that comes in to see his Guests and that bids them be merry yea and to eat and drink abundantly with an O Beloved Cant. 5.1 In the last verse of the 4th chapter the Church importunatly invites and sollicites the Lord Jesus to come into his Garden and eat his pleasant fruits namely when they were congregated together and waiting on and for him The Lord Jesus comes and tells them so Chap. 5.1 I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my myrrh with my Spice then he chears them up and bids them welcome be merry and eat and drink not sparingly but freely and abundantly O Beloved His holy Temples and this heavenly Feast are appointed and ordained for his Reception and Entertainments with his Beloved Rev. 2.1 2 Cor. 6.16 There are theâ— most joyful meetings and there do they hold and enjoy the most comfortable and heart-satisfying communion together as holy hearts can and do often experience For this end hath he instituted and for this end should all Church-members receive this Ordinance 4. As it is appointed for Communion between Christ and his inchurched-members so likewise for their Communion among themselves 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Good men have heart-dividing and love-separating lusts self-Interests world and Devil and therefore they need all proper means to unite and knit their hearts together in Brotherly Love Communion Col. 2.2 The Lord Jesus hath commanded and strictly charged his people to love one another as he hath loved them Joh. 13.34 Joh. 15.12 15. and that they love one another with pure hearts fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 That they walk in love and endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of peace Eph. 4.1 2 3. Eph. 5.1 2. Now in order to the obtainment of it and that Believers may be encouraged to mind and do his will herein the Lord Jesus hath by his own Laws and Authority formed them up into holy Temples and united them into spiritual Societies and given them occasion and opportunity to meet together and feast themselves at his Table at his cost and charges and that as Guests of his own bidding There they may often meet sit down and feed together of his dainties There they see and taste feel and smell and there they may speak of hear him and of his grace and love There they may see that they are all bought with the same price and redeemed with the same blood There they may see that they are members together of the same head and body that they are all Plants of his planting Trees of his watering Subjects of the same Grace and Spirit and the same objects of his care and protection There they may see that they are all bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh and that he hath fellowship and communion with them all That they are heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 and that they are all entitled to an eternal inheritance There they may see that they are all partakers of the same life and that the Lord Jesus hath made the same provisions for the everlasting happiness of all their Souls There they may see that they have the same faith and hope and that the covenant and promises belong to them all That there is a mutual Interest amongst them and that they are concerned in and with each other That they are engaged in one common cause with Christ and that they are not their own but one anothers All which things and considerations are of great use towards the knitting and endearing of their hearts one to another in spiritual love holy peace and Brotherly affection For by their sitting down altogether as one body at one Table of the Lord eating and drinking the same Bread and Wine and by faith the same body and blood of the Lord by beholding and believing their mutual interest in Christ and in all the benefits of his death and that they are all alike invited to the feast and all alike welcomb'd and entertained by their Lord and King they are much induced thereby to love one another to seek desire and rejoyce in the good of each other and to walk together as Heirs of the Kingdom of Glory keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And likewise in joyning hearts and hands together as one body in celebrating the worship and in magnifying the name and glory of Christ 5. An other great use and end of this Ordinance is to knit and endear the heart to Christ himself And it is a powerful means to effect it He is a most full and glorious Object of Love a most lovely Object indeed He is the fairest of Ten thousands and altogether lovely or altogether loves Cant. 5.10 ult He hath all glorious excellencies in him and is the perfection of beauty Psal 50.2 All ye glories of the Heavens and the Earth of Angels and men are but dark shadows unto this Son of Righteousness The Lord Jesus is most lovely glorious and beautiful in his love and grace to us in his obedience and death for us and in all his Laws and Promises to us But especially his Person is most beautiful glorious and lovely Psal 45. 1 Cor. 2.8 his most transcendant and glorious excellencies will be the eternal wonderment of Saints and Angels and they shall be for ever employed in adoring and praising him He is an Object too high for us now to reach and a Sun too bright and glorious for our dim eyes to behold only some Raies and Beams of his Glory he causes to shine on us and enables us to take them in in some degree Psal 63.1 2. But of all means the Lord's Supper is the most full and proper for the opening and representing unto us unto our faith the beauty glory and loveliness of Christ in his love and grace in his death and sufferings There we may read wonderful Stories and see glorious Mysteries indeed There we may read and see his love and grace to us streaming forth by his heart blood and there we may see the greatness freeness profitableness purity sweetness and the transcendant excellency of his love and loveliness There we may see the eternal Fountain of love and the inexhaustible-Treasures of his heart of his grace and kindness opened and running down to us and there we may see a bottomless Sea of mercies and affections discovered There we may read Christ loving us and giving himself for us unto an accursed death Gal. 2.20 Gal. 3.13 And Oh! my Brethren what an attracting Soul drawing heart-knitting object of love is the Lord Jesus represented to be to us in that Ordinance It is a Glass that represents and shews us nothing else but love and Christs loveliness It is an Ordinance that Preaches and Seals love to Believers and thereby provokes enflames and drawes out their love to him Love will be drawn and not driven and what drawes it into warm and strong Acts but lovely persons
may know in measure how dearly He loved us and how dear we have cost There we may see our sins Pardoned persons Accepted God Reconciled and Well-pleased there we may hear him saying Deliver them out of Prison for I have found and accepted a Ransom Surely there is not a more powerful means in the World to produce and provoke to Repentance yea pure Gospel-Repentance in Believers than the Lord's Supper is For here are presented to us all the greatest and strongest Gospel-motives to unfained Spiritual and Gospel-Repentance to melt soften the heart It is Love Grace the hopes of Pardon and Acceptance and of being sanctified and saved that provokes and produces Repentance unto Life not Fear and Dread of Divine Wrath and Vengeance Not the bare sight and Conviction of Sin and the Apprehension of future punishment no but 't is the sense or hope at least of our persons being loved and accepted into favour with God and of our being acquitted and justified through the blood of the Covenant that doth it 9. To stir us up to Admire Adore and Praise the great and free Love and Grace of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. They do in and by this Ordinance set off and commend their free eternal and distinguishing Love and Grace unto Believers and thereby give them occasion of Praising Admiring and Adoring it These are some of God's Holy and Gracious Ends in appointing this Ordinance for and giving it unto them and these and what-ever other uses and ends there are of it should be diligently sought out and understood by all Believers And being sound out they should be carefully diligently and faithfully aimed at and pursued by them Well then do you joyn Issues with God aim at and carry on the holy Ends of Jesus Christ in this Gospel Ordinance and by your so doing you will please and honour him and greatly profit your own Souls Quest What are the necessary qualifications and preparations of all worthy Receivers of the Lords Supper or what is required of and ought to be found in them Ans There qualifications and preparations are two-fold 1. A State qualification or worthiness 2. A habitual and practical or actual fitness 1. A State-worthiness or qualification which in brief is this or consists of these two things 1. Regeneration 2. Vnion with Christ by Faith 1. Regeneration or a New Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 This is absolutely necessary as to Salvation Joh. 3.3 5. so to fit and qualifie men to and for every good work Without Regeneration or being Born again we cannot Believe Repent or Obey the Gospel in a right and acceptable manner Without this change of Nature we cannot love God nor fear God we cannot know him rightly nor worship him Spiritually Joh. 4.23 24. Phil. 3.3 for we cannot Worship him with Reverence and Godly fear until we are partakers of the Divine Nature and of his special Grace to do it withal 2 Pet. 1.4 Heb. 12 28. In our Unregenerate States we are blind and dark Eph. 5.8 Dead in sins Eph. 2.1.5 Enemies to God and Strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.10 Eph. 2.12 We are Carnal and Vain Hard-hearted and Impenitent Sinners and are shut up in Unbelief Yea we are Haters of God and the power of Godliness and excessive Lovers of Sin and the World and altogether voyd of the Love of God and of real love and pitty to our own Souls Now then it is absolutely necessary that we be Regenerated and Created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Eph. 2.10 for till then we are utterly uncapable of doing them according to the Will of God How then can we receive and partake of the Lords Supper worthily until we are Regenerated and made New Creatures How can we discern the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 and how can we understand the mystery and take in the profit of Christ his Death to our Souls until we are taught of God How can we receive it in Faith and in Obedience to his Will until the Grace of Faith be formed in our hearts and until our hearts are bowed and melted by Grace into the Holy Will of God How can we Worship God and Celebrate this Ordinance with lively hearts whilst we are dead in sins And how can we apply the Seal to that Grace which we have not Therefore I say it is absolutely necessary that all that receive this holy Seal be Regenerated and made New Creatures For how can that Ordinance feed and nourish that which is not in Being namely the New Creature 2. They must be Vnited to Jesus Christ by Faith also They must be in him and have relation to him as living Members to their Head 2 Cor. 5.17 Col. 2.6 Christ must be theirs and they must be his by Faith or they cannot claim him as theirs nor receive any benefit by his Death for else how can they joyn with Christ in his saying Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you 1 Cor. 11.23 24. But I must hasten 2. They must have an habitual worthiness or meetness for the right Receiving and due Celebration of this Ordinance likewise I mean a holy and spiritual ready and accurate frame and disposition of heart to for it they must have their Sight Faith and Love ready in act and exercise or they are not cannot be meet partakers of the Lord's Table It is not only necessary that they be in a State of Justification and Regeneration but they must be also in or qualified with a habitual frame posture and disposition of heart to receive and celebrate it to the Glory of Christ and profit of their own Souls Tit. 3.1 Their Hearts and Graces must be ready fixed and tuned for the work that they be not to seek of them or at a loss concerning them when they should honour Christ with and get the Seal of the Spirit to them Psal 57.7 Psal 108.1 Psal 112.7 This habitual meetness or worthiness qualification or preparation call it which you will is a matter of great weight and moment especially in this matter and therefore you must labour all you can to obtain it 2. There is a practical and actual meetness and preparedness for the worthy and acceptable receiving of the Lords Supper also That is there is something more than ordinary to be done by them in order to their worthy participating of it This practical preparation I shall briefly present to you in some particulars 1. You must examine your selves 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup. And here 1. You must examine your States and try if you be in the Faith or no If you are indeed at least in a well grounded hope and perswasion in a justified and regenerate state and condition 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 and to know whether the Lord Jesus and his special Grace be formed in your hearts Gal. 4.19 This must be effectually done
it is a Spiritual Gospel-Ordinance for and respecting spiritual things 3. The Institutor of it and that is Jesus Christ him to whom the Father had committed all power and Authority and into whose hand he had given all things Joh. 3.35 Matth 11.27 Matth. 28.18 I say it is an Ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ himself Matth. 26.26 27. 1 Cor. 11.23 For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same Night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do ye in remembrance of me And mark it it is an instituted and a positive Ordinance and duty not a natural or moral one It is not founded on or put in and among the moral precepts or natural Laws of God but it is meerly an Institution of Christ appointed for and given to his inchurched members and none else And therefore it is not an Ordinance for and the use of it a duty incumbent on Unbelievers and persons dead in sins while they remain in that condition but 't is only appointed and intended for Believers in their orderly walkings with God All men as they are reasonable Creatures are bound to pray to God and to hear his Word preached because they are though not meerly and only so Ordinances and duties of moral worship and not meerly of divine Institution as Baptism and the Lords Supper are but all men are not so bound to participate of the Lords Supper and water Baptism 4. It is said that this Ordinance is appointed for and given to inchurched Saints that is that persons in Christ may and they only can partake of it in the way and order of the Gospel For although their relation to Christ and interest in the Covenant of Grace gives them a fundamental right unto it yet it is their orderly walking together in Church-fellowship under the discipline of Christ the care inspection and government of his Church-Ministers that gives them an immediate and orderly right unto it For we never read of any of the Apostles or other Ministers in their days that did or were allowed to receive it but such as were inchurched That it was by the Apostles direction administred and received in the Churches we often find but never that it was so else-where or by Believers out of a Church-state Acts 2.42 ult Acts 20.6 7. 1 Cor. 11.23 24. compared with 1 Cor. 1 2. And Paul tell the Church at Corinth That the Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread that we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.16 17. 5. The Matter of this Ordinance is Bread and Wine Luk. 22.19 Matth. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.23.24 Mark 14.25 Matth. 26.29 It is true that it is but carnal matter and that which is common food among men but it is more than Bread and Wine by Christ's Authority and Appointment when they are set apart by the word of Prayer and by Faith dedicated and sanctified to this use and service in the name and by the Authority of Jesus Christ Quest Why is this Ordinance called the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 10.20 Ans 1. It is called a Supper because it was instituted and celebrated at or about Supper-time The Lord Jesus chose that time rather than another as of his Soveraign Authority will and pleasure who may make appoint and change times and seasons as he will so likewise with respect to the Paschal Lamb or the Passover and the time of the Israelites eating thereof which was done in the Night Exod. 12.8 and also that he might abolish and put an end to that Ordinance at that time of its observation by setting this up in the place and room thereof 2. It is called the Lords Supper 1. Because he did personally and immediately institute it administer and eat it himself Matth. 26.26.27.29 2. Because it is appointed and ordained by him to be a constant memorial pledge of his Death and Sufferings Luk. 22.20 But more of this anon 3. Because it is to be received and celebrated in his Name and to his Glory 1 Cor. 11 2â— We read of several things called by his Name as his Day or the Christian Sabbath Rev. 1.10 The Laws and Commands of Christ are so called Joh. 15.10 So likewise we read of the Table and Cup of the Lord 1 Cor. 10.21 So are the Churches and the Teachers of them called by his Name for the reasons before mentioned Quest What is the nature use and end of the Lords Supper or wherefore is it instituted and given to inchurched Saints as it appears it is Ans I shall answer this question in many particulars only in the general I may say that it is instituted ordained and given to the Churches for Christs glory and their spiritual profit 1. But more particularly 1. To be to them a constant sign and memorial of Christs Death and Sufferings for them We are exceeding prone and very apt to forget the Love of Christ and what he hath done and suffered for us which should be matter of shame and sorrow to us But the Lord Jesus in his great love and care to and of his Churches hath provided proper Remedies for these Maladies and hath appointed his Gospel and the Preaching thereof and also Baptism and the Supper to keep alive in their minds and hearts his Death and Sufferings and to be continual signs tokens and memorials of them unto their Souls Rom. 4.11 Luk. 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 25 26. And as God told Noah Gen. 9.11 17. This is the Token of the Covenant which I have made between me and you I do set my Bow in the Cloud and it shall be for a Token of the Covenant So says Jesus Christ I have entered into Covenant with God in your behalf and in your names to dye and suffer the shameful Death of the Cross for you to redeem you from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 to wash and cleanse you from the guilt and filth of sin to reconcile you unto God and make you acceptable to him Eph. 5.25 26. 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Eph. 1. This I have done for you I took your sins and guilt your death and punishment on my self by assuming your Nature and substituting my self in your stead and I have paid your Debts made you Righteousness 2 Cor. 5. ult have brought you nigh to God by the Sacrifice of my Life And you may not forget it but have it still in your eyes and hearts Behold I have given you this sign token and memorial thereof Here you shall see by Faith your great high Priest sacrificing and offering up himself to attone divine Justice to appease the wrath of God and here you may see how I was
things and actions love and lovely objects irritates and drawes forth love to them and the more lovely beautiful and glorious they are the more forceably and powerfuly they draw as experiences shews and we all know But then are such objects and things most attractive and powerful when they are our own or when we know that we have a right unto and an interest in them Now in the Lord's Supper you have these glorious objects and things handed out to you and sealed to you in particular Take cat this is my body that was broken and this is my blood that was shed for you 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. It speaks to sound-hearted Believers thus Here is your glorious Head and King your Redeemer and Saviour Here is the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for you Here is your Covenant and here are your promises sealed ratified and confirmed and here is free eternal and distinguishing love and grace shewed and given to you Oh! how strongly must this draw their love and how powerfully must this enflame their affections to Jesus Christ For this end it is appointed and this it doth in measure effect in holy hearts 6. It is instituted and appointed to strengthen and nourish inchurched Believers and to make them fat and flourishing in the house of God Psal 92.13 14. Psal 132.13 14 15. Psal 84.4 7. Believers have many grace-weakning and heart-wasting-lusts Snares and Temptations and therefore they have need of such strengthning heart-chearing and grace-nourishing means that they languish not but thrive and prosper in the inner man I have spoken somewhat of this before when I shewed you the priviledges of the Churches and the end for which all Believers should walk in Church fellowship and therefore shall not insist on it here Only let me add that you may find in this Ordinance both Food and Physick Here is as in the hand of an Ordinance food for your Souls and nourishment for your Graces and here is Physick for them also Here is the bread of Life and here is the water and wine of Life to feed and comfort you to fatten and nourish you to build you up and establish you and to make you strong men in Christ to encourage and help you and to make you fruitful in every good work Joh. 6. Col. 1.10 And here is not only food but Heavenly and spiritual Physick too Here you may have Purging and cleansing-Physick and here you may have comforting and refreshing Physick also And you do and still you will need both You need Lusts-purging and Heart-purifying Physick and behold here it is for you Christ gave himself and shed his blood that it might purge cleanse and heal us and that it might in and by his own means be conveyed to us I mean the vertue and efficacy of it for that end Eph. 5.25 26 27. Tit. 2.14 1 Joh. 1.7 9. Now in this Ordinance the purging cleansing and heart-purifying virtue of this blood is handed out and conveyed to the Faith of Believers which the Spirit in Christ's behalf applys and which we for our selves are to apply also The Spirit doth it powerfully and efficasiously and we by Faith are to do it dutifully and so it obtains its Ends on us And as it is purging cleansing and heart-purifying Physick to our Souls so it is Cordial Physick also to refresh and comfort to revive and chear our drooping sad and disconsolate Souls Of this Blood and for this End we may drink freely and constantly Here we may have our fill and drink abundantly according to our needs Here you may Augment your Light Faith Peace Hope Joy Courage Zeal Meekness Love and Patience and here you may obtain a measure of all spiritual good Here you may enrich your Souls with Christ Grace Assurance Experiences and Consolations and here you may obtain the destruction of your Lusts Here you will have the Spirit to feed you with the Bread of Life and here you may grow like a Cedar in Lebanon Psal 92.12 13. Therefore make use of this Ordinance for this blessed End also 7. It is appointed to shew and represent unto us the evil of sin also The great God represents sin to us in many glasses and shews it in and by several means He assures us that it is the Evil of Evils the Plague of Plagues and that it is the root and fountain the sink and sum of all Mischiefs that it is unexpressibly and transcendantly evil Rom. 7.13 That it is the object of his loathing abhorrence and hatred as being that which hath turned glorious Angels into hateful Devils and thrown them out of Heaven into Hell as that which hath defaced and marr'd his Image in men and made them Enemies unto and Rebels against God This he declares to us in and by his Word his Law and Gospel as also by the Judgments he executeth in the Earth on Sinners yea the whole Creation here below do loudly proclaim it But the clearest glass wherein God opens and manifests the odiousness and exceeding sinfulness of sin is Christ's Death and Sufferings which the Lords Supper plainly declares unto us and where we may see it displayed in all its most hateful and abominable colours Here you may by Faith see the exceeding great Evil of it and be provoked and stirred up to Hate and abhor it to eschew and avoyd it For by beholding the Curse and Wrath of God poured out on the Soul and Body of his dear Son Gal. 3.13 and by seeing him Reproached Buffetted Contemned Despised Crucified Hanged Nailed to the Cross Cruelly handled Tortured Tormented Pierced Murdered and above all the weight of divine Vengance pressing his precious Soul and wringing out Bloody Sweats and he pouring out his Soul to Death and all for and under the weight of our Sins and Guilt Surely the sight of this by Faith will greatly raise our hatred of all sin and disswade us from it 8. It is appointed and given to encrease and strengthen our Gospel-Repentance too Here we may look on Him whom we by sin have pierced and mourn and be in bitterness of Soul Zach. 12.10 for here is the Blood of the Scape Goat that is able to break the most stony hearts in the world And we stand in daily need of it for we are in danger every day of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and the world Heb. 3.13 But the Lord's Supper presents to us a heart-melting Object yea many such Objects There we may see heart-melting Love and there we may behold heart-breaking Grace There we may perceive the Lamb of God making Attonement for our sins and there we may understand that the Lord of Glory hath taken off from us our Sins Guilt and Punishment There we may discern him standing in our stead and between the living God and us Condemned dead men with the Censor of the Sanctuary full of his precious Blood making satisfaction for us to divine Justice There we
by you or you may be undone For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own Damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 And if you should eat and drink this holy Supper in an unregenerate and unjustified state be you sure that you will eat and drink damnation to your selves for the Lord hath spoken it This is not a matter to be dallied with 2. Examine your selves if you allow not of some sin and if there be not one lust carnal-self or some one or more Idols indulged and connived in at and by you For should you carelesly overlook this matter and sit down at the Kings Table with any of them in you and wink at it be you assured that the Lord Jesus will not accept and bless you visit you and smile on your Souls but he will loath your offering and hide his face from your Souls Therefore search and see what you can find of any of them in your hearts or hands within or without you For your great Lord searches and tryes you Rev. 2.23 Make an impartial and diligent enquiry into this matter and that with all possible integrity of heart that God may see that you are willing to know the worst of your selves And do as David and others have done in this weighty matter Psal 77.6 make diligent search and entreat the Lord to help you Psal 139. ult Ask your selves and try to purpose do I not wink at and practically allow of Anger Passion Wrath yea of Hastiness Rashness Peevishness and Frowardness Do not I wink at my Pride worldly-mindedness vanity of mind and frothy discourses Do not I hearken to Tatlers and take up Reproaches against the Righteous and do not I Reproach them also by telling to others what I hear Do not I worship God carnally and in a formal and Hypocritical manner and do not I live in the careless neglect of many Religious and Relative duties day after day Am not I a Peace-breaker among my Relations and others by a peevish and quarrelsome Spirit instead of a Peace-maker Am I not guilty of very much luke-warmness and indifferency of spirit in all Duties as also of much idleness and mispending of pretious time Do I not live as a stranger to God and his holy will and in an unacquaintedness with my self and do not I slight my Gospel-mercies and undervalue the good things that God gives me Do I not leave my eternal concerns in doubt and at a great uncertainty and live year after year in the dark about my spiritual state although I have sufficient means to enable me to make a right judgment of them and am enjoyned so to do 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 3. Examine your selves and try if you do act and move in duties by the Spirit of God with and from Divine and Gospel principles Doth the life of Christ animate and quicken you the love of Christ constrain and draw you the light of Christ lead and conduct you and the faith of Christ strengthen and encourage your hearts in them Do you act and worship God with your own Spirit or the holy Spirit of God And do you worship him with special light love faith and sincerity or with common For it is possible you may be mistaken and take the one for the other So likewise you should examine your Aims and Ends what you Intend and Design in receiving of the Lords Supper And you must also enquire what Earnings and Improvements you make of it and what your Spiritual profit is what you meet withall in it and what good you receive from it 2. Whatever Evil you find in your Hearts or Hands you must throw out and Repent of it You must not think it enough and that your Work is done when you have found out the Plagues of your own Hearts 1 Kings 8.38 But you must endeavour the speedy removal of them and thorowly amend your Wayes Jer. 7.3 5. You must confess them to God unfeignedly humble your selves and Repent in Dust and Ashes Job 42.6 2 Chro. 7.14 yea you must also Hate and Abhor them forsake and Mortifie them and resolve to have no more to do with them 3 You must also prepare your selves by emptying the Heart of Carnal-self and the World for else these things will greatly Obstruct your Holy and Profitable receiving of this Ordinance The more the Heart is emptied the more it will Hunger and Thirst after it and the good and profit of it the stronger your Desires will be after Christ and the benefits of his Death the clearer you will see them and the Sweeter they will be unto your Taste The emptier you are of these Heart suffocating Evils the more Desirable Beautiful Acceptable and Pleasant they will be unto your Souls and the greater and more apparant will your Earnings and Advantages be to your Souls As you will abundantly Experience if you make proof of it 4. Prepare for the Worthy and Profitable receiving of this Holy and Soul enriching Ordinance by possessing your Hearts with the Excellency and Goodness the Priviledge and Profit of it Get as clear Apprehensions and Conceptions as you can of the Person the Love Grace and Benefits it holds forth unto you and who it is you go to meet withall there For the clearer your sight is of these things and the more the Heart is possessed and affected with them the more they will stir up and provoke your Faith enflame your Love and draw your Hearts to them The clearer they lye in your Heads your Minds and the warmer they lye on your Hearts the more Influential and forceable they will be on all your Affections and Graces to quicken raise and draw them forth into act and Exercise 5. Prepare by getting a due sight and sense of your own Wants and Weakness your own personal Vileness and Vnworthiness and of your own Sins and Iniquities That the due sight and sense of these Evils may make you Vile in your own Eyes debase and humble your Hearts That you may be truly Base and Vile in your own Eyes and draw nigh to him with a Holy fear and Trembling Esa 66.2 Psal 2.11 That you may go to him and make use of this Ordinance for the supply of your Wants and strengthening your Weaknesses and that you may be sensible of the worth and necessity of Christ's Death for you 6. Get high and great Expectations raised in your Hearts of seeing enjoying and receiving a measure of all the fulness of Christ and his benefits or the fruits of his Death The Lord Jesus will be most free and open handed there to all worthy Receivers and therefore you must not go to it and him with dejected fearful and low Spirits and Hopes But you must go to them with high and great Hopes and Expectations of finding him and receiving high and great things from him Be sure that he would have you do so that it is your Duty and that you shall find him a liberal and noble Benefactor