never committed which he never loved which he hated infinitely which was no otherwise his than by imputation could this bring him to such shame What shame and confusion of face will cover and overwhelm me when after my serving my sins both the guilt imputed and the baseness vileness and reproach of the fact committed shall meet in one and be charged upon me Is it not high time to forsake this service which will end in the shame and reproach of a Curse Doth the Sacrament mind me of the Death the accursed Death of Christ the Lord of Glory I see then such a worm such a lump of worthless flesh as I am cannot expect any other event of sin than to lye down in shame for it and if after I do know this I should still love sin and delight in it how brutish and unreasonable should I appear to be how unlike a man I must either renounce my reason or renounce my sin It is no dallying in a matter of this nature I see the just and righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth would not spare his own Son when he found him under my sins but laid upon him the punishment of them the Cross and the shame and I deceive my self if I think he will spare me and not cast the shame of my sin upon me the sinner if I live and die in this service I shall rise with those who rise unto everlasting shame and contempt I will therefore resolve and keep my resolutions of departing from sin because I would not depart from my God with the shame and reproach of a Curse for my sin Thus the renewed thoughts of Christ dying a Curse for us will renew the apprehensions of that shame which attends the sinner and so renew our purposes against sin as the only thing which can clothe us with shame and we shall be as unwilling to live in sin as we are to bear the shame of sin 2. Secondly In the renewed thoughts of our Lord 's dying a Curse there lieth a motive to New Obedience drawn from the congruity and suitableness of the thing it self Nothing more unseemly than to continue in sin after our professing our selves to be his servants friends and followers who died for sin Nothing more justifiable than their leaving of sin whose Lord died for sin especially seeing sin brought upon him an accursed Death What wilt thou answer for thy self in the day when this absurd unreasonable and monstrous deportment of thine shall be laid open before Men and Angels when Christ shall ask thee whether thou hadst not heard and seen that he was made a Curse for thy sins whether thou hadst not often been minded of this at the Sacrament and when he shall farther demand of thee what thou couldest see in sin or hope to find in sin or expect from sin when as thy Lord could see did find and expected to find nothing else but a Curse in it wa st thou so sottish to think of finding any thing in sin better than what thy Lord found in it or wast thou so unthankful that thou wert resolved to offer despite to thy Lord and serve that which brought an accursed Death upon him Whatever sinners now judge I know that a day will come when they shall judge nothing so unreasonable and unseemly as living in continued sin and professing a crucified Jesus It is such a self-contradicting course that none ever would continue it if ever they understood it Nor is he what he professeth to be who professeth our crucified Jesus to be his Lord yet serveth his own cursed lusts Christ doth not own him he will declare to all the world that he knows not that he never knew such workers of iniquity But suppose it possibly might be which yet never shall be that such a one resolvedly continuing in sin should be owned by Christ at last and received into a blessed state of glory what kind of answer could such one make to his Lord when questioned what was it not enough that I was once made a Curse for thee or did I not bear sins enough for thee at first or wouldst thou indeed be crueller to me than Jews and Roman souldiers or hadst thou a design to wound my heart after I was gotten out of the reach of all others after wicked men and Devils had done their worst and I had triumpht over them and none but my friends could wound me wouldst thou be my friend that thou mightest do it more deeply was this thy friendship to me are not they the sorest and cruellest enemies who cover their hearty enmity with pretences of friendship either then be my cordial friend saith Christ and renounce thy sins serve them no more or else come no more pretending to commemorate my friendship to the dying a Curse for thee nor ever let me be provoked with such counterfeit alliance and friendship Christ cannot endure such seeming to be what we are not such contradictions to his Death In truth it is most unseemly to live in the cursed service of sin after we are redeemed from the Curse of sin And therefore the believing and considerate soul casts off the thoughts of continuing in sin with a God forbid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how shall I live any longer in sin since I am dead to it 3. Thirdly The renewed consideration of Christ dying a Curse for sin doth renew our thoughts of the odiousness and hateful nature of sin which carryeth a Curse into every place and person where it cometh Christ's dying a Curse for us sheweth us how hateful sin is to the eyes of our God Reverâ est odium quo Deus peccatum prosequitur ab eâ perfectione quae Numinis naturam decet Th. Salmur de trib Foed Div. th 18. who doth and cannot but so do loath detest threaten and curse it where-ever he findeth it of which truth the considerate believing soul hath so clear proof in the Curse which Christ did bear for sin that he stands convinced beyond possible doubt of it and cannot but conclude that whoever resolves to continue in sin must also resolve to abide the hatred of God against sin He that will keep and maintain a communion with sin must expect that God will keep and maintain wrath and hatred against him and this the Communicant is at every Sacrament minded of whilst he seeth his Lord evidently set forth crucified before his eyes so that he is put to such a kind of deliberation with himself What! could not Christ take upon him my sin but he must also take upon him the burthen of divine displeasure and hatred due to my sin what is God so irreconcilable an enemy unto sin that he would not or could not restrain his just wrath against the guilt where it lay without the foulness of committing the fact was the displeasure of my God so hot against his blessed Son who was never tainted with any one sin only bare the guilt of many I
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE REVIVAL OF GRACE IN THE Vigour and Fragrancy of it By a due Application of the Blood of Christ to the Root thereof OR Sacramental Reflections on the Death of Christ a Sacrifice a Testator and bearing a Curse for us particularly applying each for the exciting and increasing the Graces of the Believing Communicant By Henry Hurst M. A. formerly Fellow of Merton Colledge Oxon Now Domestick Chaplain to the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy Seal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2.20 Domine cum te in ara crucis suspensum video quodcunque oculis meis spectandum objicitur me in amerem tui inducat Signum Figura Mysterium vulneraque tui corporis prae caeteris intimus ille affectus clamat ut ad Amorem tui properem nec tui obliviscar Did. Stella meditat LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower End of Cheapside and the Bible under the Gate at Lond. Bridge 1678 Imprimatur Guil. Jane Jan 9. 1677. TO THE Right Honourable ARTHUR Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy Seal c. May it please your Lordship THese Papers which humbly offer themselves to your favourable acceptance and Patronage were conceived and formed but laid aside some years before you did me that great honour to command my attendance on you and your Family since which time by unusual accident they have fallen into a hand kinder than my own who judging them worth the publishing and perswading me to it they claim a Right to this Honour of appearing in the world under your Lordship's Patronage if I had refus'd to let them be made publick perhaps I should have been culpable since they are thus publisht I am sure without omitting a part of my duty I could not but tender them to Your Lordship which I do with a sense of their meanness and disproportion which they bear to your Lordships Great Abilities Learning and Judgment Yet herein this will be somewhat of an Apology for me though some have owned their obligations and duty to Your Lordship in Pieces less disproportion'd none have done it or are likely to do it in a Piece equal to Your Lordship's Learning and measures of Judgment The small summs of chief Rents are too poor to be made a Present to any whose abundance would refuse such an Offer but when tender'd as their Right they give a kind acceptance and acquittance for few shillings or pence In this humble offer I wave all pretence but this That Your Lordship hath the best Right to any Publick Acknowledgment I can make of my obligations to You of which I pray Your Lordship 's favourable resentment From Your Lordship's most Obedient Servant and Domestick Chaplain H. Hurst To the Reader Reader THOU art presented here with a Subject of which very many have treated and of which perhaps it may be thought more need not have been spoken and of which what I have written must now run the hazard of thy judgment or censure if it profit and please thee the thanks is due to me but in Partnership with a Learned and Judicious Divine who by an unthought of accident came to the knowledge of the two latter parts of what is here publisht somewhat also will be due to the Book-seller who adventured the uncertainty of the Gain or Loss which will be more or less as the Subject and Manner of handling it appears to the Peruser The good success of thy Reading I commend to the Divine Benediction which can make it contribute to the increase of thy Grace and Comfort The Defects in Composing I submit to thy Christian Candour and Ingenuity which will cover them and excuse the Author Those mistakes of the Printer which are most material may be charged on him and I with him will joyntly desire they may be mended with a little labour bestow'd on the places where the Errata's are marked Finally I pray no labour of mine in Writing no labour of thine in Reading may prove waste of time to either of us in the day wherein we both must account for our selves unto the Lord to whose Guidance and Blessing thou shalt be commended By From Anglesey House in Drury Lane April 10. 1678. The meanest Servant of the Best and Greatest Lord our Lord Jesus Redeemer of Thee and of thy Soul's Friend H. Hurst Advertisement There is in the Press one Hundred Sermons on several select Texts of Scripture Preached by Tho. Horton D. D. left perfected under his own hand THE REVIVAL OF GRACE LUKE 22.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do this in remembrance of me The Introduction Reader I will for once suppose thou art able on thy own view of these words and their context to discern what Christ is treating of how he instituteth and ordaineth the holy Sacrament of his Supper and for what end he ordaineth it I suppose thou wouldst not look over these lines if thou didst not already understand that Christ would have us use and celebrate this Sacrament to the end we might renew the remembrance of his Dying for us in which the matter of fact viz. that he did die for us is professed yet so as the manner how he did die is I think more principally to be attended and considered as being the chief primary thing in effecting our salvation and as affording the greatest and sweetest comforts and finally as binding us most strongly to Gospel Obedience I shall therefore recommend unto thy thoughts what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modus ratio moriendi particular manner of thy Saviour's Dying And am bold to say the words of the text Do this in remembrance of me do the like Let my Death be the subject of your thoughts at a Sacrament Let the manner of my Death be the mould into which your thoughts are cast At a Sacrament shew forth the truth and certainty of your Redeemer's Death shew forth the singular and peculiar manner of it also Renew the thoughts of this what kind of Death it was which could have such a mighty salvisick vertue in it to deliver us and save us Set before you at the the Lord's Table Plutarchus in Conviv Sept. Sapiertum not such a Death's-head as Plutarch reports Ptolomaeus was wont to set before his guests to admonish them but such a Death as none but Christ would or could undergo for us Our Lord will have his own Death set forth to the eye of his friends and guests at his Table and he commands them to remember it The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of the Lord's Death there we may view him on the Altar dying a Sacrifice for us to atone the divine displeasure there we may view him in the unparalleld address of himself for Death disposing his vast treasures of Grace Peace Comfort and Glory unto his indigent friends for whom his love brought him to die and the same love and care makes him die a Testator
giving them rich Legacies At a Sacrament we may and should view Jesus Christ the Blessed One nailed to the Cross loaded with a Curse and dying an accursed Death that we might escape it Thus we owe our Peace to his Sacrifice our spiritual treasure to his will and testament our blessed hope and life to his accursed Death and by particular reflections on these we should awaken exercise and improve our graces The facilitating this work and the attaining this effect is the design of the following Discourse which doth first endeavour to promote grace by a particular improvement of Christ's Dying a Sacrifice for us let us then the other two having their due place begin with this great truth Our Lord Died a Sacrifice for us and under this notion ought we to commemorate his Death and in meditating thereon we may make an improvement of grace That I may proceed distinctly I resolve the whole subject into these following particulars 1. The general proof and confirmation of his DYing as a Sacrifice or Victim for us Cap. 1. 2. How this could be that a man should be a Sacrifice for us Cap. 2. 3. What particularly is contained in this being made a Sacrifice and so dying Cap. 3. 4. That these are fit foundation to lay for Sacramental graces and how our graces may be increased awakened confirmed and acted in due meditation on Christ our Sacrifice Cap. 4. seq CAP. I. Christ died a Sacrifice for us prefigured THE Holy Scriptures do abundantly testifie to us that Christ our Lord died our Sacrifice and Victim and so do the writings of all Christians who have treated of our Redemption and Salvation by Christ if you would have forein testimonies you require what is not needful and should we attempt to seek them we should lose our time and labour for no other Pen maketh mention of this but the Scriptures and the Pens which write after this Copy Now among other arguments the Scripture affordeth us these five for proof of Christ's Dying a Sacrifice 1. The Type 2. Prophecies 3. Promises 4. Historical declaration of it 5. Assuming it as a matter unquestionably true and certain of all which briefly in their order Sect. 1. This manner of Christ's Death viz. as a Sacrifice was prefigured and foreshewn in the Type thereof The very enemies of this Doctrine do not quite deny this though they doubt Socin lib. 2. c. 8. de Servatore or deny some particular places to refer hereto Let us however look to some few places of Scriptures where we may find Christ our Sacrifice in his Death typified out to us 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passover is slain for us The allusion used by the Apostle proves that the old Paschal Lamb was a type of Christ and that Christ was the Antitype of the Paschal Lamb. Again Joh. 1.24 The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world whether in reference to the Lamb daily offered or whether to the Paschal Lamb it altereth not the case It is a Lamb and a Lamb that must be slain in Sacrifice yea in an Expiatory Sacrifice to take away the sin of the world We are assured Heb. 9.22 that without sheding of blood there is no remission and we are sure 't is not every sheding of blood but it is the sheding of the blood of a Sacrifice which procureth remission of sins and this blood-sheding was not by opening and breathing a vein but by dying to take away sin The Baptist then applying unto Christ that antient and lively type telleth us that Christ was prefigured in his state life and death by it And that Heb. 9.23 24. tells us of patterns of things in the Heavens v. 23. and of figures of the True v. 24. yea v. 8 9. the whole Tabernacle and the service of it were a figure for the time then present Among other services that of Sacrifices is specified as a figure serving for the present until Christ should come and enter into the Holy Place without blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own blood v. 11 12 14. In a word the whole of Mosaical positive instituted service was a figure and type This part of the Law had the shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. v. 1. In Sacrificiis id manifestissimum quae Sacrificium expiationem Messiae praesignificabant Joh. Hoornbeek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de convertend Judaeis lib. 7. c. 1. pag. 452. This very thing is most manifest in the Sacrifices which did presignifie the Sacrifice and Expiation of the Messiah as the Learned Hoornbeek hath rightly observed to our hands from all which I do not ill to conclude that he died a Sacrifice to take away sin who was praesignified by the Dying Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law Sect. 2. Secondly It was foretold and by the Prophetick impulses of the infallible Spirit of God revealed to the Church of old that the Messiah should die and particularly that he should die a Sacrifice to expiate sin in this cause we have among others the testimonies of the Prophet Isaiah Isa 53.7 cap. 53.7 He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter where possible may be more than a general symbolizing between the Innocency Humility and Sufferings of the Lamb slain and Christ typified thereby like enough there is a particular symbolizing between them both as they were Sacrifices the footsteps whereof I might trace out somewhat in 1. the word slaughter which Prov. 9.2 seemeth to be determined to the slaying of a Sacrifice And 2. in the word he is brought which Isa 18.7 expresseth the bringing of a present to the Lord. But much more in the word 3. Lamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used Lev. 5.7 12.8 22.28 Deut. 18.3 which is the very word that expresseth the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12.3 5. which was a Lamb to be sacrificed Deut. 16.6 And 4. from the place which parallel to this Act. 8.32 He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what kind of slaying this was A pecudum mactatione 72. alio nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocarunt Amos 5. v. 25. Cloppenb Schol. Sacrif pag. 3. let Rev. 13.8 determine where it is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world Isa 53.10 If this be not full enough to our purpose yet the 10th verse affordeth a plain and express Prophecy of the Messiah's dying a Sacrifice Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin Indeed the Hebrews read it conditionally if or when but then adds a promise what shall be the fruit and effect of his Dying a Sacrifice Now we do see the promise fulfilled in the numerous seed of Christ therefore with reason we conclude the condition performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si posuerit hostiam pro peccato reatu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proprie est dâ—lictum per Metonymiam significat oblationem pro delicto
Lev. 5.6 7 15. Joh. Hoornb Socin Confut. Vol. 2. l. 3. c. 1. p. 562. The words of the Learned Hoornbeeck cited in the margent shall suffice for clearing the text to Scholars and the true reading of the words of the text in our translation shall suffice the unlearned In a word or two if thou believest that this Chapter foretels the sufferings of thy Saviour if thou believest that this text speaketh of his death if thou believest that he is come so long ago and died so long since thou needest only read plain English He hath then in his Death made his soul an offering for sin and this was foretold by the Prophet not in this verse only but also in the 11th and 12th verses He shall bear their iniquity Ita in caput Hostiarum olim reatus offerentium quasi manibus imponebatur luendus caeremonialiter ibi in Christo vere Joh. Hoornb lib. 3. vol. 2. Socin Confut. c. 1. and he shall bear the sin of many So of old the guilt of those who brought the Sacrifices was as it were laid on the head of the Sacrifices by their hands that it might be punished Observe then how Sacrifices of old times did bear the iniquity and sin of those that brought the Sacrifices So did Christ dying bear our iniquity and our sin He did bear them truly they ceremonially as the learned Author noteth To these passages of Isaiah let us farther add those of David and Paul compared together and we shall there find David foretelling what Death Christ should die and Paul explaining what Death he did die Psal 40.6 7 8. with Heb. 10.5 6 7 8. When he i. e. Christ cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldest not c. putting the very words of the Psalmist and thereby assuring us that the place was to be understood of Christ who was hereafter to be born and die whenas David wrote this and who was now born and had died whenas Paul wrote this or rather interpreted these words of Dauâ—â— leading us from the Sacrifices under the Law to Christ our Sacrifice and from the Death of those ceremonial and inefficacious Sacrifices to this real and meritorious Sacrifice ver 10th and 12th Now the whole discourse of Christ's dying a Sacrifice for us had been mislaid on David's words if he had not prophesied that Christ should die a Sacrifice for us Either this kind of Dying must be in the Prophetick words of David which are the Apostle's premisses or it could not Logically be put into his Conclusion Sect. 3. Thirdly Christ to die for us a Sacrifice was promised to the Church and if it were promised it may well be concluded that it either shall be accomplished which is as little as an unbelieving Jew will gather from the promise but not so much as a believing Christian must gather who is verily perswaded that our Jesus the true Messiah is already come and hath died for us and died a Sacrifice fo us according to the promise which is made to Sion Zech. 9.11 As for thee by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the Pit wherein is no water In the words you have a relation of a double deliverance set forth in figurative expressions 1. First A relation of their deliverance out of the seventy years Captivity which God wrought for them for the Covenant sake he had made with them in Christ this was a temporal deliverance The 2. Second deliverance is spiritual and wrought by the Lord Jesus dying and sheding his blood for us Now it is plain This 1. Blood denoteth a death whoever it be that it is spoken of 2. Blood of a Covenant speaketh the Death of a Sacrifice in the blood whereof the Covenant was confirmed and ratified and it is therefore called the Blood of the Covenant this I will a little farther treat and clear It was a very ancient rite of making and confirming Covenants in the blood of Sacrifices offered up at the time when the Covenants and their terms or conditions were assented unto and approved Possibly the Feast we read of Gen. 26.30 made by Isaac was after a Sacrifice offered when he made a Covenant also with Abimelech and confirmed it by Oath However we are assured it was a rite among the Politer Nations of the Earth as in Homer who brings in his Graecians and Trojans making a covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 3. Carm. 94. 105. and confirming it by Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but these are alien and forein we have surer testimony Exod. 24.7 where a Covenant is mentioned and this Covenant wrote in a Book and read to the people who therein heard the terms God proposed and to these the people answer All that the Lord hath said we will do and be obedient they give their assent to the Covenant on which Moses forthwith sprinkleth the people with the blood of the Sacrifices which were offered on the Altar mentioned ver 4. and were brought by young men of Israel ver 5. This blood is called eminently the blood of the Covenant ver 8. applied by St. Peter 1 Ep. 1 cap. 2 ver to Christ So then the Covenant confirmed in blood leadeth us to a Sacrifice dying and sheding its blood in which sprinkled according to the Rite or Custom the Covenant is confirmed So that to me there remaineth no farther scruple in this point If any would have it cleared that this blood is to be understood of the blood of Christ I shall refer them to the context viz. ver 9. and 10. and unto Isa 61.1 where the like delivering of the like prisoners is mentioned and unto the Heb. 13.20 where this blood of the Covenant is called the blood of the everlasting Covenant And let them who desire farther satisfaction consult Commentators on the place Sect. 4. Christ's Death was the Death of a Sacricrifice for so it is historically declared and asserted in the history of his Life and Death and in the writings of his Apostles penn'd on this subject since his Death and Resurrection They that have wrote the story and they who have improved it assert the same I do Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he i. e. Christ ver 24. appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself And again ver 28. Christ was offered to bear the sins of many places so full and clear that nothing needs be subjoyned for explication Christ expresly named and he is offered a Sacrifice and this an Expiatory Sacrifice and he that offered it up was the same with the Sacrifice He offered up himself a Sacrifice c. So again Heb. 7.27 this speaking of the Sacrifices offered up often underthe Law viz. offering for the peoples sins he did once when he offered up himself What the daily weekly monthly and yearly reiterated Sacrifices of the Levitical Priests could not effect though they were continually offered
to excite our languishing graces and to strengthen our infirm graces which ought to be more especially found in us and acted by us in our approaches to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as shall particularly be be shewed in these that follow Sect. 1. Repentance is unquestionably a Sacramental Grace None is fit to commemorate the Death of Christ who repenteth not of the sin which occasioned his Dying The weeping eye and mourning heart are exceeding lovely to the Lord at his Table A Repenting soul is a welcome guest there Now let me trace Repentance through these paths and see as we go how it may be suitably fitted with improveing arguments from Christ our Sacrifice 1. Repentance beginneth ordinarily in a conviction of sin not in general only but particularly in the convictions of our owne sin The righteous need no repentance Mat. 9.13 it is the Sinner which is called to repent so long as a proud Pharisaical opinion of our own Righteousness is maintained by us we shall never embrace the practice of Repentance 2. Apprehension of danger either attends or flows from this conviction of the sinner and this forwardeth his repentance the shameful cursed death sin deserveth and the sinner feareth in the midst of his sorrows hath strong influence upon the soul to grieve for self-undoing sin Although a secure unconvinced sinner blesseth himself and feareth no danger the awakened convinced Penitent apprehends greatest danger from his sin 3. Consternation of mind or Amazement at the sight of sin and danger unavoidable for ought the man can do of himself for his own help this I might call if none will be offended at it a seasonable and profitable despair of our selves while we consider our selves and observe what we have done what we deserve what God hath threatned and what millions do and must for ever suffer for sin 4. A mixture of Hope that there may be and of Desires that there should be and of enquiry whether there be not some effectutal help remedy to be obtained The awakned soul doth as it were look about to see what or whence it's help may come Enquireth what shall I do to be saved How shall I escape c. Now when it descryeth mercy to be had upon it's Humbling of it self before God upon condition of sorrow for what is past and of hatred of sin for time to come the Penitent soul set's it self to exert all these and in a vigorous constant uniform exerting these consisteth the whole life and Practice of Repentance And I hope I shall cleare it Christ considered Dying our Sacrifice will be an awakening consideration preparatory to and promoting of this Repentance in its farther Exercise and Growth Sect. 2. Christ Dying a Sacrifice well considered will conduce much to the Convincing us of a state of sin and that we were in particular involved in it we were sinners and the righteous Law of God imputed the sin to us and the righteous Judge whose it was to execute the Law accounted thee and me and every one of the children of Adam as we are transgressours of the Law if thou seest not this look to the Lord Christ a Sacrifice for sin and ruminate what answer thou canst make to these few Questions 1. What need had there been of a Sacrifice for sin if there had been no sin to expiate by Sacrifice There is certainly sin committed where 't is necessary to take away wrath by a Sacrifice There is sin of the soul wheresoever an offering for sin is appointed Tell me then seeing Christ was made an offering for sin what was thy state and mine and what was the state of all men for whom he became a Sacrifice 2. Couldest thou escape the imputation of sin when Christ a Sacrifice for sin could not escape it Could he not be a sacrifice for sin by a voluntary susception of our cause but he must bear our guilt and shall we judge it likely reasonable or indeed morally possible that our wilful transgressings of the Law should be passed over not imputed If thy sins were imputed to thy sacrifice doubtless they had been imputed unto thy self if thou hadst not had a sacrifice Stand then a while and view this No need of Sacrifice to expiate where no sin is but alas I needed such a Sacrifice No need of Sacrifice where no guilt is imputed but I see my sin I see 't is imputed I must not delay or trifle in this matter my sin is evident its imputation is certain it will be laid on my own head or on my Sacrifice and oh how impossible is it I should escape the imputation of it if I carelesly neglect this great Sacrifice For 3. Whose is the guilt is it his or is it mine who deepest in the guilt he who did no guile or I who am full of guile who nearest the crime he who never did it or I who very wickedly committed it Did God impute it to him and can an unhumbled sinner think God will not impute it unto the committer of the sin 4. With whom was God angry who was it against whom offended justice was most incensed was it against him that was the Sacrifice or against him that needed the Sacrifice and brought it undoubtedly the Sacrifice can bear no other displeasure than what it bears for him whose Sacrifice it is and for whom it is offered And canst thou hope guilty offenders may escape when guiltless victims are charged with another's guilt and suffer another's punishment 5. Who hath greater share in the Love of God had Christ thy Sacrifice for sin or hadst thou for whom he became a Sacrifice I know thou wilt not pretend a comparison with Christ the only begotten of the Father thou darest not think but his share was greater in his Fathers love as his love obedience and likeness to his Father was greater infinitely more excellent than thine was or could be Tell me then if God imputed sin to the Son of his Love when his Son had undertaken to bear the fault and punishment of offenders will he thinkest thou spare those who hate him and might justly be hated of him 6. Would God admit his Son his eternal Delight to be thy Saviour on no other terms than that he should as a Sacrifice take upon him and bear the sins of his people imputed to him that they might not be imputed unto them and dost thou not believe canst thou perswade thy self to imagine that thou mayest though a sinner yet not be charged with thy sin Dost thou not clearly discern that God will charge sin either on the sinner or on his Sacrifice In a word or two whoever knows that Christ was made a Sacrifice for sin knows also that they were under a state of sin for whom he was made a Sacrifice and if thou art a Christian and professest that Christ was thy Sacrifice thou dost thereby confess that thou wert under a state of sin that unless mercy toward
appointment he provided it when we were at a loss and could not find wherewith we should come before the Lord and bow our selves before the most High God when the fruit of our body could not expiate the sin of our soul when finite wisdom was non-plus'd then the Lord discover'd his Grace and Mercy and chose out a sacrifice for us he prepared this sacrifice We may as Abraham said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 varying the tense say God hath provided himself a Sacrifice This he shadowed out to us by prescribing all his Sacrifices This he telleth us when he saith He prepared a body for Christ when he saith He sent him and gave him to be a propitiation for us and sealed him c. and such like expressions He the Lamb of God because ordained of God was our Sacrifice These two things considered let the guilty convinced fearing and almost desponding soul debate the case against his own fears and distrusts Put such Questions to an issue 1. Shall I despair when I have a ground to hope Let him embrace his despondencies who cannot see a ground for hope my heart breaks not while my hope is whole and unbroken 2. Are not those hopes well bottom'd which are built on the assurance that sins my only dangers and fears are pardonable Cain perhaps would have hoped if he had apprehended his sin pardonable And I am bound to hope because God assureth me by this sacrifice that my sins are expiable and may be pardoned 3. Why is there an Expiatory Sacrifice admitted nay provided by God himself who is the supreme vindex culpae and who alone had jus poenae the power of executing punishment on the offenders Hath he appointed a Sacrifice to expiate my sin and can it be that my sin remaineth inexpiable unpardonable Is not that sacrifice sufficient which God himself sindeth out Away with unreasonable fears banish forever sinful distrust Here 's a Sacrifice to atone my offended Lord of his own providing and will he not accept it I will tender it I will mention it he will not refuse his own choice 4. Can any one be found who missed the benefit of a pardon that sought it in the blood of this Sacrifice Oh that I could believe and hope until I heard of one so disappointed then should I never be ashamed Hath he not put away sin by once offering of himself and hath he not by one sacrifice forever perfected those that believe that are sanctified 5. Am I not one who may betake my self to this sacrifice What should more hinder me than others Am I excepted out of the Act of Oblivion Why may not my sins be laid on this Sacrifice Do I not read that he liveth for ever to make intercession for those that come to God by him Oh glorious hope Intercession for all that come to God by him Then cheer up doubting heart here is a sacrifice for all that come to God by him for this Intercession is an act or exercise of Christ's Sacerdotal Office subsequent to and dependent upon his foregoing Sacrifice He sacrificeth for as many as he intercedeth if then the Intercession of Christ can impetrate and obtain favour it is because the Sacrifice of Christ hath expiated thy sin and crime Sect. 5. 5. Thus far Guilt Danger and Feares may by eyeing the Sacrifice convince the sinner how seasonable a good hope would be and this Sacrifice sheweth how good the believer's hope is Now would it well become the soul to humble it self and if thou find thy heart remain still proud and unhumbled ask it these Questions over thy Sacrifice 1. Canst thou be proud and yet be found worthy to die in thy Sacrifice can this be born wilt thou confess death is thy desert and yet bear up as if thou wert innocent and in no deserved danger 2. Canst thou be proud of any thing so long as thy life is the fruit of an Expiatory Sacrifice Thou livest by the death of another and wilt thou pride thy self as if thou neededst not any ones help 3. Canst thou confess guilt and yet profess a thought of worth in thy self How shameless is that pride which at the bar confesseth it's Guilt against the Law and advanceth it self against the Law-giver It is a most unseemly thing to behold a heart rising with pride and falling in a Sacrifice Let thy humility then sute thy state as it appeareth in thy Sacrifice and I dare say it will sute the state of thy soul in it's repentance and mourning for sin Sect. 6. 6. Fountains and Springs lye deep where the soul is laid thus low if it doth not freely and spontaneously weep bring it's Sacrifice into sight let that be viewed see it standing before an offended and displeased God who was provoked by thy sin look on it loaded with imputed guilt Alas my sin lyeth upon it observe thy Sacrifice falling before the Altar and say alas was not this for my sake should not I have fallen thus if he had not He bled and out of excess of love to me poured out his life for me he groaned sighed breath'd out his soul for my sake and could he do more alas have I brought my Sacrifice to this was ever man more unhappy to his friend to his Brother how hard are those stony Rocks how dry that flinty heart which gusheth not out with tears in Remembrance of these things My dearest Lord pity unrelenting soules and oh give a mourning heart that may be more equal in it's griefes and sorowes in it's teares and sympathies how many eyes weep at newes of an endangered troubled imprisoned and wrackt friend How many hearts are softned melted and broken with the sweats burning fits and Agonies of a dying man yea how many melting hearts and weeping eyes how many compassionate discourses on the death of some one deserving more than Law inflicts for his breach of the Law But how few over a suffering bleeding dying Saviour and Sacrifice whither are the compassions of men and women fled where may they be found where shall we seek or how shall we wooe and prevail with them Lo their friend and Lord charged with their guilt sweating under its weight groaning under its penalty sighing with sobs that drew blood out of his veins bleeding dying a Sacrifice loaded with our deserved punishment And few alas very few grieving hearts weeping eyes or mourners for their want of tears Lord give more that I may give some tears to wash thy bleeding wounds A second grace requisite to a Christian in the commemoration of the Lord's Death at the Lord's Supper 2d Grace Faith exercised and improved and improveable on consideration of Christ dying a Sacrifice is Faith a grace indisputably necessary to him that will come duly to that Ordinance and therefore I lay not out any time or pains on the proving thereof a grace well improveable by consideration of Christ dying our Sacrifice on which I intend to insist next
this part of the life of Faith is so evidently maintained upon the Death of Christ as our Sacrifice making our peace with God confirming the promises of grace and glory ensuring to us the grand expectations of this and the other world that I think it needless to insist farther on this particular Christ dying our Sacrifice is the great reviving comfort of an awakened convinced fainting yet believing soul 3. The third thing in the present Actings of Faith while it on good and sure grounds waiteth for the great things which are to be revealed is the active diligence of Faith to do the whole work which is appointed for it to do Faith giveth not a discharge from any one degree of our required industry in good nor doth it release to us any one of the Moral Precepts of the Law no Faith maketh not the Law void Rom. 3.31 The Apostle assureth us that the Faith of a believer engageth him to walk and to labour so as to be accepted with God so 2 Cor. 57. 9. We walk by Faith not by sight saith S. Paul ver 7. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him ver 9. It is but the counterfeit of Faith which lieth unactive and regardless to do the will of God when once the soul can judg which carrieth in it both an act of discerning and an act of beliveing or assenting to the truth That one viz. Christ died for all it doth presently conclude that henceforth they who live should not live to themselves but to him that died for them 2. Cor. 5.14 15. It is the rational conclusion Faith draweth from the Grace of God toward us in Christ dying for us that our life which we have of mercy must be laid out in duty and the reward we expect should animate us to the service God expecteth Mark the Apostle St. Peter's manner of arguing 2 Pet. 3.12 Since saith he We look and hasten to the comming of the day of God and again ver 13. We according to his promise look for new Heavens and ver 14. seeing Beloved that ye look for such things For as much as we are verily persvaded of the truth of these future things and for as much as we do by Faith expect an assured fulfilling of them Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless so the Apostle intimateth to us nay presseth it upon us as the proper business of Faith as it 's whole imploy to be pure and without blame and to be diligent herein Now what can be thought will excite and animate a believer unto this if the great things purchased and ensured to him by the Death of Christ his Sacrifice do not The Apostle well knew the weight of the argument your labour you know shall not be in vain in the Lord therefore see that ye abound in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 When thou art backward or sluggish take thy heart and discover to it what a Kingdom what a glorious Reward thy Lord hath secured to thee and ask if it be not worth thy greatest diligence and thy most active industry 4. The fourth concern of Faith in its present deportment and the influence it now hath on the heart is to strengthen and support it under all kind of sufferings and afflictions be they common to us as men or peculiar to us as Christians Our Faith is our life in the midst of these deaths Hence we find Faith joined with patience Heb. 6.12 When Abraham had received the promises Heb. 6. ver 13. which God made to him when he believed God would do all that for him which God had promised to him he did patiently endure and so obtained v. 15. The Apostle recounteth his many and great sufferings which with others he suffered for Christ Troubled on every side 2 Cor. 4.8 Perplexed ver 8. Persecuted cast down ver 9. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus ver 10. Alway delivered unto Death for Jesus sake ver 11. These were their sufferings and troubles now see their support which was a spirit of Faith ver 13 14 c. Read over the 11th chapter of Hebrews see what afflictions those faithful ones did through Faith undergo and it will be past controversie with you that for the present Faith doth mightily sustain the spirit under the variety and sharpness of afflictions and sufferings which it doth among other helps principally by looking to the greatness of its expected reward and glory secured unto it by the most immutable Covenant and Oath of God ratified in the blood of Christ our Sacrifice So the Apostle directeth us to look to Jesus c. Heb. 12.2 3. enduring the Cross and despising the shame to Jesus who endured contradictions of sinners against himself ver 3. This will be a means to prevent the fainting of our minds under our troubles and sufferings The reconciliation between God and us his Promise to us his Covenant with us his Oath and Christ's Sacrifice all assure us he is faithful who hath promised us our pardon and absolution from guilt and punishment our adoption and right of children to a glorious Inheritance our solemn and publick investiture and admission into possession of a Crown and Kingdom He is faithful who hath by means of most sacred obligations assured us a reward for every duty active and passive therefore let us hold fast our Profession without wavering Heb. 10.23 And who will not hold his Profession fast when he is assured that the Sacrifice Christ hath offered hath reconciled us to God so that our sufferings are not expresses of his vengeance but necessary exercises of our graces and proofs of the Love of God to us who would be weary of bearing who is perswaded that his sufferings are but light and momentany and that they do infallibly work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory How do things infinitely less valuable and extremely uncertain prevail with men to undergo hardships to adventure through fire and water to bear watchings toil nakedness hunger and thirst How patiently doth the Husbandman Merchant Souldier and Courtier submit to utmost hazards at utmost uncertainties to obtain their hopes which often do make them ashamed But now who looketh to the establishing of the Promise and to the greatness of the things promised and vieweth them in the Death of Christ as a Sacrifice expecteth greatest joys rewards and glory on the surest ground and most infallible certainty and therefore resolveth neither to yield to fainting or to sit down under weariness he will look to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and see what he may expect after sufferings and will suffer that he may enjoy what he doth expect Thus Faith may be confirmed and improved as to each part wherein it is concerned by duly considering Christ's dying our Sacrifice ensureth on most inviosable bonds the most desirable good things
vast estate of which he had the absolute disposal He was Lord of Heaven and Earth and could give what ever he pleased of the one or other unto his peculiar people It is true he acquired a new title and right by his death but it is as true that he had an unquestionable title and right to all both the Glory of Heaven with the grace that prepares and fits for it and to the goods of the Earth with power to give to best pleased him He did veil his glory and in the daies of his flesh forewent the exercise of that glorious royalty which was his due equally with his Father but he never did disseize or dispossess himself of that inheritance which by the right of eternal generation from the Father and which by the right of creation jointly with the Father he was and will be still seized and possessed of thus the Heavens were his the Earth also Heb. 1.2 He was heir of all things Now could it be likely or indeed imaginable that so great an heir seized of such an estate should die and not dipose of it had it not been wisedom to dispose of it to some or other if he had had no dependances that needed it the worth of the estate would have advised this if the indigency and want of the kindred had not perswaded to it But Indeed Sect. 2. 2. This great heir had a very great kindred and alliance Psal 2.8 who were even poor enough for the greatness of his kindred they were scattered over all the earth Rom. 15.11 Psal 110.3 Rev. 7.9 Heb. 11.12 he hath some of all Nations they were as the dew from the womb of the morning an innumerable company which no man could number as the sand on the sea shore so was his kindred to be And as they were many Rev. 3.17 so likewise were they exceeding poor they wanted much for they had by prodigality spent all they had wasted their goods God gave them a good portion did set them up bravely furnished but all was gone unless a little which the mercy of their Creditor spared to them to live upon There was a Judgment taken out only mercy forbore the Execution Now could such a mulof poor needy kindred be forgotten and neglected think you by such a Dying Friend and how should he have shewed himself of the kindred but by giving them legacies at his death If their unworthy deportment was such as would disengage any other yet it could not disengage him who would do what best became his affection not what best suited with their deserts Take therefore this farther into consideration Sect. 3. 3. That this great Heir had a most hearty and unparallel'd affection of pity and love for all his poor kindred He loved them with a love greater than the love of women he did bear the love of a friend a father of a husband his love to his was so great none could have greater for it was that caused him to die for them Now having thus loved his own he loved them to the end and love hath a good memory it will not easily forget I am sure Christ did neither abate of his love nor forget them he loved which perswadeth me to conclude that this great Heir so dearly loving his poor kindred would certainly provide for them and leave a Will or Testament behind him which they should all be the better for which I the rather incline to believe he would do because Sect. 4. 4. His poor kindred needed some such due lawful and valid Act or Deed to convey his estate unto them For Christ knew and he hath given us to know that we were not his Heirs at Law nor could we have claimed or recovered any part of it by the Law we had lost all our right made forfeiture of all we once were possessed of and God the great Governour and Lord of all had as we know Kings sometimes do given all the estate of the condemned Traitors to his Son and by especial gift had estated him in it Ask of me Psal 2. and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in him Our sin was our death and cut off all our claim and title to every desirable good Peccatum abolevit Naturalem eam communionem quae Creaturam cum Creatore consociabat Thes Salm. de trib Foeder sect 33. Sin abolished that Natural Communion which joined the Creature in friendship with the Creatour as the Learned Professors of Saumur observe And God hath set forth this emblematically in the dispossessing and ejecting Adam out of Paradise Whatever God bestow's now he bestow's it in and through Christ with him he giveth all things also This being the case of Christ's poor friends what more likely way of befriending them than by Will what surer way than by ordaining his last Will and Testament since they had no title by Law preceding his gift nor could they have any title any other way He gave it therefore by Will that it might be sure to come to them Sect. 5. 5. This great Heir died in perfect memory and with wisedom that excelled the measures of the wisest men who set and keep their houses in order he died not as some men do of a disease that should disable him to ordain his last Testament but was his own man unto the last he manifested this in his care of his mother his charity towards the sinful murtherers for whom he prayed c. I would add more proofs but that it would wrong your Christianity and call that into question He is not worthy the name of a Christian that is so much a stranger to the Death of Christ In a word he as well knew his friends needed he should give to them as he knew his enemies needed he should forgive them as he did in pity pray for the one so he did in love and care provide for the other And dying friends usually do provide in their last Will or Testament especially if they have what Christ had Sect. 6. 6. Time enough to dispose of his estate Some wise men leave their friends whom they dearly loved ill provided because the surprize and suddenness of death preventeth them But our Lord this great Heir of all things could not be surprized he knew when his hour was how it approached he knew all that concerned others he knew what was in Man and therefore could not but know all that concerned himself and his Death Out of all which circumstances I do adventure to conclude That Christ did before his Death ordain his last Will and Testament and in it provide for his poor kindred out of that vast estate which he was seized of which he possessed and inherited in the right of his infinitely Excellent Nature his Primogeniture his Powerful Creation and the Donation of his Father when Man
had forfeited all and all estreated unto God the King and Soveraign of Man In sum Christ had time enough wherein to do this he had good will enough to move him to it he had estate enough to furnish and enrich them and his poor kindred had need enough And what then think we could hinder him from making his Will or what should disswade us from believing it from his humiliation unto death He humbled himself and became obedient unto death c. Wherefore God hath given him a name c. that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Christ who died and because he died hath this title given him He is Lord and this title is given to him of God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath exalted him and given to him a glorious Title Now this is not a swelling Title without power or riches to befriend and help his people such vain Titles are sometimes given by man to man but never unto any by God himself for he ever invests power with the Title he conferreth and such a power or Authority as became both the greatness of the giver and the greatness of the receiver could not be less then a full uncontrolled and lawfull power of making a Will or Testament giving out legacies to his indigent kindred and friends suitable to all this is that of John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life c. Note well how Christ's laying down his life i. e. Dying for his sheep is is set down as one cause why the Father did so love him Now because the Father loved him he hath given or put all things into his hand John 3.35 Left them all to his disposal These two places of St. John do in effect speak this very language That the voluntary Death of Christ should procure his Father's love to him and this love of his Father should bestow a power and right on Christ to dispose of all things All which was exactly and punctually performed to Christ after his Death as well as largely promised and contracted for upon condition that he should die the promise was made on condition he would die and the right to all contained in the promise was conferred upon him because he died and this right is expressed by St. John thus he hath put all things into his hand because he loved him and he loved him because he laid down his life Thus Christ acquired a right over all by his Death and at his Death disposed of it for the good and benefit of his people whom he made his Heir by Will or Testament which is yet farther confirmed by these two places viz. Luk. 22.29 I appoint unto you a Kingdom I appoint so we read it at large but the Greek doth point out an appointing by Will or Testament on which passage the Learned Beza hath this Note beside what is cited in the Margent These words being the words of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vulg dispono alii Lego Ex illa formula d◠Lego in Testamentis usitatâ Nomen enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculiariter de Testamento dicitur Beza in loc Haec Christi ad mortem proporantis verba speciem habent Testamentariae cujusdam dispositionis quo allusit Apostolus Heb. 9.17 approaching now to his Death do carry the form and shew of a certain Testamentary Disposition to which the Apostle alludeth Heb. 9.17 More might be added to clucidate and clear the word in this its most proper and native signification but I forbear that now Vox Testamenti Latina Graecam vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restringit ad Foederis gratiae oecononiam Testamentariam c. Joh. Cloppenb de V.T. Disput 1. sect 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notat declarationem voluntatis ultimae c. Joh. Cocceius de Foeb c. 13. sect 470. Let it suffice that Christ useth a word in this place which naturally imports the making of a Will and so leadeth us to consider him as a Testator as one before his each appointing and ordaining his ast-Testament The second place is that of St. Paul Latinis auribus nota erat Vox Testamentum significare in rebus oivilibus extremam voluntatem de rebus quas post mortem quis fieri velit c. Bened. Aretius in prologum ad Nov. Test Heb. 9.16 17. For where there is a Testament there must of necessiity be the Death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the Testator liveth In which words the Apostle doth argue the certainty and perfection of the Covenant or Promises in Christ and proveth it by this known Argument They are the Testament or last Will of Christ which Christ the Testator hath by his death confirmed beyond possibility of a change Est Oeconomia Testamentaria cui confirmandae mors intercedit Testatoris Heb. 9.16 17. Joh. Cloppenb de Test Vet. disp 1. sect 2. That look how sure and firm the last Will is when he who made it is dead so sure and firm are the Promises to us Voluit Foedas suum babere rationem Testamenti propriè dicti Jacob. Cappellus in soc for they are the Testament of our Lord confirmed to us by his Death For Christ would have his Covenant cast into the mould of a Testament or last Will properly so called On these places I conclude this first point Christ did not die intestate but did ordain his last Will ere he died and so his Death may be considered by us as the Death of a Testator who being our friend made his last Will for our good and benefit for by Will he hath bequeathed very great things to us CAP. II Christ a Testator proper Object to mediditate on at the Sacrament HAving in the Former Chap. Proved what I undertook or at least done so much that we may without errour in our meditation consider Christ Dying a Testator I am in this Chapter to shew that the meditations of Christ's Death as it was the Death of a Testator do very well suit with the Sacrament Sect. 1. 1. First such thoughts are suggested to us by Christ himself in those expressions which he used in the first appointing and administring of this Ordinance when he chose to speak of it at a Testament Among many names wch might have been used and which are gotten into use since none so much pleased our Lord as this Mat. 26.28 Mark 14.24 Luk. 22.20 It is the blood of the New Testament and it is The New Testament in my Blood Now a Testament leadeth our thoughts to the Testator and indeed primarily or in the first place though secondarily it signify a Covenant And though now the frequent use of it in the notion of a Covenant makes us the labour to prove this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testament to signify a Testamentary Disposition or Will yet we can
Sacrament until he take us to the Glory of the Father or come again to us in the Glory of the Father Every Sacrament is a taking out a Certificat that Christ died and was buried but that he is risen from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 53. Every time the Bread is broken in a Sacrament we tell the world that our Lord was cut off out of the Land of the Living The pouring out of the Wine speaketh his powring out his blood unto death and for proof hereof we produce his Testament and last Will the last Will of our great Commander who made it In Procinctu when he was girt and in his Armour just ready to enter the conflict wherein he laid down his life for us The excellent Moralist and Historian Plutarch tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. it was the custome with the Roman Souldiers to make their Wills when they stood in Battel-aray Facientibus Testamenta in procinctu veluti ad Certam mortem eundum foret Velleius Paterculus lib. 2. I am sure when they went on a hard and dangerous design the more considerate amongst them made their last VVill as the Roman Historian reports of their Souldiers assaulting Trebonia in Spain Our great and Glorious Captain knowing that his hour was come and that he must dye for us disposed thus his estate by VVill or Testament which proveth the truth of his Death as fully as any VVill duly proved by course of Law proveth that the Testator is dead Now certainly good evidence to the truth of Christ's death must needs be very suitable to our publick declaration and Profession of his death and so must suit with this first End of the Sacrament which is to shew forth his Death until he come The valid and irreversible Testament proveth the Death of the Testator Now such a Testament we have exhibited in the Sacrament and who employs his thoughts on this meditation employs them so as they agree with the End of the Sacrament 2. Secondly Christ intended the renewal of our lively affections toward him Dying for us as another end of the Sacrament of his body and blood He did therefore appoint this Ordinance to continue after his Death that it might keep the affectionate remembrance of his love alive in our hearts He would not have his Death forgotten neither would he have it kept in memory without the vigour and strength of our love His friends were dead in sin and misery at that time he remembred these dead friends with life of affections and now his living friends must not remember him with dead affection A lifeless affection is next neighbour to no affection and to remember with such affection is very little more than quite to forget Now none of us should so forget our Dying Lord we could not see him dying as they did Luk. 23. v. 27. who followed him to Mount Calvary and saw him with their bodily eyes yet in every Sacrament of his Supper he is evidently set forth dying among us and so every one of us must remember him every place in the Church may put us in mind of our Lord but the Table and the Cross do more particularly and lively set our remembrance on work Sic oculos Sic ille manus c. Let me ask the question did you ever lose a dear friend who made you a Legatee in his Will or appointed you Executor of it how did your affections stir move yea melt your heart when you read over the Will when you came to demand your Legacy did you receive it with dry eyes Let us bestow our affections in reading over Christ's Will as we would bestow them in reading over the Will of a tender careful Friend and then I am sure we shall frame our hearts to this second end of the Lord's supper and demean our selves as Christ expects we should at his table We shall remember him with love for his loving remembrance of us we shall remember him with desires of his return and coming in glory to make good all that he hath bequeathed to us to put us in possession of all that which the Sacrament representeth and sealeth to us we shall say make hast come quickly oh Lord. 3. Thirdly A solemn publick and constant return of Thanks and Praise to the Lord is a third end of this Sacrament Christus voluit sacram suam coenam esse mortis passionis suae nostraeque per eam à peccato morte diabolo liberationis perpetuum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrae ea propter gratitudinis observantiae publicum Testimonium Ludoy Cappel Thes Salm. de Liturg. Ling. Ignot part 1. th 5. Christ would have his holy Supper be a perpetual remembrance as of his Death and Passion and as of our deliverance from sin death and the Devil so of our gratitude and observance would he have it be a publick Testimony as that Learned Professor hath expressed his sense and apprehension of this matter We can scarce meet with any one person amongst the lowest and meanest Professours of Christian Religion so little instructed in the nature and end of this Ordinance as not full well to know and openly profess it is an Ordinance appointed for continuing a thankful Remembrance of our Dying Lord. We cannot read any Writer Popish or other but in their writings of the Sacrament every page is full of it the most usual name of it is Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Syriack Version hath borrowed this Greek word to express it self in Act. 2.42 20.7 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which soundeth out Gratitude and Thankfulness so some render and translate Bread in Acts 2.42 10.7 broken in the Sacrament and call it the Breaking of the Eucharist but I will spare my time pains and paper and appeal to thy pretences and professions who goest to the Lord's Table I know thou canst not acquit thy self to thy Brethren with whom thou communicatest nor to thy own Profession unless thou declarest thy desire to remember thankfully the Death of thy Lord. Now the Love of Christ remembring thee by Will in his Testamentary disposition hath in it very many strong and prevailing perswasives to thankfulness and will certainly awaken the sober considerate soul unto gratitude and so will excellently well suit with the season and the duty of feasting with our Lord. Of which more shall be said in our following discourse if the Lord give leave Mean while the greatness of our legacy the freeness of love in the legator the unworthiness of the legatees the certainty of our future receiving it the present enjoying more if so be we would set our selves with more diligence and search to enquire into the deed of gift our Lord hath made to us These I say will certainly perswade us to constant acknowledging our debt of thankfulness to our dying Lord. Our life should be
adoptionis illius vim senserunt in Spiritu Sanctificante PP Salmur de Sp. Adop Sect. 12. so they who are sealed with the spirit of Adoption have still found the power of that Adoption by the spirit of Sanctification Now I say Christ Dying a Testator and leaving us his last Will or Testament to meditate upon hath left us a good answer to our doubts and the due meditations of the soul on the last Will of Christ will much dispel our fears and quiet the soul For whereas there are two sorts of fears which afflict a gracious soul 1. A fear it shall miss of Glory And 2. A fear it doth want truth of grace Christ by his last Will hath secured the believing soul against both these fears against the first by giving a Kingdom and Glory to such by Will he appointed them unto a Kingdom to a Glorious Crown Against the second by bequeathing the spirit of Truth and Grace unto them to lead them in holiness unto the end and this Will of our best Friend who Died to confirm it is a very sure Title on the sacred reverence authority of last Wills and Testaments Legum servanda fides suprema voluntas Quod mandat fierique subet parere necesse est Aug. Imper. de vol. Virg. which must be sacred and inviolate when the man is dead Command of Laws must duly be fulfill'd And so must that our dying friend last will'd how much more when he who died once hath for ever conquered death and lives for ever to see his own Legacies both bestowed and enjoyed which peculiar to Christ our dying friend gives greatest encouragement against such doubts and might very well ease us of all such fears and so be an excellent defence and prop to weak grace whence will soon follow a considerable growth in grace Sect. 3. 3. That which confirms the truth certainty and immutability of the promises improveth Grace I need not give long Proofs of so known a Truth Praecipuum maximè proprium objectum Fidei situm est in promissionibus PP Salm. de Fide sect 7. the promisies are the objects of our faith the good things contained in the promises are the object of our hope the grace and mercy making the promises is the Load-stone of our love In one word we are made partakers of the Divine Nature we do purify our selves and perfect holiness through these promises Grace is as the vine the promises are the frame which beareth up and carrieth the vine which thriveth best when it resteth on the surest and stedfastest frame Grace is a spiritual building which needeth a sure Foundation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is the promise which as the word of God is in it self sure and stedfast for it is impossible that God should lie Tit. 1.2 Heb. 6.18 Yet to this the Lord hath superadded the confirmation and certainty of a Testamentary disposition or last Will making all the promises in Christ and making them all sure and unchangeable by the death of Christ whereby they become to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 that we might have such assurance as should render it next to a moral impossibility for us soberly and deliberately to doubt them Now all this is excellently effected by resolving and moulding the promises into a last Will or Testamentary disposition which is of such a nature that it becomes unalterable on the Death of the Testator Heb. 9.17 for a Testament is of force after men are dead and so the law maxim ensureth us In publicis Lex in privatis Testamentum firmissimum habetur that what the law is in publick concerns that a last Will in private concerns is for ensurance and firmness In brief therefore the last Will of Christ Dying confirms the Promises to us what confirms the promises confirms our faith and hope with other graces faith and hope confirmed do greatly tend to purifying and sanctifying our hearts and making our life fruitful in these things lieth the growth and improvement of grace so that due reflections and right manage of our thoughts on Christ dying a Testator do as is said improve the communicants Graces Sect. 4. 4. That improves grace which doth soften the heart and as it were ripen it unto a mellow temper as the showers which soak into the earth in the spring time which soften the earth do both prepare the way that tender roots of trees and plants may spread abroad and root deeper and also do afford nourishing moisture and sap whence the verdure blossom and the fruit it self so it is here a hard and rocky heart is as unkind a soil for grace as stony ground is for Corn neither can take root to any good purpose Trees of righteousness are planted by the rivers of waters which is a tender soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the water courses divide themselves and run out into many branches gently and kindly softening the ground And though some vines of the Lord are planted in high Mountaines naturally hard and barren in proud and hard hearts yet these hearts are like plowed ground laid a fallowing and mellowing and so prepared for the seed time every high Mountain is laid low before Christ In one word the pleasant Lillies do grow in the Valleys low and softned grounds so grace thrives best in the humble and tender soul Now there are in the last Will of Christ many both common and ordinary as also Singular and extraordinary motives and inducements to tenderest affections towards Christ Whatsoever cause any true friend any kind Brother any dutiful Child can see in the care love and bounty of his Dying Friend Brother or Father expressed and contained in the porvision made by such one for him that all that and more may the meditating and considerate soul see in the last Will of Christ to melt him into affections for Christ in whose Death he may see love living and growing strong when life fainted and grew weak And as his veines and heart grew empty of blood both grew full of love to you and me So he loved his own to the end What in particular these common and speciall motives are I shall not now specify but reserve them to another more fit place thus you have the sum of this fourth argument before you in the next place Sect. 5. 5. That improves our graces which endeareth the Lord Jesus to us what increaseth our love to Christ doth increase our holiness and addeth to our graces love will long for a more close union love will study the most intire complyance it will ambitiously strive to advance and honour it will without ceasing endeavour to please That soul is most endeared to holiness and most studious of holiness which is most endeared to Christ and most in love with him such a soul keeps his Commandments Now the view and consideration of Christ s last Will and Testament will surely endear
Christ unto the soul there the soul seeth the real Testimonys of his Saviour's love Last Wills or Testaments are those in which we profess all our affection Quibus affectum omnem fatemur Brisson de Form After this men can do no more at this time therefore they will do what they can for their beloved Friends This love is an immortal love attempting to fill the cistern to leave it full when the spring head dryes up it is a love surviving Death when the lover cannot a peice of Friendship rescued from the hand and power which kills thy Friend When Jacob could live no longer to love his Joseph his love could not die but fleeteth from his feeble dying heart and reposeth it self in the sacred and unviolate treasury of Jacobs last Will where it doth and shall still survive both the Lover and the Beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 48.22 1 King 1. in this you discover Joseph had a double share in Jacobs love When David was to make his last will you may see which of all his Sons had most of David's heart so true is it that last Wills are open windows of the heart through which we may see the living affection of our Dying Friend This is undeniably true of the last Will of Christ who looks into it shall see the dearest love the tenderest affection the faithfullest friendship the seasonablest care and the fullest provision and who seeth this can do no less than wish he had a more dear affection to return for that which is so incomparably grater than all other Sect. 6. 6. That improves Grace which shakes off security and awakeneth out of sloth security is the lethargy of the soul and it must be cured or the soul Dyeth sloth is that scorbutick disease of the soul which weakens all its graces and takes off the edge of them and this must be removed by a vigorous exercise of that strength and life which yet remaineth in Grace or Grace will decay wither and dye rid the soul of these two and Grace will suddenly recover it self and grow Now it is unquestionable that the last Will of Christ carrieth in it sufficient considerations to awaken the soul out of pernicious security and to quicken it unto vigorous diligence For all the legacies of Christ are conditional requiring either precedent conditions or enjoining subsequent conditions of love and obedience and this love with obedience will be found such as will take up all thy time and strength set to it so soon as thou wilt here will be work enough for thy Christian care Thou wilt find life short love long work weighty strength weak The Philosopher rowsed himself with this Vita brevis ars longa life is short Art is long Christian look over Christ's expectation expressed in his Will and Testament and write this presently as thy monitory Vita brevis Fides longa The time of Life is short the work of Faith is long and rowse up thy self both from security and sloth make haste to do thy Lord's will that thou mayest have large share in the last Will of thy Lord. When a very rich gist is given by Will upon conditions and reservations and all revoked from every claimer who performeth not those conditions and disposed to others who will do and have done and performed the conditions how great care and diligence doth this awaken how speedy is the considering Legatee what haste doth he make to perform lest non-performance of his duty should disappoint his hope and cut off his claim Christian thou hast the Inheritance given by Will and that Will prescribes thee thy duty and if ever thou intendest to put in claim for it look thou put thy hand speedily to the doing of what is there enjoyned thee For I tell thee thy Lord who made the Will who prescribed the terms who enjoyned thy performance and before whom thou must make thy claim is not now dead but liveth is not far off but near to thee seeth and observeth all thy sloth and laziness and will reject thy suit and dash thy pretences and confound thy hopes unless sight of his Will quicken thee to do his will CAP. IV. Graces enumerated Improvable by the last Will of Christ I Have performed 〈…〉 at potui â—amen if not as I would yet as Bernard said as I could the three first parts of my Promise I shall now endeavour the performance of the fourth viz. in a particular enumeration of those graces which I apprehend may be much improved by the consideration of Christ's last Will or Testament renewedly remembred at the Communion of the Lord's body And Sect. 1. 1. First Faith is one Grace which is improvable by due managing our thoughts of Christ's ordaining his last Will ere he died and dying to ratifie and make his last Will firm and irrevocable This gives us greatest assurance of the truth of the Promises and so addeth to the evidence of things that are not seen Man verily believeth and boldly pleadeth his title and right to the Legacy which his dying friend bequeathed to him Sect. 2. Secondly Hope and Expectation of enjoying the good things promised is another grace improvable by the application of Christ's Death dying a Testator and ordaining his last Will. The certainty of future enjoying and the goodness of the thing to be enjoyed is the life of hope the root and strength of it Now the goodness of that we expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the certainty of our future enjoyment are jointly contained and declared in the last Will of our Lord to which in more particular manner we hope to speak Sect. 3. 3. Longing desires of surer interess in the Covenant or Testament of Christ and desire of nearer union unto Christ is improvable upon the reflections of our serious thoughts on the Death of Christ dying and making his VVill. Every one who needeth would wish himself of the kindred and affinity of that rich bountiful and kind friend who enricheth all his kindred by his large Legacies at his Death and he will desire to be so related unto Christ who duly considers what may be obtained by Christ Sect. 4. 4. Love to the Lord and a high prizing of his person and concernments is an other Grace of the believer improveable by this meditation of Christs Death as the Death of a Testator Every one honoureth the remembrance and speaketh well of him who doth liberally and wisely provide for his indigent and needy relations strangers do value such an one and much more doth his ingenuous and considerate Friend Sect. 5. 5. Zeal to his glory and honour a spiritual fervency of heart in all that such a Friend is any whit concerned in is another qualification of a believer and this also is improved by the due manage of our knowledge of Christs last Will and Testament Were there but little cordial Friendship in the heart of a believer toward
hast First All the common inducements of a firm perswasion which are as much in this as in any No man's last Testament can have more grounds for the ensuring us it is firm and stable than his last VVill of Christ He was in strictest propriety a Person who might optimo jure in best right make his VVill. He had wealth and riches spiritual Riches fulness of Grace and merit Testes suntin primis discipuli ejus Apostoli sancti man tyres quoque testes sunt -Testes etiam bom ministri omnes Testes etiam Angeli omnesque Pii Ben. Aretius in Prolegem ad Matth. he had large demeasnes was heir of all things he could sua legare bequeath his own he did also make his VVill by his death he confirmed all the promises and made them the Legacy of every Believer He did condere Testamentum ordain his Testament To which he added sufficient VVitnesses to him give all the Prophets and Apostles witness that whosoever believeth in him hath good title and right to eternal Life he bequeathed it by VVill and adhibuit testes * call'd in Witnesses And farther he publish'd his Will sent out his Apostles who declared Christs death and the Believers life Every Minister of Christ is one by whom Christ still publisheth this Will of his Now if thou who readest this hadst such a Ground of Plea for an inheritance wouldst thou not say thou hadst a good Title wouldst thou fear to claim thy Legacy wouldst thou not sue the Executor rather than lose thine inheritance when thou shouldest read what thy dying Friend commanded to be written what witnesses are to it how plain and full he made every thing be written publisht would not thy perswasion grow as thou readest So then it is in this case every promise is reduced into the form of a will and the more thou readest and considerest the more wilt thou discern the stability and the certainty of the promises The words which thou believest on which thou may'st claim and make good thy claim to any promise it is the Legacy thy dying Lord hath bequeathed thee Say then before thou goest to the Lords Table I am now preparing to renew the memorial of Christs death and what thoughts am I to entertain ought they not to be thoughts of the precious promises which are comprised in the Lord Jesus in whom they are all yea and amen made to us in him before he died made most sure to us by him when he died And who dares go about to reverse what he hath so consirmed who shall presume to annul and make void his will I see others believe their interest in the last will of their Friends I know I am the Friend of Christ and in his Will what then should make me doubt Nay I will endeavour to have as inviolatam fidem inviolate and unshaken Faith as I have inviolate and Sacred ground of Faith in the last Will of my Lord. Secondly The Believer hath yet more to increase his faith and to confirm him in the perswasion that there shall be a performance of all that is promised For it is all made sure by the last Testament of him who could not exceed his own treasures he hath not given larger Legacies than his estate will bear though his Gifts are great yet his Estate will make them good He is heir of both Worlds with all that is in both he is heir of the world to come and he is proprietary of all grace which fits for Glory and he is also Proprietary of all Glory fitted unto Grace that is prepared and apportioned unto Grace He is Lord of this present world although we do not yet see all things put under him yet he is the man of whom David spake Psal 8. witness the Apostle Heb. 2. He shall inherit all Nations he is a King whose dominion is over all In one word the greatest wants the largest desires the highest expectations of his kindred could not be too much for his Treasures Though none ever gave as he hath given yet none ever did or ever shall be put to abate or to forgo any part of his Gift This oh believing soul is peculiar to thy Lord his Riches will pay all his Legacies Say then to thine unbelief what is it thou stickest at where lieth the difficulty are the promises so rich they exceed the Estates and Treasures of this world do they amount to more than all the world can make up why still they are not greater than the Riches of both worlds and remember thy self he hath both this and that world which is to come at his disposal and his Bequests are to be disbursed and paid out of both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Arab. reads Quicquid est in ea will both be enough cannot the fulness of the Earth fill thy emptiness why the Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof the World is his and they that dwell therein Banish thine unbelief which ordinarily stumbles most at the wants and streights of Christians in this life and look to the last Will of Christ which is unto Godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He bequeaths all the promises of the life that now is and of that which is to come Oh now where is thy faith what forbids thee to be perswaded of the truth of the promise of Christ 1 Tim. 4.8 he hath not laid it on an uncertainty much less on an untruth he hath not given so much if his Goods will amount to it He hath not as that beggarly Cardinal given much but his Legatees must find it out No but he had enough to give what he hath given and every one shall in due time have all that Christ hath given there are Assets to pay these debts believe than that thou may'st receive See how much greater cause thou hast to believe than any man can have to expect from the Testamentary disposition of a mortal friend who may possibly out give his Estate but Christ thy Friend did not could not out-give his 3. Next consider as he had wealth both spiritual eternal and temporal sufficient to discharge his leagacies so he had wisdom which could not and love in sincerity which would not err in the ordaining of his Will that so any Legatee should lose through the ambiguity or defect of his last Will. He needed none to direct him how to make a will which should hold good and be valid to all the intents and purposes of his love towards his poor Friends He is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one Law-giver whose wisdom directeth to the making Laws good profitable and seasonable for his Church He is that Lawgiver whose soveraign authority gives validity and warranteth his word for a law to his Church He is the King of his Church and his Church knows not a law beside the word of his mouth And the words of his mouth are right there is nothing forward or
perverse in them Prov. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 8.7 8.8 Now then see what farther ground of firme perswasion thou hast Oh believing soul to assent to wait for all that he hath promised all which he hath comprised and ratified by his last Will. Read over the promises weigh them duly and say to thy self at a Sacrament all these promises were confirmed by the last Will of my Lord. Whose death I am to remember and consider with respect to the nature and notion of his Death and this his Death was the Death of a Testator of one who made his Will so wisely so consonantly to the law viz. Of grace and mercy so agreable to the holy will of God so plainly and fully for the consolation of his poor Friends that no one of his poor Friends shall ever be defeated disappointed or injured in their claim and plea their title by gift and will is so good that nothing but a narrow desire a straitned heart a scanty apprehension of it can lessen their portion in it the fullest apprehension the largest heart and the vastest desire according to Christ's own Will shall have the best and greatest share in these gifts get then apprehensions suited to these excellent mercies enquire and learn what mercies are offered represented confirmed and sealed in the Sacrament what priviledges are there by God's charter and grant given and conclude of them all these were put into Christ's hand He hath disposed of them to his as they need as they desire as they want or wish And that they might be sure hath ordained them by his last Will a Legacy for all who understand desire seek and wait for them and lest any doubt should discourage you I pray you remember Christ the wisdom of his Father could not want sufficient skill and Christ Dying for us could not want good will to ordain his Testament so that none should disappoint or defeat it in part or in whole Consider then how little cause you and I have to doubt consider how great cause we have to be fully peswaded of the truth and certainty of the promises Nay farther yet 4. All the Promises thus confirmed by the last Will and Testament of Christ are Legacies given by one who now doth and ever shall live to be his own Executor This Testament is not the Testament of a man who dieth and must entrust others to see his Will perform'd but it is the Testament of one who was once dead but behold he liveth Rev. 1.18 For evermore O happy soul who art Heir of those Promises which he made who lives to perform what his love hath bequeathed to thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art surer to enjoy the Crown which he bequeaths thee than ever was the child of any dying Emperours or Kings whose last Wills have been wickedly violated because they were dead and could not prevent the violence of such Traitors nor avenge the wickedness of the Treason But behold here 's a friend who lives after death and wilt thou know why he doth Amongst others this is one reason Heb. 7.25 That he might save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him and to intercede for them viz. that they may enjoy what he hath given that they may possess what he hath purchased Now then compare the grounds of other mens perswasions and confidences upon the Will of their dead friends see what is in them weigh them and write upon each of them Tekel Dan. 5.27 thou art found too light to be weighed against the confidences and perswasions of a Believer for all other Legacies are the gifts of the dead but the Believers Legacies are the gifts of him who was dead but is alive and liveth for ever more Others may have the assurance of an unchangeable Testament and ordination of their will but yet want an assurance of just and faithfull execution of it If their Friend be dead the Legacy is due and cannot be recalled But their Friend is dead possibly the Legacy may never be paid here 's that defect which makes it too light to be weighed with the believers confidence which is as sure for his Friend was dead to confirm and is yet surer than all others for his Friend doth live Christ will make all sure as we say his own eyes shall be overseers and his own hands executors of his own Will Now then at the Lords Table view the riches of the promises take a particular of what is contained in them a particular of what grace what consolation what glory say All these are by the last Will of my Dying Lord bestowed upon me I may claim them I may sue and plead for them I may avow my title to them for they are a Legacy given to me by my Lord and who then can change or alter his VVill which hath been ratified by his Death or who shall dare to violate it and defeat me or any other Believer So long as my Lord liveth to prevent the attempt and to avenge himself for the violence Oh that our perswasion of the truth of the Promises were firm and stedfast as the Promises themselves Oh that we could give more credit to the Promises as God hath given us more arguments and inducements to credit them well Reader I know not how my weak and dark reasoning with thee doth prevail but I assure thee there is in the Promises a most sure and unfailing truth asserted and declared to thee by this That they are the bequests of Christ Jesus who ever lives to make them good Remember this at the Sacrament where the Promises are all tendered to thee in Christ I doubt not it will strengthen thy Faith 5. Fifthly Consider the Promises are the Legacies of thy friend who would not alter his Will and dispose of them otherwise than he hath already disposed them He is yesterday Heb. 12.8 to day and for ever the same in his love care wisdom and bounty were he now to make his last VVill he would not alter any thing he would not blot out one name nor abate any one Legacy I stand the less to prove this because nothing can fall out to change infinite wisdom and such was the wisdom of Christ who is the Testator and disposed all as you see them disposed And in this appeareth a certainty in Divine Promises which is seldom nay never found in the promises of men although confirmed by an irrevocable Testamentary disposition for it seems past doubt that if any one of the rich and wealthy Princes or Grandees of the world were to live again and to ordain their VVills anew they would alter much leaving out some abating to others c. Either upon discovery of unworthiness in the Legatees or upon discovery of other persons and uses more excellent all which would proceed from experience and after-knowledge the least of which cannot be supposed or found in Christ He would do what he hath done
to the soul For they are desires fixed upon a good which is in some degree already enjoyed Christ and his benefits are ever enjoyed whilest sincerely desired These messengers of the soul seeking for Christ are sent by Christ himself who is with the soul much as he was incognito with the Disciples before he made himself known in breaking of bread The soul desireth Christ absent but these desires are raised in the soul by Christ present And as a Friend in a disguise sometime visits and feasteth with his Friend cheering and comforting him and minding him of his absent Friend and raising wishes and desires after him as absent who indeed is present with him and entertaineth him so doth our blessed Lord satisfy the desires of them that love him and that long for him He is enriched by Christ who truly desireth the riches of Christ These the advantages of the Christians desires oh then let out thy desires fear not to set thy soul in a longing fit for Christ whilst thou longest thou shalt enjoy and ere long thou shalt see how much thou hadst of him all that time wherein thou thoughtest thou hadst no more of him than an empty desire or hungring wish for him thy desires are like the Mariners approaches to the spicy Islands the sweet and delicate odours assure them they are not far off and delight them untill they set foot upon the shore so Christ assures and delights the desirous soul so Christ sends abroad the sweet perfumes of grace and glory These refresh the soul untill its arrival where it shall live upon full satisfactions which is a 3. Third excellency in which the believers desires after these Legacies of Christ do exceed all the best desires of other men who must ever write over them lesse in hand than in Hope Minuit praesentia famam the believer on the contrary must write this as the motto of his possessed desires great in Hope greater far in hand or as the Queen of Sheba said in another case 1 King 10.8 It was a true report which I heard in my own land but the one half of their glory was not told me These things which draw out the desires of other men are like the Apples of Sodom beautiful and please the eâ—e at distance but they moulder into ashes when the hand gathers them and they who feed on them feed on ashes Such are honours such are pleasures such are the riches of this world and of men of this world fully uncertain when we purpose to seek them fully vexatious whilst we are seeking them fullest of torment and disappointment when they are grasped and possessed yet our desires after them are passionate and earnest our contrivances to obtain them are solicitous and secret our pursuit vigorous and unwearied But Christian here is honour a crown bequeathed here is joy an eternal feast on the fruit of the true vine in the Kingdom of thy heavenly Father here are treasures bequeath'd an inheritance a Kingdom and all proposed to thy desires with transcendent advantages they are certain that thou mayest pursue them with Hope they do refresh whilest thou art pursuing that thou mayest not languish and faint they satisfy fully and eternally that thou mayest never repent thy labour Look on these and let them have but as much of thy desire as there is of desireableness in them above all other things and then I am sure thou wilt desire them above all and rest in them after all Awake Awake oh my soul and before thou make thy approach to the Lord's table look over the last Will and Testament of Christ thy Lord see there is pardoning mercy to take away death which is the desert of sin there is purifying mercy to take away the filth of sin to dry up the poisonous fountain of sin there is pacifying mercy to take away inward distracting troubles there is interceding mercy to procure acceptance of all the good thou dost there is preserving mercy to keep thee from falling away and perishing there is crowning mercy to encourage thy expectations and satisfy thy best and largest desires In a word here is Christ's Spirit his Righteousness his Kingdom with eternal life given by Will and last Testament and all these tendered to thee as Christ's Minister tenders the body and blood of Christ to thee all these things are delivered to thee in the copy of Christ's will sealed unto thee at the Sacrament and thy desires are now expected Good things and possible yea certain and ensured to thee if thou wilt but heartily desire them Awake therefore a sincere wish a strong longing after them that they might statisfy thee All these are thine if thou wilt be Christ's oh then desire he would unite thee to himself that thou may'st be one among them that are one with Christ these shall be heirs to these great things these must be of Christ's kindred and alliance this alliance is not by natural consanguinity it is by a foederal covenant Union and this Union is effected by us for our part by willingness and desire say then art thou willing to lose and miss these great things or dost thou think them unworthy of thy desire or rather dost thou not wish thou couldest desire them dost thou not feel thy heart kindly bubling forth such affectionate desires as these after Christ oh that I were of that happy family which are so blessed with Christ oh that my name were written in the will oh that there were a blank where I might secretly or openly write mine own name there then I would as Jacob yet without offence steal a blessing oh that there were some would shew me how I might imbody my self with this houshold and kindred why now if such desires stir behold here is a short but a sure method Longings and desires after nearer Vnion and closer conjunction with Christ heary desires of communion with Christ will do this great work and ensure this exceeding rich blessing to thee Blessed are they who thus hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfyed Thus renewed meditations on the common in centives of desires and renewed meditations on the peculiar and extraordinary incentives of our desires in likely-hood can do no less than increase our desires after this most desireable Union to Christ CAP. V. Sect. 4. Love and esteem of Christ Improved by his Dying a Testator A Fourth Grace improveable by the meditation of Christ's Death as such a loving and bountiful Legator Love and Esteem of Christ 4th Sacramental Grace improved is love and high esteem of his person and concernment There are some graces which may be better spared in part or in whole others that are more needful for a communicant at the Lord's table joy in believing may be little perhaps none yet the soul not unfit for the Sacrament But the grace of love to Christ with an high esteem of the person and concernments of Christ is so needful
man this the Saint hath from Christ by whose Testament he is heir to a Crown yet the excellentest Saint is less than the least of the Legacies of his Lord. In our present state there is nothing to commend us which doth not more commend our Lord who bestowed it By the grace of God we are what we are whether children heirs or Legatees And if we know as St. Paul did know we shall account all things as he did loss and dung Phil. 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Penuria defectus who hath all without Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poor 'T is loss when he computeth the product of all his hopes that are short of Christ and the things which Christ freely gives and instead of ought gained he must writ much lost Such then is the excellency of Christ that without him nothing can be gain with him nothing shall be loss And 3. When thou hast viewed the great Legacies of thy Lord look on thy self what thou wilt most certainly be so long as thou art on earth and this will commend the noble excellent temper of thy Lord. He knew that thou wouldest repine be unthankful live much below his Royal gifts and in many things dishonour the free giver Yet all this never could discourage or change the resolutions and purpose of thy most bountiful loving and tender Friend and Lord. Behold here is love as the Apostle hath it 1 Joh. 4.10 Not that we loved God but he loved us c. here love is Triumphant indeed In a word or two either we must conclude the Christian a most disingenuous person or else conclude that the survey of the great Legacies his Lord hath given him will raise the Christians esteem of Christ it will enlarge his affections toward Christ Thus the love of Christ discovered in his last Will and Testament will draw out love to him again and love will find whereever the excellency of what is loved doth lye rather than want an excellency to justify the passion we see men will phancy and make an excellency and then value it Spiritual love needs no such help to esteem Christ it may find an infinite worth in him and indeed doth judge him the chief of ten thousand None but he would dye none but he dying would make such provision for us 4. This great Testator was brought to his end as we say by the faults and through the folly of us whom he did so highly befriend We sinned and he died our wickedness brought him to the Cross Isa 53. Now whilst we like sheep went astray and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of as all the precious life of the shepheard ransomed the life of his wandring sheep what would have been the manner of men in this case would it not have been I 'le cross them out of my will I intended a bounteous Legacy but be it now as far from my mind as I was from theirs this would have been the resolution of man But this was not the mind of Christ more excellent than man No no but this his Noble disposition I will do the most my Friends need from me though they have done the most they could against me I 'le conquer their unkindness and they captives to my love shall set an eternal Crown of triumphant glory and praise on my head I know whither to bring them and where they shall be of another temper and disposition towards me for my love I will bequeath them a Crown of glory though they have pierced me with a Crown of thorns I know when they shall look on me and mourn when they shall heartily resent their unkindnesses and in requital of my love shall prize me higher than their own life So let my soul ever say thy love oh Lord surviving death and conquering my ingratitude deserveth a higher esteem and larger affections than a narrow heart and low apprehensions can offer thee CAP. V. Sect. 5. Zeal for Christ Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator A Fifth grace suiting to the Sacrament 5th Sacramental Grace improvable and improveable by considering Christ a Testator making his will when he Died is Zeal to his glory and honour I think it not needful to prove the suitableness of this grace to the Sacrament The heighth of love to Christ the indignation against former sins fervent setled resolutions to oppose suppress and overthrow all lusts and the stirrings of lusts which as formerly they have risen up so now would afresh rise up against Christ all which as they are in every prepared communicant and which are the constitutives of Zeal so they would clearly prove this but I take it none will deny or doubt that Zeal to the glory and honour of Christ doth well suit with the constant ordinary course of the Christians conversation how much more doth it beseem him in his nearer accesses to Christ The people which are his peculiar must be Zealous of Good works Tit. 2.14 Rom. 12.11 fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Now beside what arguments arise from the common professed Friendship of the Christian to Christ As 1. The candour and humanity which we shew to every man who is dead of whom either nothing ought be said or nothing but good an ingenuous person is moved with Zeal for the name and credit of the dead when they are traduced especially 2. When the innocency of the person was in his whole life well known to all who in any degree of acquaintance knew him we should not take up the buried miscarriages of of the dead nor may we disguise the good workes of those that are not by to plead for themselves 3. When our Friends were useful to all that needed and would make use of them we endure not they should be traduced by surviving rancor and envy 4. When all this Friendship innocency usefulness and generous beneficence of our Friend met with nothing almost but causeless vexations and troubles and of these one succeeding the other without Rest we think it hard as indeed it is very exceeding hard measure that it neither meet with rest in life nor death that it should be defamed where all men have a priviledg securing them from piercing censures and envious reproaches these and such like motives of Zeal for the honour of our dear Friend who Dying from us left his love to live with us are equally applicable to any such Friend if any such may be found among the sons of men But over and above all these in centives there are some special incentives to Zeal for the honour of our Lord on this very account that he dyed a Testator making his Testament and last Will. 1. Hereby we are embodied into the family whereof Christ is the head and cheif so that our zeal for his honour is a zeal for the honour of our whole family That we are of his family is a very high ennobling us a very great
't is really a clothing of very great price in the account of God 1 Pet. 3.4 to speak of the excellency of this grace is aliene to this place and the seasonableness and suitableness of it to the Sacrament I think so apparent that it needeth not any proof I rather address my self to point out the incentives which from Christ Dying our Testator do offer themselves to set forward and improve this grace of humility It will teach us to judge of our selves as becometh us and it will ever keep us lowly 1. The Apostles motive to humility 1 Cor. 4.7 offereth it self to us in the very entrance on this meditation what hast thou which thou hast not received look on either the beauty of thy renewed soul or the comeliness of thy holy conversation or the excellency of thy justified state or the honour of thy Adoption or look on the lustre of thy spiritual joyes thy heavenly Hopes And of all these in general or of any of the particulars comprised in them can'st thou say this or that is not received I know thou can'st not deny the receiving and if thou hast received why dost thou boast this Question like a needle opens the swoln bladder of pride and letteth out the wind of vain opinion which would either corrupt or break us Thou hadst had as little to pride thy self in as one who hath only his shame to glory in if thou hadst not received what is now thy glory it was the bounty of thy Rich and Loving Friend at his Death to enrich thee thou hast no reason either 1. To boast before God who hath chosen and called thee as others like thee weak foolish and base Free and Rich mercy hath raised made wise and excellent and now neither thou I or any flesh may boast before God 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28 29. For what we are we are in Christ as v. 30. And the glory is due to God alone as v. 31. 2. Nor to boast over thy brother who was every whit as Good as thou before Grace made the difference and may ere long be as Rich in Grace as any and more humble than thou art yet He who hath adorned and blessed thee might with the same freeness have adorned him whom thou despisest Since then all that Good which is in thee was given to thee by thy Dying Lord it is absurd and exceeding unseemly for thee to lift up thy self above thy brother or to Glory in thy self before thy God When thou intendest to approach the Sacrament and when thou art there attending on the Lord remember thou hadst been poor and destitute of all those blessings therein represented if thy Lord Dying had not by Will bequeathed all to thee 2. The Second perswasive to Humility drawn from the Death of Christ as a Testator leaving us such Legacies may be our incapacity to serve him in any real service of advantage to him We Never yet were we never shall hereafter be in any capacity either of deserving what we have received or of requiting the love which gave it to us He that gave it gave by Will and Dyed to confirm his Will and our goodness could not extend to our Friend in the other world Our Lord needeth it not wee are when our best is done unprofitable servants These are two things which have kept better men in a humble lowly thought of themselves David's prayer Psal 16.1 was from a humble heart and in an humbled state and he maintained his Humility on the observation of his uselesness and unprofitableness to his Lord his preserver ver 2 3. My Goodness extendeth not unto thee c. It is Elihu his argument Job 35. ver 5. with 7. 8. To perswade to humility And Eliphaz Job 22.2 lay's down man's unprofitableness first and leaves us to conclude that unprofitable man must be a humble man thou mayest not be proud before one who needs thee not thou must not boast in thy Best seeing thy best is not good to him before whom thou boastest Should a man boast himself in his smoaky cottage before his Soveraign in his magnificent pallace or should a lame and decrepit fool boast of his wisdom and strength and commend it to his Soveraign for the wars In a word or two 1. Were thy Lord but a man yet his present state of Majesty and certainest coming in Glory confirmed represented to thee in his Last Testament mindeth thee that he needeth not thy help Thou canst not say He can be but not so well without me 2. The largeness of that state he was possessed of before he gave thee interess in it and which he hath still in his possession since he gave thee a right to any part of it doth clearly demonstrate that thou hast nothing to pride thy self in before thy Testator amongst other causes of humility we shall find that the wealth and Riches of those we appear before is one which perswadeth us to a demiss and lowly deportment and behaviour there is an appearance of Glory in Riches Psal 49.16 For with increase of Riches there is in common esteem an increase of Glory Now in the gifts and Legacies of thy Dying Lord thou mayst clearely see those true precious and lasting Treasures of grace comfort and glory which he was and is still owner of with him are Riches and honour Prov. 8.18 To him therefore reverent carriage and humble thoughts affections and esteem of our selves in his presence is most suitable And who is not affected with humility and lowliness toward Christ is so much the more injurious to him by how much more excellent and precious Christ's riches and wealth excel the Riches of men which are so highly esteemed that they are judged sufficient ground of honour to the owner and sufficient cause of commanding humble carriage in the poorer 3. In Christ Dying a Testator thou mayest discern a dignity of dominion and Lordship over the things which are disposed of by will A dominion which cometh near to an absolute and uncontrouled dominion what a man may give by will to whomsoever he pleaseth is more under the dominion of that man than the things which need a farther and more large conveyance As the estate which may be devised by Will and so convey'd to a Child Friend or stranger is more under the dominion of the present owner than is that estate which some law entaileth on the owners heirs or Children Now this being the case Christ's dominion and absolute soveraignty over the good things he hath given by Will doth require and deserve a humble and lowly spirit in those who partake of these gifts Dominion is as a Ground of honour in those who are invested with it so a Ground of humility in those who are inferiour to it What would be esteemed Friendly familiarity in me towards my equal and a commendable deportment would be accounted insolent pride in me towards my Lord or Soveraigne and a carriage not to be endured
Joseph advanced to be Ruler over all the Land of Aegypt must be saluted with a Bowing Knee Gen. 41.43 Which was the outward and visible expression of that double apprehension Gen. 27.29 Isa 49.23 Esth 3.2 5. 1. of his worth and honour 2. of the meanness and lowness of the rest who bowed It is a very general and ancient signe of the respect we bear to the dignity and worth of any one we bow before The insolent souldiers in their carriage toward Christ when they bowed the knee Math. 27.29 Shewed us what humility becometh subjects and what honour is due to Soveraigns Look then on that absolute dominion and power which appeareth in Christ's last Will and Testament be then Judge in the case and say What beseemeth thee in Receiving gifts from Soveraigne power from an absolute Lord will it not beseem thy low abject and poor state to attend the presence and receive the gifts of such a Lord as Christ is with a bended knee and a humble heart What might be farther said in this particular I shall leave to each one 's larger meditations because I will hasten to an end of the Chapter and subject CAP. V. Sect. 9. Patience in Sufferings Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator A Ninth Grace well suiting with the Lords Supper and Improvable on consideration of Christ Dying a Testator is strong and settled resolution with patience to undergo for him all hardships and sufferings which the Lord shall permit to come upon us A praemeditated survey of all the sufferings for the Lord Christ and his Gospel with advised purposes not to shrink from them is required of every Christian and doth very well fit the thoughts of a Sacrament in which the Christian communicateth with a Lord who was in his whole life a Man of sorrows and accquainted with griefs for our sake We celebrate the memorial of his sufferings we should confirm our resolutions not to shrink away from Christ for fear of sufferings The antient Christians under persecutions were wont to fortify their purposes and resolutions of adhering to their Crucified Lord in midst of all persecutions in order hereunto they were wont to Celebrate the Lord's Supper often thereby as often renewing their courage and resolution to dye if need be for him And the ordinary name of this ordinance viz. Sacrament implieth so much For it was the old Latine word expressing the Romane Souldiers obligation to obey his Generall Sacramentum Patres Latini à militari jurejurando uti opinamur ad eam partem nostrae Religionis significandam c. Thes Salmur de Sacrament in gen disp sect 2. Now common sense telleth us that who comes and listeth himself a Souldier under a Captain or Generall either knoweth not what he doth or else bringeth Resolutions to undergo all the hardships of the war he entreth on I tell thee Christian thou knowest not fully what thou art doing at a Sacrament if thou doest not there add strength to thy resolutions of Enduring hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ If thou dost only confirm thy Hope of and thy waiting for the coming of thy Lord and shewest this by shewing forth his Death untill he cometh yet I must tell thee since thou professest hope of and waitest for the coming of thy Lord it well becometh this hope this faith to have attendant the Resolution of Enduring all for Christ's sake There are these Motives in it 1. First in thy Dear Friends Will thou seest his Love to thee and it is but endebted ingenuity to be ready for and patient in sufferings for one who sincerely Loved us As the Love of our Friend to us increaseth so should our readiness to suffer for our Friend Christ did thus commend his Love above the love of all other friends That he died for us Rom. 5.8 And this Love constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.14 It doth by a sweet and invincible power draw us into this conclusion That we should live no longer to our selves but to him who died for us ver 15. We ought not only to bear some but all not little only but great not common but extraordinary dangers distresses and afflictions for his sake He is by a sacred right Lord of our life and when he biddeth us venture it in hazards or lay it down in unavoidable death for him we must do it His love ought thus to constrain us The sacred story tells us that Jacob served seven years for Rachel Gen. 29.18 During which service he underwent Losses Gen. 31.39 was consumed with drought in the day and with frost in the Night thus he served him fourteen years for his daughters to the younger of which he had such love that seven years of hardship seemed to him but a few dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the love he had to her Gen. 29.29 Either thy own Reason condemneth thy want of love to Christ who deserveth it insomuch as he hath given thee rich Legacies by his Will or thy Love will command thee resolvedly and patiently to suffer for him Either thou must not pretend any interess in Christ's Gifts or thou must intend to Love him for them and resolve to suffer for him thou Lovest In thy going to the Sacrament view the kindness of thy Saviour in his Last Will and Testament and judge with thy self what sufferings for him thou couldst reasonably refuse He Loved not himself or life too well when it concerned thy life and Soul He died for thee and canst thou do less than venture life or estate for him whilest thou readest his love in his Legacies raise thy resolutions to face stand out and bear dangers losses reproaches or Death for him His love to thee deserveth it for no man hath Joh. 15.13 or can have greater than that Christ had for thee and the rest of his friends 2. Thy Testator hath provided by his last Will and Testament that all thy sufferings should be recompenced to thee with a reward that surpasses all thy sufferings If thou and I weigh the Sufferings for Christ and our Gain by Christ this will exceedingly outweigh those The least degree of reward weighed with the heaviest burthen of sufferings will praeponderate and outweigh them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for heaviest burthens of afflictions are but light 2 Cor. 4.17 But the glory they work for us is an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory And besides all that which shall hereafter be the recompence of sufferers for Christ they are 1. First honoured by God in that they are called to suffer for his Son God puts an honour on such who are called to suffer reproach for Christ Acts. 5.41 1 Pet. 4.14.2 It is a gift which God doth not bestow on every one however men judge of it the Apostle tells us it is Given Phil. 1.29 And well might the Apostle so account it for 3. It fitteth us for the Kingdom of Heaven our sufferings do not fit us with a fitness of worth
or of merit but with a fitness of preparedness and of meetness 2 Thes 1.5 with Col. 1.11 12. 4. It is very acceptable to God 1. Pet. 2.19 20. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it ingratiateth with God 5. It is a Scripture evidence of Grace and future Glory Phil. 1.29 Rom. 8.17 whoso suffer for Christ shall in like manner be glorified with Christ 6. And lastly it is a condition ordinarily priviledged with great consolations in the inward man and with an high degree of Heroick grace in the heart expressed by the spirit of Glory and of God resting on the sufferer 1 Pet. 4.13 14. Though many other compensations of our sufferings might be mentioned as preponderating and outweighing our Sufferings yet because no one of these mentioned can be reasonably doubted or denied to be more than sufficient present reward for our Sufferings I judge it reason to add no more Think then as the Love of thy Saviour and Friend should make thee resolute in Suffering so the present advantage and reward will warrant thee to desire opportunity of Suffering for him if he shall see good so to try thee Read then the promises made to sufferers for Christ the Elogies given to them the fruits of such sufferings and then debate the case with thy self going to the Sacrament or receiving it There are present benefits annexed to sufferings for that Lord whose Death I celebrate these benefits are made over to such as I am by his last Will what then should make me unwilling unresolved or afraid to suffer for him each particular blessing bequeathed surpasseth all the sufferings I need expect or fear Seal therefore Lord thy blessings to me in the Sacrament and help me to seal thy cause and truth if need be with my blood 3. A third inducement to Resolution in suffering for Christ our Lord Dying a Testator deducible from his Last Will is That the greater these sufferings are the greater the compensation shall be Our Lord Dying hath so disposed his rich gifts that he shall have greatest share in them who is greatest sufferer for him By a Christianlike bearing the Afflictions of the Lord and the Gospel thou mayest increase the Crown of Glory which Christ hath promised thee if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him Rom. 8.17 God allowes us to intend and aime at obtaining Glory with Christ as the end why we suffer with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for him It is a very full expression of this which we meet with 2 Cor. 4.17 This Momentany and light affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Note the words Affliction worketh for us it effecteth perfectly worketh or as it is rendered Phil. 2.12 Worketh out or in a good sense causeth as the word is rendred 2 Cor. 9.11 The Temptation of afflictions doth as well increase the future Glory as the present grace of the Saints James 1.2 And they are blessed who endure such Temptations James 1.12 For when they are tryed they shall receive the Crown of life Gold and silver are purified and get a greater measure of perfection by the refining fire The Glorified Saints shine with greatest lustre who came out of the fires of persecution Those that were clothed with white robes and had Palms in their hands and stood before the throne Revel 7.9 Were the persons who came out of great tribulation ver 14. Therefore are they before the Throne ver 15. In a word Christ hath prepared Thrones on which they who did continue with him in his Temptations do sit and whereon they shall sit hereafter judging the tribes of Israel to these sufferers he hath disposed the Kingdome Luke 22.28.29 No man shall ever be loser by suffering for Christ Mark well the answer given to Peter's Question Matth. 19.27 28. 29. We have forsaken all c. What shall we have therefore Ye saith Christ shall sit upon Thrones ye shall receive an Hundred fold ver 29. Judge therefore with thy self whether the renewed Remembrance of such a Will and Testament in which the Testator gives most to him that doth suffer most for him be not a very fit means to perswade thee to and confirm thee in resolutions of patient suffering for Christ In a Sacrament thou dost or mightest see such encouragements to sufferings sealed to thee and wilt thou not endure wilt thou not bear and suffer for such Hopes are our sufferings not worthy to be compared with that Glory which shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 And is it not too much weakness which dares not suffer will you thus render your selves unworthy to expect such Glory 4. And Lastly Christ Dying a Testator liveth and beholdeth what thou sufferest and with what frame of mind thou dost endure thy sufferings And this thou doest tacitely confess in the use of the Sacrament for under what Notion soever thou dost remember thy Lord in the Sacrament as it is complex of thy Lord his Death so of his future coming likewise Thou declarest that though he died once yet Death hath not Dominion over him for he liveth and knoweth what is designed against him by his enemies what is laid upon his Friends and followers for his sake He will be Judge of thy sufferings and of thy reward also Revel 2.2 He that walketh in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks knoweth the patience as well as the Labour of the Church Now who knows the patience must needs know the sufferings which exercise the patience of the Church He knoweth the tribulation of the Church Revel 2.9 Christ is the great overseer and Judge of the combates which his Church maintaineth with his enemies who afflict and trouble the Church for Christ's sake He assigneth the reward and Crown to every one that overcometh Revel 2.7 17 23 26. with other places Well then so often as thou goest to the Sacrament thou renewest the memory of thy Lord whose Love deserveth thou shouldest patiently bear whose reward when least will surpass thy sufferings when they are greatest who will measure out to thee a reward proportioned to thy sufferings who lives to see and observe all thou sufferest thy Captain Generals Eye is upon thee and will not this perswade to resolutions of bearing and constant patience in bearing for Christ these among other inducements to a Christian fortitude in suffering for Christ may be drawn from the consideration of his Dying a Testator and a larger improvement of them I commend to your private meditations I proceed to what remaineth CAP. V. Sect. 10. Sorrow for unserviceableness to Christ Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator 10. THE tenth Sacramental grace I mentioned as befitting us at the Lords Supper was Sorrow for doing so little for him with grief that we have done so much against him This temper of mind is highly improveable by pondering what Christ hath as a Testator done
for us I know there are many other motives to Repentance which may be seasonably thought on at the Sacrament there are also in this sufficient inducements to that Godly sorrow which becometh the memorials of our Dying Lord and loving Friend 1. First the Christian as he is a man as he is principled and swayed with the affections of Humane Nature cannot but reflect with greif upon his carriages and deportment towards a Friend who loved him intirely who was recompenced with the disingenuous returnes of scorn neglect and hatred When we have unadvisedly or unwittingly sleighted any Friend we dearly loved or should have loved we cannot remember it without shame sorrow confessing praying pardon and excuse with promise to be more heedful more respectful for future There is no love so tender and apt to distil into tears as that which is won by a worthy excellent person conquering ungrounded prejudices unreasonable neglects and unjustifiable contempts such affronted love when it prevails at last doth kindle the strongest fires and heapeth up the coals which melt the hardest and most stubborn metal Many a hard heart hath by such flame been melted down to tenderness Saul grew warm by it 1 Sam. 24.17 18 19. And in the 1 Sam. 26.21 It breaketh out into a flame of affection toward David and against himself for his unreasonable usages toward David Saul accuseth himself but acquitteth David he confesseth his sin his folly and great errour in designing evil against one who did so well deserve his love Though Saul were disingenuous more than enough against his Son David yet the reflection of his thoughts on David's kindness drew him into tears 1 Sam. 24.16 Wilt thou be more disingenuous to thy Lord than Saul to David how long didst thou directly oppose bitterly hate scornfully reproach and unreasonably reason against Christ's Law ordinances waies and followers what kind of life didst thou in the days of unregeneracy live if thou wast not a violent persecutor yet thou didst long think hardly of Christ and the Gospel yet then Christ did not cut thee off nor leave thee to perish in thy contempt of salvation wilt thou not say thou hast erred greatly done foolishly and sinned canst thou do less than weep over the thoughts hereof In the Sacrament thou commemoratest the most unparalleld love and beneficence triumphing over unkindness and unthankfulness a Testator bequeathing grace comfort glory and salvation to thee and others like thee who undervalued opposed hated and persecuted him Canst thou remember this and not grieve canst thou review it and not be displeased with thy self and condemn thy folly 2. The Christian Sorrow is most highly Ingenuous and excellently tempered and therefore the Remembrance of such unkindness to such a Friend will work a deep impression of Sorrow and grief upon the heart of the Remembrancer The Scripture tells us the People of God are a willing People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a People of Ingenuities indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51.12 Grace reneweth nature to some degrees of created and primitive generousness Hence it is Cant. 6.12 the Church is stiled Aminadib God calls them my willing People and Isaiah doth very particularly describe this frame of mind and how it is wrought Isa 32.1 2 3 4. 5. By the power of Christ in the Gospel Now where such a sweet generous temper of mind is there will be reflections of dislike grief and Sorrow or repentance for any unseemly carriage towards one that deserved better The spouse Cant. 5.2 3. In drousy and careless fit neglected her beloved but when she was throughly awakned she discovereth a most deep sense of her neglect she fell into a deep sick fit of love ver 8. her heart failed her when she remembred what she had done such like workings of this Christian spiritual and renewed ingenuity you may observe 2 Cor. 7.11 in that sevenfold operation which conviction and remembrance of their fault wrought in them Carefulness or readiness to amend the errour clearing themselves or duly apologizing for themselves indignation against the offence and offender fear least the like should be committed or this not sufficiently taken away vehement desire of firm reconciliation Zeal for the injured and revenge such as becometh a Gospel repentance against the offence and against themselves for it Either thou art not well acquainted with what Christ hath done for thee in his last Will and Testament or thou hast not yet observed how little love service and honour thou hast returned him for his love or if thou knowest and observest both these they work in thee a readiness of mind to correct thine errours a defence for Christ and blame of thy self with indignation against thy former folly fear of being so foolish any more earnest desire to be one with Christ and Zeal for his glory with revenge on thy sins which eclipsed it Wheresoever Christian ingenuity springs from a renewed heart renewed Sorrow for unkindnesses will put forth it self and spring from that ingenuity Say then whatever the common ingenuity of a man whatever the enhanced generousness of a Christian should work in the reflections on its own unhansome carriages towards a sleighted friend all that should the renewed memory of my Lord Dying a Testator and by his Testament enriching me produce in me viz. all common and ordinary effects of hearty sorrow yea all especial and extraordinary effects of Christian repentance Of which I need say no more of which I dare not longer treat because I must not exceed bounds to much CAP. V. Sect. 11. Better'd obedience the Fruit of Christ's Dying a Testator 11. THE next grace suiting to the Lord's Supper and improveable on the consideration of Christ's Death as he died a Testator is Resolution and endeavour of New and better Obedience for future There 's no man that accounteth the ordinance a mercy that looketh on it as a Sealing ordinance a renewing our Covenant with God or a memorial of the Death of Christ Dying for us that we might live to him but confesseth New Obedience should be the effect and resolutions for new Obedience should be the preparatory for this Sacrament It is not therefore needful to prove it particularly and at large I speak to none but such as judge it their duty after they have been at the Lord's Supper to endeavour a renewing of their Obedience to the commands of Christ 1. The gain and reward bequeathed is worthy very well deserveth our Obedience We have had frequent occasion to tell you that the promises both of the life that now is and of that which is to come are the Legacies of Christ which promises are rich and precious they contain all necessary noble and high encouragements to Obedience when the labourers were hired and sent into the vineyard the husbandman perswadeth them to obey and work for saith he I will give you what is meet Matth. 20.4 What the Apostle saith
he will farther proceed These being but the beginnings of sorrows are a part of the Curse issuing from the Law and inflicted by one who hath power to fence his Law by them Thus Christ exposed himself to the sad consequences of our imputed guilt and being pleased to interrpose himself between us and the praevious penalties of our sin was made a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs whilst he did bear our griefs and carry our sorrows Isa 53.3 4. The oppression and injustice he did meet with from the world was a fruit of that Curse he was made for us These things did he suffer in life whose love to us brought him to bear the Curse 3. Thirdly Christ made a Curse for us compriseth the exquisite pains and open shame of his Death for our sin It is death which is most legibly the execution of the Curse of the Law on sinners and as then they find themselves accursed indeed when their own guilt hath in death overtaken them so he that made himself a Curse for them found in his death on the Cross the weight of that Curse which he did bear for sinners Therefore do I suppose it was by Divine Providence ordered that the kind of death Christ did undergo should be in the sentence of the Law an accursed death that we might more clearly discern the import of it and see as our deliverance by it so our danger without this death of Christ He was cut off from the land of the living Isa 53.8 And when this was effected it appeared that for the transgression of his people this stroke was upon him as that verse hath it Though the impenitent sinner be alwaies under the smaller measures of a Curse yet when he dieth Solomon observeth he dieth accursed The sufferings our Lord Jesus Christ underwent in his life were likewise the scattering drops But the black and violent showre of our deserved Curse was poured down on him at his Death Fourthly and lastly Christ made a Curse and in death bearing it was to suffer under the strokes of vindictive Justice pleading the cause and vindicating the honour of the Law and Law-giver which by the transgressions of sinners had been contemned and violated This as hath been observed already is one ingredient in the Curse and herein do chastlsements greatly differ from punishments strictly taken for in chastisements there is no vindictive justice avenging the quarrel in order to satisfie Divine Justice to attone the wrath of God it is all in order to the humbling melting purifying us that we may seek and obtain mercy But now when vindictive punishments strictly taken are executed it is in order to the cutting off and destruction of the obdurate sinners they as enemies lying under the wrath of God and his curse which is most evident in the execution of the last unchangeable sentence of Condemnation past upon the impenitent unbelieving and self-destroying world at the day of God's dreadful Judgment Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 You do not I hope doubt whether it be the veâ—geance of an angry God which the damned in Hell suffer and there is as little ground of doubt whether they suffer this vengeance in Hell to satisfie the Divine Justice neither is it to be doubted but all they suffer is comprised in that Curse pronounced Depart from me cursed Now then answerable to what hath been said as the condemned under their own deserved Curse suffer in order to satisfie Divine vindictive Justice for their own offences so Christ made a Curse and bearing the Curse for us did bear it in order to make satisfaction for us that we might obtain deliverance and that avenging wrath might not fall on our heads since that we are no more under the Curse deserved by us but under the Blessing procured for us by Christ He trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath alone his stripes were so smart and grievous that by them we might be healed Isa 53.5 God did not spare him when he gave him up for us Rom. 8. Let this then suffice for these particulars In summe To be made or bear the Curse is to stand charged with guilt to be threatned with punishment to be cut off by the execution of that punishment to the end Justice may be satisfied on the person who is made a Curse So that you may now see what it was that Christ was made for us and what he underwent for our sakes He took upon him our sins in the guilt of them exposed himself to the dreadful threats of a severe but most righteous Law and whereas sin inevitably must be punished he submitted himself to that also and in love to us saved us from ours by his own punishment wherein he satisfied Divine Justice and averted that Curse which inevitably would have fallen on us from the wrath of God provoked against us by our sins by this 't is clear Into this capacity he put himself the Law found him and under this capacity process went out against him and he died for us to redeem us from the Curse and to invest us with the Blessing I pass now to the second thing proposed viz. To the confirmation and proof of this 2d General proposed That Christ did die thus for us a curse was both threatned and executed upon him 2 Cor. 5. ult He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us There is an elegancy in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He made him sin The Apostle doth not say he made him a sinner but he made him sin that it might the more evidently appear how he did bear what was threatned against sin the Curse coming on us as an effect or consequent of sin He who was made sin for us exposeth himself to that sad effect and taketh on him the Curse due to us and being found so charged must die to remove the Curse from us This Text of the Apostle in effect then saith That Christ had our sins imputed to him bore the Curse of them and that for our good viz. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him That we might be accounted and treated as righteous ones which in effect is the same with what we have already said That Christ was made a Curse and so died for us that we might with righteous ones live and possess the blessing It is not to be doubted that Christ made sin for us was thereby made a Curse for us and therefore died bearing that effect of our sin vindicating the honour of the Law which we had transgressed and satisfying the Law-giver whom we had provoked In a word Christ made sin for us underwent the Curse our sin deserved and the Law threatned that in our stead he might satisfie Justice and that mercy might give the blessing which we needed and the Gospel promiseth or in the Apostle's own words that the blessing of
which lyeth a Curse indeed Now this duly considered will promote the increase of our graces The Communicant who can meditate on Christ dying a Curse for us may thereby excite his graces and exercise them to an improvement of them such meditations will be as lesser streams to a River which they greaten whilst they run in the same chanel A brief specimen of this will satisfie I hope and set the soul on work wherein for his help I shall shew him an Essay in a rude draught of this in eight following particular Graces which well become a Communicant 1. Humility and Self-abasement is unquestionably a Sacramental grace 1. Sacramental grace improved a grace we should Bring to exercise at and improve by the Sacrament of our Lord dying for us And the consideration of his death represented under the circumstances of a Curse is a very suitable and a likely means to effect this For it doth represent to our thoughts not only the sufferings of our dearest Lord and friend but convinceth us that it was our sin which procur'd this to him and that we must have been miserable for ever if he had not thus died Thus our sin and misery is set before us and these will humble a soul these will bow the generous courage and stoutness of the noblest and highest mind Misery alone cannot break the courage of a virtuous and innocent mind Nil conscire sibi c. A soul clear and approv'd to its self is an impregnable fortress And the spirit of a man will bear these infirmities Indeed a base and degenerous mind breaks into shivers under a load of crosses But the soul under sorrows or in danger of deserv'd misery reflecting on its own guilt and looking through the vileness of sin on the greatness of its sorrows is the more humble because more refined and excellent in it's temper principles and aims True lowliness of spirit or humility that is genuine may possibly first gush out in a tear from pain But it 's constant running is in tears for sin Misery may broach the vessel but it is sin that keeps it running Misery may make the best despised in others eyes sin makes him despised in his own Men will tread on a distressed fortune but the humble soul will tread on its sinful self And now serious Reader cast thine eye upon Christ made a Curse and suppose for thy self and then tell me what is first reflected on is not thy misery the title page of that great Volume of sorrows which Christ did bear for thee when he was made a Curse and underwent it in thy stead wa st not thou in danger of that Curse didst thou not dwell on the borders of an eternal infinite misery and wast thou not every moment in danger to be haled and thrust headlong into a prison of wofullest darkness and unspeakable sorrows Did not the Curse laid on Christ hang over thy head It was thy sin thy misery that Christ lay under and this will humble thee if thou hast any spark of spititual ingenuity if there dwell any generous dispositions within thy breast 1. For what is it to be cursed but to lye under the transgression of a righteous Law and what will abase an ingenuous spirit if the baseness of sin will not Humility is the judgement or opinion of its little worth arising from due sense of sin Humility what Thus did Moses instruct Irsael to be humble Deut. 9.7 12 22. 23. 24. shews them how great their sin had been and leaves then to say how little their opinion of themselves ought to be tells them how near they were to utter ruine when nothing but a Moses and his prayer was between them and the execution of that word Deut. 9.6 14. I will blot out their name from under Heaven Let thy soul renew the memory of thy sin when thou renewest thy thoughts of Christ's dying a Curse Remember thy sins and do as they Ezek. 20.43 Gen. 41.9 Loath thy self for all thy sins The remembrance of a fault made a Courtier blush In a Sacrament thou seest Christ dying an accursed death in his Curse thou dost or shouldest see thy own sin and with Ezra in another case Ezra 9.6 Thou shouldest be ashamed and blush to look up to Heaven For 2. Thou most righteous and just hast condemned me and judged what my fault is how great how vile it is in the Curse my Saviour did bear for me It was not a rash hasty and inconsiderate passion of a man that cursed the sinner but it was the just deliberate sentence of a wise and holy God who never curseth one that deserves to be blessed who never curseth before the creature hath sinned and deserved it How inquisitive is a good disposition if he be cursed as David by a Shimei 2 Kings 2.23 or as the Prophet reproached by the Boyes of Bethel or by a contemptible beggar How ready are best natures to enquire into the cause Have I given an occasion to this reproach Have I deserved it And how is he abashed and ashamed that any reason is pretended for unreasonable railing Now much more abashed is the ingenuous spirit when a sober man when a judicious observer of his own words as well as of other mens carriages shall condemn and adjudge him worthy of a Curse But here it is the Lord who adjudged thee to a Curse and canst thou remember this and not be humble and not reflect upon thy sin which provoked so just a Wisdom and such deliberate Justice to execrate thee David was humble when Shimei cursed because it might be God had said to him Curse David When thou receivest the Sacrament thou remembrest Christ whom God made a Curse for thee there God tells thee Thou hadst been forever cursed if Christ had non been once cursed There thou mayest see a holy wise just and infinitely excellent person displeased with thee and provoked against thee and surely such a sight will I am certain it should make thee abhor thy self and be humble 3. Farther thou hadst a fair and open tryal of thy Cause and it now stands in the greatest Court of Record in the world It is there registred that thou art the son or daughter of a tainted blood a child of an accursed stock In the first Adam God tryed and cast thee and told thee what thou must expect in the second Adam he shewed thee this Record stood firm the sentence unrepealed and if the blood of Christ dying and bearing the Curse for thee had not washt out the stain thou hadst remained still under a curse and stain It is accounted a glory in an Antient Family that the blood is not stained with any treasonable practices against the Soveriagn and it is a disparagement and diminution of their glory and greatness that the blood is embased by disloyal designs and attempts When thou receivest the Sacrament and seest Christ dying an accursed death
remember this Thou art minded of thy stained blood and of the recorded atteindure that God brought in against thee Here thou seest what judicial process should have been made against thy self see it and be humble 4. And thou mayest do well to remember what proof and evidences were against thee too ere God adjudged thee to this Curse which thy Saviour underwent for thee the notoriousness of the fact the self-silencing conviction of Conscience thy Father against thy Mother Adam against Eve thy own family evidence against thee in this matter Thou canst find no pretence of an exception to the witness Here thou mayest reflect upon thy own adjudged baseness and be proud if thou canst when thou hast reflected on thy self Whoever thou art who rightly perceivest the mystery of this Ordinance and dost rightly receive it thou art evidence for God against thy self and confessest the matter that thou deservedst to die for thy sins in that very capacity and notion that Christ died for them If he died an execrated cursed death for thee The Sacrament is a memorial of thankfulness to God and to Christ for sparing thee and letting thee escape whilest the blessed Son of God died in thy room Consider this and be humble 5. Consider lastly How humble thy heart and hand ought to be when thou receivest Christ in the Sacrament since from him alone thou receivest deliverance from a Curse None would none indeed could deliver thee but Christ Thou couldst not send for another Physician to heal thy distemper Here thou couldest not as in a Market seek a better bargain No He alone who was made a Curse for thee was able to deliver thee he was over all God blessed for ever able to restore accursed creatures to blessedness and to invest them with happiness Be then as ingenuous toward Christ thy only hope as thou wouldest be toward a Patron a Benefactor a Lord on whom thou dost solely and intirely depend Thou wouldest humbly observe and with due reverence receive his Commands and abhor a seeming proud lofty or insolent behaviour towards him I entreat for as much from thee towards Christ as thou dost give to a man without intreaty At a Sacrament reflect on these things say with thy self here is the renewed memorial of Christ dying a Curse and this renewed remembrance convinceth me that I was a vile wretch else my God had never cursed me I had never been attainted arraigned condemned and recorded among those that were not worthy to live in a holy and happy Common-wealth and Court I had never recovered my former state of bliss if the Lord had not put himself in my stead and bore my punishment My life hope and glory are all the fruit of another's death and shame I must be lowly who was redeemed from so low and cursed state By this thou mayest discern what influence is in the Death of Christ considered as a Curse and how it may be drawn out to abase and humble thy soul before thy God And let this suffice for an Essay or Pattern Go thou and meditate on what thou canst see farther in this thing and be humble all thy days In the second place Take an Essay in another Sacramental Grace Let it be supposed to be Strong and servent Desire to be partaker of that deliverance which Christ wrought by dying a Curse for us A good and hungring appetite is not more necessary at thy friend's table when thou art invited to feast with him than this strong Desire is needful and required for the Lord's Table Our blessed Redeemer invites the hungry and bids the heartiest welcome to the hungriest comers his language is My friends you are welcome and let me see you come as to one that you know does bid you welcome by your free eating and drinking I may think you either know not how excellent the provision is or you like it not or you are full of somewhat else or you doubt your welcome if you sit as if you came to feed your eye but not to satisfie your souls If the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ be the Supper of the Lord if it be a feast if it be stored with choicest variety of spiritual and heavenly rarities if it be the Gospel Mannah why are your longing desires so weak so unconstant so uneasily taken off Surely you and I should be better stomach'd for this feast Christ hath prepared his body to be your food and you must prepare your desires and awaken your hungrings after him The best wine is drawn out for this feast and it's pity it should not have a thirsty soul whose thirst can relish its worth He knows nothing of this Ordinance who knows not it is a spiritual feast to be attended with a spiritual appetite and therefore I proceed to give you a specimen of that which is in this Dying of our Lord to whet the appetite of the soul and so let the first Consideration for example be this first In this kind of Death the soul sees both that which will awaken and add vigour to its aversation of sin or evil and what will awaken and strengthen its inclination and prosecution after deliverance from that evil In the Curse thou seest what an evil sin is and thou must bear it or desire Christ that he would if thou desirest not that he may really bear the Curse for thee as in the Lord's Supper he Sacramentally doth it will be interpreted that thou desirest all that evil should light on thee which thy sin deserveth and canst thou desire to be cursed canst thou desire to de damned canst thou see misery like a black storm hang over thy head and not fly to shelter See then in a Sacrament Christ tendered to bear thy Curse thy misery and ask thy self whether it be not desirable ask thy self shall I desire this or no shall I wish and intreat and be willing to be freed from so great evil or no In the Sacrament the Lord tells the discerning soul Here take my Son and if thou desirest it he shall bear thy deserved Curse and thou shalt inherit an undeserved blessing go think on it and tell me what thou wilt do whether thou wilt desire and be willing or no And now judge what is like to be the Answer of the soul will it not be This O let the Blessing be mine and let my loving Saviour thus deliver me thus bless me also oh my Father and it shall suffice 2. And as the proper Incentives of desâ—â—â— are contained in the things themselves offered so the very language notion and frame of words do awaken the soul to exert its desires A misery to be avoided by this means will perswade the soul to a willingness to apply the means But surely a misery expressed by a Curse by an Execration will hasten the soul's desire to escape it In some cases a man may commendably desire and chuse affliction but in no case can a man
come to it without true Faith and we must not go from it without an increase to our Faith We must lay hold on Christ that we may come and we must come that we may lay faster hold on Christ Now the consideration of Christ dying as a Curse for us will notably confirm us in our resolutions to adhere and cleave fast to Christ For now The considerate serious meditating Communicant may hence reflect upon the choice which he hath made the gift he hath received the condition he is now in by believing and so approve the choice keep fast the gift settle himself in that condition and farther secure that state to himself by strong resolutions of Faith and adhering to Christ who by this death delivers us from that cursed death we deserved and so you may suppose the soul to argue with it self 1. I do this day commemorate the death of my Lord which died under a Curse for me and if I do not now believe or if I ever should by unbelief cast off my Lord I must bear my own deserved Curse I have then good grounds I have best reason to warrant my first believing and going to Christ I have as good reason to continue my purposes and confirm my resolution of believing still It is not possible I should have any reason to repent my first choice of Christ my first fiducial adhering to Christ by that I was delivered from a Curse and this deliverance is freshly remembred in the Sacrament and the reasonable well advised and prudent choice of my soul is presented to me and now my soul thou mayest say this was the wisest most justifiable and rational compact thou ever didst make And I assure thee until thou see a reason why thou shouldest be in love with and dote upon a Curse thou canst not be out of love with or weary of thy adhering to Christ The more thou seest the wisdom and prudence of this Act the more thou wilt like it and the more resolute and constant thou wilt be in it and now the oftener thou considerest at the Sacrament the lively pourtraiture of thy deliverance from a Curse by Christ received and adhered to by Faith the oftener wilt thou renew thy purposes and resolutions to adhere to him the oftener wilt thou look and take heed of that which may weaken thy adherence or withdraw thee from Christ and such renewed carefulness and heed will much improve thy Faith Renewed purposes to believe are renewed strength in believing 2. Secondly The considering soul will see in this review of Christ dying a Curse The benefit profit and gain of Faith chusing and adhering unto Christ It will see it self repaired and made whole after the greatest and sorest dammage sin which brought the Curse upon the soul did the soul greatest injury and dammage it made a shipwrack of all its excellencies and treasure Sinful and accursed man is the poorest forlorn and undone wretch in the world a very bankrupt But now application unto Christ with a purpose to adhere unto him and chuse him for ever this sets the man free from the Curse it sets him up again it puts a new stock into his hand it enricheth him with the fulness of a Blessing For if Christ bear thy Curse thou shalt wear his Crown if he take upon him thy guilt and sin and wretchedness he will take thy believing soul into his blessedness if he suffer thy deserved punishment thou shalt inherit his glorious purchase and what unspeakable profit is this how good and enriching a bargain is this and all this doth the believing soul receive and gain by Christ dying a Curse to redeem it from the Curse and to purchase the blessing of Abraham for it and all this becomes the believing souls gain God gives this to every one who chuseth his Son By his Poverty we are made Rich and by his Curse we gain the Blessing Now at every Sacrament this Bargain is confirmed and ratified and the soul sees the gain of it and until it can rationally desire to lose such a bargain it cannot but strongly desire to keep to its contract Every remembrance of our riches by Jesus Christ is or ought to be a confirmation of our choice of him Renewed views of our gain will be renewed purposes to hold fast our bargain and thus may the soul grow strong in its adhering and cleaving fast to Christ 3. The considering soul doth view its own security and sweetest peace in the Death of Christ thus dying a Curse for it At the remembrance of its Lord's Death in a Sacrament it calls to mind that peace which is made for it through the blood of the Cross The soul saith if Christ hath born my Curse I shall not bear it If I have chosen him if I keep to this my choice if I first believe and persevere in believing I shall still have this peace in believing viz. that I am delivered from the misery of an accursed state Before thou didst believe thou didst or mightest have heard the sad ecchos of a Curse alarming and frighting thee if thou hadst not desired chosen and believed in Christ dying thou hadst never heard one word of peace and if after thy first choice and faith thou repent relapse and forgo Christ through unbelief thy danger sin and trouble will return upon thee thy last state will be thy worst state think therefore what is best for thee whether to go on to believe or to go back through unbelief Art thou surfeited with thy peace art thou weary of thy rest is trouble under the misery of a Curse more desirable than peace under the felicity of such a blessing I know the meditating soul which can discern this will never think of deserting its choice of Christ until it can think of parting with peace for trouble with joy for sorrow with blessedness for misery I know the more it perceives and finds its peace in believing the more serious and resolute will it be to believe that it may have and keep its peace Renewed meditations on this Death of Christ will be renewed peace to a believer and renewed peace will be renewed purposes of believing Fourthly and lastly The considering believing soul is able to discern this ignominious cursed Death of Christ to be the fountain of true honour and real excellency The soul is delivered from a state of baseness and dishonour by this Death of Christ A cursed condition is base and dishonourable as well as miserable and unhappy The dregs of the people were by the Jews called the people that are cursed Cam cursed by Noah is devoted to servitude to a base condition And Esau's loss of the Blessing was the bringing of servitude and baseness on him But now if Christ dying a Curse were abased for me may the believing soul say I shall be exalted to honour and my first act of believing was my first step to honour and my continuing to believe will be the
continuing of me in my free noble and honourable condition If I depart from Christ through unbelief I shall go from honour to dishonour from excellency to baseness from the noble state of a Son to the ignoblestate of a servant of a slave And I know the considerate soul will not easily return to the baseness and ignominy of such a state No! no! Faith in my dying Lord did set me free from such baseness and advanced me to the dignity I now enjoy and my persevering confirmed faith will and must preserve and confirm me in that dignity This prerogative my Dying Lord purchased for me whenever I would believe this prerogative he gave me so soon as ever I did believe and there is none can take it from me so long as I do believe oh let me believe for ever that I may have it for ever I would never lose this honour I will never leave my Lord. Whilst thou art able to make the best of this Death of thy Lord commemorated in the Sacrament and presented to thy faith which is done on purpose that thou mayest make the best of it thou canst resolve or conclude nothing less than that thou wilt adhere now faster than ever In this manner may the Humiliation the Desires the Purposes of the Soul be wrought drawn forth and confirmed upon the consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us The sight of our cursed state will lay us low and convince us the sight of a deliverance by Christ will make us desire that deliverance may be ours and then knowledge of its being ours upon first believing and that it shall be ours so long as we believe will perswade us to look that our faith continue lest unbelief should reduce us into the misery of a Curse whence we almost escaped And let it be next observed 4. That Love to God and unto Christ 4th Sacramental grace Love to God and Christ is another Sacramental grace which I am sure will be well improved by a due consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us I do verily suppose it needless to attempt the proving of this every one knows that Love to Christ is a necessary and suitable grace for a Communicant God requires that every one of his servants should love him and serve him with all the heart in every duty much more in this which is a more solemn and more than ordinary one If thou wilt come to the Table of the Lord thou must come with love to the Lord of the Table thou must not come with enmity in thy heart nor with a sword in thy hand They are friends who are invited to eat and drink with Christ at his Table and it is a monstrous incongruity to sit down as though you would friendly feast Cant. 5.1 and yet watch a season to muther the guests or him that invites you God will not have an Absolon ' s feast in which one of the guests was murthered nor will he have a feast like the unhappy Phocus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose guests slew him It is the express will of our Lord that we come to his Table in love and charity with our Brethren and in love and with sincere affections to our Lord. We must here feast without the sowre leven of malice against our Brethren and without the swelling leven of hypocrisie toward God Now let me a little point out what inducements are in this Death of Christ to draw forth our love to our Lord and so let it be considered 1. Did my Lord die an accursed Death for me do I now celebrate the memorial hereof Would he have done this if he had not loved me as his own life It was a love that is ever to be blessed by me which made my Lord take on him a Curse for me Greater love than this could not be shewn to me and less than love to him for it cannot not be tendred by me Is Love the loadstone of Love and doth not thy heart stir toward Christ when he draws it with this attractive When he calls Look upon my Living Love in my cursed Death and give me what you judge a reasonable acknowledgment for my Love and when the considerate soul looks on this it is ready with David to say What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness What shall I render to God the Father who laid my Guilt Punishment and Curse on my Blessed Redeemer What shall I render to the Lord Jesus Christ unto God the Son who took this heavy load upon him What shall I render to God the Holy Ghost who supported the humane nature of my Blessed Redeemer that he should not fail nor be discouraged in this great work under this weighty burthen Oh Blessed Love of the Glorious Trinity worthy of an infinite Love though a finite creature is not able to give it Lord my Love shall be endless though it cannot be boundless though it is narrow it shall not be short I will make up its defect of intenseness with an addition of endless date let thy Love to me which caused thee to die once for me an accursed Death be a spring and source of Love in my soul to thee of such a Love as shall never die Lord thou deservest more than I can give but I would not be unwilling to give as much as thou deservest It was matchless Love that the Prince of Life would die for condemned subjects But 't is methinks more that the Lord of glory over all God Blessed for evermore should take upon him Death with a Curse 2. Do I celebrate the Death of my Lord dying a Curse for me why then oh my soul thou dost this day in this duty call to mind Christ's taking on him all faults and bearing all thy blame being content that thy faults should be accounted to him and that if there be as certainly there wlil be anger for it he will bear it Oh what endeared Love do servants in a family bear to that Son who is willing to excuse the servants fauls and to bear their blame to make up their peace and to continue them in or restore them to their offices again Reader whoever thou art that readest these lines it is thy case Thou oâ—est unto Christ the Eternal Son of God all thy innocence all thy safety all thy peace all thy continuance in the family of God unto Christ I say thou owest it for thou hadst sinned and provoked God thy Master and Lord he had cursed thee and would have damned thee he had declared thine office in his house void and would have turned thee out and then thou must have said with the unjust Steward what shall I do when God thus deals with me how shall I live Dig I cannot beg I am ashamed I shall be accursed on Earth and accursed iâ— Hell for ever oh thus had it been with me if my Lord Jesus had not stept in and took my faults upon him Blessed
be that Love which hath so loved me Let him carry away all my affection who thus hath carried all my transgressions He shall have my love whilst I live by whose love it is that I live Oh let my love at the Sacrament revive where there is the revived memory of my Lord his love to me None but those foolish and mad creatures who are in love with their faults and with their misery will withhold their love from Christ who delivered us from both 3. Did Christ die such a death in thy stead let this then awaken thee to consider how thou wouldst resent another mans suffering for thee and speak what interess thy friend should purchase in thy affections by his undergoing afflictions for thee Wouldst thou love thy rich friend that took thy debts on him wouldst thou do less than dearly love thy skilful friend that cured thee of thy disease thy powerful friend at Court who rescued thee from a prison thy watchful friend who kept strict and careful watch lest thou shouldst be surprised and ruin'd whilst thou wert sleeping secure in greatest danger and in greatest ignorance and security But what wouldst thou say if thy friend should deliver thee from thine by making it his own disease or should go into a prison that thou mightest go out of it or expose himself to ruine that thou mightest be indemnified Just so did Christ for thee he did bear thy disease and took thy sickness upon him he became a prisoner first to unjust hands seizing on him and then to the grave which could not hold him yet a while he was a prisoner there for thy sake in thy stead and what acknowledgment wilt thou make of all this How wilt thou certifie the Christian world that thou dost well resent what Christ hath done if thou wilt not love him for doing it Thou lovest those that speak well of thee that bless thee that wish well to thee and endeavour to do thee good and what law reason or equity wilt thou pretend why thou dost not love Christ who speaks best of thee to his Father and who wished best to thee and hath done most for thee and all this by his dying a Curse for thee Let thy own heart ponder this and draw to a conclusion what ought to be done in this case say Had any man whom I know done this for me which Christ hath done I could not but love him and why do I not love Christ if I did see my friend loaded with curses and reproaches and bearing them patiently for me that I might not be reproached that I might not be cursed it would endear such a friend to me why now in the Sacrament the visible memorial of Christ's dying a Curse for me I do see such a friend so loaded for my sake that I might not be loaded with my deserved Curse I may not I will not be less to him than I would be to another I will love him more than any else for he hath done more for me than all could and I see it in the Sacrament the blessed memorial of his cursed Death Fourthly and lastly Is the Sacrament of the bloody Death of Christ a memorial of his dying an accursed death for me oh then I see the evidence of a love to me which surpasseth the love of best friends which indeed exceeds the thoughts and belief of most considerate men For who will believe beside a Christian who is taught by the revealed word of the God of truth that Christ would become a Curse for us Some men will hardly believe that the Apostle spake his very thoughts when he wished that he himself were accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen after the flesh Some judge it so inconsistent with reason that they think the Apostle could not soberly sedately and rationally desire it but that he did use the liberty and freedom of an Orator to commend his greatest affection to his kindred by a greater expression But behold Reader Paul's wish for his kindred is Christ's own act for his what Paul wisht but could not do for his brethren Christ hath undertook and undergone for his brethren What some do think was too great for a rational and sober desire in the one hath been found not too great for the choice and performance of the other Now let Christ have but a serious view of this he hath done for thee and answer thy self this or such like questions Is that too little to engage my love which was too great for any to undertake but Christ Do I see Christ doing that which few men will believe a man could wish he mght do and do I still withhold my heart my affection from Christ Do I know that his love was stronger than death he was content to be accursed for the sake good life and salvation of Believers I see him for a while separated from God that he might bring me to God and now he shall have that love which is too great for any one since he hath done what is so great for me In the fifth place 5. Joy in believing a Sacramental grace The Believer's Joy is or at least might be considerably improved in the commemoration of Christ dying as a Curse for us It is not to be questioned whether joy and rejoycing through faith in the Lord be seasonable in our feasting with the Lord. Joy is the souls rest with delight in the Lord and such a disposition of mind doth the Lord require and accept at this seast Now let us observe how that his dying a Curse for us may increase our joy and this may appear 1. From the Nature of Joy which is the triumph of the mind in its freedom and deliverance from its fears or in its attaining and possessing of its hopes It is a rational security of our best hopes and a due removal of our worst fears singing a rest and happiness to the soul Joy is the rapture of our soul hearing and observing desired events sweetly keeping tune with our desires and hopes It is the Tripudium Animae the soul's dance to the Musick which the God of Heaven makes for it If there be any exstasies of joy it can be from no other harmony than which is heard not from Pythagoras his melodious spheres but from the Cross of our Blessed Lord seting Heaven and Earth in a blessed concent by his accursed Death The Philosopher will tell us Dilatatio cordis ob bonum praesens that Joy is the dilatation of the soul the enlarging of the heart to entertain a present desired good Good wished for is the Sun the heart is the Heliotrope the flower of the Sun Joy is the opening and turning of this flower towards the Sun This or somewhat like this is Joy Now in what can the soul triumph if not in its freedom from a dreadful Curse What may possibly be imagined will secure the rational hopes and wishes of a Christian better than Christ's
live on them muddy and shallow scarce worth the tasting and which is worse yet they prove bitterer than gall and wormwood and of shorter continuance than a morning dew But our Joy in blessed peace with God in sweet hopes of glory in sure foundations of faith in endless happiness to crown our faith to satisfie our hopes and to be the manner of enjoying our God which are the pleasant fruits of Christ thus dying do increase upon us as our insight into them increaseth and are purest when nearest are deepest in the spring or rather ocean of true Delight and Joy are sweetest when most lived upon and are most lasting when we enter at last into them The Joys of others are never so great as their hopes nor so lasting as their desires But the Joy of a Believer in his Dying Lord is at last greater than his hopes and as long liv'd as his desires And in this he may exalt his Joy above the greatest that ever the world boasted of If ever mortal man satiated and glutted himself with worldly Joy it was with a sudden gush which left him so soon that he had the more time to lament himself and wofully wrack himself with the loss of it I believe Caesar never met his expected content and joy in obtaining Rome's Empire I know it lasted not with him so long as he desired in one or both of these it proved less to him when he knew most of it This made a good Emperour once say That if men knew what thorns and cares a Crown was lined with they would not take it up if they found it in the street Now oh blessed soul whose Joy lives upon the Death of thy Lord tell me did ever any experienced knowing and expert Christian abase the worth of those Joys with such a report of them Can thy own jealous fears suggest a rational probable likely ground of suspicion that these Joys are greater in hope than they will be in hand dost thou think that there is any disappointment in Heaven Are there any complaints that less is possessed than was looked for Hast thou ever had any cause to wish thou hadst known less of Christ and his Death or couldst thou ever say that the Joy had been greater if thy knowledge and experience had been less I know thou darest not say so nor debase the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus thy Lord. Turn therefore thy serious thoughts upon this meditate more that thou mayest know more for the more thou knowest of this the more wilt thou rejoice in Christ Thus renew thy Meditations on the Cause of thy Joys and they will renew thy Joys Others will see and thou wilt find in thy own soul that the more thy Cause of Joy aboundeth the more thy Joy will abound Now that Christ hath thus died thy soul oh happy Believer shall not be left in Hell nor shalt thou see an eternal corruption This is ensured to thee by the Lord whose Death thou commemoratest Say then and speak it with enlarged heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoiceth moreover my flesh shall rest in hope for God will not leave my soul in hell And now oh my soul set thy self to hear what may be spoken to thee By these who will have to do with thee in thy most weighty matters And so 1. First what would a judicious and affectionate Believer say What news would such a one tell thee from Mount Calvary from the Cross of Christ Suppose thou heardest such an one improving this Doctrine why should I fear when the iniquity of my heels compasseth me about hath not my Lord taken away all the Curse I feared Do I not see him evidently set forth crucified before mine eyes he drank off the bitter cup of astonishment I will therefore take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will rejoice in him yea and I will tell my Brethren the good news that they may rejoice with me Come all ye that fear the Lord hear and rejoice for I have found at the Cross of Christ the blessing which I lost in Paradise and which is more I found yours there too and if you will go with me quickly you shall find it too Come oh come and see Christ laying down a Blessing for thee when he took up thy Curse would not such a friend's voice sounding in thine ear ravish thy heart or at lest revive thy drooping spirits and turn thy grief into joy Could'st thou do less than smile to see thy lost Heaven found thy dying Soul recovered to life thy God reconciled and delighting in thee Hear next 2. What language the Embassadour of thy Soveraign and Gracious Lord useth to thee when he offereth a Dying Christ unto thee a Christ bearing thy Curse for thee Behold thou drooping Believer That Blood which I offer thee in this Cup is the purchase of that happiness which thou desirest the atonement of that wrath thou fearest Lo here is that Blood which can abate the scorching heat of a self-accusing condemning and tormenting soul Oh taste drink of it this never failed of curing easing comforting so many Saints in Heaven In one word Christ's Minister doth in Christ's Name offer thee that Blood which was shed for the remission of the sins of many and in which thou mayest find forgiveness of thine also and thou findest little if thou findest not Joy in the forgiveness of sins Thou art very slow of understanding if a Publick Officer proclaiming thee acquitted and cleared doth not raise thy joy But yet oh fainting soul hearken Lastly What will be the language of Christ himself to thee when he unfolds thy blessedness and declareth before Men and Angels that he took upon him thy sin thy guilt thy punishment was made a Curse for thee and so presents thee to God and makes good all thy claim to Blessedness What heart is large enough to conceive the thousandth par of that Joy Oh! a single sight of this one unrepeated once pronounced sentence of Christ's own mouth Soul thou art blessed for I was made a Curse for thee would swallow up all other Joys and would fill the heart of the believing soul with Joy unspeakable Now I must tell thee oh thou doubting sollicitous and trembling Believer that Christ will so bespeak thee ere long and so give thee an entrance into thy Master's Joy that thou mayest rejoice for ever in this Blessedness which I tell thee is the fruit of Christ's Death as it was an accursed Death And if after all this thou wilt weep and not be comforted I must also tell thee thy tears are not wiped away because thou wilt not suffer us to do it thou art a stranger to thy desired joy because thou art so much a stranger to the Death of thy Lord. Oh that our eys were opened to see that fountain whence most refreshing streams do flow continually
Lord give me a heart knowing how to turn this kind of my Lord's Death into what Joy is hidden in it and I know my heart will need no other will desire none but this Again in the sixth place A peaceable 6th Sacramental grace peaceable disposition to the Brethren compassionate and tender affection toward our Brethren our fellow Christians is a Sacramental Grace a disposition of mind which is never out of season and is most in season at a Sacrament Christians should ever live in charity but they should feast with their Lord and with their Brethren in highest measures of charity When they thus feast they should embrace each other when they walk together it should be hand in hand This Love-feast must not be allayed with any mixture of sowre murmurings bitter envyings or unsavoury grudges of discontent The Apostle doth give us a most excellent Rule for this 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Purge out the old leaven c. Let us therefore keep the feast not in the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice c. In malice we should ever be children but especially at the Lord's Supper I will not urge reasons why we must be thus affected each to other when we come to the Table of the Lord for it is so universally known by all and it is so necessary among many other graces that too many think this alone sufficient to prepare men for the Lord's Supper It is true who hath all other but hath not this preparatory is unfit Whosoever wants this alone is not fit though this alone will not fit him for the Lord's Table The want of this must keep him back from this Supper until he hath a mind full of sincere and true love to all men especially to all the invited guests of the Lord. Supposing therefore that it is nothing doubted peaceable affections and compassionate tender love or charity to the Brethren is a Sacramental Quality I shal insist a little on the manner how this may be improved and advanced by the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us And so 1. First When thou art at the Lord's Supper and seest a few of thy Christian Brethren there to celebrate the Death of thine and their Lord dying a Curse this in all likelihood will be thy first reasoning upon it If Christ died a Curse for us then were we all under a Curse then were we all plunged in misery all were under the guilt of sin and under the wrath of God and what tongue can tell what this is or what heart can think of it and not be compassionately tender over such poor creatures Can your obdured hardened hearts hear the groans of men tormented with the Strangury or Gout or Stone Can you look upon the miseries of an Hospital without yearning bowels or can you look upon the tortures of one wracked and torn upon a wheel or between wild horses without a wish oh that I might deliver them what kind of hearts do you bear toward persecuted murthered and tormented Christians when you see the pictures of them or read the history of them do not your hearts drop into tender compassions toward them Why now look on Christ dying a Curse he is the lively picture of thine and their woful state it is to be seen in his Death read over the story of Christ accursed it is the story of thy most woful state and of the miserable state of them who are now communicating with thee they were with thee sinful guilty dying creatures which ere long must have been groaning sighing howling under the avenging wrath of the Almighty if Christ had not thus died for thee and them Look upon them say as indeed they were behold what was saved of my shipwrack These were tossed in the same vessel dashed on the same rock taken up helpless and lifeless c. with me Oh I never see them but it comes into my thoughts and my heart my heart weeps over our common danger We do so often renew our compassionate affections toward our companions in dangers as the sight of them renews the thoughts of our danger That which in a different case David said When I remember these things I pour out my soul within me The soul redeemed from the Curse will be able to say when I remember these things compassion and tenderness are poured out The remembrance of a common danger Nihil ad misericordiam sic inclinat atque proprii periculi cogitatio August Misericordia est vicina miseriae Seneca de Clem. is a most prevailing enducement to compassion The Philosopher could tell us That this Pity is a neighbour to misery Whence likely it was that the Lord did enjoyn the Israelites to shew a hearty compassion unto afflicted strangers for They know the heart of a stranger for they were strangers in Aegypt We must compassionately and tenderly love wish well and affect those whose hearts we know for so much as we were in like case Now this is one part of our brotherly love or charity here it begins though it doth not end here This tenderness of heart is like the pith or tender pulp which runneth through the whole body of the tree This indeed is the Root on which the delightful Tree grows and from which the beautiful fruits of love do blossome bud increase and ripen And so often you water the root of Love as you do soften and mollify the temper of your heart which is done when soakt in the thoughts of our common danger I shall close this particular with that piercing Question Matth. 18.33 Shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee How shall we answer this Question if the consideration of our common danger do not stir up in us a love of compassion to others what bowels hast thou if they do not now yearn and move towards them We are apt to pity those whose tormenting diseases and sharp pains we have felt and if ever we felt the inward sorrow and trouble of an accursed state we shall pity such who are under it and with tender affection demean our selves towards those who were under it it will renew our sympathy and this will renew our love to them But Secondly In the remembrance of Christ's dying a Curse for us there is the renewing of a most self-abasing and humbling consideration Now the renewal of this will be a very likely means to improve our love which is a humble self abasing grace So that what increaseth our humility will increase our charity Solomon tells us that onely by pride cometh contention and our own experience proveth the proud man neither sit to be chosen for a loving friend nor to be trusted as one that will be constant in his friendship and love such an one will be ever breaking the laws of friendship of which the Apostle discoursing 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. tells us that it neither vaunteth it self nor is puffed up
those which have equal share and interess with thy self in this peace and wilt thou not judge it comely convenient necessary and what must be done by thee viz. to embrace them with hearty peaceable affections who are embraced by thy God with as hearty affections as thou art or canst be Oh come then make peace with all thy Brethren and forgive them as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven thee And thus I have very briefly drawn out three particular inducements among many other which from Christ dying a Curse for us and all Believers should perswade us and them to live in a Christian brotherly peace which becomes a Sacrament and which should be improved by each Sacrament I now proceed to A seventh Sacramental Grace 7th Sacramental grace a Thankful heart which ought to be exercised at each Sacrament and which may receive some addition from the consideration of Christ's Death as a Curse in our stead Now this grace is a Thankfull acknowledgment of the great mercy we have by Christ's dying a Curse for us It doth exceeding well become us to be thankful and praise the Lord for his mercy to us in Christ dying for us And though praise be ever seasonable yet a Sacrament is the season of seasons for praise then it is most in season though it be never out of season The commonness and universal praenotion of this truth among all Christians saveth me the labour of proving it I need not prove that to any one which is denied by no one let then praise and thanks attend our communion at the Lord's Supper And among other motives unto praise let us view some few arising from the Death of Christ as it was an accursed death for us And so 1. First To this kind of Death of thy Lord thou must be beholden for all the sweetness which thou tastest in thy mercies Thy sin which brought thee under the Curse imbittered every thing to thee also nay that sin which cursed thee forfeited all thy mercies thou hadst no right to them when once thou hadst sinned and thou couldst taste no sweetness in them if thou hadst still lain under the Curse thou hadst no more right to thy estate and life than a condemned man hath to his thou couldest have no more enjoyed them than a pensive condemned person who is kept in prison with a daily allowance to keep them alive unto the day of his near approaching execution every morsel is bitter to him so would it have been to thee Thou mayest read this in the emblem of the sinner's state a naked man cast out of a fruitful garden and left in a place of thorns and briars Such was the consequence of thy sin cast naked out of what thou hadst and turned out among grieving thorns and briars Now would he not deserve thanks who restoreth thee to a title gives thee a new right unto all desirable blessings who shall root up those cursed thorns and plant the Vine and the Olive to yield thee fruit Look then this and more than this done for thee by the Death of thy Lord made a Curse for thee Lo thy title renewed to necessary mercies and mercies renewed unto their sweetness and delightfulness thou a Prodigal received as a Son and the husks thou didst feed on turned into bread in thy Father's house Christ was accursed for thee that every blessing might be sweetened to thee Ever praised be our Physician who hath taken out the most of the poison and hath turned the rest into necessary and seasonable Physick God hath blest thee with every thing in Christ that thou mightest bless and praise that thou mightest be thankful for every thing and ascribe it all to the goodness of God in Christ We owe all to this Death of Christ and how little do we pay when we are thankful Let us not then with-hold this little too In one word read over the latter part of Deut. 28. from v. 15. to the end of the chapter and consider how well he deserves blessing and thanks from thee who hath delivered thee from the bitterness of so many Curses imbittering all thou enjoy'dst Secondly The renewed thoughts of Christ bearing thy Curse will be renewed Thankfulness in renewed security and assurance against the fears and terrours of a self-accusing and condemning heart Thou shalt never bear that Curse which the righteous Law threatned thou needst not fear it if Christ died for thee for he did die a Curse for every one in whose stead he did die and that God who accepted his Death will never go from his word or disown the virtue of his Son's Death nor cast the Curse upon thy soul Oh thou trembling Believer thy fears are the weakness of thy graces or the want of exercising them either thou knowest not what it is to have a Christ a Jesus dying a Curse for thee or else thou dost not enough consider it nor observe how little ground of fear is left Oh! It would be a blessed tranquility of mind to us to feel as little fear within our souls as Christ hath left of Curse behind him in the Law against us Happy soul who believeth that Christ died for him He may look upon the Law and find that there is not in it any Curse against him for Christ made a Curse died to redeem them who were under it There is no doubt to be made of this Truth there cannot be just cause of fear where Christ hath taken away the Curse Which the Law threatned Now there is no condemnation to such nor may any one lay any thing to the charge of these redeemed ones And when this is duly weighed how thankful will it make us How much would a feeble swouning person thank you for a sweet reviving cordial what life would there be in his expressions of kindness for such a courtesie what loving embraces would such a one court his friend with especially if his life had certainly miscarried without this Oh unkindness unthankfulness of us Christians who lay in a swound of death strucken with the thunder-bolt of the Law perishing without recovery hopeless without a Christ accursed for ever unless Christ become a Curse for us and we profess to know all this and to believe it and yet are straitned in our thankfulness to him The a Plutarch in vit Artaxerxes Historian reports that Artaxerxes King of Persia gave one a thousand b The Darick was a coin bearing the image of Darius and the value of each piece was two shillings four pence so the whole sum amounted to one hundred and sixteen pounds six shillings and eight pence beside the Cup of Gold Daricks in a Cup of Gold for a recompence of a little fair water offered him in the palms of the man's hand But what have we given unto Jesus Christ who hath brought us not a little water in his hands but his heart and hands full of love and blood shed for us Oh come magnifie the
or a burning fever or a loathsom leprosy or a sad and solitary blindness But more than this more than all I can speak did Christ deliver us from when he did die a Curse for us Oh unparallel'd love of Christ and oh the unparallel'd ingratitude of Christians Sirs though you and I must leave the greatest the best part of this work of praise to another world yet let us not leave it all let us do somewhat whilst we live and are among men on earth Heaven is full of those praises which did we hear would ravish us Let Earth be witness that we do not quite forget our Lord. Whereas you could have born all the envy anger and malice of creatures and it may be have contemned the weakness of it you could never have stood under nor have made head against the anger and indignation of the Lord nor have fortified your selves with resolutions to lessen the fury by lessening your apprehensions of it The dear children of God in their bitter complaints cry out if an enemy if any but God himself had done it I could have born it And the hopeless unbelievers cry out the same in effect let any thing come let all come upon us rather than the wrath of the Almighty let rocks grind us to powder or mountains bury us for ever under their weight Oh the heaviest of all these are lighter than one stroak of an angry avenging God! All these may be more easily endured than one Curse of the Law See then and consider what thou owest oh my soul to Christ made a Curse for thee remember and be thankful let thy heart oh thou who feastest with thy Lord weigh first the burthensomness of that Curse which justice casteth upon every sin and then weigh the exceeding great love of Christ who did take this Burthen and bear it for thee and I do nothing doubt but as often as thou layest these in the ballance thou wilt still find thy praise thy thankfulness too light thou wilt be still with the Apostle adding Glory and Power to him who loved thee Rev. 1.5 6. and washed thee in his blood And with the great Apostle of the Gentiles Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory Could you and I entertain these things within our breasts and renew our thoughts and meditatations we should more clearly discern that if there be sweetness in our mercies or respite from our fears or absolution and discharge from our guilt or deliverance from accursed sorrows miseries and death we owe it all unto this kind of Death of our Lord beside all the positive blessings of grace and glory of which I may not now speak if the blessing of Abraham on the Gentiles be worth our thanks then our thanks is due to Christ dying thus for he was made a Curse for us that we might be redeemed from under the Curse of the Law and that we might be restored to a blessed state In one word whosoever seeth his own blessedness procured by Christ dying a Curse for him cannot but see so much thanks as blessedness is worth due to Christ and so the reviving of the memory of Christ's Death considered as a Curse will be the reviving of our thankfulness and reviving of thankfulness will be an increasing and improving of thankfulness So much to the seventh Sacramental Grace The eighth and last I shall now mention followeth viz. A disposition and purpose of mind to walk in new Obedience towards God in all manner of conversation 8th Sacramental grace New Obedience such a mind must every welcome guest bring to the Lord's Table No man may come thither who intends to go thence to his old course of sinning We must not as Naturalists report of some venemous creatures which lay down their poison when they go to drink and having drunk suck it up again we must not so lay aside our old sins while we go to the Lord's Supper as to renew our old acquaintance with them nor tender our service to them so soon as we depart from the Table of the Lord Men will not endure such sycophants and parasites who come to their table for a meals meat and to fill their bellies but then sort themselves for months together with the veryest enemies they have in the world No more will God endure him for a guest at his Table who comes for a meal out of a customary formality and then sorts himself with those sins which God hateth and commandeth should be slain This above many others aggravated Judas's treason that he came and ate with his Lord when he had resolved to betray him this is to kiss him with All hail Master when the kiss is the very token by which his enemies should know and apprehend him The Lord Jesus who knoweth what is in man and needeth not that any should testify of man will never let a man who lives and dieth of this temper escape deserved punishment He knows they flattered him with their lips but their hearts are far from him Thou that comest to make a Covenant with thy God at a Sacrament must come with a firm purpose to keep thy Covenant for God will not be mocked Better never come at all than come with a mind hating to be reformed God will ere long ask such hateful hypocrites what they had to do to declare this Statute of his or that they should take his Covenant into their mouths Psal 50.16 c. It is confessed of all sides and would to God it were as well practised on all sides that every Sacrament should engage us to better lives to holier conversations that we should sin the seldomer because we have been so often at the Lord's Table Now I say that the remembrance of the Death of Christ dying for us a Curse hath in it good and strong reasons to move us to renew our obedience and if these reasons be well considered I do not doubt but they may prevail with some to renew their purposes and endeavours of living less to sin because Christ died a Curse for us sinners For 1. First In this manner of his dying beside the powerful influence of his Death considered in the general of which I speak not now I say In his dying thus as a Curse for us we have a clear discovery of the vileness of sin how much it abaseth and depresseth us We look upon cursed things as the vilest and basest of things A curse and a reproach go together Jer. 42.18 This was the thing which brought our Lord into so low estate that he was despised of men this made him of no reputation because of our sin imputed to him and the Curse due to us for our sin laid upon him he became like a servant and so died Now then let a sober judgment be made of this and see how forcibly it disswadeth from continuing in sin Do I renew the remembrance of my Lord dying as a Curse Could sin which he
see then it is self-deceiving flattery to hope for the love and favour of God whilst I love my sin and continue in it if I will have his love and escape his hatred I must leave off sin for he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.6 He hateth the evil way Prov. 8.3 I must either leave the evil way or perish in his hatred For none ever escaped perishing who by continuing to sin provoked his displeasure and wrath against them Resolve therefore as becomes a man O my soul fly and hasten thy flight from wrath to come prevent the misery of being hated and accursed of thy God cast off thy sin cease to do evil and then God will cease to be angry There cannot be any thing in sin to compensate thee to reward thee for the loss of the favour of God Sin can never heal the wounds which the hatred of God will make in thy soul Poor creature thou wert better have all the men on Earth and all the finite invisible powers of light and darkness to hate thee thou mightest bear this than have one God to hate thee thou canst never bear this In fine therefore saith the believing serious and considerate soul I will not hazard I will not run the venture and danger of divine displeasure of the hatred of an Almighty God for I see in the Curse which my Lord lay under what I must lie under for ever if I will by continuing longer in sin own my former sins pull the punishment of them upon my self and love that which my God so perfectly hateth I will every day labour to hate that with perfect hatred which my God hateth I will seek his love by a present separation and divorce from sin I will this day renew my purpose and attempts to leave my cursed sins for God hath renewed my thoughts of his hatred against sin by the renewed remembrance of Christ dying a Curse for my sin Fourthly In the renewed thoughts of this kind of death The Believer hath the renewed sight and evidence of a death hanging over the head of every sinner which of all deaths is the most dreadful which is fullest of horrours and soul-tormenting fears Death is the King of terrours though represented and cloathed in the lest dreadful manner it can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotel No kind of death but is terrible enough but of all this is the most terrible and only to be feared it is this at the heels of the other that makes it dreadful It is a most undoubted truth that every one continuing to sin and so dying shall die under a Curse for his own sin though the sinner should live to an hundred nay to many hundred years yet if he live and die a servant to his sin he shall die accursed and this we may be sufficiently assured of by the accursed Death of our Lord for he died so for as much as the sins of God's Elect and chosen ones were laid to him he was loaded with them and all the guilt of them was charged on him and therefore was he punished therefore he died in such a manner He was made a Curse because the guilt of our sins was laid on him and punishment due to that guilt inflicted on him Nothing more certain He was wounded for our transgressions Isa 53.5 He bare the sin of many ver 12. He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 And all this evidently set forth before our eyes so that the serious and considering soul soon comes to this conclusion that whoever doth bear the guilt of sin he must die a Curse for it and he needs no other proof of it but this Christ did bear guilt and this brought him to a cursed Death Now then he begins to argue the case with himself Can I continue in sin and not bear the guilt of sin Can I yield my self a servant to sin and yet not be accounted a servant of sin Can I do the works of iniquity and not be thought by judicious and wise men a worker of iniquity How much more will the just and righteous God occount me so When I do any fact for which the Law of man will call me to account can I do the fact and the Law not impute it to me It is most sottish folly to continue in the service of sin and to flatter my self that I shall not be accounted a servant of sin or to hope I shall not be loaded with the guilt of my sin And it is no less folly to think that we may lye under the guilt of sin and yet not sink under the importable burthen of a Curse No no either I must leave my sinning or I must die that Death which of all is the most terrible I must be a Curse under the wrath of God Now therefore resolve what thou and I shalt do God proposeth a Christ dying a Curse for thee to encourage thee to leave sin or to shew thee what thou must trust to if thou live in sin He preacheth to thee this Doctrine Life through Grace if thou wilt obey if thou wilt renounce thy evil way for then thy Saviour shall be thy Peace bear thy Guilt and endure thy Curse or else Death if thou wilt still refuse to convert and leave thy sin And let me tell thee it is Death with a Curse and consider thou whether thou canst endure it and let me ask thee these few questions 1. Dost thou not believe that there is somewhat more in Death when it is sharpened with this sharp and piercing sting Dost thou not think that the Curse doth add unto the dread and fear of Death When God proclaimeth any one blessed in death dost thou not perswade thy self that God taketh away much of the terrour of death if so then certainly when God addeth a Curse with death he addeth terrour to it and thou must confess it also if thou wilt consider it Now then say Canst thou contentedly think of dying for thy sin Canst thou think of doing more than dying for thy sins Vntil that time be come wherein thou canst say thou wouldest be willing to suffer more than death for sin thou should'st not be willing to serve sin any more in thy life I know when we come to die we shall judge sin unworthy of such a pledge of love or service as one pang or one fear or one sigh for its sake oh then we shall say He loved sin too much who for sin's sake added the lest pang to death Whatever thou dost therefore leave to sin lest tlou add the misery of a Curse to thy death 2. Let me ask thee Is there no manner of dying which is a terrour to thee more than ordinary If thou wert now to die and mightest chuse thy death wouldst thou chuse any that were full of pains or loathsomness or both these continuing long Are there not some kinds of death from which