willing is the Almighty the Soul be out of doubt of its Sanctification here and Salvation hereafter To which God of his infinite mercy for the merits of his Son by the conduct of his holy Spirit at last bring us Amen The End of the First Sermon The Second SERMON On Micah 2.7 Is the Spirit of the Lord straitned July the 20th 1673 Do not my words do good to him that walketh upright or uprightly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Word spoken upon his Wheels is like Apples of Gold in pictures of Silver I may say of this 'T is verbum super rotas a word in season then will the Sermon be most profitable when the subject is most seasonable The Text is like a well-drawn picture it hath an eye on every man as you will see anon I shall draw aside the curtain that so you may view it and it may view you I will waste no time in the beginning that I may want no time in the end I am shewing when this Ordinance of the Supper doth work for the Saints benefit and advantage I have hinted seven and shall now proceed methodically unto the eighth in order of which succinctly For enough is better than all 8 Then doth this Ordinance work for your good when your Souls are more corroborated and strengthned and your power is more encreased Observe it pray The Ministry of the Word begets spiritual life The Sacrament preserves and increaseth spiritual life The Word lays the Basis or Foundation of Grace the Sacrament carries on the Building The Word is instituted to implant Grace to work the truth of Grace where it is not The Sacrament is to promote the growth of it where it is The Ministry of the Word is a converting Ordinance the Sacrament is a confirming Ordinance That 's the breeding and this the feeding Ordinance If now you come to the Lords Table very weak your Graces very feeble your Faith and Love and other Graces very little If it may be said of you as it was of the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.8 Thou hast but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little strength and then you go away stronger your Faith more encreased your hope more quickened your obediential and penitential resolutions more strengthned your corruptions more easily subdued temptations more easily repulsed your assections more raised and enlarged your hearts more established duties more spiritually performed the world more easily conquered and vanquished If now you find your selves more able to do to suffer for God or from God if now you are more fitted for active and passive obedience if you can go thorow all Christian duties with more alacrity and cheerfulness if you can apply the promises and live by Faith upon the Fatherly providence and faithful promises of God When thus you find it then hath this Ordinance been doing you good 9 When at and by the Sacrament your love to Jesus Christ is more enflamed when this little drop swells into an Ocean and this spark becomes a flame when it may be said of your love to God to Christ to his way day people Ordinances as is said of the Waters of the Sanctuary Ezek. 47.3 4 5. that 't is still higher and higher from the ankles to the knees thence to the loins and then unpassable so in the present case Is it possible we should be such constant Guests at the Lords-Table and daily see before our eyes a crucified Christ and yet go thence with so little love to him and longings after him Can we fee so much love in his heart to us and shall we be contented with so little love in our hearts to him Per vulnera videmus viscera 'T is an heart of Adamant that will neither impendere nor rependere which will neither begin in love nor love him then who has thus begun Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us in bestowing his Son upon us We call not upon people to behold things common and ordinary Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great love Eph. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love passing knowledg Heart-warming words indeed See Ephes 3.19 He laid down his precious life and dearest blood for us he died Nostro loco in our place and stead Nostro commodo for our benefit and good for our sin as the meritorious cause and for our good as the final cause Dan. 9.26 1 Pet. 3.18 Greater love than this can no man shew Did ever Mother love her own Child so as to wash it in her own blood thus lov'd he us Rev. 1.5 God so loved the world so How 's that so wonderfully so infinitely so but I cannot tell you how and therefore must leave it so admiring and not once attempting to express it but the Son of God can Even as the Father loved me so have I loved you Joh. 15.9 Here was the highest purest freest sweetest and choicest love that ever was in the world We conclude they love us who will speak kindly and courteously to us or a word in season for us much more if they will hazzard their lives and fortunes by espousing our cause and quarrel did not our dear Redeemer all this and more Lord now says the poor Christian thou hast laid down thy life and thereby hast manifested thy love to me Now will I part with my dearest lusts I will be their death and so shew my love to thee shall a damning lust live and a saving Christ die Shall the man die that kills my Son or Father and shall my Sin live which slays my Saviour Well if I can do no more I will do no less than love thee my dearest Lord with all my heart and might and strength The more vile thou wast made for me the dearer to my dying day shalt thou be unto me When thus it works then it does you good indeed 10 When your hearts which were before at a distance from him are by it drawn nearer to him and your desires are more drawn out after him There is a twofold distance between God and Man The one is natural as he is the Creator Man a creature He infinite Man finite this is an infinite distance The other is Moral as he is Holy and Man impure this is a greater distance than the former if we may suppose an infinito infinitius By nature we are all afar off from God n = * Non intervallo locorum sed pravitate morum by Grace through Christ we are made nigh Ephes 2.13 yet nigher we may be by much than yet we are and 't is our great business in every Ordinance to get nearer to him if you scan that famous place Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart If now we find our confidence drawn more out after him and that we can rest more upon him and trust more in him if for what our Souls want we can with an humble boldness go to him and say Lord Here is
cadendi exempluÌ„ propositum est sed si ceciderie resurgendi non sit delectatio minorum lapsus majoruÌ„ Aug. in Psal 51. Their failings indeed are recorded but for our caution not for our imitation their errors are set up not as Stars to guide us but as Rocks to warn us not as Land-marks to go by but as Sea-marks to shun by Sit casus majorum timor minorum Aliorum perditio tua sit cautio Excellent is that of Saint Ambrose Lib. 4. Ep. pag. 127. In omnibus actibus tuis imitare bonos aemulare sanctos habeto ante oculos eorum exempla c. 3. We have an upright Rule to walk by the Word of God 't is that should guide us here by that we shall be judged hereafter This is a perfect Rule 2 Tim. 3.16 17. an upright and holy Rule so is not the Light within and as for the Spirit he is our guide Rom. 8.14 not our Rule Again 4. We have an upright way to walk in the way of his Commandments this is an underfiled and an undefiling way a pure and holy and perfect and pleasant way paths of life and peace and righteousness all which call for Uprightness Si vis esse beatus esto in via immaculatus Aug. in Psal 119.1 5. We have upright Companions to walk with indeed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so the most do walk in crooked paths but in all ages there are some who are undefiled in the way whose Hearts are sound in Gods statutes and follow the Lord fully and keep themselves from their iniquities see St. Ambrose his Epistle to Florianus ubi supra 6. We have an upright a perfect account to give of our walkings and workings Though now we live as if we had no God to serve no Souls to save no accounts at all to give yet surely we shall be call'd upon anon to give account of all Luk. 16.2 We read of the Counsel which Alcibiades gave unto Pericles whom going to visit he found busied about his accounts Why dost thou trouble thy self says he in seeking to make thy accounts rather think of some course to free thee from making any account at all Doubtless there are who do thus but the greater sorrow and shame shall they have at the last day Does not the due consideration hereof lay a mighty obligation on us to walk uprightly Nothing had so great an influence on St. Austin to recall him from and to recover him out of his sinful ways and to engage him to live an holy and upright life as Metus mortis extremi judicii the fear of Death and the day of Judgment O that we were wise then would we remember our latter end 7. The Reward we shall receive will be an upright just and perfect reward Verily there is a reward for the Righteous A sure reward Prov. 11.18 A full reward 2 Joh. 8. An everlasting reward 2 Cor. 4.17 It shall be well with the righteous their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. He is not behind with them now nor will he then They shall have Pleasures without pain Treasures without trash Riches without rust Honours without envy Crowns without cares and Life without death If the consideration of these things prevail not with us thus to walk what shall If they have no influence upon us what will Having premised these things the fourth Query comes next in order to be discussed go along with me and it shall be fully resolved 4 Q. When does this Ordinance of the Supper work for their good who thus walk An account hereof take in the Twelve following particulars Then it doth such good and much good 1 When it makes them more zealous for God for his Way and Truth and in his Worship Zeal is Amor intensus the flame of Love as Aquinas describes it 'T is ignis quidam flagrantissimi amoris Usque ad Oâ—â—â—vum graâ—am as St. Austin long before him Or if you will 't is a compound of Love and Anger a mixt affection it carries forth ones love to God and his anger against sin in the most intense degree It consists in an earnest prosecution of what is good and in a vehement detestation of what is evil O the excellency of this frame of spirit You know 't is the spirit of wine that commends it the sparkle that gives worth to the Diamond as life gives an excellency to being so vivacity in operating gives an excellency to life this is that the Lord calls for in Rom. 12.11 this he owns and crowns Numb â— 25.11 This is most prevalent with God for good Jam. 5.16 Elijah's prayer fetcht fire from Heaven because it carried fire to Heaven Grace turns a Sinner into a Saint Zeal turns a Saint into a Seraphim Much more of this you heard the other day from Revel 3.19 Be zealous therfore If when you come to this Ordinance with chill and dull and frozen affections and dead hearts and there find them wrought upon and you go thence more brisk and lively more full of love to God and hatred of sin if now you can plead the cause of God and defend the Faith with more courage and resolution if now you can suffer for God more chearfully whose dearly beloved Son you here see suffer'd so much for you if now you can perform every holy duty with more vigour and activity if you who were so remiss and cold and slothful in the business of Religion in the great concerns of God and your Souls are now more rouzed quickned excited and enlarged When thus it works then it does you good indeed 2 When their Hearts are thaw'd and melted so that they can sorrow after a godly manner in the sight and sense of sin Tears are precious things one calls 'em the Wine of Angels another the fat Sacrifice Such Sacrifices were most acceptable Levit. 3.3 4 5. The Prayers of the Saints move their Tears compell the Lord to shew mercy says Jerome Were they not very precious he would not keep a bottle for them They never run in the right channel but when they are shed for sin then only they do us good as St. Chrysostom well observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this end were they made Philosophers tell us That only reasonable and sinful Creatures can gaudere maerere rejoyce and weep To speak properly no other upon earth can If now when you come to this Ordinance your Eyes affect your Hearts so that you can inwardly grieve and outwardly weep bitterly for your sin as one that is in heaviness for his only Son or first-born If when you behold a bleeding Christ you have bleeding Hearts a broken Christ you have broken Spirits then does this Ordinance work for your good In the time of the Law the Passover was to be eaten with bitter Herbs Exod. 12.8 those Herbs were five say the Jewish Doctors The Passover was a lively Type of Christ who is our Passover
Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world In an Evangelical sense one may walk perfectly and thus Zachary and Elizabeth did See Luk. 1.6 They walked in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not sinless but blameless Sineâ—querela non sine peccato as St. Austin glosseth it in the end of his 95. Epist and since him Osiander and others 'T is a true saying of one They err egregiously who look for that in the Law which is only to be found in the Gospel for that in themselves which is only to be found in Christ and for that on Earth which is only to be had in Heaven i.e. A sinless perfection To dispatch this enquiry know that to this upright walking three things are necessary 1. A Rule is requisite a certain infallible and inflexible Rule by which we act that 's the Word 't is not only a rule of Knowledg but also a rule of Duty 2. A knowledg of this Rule and then there must be 3. An acting conformably suitably to our knowledg We must have an eye as well to the manner of our Obedience as to the matter of our Obedience For as Luther well Adverbia apud Deum praevalent verbis We must obey him as well in the spirit of the command as in the letter of it In those things which seem to make against us as in those that make for us Gen. 22.1 to the 12. v. We must not only not do that which is evil but we must do that which is good We must have respect to all his Commandments Psal 119.6 As good to none at all as not to all David fulfilled all Gods wills Act. 13.22 Gal. 3.10 3 Q. We shall now enquire after the Quae ratio of what importance and concernment is it that we thus walk It were easie to be voluminous but take hints That there is an absolute and indispensable necessity of walking sincerely uprightly that it is of great concernment we do so Appears 1. If we appeal to God under the Law there we see the Lord requires it Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect or upright 2. If we appeal to Christ under the Gospel all his commands breathe Holiness and Uprightness and his promises are to the pure and sincere in Heart Mat. 5.8 He came to save us not in our sin nor with our sin but from our sin He requires us to be holy as he is holy and we must follow the example of his life if we hope to be saved by the Merits of his Death 3. If we appeal to the practise of the Saints under both Dispensations they ever made it their business to walk uprightly Enoch and Noah and David and Josiah and Hezekiah Hear one for all Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart says good Hezekiah Isa 38.3 For the New Testament consult 2 Cor. 1.12 and 1 Thes 2.10 Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe Phil. 1.27 4. If we appeal to Conscience our own or others Conscience is a faculty or habit of the practical understanding whereby the mind of man by the discourse of Reason applys the light it hath to every particular moral act There is a Conscience convinced and awakened but not converted nor renewed Consult this and it will tell you that 't is a matter of importance to walk uprightly a Conscience upon the rack will confess it freely There is a good renewed Conscience and this will tell you there is a necessity of walking uprightly In every man God hath placed a Conscience 't is his bosom-preacher 't is a petty God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it reproves accuses checks and smites when we do evil Ask your Consciences when you are under some sore affliction or when upon your Death beds and they will bear witness to this truth that 't is your part and prudence your duty and discretion to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long To walk humbly and uprightly before God Excellent is that passage of Justin Martyr in his Defense for the Christians to Antoninus Pius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If any be found who lives not as Christ hath taught 't is a certain Argument he is not a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though with the Tongue he confess the Doctrine of Christ for not those which only profess but those who make good their profession doth Christ assure of Salvation But to ground the Point We are thus oblig'd to walk upon a sevenfold account 1. He is an upright God whom we walk before he is so in his Nature in his Attributes in his Mercy Love and Justice in his Precepts in his Promises in Threats he is so in his offers and tenders of Christ and Grace and of Pardon and eternal Salvation in Him is no iniquity no hypocrisie at all He is a God of Truth his eye is fixt upon it his heart is in love with it He disgusts and abhors all leaven of hypocrisie and vizors of piety all falseness 'T is not all you can say or do or suffer or lose that can make you precious in his eyes without this sincerity In that Psalm of Thanksgiving there is an excellent passage 2 Sam. 22.22 to the 28. I have kept the ways of the Lord. All his judgments are before me I was also upright before him For with the upright man thou wilt shew thy self upright David walkt before an upright God and it concern'd him the more to walk uprightly 2. We have an upright Pattern and upright Presidents to walk after The Lord Jesus is our pattern he hath left us an example 1 Pet. 2.21 and we must follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouthâ— We must look at Jesus Heb. 12.2 He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern not only for patience in death but for holiness and uprightness of life too for this end and purpose is his life recorded in this sacred Volume Bonos tibi adjunge quia si socius fueris conversationis eris virtutis Ambr. that all his Members might lay it as a golden Samplar before them according to which they should work Upright Presidents the godly Patriarchs the holy Prophets and Apostles pious Princes and other religious persons of whom we read in Holy Story These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Examples propounded for all our imitation In every Profession there are Chieftains The Roman Warriors had their Camilli Fabricii and Scipio's The Philosophers had their Plato Aristotle and Pythagoras We have the Prophets and Apostles Man is a ductile creature led as well by the eye as by the ear we must follow them so far as they follow Christ Non
that Rite was instituted to intimate that the Lamb of God is only savingly taken and eaten by those who are in bitterness of spirit and sorrow of soul for Sin and thus is this Holy Sacrament to be received Does not a broken bleeding Saviour call for a broken and bleeding Sinner How can we see the Bread broken and the Wine poured forth and so should you place your selves as you may see them both which do represent and shew his bloody Death and bitter Passions and yet have no remorse no contrition no compunction no godly sorrow in our Hearts for sin shall the Lord of Life thus suffer Death and shed his precious innocent blood for thy for my sins and shall not our Hearts be so affected with 'em as to weep and drop one tear for ' em What sad lamentation do we make for the death of our Relations especially when taken away by the hand of violence nay they are not interred without tears who die in their beds such so such was the death of our dearest Lord Vellosillus disputes the question Whether the Death of Christ might or ought to be lamented He cites Ambrose and Theophilact Vide Vellosill Advertentias in B. Amb. Quest 19. pag. 33. Beda and Erasmus holding the Negative from Luk. 23.28 but concludes for the Affirmative which most of the Fathers are for But out of dispute it is That he was wounded for our iniquities died for our sins and that it concerns us all to weep for our sins which had so deep an hand in his Death and Sacrament-days are proper times and seasons for godly sorrow When your Eyes and Hearts are wrought and brought into this melting mourning frame when your sorrows for 'em is quadrate adequate and proportionable to that delight and complacency you have taken in them when thus you find it at such a time as this then does this Ordinance work for your good O that Rivers of waters did this day run down our Eyes at the remembrance of that River of blood which ran down from his sides 3 When it makes their Hearts to die to Sin when they do not only discard but disgust it not only leave but loth it when there is not only a breaking of the Heart for Sin but also a breaking of it from Sin When their unbelief is blasted their pride and other lusts are mortified when they come with strong and impetuous lusts to the Lords-Table and there get though no more peace yet more power over them The death of Sin is the Souls life its ruin is our rise its falling is our advancing 't is sad to come and see Sin living in us and Christ bleeding for us to see a crucified Christ and yet to find in our hearts uncrucified lusts When you come to this sacred and solemn Ordinance and there can cry Lord Here is a proud unbelieving heart an heart that does not love thee I cannot I will not therefore love it it does not fear thee but I fear it O Lord help help thy poor servant with a better heart that I may lead a better life As it is I cannot serve thee and thou wilst not save me Oh let my Sin die but let my Soul live and it shall praise thee for ever Let not that which thou didst not make destroy what thine own hand hath made O kill my pride my passion As thy Son died unto Sin for satisfaction so inable me to die unto Sin by Mortification Let me see that Christ died for me even for me by the death of Sin in me Lord help me to revenge the Blood of my dearest Lord upon my dearest lusts When thus it works then it does you good indeed 4 When their Hearts and Affections are more firmly cemented and united animosities are removed breaches healed differences composed when their Heart-burnings are turn'd into Heart-breakings and more Hearty-breathings after love peace and unity St. Austin tells us of a Street in Rome call'd Via Sacra De Civit. Dei lib. 18. cap. 12. the Holy Street Ludovicus Vives gives the Reason viz. because Romulus and Tatius King of the Sabins made their League of Union there Well may this be called the Holy Sacrament as on other so on this account because of that Holy League the Saints renew with God and make one with another here This is the great Love-Feast one great end and design of God in this Ordinance is by it to increase and strengthen Love and Unity amongst his Servants by their Communion in this Ordinance they are made to drink into one Spirit or into oneness of Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 But alas Nullum suit indoctius insaelicius saeculum in eo quippe nulli Scriplores illustres De Rom. Pontif lib. 4. cap. 12. what Bellarmine observ'd of the Tenth Century No Age was so unluckie and unlearned as that the like may I say of this Seventeenth No Age since our Saviours Passion no nor since the Worlds Creation was ever so divided and disunited as ours we live as if we had been born upon the Mountains of Bether i.e. the Mountains of Division and Baptized in the Waters of Meribah i.e. the Waters of Strife They who once did weep and pray together and did suffer together cannot now sit together at the Lords-Table this is a Lamentation c. Excellent is that passage of Paulinus in his Epistle to St. Austin Inter Augustini Epistolas Ep. 33. in Med. Paulinus Tâ—erasia Augustino It is no marvel though we both that are absent be yet present and being unacquainted yet know one another seeing as we have one Head so we live by one Bread walk in one Way c. When you who break Bread together are bound up together when such silver-showers of Love are rained down upon your hearts as cement them more firmly as heal your Schismes and repair your Breaches and make you like the Cherubims with your Faces looking one upon another when you go from this Ordinance with stronger resolutions to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace when by it you are more inabled as well as more engaged to love more purely to live more Christianly to forgive more cordially to forget injuries to pity and pray and live and love as Brethren as did those Primitive Christians Act. 2.46 47. When you that are one in so much will not be two in or for a trifle for vestures or gestures or such little matters When thus you find it at or after a Sacrament then indeed doth it work for your good 5 When their Holiness is thereby more promoted and advanced 't is the end and design of God in all his Ordinances especially in and by this to make them who are holy more holy them who are heavenly more heavenly When Moses had been with God in the Mount he came thence with his Face shining When you go from this Ordinance with your Graces shining then it does work for your good indeed