Paschall Supper when the Traitor Judas was going to bring the band of Souldiers to take him That he warrands us to take it and that we have therein sweet Communion amongst our selves every thing in it ought to draw us to admire his sufferings and the great love they came from and the notable affects thereof â—o us The second Use serves to Provoke us to studie to be in a Solemn Divine Heavenly frame for such a Solemn Divine Heavenly action as this is and thorowly to examine our selves and to see that all things be in good order like to a bride that is to be Married to morrow who will be trying on her marriage cloathes and seeing that all things be right I shal not descend to particulars but in Three or Four words in the general only point at such a frame as we conceive is called for from you 1. It should be such a frame as ye would desire to be in if Christ were coming personally and visibly to Marrie you to morrow and O! That this night might thus be a Brydel or Marriage evening to us all Consider what frame we wâ—uld wish to be in if we were to meet with him and strike hands with him personally and visibly Studie and seek after such a frame 2. It should be such a frame as we would desire to have if we were going to give up the Ghost when all earthly things will be insignifi an t and of little worth to us even such a Frame as if our eternal Peace and happiness were depending on that chock This would be the night of making our Testament as it were and of the adjusting our accounts with God and of putting things to a Point betwixt him and us other wayes our debt may increase and grow greater and it will not be so easie for us to win to a discharge of it 3. It should be such a frame as we would desire to be found in if the day of Judgement were coming and if that day were to be to morrow O! how humble how abstracted from the things of a present world and how confirmed in the Faith of Gods love would we study to be If the voice of the Arch angel and of the last Trumpet were sounding and a Solemn meeting of all before the Tribunal of Christ were presently to be what a frame I say would ye desire to be in in such a case Even such a frame should ye study to be in this night as ye would desire to be found in In that day We fear it will be to many then a Prick and a sting in their Consciences within them That they made so little Conscience to be in a suitable frame for this so Solemn an Oâ—dinance The Text tells that a sentence will pass on every one of you and you would by all means labour to be in such a Posture as the sentence may not be terrible to you 4. It should be a Heavenly and Divine frame for if it be a Heavenly and Divine action ye would consider what a frame it calleth for how abstracted as I just now said the Heart should be from the Worldr and from your carnall delights How much in Heaven and conversant with God what a pitch your communion with God should be raised to in apprehending of and meditating on him in considering of and admiâ—ing at the Sufferings of Christ and at the love they came from tasting that he is good and even delighâ—ing and solacing your selves in his love which is the Lords allowance on his People when the action is humbly and reverently gone about 2. Observe that though this â—e a most singularly Solemn Ordinance and Solemnly to be gone about yet oftimes men and women go most unworthily about it and abuse it This is implyed in the words and we need not many proofs of it If we will read from the 20. vers to this we will find it sufficiently proved and if we look forward to vers 30 and 31 We will find that many sad strokes came on these Corinthians for abusing and profaning this Ordinance and the Apostle would have them gathering their unworthy communicating from these strokes There is a readiness both in unbelievers and in believers themselves to miscarry in going about this ordinance a readiness in unbelievers for as they Spoile all things all ordinances and duties they meddle with all things being unclean to the unbeliever So there is a miserable and woful necessitie lying upon them to spoil this Ordinance and a readiness even in Believers who also may miscarry therein as is implied in the last words of the Chapteâ— compared with vers 32. When we are Judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World Some of them that were believers were chastised for this fault to prevent their eternal ruine and are there any acquainted with their own corrupt nature but they may and will in some measure find in themselves an aptitude to miscarry as in all other duties and ordinances so in this But the Doctrine holds out a singular and peculiar bentness to misca rie â—n this duty and Ordinance So thaâ— one who will pâ—ay with advertencie and be caâ—ried fairly thorow in that and several other du ies may yet in this Ordinance fall under the guilt of unworthy Communicating The reasons of it may be these 1. Because the more Solemn the duty be and the greater concurrence of duties be in it there is the greater difficulty in going about it for a Soul cannot be right in this except it be right in a number of other duties and Graces as in Prayer Faith Love and Repenâ—ance and that word Let a man examine himself takes in a complication of Duties and Graces there would be a good state and a good frame and Graces would be in some vigour and every Duty suitable and Proportionable to the Naâ—ure of the action and oâ— the day and if it be a great and difficult work to carry rightly on an ordinary Sabbath or in Prayer or meditation or other duties any day what a difficult work must it needs be to have all these rightly yoked together A Second reason may be drawn not only from the complication of Graces and Duties that is required in this action But from the Nature of the thing it self that calls for Duties in a high Degree of Spirituality if any o dinance or Duty call for a Spiritual fâ—ame its this It requires that the exeâ—cise of the Judgement be most clear that Faith be most distinct that Meditation be most Divine c. And the more Spiritual the Duty be there is cerâ—ainly the more aptness in us thoâ—ow our corruption to miscarry in it A Third reaâ—on is Because there is in Men and Women naâ—urally and ordinarly but very little study and endeavour to know and take up aright the â—ature of this ordinance There is in the most part a great ignorance of the Strain and Series of the Gospel
delights nor desires taken up with things earthly but he should be Mortified unto and weaned from all those things He should not be like unto those who on all occasions are tossed with their humors and with every wind of temptation but he should be so calme Composed and sober settled and fixed in a Heavenly temper of Spirit that words of reproach may not much trouble him nor crosses and afflictions much disquiet him he should have such composure and sedatness of spirit that he may be much above the levity and unstayedness that the men of the world are under the power of and he should endeavor to be defecat and purged from those impure mixtures of self-interests that are regnant in worldly men Secondly in respect of his work he should and may have his conversation in Heaven and that is when he is much in the exercise of those Graces and in the practise of those duties that he is to be taken up with in Heaven to be much in love to God taken up with delighting in him much in Communion with God Holily impatient to want him or to live without his company to be much in the study and searching out of his perfections to be studying to have the heart fixed as it were a pillar in his house and not to go out from him to be much in admiring and adorning the free grace and love of God and to be in a Holy manner ravished with the contemplation of those to be much in the work of Prayer and much in the work of Praise saying Worthy is the Lamb to receive Glory Honour Dominion c. Joining with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders saying Holy Holy Lord God Almighty to be much in prizing and valuing of God in setting out and commending him to be in all duties willing and cheerfull doing Gods will cheerfully and with alacriâ—y to be much in longing for the Sabbath to converse more closely with him longing ofâ—en for privacie and retirement to pour out the heart before him and to do all this with Holy coveting to do it better praying that his will may be done on earth as it is done in Heaven Thirdly A believer may be said to have his Conversation and you are called to have yours in Heaven in respect of a Heavenly walk and as having a heavenly impresse on all your Conversaâ—ion to be walking as it were in Heaven and as if Holiness to the Lord were written on your foreheads which being very comprehensive takes in these First to have the heart fixed in meditating on God and his law on Spirituall and Heavenly things to have a sublime and divine strain of mind not debasing it self to pursue vanities but kept in a close and constant pursuit after Communion with God and conformity to him to be in case to say with David Psal 139. When I awake I am still with thee Labouring to leave the heart and mind in Heaven when ye ly down and seeking to find it there when ye arise 2. To have your affections love desires and delights in Heaven or heavenly 3. To have your words savouring of Heaven Ministering Grace to the hearers endeavouring to have your words weighty and grave in the commendation of God and his Grace 4. To have your hearing of the word and your praying carrying much of a heavenly stamp and impression on them hearing as if God were speaking to you Immediatly from heaven and praying as if ye were even before his Throne 5. In your more common and ordinary Conversation as in your Eating and Drinking in your recreating and in following your lawful callings and employments even the very coursest and lowest of them to propose to your selves another end then the men of the world do making that your main end to Glorifie God and to have such a heavenly and Divine way of going about these as may be convincing edifieing and gaining of on-lookers not to be predominantly influenced by selfish humours designes or interests looking only or mainly to what may please or profit your selves but levelling all at the Glory of God and the edification and good of others as well as your own Fourthly We may be said to have our Conversation in Heaven when we have a Holy commerce and trading as it were with Heaven as a man is said to converse in France or Spain when he trades and trafliques there So to have converse in Heaven is Spiritually to traffique there to have Faith and Hope exercised in and about heaven to send many prayers and desires to heaven as so many empty vessels and to be in the lively and longing expectation of their return full and richly loaden to make many visits as I said before to heaven and to be in all those neither seldome nor transiently and at starts only but to be frequent and more continuing in them and though they should sometimes return either with seeming losse or with very litle gain yet to keep up the trade and traffique seeking to make up our losse by a new voyage thither for the trade is not alwayes to speak so alike quick Fifthly We may be said to converse in heaven by our abiding as it were in heaven and this is one of the highest steps of a heavenly Conversation If ye shall ask How it is that a believer while on earth doth or can abide in Heaven I Answer these wayes or in these respects 1. By having his heart in heaven where his treasure is For as the Lord sayes Where a mans treasure is there is his heart the man as it were dwels there and if at any time he remove a litle he leaves there his great stock and his heart as a Factor so though the Christian be discoursing buying selling eating drinking c. Yet in all these his heart may and ought some way to be in heaven 2. To have his Faith in heaven and as it were never to come out of it 3. To have his love in heaven folding its two armes about the Lamb and him that sits on the Throne holily loth to have them loosed from those sweet Soul solacing and satisfieing embraces 4. To have his hope in heaven which is an Anchor cast within the vail and makes the soul safe and sure amidst the greatest tempests of outward trouble as a ship rideth safely when she hath cast Anchor on firme ground so that there is no fear she will drive In a word these Four The Heart Faith Hope and Love being in heaven we may say that the mans best half and Part is in heaven his â—edder stake is loosed and much of his Tabernacle taken down and he made in a good measure meet ready and ripe for his dissolution and for heaven Thus ye are called and oblidged to have your Conversation in heaven Sixthly A Believers conversation may be said to be and ought to be in heaven when his contentment delight and satisfaction are in heaven when all that he desires all that
seed springs up and hath a fair appearance but soon withereth and other some holds out So likewise at Fasts and Communions affections will be readily somewhat stirred and warmed and there will be many brave purposes and resolutions such as were in the people Exod 19. When they said All that the Lord commands we will do and they look demure and grave like for two or three dayes The Tippler keeps some dayes from the Tavern He that prayed not in secret nor in his family will it may be Pray for some time about and after such occasions others will go further on And yet it 's but some restraint on their sin or some fit and flash of affection that is transient and quickly gone and they turn again to follie and even the Godly themselves are here often found in a great measure guilty as the following Note will clear Fifthly Observe That even those people and Saints who have sometime been given to follie to whom God hath spoken peace and who have restrained their folly for a time thereafter may much fall back to follie again The admonition here given Let them not turn again to folly Supposeth this This needs not much proof If ye shall go through the Saints recorded in Scripture ye will find sad instances of it David after peace was spoken to him falls into adultery and murther Hezekiah after a sweet word of peace was spoken to him Isaiah 38. Falls into the follie of Pride and vain ostentation Chap. 39. Peter after peace spoken to him denyeth his Master Jehoshaphat after peace spoken to him fell once and again into the same sin and once even after he was reproved for it as is clear 2 Chron. 18.19 and 20. Chapters Or there may be a falling unto some other sins or out of one sin into another as it was with David This may befall reall Saints yea eminent Saints even Pillars in the house of God was there not peace spoken to the Disciples in that sweet Sermon John 14. and 15 and 16. Chap. And yet that sad word followes Ye all shall be offended because of me this night And Peter to whom that sweet word was spoken I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not doth foully fall into follie quickly after what then may befall the more Common sort of professors who know not what it is to stand before the least tentation The Reasons of this may be first because the devil falls presently on and seeks as it were with seven worse devils to re-enter the soul and busks this bait of the tentation and presents it in a new shape old courtiers to speak so and lusts set on and essay what hearing they can get 2. Because though by peace spoken tentations and corruptions may be bound up yea and some-what Mortified yet they are not slain outright they may lurk for a time but still live And 3. Because his People are ready in such a warme Sun blink to grow as it were wanton and under such a cessation from their lusts to cast by their armes to grow secure to grow somewhat too fain and to dream of an easie life thus it was in a measure with David as he confesseth Psal 30. I said in my Prosperity I shal never be moved If they get peace for a little who but they They are Lords in a manner and will not come unto him or if they win to a few tears and some liberty they are readily puft up and in some sort bid their Souls take them rest as if they needed to trouble themselves no more Therefore there are new on-sets and the Lord lets them see how vain they are even in their best estate as we may perceive in the Lords dealing with Hezekiah and with David in that Psal 30. Thou didst hide thy face saith he and I was troubled O! what follie vanity and out-breaking of corruption do often follow on the back of a seeming work of turning to God and a tender like frame in Professors of Religion So Psal 106. It is said that they provoked him at the Sea even at the red Sea Even where and when they were in such a frame that they believed his Words and sang his Praise they soon forgat his Works And waited not for his Counsel which was in a manner at the very Table to lift the heel against him And O! how Sad and lamentable a thing is it to be unwatchfull after a Communion and an offer or an Intimation of peace Sixthly Observe That There is nothing more called for from a people who have been given to follie and have had Peace spoken to them then to take heed that they turn not again to folly To take heed that they fall not into the same sins that they seemed to have abandoned and turned away from that it be not with them According to the true Proverb The Dog is returned to his vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire as it is 2 Pet. 2.22 Under which similitude the Apostle powerfully disswades Professors of Religion from turning again to sin by shewing the loathsomness of it It being as abominable as a mans licking up again that which he hath vomited This then is the duty that the Lord calls for First That you should abstain from the sins that you have been given to such as tippling drinking drunk Swearing Sabbath breaking neglect of Prayer and the like and do so no more not only not to relapse into the same sins but that ye abstain from every other sin It is not enough that a man break off from one sin and take up with another It is not sufficient though a man will not be drunk in his neighbours house if in the mean time in his own house he tipple play the good fellow as ye call it and mispend his time Secondly Ye would Consider what engagements and resolutions ye have come under and that ye fall not back from them In a word it is not to be as ye were wont to be and that ye be found in no known sin nor defective in any known duty We come now to the more Particular and close Application of the whole in these Two Uses The First whereof is for Advertisement and warning Let him that stands take heed lest he fall Let him not look on himself as incapable to be stollen off his feet Alace Persons may be in a manner exalted to Heaven and in a very good frame in their own imagination and apprehension and it may be in some measure really and yet be brought back to the Puddle and Miâ—e again after they have shaken themselves and come out of it In prosecuting this we shal First shew wherefore we presse it And Secondly Wherein or in reference to what we presse it As for the First viz. Wherefore it is that I doe presse this advertisement and indeed it is not without very good ground as ye will easily perceive if First Ye look to and Consider
dayes nor go idly in the fields on the Lords-day yet they may mispend and triffle away their time at home as if falling back into Omissions were not a turning again to follie as well as falling back to Commissions The confessions of many poor Creatures who become Publickly and Prodigiously Scandalous on their death beds or on a Scaffold that omissions of duty have Predisposed them to and brought on those grosse Commissions may and should awake and alarm us ye would therefore with Holy Job Make a Covenant with your eyes and other senses and make Conscience to keep it Thirdly Beware of falling back to a secure cold-rise manner of going about duties of worship alone or in Company in publick or in privat let none of you think with your selves that now this Solemnitie is over ye need not wrestle in Prayer nor watch so strictly over your heart but let it gad and rove and not hedge it in on an ordinary Lords day as on a Communion Lords-day since there is no liberty allowed for an idle word or thought any day more then there is on that day Think it not enough that ye say your Prayers morning and evening and that none can charge you with any offence God the all seeing God observes you whether you be universall sincere and serious in the duties of Religion Fourthly Beware of neglecting Spiritual and Gospel duties such as Self-examination or Self-searching Self-denyall Mortification and use making of Christ The neglect of these aâ—d the like may be some way called Gospel-follie It is no doubt great Gospel-follie when Christ being freely and fully offered therein is not improved for wisdom righteousness Sanctification and redemption when the power of Godliness is not aimed at in dutie but People rest and sit down in the form thereof which yet in some respect is more combersome then the power for Christ improved makes all things go easily with us Therefore any of you who have loâ—ked on it as follie to neglect these spiritual duties see that ye return not again to that follie Fifthly Beware of unbelief have ye not resolved to cast out with that evil and resolved to be no more jealous of God though ye should meet with difficulties Believers in Christ lick not up that vomit again turn not again to that follie to which there is a secret Naturall bentness of heart If I say unbelief and jealousie be a follie take it not up turn not to it again Sixthly Beware of heart-ills possibly ye will not give way to more gross evils and yet suffer your Souls to be carried away after Idols or after vain proud Ambitious Covetous Revengeful filthy and Lascivious thoughts but if in very deed Christ get the heart he must reign in it and command the Eye Tongue Ears Hands Feet and all Seventhly Beware of falling back to the Inordinat love of the World and of letting the heart be too much addicted and glued to even lawfull pleasures creature-Comforts to your Callings Wives Children Houses Lands and incomes of gain and Profit from which there hath been possibly some suitable abstractedness these dayes past ye should not only abstain from oppressing Stealing and deceiving but ye would also guard against falling back to excessive pursuing after and as it were glutting your selves with the things of this world however lawfull in themselves Alace Perimus Licitis Inordinat love to and Immoderat pursuing after things lawful in themselves destroy more souls then things sinfull and unlawfull in themselves do the excuses of those invited to the Marriage of the Kings Son are founded not on things simply Sinful but on lawful things the Farme Oxen and Married wise Now the house is sweeped and ye are in Hazard if ye guard not to return to a greater and greedier feeding on those vanities I dare say there are Multitudes of men and Women who never so much hungred for the Communion as they have longed to have these Solemn dayes over and by that they might win back to their Callings worldly businesses and pleasures O what a weariness have they been to them As Sacred Solemnities were to those spoken of Amos 8.5 Who cried When shall the new Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath day that we may set out Wheat To many these dayes of Fasting and Spiritual Feasting and Communicating have been as a bridle bit in their Mouths to restrain them from running on the Mountains of their vanity and who knows but ere another Communion come the Lord may fâ—ed you as a Lamb in a large place The Second Use is For Exhortation would ye then know the duty that ye are called unto this is it Let not Gods People and Saints turn again to follie Let not the Idler return to his Idleness the tippler to his tippling the scoffer to his Scoffing the ignorant who have been at a litle pains to learn some questions before the examination and communion to his negligence in seeking after knowledge c. Let not this be If ye have vomited out these and other sins Lick them not up again To presse this Use a litle we would First Give you some considerations from the Text. Secondly Some directions to help you forward in the Practice of it For the first viz. Some considerations from the Text to press iâ— First Is it not a follie to sin once If so sure it is much more to relapse into sin Whether is it more true wisdom to abstain from those Sins or to fall back into them Is it not more wisdom for you who have been given to Tippling or drunkenness to neglect of Prayer and the like now to let alone sins and to give your selves to Prayer then to be walking in the street on the Plain-stones Is it not more wisdom to be given to edifieing discourse then to be laughing and sporting over the time Is it not better to come to the Church then to spend the time Idly In discoursing and waiting for a Tentation And if your conscience assent to the truth of this then we take witness in your Conscience that it doth so and this Instrument of witness will stand on record against you if ye shall turn to those sins and to this Folly again 2. Have ye been examining your selves And do ye find that much of your life hath been spent in folly by Some Twenty by some Thirty by some Fourthy by some Fifthy by some Sixty years And every days account cast up amounts only to folly vanity and Madness And is it not enough and may it not suffice you that ye have spent so long time in folly though ye spend no more so 3. Hath not God been speaking peace to some and given them the Intimation of it So that their Souls have been made to say God is here And have they not gotten the bargain closed and the hand writing that was against them torn We hope there are some such among us Nay are there any but the
in Improving the strength of Jesus Christ to prevent your turning again to folly do not undertake nor engage in your own strength but believingly lay all the weight and stresse on your Suretie Put his name in the band which ye give to God for the debt of duty Abide in me and I in you So ye shal bring forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing saith our Lord to his Disciples John 15. But how many fail and come short here While they go about duties and either quite misken or make but very litle use of Christ many know very litle or nothing at all what it is to make use of Christ in order to the making of their peace with God but O! how very few know what it is to make use of his strength to enable them for duty to go through the wilderness leaning on their beloved Seventhly Defer not to make your Resolutions and engagements practicable There are many alace who think Shame it should be said that a Sermon had so much weight with them as to make them alter and change their course at once It may be they will consent to be religious but they must be allowed to come to it by degrees to creep toward it piece-meal but beware of that lest it prove in the Issue to be a shift of thy deceitfull heart Ponder these words well Eccles 5. Defer not to pay what thou hast vowed for the Lord hath no Pleasure in fools And in the Holy Ghosts account he is a fool that deferreth and putteth off one moment O! delayes are in a speciall manner dangerous here and Sathan will not faill to knit one delay to another Eightly Reject all Temptations to sin and turning again to folly with abhorrency say with Ephraim What have I any more to do with Idols Never think on them but with indignation and Holy disdain for ye are undone if ye but once listen to them Ninthly Be often examining if ye be like and answerable to your Communicating and to your Promises and engagements many know not how it is with them because they Examine not Tenthly Walk humbly in the sense of your weakness trust not to your own heart for he that doth so is reputed to be a fool by the Holy Ghost Eleventhly Be helping one another forward in your way to Heaven Take heed saith the Apostle Heb. 3.12.13 That there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another dayly while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin To be edifieing to others would through Gods blessing be edifieing to your selves and help you to be in good case to be praying with them would stir up your selves to more Seriousness in the exercise of that duty to be reproving sin in them would waken up more hatred of it in your selves and to be much Conversant in the duties of Mutual edification with them that are warm in their love to Christ to his interests and friends and diligent in the study of Holiness would readily through Grace stir you up to seek after more love and more Holiness as he insinuats in that exhortation to the Christian Hebrews Chap. 10.24 Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works Twelfthly And in a word endeavour to walk suitably to your light your own consciences will readily tell you that it 's best to walk so as ye may abstain from that which ye know to be sin and to be doing and delighting in that which ye know to be duty Theâ—e are very few if any duties of Religion but they are one time or another and many of them frequently laid before you and not a few shall I hope have cause of blessing God eternally that ever this Gospel-light was made to shine so clearly on them but for such of you As detain the truth of God in unrighteousness as the Apostle says some do Rom. 1 or make a prisoner of it by setting a guard of corrupt affections about it Whom God gave up to vile affections and to all sorts of most abominable filthiness because though they knew that such things ought not to have been done yet they not only did but took pleasure in them that did them I leave it with all the seriousness I can win to on you and take Instruments of witness in your consciences that ye have bad great offers and have made fair mints and come under at least seeming engagements if ye have not done so declare so much but since ye all professe that ye have engaged and some have really engaged not to turn again to folly walk suitably to your engagements as ye would not have your consciences condemning you and God who is greater then your Consciences to condemn you Many I fear have sleeping consciences and that will not now speak to them but the Conscience of every one will speak at length and not keep silence We shall now say no more but Pray that this word may be Blessed of God to you These five following Sermons were all Preached about the time of the Communion the first four within a very few dayes before it as it gradually approached the Fifth after it On Jeremiah 50. vers 4 5. In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and see the Lord their God Vers 5. They shal ask the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward Saying come and let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not bâ— forgotten SERMON I. THe repairing and making up of a breach betwixt God and a People is a matter of greatest moment and Concern and when men are serious in it O how uptaking is it to them Which is holden out to the life in these words that lay forth before us very clearly the frame and carriage of a people which formerly have dealt loosly and deceitfully in the matter of their Covenant with God when they come through his Grace to be serious and in good earnest in the upmaking of it again As for the people spoken of here they are Israel and Judah the Loâ—ds own Covenanted People who had dealt falsly and foully in the Covenant and had thereby Procured sad strokes to themselves and had divided and separated themselves from God and one of them from another Which division and separation continued lamentably long They are both here represented as coming home together Seriously endeavouring to amend and make up the breach betwixt God and them and among themselves As for the time that this relates to In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord It looks literally and according to the Cohesion to Babylons Destruction and 〈◊〉 Lords bringing down that Babylonish Monarchy by the Persian King Cyrus In which time the People of God had some
liberty to return to their own land Yet considering the great scope of the Words and that this liberty of the Jews is in a great part fulfilled in Christ and that the union spoken of here is such as hath in it the gathering together of all the Tribes and withall that the Covenant which they enter into with the Lord Christ is such as shall never be forgotten We must extend the words to their Ingraffing again into their own Olive when all Israel shall be saved and they shall be graffed into their own root and Stock from off which they were broken As for the Scope it 's partly off encourage the Jews This being not only a Promise of their return but also and mainly of their Repentance and of their Friendship Reconciliation with God and with one another In those dayes they that had been far from him and busie vexing one another shall come and come together Their work and business in coming is to seek the Lord and the manner of it is going and weeping Praying and repenting and although the way be somewhat dark and not so discernible to them yet they go on asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward They ask how they may come to Him worship God again aright and perform the duties of a people inchurched to and in Covenant with him And as it were from one Post or Town to another they ask the way and get Direction from one day to another and from one duty to another And their designe in all is Come say they on the matter we were once in Covenant with God and with one another but we have been unfaithfull in both now let us amend and make up the breach in both Let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten Let us renew our Covenant with God and let it be done firmly and surely so as it may not be broken again this looks and hath respect to Jeremiah 31.31 c. and 32.49 40. Where the Lord Promiseth To make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the house of Judah Cited by the Apostle Heb. 8. And it 's called Chap. 32. An everlasting Covenant Which is not so much to be understood of meer externall Covenanting as of saving sharing in and partaking of Christs Righteousness for the Pardon of sin and of their engaging to God in his own strength to be forth-coming in the fruits of saving Grace and Holiness in their practice This is in Sum the way and course which they take and is a short directory for what should be a peoples carriage when they would make up the breach of a broken Covenant with God As for the Particular Scope of this place as it relateth to Israel and Judah their returning together we shall not insist in it yet from these words we may see First That There is good ground for us to expect the Lords bringing back his scattered People the Jews and their ingraffing again into their own Olive The same God that perswaded Japhet to dwel in the Tents of Shem can perswade Shem to dwell in the tents of Japhet As they minded us Gentiles as a litle Sister and were Holily Solicitous what they might do for us we ought in gratitude to mind them as the elder Sister that they may turn again to the Lord who hath given us his faithful Word for it which cannot fail but must be fulfilled Secondly We see that Heart-melting towards God and seriousness to make up the breach of a broken Covenant betwixt a People and him conduce natively to make the hearts of those that have been divided and set at variance from one another in much warmness of love to unite and sweetly to join together It 's from this that Israel and Judah become one Stick in the Lords hand Ezek. 37. This makes them as melted mettall to run close together as it were into one Lump though it was a long continued Schisme and had much bitterness attending it yet when their hearts are touched with a Sense of sin and of a broken Covenant their former differences and animosities evanish softness of heart in the sense of by gone sin would silence many things among us that all disputings writings and Printings will not be able to do Pray for this to the Land as the most effectuall mean and way of curing out divisions and of uniting us in the Lord It Joins Judah and Israel together whose breach was much greater and of far longer continuance then ours Thirdly We see here that A peoples joining and running together in serious seeking of the Lord is very Commendable and lovely and a good token and evidence to them of their turning to God and of Gods accepting of them even as bitterness and division is exceeding displeasing to God and prejudiciall to themselves and to the Work of Grace in them This is an happy-like hopeful and promising day of Repentance and turning to God that bodeth much unspeakably much good to a land and People But we come to consider the words as they do direct unto and chalk out the way for a people returning to make up a broken Covenant with God which is the Scope And we may take it up in these Three First As it respects the frame of their hearts And O what a tender humble warm and mournfull frame are they represented to be in They shall come and go together exciting one another going and weeping with their faces towards Zion Secondly As it respects and holds forth the great designe they have and that is to renew and make sure the Covenant betwixt God them Though it was now broken and they want not challenges for it Yet they do not say we will never enter in it again Because we brake it the last time we made it But come say they let us make it the more firm and stable Thirdly As it respects and hold out their posture and the way which they take in pursuing this designe There is a going and weeping a praying to and seeking of the Lord in a word they seek and endeavour to renew their Covenant with God seriously diligently and humbly and thus they pursue their designe First then If we look to their frame we will find implyed in it 1. A guilty condition 2. A challenging and convinced condition 3. A repenting condition they are kindly affected with the wrongs done to God and desire and use means to have them righted We shall name Two or Three generall Doctrines from this First Consideration of the word though in effect it will fall in with the Last The First whereof is this That Gods Covenanted People may deal foully and falsly in his Covenant For their coming to renew the Covenant supposeth that they had broken it and it 's also implyed in their mourning and weeping and saying Come and let us join our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten This needs no further