us Others passed by us and took no notice of us but he looked upon us and behold it was a time of Love with us He threw his Skirt over us and covered our Nakedness and poured Water upon us to wash away our filthiness He Swear unto us and entred into Covenant with us to be ours and we to be his he to be our God and we to be his Peculiar People He hath given Himself his Son his spirit to us Himself to be our God and Portion Jer. 31.31 32 33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts and will be their God and they shall be my People And what Tongue can express What Pen can describe the happiness of that People who have God to be their God David in the 144 Psalm v. 15. says Happy are the People whose God is the Lord. He doth not say how happy for it is beyond express But this we may truly say that all our happiness and felicity and comfort lies in this in having God to be our God If there be no want to them that fear God I am sure there can be none to them that enjoy God who is a Soul-comforting Soul-refreshing Soul-satisfying Object It matters not what our Circumstances and Conditions are here in this World be they never so low and inconsiderable if we have but God for our God we are happy Happy is that People whose God is the Lord. He hath given us not only himself but his Son too John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Given him for us To obey and suffer to bleed and dye and suffer and satisfy for us to rescue and redeem us from those evils and miseries under which we lay viz. the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law by laying down his life for us a life more precious than the lives of all the Angels in Heaven or Men upon Earth Not only given him for us but given him to us to be believed in and rested upon for Life and Salvation to dwell in us and be united to us to be made of God Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption to be to us and do for us all that God hath appointed and designed him to be Again he hath not only given us himself and Son but his Spirit also to us To open our Eyes to enlighten our Minds to incline our Wills to change our Hearts to Turn and Convert us to himself To convince of Sin to lead to Christ to be the guid of our ways to be the death of our sins to quicken and enliven and strengthen our Graces To witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God To comfort us in all our Troubles to succour us in all our Temptations to resolve us in all our Doubts to help us against all our Infirmities To conduct us safe through this evil World and to seal us up to the day of Redemption But yet farther he gives us liberty to wait upon him in the solemn Dutys of his Worship He gives us Praying seasons and Hearing seasons and Communicating seasons for the carrying on begun Grace in our Souls Thus richly doth he furnish our Table in this howling Desart and bountifully provides for us in a strange Land We have not only Food for our Bodies but Food for our Souls not only the Bread that perisheth but that which endures to Everlasting Life The Lamb is slain and behold all things are ready The Marriage Supper is prepared and a welcome ready for all that come to it This is Christ's language to all his guests O friends drink ye eat â—e drink and eat abundantly O beloved And what do you think is the matter of this Feast Why it is Christ with all his saving Benefits even Peace and Pardon and Comfort This is the Gospel Feast unto which poor Sinners are invited The Lord Jesus Christ is both the master and the matter of this Feast This is that Bread which came down from Heaven which is othergates Food than that Manna was which fell in the Wilderness of which it is said Our Fathers did eat and they are dead but whosoever eateth of this Bread lives for ever John 6.48 49 50. This is the Lamb that was slain from the Foundations of the World whose Flesh is Meat indeed and whose Blood is Drink indeed Thus bountifully hath God provided for our Souls we have not only the sincere Milk of the Word that we may grow thereby but more substantial Food even that sealing strengthening confirming Ordinance of the Lords Supper where Christ and all his Benefits are represented sealed and applied to Belivers who was not only offered up upon the Cross for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice and the expiation of our Sins but offered upon the Table for the satisfying our guilty minds and for the Food and Nourishment of our Souls Here it is that we may take a view of Christ's dying love Here we see him Bruised and Broken and Bleeding for our sakes and for our Sins Here we may see him broken and bruised by his Father in the day of his great Wrath when his Body was torn his Soul in a dreadful Agony his side pierced his Blood shed these are in a most lively manner represented by the breakof the Bread and pouring out of the Wine Here is a Wounded Broken Bleeding Jesus represented to us The Elements in this Sacrament signifie and set forth the unconceivable Sufferings of our blessed Lord both in his â—ody and in his Soul The Bread signifies the Sufferings of his Body And the Wine which is a representation of his Blood the Agonvs of his Soul because the Spirits whereby the Soul acts are in the Blood All the Sacraments that ever were instituted since Adams fall to this very day both ordinary and extraordinary both Old Testament and New Testament Sacraments they all of them principally represent and point at Jesus and him Crucified Adams Sacrifices were Types of Christ the true Sacrifice Circumcision a pledge of our Hearts Circumcision thro' Christs Blood Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ The Passover was a token and Type of Christ our Passover Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Baptism this doth point at the Death of Christ we are said by Baptism to be Baptised into Christ and into his Death Rom. 6.3 4 5. And the Lords Supper is a most lively representation of the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew the Lords death till he come This is a standing memorial and a lasting monument of our blessed Lords love in bleeding
to have a recourse to this blood of Christ for the removal of it and under the daily sense and feeling of the working of innate inbred Corruption we are to have a daily recourse unto this blood of Christ that it may be subdued we are to eye the Death of Christ for sanctification as well as for Justification for Mortification and killing of Lust as well as for the taking away and removal of Guilt Alas we are no more able to subdue our own Lusts than we are to remove our own Guilt but are as much beholden to Christ for the one as for the other In a word throughout the whole of our Christian Race and Course our eye must be unto Christ Looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith Every day by fresh acts of Faith casting and committing all the concernments of our Souls into the hands of our dear Redeemer This is to walk fiducially and thus we are to walk after this Supper One end of which Supper was for the strengthening of Grace in our Souls not only for the inflaming our Love but for the strengthning our Faith Not only that our love to him might wax hotter and hotter but that our Faith in him and Relyance upon him might be stronger and stronger 5. VVe must walk with a greater hatred of and indignation against sin VVe have been Commemorating a Crucifyed Bleeding Dying Jesus And pray what was the occasion of this shameful ignominious and Reproachful Death Why it was sin But not any sin of his own that he was brought to this Death and Sufferings but for the sins of his People The Lord laid upon him the Iniquity of his People Isa 53. And there was not only an act of God the Father in laying these sins upon Christ but there was also Christ's own voluntary consent to take them upon him So that it was sin the sins of his Elect People that he took upon him which was the occasion of his bitter Sufferings He was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities Ay and these were far more wounding and painful to him than was the piercing of his natural Side with the Souldier's Spear This was that which occasion'd that Agony of Body and Anguish of soul even the Wrath and Displeasure of God manifested against the sins which he bare And who of us is able to conceive of that which he felt of that Torment he felt in his Body and of that Anguish he felt in his soul. My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely fin must be an exceeding great evil which was the occasion of so great Sufferings And indeed there is no Glass doth so fully and clearly discover to us the evil and heinous nature of sin as the Glass of Christs Death and Sufferings Now in this Supper Ordinance we have a lively Representation of a broken Crucifyed Christ broken and Crucified for our sins his Body broken and his Blood shed for our sins this is that which our Faith is to eye in our participation of this Ordinance Have we seen Christ in this Ordinance Broken and Crucifyed and bruised for our sins and shall we dare to live in sin Is this a walk suteable and becoming those that have been at the Table of the Lord Suteable to those expressions of Love that are manifested or suteable to those Mysteries that are tendered there or to those great Benefits that are represented there Surely no After we have been at this Table we come under deeper Obligations of abandoning and hating sin than before Have we received the Lord's Supper as a Seal of the Remission of our sins And shall we dare after this Supper to fall a-fresh into the Commission of the same sins What is this but to prophane the Blood of the Covenant and to trample under foot the Blood of the son of God And is this our kindness to our Friend who so freely parted with his Life and Hearts-blood Surely they greatly mistake the nature and end of this Supper that go from it with a purpose to return to their Vice and Wickedness and use it only for a Protection and Tolleration for their sins It is a sure and certain sign that our hearts were never rightly and truly humbled and broken for sin before we came to this supper if there be any secret purposes and resolutions kept up and maintained in our Souls of returning to our sins afterwards If it was necessary to bring bleeding hearts to this Ordinance then certainly it is as necessary to carry away broken and bleeding hearts for sin from it especially when we have had such an affecting sight presented to us viz. a Christ bruised and broken for our sins Methinks every time we partake of this Ordinance it should stir up in us a greater abhorrency and hatred of sin than ever O consider what wrath our sins did derive upon Christ in order to the kindling our hatred and indignation against them What shall we make light of that which Christ found so heavy and heinous which fetched from him such great drops of Blood and extorted from him so bitter and dreadful a Lamentation My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Did Christ shed all his Hearts-blood for thy sins and dost thou think much to shed a few Penitential Tears for them Or wilt thou hug such a Viper in thy bosom which was such a sting in the heart of thy Saviour Wilt thou pretend to have had Fellowship with Christ in this Ordinance and afterward hold fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness What a contradiction is this 6. We must walk with a greater weanedness of affection from the World God forbid says the Apostle that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by which the world is crucifyed to me and I unto the world Gal. 6.14 He was arrived to such an holy indifferency as to care no more for the World than the World cared for him and this he did through the Cross of Christ Remembring how the World dealt with Christ and how little he regarded the World Now shall we who have been so lately Celebrating and Commemorating the Death and Crucifixion of Christ love that and cleave to that which dealt so unkindly by him or esteem that which was so little esteemed by him Is this a walk worthy of his Dying-Love no this is no way becoming those that have been entertained at this Table Therefore where we see Persons after they have been at this Table conforming to the World to the Fashions and Vanities thereof their Hearts and Affections glued to the World and the Things of the World persuing after it with the greatest vehemency and eagerness why this is such a kind of walking as is no way suteable and becoming the Guests of Christ
and dying for us and is to continue to the end of the World even till the coming of our Lord to Judgment So that Christ and his Death Christ as Crucified is that which is represented and pointed at in this Sacrament Here it is that Christ Jesus is as it were afresh Crucified before our eyes bruised by his Father pierced by the Souldiers bleeding for our sins Here is a sweet love-token indeed betwixt Christ and his Church betwixt Christ and Believers What greater love can be imagined than to dye for us Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend Ay but here was greater love than this here was Blood shed and a Life laid down for very Enemies This Ordinance may truly be stiled a Love Feast Every thing in it speaks love The Mysteries in it speak love Here is Christ's Body not whole but broken Christ's Blood not in his veins but shed and freely poured out for poor sinners The benefits intended to us by it speak great love Here is compleat Provision and full Nourishment for our Souls for our Faith and all the graces of the inward man intended by it A fresh seal of the Pardon of our Sins in the Blood of Christ Fuller and clearer discoverys of God's reconciled face in and thro the Attoning Blood of the Lord Jesus that Blood of the Everlasting Covenant A more full confirmation and a more close application of the New Covenant and all the Promises Comforts Benefits and Priviledges thereof to our Souls and a more full Communion with Christ in his Grace and fullness in his Death and Sufferings in his great Undertakings and glorious Transactions in his high Dignitys and Relations in his great Victorys and Atchievements and in those necessary offices of Prophet Priest and King to his Church these are some of the great benefits that are intended to us by this Ordinance Now we that have been so lately entertained at this Table of the Lord that have or might have been feasting and satiateing our Souls upon this Banquet of Christs love it behooves and concerns every one of us to walk worthy of the Lord unto all-pleasing to walk worthy of this love of Christ in doing and suffering in bleeding and dying for us That is to walk suitably and some way becoming those expressions of love that have been exhibited and represented to us in this Ordinance I say it highly concerns every one of us who have been feasting at this Banquet of Christs love it concerns us to keep up and maintain a suitable and becoming walk after it Remembring that it is not enough to Eat and Drink worthily at this Supper but we must also walk worthily after this Supper we have oftentimes bills put up for a prepared heart and a suitable frame that persons may come prepared to this Ordinance of the Lords Supper that they may not eat and drink unworthily But I do not remember that ever I saw a bill for a suitable walk and behaviour afterward It is not enough that we duely prepare before act worthily in but we must also walk suitably after Communicating And there is as much need to put up a Prayer and to dispatch a cry to Heaven that we may walk worthily after as well as come preparedly to this Supper By walking worthily I mean no more than walking suitably and becomingly But here it may be asked what is this suitable walking or wherein doth it consist or how is it that we are to walk after this Supper Ordinance To this we shall answer I. More Generally II. More Particularly I. The general answer to this is more Holily after this Supper of the Lord we are to walk more Holily Now to this holy walking there must be a Principle of Grace wrought in the heart I say before there can be any holiness in the life we must first suppose that there be Grace in the heart A person must be holy before his actions can be holy For till a Man be Regenerated and act from a Principle of Grace in his heart all he doth is but the shadow and imperfect imiation of a good action as an Ape would imitate a Man or as an artificial motion doth resemble that which is natural Grace must first be infused to beget life and then we are visibly to express it in a course of godly walking And then there must not be only a Principle from which we must walk but there must be a Rule by which we must walk and that is the Law or Word of God which meets and sets out the bounds of Sin and Duty which tells us what evil we are to decline and shun and what good we are to prosecute and persue Now there is a twofold Holiness Internal and External Internal which lies in the hatred of sin and a love of that which is good External and that is expressed in avoiding of the one and persuing after the other Now this Holy Walk doth consist in a careful avoiding that which is evil and sinful and in an eager persuite after that which is good It hath two parts The one Privative The other Possitive The Privative part which is called Mortification or a dying to sin The Possitive part which is called Vivification or a living unto Righteousness The one is the purging out of Sin the other is the spiritual refining of the Soul The one is a ceasing to do evil the other is a learning to do well The one is a strenuous opposition of Sin the other is a vigorous exercise of all Grace Now after this Supper Ordinance we are to walk more Holily To hate sin more than ever and to love God and Christ and the things that are spiritually good more than ever To dye more unto Sin and to live more unto Righteousness It is true we cannot be more Elected we cannot be more justified after Communicating than we were before But we may and ought to be more sanctified than before Sanctification is a progressive thing it is compared to seed that grows first the blade springs up then the ear then the ripe Corn. We are not so much sanctified but we may be more sanctified We do not walk so holily but we may walk more holily still there is none so good but he may be better 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. So I may say having these love Banquets these Sacrament seasons and Supper Ordinances dearly beloved time after time returning upon us let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Tho' Justification doth not admit of Degrees yet Sanctification doth that is still encreasing like the shining light or Morning Sun that shines more and more and brighter and brighter unto the perfect Day Prov. 4.18 and should be daily growing more
which we are to express our Thankfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ for what he hath done and suffered for us by often thinking of it our selves or speaking of it to others to the eternal praise and renown of our dear Redeemer 2. Another way by which we are to express our Thankfulness is by magnifying and setting an high esteem and value upon what he hath done for us Estimation of Benefits received is one way of expressing our Thankfulness for them Unthankfulness always lessens and vilifyes and makes light of a kindness or benefit received as Israel did the Manna Numb 21.5 And the People spake against God and against Moses Wherefore have you brought us up out of Aegypt to dye in the wilderness for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread Numb 11.5.6 We remember the fish we did freely eat in Aegypt the Cucumbers and the Melons and the Leeks c. but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all besides this Mannah before our eyes Oh what unthankful ungrateful People were these to make light of such excellent Food which yeilded such excellent nourishment and in the strength of which they were able to go so many and such tedious Journeys Their entertaining such base low mean thoughts of it argued their great unthankfulness for it Thus unthankful wretches do by Christ even as these Israelites did by the Mannah they make but light of Christ the greatest Gift that God could have bestowed upon the Sons of Men. But yet at the same time they despise both Giver and Gift it self by despising the Gift they affront the Giver They see no lovelyness no beauty no excellency in Christ that they should desire him What is thy beloved more than another beloved was the Answer to the Spouse when she was so earnestly enquiring after her Beloved Cant. 5.10 A Lust a Pleasure is by many preferred before Christ A Lust that will Damn them before a Saviour that will Save them A Carnal Pleasure shall be embraced when Christ and his Benefits shall be despised this argues great Ingratitude and Unthankfulness vilifies and lessens both the Person that shews the kindness and the kindness it self when as true Thankfulness esteems and values both Person and Benefit both he that hath done and what he hath done for us Now this way we are to express our Thanfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ by our esteem of him and the Benefits we receive by him Now what esteem have we for Christ Do we esteem him as the Apostle did who desired and determined to know nothing else but Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 He looked upon all other knowledge as vain and unprofitable in comparison of Christ and him Crucifyed this shewed his value and esteem for Christ And such an esteem had he for Christ that he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ yea all things but dung that he might win Christ and be sound in him Phil. 3.8 9. He could despise and trample upon the pleasures and profits and preferments of this present World that he might but win Christ and be found in him Endure and undergo the greatest hardships and sufferings for the Name and sake of Christ The greatest of his glorying and boasting was in a Crucifyed Jesus God forbid says he that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Jesus Christ by which the world is crucifyed unto me and I unto the world Nothing had that place in his esteem as Christ's had And then is our esteem of Christ right indeed when we esteem him above all and before all above Estate above Relations above all other outward comforts and conveniencies when we are willing to let go all for Christ I am sure there is that worth and excellency in Christ both Personal and Relative whether we consider him as he is in himself or in those comfortable relations he stands in to his People I say consider him which way we will in his Offices in his Grace and Fullness in his Honours and Glorious Titles and there is that in Christ which truly deserves our greatest and highest esteem Thus we are to express our Thankfulness by our high Esteem of Christ of his Person and as of his Person so of his Deeds and Actions of what he hath done and suffered for us and the great Benefits that issue and proceed from thence Is it not wonderful that a Person so high and honourable so excellent and glorious that the Son of God and God by Nature who was equal with God in Glory Wisdom and Power and in all other Divine Excellencies and Perfections that he should suffer this Glory of his to lie obscure for a time under the Vail of his Humane Nature That a Person so far above and beyond us should come and joyn himself to us Marry into such a poor broken beggarly Family as ours That he who was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law under the Observation of the Law to fulfil the Righteousness thereof and under the Malediction of the Law to undergo the Penalty and Curse of it That the Judge of Quick and Dead should become Undertaker for Guilty Condemned Wretches That he who knew no sin should be made sin and submit to be dealt with as if he had been the Chiefe of Sinners bruised and broken upon the Wheel of Divine Wrath Reproached and Vilifyed by Men forsaken of his Father vir dolorum a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief O the pains of Body and the anguish of Spirit that he underwent the wearysome Life and at last the Painful and Accursed Death that he endured and all this to save an handful that were not worth the looking after or taking notice of who neither desired it nor deserved it Well might it be said That he had mercy upon whom he will have mercy and that he loved us because he loved us Alas Who are we or what are we that Christ should fix his heart's Love upon us Would we know what we were why lost undone miserable Sinners Enemies nay Enmity it self dead in Trespasses and Sin in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity Many of them for whom Christ hath done and suffer'd such things were it may be Blasphemers Persecutors and Injurious to Christ and his Followers Such an one was that eminent Servant of Christ the Apostle Paul as he himself acknowledges 1 Tim. 1.12.13 And I thank Jesus Christ who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious but I obtained mercy c. Some of them it may be have been guilty of the foulest and grossest Sins as some of the Corinthians were Fornicators Idolaters Adulterérs Thieves Drunkards c. yet these obtained Mercy were Washed were Sanctifyed were Justifyed in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God as we
read 1 Cor. 6.9 11. Even then when there was nothing but unworthyness and abominableness in us did Christ-dye for us Now is this a thing to be made light of or to be lightly esteemed of by us this argues us to be the most ungrateful unthankful wretches living upon the Face of the Earth The very Angels stand and wonder and vent their astonishment at what Christ hath done for us And shall not we admire at it our selves Never was there such love manifested before nor since Greater love than this hath no Man than that a Man lay down his life for his friends John 15.13 But Christ hath evidenced greater than this in doing and dying and laying down his Life for his Enemies Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his Life for us What for us Friends no but for us Enemies Rom. 5.10 nay for us Enmity it self Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God Was ever love like this love The Apostle Prays for the Ephesians That they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.18 19. Here are Four Dimensions that the Apostle measures this love of Christ by Phylosophy knows but Three viz. Longitudo Latitudo Profunditas Length Breadth and Depth But Divinity adds a Fourth viz. Altitudo Height To intimate that Christ's Love is beyond all ordinary Measure and Dimensions There is Depth in it says †Roberts Communicant p. 186. one without bottom There is Height in it without top Breadth in it without side and Length in it without end Yea it infinitely surpasseth the capacity and grasp of a finite limited understanding to comprehend and take in And O that every one of us who have been so lately Celebrating and Commemorating the Death and Sufferings of our Loving Lord that have had such Lively Representations of what he hath been doing and suffering for us may find our esteem in some measure and degree answerable and proportionable to the love that was manifested and evidenced in it But yet farther there is another consideration in what Christ hath done and suffered which if rightly and duely weighed might be a means of raising and heightning our esteem of it and that is the sufficiency efficacy acceptableness and merit of his Obedience and Sufferings This was an odour of a sweet smell most acceptable to God The Law was fully answered and Divine Justice was fully satisfied in their fullest and highest demands Tho' his Sufferings were but short yet what was wanting in the duration of them was infinitely and abundantly made up in the dignity and excellency of the Person that suffered for it was infinitely more that the Son of God should suffer one moment than if all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth had suffered to Eternity Such a sufficiency there is in what Christ hath done and suffered that there needs nothing more to be done nothing more to be suffered in a way of satisfaction to the Justice of God for he by once offering up of himself hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 There needs no more sacrifice for sin There is sufficiency enough in the Death and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to procure pardon for the greatest of sins and the chiefest of sinners to redeem and save the whole World nay ten thousand Worlds And if it should be asked why are not then all redeemed and saved To this I answer it is not upon the account of any insufficiency of the Blood of Christ for it is sufficient to have redeemed as many Worlds as there be Stars in the Firmament it was sufficient to have redeemed all but it was not shed for all but only those that the Father from all Eternity gave to him For these and these only it was shed to these and these only it becomes effectual unto redemption and Salvation It pleased the Father from all Eternity to elect some to everlasting life these in the Covenant of Redemption he gave to Christ to redeem and save these Christ undertook and engaged for in that same Covenant transaction for these he dyed and suffered and shed his hearts Blood which was a sufficient price for their redemption it being the blood of that Person who was God as well as Man The dignity of the Person was that which highly dignified his Passion This was that which put such an All-sufficiency into the Death and Blood of Christ that made it sufficient for all the ends for which it was designed O that poor trembling souls and misgiving hearts would consider of this and take hold of it and plead it against all the accusations of the Law against all the accusations of Conscience against all the subtile charges of the Devil Poor Soul it may be thou art terrified and amazed at the sight and sense of thy sinfulness and guiltiness it may be many doubts and fears and scruples are ready to arise in thy mind whether ever God will look upon or accept of or receive into favour such an one as thou art but know this for thy comfort whoever thou art that there cannot be so much Unrighteousness in thee to render thee loathsome but there is more Righteousness in Christ to render thee lovely in the sight of God There is sufficiency enough in what Christ hath done and suffered to procure God's favour and acceptance only do thou stedfastly rely upon it and put thy whole trust in it never did any miscarry who ventured their all upon this bottom There is sufficiency enough in the Blood of Christ to procure pardon for as many sins as there are moments in thy Life or thoughts in thy heart Be thy sins never so many for multitude or never so great for aggravation yet the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Unrighteousness Not only from lesser but from greater Transgressions not only from some but from all Unrighteousness Tho it is true there is one sin which is called a sin unto Death or the unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven neither in this Life nor that which is to come and that is the sin against the Holy Ghost But it is not upon the account of any insufficiency in the Blood of Christ that this sin is Unpardonable but he that sins this sin is rendered altogether uncapable of laying hold of or applying the Remedy viz. the Blood of Christ which in it self is sufficient to cleanse from all Unrighteousness The last consideration is the blessed Benefits that do issue and proceed from hence and so we are to express our Thankfulness by an high esteem of them Hereby sinners are Justified and sin purged away the guilt of sin that was so wounding to the Conscience is removed Hereby enemies to God are reconciled and peace with God procured the distance nay the enmity is removed and God and the Soul walk
together as those that be well agreed God and the Soul holding a most delightful converse with each other whereas there was a shiness before now there is access with the greatest freedom and boldness Hereby Death and he that had the power of Death that is the Devil with all Principalities and Powers are subdued the Kingdom and Interest of Sin and Satan overthrown in the Soul and freedom from spiritual thrauldom is obtained The Son having made us free we are become free indeed These are great priviledges and O that our esteem of them were some way answerable to the greatness of them Tho' we come easily by them yet they cost Christ dear to purchase He was at a greater expense to Redeem one Soul than he was to create a whole World the one was done by the word of his Power he spake and it was done but the other is done by the blood of his heart and he must dye before it be done His life must be laid down a life more worth than all the lives of Men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven They came freely unto us but he must dye and suffer to purchase and procure them O that our Souls may with Mary magnifie the Lord who hath regarded the low estate of his servants for he that is mighty hath done great things for us 3. Another way by which we are to express our Thankfulness is by rendering again according to the Benefits we have received But when F speak of rendering back again according to the benefit received I do not mean in a way of recompense but in token of our Thankfulness Alas we are in no capacity of recompensing or making him amends for his kindness to us his love in doing and dying for us infinitely exceeds all our returns There is more proportion betwixt the light and heat of a Spark to the light and heat of the Sun than there is between his kindness and our returns When we have done all we can and suffered all we can for him it is nothing to what he hath done and suffered for us But tho' we cannot make proportionable returns yet we are to make suteable and becoming returns for the Mercys and Benefits we have received from him It is said in 2 Chron. 32.25 That Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit he had received That is he did not make suteable and becoming returns for the great benefits he had received viz. that wonderful Victory he obtained over the Assirian Army mentioned in the 25. vers And that miraculous restoration and recovery from a very dangerous illness and the confirmation of that work by a strange and supernatural motion of the Sun All which instead of keeping him low and humble probably raised him up to an high conceit and opinion of himself as if these great things had been done if not by his own power yet at least for his Piety and goodness And instead of walking humbly with his God and giving the glory of all intirely and wholly to God he took the honour to himself and vainly shewed his Riches and precious Treasures to the Babylonish Ambassadors Now this was not a return any way suteable or becoming the great benefits he had so lately received So that I say tho' we cannot make proportionable returns yet we must look to it that we make suteable returns to our loving Jesus for the great and wonderful benefits we are made partakers of in and thro' him That as his heart was enlarged in love and pity and conpassion towards us so our hearts should be enlarged in returns to him We should be putting that question to our own Souls which holy David did to his Psal 116.12 What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us But here it may be asked what is it that we ought to render unto the Lord Jesus for those expressions of his love in doing and suffering for us and for all the great and blessed benefits that do flow and proceed from hence To this I Answer We must and ought to render our whole selves to him Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercys of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Here is an Exhortation and the motive or argument by which he doth urge it The Exhortation and that is to present our Bodies a living Sacrifice Holy acceptable to God or to give dedicate devote or offer up our whole selves Souls and Bodies unto God It is true the Body is only mentioned but the Soul must not be excluded it is a Synechdochical expression where a part is put for the whole That then which we are to render unto Christ in token of our Thankfulness and gratitude is our whole selves Souls and Bodies all that we are and have to live to him to suffer for him when ever he shall call us out thereto to be saved by him and not only so but to be ruled and governed by him Submitting our selves to the conduct of his wife Providence and to the laws and rules of his most Spiritual Government That is to say when no Lust or Corruption bears Rule or Sway in our hearts but when every thing within us and every thing without us is captivated and brought over to the obedience to the Lord Jesus When Christ by his Spirit makes entrance into our hearts and takes full possession of all the powers and faculties of our Souls and of all the members of our Bodies that whereas they have once been strongly and deeply engaged in the ways and service of Sin they become now as deeply and strongly engaged for Christ and in his ways and Service As when we see a Person in the full height and carreer of sin prosecuting with all his might his carnal corrupted desires and designes at the beck and command of that corrupt Principle that is within him employing that Reason and Understauding and Parts which God hath endowed him with in the contrivance of any sinful thing or action his power and strength for the perfecting and accomplishing and obtaining what he had so contrived and plotted why such a Person may be said to be given up to his Lusts and Corruptions but not to Christ So on the other hand where we see a Person at the beck and command of Christ employing his Reason and Understanding his Strength and Parts for the Honour and Glory of Christ obedient to and complying with every call and command of Christ industriously prosecuting the Glory of Christ as the great end of Life heartily submitting to his Laws and Commands as the great and only Rule of Life why such a Person may truly be said to be given up to Christ The Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 8.5 speaks there of Persons that had given up themselves to Christ and speaks it in praise of the Macedonians This they did says he Why what did they do why they did liberally
Damnation to themselves when Persons in their eating and drinking at this Table look no farther than at what presents its self to the eye of the Body at the outward signs and Elements only not discerning the broken Body and the shed Blood of Christ to be wrapped up in them and represented by them Putting no difference between the Sacramental Bread and Wine and common bread and wine putting no difference between the Body and Blood of Christ and the body and blood of a meer Man Between Bread Representing the Body of Christ and bread the ordinary staff of Life Between Wine as representing the Blood of Christ and Wine that is the ordidary Cordial and refreshment to the natural Spirits Why such a person when he cats and drinks at this Table eats and drinks unworthily not discerning the Lord's Body Eats the Bread and drinks the Wine but doth not cat the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually And well may he be said to eat and drink unworthily because by thus eating and drinking he violates in those outward Signs and Elements the honour and regard due to the Majesty and Glory and Merit of the Lord Jesus Christ Now Faith is that eye which pierceth through the Clouds and Shadows of the outward Signs and Elements to those Heavenly great and glorious Mysteries in and beyond them even Christ's Body broken and his Blood shed for us Christ's Sweating drops of Blood in the Garden and dying a Painful Shameful and Accursed Death upon the Cross Faith eyes the great and wonderful Mysteries that are in this Death and the great Benefits slowing from thence to Believers Faith gives us a discerning of these things in the Supper not a Speculative discerning but a Spiritual and Practical apprehension of them such as stirreth up sutable reverence and holy Affections as if we had seen him hang bleeding upon the Cross Sweating under that load and burden of Divine Wrath and Displeasure due to the sins of the Elect World which he bare the least of which would have broken the back of the Whole Creation to have stood under it Many a Man may be able to Discourse very well and understandingly about these Great Mysteries of the Supper To tell what is the meaning of the Bread and what the meaning of the Wine is that have no Spiritual discerning but is meerly the Fruit of an Historical Faith or Tradition that is current in the Age or Country he lives in But Faith gives a Spiritual Discerning such a sight and sense of these great Mysteries as doth impress an holy dread and a we upon the Soul and an holy rejoycing and delighting in the Soul So that upon this account we see what great need there is of Faith in our Receiving and Partaking of this Supper Again There is great need of Faith and work for Faith in this Ordinance to reconcile us to the meanness and despicableness as to outward appearance of this as well as other Ordinances of Christ Ordinances are simple in appearance and therefore the Creature is ready to carp at them It is a Saying of one Nihil adeo offendit hominum mentes ac simplicitas divinorum operum c. There is nothing doth so much offend the Minds of Men as the Simplicity of God's Ordinances As in Baptism there is but a little common Water And what can this do to cleanse the Soul from Sin So in the Lord's Supper there is but a little Morsel of Bread and a small Draught of VVine a poor Feast to a Carnal Man Carnal and corrupted Reason is greatly prejudiced stumbled and offended at so mean and despicable an appearance Therefore see the need of Faith and the Great Work for Faith in this Ordinance How mean and despicable soever these may seem as to out ward appearance yet they are high and Mysterious Instruments of our Peace Growth and Comfort And altho' Carnal Sense and Corrupted Reason cannot see it yet Faith doth How mean soever as to outward appearance these may seem yet Faith eyes the Institution and Blessing that goes along with them And where the Institutions of Christ are attended with his own Blessing there Ordinances though never so simple in appearance yet shall become effectual for producing great Effects and for obtaining high and glorious Ends. Lastly There is great need of Faith and Work for Faith in this Ordinance for a real and close application of those great Benefits and Mysteries that are represented to us and discerned by us in this Ordinance Faith is not only the Spiritual eye of the Soul whereby we discern Christ Crucifyed and the Mysteries and Merits and Benefits of his Death in this Supper Vailed under the outward Signes and Ellements but it is also the Spiritual hand of the Soul whereby we take Christ his Merits and Benefits offered and tendered to us in this Supper and apply to our own Souls benefit comfort and advantage Of what advantage will the finest dainties be that can possibly be provided for nourishment and refreshment if not fed upon and digested by us Or the most excellent Medicine that ever was compounded Of what advantage will it be to a Sick Person for Health and Recovery if he do not take it and apply it So of no more avail or advantage would Christ be and all his excellent Benefits to us in this Ordinance without a real and close application of them to our own Souls unless taken and received fed upon and digested and this must be the work of Faith to take and eat to take and drink VVhat Bread and VVine only no these are the least matters but Christ's Body and Blood also and all the Benefits thereof must by Faith be taken and received eaten and digested to our Spiritual Nourishment and growth in Grace This may suffice to shew the great need that there is of Faith and the great Work that there is for Faith in our partaking of this Supper There is also great work for Faith after our receiving and partaking and that is stedfastly to rely upon what Christ hath done and Suffered for us upon his Righteousness and Satisfaction upon the efficacy and sufficiency of his Death and Sufferings of his Blood and Merit all which have been in a most lively manner exhibited and represented to us in this Supper And our work and business is to walk with a fiducial dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ in every act and duty of worship for access to God for asistance from God In every fresh perplexity of Mind doth Satan accuse Conscience accuse the Law accuse why yes it may be all these accuse us why then our work and business is to plead the fulness of Christ's satisfaction and the sufficiency of his Merit against all these charges and accusations and here is enough in this Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ to answer all And the great work of Faith is to rely and depend upon it Under a fresh sense and feeling of Guilt we are