only hope as thou wouldest be toward a Patron a Benefactor a Lord on whom thou dost solely and intirely depend Thou wouldest humbly observe and with due reverence receive his Commands and abhor a seeming proud lofty or insolent behaviour towards him I entreat for as much from thee towards Christ as thou dost give to a man without intreaty At a Sacrament reflect on these things say with thy self here is the renewed memorial of Christ dying a Curse and this renewed remembrance convinceth me that I was a vile wretch else my God had never cursed me I had never been attainted arraigned condemned and recorded among those that were not worthy to live in a holy and happy Common-wealth and Court I had never recovered my former state of bliss if the Lord had not put himself in my stead and bore my punishment My life hope and glory are all the fruit of another's death and shame I must be lowly who was redeemed from so low and cursed state By this thou mayest discern what influence is in the Death of Christ considered as a Curse and how it may be drawn out to abase and humble thy soul before thy God And let this suffice for an Essay or Pattern Go thou and meditate on what thou canst see farther in this thing and be humble all thy days In the second place Take an Essay in another Sacramental Grace Let it be supposed to be Strong and servent Desire to be partaker of that deliverance which Christ wrought by dying a Curse for us A good and hungring appetite is not more necessary at thy friend's table when thou art invited to feast with him than this strong Desire is needful and required for the Lord's Table Our blessed Redeemer invites the hungry and bids the heartiest welcome to the hungriest comers his language is My friends you are welcome and let me see you come as to one that you know does bid you welcome by your free eating and drinking I may think you either know not how excellent the provision is or you like it not or you are full of somewhat else or you doubt your welcome if you sit as if you came to feed your eye but not to satisfie your souls If the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ be the Supper of the Lord if it be a feast if it be stored with choicest variety of spiritual and heavenly rarities if it be the Gospel Mannah why are your longing desires so weak so unconstant so uneasily taken off Surely you and I should be better stomach'd for this feast Christ hath prepared his body to be your food and you must prepare your desires and awaken your hungrings after him The best wine is drawn out for this feast and it's pity it should not have a thirsty soul whose thirst can relish its worth He knows nothing of this Ordinance who knows not it is a spiritual feast to be attended with a spiritual appetite and therefore I proceed to give you a specimen of that which is in this Dying of our Lord to whet the appetite of the soul and so let the first Consideration for example be this first In this kind of Death the soul sees both that which will awaken and add vigour to its aversation of sin or evil and what will awaken and strengthen its inclination and prosecution after deliverance from that evil In the Curse thou seest what an evil sin is and thou must bear it or desire Christ that he would if thou desirest not that he may really bear the Curse for thee as in the Lord's Supper he Sacramentally doth it will be interpreted that thou desirest all that evil should light on thee which thy sin deserveth and canst thou desire to be cursed canst thou desire to de damned canst thou see misery like a black storm hang over thy head and not fly to shelter See then in a Sacrament Christ tendered to bear thy Curse thy misery and ask thy self whether it be not desirable ask thy self shall I desire this or no shall I wish and intreat and be willing to be freed from so great evil or no In the Sacrament the Lord tells the discerning soul Here take my Son and if thou desirest it he shall bear thy deserved Curse and thou shalt inherit an undeserved blessing go think on it and tell me what thou wilt do whether thou wilt desire and be willing or no And now judge what is like to be the Answer of the soul will it not be This O let the Blessing be mine and let my loving Saviour thus deliver me thus bless me also oh my Father and it shall suffice 2. And as the proper Incentives of desâ—â—â— are contained in the things themselves offered so the very language notion and frame of words do awaken the soul to exert its desires A misery to be avoided by this means will perswade the soul to a willingness to apply the means But surely a misery expressed by a Curse by an Execration will hasten the soul's desire to escape it In some cases a man may commendably desire and chuse affliction but in no case can a man
bearing his sin its curse and punishment that Justice may not lay any sentence of condemnation upon it but absolve and acquit justifie and save it Where can the soul better rest and congratulate its happiness in its rest than in a pacified propitious God Tell me who ere thou art reading or hearing these lines canst thou desire more than happiness Is any thing greater and better in thy wishes Certainly either thou knowest not what thou answerest or else dost answer it is thy greatest dailyest hourly desire and that the man or woman who would assure thee of this would fill thy heart with raptures of joy Now behold these desires answered in the Lord Jesus dying to remove that Curse which kept thee from thy happiness If Joy be the enlarging of the heart to entertain a desired good lo here a good worth the entertaining Christ bearing thy Curse lo here a good so great that no heart but an enlarged heart can rightly entertain it Oh be perswaded to receive it and tell me then what affection it raiseth in thy soul Certainly he never feared because he never knew the danger of Hell who doth not greatly rejoyce in his deliverance and escape from it Open but thy heart to receive and thy Joy will as surely break out as the streams do when the springs and fountains are opened Secondly Christ dying a Curse for thee will heighten thy Joy For whatever thou canst approve a ground of Joy in other mens rejoycing without this thou mayest much more approve in thine own rejoycing in this without any other There is very much Joy in the world which is unseemly and there is some which is justifiable seemly and seasonable but whatever makes it so seemly that and much more is in the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us to justifie and warrant the Christian 's Joy I dare stand to plead the Christian's Joy to excel on this account as much as the Joy for recovery of a Crown and Kingdom doth excel the Joy of a wise man for the finding of a Pin. Could a Christian enlarge his Joy to the exceeding greatness of his cause of Joy it would incomparably excel all other mens Joy as much as the recovery from a mortal wound excels the healing of a scratcht finger Indeed all other Joy without this is the unseemly Joy of fools or madmen but this without all other is Joy of wise considerate and knowing men and might we enter the comparison it would appear what trifles men of the world how great soever and how wise soever in the account of the world do rejoice in It is reported of Francis the first recovering the French shore upon his delivery out of his Captivity Je suis le Roy. That he leapt and rejoyced with this I am a King And who that values liberty or safety or power or a Kingdom censureth him for it or doubts whether it were seemly But oh believing soul thou seest at a Sacrament a worse prison a more doleful Captivity crueller enemies and more deadly dangers left behind thee and thou set at liberty in a more blessed safety and entitled to a Crown and Kingdom as much better as Heaven is better than France was and this by Christ's Death as it was an accursed Death to free thee from the Curse The men of the world rejoice in their full harvests The victorious Conqueror rejoiceth in the dividing of the spoils The ambitious Courtier rejoiceth in his Court-preferment But what Joy will the Barns and Stores of the wealthy man be when he dies the accursed Death and with Dives is tormented in endless fires Will the Joy of the preferred Courtier continue to him under the disgrace which he shall fall into when God shall arrest imprison condemn and execute him as an accursed wretch What will become of the Joys of Victories and Triumphs when the Crowns shall wither before the hot displeasure of God and when the crowned Conqueror shall be delivered up an accursed wretched prisoner and captive in eternal chains In few words there are many daggers lifted up and striking at the Joy of every man who rejoiceth in any thing but the Cross of Christ and first or last some one or other of these daggers will reach the heart and let out the life of such Joys But the Believer's Joy in the Death of Christ dying a Curse for him is a Joy which is immortal and cannot be destroyed It is a Joy will most gloriously crown the Believer when other mens Joys do most shamefully forsake deceive and torture them If then any may rejoice the Believer may much more and this he may do at every remembrance of his Redeemer's dying a Curse for him And such renewed remembrance of our cause of Joy will undoubtedly renew our Joy he may rejoice still more than yet he hath rejoiced who seeth he hath more to rejoice in than all the jovial merry world ever shall have Thirdly Renewed Meditations of Christ's dying such a Death for us will renew our Joy appeareth from this That our Joy will be most full satisfactory and transporting to us when we come to the distinctest fullest and liveliest knowledge and apprehension of this Death of Christ They who most fully apprehend and who most particularly apply the Benefits of this Death to themselves who live upon it and know what life it is how excellent how happy c. These are fullest of purest Joy and truly as we abate in our ability and skill to meditate on this Death of Christ or as we abate in the exercise and actual meditation and thought of Christ's dying for us as a Curse the more our Joy will abate also The Saints in glory do now rejoice and will forever rejoice for they do ever behold the scars which this Curse hath left in Christ they ever remember that Christ dying a Curse hath given them that blessed Life in which they ever shall rejoice Now what it hath wrought on them and what it will work one day upon us proveth to us what it might work in us at the present It hath now all in it which it ever will have but we have not all in us which we shall have when this dying of our Lord shall fill us with a never-dying or abating love to him who did it and with Joy in the thing done for us The reason why the Believer rejoiceth more in the sight of Christ dying a Curse for him as his distinct knowledge of it groweth is not that his knowledge addeth any thing to it but because his knowledge of it now maketh more of that Death which appeared not so much then to his own eye so his Joy groweth with his knowledge But now it is not so with other Joys they lessen as our knowledge of them increaseth and those which at distance we flattering our selves hoped would be pure and deep sweet and lasting as a Crystal stream prove to us when we come nearer and
Lord give me a heart knowing how to turn this kind of my Lord's Death into what Joy is hidden in it and I know my heart will need no other will desire none but this Again in the sixth place A peaceable 6th Sacramental grace peaceable disposition to the Brethren compassionate and tender affection toward our Brethren our fellow Christians is a Sacramental Grace a disposition of mind which is never out of season and is most in season at a Sacrament Christians should ever live in charity but they should feast with their Lord and with their Brethren in highest measures of charity When they thus feast they should embrace each other when they walk together it should be hand in hand This Love-feast must not be allayed with any mixture of sowre murmurings bitter envyings or unsavoury grudges of discontent The Apostle doth give us a most excellent Rule for this 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Purge out the old leaven c. Let us therefore keep the feast not in the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice c. In malice we should ever be children but especially at the Lord's Supper I will not urge reasons why we must be thus affected each to other when we come to the Table of the Lord for it is so universally known by all and it is so necessary among many other graces that too many think this alone sufficient to prepare men for the Lord's Supper It is true who hath all other but hath not this preparatory is unfit Whosoever wants this alone is not fit though this alone will not fit him for the Lord's Table The want of this must keep him back from this Supper until he hath a mind full of sincere and true love to all men especially to all the invited guests of the Lord. Supposing therefore that it is nothing doubted peaceable affections and compassionate tender love or charity to the Brethren is a Sacramental Quality I shal insist a little on the manner how this may be improved and advanced by the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us And so 1. First When thou art at the Lord's Supper and seest a few of thy Christian Brethren there to celebrate the Death of thine and their Lord dying a Curse this in all likelihood will be thy first reasoning upon it If Christ died a Curse for us then were we all under a Curse then were we all plunged in misery all were under the guilt of sin and under the wrath of God and what tongue can tell what this is or what heart can think of it and not be compassionately tender over such poor creatures Can your obdured hardened hearts hear the groans of men tormented with the Strangury or Gout or Stone Can you look upon the miseries of an Hospital without yearning bowels or can you look upon the tortures of one wracked and torn upon a wheel or between wild horses without a wish oh that I might deliver them what kind of hearts do you bear toward persecuted murthered and tormented Christians when you see the pictures of them or read the history of them do not your hearts drop into tender compassions toward them Why now look on Christ dying a Curse he is the lively picture of thine and their woful state it is to be seen in his Death read over the story of Christ accursed it is the story of thy most woful state and of the miserable state of them who are now communicating with thee they were with thee sinful guilty dying creatures which ere long must have been groaning sighing howling under the avenging wrath of the Almighty if Christ had not thus died for thee and them Look upon them say as indeed they were behold what was saved of my shipwrack These were tossed in the same vessel dashed on the same rock taken up helpless and lifeless c. with me Oh I never see them but it comes into my thoughts and my heart my heart weeps over our common danger We do so often renew our compassionate affections toward our companions in dangers as the sight of them renews the thoughts of our danger That which in a different case David said When I remember these things I pour out my soul within me The soul redeemed from the Curse will be able to say when I remember these things compassion and tenderness are poured out The remembrance of a common danger Nihil ad misericordiam sic inclinat atque proprii periculi cogitatio August Misericordia est vicina miseriae Seneca de Clem. is a most prevailing enducement to compassion The Philosopher could tell us That this Pity is a neighbour to misery Whence likely it was that the Lord did enjoyn the Israelites to shew a hearty compassion unto afflicted strangers for They know the heart of a stranger for they were strangers in Aegypt We must compassionately and tenderly love wish well and affect those whose hearts we know for so much as we were in like case Now this is one part of our brotherly love or charity here it begins though it doth not end here This tenderness of heart is like the pith or tender pulp which runneth through the whole body of the tree This indeed is the Root on which the delightful Tree grows and from which the beautiful fruits of love do blossome bud increase and ripen And so often you water the root of Love as you do soften and mollify the temper of your heart which is done when soakt in the thoughts of our common danger I shall close this particular with that piercing Question Matth. 18.33 Shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee How shall we answer this Question if the consideration of our common danger do not stir up in us a love of compassion to others what bowels hast thou if they do not now yearn and move towards them We are apt to pity those whose tormenting diseases and sharp pains we have felt and if ever we felt the inward sorrow and trouble of an accursed state we shall pity such who are under it and with tender affection demean our selves towards those who were under it it will renew our sympathy and this will renew our love to them But Secondly In the remembrance of Christ's dying a Curse for us there is the renewing of a most self-abasing and humbling consideration Now the renewal of this will be a very likely means to improve our love which is a humble self abasing grace So that what increaseth our humility will increase our charity Solomon tells us that onely by pride cometh contention and our own experience proveth the proud man neither sit to be chosen for a loving friend nor to be trusted as one that will be constant in his friendship and love such an one will be ever breaking the laws of friendship of which the Apostle discoursing 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. tells us that it neither vaunteth it self nor is puffed up
those which have equal share and interess with thy self in this peace and wilt thou not judge it comely convenient necessary and what must be done by thee viz. to embrace them with hearty peaceable affections who are embraced by thy God with as hearty affections as thou art or canst be Oh come then make peace with all thy Brethren and forgive them as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven thee And thus I have very briefly drawn out three particular inducements among many other which from Christ dying a Curse for us and all Believers should perswade us and them to live in a Christian brotherly peace which becomes a Sacrament and which should be improved by each Sacrament I now proceed to A seventh Sacramental Grace 7th Sacramental grace a Thankful heart which ought to be exercised at each Sacrament and which may receive some addition from the consideration of Christ's Death as a Curse in our stead Now this grace is a Thankfull acknowledgment of the great mercy we have by Christ's dying a Curse for us It doth exceeding well become us to be thankful and praise the Lord for his mercy to us in Christ dying for us And though praise be ever seasonable yet a Sacrament is the season of seasons for praise then it is most in season though it be never out of season The commonness and universal praenotion of this truth among all Christians saveth me the labour of proving it I need not prove that to any one which is denied by no one let then praise and thanks attend our communion at the Lord's Supper And among other motives unto praise let us view some few arising from the Death of Christ as it was an accursed death for us And so 1. First To this kind of Death of thy Lord thou must be beholden for all the sweetness which thou tastest in thy mercies Thy sin which brought thee under the Curse imbittered every thing to thee also nay that sin which cursed thee forfeited all thy mercies thou hadst no right to them when once thou hadst sinned and thou couldst taste no sweetness in them if thou hadst still lain under the Curse thou hadst no more right to thy estate and life than a condemned man hath to his thou couldest have no more enjoyed them than a pensive condemned person who is kept in prison with a daily allowance to keep them alive unto the day of his near approaching execution every morsel is bitter to him so would it have been to thee Thou mayest read this in the emblem of the sinner's state a naked man cast out of a fruitful garden and left in a place of thorns and briars Such was the consequence of thy sin cast naked out of what thou hadst and turned out among grieving thorns and briars Now would he not deserve thanks who restoreth thee to a title gives thee a new right unto all desirable blessings who shall root up those cursed thorns and plant the Vine and the Olive to yield thee fruit Look then this and more than this done for thee by the Death of thy Lord made a Curse for thee Lo thy title renewed to necessary mercies and mercies renewed unto their sweetness and delightfulness thou a Prodigal received as a Son and the husks thou didst feed on turned into bread in thy Father's house Christ was accursed for thee that every blessing might be sweetened to thee Ever praised be our Physician who hath taken out the most of the poison and hath turned the rest into necessary and seasonable Physick God hath blest thee with every thing in Christ that thou mightest bless and praise that thou mightest be thankful for every thing and ascribe it all to the goodness of God in Christ We owe all to this Death of Christ and how little do we pay when we are thankful Let us not then with-hold this little too In one word read over the latter part of Deut. 28. from v. 15. to the end of the chapter and consider how well he deserves blessing and thanks from thee who hath delivered thee from the bitterness of so many Curses imbittering all thou enjoy'dst Secondly The renewed thoughts of Christ bearing thy Curse will be renewed Thankfulness in renewed security and assurance against the fears and terrours of a self-accusing and condemning heart Thou shalt never bear that Curse which the righteous Law threatned thou needst not fear it if Christ died for thee for he did die a Curse for every one in whose stead he did die and that God who accepted his Death will never go from his word or disown the virtue of his Son's Death nor cast the Curse upon thy soul Oh thou trembling Believer thy fears are the weakness of thy graces or the want of exercising them either thou knowest not what it is to have a Christ a Jesus dying a Curse for thee or else thou dost not enough consider it nor observe how little ground of fear is left Oh! It would be a blessed tranquility of mind to us to feel as little fear within our souls as Christ hath left of Curse behind him in the Law against us Happy soul who believeth that Christ died for him He may look upon the Law and find that there is not in it any Curse against him for Christ made a Curse died to redeem them who were under it There is no doubt to be made of this Truth there cannot be just cause of fear where Christ hath taken away the Curse Which the Law threatned Now there is no condemnation to such nor may any one lay any thing to the charge of these redeemed ones And when this is duly weighed how thankful will it make us How much would a feeble swouning person thank you for a sweet reviving cordial what life would there be in his expressions of kindness for such a courtesie what loving embraces would such a one court his friend with especially if his life had certainly miscarried without this Oh unkindness unthankfulness of us Christians who lay in a swound of death strucken with the thunder-bolt of the Law perishing without recovery hopeless without a Christ accursed for ever unless Christ become a Curse for us and we profess to know all this and to believe it and yet are straitned in our thankfulness to him The a Plutarch in vit Artaxerxes Historian reports that Artaxerxes King of Persia gave one a thousand b The Darick was a coin bearing the image of Darius and the value of each piece was two shillings four pence so the whole sum amounted to one hundred and sixteen pounds six shillings and eight pence beside the Cup of Gold Daricks in a Cup of Gold for a recompence of a little fair water offered him in the palms of the man's hand But what have we given unto Jesus Christ who hath brought us not a little water in his hands but his heart and hands full of love and blood shed for us Oh come magnifie the
or a burning fever or a loathsom leprosy or a sad and solitary blindness But more than this more than all I can speak did Christ deliver us from when he did die a Curse for us Oh unparallel'd love of Christ and oh the unparallel'd ingratitude of Christians Sirs though you and I must leave the greatest the best part of this work of praise to another world yet let us not leave it all let us do somewhat whilst we live and are among men on earth Heaven is full of those praises which did we hear would ravish us Let Earth be witness that we do not quite forget our Lord. Whereas you could have born all the envy anger and malice of creatures and it may be have contemned the weakness of it you could never have stood under nor have made head against the anger and indignation of the Lord nor have fortified your selves with resolutions to lessen the fury by lessening your apprehensions of it The dear children of God in their bitter complaints cry out if an enemy if any but God himself had done it I could have born it And the hopeless unbelievers cry out the same in effect let any thing come let all come upon us rather than the wrath of the Almighty let rocks grind us to powder or mountains bury us for ever under their weight Oh the heaviest of all these are lighter than one stroak of an angry avenging God! All these may be more easily endured than one Curse of the Law See then and consider what thou owest oh my soul to Christ made a Curse for thee remember and be thankful let thy heart oh thou who feastest with thy Lord weigh first the burthensomness of that Curse which justice casteth upon every sin and then weigh the exceeding great love of Christ who did take this Burthen and bear it for thee and I do nothing doubt but as often as thou layest these in the ballance thou wilt still find thy praise thy thankfulness too light thou wilt be still with the Apostle adding Glory and Power to him who loved thee Rev. 1.5 6. and washed thee in his blood And with the great Apostle of the Gentiles Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory Could you and I entertain these things within our breasts and renew our thoughts and meditatations we should more clearly discern that if there be sweetness in our mercies or respite from our fears or absolution and discharge from our guilt or deliverance from accursed sorrows miseries and death we owe it all unto this kind of Death of our Lord beside all the positive blessings of grace and glory of which I may not now speak if the blessing of Abraham on the Gentiles be worth our thanks then our thanks is due to Christ dying thus for he was made a Curse for us that we might be redeemed from under the Curse of the Law and that we might be restored to a blessed state In one word whosoever seeth his own blessedness procured by Christ dying a Curse for him cannot but see so much thanks as blessedness is worth due to Christ and so the reviving of the memory of Christ's Death considered as a Curse will be the reviving of our thankfulness and reviving of thankfulness will be an increasing and improving of thankfulness So much to the seventh Sacramental Grace The eighth and last I shall now mention followeth viz. A disposition and purpose of mind to walk in new Obedience towards God in all manner of conversation 8th Sacramental grace New Obedience such a mind must every welcome guest bring to the Lord's Table No man may come thither who intends to go thence to his old course of sinning We must not as Naturalists report of some venemous creatures which lay down their poison when they go to drink and having drunk suck it up again we must not so lay aside our old sins while we go to the Lord's Supper as to renew our old acquaintance with them nor tender our service to them so soon as we depart from the Table of the Lord Men will not endure such sycophants and parasites who come to their table for a meals meat and to fill their bellies but then sort themselves for months together with the veryest enemies they have in the world No more will God endure him for a guest at his Table who comes for a meal out of a customary formality and then sorts himself with those sins which God hateth and commandeth should be slain This above many others aggravated Judas's treason that he came and ate with his Lord when he had resolved to betray him this is to kiss him with All hail Master when the kiss is the very token by which his enemies should know and apprehend him The Lord Jesus who knoweth what is in man and needeth not that any should testify of man will never let a man who lives and dieth of this temper escape deserved punishment He knows they flattered him with their lips but their hearts are far from him Thou that comest to make a Covenant with thy God at a Sacrament must come with a firm purpose to keep thy Covenant for God will not be mocked Better never come at all than come with a mind hating to be reformed God will ere long ask such hateful hypocrites what they had to do to declare this Statute of his or that they should take his Covenant into their mouths Psal 50.16 c. It is confessed of all sides and would to God it were as well practised on all sides that every Sacrament should engage us to better lives to holier conversations that we should sin the seldomer because we have been so often at the Lord's Table Now I say that the remembrance of the Death of Christ dying for us a Curse hath in it good and strong reasons to move us to renew our obedience and if these reasons be well considered I do not doubt but they may prevail with some to renew their purposes and endeavours of living less to sin because Christ died a Curse for us sinners For 1. First In this manner of his dying beside the powerful influence of his Death considered in the general of which I speak not now I say In his dying thus as a Curse for us we have a clear discovery of the vileness of sin how much it abaseth and depresseth us We look upon cursed things as the vilest and basest of things A curse and a reproach go together Jer. 42.18 This was the thing which brought our Lord into so low estate that he was despised of men this made him of no reputation because of our sin imputed to him and the Curse due to us for our sin laid upon him he became like a servant and so died Now then let a sober judgment be made of this and see how forcibly it disswadeth from continuing in sin Do I renew the remembrance of my Lord dying as a Curse Could sin which he
never committed which he never loved which he hated infinitely which was no otherwise his than by imputation could this bring him to such shame What shame and confusion of face will cover and overwhelm me when after my serving my sins both the guilt imputed and the baseness vileness and reproach of the fact committed shall meet in one and be charged upon me Is it not high time to forsake this service which will end in the shame and reproach of a Curse Doth the Sacrament mind me of the Death the accursed Death of Christ the Lord of Glory I see then such a worm such a lump of worthless flesh as I am cannot expect any other event of sin than to lye down in shame for it and if after I do know this I should still love sin and delight in it how brutish and unreasonable should I appear to be how unlike a man I must either renounce my reason or renounce my sin It is no dallying in a matter of this nature I see the just and righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth would not spare his own Son when he found him under my sins but laid upon him the punishment of them the Cross and the shame and I deceive my self if I think he will spare me and not cast the shame of my sin upon me the sinner if I live and die in this service I shall rise with those who rise unto everlasting shame and contempt I will therefore resolve and keep my resolutions of departing from sin because I would not depart from my God with the shame and reproach of a Curse for my sin Thus the renewed thoughts of Christ dying a Curse for us will renew the apprehensions of that shame which attends the sinner and so renew our purposes against sin as the only thing which can clothe us with shame and we shall be as unwilling to live in sin as we are to bear the shame of sin 2. Secondly In the renewed thoughts of our Lord 's dying a Curse there lieth a motive to New Obedience drawn from the congruity and suitableness of the thing it self Nothing more unseemly than to continue in sin after our professing our selves to be his servants friends and followers who died for sin Nothing more justifiable than their leaving of sin whose Lord died for sin especially seeing sin brought upon him an accursed Death What wilt thou answer for thy self in the day when this absurd unreasonable and monstrous deportment of thine shall be laid open before Men and Angels when Christ shall ask thee whether thou hadst not heard and seen that he was made a Curse for thy sins whether thou hadst not often been minded of this at the Sacrament and when he shall farther demand of thee what thou couldest see in sin or hope to find in sin or expect from sin when as thy Lord could see did find and expected to find nothing else but a Curse in it wa st thou so sottish to think of finding any thing in sin better than what thy Lord found in it or wast thou so unthankful that thou wert resolved to offer despite to thy Lord and serve that which brought an accursed Death upon him Whatever sinners now judge I know that a day will come when they shall judge nothing so unreasonable and unseemly as living in continued sin and professing a crucified Jesus It is such a self-contradicting course that none ever would continue it if ever they understood it Nor is he what he professeth to be who professeth our crucified Jesus to be his Lord yet serveth his own cursed lusts Christ doth not own him he will declare to all the world that he knows not that he never knew such workers of iniquity But suppose it possibly might be which yet never shall be that such a one resolvedly continuing in sin should be owned by Christ at last and received into a blessed state of glory what kind of answer could such one make to his Lord when questioned what was it not enough that I was once made a Curse for thee or did I not bear sins enough for thee at first or wouldst thou indeed be crueller to me than Jews and Roman souldiers or hadst thou a design to wound my heart after I was gotten out of the reach of all others after wicked men and Devils had done their worst and I had triumpht over them and none but my friends could wound me wouldst thou be my friend that thou mightest do it more deeply was this thy friendship to me are not they the sorest and cruellest enemies who cover their hearty enmity with pretences of friendship either then be my cordial friend saith Christ and renounce thy sins serve them no more or else come no more pretending to commemorate my friendship to the dying a Curse for thee nor ever let me be provoked with such counterfeit alliance and friendship Christ cannot endure such seeming to be what we are not such contradictions to his Death In truth it is most unseemly to live in the cursed service of sin after we are redeemed from the Curse of sin And therefore the believing and considerate soul casts off the thoughts of continuing in sin with a God forbid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how shall I live any longer in sin since I am dead to it 3. Thirdly The renewed consideration of Christ dying a Curse for sin doth renew our thoughts of the odiousness and hateful nature of sin which carryeth a Curse into every place and person where it cometh Christ's dying a Curse for us sheweth us how hateful sin is to the eyes of our God Reverâ est odium quo Deus peccatum prosequitur ab eâ perfectione quae Numinis naturam decet Th. Salmur de trib Foed Div. th 18. who doth and cannot but so do loath detest threaten and curse it where-ever he findeth it of which truth the considerate believing soul hath so clear proof in the Curse which Christ did bear for sin that he stands convinced beyond possible doubt of it and cannot but conclude that whoever resolves to continue in sin must also resolve to abide the hatred of God against sin He that will keep and maintain a communion with sin must expect that God will keep and maintain wrath and hatred against him and this the Communicant is at every Sacrament minded of whilst he seeth his Lord evidently set forth crucified before his eyes so that he is put to such a kind of deliberation with himself What! could not Christ take upon him my sin but he must also take upon him the burthen of divine displeasure and hatred due to my sin what is God so irreconcilable an enemy unto sin that he would not or could not restrain his just wrath against the guilt where it lay without the foulness of committing the fact was the displeasure of my God so hot against his blessed Son who was never tainted with any one sin only bare the guilt of many I
Paul to the Romans Both by Tho. Horton D.D. late Minister of St. Hellen's An Analytical Exposition of Genesis and of 23 Chapters of Exodus by G. Hughes D.D. Books 4 to Present State of New England The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration by G. Swinnock M. A. An Antidote against Quakerism by Steph. Scandert An Exposition of the 5 first Chap. of Ezek. with usual observations thereupon by William Greenhill The Gospel-Covenant opened by P. Bulkley God's holy Mind touching matters Moral which he uttered in ten Commandments Also an Exposition on the Lord's Prayer by Edward Eston B. D. The Fiery-Jesuit or an Historical-Collection of the rise encrease Doctrines and Deeds of the Jesuits Horologiographia optica Dyaling universal and particular speculative and practical together with a description of the Court of Arts by a new Method by Sylvanus Morgan The Practical Divinity of the Papist discovered to be destructive to true Religion and mens Souls by J. Clarkson The Creatures goodness as they came out of God's hand and the good mans mercy to the brute creatures in two Sermons by Tho. Hodges B. D. Certain considerations tending to promote Peace and Unity amongst Protestants Mediocria or the most plain and natural apprehensions which the Scripture offers concerning the great Doctrines of the Christian Religion of Election Redemption the Covenant the Law and Gospel and Perfection The Saints triumph over the last enemy in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Jam. Janeway by Nath. Vincent The vanity of Man in his best estate in a discourse on Psal 39.5 at the Funeral of the Lady Susanna Keate by Rich. Kidder M. A. Peaceable Disquisitions by Jo. Humphreys 56 Sermons of Providence by Joh. Collings D. D. Sermons concerning Grace and Temptation by Tho. Froysell The Morning-Lecture against Popery or the Principal Errours of the Church of Rome detected and confuted in a Morning-Lecture preached by several Ministers of the Gospel in or near London Four useful discourses 1 The Art of improving a full and prosperous condition for the glory of God being an Appendix to the Art of Contentment in three Sermons on Phil. 4.12 2 Christian submission on 1 Sam. 3.18 3 Christ a Christians life and death is gain on Phil. 1.21 4 The Gospel of Peace sent to the sons of Peace in six Sermons on Luke 10.5 6. by Jer. Burroughs Dr. Wilds Letter of Thanks and Poems A new Copy-Book of all sorts of useful hands The Saints priviledg by dying by Mr. Scot. The Vertuous Daughter a Funeral Sermon by Mr. Brian The Miracle of Miracles or Christ in our Nature by Dr. Rich. Sibbs The unity and essence of the Catholick Church-visible by Mr. Hudson View of Antiquity by Mr. Jo. Hanmer The intercourse of Divine Love between Christ and the Church or the particular Believing soul in several Lectures on the whole second Chap of Cant. by John Collins D. D. Large Octavo Heart-Treasure or a Treatise tending to fill and furnish the head and heart of every Christian with Soul-enriching treasure of truths graces experiences and comforts The sure mercies of David or a second part of Heart-treasure Heaven or Hell here in a good or bad Conscience by Nath. Vincent Closet-prayer a Christians duty all three by O. Heyword A practical Discourse of Prayer wherein is handled the nature and duty of Prayer by Tho. Cobbet Of quenching the Spirit the evil of it in respect both of its causes and effects discovered by Theophilus Polwhiele The re-building of London encouraged and improved in several meditations by Samuel Rolls The sure way to Salvation or a Treatise of the Saints mystical Union with Christ by Richard Stedman M. A. Sober Singularity by the same Author Heaven taken by Storm The mischief of sin both by Tho. Watson The Childs Delight together with an English Grammar Reading and Spelling made easie both by Tho. Lye Aesop's Fables with morals thereupon in English-Verse The Young-mans Instructor and the Old-mans Remembrancer being an Explanation of the Assemblies Catechism Captives bound in Chains made free by Christ their Surety both by Tho. Doolitle Eighteen Sermons preached upon several Texts of Scripture by William Whitaker The Saints care for Church-Communion declared in sundry Sermons preached at St. James Dukes-place by Zach. Crofton The life and death of Edmund Stanton D. D. To which is added a Treatise of Christian-conference and a Dialogue between a Minister and a Stranger Sin the Plague of plagues or sinful sin the worst of Evils by Ralph Venning M. A. Cases of Conscience practically resolved by J. Norman The faithfulness of God considered and cleared in the great Events of his Word or a second part of the fulfilling of the Scripture The immortality of the soul explained and proved by Scripture and Reason to which is added Faiths-triumph over the fears of death by Tho. Wadsworth A Treatise of the incomparableness of God in his Being Attributes Works and Word by George Swinnock M. A. A discourse of the original c. of the Cossacks The generation of Seekers or the right manner of the Saints addresses to the throne of Grace with an exposition on the Lords-Prayer An Essay to facillitate the Education of Youth by bringing down the rudiments of Grammar to the sence of seeing which ought to be improved by Syncresis by M. Lewis of Totenham An Artificial Vestibulum wherein the sense of Janua Linguarum is contained compiled into plain and short sentences in English for the great ease of Masters and Expeditious progress of Scholars by M. Lewis Speculum Sherlockianum or a Looking glass in which the admirers of Mr. Sherlock may behold the man as to his Acuracy Judgment Orthodoxy A discourse of Sins of Omission wherein is discovered their Nature Causes and Cure by George Swinnock Quakerism no Christianity or a through-Quaker no Christian proved by their Principles and confirmed by Scripture by J. Faldo The Dutch-dispensatory shewing the vertues qualities and properties of Simples the vertue and use of Compounds whereto is added the Compleat Herbalist Small Octavo A defence against the fear of death by Zach. Crofton Gods Soveraignty displayed by William Gearing The godly mans Ark or a City of Refuge in the day of his distress in five Sermons with Mrs. Moors evidences from Heaven by Edmund Calamy The Almost-Christian discovered or the false-Professor tried and cast by M. Mead. The true bounds of Christian-freedom or a discourse shewing the extent and restraints of Christian-liberty by S. Bolton D. D. The sinfulness of Sin and fulness of Christ in two Sermons by Will. Bridg. A Plea for the Godly or the Righteous mans Excellency The holy Eucharist or the Sacrament of the Lords Supper