Idols I say he leaves it unto themselves Verse 15. I speak as unto wise men Judge ye what I say That was the Case amongst many of these Corinthians they did not scruple to accompany their Unbelieving Neighbours and Acquaintance to the Banquets that they made in Honour of their false Gods They did not scruple to Eat with them of those things that were taken from their Execrable Altars as a Part and Remnant of those Sacrifices to Idols which were performed in the City of Corinth with all the Pomp of an Abominable Superstition This the Apostle shews to be unsuitable to their Profession of Christianity and that it could not agree with the Honour they had of eating at the Table of the Lord For these Heathens were seduced by Satan to make those Sacrifices and they were Devils whom they Worshipped as supposed Demi-Gods and in such Feasts they had a familiar Communion with them And I would not says the Apostle that you should have fellowship with Devils Verse 19 20 21. You cannot drink of the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils You cannot be partaker of the Lord's Table and the Table of Devils In the Words of the Text he leaves it to them to judge Whether it be not a most horrid Impiety to pretend to joyn these Two together the Divine Body and Blood of Christ with the Impious Sacrifices of these Idolaters For he makes the partaking of the Lord's Table not only a Testimony of our Vnion unto Christ and our Communion one with another as his Members but also a Testimony of our Disunion and Separation from all Idolatrous Worship The Cup of Blessing that we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread that we break c. Where we are to consider 1. The two Sacramental Signs the Cup and the Bread 2. What is to be understood by the Body and Blood of Christ 3. What by Commmnion in them 4. How the Cup and Bread in the Sacrament of the Supper are the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ And then I shall help you to Apply it 1. Concerning the Sacramental Signs the Cup and the Bread The Cup for the Wine in it by an ordinary Figure and the Bread which we break These are the two outward Elements in this Institution and neither of them must be omitted Whereas in Baptism there is but one outward Element here are two And there is good Reason for it 1. Because this Represents the Violent Death of Christ wherein his Blood was shed and separated from his Body It is therefore necessary there should be one Sign to Represent his Body and another Sign to Represent his Blood there having been a Separation by Death which is here to be Represented 2. The Lord's Supper being the Mystery of our spiritual Nourishment by Christ it was proper to employ both Eating and Drinking which are the two parts of our Corporal Nourishment and that could not have been entirely Represented by either of them alone The Cup of Blessing or Benediction which we bless or give thanks for i. e. Which we set apart by Prayer and Thanksgiving Blessing and giving of Thanks being often put one for another 1 Cor. 14.16 And in the Evangelical History Matth. 26. and Mark 16 What one Evangelist calls Blessing another calls Thanksgiving By vertue of which Blessing or Prayer by a Minister of Christ in his Name and according to his Example and Order That which before was common is set apart to an holy use and becomes the Sign and Seal of the Body and Blood of Christ The Cup of Blessing The Jews were wont at the Passover Feast or rather after it to drink of a Cup which the Master of the Family did bless i. e. Did pray over it or concerning it To distinguish this from that the Apostle says The Cup of Blessing which we bless which we Christians set apart in our Assemblies to shew forth the Lord's Death by And from this Passage of the Apostle this Ordinance is called by the Ancients the Eucharist upon the account of the Blessing or giving of Thanks Justin Martyr who lived but Fifty Years after the Death of the Apostle John calls it the Bread of the Eucharist in memory of the Passion of Christ Nay the Greek word for Blessing in this Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving of Thanks is sometimes used by the * See Mr. Daille in loc Ancients as the Name of this Institution Among others Cyril Bishop of Alexandria does often call it by the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cup of Blessing which we bless and the Bread which we break At the Feast of the Passover the Jews made use of such Bread as was flat and round and so was to be broken and cut asunder And the unleavened Bread among the Jews to this very day is of this kind Now our Lord Instituting his Supper the same Evening after the Celebration of the Passover we may suppose made use of the same sort of Bread That is As he changed the Signification of this Bread from that of their unleavened Bread to be a sign of his Body so he imployed the breaking of this Bread to signifie his cruel Sufferings in that body upon the Cross This Cup and this Bread even after Consecration For the Bread is not broken till after that is said to be the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ not his real Flesh and Blood For besides the Vanity of such a Sense and the Indecency and Uncomeliness of it yea the Contradiction and Impossibility of it It is against the express Testimony of the Apostle here and in other Places According to the new Doctrine of Rome Instead of saying here The Cup that we bless He would have said The Cup that we Transubstantiate and change into the proper Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ The Cup in which we leave not one drop of Wine But by pronouncing four or five little words fill it with the Body of Christ And is not this a strange way of blessing a Person or Thing to destroy the very Nature of the Thing that it shall be no longer what it was before The Bread was not blessed that it might be destroyed nor given to be eatâ—â—â— that it might cease to be before it was eaten 'T is to suppose God to put forth Miraculous Power to make his own Command of eating the Bread impossible The Bread that we break it is therefore Bread after it is broken after the Consecration and breaking it is Bread still For the Transubstantiation if there be any is upon the Consecration before it be broken But I hope most English Protestants are pretty well Instructed in this Truth and therefore I need not insist longer upon it 2. What are we to understand by the Body and Blood of Christ of which this is said to be the Communion
How is Christ's Body and Blood present in this Ordinance Our Lord is Ascended into Heaven with his Human Body and the Heavens are to contain him till the Restitution of all things And therefore as the Bread and Wine are not annihilated or not destroyed nor changed into the Flesh and Blood of Christ according to the Romanists So nor present with in and under the Bread and Wine according to the Lutherans So that we need not say that the Body and Blood of Christ are at all present there for they are in Heaven But the Bread and Wine are the Signs and Memorials of the Sacrifice and Sufferings of Christ The Death of Christ and his Sacrifice upon the Cross with the Fruits and Effects thereof unto us are especially to be understood by his Body and Blood And it is in these that we have Communion in the Ordinance of the Supper The Expressions therefore which some Protestant Writers have used about the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in this Sacrament are very * See a Tract on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by Mr. John Hales of Eaton Colledge in Oct. unwary For thereby they seem to make Mysteries where there is no need at all of any It is true in the next Chapter it is said of the Bread This is my Body that is the Sign and the Memorial of it Yet here the Bread broken is said to be the Communion or the Communication of his Body that is A Solemn Rite instituted by God to communicate to us the Fruits and Benefits of Christ's broken Body or of his Sacrifice and Sufferings Represented by it That as verily as we are Treated at the Table with Bread and Wine so the worthy Receiver shall share in the Benefits of Christ's Death This is Intelligible and Plain 3. This will help us to understand what is meant by the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ By this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Communication as it may as well be rendred that we have in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Ordinance of the Supper Two Things may this Import 1. Our Participation of the Fruits of Christ's Death and Sacrifice That we share in the Priviledges of Reconciliation to God Forgiveness of Sin Peace of Conscience and the Promise of Eternal Life by Vertue of Christ's Death 2. That Others share with us therein or that we Partake of these Benefits with others For so it follows in the next Verse That though many Members we are all one Body and one Bread for we are all Partakers of that one Bread That is We are all one Church and one Body of Christ by Covenant Union unto him And of him we do all Sacramentally and Spiritually partake in this Ordinance As many Grains of Corn make one Loaf and many Members one Body We being many are one Bread and one Body The Church of Rome from that Expression might have as well argue That all Christians are substantially changed first into the Bread and then into the natural Body of Christ by partaking of this Sacrament As well as that the Bread is changed into the Body of Christ for all Christians are said to be but one Bread and one Body by vertue of their Communion in this Ordinance 4. Hereby also we understand how we have Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ by the Lord's Supper How we and others partake in the Benefits of his Death and Passion And that two ways As this Sacrament is a Sign and a Symbol of it and as it is a Means 1. It is a Sign of it All that eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup do thereby Commemorate the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ and profess to own that the Body and Blood of Christ offered upon the Cross is the Food and Nourishment of their Souls to Eternal Life That Christ is their Saviour and Redeemer That they hope for all their Acceptance with God in both Worlds only upon the account of the Sacrifice of Christ They professedly declare that living and dying they are and will be his They hope for Victory over Death and the Devil by the Cross of Christ and for a Glorious Resurrection from Death as the Fruit of his Death and Resurrection 2. These Words do import further That the eating of this Bread and drinking of this Cup are the Means appointed by Christ for our Communion in his Body and Blood We share in the Benefits of his Death and Sacrifice and by due Attendance upon this Ordinance the precious Fruits of his Death and the Gifts and Graces of his Spirit are augmented and encreased in us in order to our full and final Blessednes in the other World which this is preparatory to and fits us for As the partaking of things sacrificed to Idols was a Fellowship with Devilss 1 Cor. 10.20 So the partaking of that which was sacrific'd to God is a Fellowship with him * See Mr. Charnock 's 2d Vol. p. 759. And of the Divine Attributes p. 638. Prayer is an Act of Homage and Praise of Gratitude but we have not so near a Communion with a Person either by Petitioning for somewhat we want or by returning him Thanks for a Favour received as we have by sitting with him at his Table partaking of the same Bread and the same Cup. In all Nations the nearest Fellowship consists in things of this nature Take Eat manifests a Communion It would be an empty Mystery and unworthy of an Institution by Divine Goodness if there were not some Communion with God and Christ in it There would be some kind of Deceit in the Precept Take Eat and Drink this is my Body and Blood If there were not a Conveyance of Spiritual Vital Influences to our Souls For the narural end of Eating and Drinking is the Nourishment and encrease of the Body and Preservation of Life by that which we Ea and Drink I might consider this Ordinance as a Sign and Means of our Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ or of our sharing in the Fruits of his Death And amplifie it several ways 1. By considering on what Accounts this is a likely Means of such a Communion And 2. How Faith must be acted that it may be so as to us As to the former 1. As this Ordinance is Commemorative of the Sacrifice of Christ and being to be observed in Remembrance of him 2. As it is an open Profession of the Cross of Christ that we glory in it and therefore shew forth the Lord's Death that way professing our selves not to be ashamed of our Character as the Followers of a crucified Jesus 3. As it is a Renewal and Confirmation of the Covenant between God and Us through Jesus Christ Renewing our Engagements and Obligations to be the Lord 's for ever In the Celebration of this Ordinance we have a Special Opportunity for this it is a principal part of our Work at this Table 4. As it
simply But 2. Let us consider more particularly how these Things with Relation to the Jewish Passover were accomplished by Christ as the Lamb of God to take away Sin And that will appear if we consider four Things 1. The Person of Christ as our Passover or Paschal Lamb 2. His Sufferings and Sacrifice 3. The Fruits and Benefits of them to us 4. The way and manner of our Participation of these Benefits 1. The Person of Christ who is the true Paschal Lamb. I shall not stay to consider the Resemblance of his Character to a Lamb for Meekness for Patience for Submission and Obedience He was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep before the Shearers is dumb so he opened not his Mouth Nor that the Pasâ—hal Lamb was to be without blemish sound and entire without Bruise or Maim Thus holy was Christ in his Conception and Birth and in all the Actions of his Life A Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 Holy harmless and undefiled separate from Sinners Heb. 7.26 Nor how the Lamb was set apart and chosen for three days and killed the fourth answered by Christ's being set apart to his Prophetical Office wherein he manifested himself for about three years before he offered himself a Sacrifice in the fourth year Those that write concerning the Types are large upon this Subject 2. We may consider his Passion and Sufferings the Fulfilling of it as to his Death and the Time of it The Paschal Lamb was to be Roasted with Fire Which might not only put them in Mind of the Hardships they endured in the Brick Kilms of Egypt but Prefigure the Sufferings of Christ as crucified and pressed when his strength was dryed up like a Potsheard and his Tongue did cleave to his Jaws Psalm 22.15 The Time also of his Suffering agreed with the Time of the Jewish Passover About the Ninth Hour or Three a Clock in the Afternoon the usual Time that the Passover was to be Killed 3. As to the Fruits and Effects of his Sacrifice there is a further Accomplishment of the Type For the destroying Angel is diverted from the Israelites Houses The Blood of a Lamb could not Merit or procure this but as it Represented the Blood of the Messiah Whereby the Wrath of God is quenched and we delivered from Satan the great Destroyer And as this was the Earnest of their Deliverance from their Bondage in Egypt By the Death of Christ we are set free from a much worse Slavery 4. Consider the manner how we partake of the Benefit and Fruits of Christ's Sacrifice Our Hearts must be sprinkled with the Blood of Christ as the Israelites were to sprinkle the Blood of the Lamb on the Door-post of their Houses They were to feed upon the Flesh of the Paschal Lamb We are in a Spiritual sense to do so with Reference to Christ John 6.53 They were to eat it with sour Sauce with bitter or wild Herbs Repentance for Sin must be joyned with Faith in a Saviour Vnleavened Bread was to be thrown out of the House And you know how the Apostle applies this unto those who are called to keep the Feast even that Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ at his own Table 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Not with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness But with the Vnleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth It was Remarkable as to the first Passover It was to be eaten in hast with their Loins girt Shoes on their Feet and a Staff in their Hand As Pilgims and Strangers here who are hastning to a better Country which God hath promised and which their Canaan may Mind us of and make this also Applicable to our Case Which will bring me to the Sixth and last thing Sixthly and lastly The Resolution amd Declaration of Christ to eat and drink no more of this Passover till it be accomplished Some think that the 18th Verse I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdome is misplaced and ought to come in after the Institution of the Lord's Supper as it is placed by the Evangelists Matthew and Mark. * 83. Homil. in Matthaeum Chrysostom thinks it Refers to his Eating and Drâ—nking with his Disciples after his Resurrection in this World That he would not any more Eat and Drink till he had suffered Death and was risen again And then to manifest the Truth of his being Risen he did condescend to satisfie and convince them in that manner But there is little ground for that Interpretation It is not improbable but our Lord may Allude here to the Custom of the High Priests who coming out of the Holy of Holies did keep a Feast of Joy with his Friends For if he were a Wicked Man say the Jews he died in the Place If a good Man he came out safe And then he Rejoyced with his Friends and kept a Feast where they were wont to drink New Wine To this Custom our Lord may Allude in this Expression thereby telling his Disciples That he should not sink in the Performance of what he underto k * Dr. Allix in the great Offering that he was to make to God his Father but come off with Success And then they should Rejoyce and Feast together He would drink new Wine with them in the Kingdom of his Father Some think the Evangelist Luke as to Christ's drinking new Wine Refers to the Lord's Supper that was to follow And as he Recites the Words they are more Intelligible than as they are mentioned by St. Matthew or Mark. He Annexes them to the Passover Cup though the other Recite this Passage after the Cup in the Lord's Supper But the Words might have been spoken by Christ before And 't is easier to Transpose the Words in Matthew and Mark to the unmentioned Occasion which was immediately before the Lord's Supper than to Transpose the whole 19th and 20th Verses in Luke before the 17th Verse which would also make it a Tautology By the Kingdom of God all the Evangelists seem to mean the Gospel Dispensation which was to Commence in the Lord's Supper as the first of that sort for the Baptism of John and of the Disciples of Christ before his Death was different from Baptism since the New Testament Baptism Acts 19.4 5. The Lord's Supper by Anticipation did signifie and shew forth the Lord's Death This is my Body broken for you He supposed it broken and himself sacrificed and the Passover fulfilled Jesus Christ being the Lamb of God Typified and Presignified by the Paschal Lamb till his Sacrifice of himself And so to put a Period to the former Oeconomy on which the Gospel Dispensation did ensue The Term New till I drink it New may be accounted for and that some of the Evangelists say that Day I 'll drink it New though it were the same Hour because it Refers to a different Period and Dispensation viz. The
assured None can be in Christ without it none in Christ so as to have any special distinguishing saving Benefit by him Application 1. Are none in Christ but new creatures How many then must be excluded How many of excellent and laudable Qualifications of great Attainments and high Professions and moral Accomplishments must yet he excluded and shut out from having any part in Christ because they are yet Strangers to this New creation and consequently are not in Christ but under condemnation Meer Civility and a plausible inoffensive Carriage is quite another thing We need but view the Lives and Actions of the generality of such as are called Christians to confirm this That the Number is but small of those who are in Christ How few have had any awakening Convictions about these things and many such miscarry 2. How miserable is the condition of all unrenewed Souls without a change they are excluded from all saving benefit by the Redeemer They are not in Christ and therefore are under the Curse and Condemnation which by union to Christ we are delivered from Rom. 8.1 Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye are Reprobates 2 Cor. 13.6 All our hopes of Life and Salvation by Christ depend upon it The Guilt of all our Sins doth otherwise lye upon us And all the black Clouds of Divine Vengeance hang over our heads The Wrath of God bides upon us as if there were no Christ no Gospel And there is nothing between us and Everlasting Ruine but a little Breadth 3. Then none but New Creatures have a Right to the Lord's Table For the invited Guests are such who are in Christ The Covenant of Grace cannot be sealed in that Ordinance to those who are not under the Bond of the Covenant The Benefits purchased by Christ are not confirmed at his Table unto those who are none of his I grant there is an Unworthiness as to present frame that even those who are in Christ may have but it is the Unworthiness as to state that I am speaking of Such as are not in Christ having nothing to do to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood lest they eat and drink Judgment and Condemnation to themselves He that doth not truly Repent cannot be truly Interested in the Promise of Pardon and therefore cannot have a Right to the Seal of it They are dead in Sin cannot receive Nourishment by this spiritual Food The least that can be said as one observes is this That it is in vain and to no good purpose for such can no more receive Christ in the Sacrament than a Chicken that should come into the Assembly and pick up some of the crumbs of the bread from the ground after Consecration can be said to receive the Body of Christ But the Danger is unspeakable of Eating and Drinking unworthily for such eat and drink Judgment to themselves not discerning the Lord's Body You may desire to come to this Table and you may say enough it may be to satisfie a Minister of Christ who cannot judge of your Heart and Conscience doth not know the whole of your Life But you your selves must look to it that you be in Christ and that you evidence you are so by being New Creatures We can but Warn and Admonish you and offer our Assistance and help At your own peril be it if you come and yet live in any known Sins and cherish the Enemies of Christ though you profess to be his and presume upon all the Priviledges of his House and Family as real members of it But I will yet add That those who are in Christ if they would have Assistance and Grace from the Spirit of Christ to walk as New Creatures they ought on the other hand to take heed how they absent themselves from that Ordinance If they would either have the comfort of their being in Christ or would have supplies of Grace to walk as New creatures they should be frequent and serious in Sacramental Duties Have you not weak Graces to be strengthened and manifold Corruptions to be more subdued Inordinate Love to this World more Crucified Do you not need more Ability to discharge several Duties and overcome divers Temptations Do you not desire to be more Partakers of the Image and Life and Spirit of Christ Is your likeness to Christ so compleat your Faith in all its branches so active and firm your Love to Christ so warm your Heavenly Desires so fervent your Patience and Resignation so perfect your Obedience so exact your standing so sure that you need no more Influence of the Spirit of Christ Should not your own necessity oblige you to be frequent in this work besides the Authority of your Lord which is motive enough to those that are in Christ And he requires you should remember his Dying Love this way and show forth his death tiâ—l he come It is proper work for us to begin the year with To renew our Covenant with the Lord by partaking of the Symbols of Christ's Body and Blood giving up our selves again to be the Lords with renewed Repentance for the sins of the Year past and repeated Exercises of Faith for Pardon and Peace and Grace and Righteousness and Life 4. The next Vse may be of Examination To try whether we are in Christ or no by inquiring whether we are New creatures or not Your Love to Christ your Likeness to him your Subjection to him your Fruitfulness in him will discover it Are old things done away with you and all things become new Is there still the old Darkness and Blindness that was upon your minds or Are you Light in the Lord Doth the old Deadness Security and Carelessness remain upon your Hearts and Consciences old Thoughts and old Designs old Discourses and Conversations as little Savour in the things of God as ever As little Victory over the Temptations of the World and the Flesh as formerly Are your Wills as rebellious and stubstorn as ever Are your Desires after Vanity and your Affections towards Earthly Things the same as formerly So for your Hopes and Fears Joys and Sorrows What Change hath been wrought Does fleshly Appetite and Sense and Carnal Interest sway and govern as much as ever Or is there a New Creation wrought in you Have you a new Mind and Judgment a new Heart and new Affections Do you walk in Newness of Life Is your Internal Principle changed and the External Rule of your Actions changed too Are you no longer conformed to the World but transformed by the renewing of your Minds Rom. 12.2 Is that sin hated and crucified that before was indulged Is that Saviour prized for to them that believe he is precious and the Chiefest of ten thousands that before was slighted Do you delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man Do you find the Holy Law of God written in your Hearts setting you against every sin in your selves and others Do you walk in the Spirit and after
Body or by any other method that we shall shortly leave this World Solemn actual Preparation in such a case is fit and necessary If God tell any of you by a Bodily Sickness your Change is near If the Decays and Infirmities of Old Age the most incurable of all Diseases tell you That you have not long to live that it is high time to set your Hearts and your Houses in order You ought actually to prepare solemnly to do so You that have one foot in the Grave already forget not this least the Devil trip up the other before you are Ready But you that have served the Lord from your Youth and have the comfortable Review of your past sincerity in walking with God you may rejoyce upon any such Summons that your Race is almost run Your warfare will shortly be accomplished you have but a few steps more of your pilgrimage to make a few Temptations more to resist a very little time longer of trial and conflict before you shall receive the End of your Faith and Hope and be for ever with the Lord. Should you not then with such a warning stir up the Grace of God quicken holy Desires strengthen Faith and exercise it about the Invisible World and solemnly resign your selves into the Arms of the Redeemer 4. Because this was the place that Judas knew of were he might find our Lord and betray him Let us take notice of Christ's willingness and Resolvedness to suffer Death and what an Obligation it lays upon us of Love and Gratitude to this Merciful Saviour This I shall a little urge as suitable to the past Solemnity of this day to make us Thankful who have been Partakers of the Memorials of his dying Love in the Sacrament of the Supper He was free and voluntary in Suffering He went to the place which Judas knew of though he knew Judas would come and betray him He freely offered himself in the Council of God to undertake our Redemption He voluntarily quitted his Fathers Bosom in the fulness of Time to assume our Nature and therein suffer and die He was not forced into a State of Poverty and Humiliation but for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might become rich The necessity of his Death arose from his own holy will his free Act and Undertaking which doth not lessen his Willingness but heighten the Obligation of it It had been Injustice to punish an Innocent who was unwilling to suffer in the place of a Criminal But he gave himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling Odour unto God for us He was not driven by force and violence as the legal Sacrifices unto the Altar But he comes to the Door of the Tabernacle he enters into this Garden that Judas knew of He endeavours not to go out of the way to escape their Malice but chuses a place that the Traytor was acquainted with He had a Baptism to be Baptized with and he longed for its Accomplishment He walked forth of his own Accord over the Brook Cedron with his Disciples into this Garden where he knew he should be taken And when they came to take him he permits Judas to kiss him which was the sign he had given them to distinguish the Person He twice tells the Officers That he was He whom they sought for He would not suffer an Apostle to use a Sword in his Defence though he could have commanded Legions of Angels for his Guard He proves that he might have escaped if he would for he speaks but a mild word saying I am he and they all fall to the ground as if he had come to apprehend them and not they him After this he would not work a Miracle to gratifie the Curiosity of Herod and make him his Friend in order to his Deliverance Yea he was silent under all the Accusations of the False Witnesses and afterward bore his own Cross as far as he was able towards the place of Execution And then he poured out his Soul unto Death and rendred up his Spirit to his Father saying It is finished It is finished And that last Circumstance is very considerable to prove his Willingness For we read that when they came to break his bones and found him dead which prevented the breaking of his Bones and accomplished the Prophecy concerning him which says A bone of him shall not be broken they wondered he was dead so quickly So quickly indeed when immediately before he gave up the Ghost he cried with a loud Voice Which sufficiently declared that no man took away his Life but that he voluntarily laid it down For having cryed with a loud Voice and thereby given sufficient Proof that his strength was not gone that his Spirits were not exhausted but he might have continued longer alive he then bowed his head in token of Reverence to his Father and gave up the Ghost which was a Circumstance so considerable that a Centurion who stood by observing it was thereupon converted and gave God the Glory But it may be objected though his coming into this Garden might be a Proof of his Willingness yet what passed there seems to intimate the contrary why else does he pray so earnestly that the Cup might pass from him if he was willing to drink it I answer That even in the Time of his Agony when he seemed most Unwilling as Man even when he prayed that the Cup might pass from him yet was he still willing as Mediator The Text says he began to be exceeding sorrowful and sore amazed saying My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death The Original words are very emphatical to express Sadness and Fear and such Affections of the Soul His Soul not his Body nor his Soul with Sympathy only with his Body For he was here alone in the Garden crucified as it were without a Cross His Body here suffered by reason of his Soul The whole Nature of Man had sinned and the Soul being the Principal in the commission of Sin the Redeemer who was to expiate sin suffered in his Soul My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even to death Insomuch that Clods of Blood dropt from him though there was no visible hand to strike him Which makes him pray and cry in such a manner to his Father for the passing away of the Cup Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Father save me from this hour Oh what Pain what Fear what Horror what dismal Apprehensions and cruel Sufferings must force such words of complaint from such an Heart as his But no wonder his Cries were so strong his Prayers so earnest his Complaints so loud and the Comfort of an Angel not sufficient for his support when the greatness of his Agony and the extream Sufferings of his Soul are above our thoughts to conceive who understand so little of the evil of sin and the vengeance due to it so little of the Terror of the Lord and the Power of his Wrath as a
is a fit Season for extraordinary Thanksgiving and Praise blessing God for Jesus Christ Which Thankfulness for Christ disposes and fits us for the Reception of further Grace as the Fruit and Purchase of his Death and so is the Means of our Communion in his Body and Blood Thus it is the Cup of Blessing and of Thanksgiving that we there Receive which Cup of Blessing upon such Accounts as these is our Communion in the Blood of Christ. 2. You will hereby the better perceive what is to be done on our part in order to this Communion 1. Our Faith must Eye the Authority of Christ enacting it We must act in Obedience to an Institution and Appointment of Christ It was a Remarkable Instance and Act of his Kingly Office to enjoyn this Memorial of his dying Love And the Season of its Institution is the more observable viz. In the close of his Publick Ministery of his Prophetical Office upon Earth and in his Entrance upon the Execution of the Principal part of his Priestly Office by being made a Sacrifice between both of these And to render both Effectual our Lord interposed an Act of his Kingly Office in the Institution of this Ordinance Accordingly it should be eyed and owned by us in order to our Communion with him therein 2. The Love of Christ must especially be Eyed and Attended to in this Supper as Exprest by his Death and Sufferings Of this we have here the most lively Representation with the Glorious Effects of that Love which are not Represented with such a Beauty and Lustre by any other Ordinance as by this The constraining Love of Christ in his whole undertaking is better discerned and tasted in this Ordinance than as it is proposed 〈◊〉 several parts in the Holy Scripture Here we are called to the particular Application of it He loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Rev. 1.5 3. The Soveraignty and the Wisdom of God in Instituting these External Signs and Elements of Bread and Wine must also be Eyed and Attended to They most fitly Signifie and Represent the great Things they are designed for and yet without a Divine Institution could have no Relation to the Thing signified How suitable is the plain matter of this Sacrament unto the holy Author of it We remember in this Supper his Body hanging on the Cross and therefore it was not fit the Sacrament of his Body should be sumptuous and rich upon the Table Nevertheless by Bread to strengthen and Wine to comfort all the Benefits of a crucified Saviour are fitly Represented and much better than they could have been by the choicest Delicates In order to this Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ we must take heed to our selves not to rest in the External Signs but to discern the Lord's Body to apprehend the Spiritual Import and End of this Divine Institution That by Faith we may Receive Christ and feed upon him so as to Experience the Communications of his Grace and Receive fresh Influences of his Spirit That we may Accept all the Benefits of the New Covenant which are here Offered and Sealed to us and that we may Devote Resign and Dedicate our selves afresh to be the Lord's to Obey him and serve the Purposes of his Glory while we live in hope of the blessed Recompence which he has Purchased and promised and is gone to prepare and which he will not fail to come again and bestow Until which time this Ordinance is to continue in the Church To shew forth the Lord's Death till he come Vse 1. The first Reflection I would make on this is upon the Sacrilegious Confidence of those Men who deny Christians the Means of their Communion in the Blood of Christ who rob them of one half of this Sacrament by denying the Cup of Blessing to the Laity The Cup is the Communion of the blood of Christ says the Apostle Drink ye all of it says our Lord. And yet the Church of Rome will not suffer the People to taste it But as one Errour makes way for another they pretend that by the New Doctrine of Concomitancy the Bread or the little Wafer which is not broken neither according to the order of Christ but put whole into the Peoples Mouths by the hands of the Priest This Wafer shall be enough for the People and by the help of a strong Imagination of the Authority of their Church the very Body Blood and Bones of Christ shall be contained under the Form and Appearance of Bread One would wonder how any Thing can be plainer both in this and the next Chapter and in the Institution it self as Recorded by the Evangelists than the Universal Obligation upon Christians to partake of the Cup as well as the Bread And what Authority can any Man or Number of Men have to alter such a Constitution May they not as well take away the Bread from the People as the Cup They will grant that for a Thousand Years after Christ it was the Sense and Practice of the Christian Church that the People should partake of the Cup too And for Fourteen hundred Years it can be proved that they did even from the Apostle's Time down to that of Thomas Aquinas in the latter end of the Thirteenth Century Justin Martyr Cyprian Nazianzen Chrysostom and all the most considerable Writers of the Ancient Church are express in their Testimony for it But what need we concern our selves about the Judgment of Antiquity When there is a Positive Institution of Christ and in a large Account thereof by the Apostle Paul in the Eleventh Chapter he speaks but one word of the Consecration of the Bread but uses divers Expressions to signifie the Excellency of the Cup. This is my Blood says Chrâ—st The Blood of the New Testament shed for the Remission of Sins of many His sufferings and the reality of his Death are in a most lively manner set forth by the shedding of his Blood Not to insist upon his bloody sweat in the Garden You know when he was whipt and scourged and crowned with Thornes he then shed Blood Blood issued from his hands and Feet when he was nailed to the Cross and from his side when he was pierced by the Roman Soldiers By the shedding of his Blood he lost his Life and without shedding of Blood there could be no Remission So that to deprive the People of the Cup is to take away the most lively and the most essential Representation of the Sufferings and Death of Christ The Doctrine of Concomitancy will not availe in this Case The partaking of the Bread only is not sufficient whereby to remember his Death For the Separation of his Blood from his Body was the means of his Dying This destroys the Distinction between the two Symbols which yet are very different in their Names in their Properties in their Vse and in the Time of receiving them Besides it is contrary to all the Rules of Language
Consolation and full Assurance and raised Joys at the Table of the Lord never while we live yet the Authority of Christ requiring us To do this in Remembrance of him should be enough to determine our Practice against all the little Cavils and Objections that may be made against it O let us not be wanting in our Duty and the God of Love and Grace who is the Father of Mercies and our Gracious Redeemer of whose Compassion we have had such large and dear Experience will never be wanting to those who diligently and sincerely seek him THE END The Sixth Discourse After the LORD'S SUPPER OF Christ's Last Passover And its Accomplishment From LUKE XXII 15 16 17 18. With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you befoâ—e I suffer For I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God And he took the Cup and gave thanks and said Take this and divide it among your selves For I say unto you I will not drink of the Fruit of the Vine until the Kingdom of God shall come GReater Love hath no Man than this saith our Blessed Lord than to lay down his Life for his Friend To part with that for Another which of all things is the dearest and the most valuable to himself In all Ages of the Christian Church there have been some ready to give this Proof of their Love to Him who spake these words by not loving their Lives unto the Death when they stood in Competition with their Fidelity to Christ And with how much the greater Chearfulness and Alacrity Willingness and Desire they did it by so much the more powerful and constraining was the Principle of Love By this we may make some Judgment what manner of Love it was wherewith the Lord Redeemer loved us when he gave Himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling Odour unto God The Voluntariness of his Sacrifice argued the Excellency of his Incomparable Love Though his Death was Necessary with respect to the Eternal Purpose and Appointment of Heaven For it was by the determinate Counsel of God that the Messiah should suffer Death And though it were Violent with respect to the Instrumentality of Men in his Crucifixion they did it with violent hands Yet with reference to himself his Death was voluntary He made a willing Sacrifice of his own Life He laid it down None else could have taken it from him He gave himself a Ransom He became Poor He made himself of no Reputation He poured out his Soul unto Death It was not rent from him He was obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross This gave an extraordinary value to his Sufferings Upon this depended the Merit of his Sacrifice and the Efficacy of his Blood And this is one endearing Circumstance which heightens his Love and calls for our thankful Admiration He willingly offered himself in the first Council of Peace about our Redemption and undertook to suffer for us and make satisfaction to Divine Justice And after his Incarnation he always knew and frequently foretold his own Sufferings and Death He reproves Peter as if he acted the Devil's part when he would have disswaded him from it Yea he most earnestly desired this most bloody Baptism I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Luke 12.50 The night before his Sufferings he makes his last Will and Testament and leaves it with his Disciples Giving his blood to drink in the Sacrament to show hâ—w willingly he would pour it out the next dâ—y upon the Cross And on this Account he so earnestly desired to eat this Passover which the Text speaks of because it was the last before he should suffer Death And afterwards even the same Evening he goeâ— out into the Garden where he knew he should be betrayed And so in effect he brings himself to the Door of the Tabernacle to be offered to God a Sacrifice for us With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer As if he had said The Sufferings I have so often spoke of are now approaching The hour is at hand when I shall be betrayed and Crucified This is the last Passover I shall ever keep with you before I am lifted up from the Earth And therefore I most earnestly desire it because it is the last that will precede my Death Whereby I shall put an end to these legal Services which have all along referr'd to me and to the Sacrifice and Oblation I am to make for sin Henceforth I will eat and drink no more of the Passover Supper for my own Sufferings and Death is that which they signified and related to I am the true Paschal Lamb All the Rites and Observances about the killing and eating of it were but Typical of my Passion and shall now be fulfilled And here 1. I shall consider the Passover which our Lord desired to eat of 2. His ardent Desire to eat of this Passover and the Reason of it 3. The Company with whom he desired to eat it With you 4. The Time when Before I suffer 5. The Accomplishment of it in the Kingdom of God What we are to understand by the Kingdom of God and what by the fulfilling of it therein 6. His Resolution and Declaration That he would eat and drink no more so till it were Accomplished Lastly Some Reflections as the Application of the whole 1. Concerning the Feast of Passover You have the Institution of it Exod. 12. the beginning Where we find that it was appointed by God as a Memorial of the Israelites slavery in Egypt and their Deliverance out of it Former Miracles having been unsuccessful upon Pharaoh God intends to slay all the First-born of Egypt in one Night whereby in part the Curse of God pronounc't on Chaâ—â— is execâ—ted on his Posterity viz. the Egyptians in destroying All the First-born of botâ— Man and Beast The Israelites were ordered by Moses to slay a Lamb on the Fourteenth day of the First Month which answers to our March and to Sprinkle the Posts of their Doors with the Blood of that Lamb and to feed upon the Flesh of it in their several Families That very Night the destroying Angel strikes the First-born of every Family where this Command of sprinkling the Door-posts with the Blood of the Lamb was not observed On this you know they were delivered out of Egypt the Egyptians not only giving leave but dâ—siring them to be gone And this Deliverance being the Foundation of the Jewish State was to be perpetually observed by them in their Generations and to be an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12 42. The whole Institution of the Paschal Lamb is called by the Name of the Passover though it refer especially to the first Lamb in Egypt whose blood was sprinkled on the Door-posts of the Israelites Houses when the destroying Angel passed them by And the
suppose our Lord and the more Pious Jews did not Approve of that Order of the Sena e but followed the true Appearance of the Moon confirmed by sufficient and assured Witnesses The Passover being to be kept on the Fifteenth Day from the Appearance of the New-Moon But you will say still How could that Lamb be brought to the Temple and killed there if it were not on the same Day the Jewish Passover was generally Observed Unto which it is Answered That either the Master of the Family might be permitted on that day to kill the Lamb Not all the Lambs to be eaten by the Paschal Societies were to be killed by the Priests at the Temple and their blood poured out upon or at the Foot of the Altar but some of 'em in stead of All. Or that as to this and other Feasts whose Time depended upon this Determination that it was usual in Doubtful Cases to permit the Feast to be Solemnized for two days together Many Instances can be brought of this out of the Writings and Practices of the Jews and it is probable it was so now It is certain it was the Night before he â—â—â—â—â—red that he did thus eat the Passover and the Day wherein Israel went out of Egypt And it is a Tradition among the Jews says Grotius That then Israel should be delivered and redeemed in the Days of the Messiah even on the same day wherein they were delivered out of the House of Bondage in Egypt Thus admirably did the Wisdom of God concur to make the Antitype agree with the Type as will appear more distinctly under the next Head V. The Accomplishment of this Jewish Passover in the Kingdom of God For I say unto you I will eat no more thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God Which denotes it should be accomplished very shortly in that Kingdom But Vntil will not argue as if he should have afterwards eaten of it again That will not follow any more than that Michal Saul's Daughter had Children after her death because it is said She had no Child till the day of her death 1. What is meant by the Kingdom of God 2. What by the Fulfilling of the Passover therein And how or wherein it was then Accomplished and Fulfilled 1. Wâ— are we to understand by the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven Sometimes the expression is used for the Kingdom of Glory Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God Sometimes for his Providential Government His Kingdom ruleth over all Sometimes for the Execution of Judgment on the Nation of the Jews Mark 9.1 Some standing here shall not taste of Death till they see the Kingdom of God come But most usually it is taken for the Kingdom of Grace in General The Messiah's Kingdom with what belongs thereto The outward Means of Salvation are sometimes so called Math. 21.43 If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God then is the Kingdom of God come unto you The Internal Renovation of the Soul is also so expressed The Kingdom of God is within you and cometh not with observation Luk. 17.20 21. The Essentials of Christianity are also expressed by this Phrase Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost But the Church-State or the Evangelical Dispensation by the Messiah is most commonly understood As when the Kingdom of God is said to be at hand by the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles And no greater Prophet than John the Baptist yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven or the meanest Minister of the New Testament who Preacheth the Accomplishment of those things which the Baptist saw but the beginning of is greater than John the Baptist for he died before the Sacrifice of Christ So in this Text our Lord sayes He will eat no more of the Passover and drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till it be accomplished in the Kingdom of God that is till what was represented in the Figure and Type of the Jewish Passover was really fulfilled by the Messiah's Offering himself a Sacrifice upon the Cross Which Sacrifice and Death of Christ was supposed and anticipated in the Lord's Supper as the first Institution of this New Kingdom or Gospel-Dispensation My body broken for you And this brings me to consider 2. The Fulfilling of this Passover in the Kingdom of God Or the Accomplishment of the Legal Passover when Christ the Lamb of God who taketh away the Sins of the World was Sacrificed for us And here we may consider in the General 1. That something more than the History was intended 2. That these things did refer to the Messiah 3. That the Faithful under the Old Testament did so regard them 1. It is certain that somewhat more than the History was designed All the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Institution were but Shadows of good things to come But the Substance is Christ Colos 2.17 He is so even of the Jewish Passover For the Jews can never assign any pertinent and solid Reason of the Passover-Rites if there were no Reference to the Messiah What need of the Choice and Separation of a Lamb in that manner What Vertue could there be in the killing of one and the Sprinkling their Door-posts with his Blood What Influence could That have on their Deliverance out of Egypt Could not God distinguish the Houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians without this No Reason can well be assign'd of such Rites and Orders but by the Doctrine of the New Testament These things are thereby discover'd to be Excellent Emblems of the great Mystery of our Lord's Death 2. The whole Design therefore of this Paslover-Feast had an Aspect upon the Messiah and does Admirably Represent the Death and Sufferings of Christ the Lamb of God Sacrificed for us By whose Blood we have a Spiritual Deliverance from Sin and Satan as by the Blood of the Paschal Lamb they had a Deliverance from the destroying Angel and afterwards a Deliverance from the Egyptian Bondage Even the History of the Institution of this Passover shows a manifest Reference to Jesus Christ For we read Exod. 12.46 concerning the Paschal Lamb Neither shall ye break a Bone thereof And this is said to be fulfilled in Christ the Antitype as if pronounced immediately of him John 19. When the Souldiers found him dead they brake not his Bones as of the other two And it follows These things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says A Bone of him shall not be broken The Faithful under the Old Testament did so regard these Things And therefore Moses who esteemed the Reproach of Christ as greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt and therefore did know him is said to have kept the Passover in Faith Heb. 11.28 In which Chapter the Apostle speaks all along of Faith in the Mediator and not of Faith in God
the Spirit of Christ and not after the Flesh or according to the course of the World as formerly Is the Life you lead in the Flesh by the Faith of the Son of God How do you stand affected as to inward Spiritual Duties that concern the inward workings of your Thoughts and Conscience and Affections and such things as none but God and you do know of Is it as great a burden and trouble to your Souls to act contrary to the renewed Nature as before to contradict the Inclinations of the Flesh Is Prayer your dayly work and delight Do you cherish and promote the new Creature Are you restless after you have fallen into Sin till by Repentance you recover Pardon and Peace Do you grow up daily into greater Conformity to Christ and Imitation of him Desiring nothing more than that his Image may be drawn more lively on your Hearts and exprest more fully in your Lives according to the various Providences of God that call for the exercise of such and such Graces and according to the various Institutions of Christ wherein such and such Holy Affections are to be imployed The knowledg of this Union to Christ upon examination will give us the Comfort of all those Priviledges which result from it Examine how matters are with you as to these things and what care you take to maintain the bonds of Union to strengthen Faith and obey the Spirit and whether it be better now than it was a year ago While Merchants and Tradesmen cast up their Books and make up their Accounts at the end of the Year let us not neglect the like work as Christians with reference to our Spiritual State Let us not be less concerned to know whether we Thrive or Decay whether we advance and go forward or else decline 5. The next Vse may be of Comfort to such as are in Christ Our Union to him is the Foundation of all our Fellowship with him and after supplies of Grace and Life If we are in Jesus Christ he is made of God unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Such shall be delivered from Wrath entituled to Eternal Life have the Pardon of all their Sins Christ as their Advocate pleads for 'em in Heaven in him they are Adopted and have free access to God his Spirit dwells in them their Services are accepted c. If we are in him there is no condemnation unto such Rom. 8.1 Such a man is not condemned is not in a state of condemnation for the present John 3.18 And such a Member of Christ cannot Perish who by Union to him is United to God the Fountain of Life Our Lord speaks of the Union of the Father unto him as Mediator and his Union unto us as both in order to our Perfection and eternal Felicity John 17.20 23. I in them and thou in me that they may all be made perfect in one But there is no Reconciliation to God no Remission of Sins no Adoption no Salvation by Christ but for such as are in him Whereas all things are yours even Life and Death things present and things to come when you are Christ's There is a Train of invaluable Blessings follow this new Creation and Union to Christ where it is truly wrought * See Mr. Polhill 's Christus in Corde chap. 8. 2 Ephes 13.14 1 Cor 3.22 You are brought under the bond and blessing of the New Covenant Jer. 31.33 You are dignified with a new Name Rom. 2.17 You are begotten to a new Hope entitled to a new Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 1 John 12.13 And you shall be preserved and kept by the powerful Grace of Christ unto the full possession of it None shall pluck you out of his hands because he lives you shall live nothing shall be able to separate you from him If you are planted into the likeness of his Death for the destruction of the Body of Sin you shall grow up with him in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 6. Not only shall you receive Influence of Spiritual Life from him while you live but by vertue of this Union you shall dye in the Lord and sleep in Jesus Rev. 14.13 1 Thes 4.14 You shall be with him in Glory and your Bodies shall be raised by him and be made like his most glorious Body Rom. 8.11 But Lastly Let me close with Exhortation 1. Unto all to labour after Vnion to Christ 2. Unto those that have good hope through Grace that they are in him and profess to be so Let me exhort them that they would live as new Creatures 1. Labour after Vnion unto Christ How earnestly should this be desired how diligently pursued For we can have no Communion no Adoption no Freedom from Condemnation without it Faith on our part and the Spirit on Christ's are the Bonds of Union Let us carefully make use of the Word and Prayer in order to both waiting and begging of God and using all the hopeful means that are in our power in order to it How earnest should be our pursuits of this Priviledge how fervent our Prayers and constant our Endeavours after it Never leave solliciting the Throne of God till the Creator and Father of Spirits have created another breath into your nostrils another spirit into your Souls even the Spirit of Christ whereby we are united to him lay your self at his feet and with all the violence and importunity and humility that your distressed case may prompt you to beg the holy spirit to over shadow thee And yet learn so much Patience from thy beggarly state as not to challenge him at thine own times but wait his leasure and observe his motions doing all that possible thou canst in the use of common Grace to prepare the room against his coming and continue in Prayer watching thereunto in the use of all the out means which God hath afforded thee 2. Be exhorted to live as New creatures You are obliged to it by your Baptism and by your Profession of Christianity You that come to the Lord's Table are especially obliged That old things should be done away and all things become New You consider his Sufferings from time to time as represented in that Ordinance You there feast upon his Sacrifice and consider the cause of his Sufferings your own Sins and the end of them your Redemption from the Guilt and Filth and Power of Sin Can you do this and not feel the Obligation to live as New creatures and resolve upon it Do you not there renew your Covenant and engage your selves afresh to walk as the Redeemed of the Lord unto all well pleasing Do you not there cast your selves into the Arms of a Crucified Saviour and plead the Merits of his Death and beg the Supplies of his Spirit and bind your selves to strict fidelity to him as long as you live under a grateful sense of his kindness who has loved you and washed you from your sins in
many of our Acquaintance and Friends but that our Names may be amongst those who shall not out-live this It is true It may be you shall live to see the Conclusion of this New-year but it may be you shall not live till Midsummer It may be I may Preach a Twelve-month hence but peradventure you may hear a Sermon occasioned by my Death before that time Or your own ears may be stopped if my mouth be not You may die if I should live yet a few years more I cannot look round on this Assembly but I must conclude that of all this number it is past doubt but some one or more will dye before this year be over I believe I need not scruple to pronounce it There is none can question but if the number were much less one or more would dye within a year Therefore the Voice of God is to every one of you Awake and mind your Work Turn to the Lord and seek after Union to Christ and see that you be New creatures for you shall die before another year But you will almost All be ready to say To whom in particular do you speak this Sure not to me Yes I speak it to you to every of you whether in Youth or Age To you Parents and to you that are Children To you Masters and to you Servants To you Husbands and to you Wives To you before me and to you on either hand This Call of God is to every one of you in particular See that you be found in Christ for you may not be found alive at the end of this year Oh but I hope the contrary say such and such As for me I hope I have many a fair year to come I am in sprightly vigorous Youth or I am in setled confirmed Stength and Health or I am but just entred into the busie World or just now entring upon it c. But How many younger and more likely to live have died this last year and therefore why may not you be one of those who shall dye this Nay Elder Persons are ready to excuse themselves and say They have many Seniors to go before them That many who are Elder than they they see do yet hold out year after year Their inward thought is that they have escaped many Dangers and been recovered from many Sicknesses And though they are but weak and crazy and have many Infirmities and Pains to presage their Dissolution Yet notwithstanding these they make a shift to live and have rubbed on for several years under such weakness And several of their Acquaintance as weak and sickly as they have continued a good while for all that And so neither Young nor Old will admit the Supposition as to their own case Nor You nor You nor any body will believe they shall dye this year And so the next year I doubt not your Hearts will say the same as now for there will be the same pretence And therefore it is not unto you I must speak of Death but rather wish you Joy of the long Life which with so much confidence you reckon upon Well Shall I say then Go and enjoy this World and live as you list if you durst put it to the Venture Go and gratifie your Senses Appetites and Lusts for this year as you did the last and never think of Death or fear it You are not like to dye this year or the next But How unreasonable is such Security when some one or more of this Assembly you grant will probably or most certainly dye this year And how can you be certain that you shall be the Exempted Person Or that your nearest Relations and those you love best That they shall not dye this year Your Parents your Pastors your Husbands and your Wives and your Children and your Bosom Friends you will as hardly admit the thoughts that they shall dye this year But if some or other of those that now hear me that now look upon me that now listen and attend to what I say should be called away to Judgment before another year Why may not you in particular be the Persons or the Desire of your eyes those whose Lives are dearest to you Certainly To begin the year with such a Thought can do you no harm but may be improved to many useful purposes However I must tell you If after all the Changes which we have seen within a Twelve month and which every year brings fresh experience of we will not look forward to our own great change If we will not heartily concern our selves for our greatest truest Interest and prepare for an Everlasting State by voluntary vital Union with the Son of God I must tell you for a Conclusion That God changeth not And if neither the Voice of his Providence nor the Voice of Conscience If neither the Calls of the Word nor the Motions of the Spirit If neither the Experience of others nor so much as we have had of our own will awaken us to change our course You must know that the Holiness of God his Justice and his Truth are unchangable He will not alter the terms of Life for you and me He will not find another way for us to escape Condemnation than by being in Christ and being New creatures Therefore look to it that you be found such And in wishing and praying you may all be Such I do not only wish you a happy New year But a happy Life if it be for many years And withal a Blessed Eternity after Death which such as are now in Christ shall then Enjoy with him when Days and Years and Time shall be no more God grant it for Christ's sake Amen The Second Discourse â— Christ's passing over the Brook and Entring into the Garden After the Lord's Supper From JOHN XVIII 1 2. When Jesus had spoken these words he went forth with his Disciples over the Brook Cedron where was a Garden into the which he entred and his Disciples And Judas also which betrayed him knew the place For Jesus oft times resorted thither with his Disciples UPon Thursday the Day before the Crucifixion of our Lord he goes to Jerusalem from Bethany and there eats the Passover with his Disciples at the end whereof he institutes the Sacrament of the Supper and then makes a large Pathetical Discourse contained in the 15th and 16th Chapters Upon which followed his admirable Mediatory Prayer in the 17th Chapter Now having said and done this having said these words and sung an Hymn with his Disciples he goes forth with his Disciples over the Brook Cedron c. The Jews it is true did not go out of their Houses that Night after the Celebration of the Passover Exod. 12.22 24. Because of the Angels passing by the Houses of the Israelites when the first born of the Egyptians were to be cut off That the Israelites might not mix with the Egyptians at that time but sprinkle the Blood of the Paschal Lamb on their
own Door-posts as a Mark of Distinction Whereas our Lord having abrogated the Passover and instituted his Supper to succeed in its room all the Precepts that concern the Jewish Passover with all the Appendixes belonging to it were made Null and of no Effect and consequently our Saviour might go out that Evening especially when the Jews tarried within door to avoid suffering the Wrath of the Angel but he goes forth that Evening to meet with suffering For he knew that Judas would betray him that Night and that he was well acquainted with the place he went to for he was wont to retire thither with his Disciples He went forth when he was to be betrayed and taken as afterwards he suffered Death without the Gate of the City He went out of Jerusalem thereby declaring it is thought That the Gentiles had an interest in his Sufferings as well as the Jews That it was not that particular People alone he was to suffer for but the rest of the World were to be equal Sharers in the Benefits of his Passion He went forth with his Disciples over the Brook Cedron where was a Garden into which he entred c. In these Two Verses we may consider 1. The Place he passed over the Brook Cedron 2. The Company that was with him his Disciples 3. The Time after he had eat the Passover and instituted the Supper 4. The Place he retired to that was the Garden of Gethsemane 5. The Reason why he chose this Place for Meditation and Prayer the beginning of his Passion 6. His Custom to retire there He was wont to do so And lastly I shall consider what Practical Instructions may be gathered from the whole for our own Use 1. The Place over which he passed the Brook Cedron a little Rivulet of that name between the Temple of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives that ran through a dark deep Valley In Summer it was often dry and in Winter or after the fall of any considerable Rains it was full The cursed things were burnt here when Hezekiah and Josiah purged the Temple and City of Idolatry The Filth and Uncleaness of the Temple was cast into this Valley through which this Brook ran that our Lord passed over Which may mind us of his being made Sin and a Curse for us to abolish the Curse of the Law to purge us from our Filthiness and to bring about everlasting Righteousness for us As hardly Two Circumstances of our Saviour's Passion but had a Type so in this for instance we have an eminent one in David's going over the Brook Cedron when by the Rebellion of his Son Absolon he was forced to quit the City of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 15th Chapter David was then forsaken by his own Subjects as Christ was rejected by his own Countrymen and as He and all the People wept when they went over the Brook Cedron to the ascent of the Mount of Olives Our Lord when he went over this Brook retired to a Garden on a part of that Mount and there prayed himself into an Agony and wept Tears of Blood As soon as David had passed over this Brook to the Mount of Olives he worshipped God and poured out a Prayer recorded in the 3d Psalm So did our Lord pour out strong Crys and Intercessions to God on the same Mountain when he had passed over this very Brook Cedron From this first Particular before I proceed further we may learn to expect in imitation of Christ to follow him in the like path to go through the dark Valley of Suffering before we come to God's holy Mountain As he passed over the Brook Cedron to the Mount of Olives we must ascend likewise by the Cross to God's holy Hill But for our Encouragement we may consider too That he having drank of the Brook by the war hath sanctified the bitterest Cup of Affliction unto us This little Brook this Rivulet would never have been fordable for us but we must have been drowned in the Waters of Cedron if he had not passed over before us But now a Cup of Consolation is put into our hands he hath prepared a Path for us to Mount Olivet he hath smoothed our way to God's holy Hill by his own Sufferings and Death so as we need not fear to walk through the Valley of the shadow of Death 2. Let us consider the Company wherewith our Lord passed over this Brook with his Disciples There may be Two Accounts of this the one in reference to their future preaching of the Gospel the other for their more resolute and couragious suffering for it 1. As to their future preaching of the Gospel It was fit and necessary the Disciples should be Spectators of the most considerable Passages of our Lord's suffering Not only because some of them were to write the History of his Life and Death and transmit this Everlasting Gospel to future Generations But they were also to Preach to Jews and Gentiles in the Name of Christ and what more powerful Argument could they use to gain Credit to what they said than by being able to attest the Truth of their History by their own Evidence and to say upon their own Knowledge We speak that which we have seen and heard The Apostle Peter and the Evangelist John we find insist much on this We cannot but speak the things which we have seen Acts 4 10. 1 John 1.2 2. Hereby they might not oâ—ly be the better fitted for their Ministry to Preach in his Name but be thereby the better prepared to suffer for his sake His Example of Patience and Meekness and Resignation might be of singular Use to them upon that account He had foretold and forewarned them by his Discourse in the way That they must expect to suffer He had told them that when the Shepherd was smitten the Sheep should be scattered And what more likely to animate them to Patience and Perseverance than the Example of their Lord 's Voluntary Suffering especially if in any measure they understood the Design and Reason and End of his Suffering For if he drank of the Brook in the way they might well expect to taste of it If he travelled through the dark Valley they could not expect a smooth and a pleasant Path to Glory if he endured the Contradictions of Sinners against himself they could not think that they should escape Opposition Let us remember this and not think it strange if we meet with such Vsage as our Lord and his Followers have already done 1. We may learn from the Influence their Presence with Christ might have upon their future Ministry by being eye-witnesses of the Truths that they delivered That if ever Ministers would perswade others to believe any Doctrine the best Expedient is to endeavour to be fully perswaded our selves of the Truth and Certainty of those things that we deliver No wonder if other Men are not perswaded by us if we speak to them such things as we believe not our selves
or do either Preach or live in such a manner as to give them reason to think so 2. From the other Reason to encourage them to patient suffering we may observe That the Example of Christ's Courage and Constancy should be very influential upon all his Followers and if duly considered is like to be so For he is our Captain and Forerunner we are to follow him and fill up that which remains of his Sufferings All that we can suffer is but the gleaning of the Vintage after he has trodden the Wine-Press alone God hath spoken it once yea twice have we heard it that is in the Old Testament and in the New That Sufferings are the way to Glory That many are the Afflictions of the Righteous That through many Tribulations we must enter into Heaven c. 3. The Circumstance of Time is next to be considered When our Lord passed over the Brook Cedron viz. After he had instituted the Sacrament of the supper After he had spoken those words of Consolation and Instruction to his Disciples and of Petition to his Father Then he walked over the Brook Cedron with his Disciples He went forth to meet with sufferings and his Disciples were with him How admirable is the Wisdom and Condescension of our merciful Saviour thus to antidote and sore-arm his poor Disciples thus to prepare and dispose his faint hearted Followers to be Witnesses of his sufferings and Partakers of them For after such a blessed Preparative what should be able to sink their Spirits After they had Joined in such an Ordinance as the Lords supper administred by Christ himself After they had received such excellent Instructions and heard such a sermon from his own Mouth After they had been present when he put up such a Prayer to God as that recorded in the 17. of John what could dishearten them or damp their Courage We may hence take notice That the participation of Solemn Ordinances and Communion with God therein is an excellent Preparative to more than ordinary Trialls What better preparation for patient and couragious suffering for Christ than the Lords Supper wherein we remember his dying Love that should engage us to it And so for other Afflictions even the Calamities common to men The Sacramental Bread may be our staff and strength to fortifie and confirm our Minds against all Difficulties The sacramental Wine may be a Cordial to our fainting Spirits to inbolden us against all Discouragments On this Account they that neglect this Ordinance are wanting to themselves as to preparedness for and support in a time of Affliction And for this Reason we may suppose the primitive Christians did communicate so often every Lords Day sometimes every Day whenever they met for publick Worship because they were in continual Jeopardy of their Lives And the multitude of Martyrs in those times and their invincible Patience and Perseverance was much owing to this and influenced by it 4. Let us consider the place he retired to when he went over the Brook Cedron viz The Garden of Gethsemane The word Gethsemane signifies an Oile-press It was a little village scituated at the foot of the Mount of Olives on which Mountain there were many Olive-trees and so many Oil-presses in that Village The Mount of Olives hath its name with relation to this and the Jewish writers call it sometimes the Mountain of Vnction sometimes the Mountain of Light sometimes the Mountain of Health because of the use of Oyl as to all these This Garden of Gethsemane as some think was first planted by David or Solomon and then enlarged and beautified by succeeding Princes for their Recreation and Delight If that be true where they took their pleasure the Messias the true Son of David began his Passion in memory whereof Hellen the Mother of Constantine the Great afterwards built a Chappel there which was visible in the days of Jerom and some affirm the Virgin Mary the Mother of our Lord was Buried in or near this place But to pass that as doubtful it is very probable that in or near this Village near Jerusalem many of the rich Citizens had their Gardens and Country-Houses and among them some of Christs Followers who gave him and his twelve Disciples Entertainment therefore it is said he often resorted thither with his Disciples But 5. Why he did so is more to our purpose to inquire Why our Lord chose this place to prepare himself for his suffering and to begin his Agony And this may be answered in three particulars 1. The first sin was committed in a Garden and therefore the beginning of our Lords Passion for the expiation of sion did very fitly begin in a Garden too It was in a Garden that man began to sin and in such a place the Son of God began his Sufferings The first Adam incurs the Wrath and Displeasure of God in a Garden The second Adam trembles and groans and sweats and prays for the turning away of that Wrath from us in a Garden too he there began his Passion for our Recovery Our first Parents lost the Image of God by their disobedience and heard the Sentence of Condemnation in a Garden our Lord comes to restore the Divine Image and reverse the Sentence of Condemnation by his bloody sufferings and Death which begin in this Garden of Gethsemane as the Promise of it was first made in the Garden of Eden that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents-head Compare Eden and Gethsemane We were first seduced by the old Serpent in the Garden of Eden and his Head was bruised by the Agony and Bloody Passion of Christ which began in this Garden of Gethsemane In the one Garden the Devil conquered the first Adam but is overcome by the second Adam in the other when he resolved to drink the cup saying Not my Will but thine be done In the first Garden that of Eden man surfeited on the forbidden Fruit and fell from God for which our blessed Redeemer had a bloody Sweat in the Second the Garden of Gethsemane We were turned out of the earthly Paradise by sinning in the first we have the Purchace of the heavenly Paradise by our Lord 's Suffering which began in the second The beginning of our Calamity and of all the miseries of Mankind had its rise in the Garden of Eden And the beginning of the Messias Passion for our recovery was in the Garden of Gethsemane There our Lord signed the Decree for his own Crucifixion by his bloody Sweat as the Pledge and earnest of his shedding his Blood the next day upon the Cross 2. Another and more evident Reason why our Lord chose this Garden was because it was a solitary place fit for Meditation and Prayer and the more solemn Preparation of himself for his Crucifixion which was now so near He was now in prospect of his approaching Death he knew that within a few Hours he should be Apprehended and Taken Judged and Condemned to a
Forgiveness of Others If we have not had Love to our Fellow-Christians more excited in us to all that are Members of the same Body though they err and mistake though they diner from us though they be angry with us though they think hardly of us and speak hardly against us Yet if we have not had our Spirits brought to a Temper able to forgive them to pray for them and be ready to do them good c. We cannot say we have had Communion with Christ in his Ordinance For such Effects as these wiâ—l follow upon it Or rather it is in these things wherein a great part of our Spiritual Communion doth consist 2. If there have been any thing of this kind bless God for such a merciful Season For this is the Real Advantage and Good of any such Ordinance when it Rectifies our Spirits and betters our frame and subdues our Corruptions and recovers us from our back-slidings and gives us any thing more of the Divine Image and Likeness and makes us hate Sin more and love God and one another better This is the Real Advantage of such Seasons These are gainful Opportunities indeed where these Things are Attained where in any measure there are such Consequences of Approaching to the Lord's Table 3. Let us endeavour hence-forward to walk worthy of such a Priviledge and long for the Repetition of it Let us watch our Spirits this Evening and to Morrow and the following Week and Month that we may not presently lose the Savour of these things by secular and common Discourse and vain Converse When we go away from the Publick Worship let us spend the Remainder of the Day in such Offices and Exercises of Religion as may Assist us to prosecute our Great Design and may strengthen the Vows of God into which we have newly entred And let us shew we like his Fare and are pleased with the Entertainments of his House by desiring more such Opportunities and by Improving them when-ever they return One thing have I desired of the Lord says the Psalmist and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord for ever By this means we should endeavour to become growing thriving fruitful humble self-denying heavenly exemplary Christians walking worthy of our High and Holy Calling purifying our selves more and more from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit That our Hearts may be more fixed for God and Christ against all Competitors and under all Discouragements That Christ Jesus may have the more intire Possession of our Souls and the Service of our Lives That his Love being shed abroad in our Hearts nothing may ever be able to separate us from it That whether we live or dye Christ may be All in All to us Who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood To Him be Glory throughout all the Churches for ever Amen The Fifth Discourse Before The LORD's SUPPER THE Sin and Danger OF Unworthy Receiving From 1 COR. XI xxix He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself SO deep and General is the Corruption of Mankind that it may truly be said of very Many whose Carriage and Conversation is fair and unspotted that they are rather restrained by the Fear of Punishment than of Guilt of being Sufferers rather than of being Criminal Such an Errour it is true is injurious to the Dignity of the Divine Law and to the Honour and Authority of God's Government Nevertheless God doth so far Accommodate himself to our State as to Rule us by Moral Arguments that are proper to Influence our Hopes and Fears and therefore employs Threatnings as well as Promises and punishes some as Examples of Severity to warn others from the like Transgressions This Method the Apostle makes use of in this and the foregoing Chapter when he designed to Reform the scandalous Abuse of the Lord's Supper which these Corinthians were guilty of After he had Explained the Nature of the Institution and opened the Design and End of it he had Represented it as the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ He tells them what most manifestly follows from thence viz. The Greatness of the Sin to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup unworthily that if they do it without Self Examination they are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord They offend against the Lord Redeemer who hath appointed this Sacred Rite and even against his Body and Blood which are Signified and Represented by the Bread and Wine as the Memorial and Sign of it This to those that have any due Regard to the Authority and Love of a dying Saviour one would think should be Argument enough But least it should not besides the Declaration of their Sin he Denounces the Punishment of it in these Words That such do eat and drink Damnation to themselves Wherein we have First The Description of their Punishment who do unworthily partake of the Lord's Supper That they eat and drink Damnation to themselves Secondly the Reason of that Punishment intimated in the Nature and kind of their Sin That they discern not the Lord's Body Before I consider the Punishment of Vnworthy Receivers it will be proper to open a little the Nature of their Sin mentioned in the latter part of the Verse Not discerning the Lord's Body This may refer to the foregoing Expression of being Guilty of his body and blood and the one Phrase will give light to the other Such as receive Unworthily are Guilty of the body and blood of Christ because they do not discern and distinguish it aright They do not think of it as they ought They do not carry it suitable to its Excellent Nature and Vse and so they eat and drink Judgment to themselves by not discerning the Lord's body And thereby are Criminal against the Person of the Redeemer as cloathed with Human Nature and as giving the Memorials of his body and blood separated to betoken his Death and Sufferings For so we remember a crucified Saviour in this Ordinance It is therefore no wonder if such a Fault be severely punished That which we Translate Discern it is well known signifies to make a difference between one thing and another as Acts 15.19 So not to discern the Lord's body is not to difference and distinguish concerning it to look no further than the outward sense not to make a difference between common and sacramental bread not to eye the body and blood of Christ as signified by the Sacramental Elements not to remember or consider his cruel Sufferings which this should put us in Mind of This be sure is not to discern his body But few can be supposed so ignorant as not speculatively to discern and distinguish in this case But practically to do so is a greater mattâ—r it Imports to mind to attend to to esteem to honour to apply to use the body and blood of Christ and the sign and the Memorial
of it according to its Dignity and Excellency And thereupon to compose the outward and inward Man in partaking of this Ordinance as those that know we have to do with Christ himself and that the body and blood of Jesus Christ is Refer'd to by the Bread and Wine Such a discerning of his body would help to compose us to serious Reverence would awaken suitable Affections would excite the Exercise of Repentance Faith Love Thankfulness and Joy answerable to the Nature of this Feast of Love upon the Sacrifice of Christ This would Regulate the Behaviour of our Bodies and the Temper of our Spirits the Government of our Thoughts and the Motions of our Affections and make us Worthy Receivers The Neglect of this the not thus discerning the Lord's body is the Sin here mentioned and thereby they are Guilty of the body and blood of the Redeemer i. e. They are Profanely Injurious to the very Person of Christ they treat his sacred body and precious blood unworthily and with Contempt It is a Guilt like theirs that abused and crucified the Lord himself when he was upon Earth It is a Sin againâ—â— the body of Jesus Christ against his Humanity which of all Creatures that ever were upon Earth or that are now in Heaven is the most Sacred The Affront Contempt and Injury Redounds to the blessed Redeemer as God Incarnate as having our Nature now in Heaven 't is an Injury to the body of Christ That Body wherein he bore our Sins upon the Cross wherein as a Sacrifice for Sin he offered himself to God That Body that was prepared for him and formed by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin that was afterwards Gloriously raised from the Dead to a Divine Life and is now in Heaven the Wonder and Admiration of the blessed Angels and Raised to a State of Glory there as the Pledge and Earnest of our Resurrection and Bliss The not discerning the Lord's body has such a Guilt as this Implyed in it 2. The Punishment of this Sin of Vnworthy Receiving expressed by not discerning the Lor'ds body is here set forth by Eating and Drinking Damnation to our our selves or Judgment to our selves That is As sure as he eats and drinks if he do it unworthily So certain it is that Judgment shall follow he eats and drinks Judgment to himself That Addition To himself may denote two Things First That the whole blame should be laid upon our selves If such a Divine Institution designed for the Spiritual Good and Advantage of our Souls do prove to our Detriment and Damage In such a case it is we our selves that are the sole Cause of it Secondly The Expression may Import further That such as Receive Vnworthily they only hurt and defile Themselves but not other Men that communicate with them You may partake worthily and to Edification while Another by unworthy Receiving that sits in the same Pew may Eat and drink Judgment and condemnation but he eats and drinks Judgment to himself only not to You. Ephes 4.5 Every man shall bear his own burden Let every man prove his own work It cannot be thought that our Lord was defiled by coming to the Baptism of John when there were such a Generation of Vipers who came to it as well as Christ Or that our Lord and the Eleven Apostles were defiled by the company of Judas at the Passover-Supper For there be sure he was The Lord's-Supper was at the close of it And for his being present at that also many contend though * See Mr. Charnock Of the Lord's Supper 2d Vol. p. 7â—3 Compared with Mr. Kettlewell Of the Lord's Supper 12º 1687. p. 387 388 c. The one for his being Present the other against it Others think it probable that he went out before But the presence of some unworthy persons is made an Argument by many against their Partaking of the Lord's Supper in such or such a particular Church as if their presence would defile and infect them This therefore I shall consider as one Objection which several are apt to make against the Performance of this Duty Of frequent remembring the Death of Christ at his Table And then Secondly Consider the other Objection from this Text viz. From the Danger of Receiving Vnworthily lest they should Eat and Drink Damnation to themselves And Thirdly What many more are wont to plead That the Danger being so great they durst not Adventure till they know that they are Believers or such as are Invited For it is Children's bread and they durst not come till they are Assured of their Regeneration and Adoption I shall therefore enquire Whether any ought to come to the Lord's Table till they have Assurance or while they want it 1. It is Objected by many That they do not Communicate because there are such and such Admitted who ought not to come to the Table of the Lord Such as walk disorderly who discredit their Profession and are as bad as any of their Neighbours and Acquaintance And the Apostle says 1 Cor. 5.10 That with such we should not so much as eat That we should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Ephes 5.11 That we should withdraw and separate and have no free familiarity with such 2 Thes 3.6 2 Tim. 3.5 2 Cor. 6.17 I Answer First That the Separation from Wicked Men required in such Passages of Holy Scripture refers to our intimate Converse and Familiarity with such who live in notorious and scandalous Sins and do not Testifie their Repentance We must avoid their company lest we be Infected And there is much more danger of Infection by Familiarity with them in daily Converse than by joyning with them in Religious Duties But we must be careful not to call those Vngodly whom we cannot prove to be so we should rather hope they are not unless we can prove the contrary What Sins are there that even a good Man by the surprize of a Temptation may not commit who yet mourns in secret and truly Repents It may be you may have heard of the Sins of many of whose Repentance you have not heard And yet they might truly Repent and you might know it if you would enquire But where the mixture of the â—ares and the Wheat is such that the one cannot be pull'd up without the other both must grow together till the Harvest Such a Difference as God will make at the last Day cannot now be made by us We may safer let the Righteous and Wicked go together as if all were Righteous when we cannot prove the contrary And we do not therein make a false Judgment we do not judge that it is certain that such and such are Sincere and truly Godly but that it is probable they may be so And we may have a stronger Confidence concerning the Sincerity of Some while we have only probable Hopes of Others yea with such Hopes there may be some Fear of their Hypocrisie joyned when
Communion with several persons who if they would judge righteous Judgment concerning themselves ought to tarry away As having no Right before God to come to the Table of the Lord as the Case is with them at present In short It is unlawful to Communicate with Wicked Men if they be so bad and their Number so great as that it is our Duty to forsake such a Church If Heresie and Impiety be justified by the Major Vote and bare down Faith and Godliness then that particular Society is uncapable of the Ends of Church-Communion and so to joyn there would be sinful But in Cases of lesser Irregularity if we do not sin by the Neglect of our Duty it will be no sin of ours to Communicate with that Church though Unworthy Persons be Admitted The Sins of the Pastor and of particular Delinquents are not ours much less may we refuse Communion upon the account of other Men's Faults when we have not done our Duty in order to the Remedy and Cure of them 2. Object But others will say I am truly afraid to venture the Danger of Vnworthy Receiving is so very great that it makes me tremble to consider it I have been many years frighted with your Text That he that Eats and Drinks Unworthily eats and drinks Damnation to himself Answ 1. The Word which we translate Damnation signifies only Judgment or Punishment in the general and so is used in several places What Judgment therefore is meant the Context must determine And that speaks principally of Temporal Punishments for such are mentioned Verse 30. as inflicted on the Corinthians for the Profanation of this Ordinance For this cause some of you are sick and weak and many are fallen asleep Besides the Reason that is assigned for these Punishments or Judgments was That they might not be condemned with the World Verse 32. For when we are judged says the Apostle It is the same word it may be as well Rendred Damned as that in the Text Damnation But when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World God did thus judge or punish the Corinthians in this World that they might be Reformed and not perish Eternally So that he who Eats and drinks unworthily may fear lest his Contempt and Profanation of the Ordinanance be followed by some Remarkable Jugdment of God at least it was so in the Apostle's time 2. Conside◠〈…〉 That the Disorders committed by the Corinthians and occasioned by their Love Feasts that preceded the Lord's Supper They were such as were peculiar to those Times and are now Abolish'd and disus'd Christians then Feasted by themselves in their Religious Assemblies in Imitation of what the Heathens did in their Idol-Temples The Rich sent in their own Provisions and every one contributed to this Feast by bringing some Portion but there they banded into several Parties as they came without tarrying one for another and feeding lovingly together Every one fell to that Portion of Meat which he brought as if they were at home when it should have been divided in Common and the Poor have had their share Whereas says the Apostle Some are hungry and others intemperate and drunken This they are taxed with in the 22. Ver. What says he have ye not houses to eat and to drink in They made little or no Difference between these Love-Feasts and the Lord's Supper at the close of them between these Sacred Symbols of our Lord's Body and Blood and common Food and Drink They were in the House and Worship of God just as in their own and made no Distinction between this and a common Meal Nay it was worse They turned this Ordinance into a drunken Club or a Riotous Entertainment making it an Instrument and Occasion of Debauchery This was Eating and Drinking Vnworthily indeed and no wonder if God did so severely punish them for it The Apostle Jude taxes these Love-Feasts Verse 12. But there is no danger of such Excesses at the Lord's Table now or of eating and drinking Vnworthily in the same manner as the Corinthians did 3. If we take Damnation for Eternal punishment which Vnworthy Receiving does without Repentance expose to Yet consider that the Wages of every Sin is Eternal Death And you have the same Reason to be afraid of Other Sins because you run the same Hazard The Sacrifices of the Wicked God abhors And the very Prayers of the Hpocrite are an Abomination to him But 4. Consider That by eating and driâ—king his own Damnation the Apostle does not mean that every such Person shall certainly and inevitably be damned but that without Repentance it is a damning Sin Unworthy eating is so and so is sinful abstaining too without Repentance And why so much Tenderness in the one Case and not in the other No Man needs be blamed for being unwilling to Damn himself But why should Men be fearful of it in this Instance and not in others Infidelity Disobedience and Impenitence will as certainly expose a Man to Damnation without the Sacrament as with it And they cannot fairly urge the Fear of Damnation against coming to it who are not restrained thereby from other sins as damning as this 5. That therefore which the Apostles words will most properly infer and direct us to is this That siâ—ce we are required iâ— Obedience to Christ to do this in rememb ance of him and yet such severe Punishments are threetned to those that do it unworthily The plain consequence is this That we should not omit it becaâ—se of the Command nor yet carelesly undertake it because of the threatned Juâ—gment But it will by no means excuse or plead for the total neglect and omission of it 'T is plain the Apostle never thought that the sin and danger of doing a Duty amiss might be made an Exception against the doing iâ— at all or â—hat threatning Damnation to eating a d drinking unwo thily should fâ—are Men from eating and drinking at all He takes what care he can that the Duty may be perform'd and the Err r in doing it may be effectually prevented But never makes the Danger of the one a Dispensation from the other He tells them of the sin to eat and drink unworthily and of the punishment it makes 'em obnoxious to but he doth not therefore tell 'em they may stay away from the Sacrament for fear of committing the sin or of incurring the Danger Not even in that case where they were actually Guilty and really Punisht 6. You ought to consider That you will but increase your Sin and aggravate your Damnation by all the other Duties of Religion and other parts of Divine Worship if you continue Impenitent You are often told that you ought not to come to this Table till you Repent and turn to God in Christ with all your heart and give up your selves intirely to be the Lord's But if you do not Resolve to do so the same Argument will hold for the neglect
the Ceremonial Law as an Example of Obedience And therefore the Skin of his Flesh was Circumcised and his Holy Mother Purified And he that was the true Passover would keep the Typical one And so as one well expresses it did obediently stand under his own Shadow 3. One Reason of his Desire to eat of this Passover might be to put an end to the Sacraments of the Legal Institution And therefore after the eating of the Passover he instituted the Lords Supper which succeeds in its room Which is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ the True Lamb of God the true Christian Passover in Remembrance of our Deliverance by Him from Sin and Hell from Death and the Devil Those things therefore that were but Types and Shadows of Him must cease after his Death the Truth and Substance of them being now Accomplished as I shall shew presently 4. Another Reason might be That he might have Fellowship and Communion with his Disciples And that leads to the consideration of the Third thing III. The Company with whom he desires to eat this his last Passover With You. The Jews tell us concerning the Number of those that were to eat the Passover That it was not to be under Ten for the whole Lamb was to be eaten Nor above Twenty lest they should need two Lambs Therefore our Lord sent word to one of his Disciples to prepare every thing for that Solemnity that the House might be searched if there were any Leavened Bread left in it Which they were wont to do very carefully in every corner saying Blessed art thou O Lord who hast Sanctified us by thy Precepts And then throwing a little Dust into the Air they used these words or the like If there be any leavened Bread in this House let it be as this dust cast into the Air. But the principal Reason of sending word before-hand might be because the Persons in the Family were to be numbred And it is not improbable but there were more Men than the Apostles and our Lord who were present at the eating of this Passover and it may be some Women too For 1. It is probable That the Man and his Family in whose House it was did eat of the Passover with Christ and his Apostles Secondly The Expressions of the Evangelist are very considerable concerning him that should betray him There is a Threefold Gradation He says first in the General One of you shall betray me And afterwards he comes nearer and says One of the Twelve Or of my Apostles often so called So that at the eating of this Passover there seemed to have been more present than the Twelve Apostles And afterwards he particularizeth the Person He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish Thirdly We read that the Virgin Mary and two or three other Women did usually accompany him and were then at Jerusalem to eat the Passover For the next day the Virgin Mary was standing by the Cross when our Lord was Crucified And it being the Jewish Custom for the Relations to join together at the Passover Supper it is not unlikely that she did eat the Passover with Christ And it being in the House of one of his Disciples she might tarry there that night while he went out from thence about Eleven or Twelve a Clock at Night into the Garden where he was betrayed and taken And she hearing of his being taken might go to the High Priests Hall and be at the Cross the next Morning at Nine a Clock With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer VVith You You my Disciples and Friends with whom I shall never eat another Passover Notwithstanding the Prospect of his Approaching Sufferings and Death He did not decline but earnestly desire Communion and Fellowship with them in such an Ordinance When he gave 'em the Cup 't is observable he bids 'em divide it among themselves The Scripture saith not that he gave the Elements into every one of their particular hands much less into their mouths without their touching the Bread or Cup with their own hands except we will admit that Christ chang'd the posture he was in and alway used at Meals and the Scripture saith not he did how could he reach it to so many as Eleven Persons in the same Posture IV. Let us consider the Time when Before I Suffer There is a great Controversie about the Time of this Passover It was certainly upon Thursday-night He being Crucified on the Fryday in the Forenoon though he did not give up the Ghost till Three in the Afternoon But the Question will be whether it was at the same Time that the Jews kept their Passover or a Day sooner And if it was a Day sooner How could the Paschal Lamb be killed which was to be brought to the Temple and be killed by the Priests between the two Evenings of the Fourteenth day the first whereof began when the Sun began to decline or as soon as Mid-day was past The other Evening was after Sun-set Some Learned Men think it is plain That the Time when our Lord did eat this Passover with his Disciples was the day before the Generality of the Jews kept theirs from Joh. 18.28 Chap. 19.14 For the better understanding of this you must know that the Time for the Observation of the Jewish Festivals was Regulated by the Appearance of the New Moon They had not Almanacks * Dr. Wallis of the Christian Sabbath in Answer to Mr. Bampfield Page 13. in those days as we have now to tell us before-hand when will be a New-Moon But if we may believe the Jewish Writers about the time when they expected a New Moon they sent Men to watch for it on the Top of some Hill or High place and he who could first discover a New-Moon was to tell the Priest and he to Blow the Trumpet to give the people notice that there was a New-Moon But in case of Cloudy weather if in Three days time from their first expectation no Man could see a New-Moon they did then venture but not before to blow the Trumpet without seeing it which must needs cause a very great Vncertainty and the same Moon be sooner seen at one place then at another and the Passover kept accordingly So that sometimes there was a Mistake of One day or more Now it hath been * Dr. Cudworth's Notion of the Lord's Supper Page 50 70 c proved out of Epiphanius and others that there was a Contention and Tumult amongst the Jews at this very Passover concerning the Time or the Day wherein it was to be observed and that the Senate had appointed a Day too late and had not determined according to the True Phasis or Appearance of the Moon 'T is manifest our Saviour kept the Passover on one Day and the Generality of the Jews on another perhaps he about a Fortnight before might see a New-Moon a Day sooner than they did And therefore we may
ceasing of the Mosaick and the beginning of the Evangelical one In the like sense the same Word is used in other Places as Zach. 14 6 7. And that which answers to the Word New is that it is opposed to the old Dispensation that it serves to Divine Purposes by a new Institution and so is made New And it declares that the N w Gospel Dispensation to which it is appropriate is now beginning or to commence I 'll not drink of it till I drink it New with you in my Father's Kingdom or in the Kingdom of God i. e. In the Lord's Supper which is my Gospel Institution and the Beginning of the Peculiar Kingdom of God as dispens'd after my Actual Death and Sufferings No question but the Sense is very safe to consider it with Reference to the Heavenly Glory as it is usually understood when all the Blessings of this Passover shall be fully Accomplished in the Heavenly Canaan Neither is it strange or unusual for the same Ancient Type or Figure to respect to several Objects and so have several Degrees of Accomplishment * Les OEVRES Posthumes de Mr. Claude Tom. 2. l. 4. cap. 9. traité de J. Christ This of the Paschal Lamb might not only have Relation to the Angel's passing by the Houses of the Isrelites in Egypt and their passage out of Bondage into Liberty by the Deliverance that follow'd but unto the Absolution and Deliverance of Believers by the Blood of Chrsst and unto the Deliverance of Christ himself out of the Grace and from a state of Humiliation to that of Glory and to the passage of the Church Militant upon Earth to a state of Triumph in Heaven The Blessedness of Heaven is frequently set off by this Metaphor of Eating and Drinking And at the Lord's Table which was Instituted at the close of the Passover Feast the Thoughts of Heaven are proper We meet at this Table as those who hope to sit down with all the Children of the Kingdom at the last great Supper of the Lamb. This Ordinance is a lively Resemblance of the Heavenly Feast and should assist our Meditations on it Our Lord doth here speak to us such kind of Language Ere long we shall Feast together in Heaven What is now done in Emblem shall be then done in Reality You have here the Earnest Pledge and Assurance of it This Table is a Preparatory Entertainment for the Eternal Supper * Bishop Parick Mensa mystica chap. 18. It is some foretaste to stay our Longings and yet excite our Desires after the Heavenly Feast above Here we break our Fast as I may say but are made thereby very Hungry till that Great Supper come Here we have but a Praelibation a little short Antepast of some Rare things to come yet seeing it is an Earnest of those Things it creates in an holy Soul a wonderful Contentment both from its own Sweetness and the Hopes wherewith it feeds us It nourishes in us most Delicious Longings it makes the Soul even swell with Comfortable Expectations And we Receive it not only as a Remembrance of what was done but as a Pledge of what shall be We taste not only what he is to our Souls at present but what he shall be for ever If it be a Priviledge to be Admitted to sit at his Table and to have his Covenant sealed to me by the outward Ordinance and his special Love by his Spirit to my Heart All the Life and Comfort of these is That they Declare and Assure me of more and better Comforts hereafter Their Use is darkly to signifie and seal higher Mercies When I shall Drink with Christ of the Fruit of the Vine renewed How pleasant a Feast will that be O◠the Difference * Mr. Baxter as One hath well exprest it O the Difference between the last Supper of Christ on Earth and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at the Great Day Here he is in an Vpper-Room accompanied with Twelve poor selected men feeding on no curious Dainties but a Paschal Lamb with sour Herbs and a Judas at his Table ready to betray him But then his Room will be the Glorious Heavens his Attendants all the Host of Angels and Saints no Judas nor unfurnished Guest comes there but the humble Believers must sit down by him and the Feast will be their mutual Loving and Rejoycing You know nevertheless that when the Israelites were got out of Egypt and delivered by the Blood of the Lamb and had a Promise of Canaan they had yet a Wilderness to pass through many Enemies to Encounter and Difficulties to overcome before they entred into Canaan though God protected and maintained and supplyed them in the Wilderness all that while So is it with us Christians though we recover our Spiritual Liberty by Faith in the Blood of Jesus and are made a peculiar People unto God a Nation of Kings and Priests unto the most High and are marching towards the Heavenly Canaan and have the Promise of it We have yet a Wilderness to pass through We have Adversaries on all sides to resist We need a Pillar of Cloud and of Fire to direct us and Manna from Heaven to supply us And this we shall have from time to time till we come to Canaan and then our Lord will eat and drink with us after a better manner we shall have New Wine in his Kingdom He is gone to prepare a Feast for us to make ready the great Supper of the Lamb for all the Children of the Kingdom After he was Sacrificed as the Lamb of God he tarried Fourty Days upon the Earth from his Resurrection till he Ascended into Heaven As the Jews after their Passover in Egypt wandred 40 years in the Wilderness before they entred into Canaan But all Believers after a few Years Difficulty and Tryals in this World with the Presence of God to Conduct and Guide them shall at last sit down for ever with Christ to Reap the full Harvest of his Sufferings to receive the compleat Deliverance which he hath procured to enjoy all the blessed Fruits of his Death all the Purchase of his Redeeming Blood This he will come again to bestow upon those who believe expect and prepare for it Some Inferences of Truth and Duty may be collected as the Application of what has been said 1. That Believers under the Old Testament and under the New have the same Object of Faith They did eat the same spiritual Meat and drink the same spiritual Drink Their Sacraments and ours have different Signs but in Substance were the same Theirs having Relation to Christ the Messiah as well as ours Accordingly we read of Circumcision and the Passover in a spiritual sense under the Gospel And that which answers to Baptism and the Lord's Supper with us Even they under the Old Testament had 1 Cor. 10.2 3. They were under the Covenant of Grace though not so clear a Dispensation of it as we They were
The very Name of this Sacrament the Eucharist imports this That Thanksgiving is our principal Work He took the Bread and he took the Cup and he gave Thanks say the Evangelists indifferently of the one and of the other Blessing and Giving of Thanks being the same This Food is hallowed by Thanksgiving and if ever the High Praises of God should be in our Mouths it ought to be so upon this Occasion Praising God for parting with his only Son not sparing him that we might be spared Thanking our Lord Redeemer for leaving the Right Hand of his Father and the Glory of Heaven to come and Tabernacle amongst us and take our Nature and Dye for us Lord Jesus Who are we What am I that thou shouldst part with the Glory of Heaven and part with thine own Life upon the accursed Tree for such a Wretch as I am Was I dearer to thee than thine own Heart-blood that thou didst freely shed it upon the Cross for me How Amazing is thy Love How do I rejoyce in it With what Thankfulness do I reremember it How am I ashamed of my self that I love thee no more O that I might feel the Constraints of thine Endearing Love to warm and quicken my cold and dead Heart that so I might speak thy Praise And let Heaven and Earth and Angels and Men for ever Extol thy Matchless Grace and Love which passeth Knowledge but calls for Everlasting Thanksgiving With such a Frame as this let us endeavour to Come and we shall find that His Banner over us will be Love THE END The Eighth Discourse AFTER THE Lord's Supper From St. JOHN xx 27 28. Then said he unto Thomas Reach hither thy Finger and behold my Hands and reach hither thy Hand and thrust it into my Side and be not faithless but believing And Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God A Strange and surprizing Spectacle to see an Apostle of our Lord carry it like an Infidel an Vnbeliever To behold one of the Twelve that was to spread the Faith of Christ throughout the Universe to want that Faith which he was to perswade others to To hear the great Article of the Resurrection one of the most deeply Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion to be obstinately denied by those Lips that were to Publish the Gospel of Christ And this as the Sum of it That he is Risen from the dead What more likely to scandalize the Weak to stagger the Faith of many not yet confirmed Disciples and to hinder the belief of Christ's being Risen than such an Example of Incredulity in one of his Apostles But the permission of such Falls and the raising a Revenue of Glory to the Redeemer by them is one of the Secrets of Predestination that will be Eternally Adored This is sufficiently manifest in this very Passage relating to the Apostle Thomas whose Infidelity as one of the Ancients observes has proved as serviceable to Christianity as the Faith of the other Apostles His Incredulity strengthens our Faith in the Resurrection of our Saviour as it gave occasion to his Appearing another time for the Cure of his Unbelief And because after so much Obstinacy and pertinacious Doubt he at last yields and acknowledges the Truth of Christ's Resurrection and makes a Glorious Confession of his Faith Whereas if only a few credulous Men men of an easie and hasty Faith had assured us of it their Testimony had been more liable to suspicion The Wisdom of God has Recorded the Faults and Miscarriages of the Apostles for our Instruction and Vse These Suns enlighten us not only by the Lustre of their good Examples when they shine in Grace and Holiness but even by their Eclipses too Their Cowardize their Rashness their Presumption their Unbelief is of use to be considered Our Heavenly Physician Extracts some of the best Medicines out of the most deadly Poyson to caution and warn and instruct and Edifie us by the Miscarriages and Faults of David of Peter of Thomas and the like Let us therefore view this Passage and consider what Reflections may be made upon it And the whole may be comprehended under these Four Heads 1. The Incredulity of this Apostle he could not believe without seeing feeling and having the Testimony of Sense Except I shall see in his Hands the print of the Nails and put my Finger into the print of the Nails and thrust my Hand into his Side I will not believe Verse 25. 2. The Condescention and Kindness of Christ in appearing to him another time and granting it Verse 26 27. 3. The Cure of his Vnbelief and the Excellent Confession of Faith which thereupon he makes Verse 28. And Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God 4. The useful Admonition which our Saviour gives us concerning Faith that though Thomas having seen him had believed yet Rather blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed 1. Concerning the Incredulity of this Apostle the Evangelist gives us an Account that on the First Day of the Week towards Evening our Lord being Risen from the Dead early in the Morning when the Disciples were met together and had shut the Door for fear of the Jews Ver. 19. He suddenly presents himself amongst them saying Peace be unto you He assures them of his being Risen from the Dead imparts to them the Holy Ghost and gives them a Charge and Commssion to act as Apostles in Remitting or Retaining Sins But Thomas whose Greek Name was Didymus both signifying Twins was not present at this Assembly But as soon as the other Disciples met him they tell him They had seen the Lord that Mary Magdalen had seen him that Peter had seen him and the two Disciples going to Emaus and then all the Ten and had full Assurance that he was Risen This makes little Impression in order to his believing it for no Eyes will serve him but his own Though Faith comes by hearing he professes he would not believe except he saw Except I see in his hands the print of the Nails and put my Finger into the prints of the Nails and thrust my Hand into his Side I will not believe O suspicious incredulous Man Who will be the Loser if thou wilt not believe But wherefore dost thou doubt How is it that so many Eyes and Tongues are not as credible as thine own Eyes and Hands Shall the World be Proselyted to the Faith of Christ upon the Testimony of these Witnesses and wilt not thou Assent Did not thy Lord foretel his own Death and Resurrection Didst thou not hear him declare that he must be Crucified and that afterwards on the Third Day he would Rise again Is there any thing we Attest concerning his Resurrection but what was promised and foretold Why may not we be credited in our Report of a Matter of Fact whereof we have so plain and full an Evidence What ground is there to disbelieve so many Eye-witnesses
Why does not Peter define and determine the matter that was questioned doubted and denied by Thomas There is nothing of all this however proper the occasion might have been 6. In that this Incredulity of the Apostle was over-ruled to so much good for the further Confirmation of the Great Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection let us admire the Divine Wisdom and Goodness in the Government of the World who tho he cannot be the Author of Sin does yet over-rule it to his own Glory He hath done so in many Eminent Examples and he did so in this Hereby the Honour of Christ is the more advanced by his open Confession of him afterwards as Lord and God and the Truth of his being Risen is the better confirmed and so the Faith of others assisted by his Fall It was well for the Apostle and it was well for Vs that he did not believe presently He was afterwards brought to the most admirable Exercise and Declaration of his Faith in Christ not only of his being Risen but of his being the Eternal Son of God and of his happy Interest in him and Relation to him as his Lord and his God And we have a greater Evidence thereby of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection Doubtless this Fall of Thomas was also a Motive to his greater Diligence in the Service of Christ and Zeal for his Glory as it was with the Apostle Paul and Peter and others 7. Let us not rashly judge of Men by a single Act. Thomas had true Faith notwithstanding this Fit of Doubting and Unbelief which revived upon the Sight and Presence of Christ within a few Days Many that in a fit of Temptation we may think have no Truth of Grace yet if we stay a while do soon discover it Some special Ordinance or Providence brings them to themselves and suddenly shows the Reality of that which did not Appear but the contrary Corruption 2. Having thus considered the Vnbelief of this Apostle let us now observe the Compassion Condescension and Kindness of Christ to this Incredulous Apostle Eight days after the Disciples being together and Thomas with them Jesus came and stood in the midst of them saying Peace be with you and says to Thomas Vers 27. Reach hither thy Finger and behold my Hands and reach hither thy Hand and thrust it into my Side and be not Faithless but Believing What Injustice if our Saviour had left him to his own Pertinacious Incredulity Whom could he have blamed but himself if he had continued in his Unbelief But our Lord came and shewed him his Hands and Feet and bids him do what he desired for his Conviction How mercifully doth he pity us in our Errors and Infirmities With what Tenderness and Compassion doth he reclaim us And this when he was Risen from the Dead after he was declared to be the Son of God with Power when he was to receive the Recompence and Reward of his Death and Sufferings when his State of Humiliation was over And yet How low does he stoop for the sake of this Apostle when so unreasonable a thing too was demanded as the Condition of his Believing But such is the Admirable Bounty and Condescension of Christ that he will not refuse him even this Since you will not believe otherwise O my Apostle I consent Behold my Wounds Behold the Print of the Nails And if the Sight of them be not enough to cure thine Infidelity Come Reach hither thine Hand thrust thy Finger into my Side I care not what I do or how low I stoop rather than not convince and heal thee If the Evidence of one Sense be not enough I will yield further and let thee have more Our Lord might have convinced Thomas by the Powerful Influence of his Spirit without all this But he condescends thus far for our Sakes that We and Others might have a clearer Evidence and Proof of his Resurrection and likewise of his Divinity For his fixing upon Thomas in this Assembly and speaking to him such Words doth plainly manifest that he knew his Heart and understood what Discourse he had had and what Objections he had made and what was the Inward Sense of his Soul which he could not have done without being Omniscient Little did this Apostle think his Lord had heard him or believe that he knew his Sin But Come hither says Christ behold my Hands Reach hither thy Hand and thrust it into my Side He condescends to Grant that which it was the Apostles Fault to Ask. We see by these Words our Risen Lord retained the Marks of the Wounds the Prints of the Nails and Spear in his Body after the Resurrection to manifest with greater Certainty the Truth of it It is likely he preserved them at his Ascension too as the Evidence of his past Sufferings and the Ensigns of his Victory And let us not imagin if he retains them in Heaven to the Admiration of Angels and the Joy of the Redeemed that it will be any Disparagement to the Beauty and Splendor of his Glorious Body but rather contribute to it in the Day of his Appearing when every Eye shall see him and they also which pierced him 3. Let us Consider the Faith of Thomas hereupon ver 18. He answered and said My Lord and my God He not only believes with the Heart but confesses with the Mouth He owns both the Divinity of Christ and his Dominion and that with an Appropriating Faith My Lord and my God There is a great Sense in these few words for 1. Here is an Evidence of the Truth of his Repentance of his Love and of his Zeal The very Sight of Christ and the Print of the Nails and the Mark of his Wounds shames him for his Sin and makes him sensible of his Incredulity Behold says Christ the print of the Nails Think what I have suffered for Thee for the Expiation of thy Sin Think how I have loved Thee to dye for thee And wilt thou not believe that I am Risen This awakened his Repentance and made him abruptly cry out My Lord and my God Two words sometimes are more significant than an Hundred and express the Desires of the Heart more than a large Discourse The Kindness and Condescension of his Lord overcame him and by these words he proves the Cure of his Infidelity Before he would not believe Christ to be Alive now he confesses him to be God Before he reckoned him under the Power of Death now he acknowledges him as the Lord and Prince of Life Before he believed less than any of the other Apostles now he confesses more than All of them My Lord my God Thou art the Anointed of God the King the Head of the Church the Expected Promised Messiah If thy Death had staggered my Faith thy Resurrection has established it My Lord my God I adore thy Compassion and Condescension that thou wouldst Appear to me who so justly forfeited such a Favour I implore thy Grace I beg thy
your Lord he will then be your God And all Blessings Temporal Spiritual and Eternal are comprized in that You are then his Jewels his Treasure his Portion his Inheritance his peculiar People If he be your God O how dear how valuable how precious are the Relations Priviledges and Blessings that this contains What need you fear What can you want What can you ask more What can dismay afflict or trouble such a Soul Why art thou cast down O my Soul Why art thou disquieted within me May you say If you can say with David in another place The Lord is my Portion and the Lot of mine Inheritance Or if you can say with Thomas here My Lord my God All things then are yours his Spirit his Providence his Attributes his Promises Life Death Things present Things to come Grace here Heaven hereafter All things yours if you be Christ's and he be your Lord and your God Blessed then are you though you have not seen him with your bodily Eyes or thrust your Hand into his Wounded Side or felt the print of the Nails in his Crucified Body Yet having now by hearing believed on him and loved him you shall see him hereafter in Glory and Triumph and be for ever with him to behold his Glory and to partake of it Amen A PARAPHRASE OF THE Lord's Prayer A PARAPHRASE OF THE Lord's Prayer Our Father O Most Merciful and Gracious Father who hast made us out of nothing by thy Powerful Word and form'd us after thine own Image but we sought out Sinful Inventions and might justly have perisht in our Apostasie We owe Thee Homage as the Father of our Spirits as the God of our Lives as the Author of our Beings much more as thou hast called us into thy Family and Favour by Jesus Christ as Redeemed by him and Regenerated by thy Spirit and Priviledged with the Dignity of Children and may call Thee Our Reconciled Father Oh what manner of Love is this that such Rebellious Miserable Creatures as we should be called the Sons of God and treated as such Holy Father we have sinned against Heaven and before Thee and are utterly Unworthy to be entertain'd as thy Servants much more to be cherisht and spared and pittied and provided for as thy Children and have the promise and hope of the Heavenly Inheritance As the Children of the First Adam we are Children of Wrath and Heirs of Hell in Bondage to Sin and serving divers Lusts the Works of our Father the Devil we have done But by thy Redeeming Love and Grace through Jesus Christ we are set Free from that Slavery and partake of the Liberty and Priviledge of Sons in thy House and Family Oh let the Spirit of thy Son breath continually in our hearts and teach us to cry Abba Father as created by thy Power and Goodness and reconciled and saved by thy Mercy after we had undone our selves Give us that Faith and humble Confidence in Prayer by the Spirit of Grace and Supplication that we may go to thee in all our Necessities as Children to a Father and come with boldness to a Throne of Grace We beg the Holy Spirit of Grace to that end which thou art more ready to give to them who value it and ask it earnestly as sensible of their need of it than any Father on Earth is to give Bread to his Children that ask it of him O let this Name of Father and our consequent Relation to thee be our Glory and our Refuge our Defence and Guard the Principle of our Obedience and Love to thee and of Charity Kindness and Affection to all our Brethren who are Children of the same Father and Adopted Heirs of the same Inheritance And let all those whom thou wilt own for thy Children most Gracious Father be united to thee and to one another in holy Bands of Love and Concord bearing with one another wherein they differ let them heartily joyn together to advance the Honour of thy Holy Name to celebrate thy Praise and promote thy Truth and Worship Grant unto them and us the help of thy Spirit that we may so Pray and Live O God of the Spirits of all Flesh the Father of Glory the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ teach us so to ask as thou mayst please to grant teach us to Worship thee in Spirit and in Truth that our persons may be well-pleasing in thy sight and our Prayers be accepted through the Great Mediator We would ask nothing but in his Name for the manner so nothing but what he hath advised and taught us to Desire and Seek Who art in Heaven And since thou dwellest in Heaven though the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee that is thy Throne and the Earth thy Footstool thou beholdest whatsoever we do or say or think and wilt call us to an Account Let us reverence thy Glorious Majesty Thine All-seeing Eye and thy Soveraign Power And raise our Affections above Earthly Things that we may seek Heaven as our Country where our Father is and our Redeemer and where we hope to possess the Inheritance prepared for us by Everlasting Love through the Purchase and Merit of thine Eternal Son who owns himself our Elder Brother and who when he was on Earth was concerned for nothing more than for the Glory of Thy Name Therefore in Imitation of his Example in Conformity to his Counsel and Obedience to his Command we beg Thy Name may be Sanctified Hallowed by thy Name Thou hast proclaimed thy Name unto the World and they who know it will trust in Thee to be a God Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of Great Kindness Abundant in Goodness and in Truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and that will not utterly destroy his People though he do correct Thou art worthy of all our Honour Homage and Obedience and that all the World should Adore thee and Glorifie Thy Holy Name that every Creature in Heaven and Earth should tremble at thine Irresistible Power admire thine Eternal Wisdom and love thine Infinite Goodness O that the Glory of thy Holy Name may extinguish in us the Desire and Love of Worldly Honour and Inteterest that we may 〈◊〉 it our highest dignity to ad◠〈…〉 serve the Purposes of thy Glory as the Ultimate End of all Things Let us be deeply sensible of thy Dishonour in the World by our own sins and the sins of Others Let us Grieve and Mourn to observe the Prophanation of thy Name and the Violation of thy Authority when thy Laws are transgrest thy Institutions despised thy Orders contradicted thy Majesty Affronted thy Glory bespattered and trampled on The Desire of our Souls is to thy Name and the Remembrance of Thee In thy Name we Rejoyce and put our Trust O let us not dishonour it by unsuitable Affections and Actions Let our Lives be answerable to the dignity of our Relation and to what we know and profess to believe