flesh and a Spirit is mightier than flesh Apply that of the Prophet Zachary to it as we may read it by the direction of our Margent and keep to the Original Chap. 8. Verse 6. If it be difficult in the eyes of this people shall it be difficult in mine eyes saith the Lord Therefore since God is our help against the insurrection of this rebellious sin let us be comforted in his help and not in excuses For we must not plead our personal maladies and natural inclinations and think that God will take it for an answer and ask no more I am dull of understanding says one and what I am taught I cannot bear it away I am suddenly transported with indignation and cannot chuse but break out I am retentive of an injury and cannot easily be reconciled All this and the like is no better than the answer of those ill manner'd guests in the Gospel which were invited to a Feast made by a King We cannot come I pray you have us excused which sounds like confession and humility but it is denial and defiance Spend your breath in a better way and cry out often and affectionately Give me not over to my self O Lord take away from me my stony heart and give me an heart of flesh Drop down upon this barren earth and it shall bring forth quite against the byass of nature The high minded will grow meek as a Lamb the covetous will begin to disperse and scatter abroad the lying lips will confess the truth bitter cruelty will melt into pity new-fangled braveries will be laid aside and blush at vanity To what purpose are the pourings in of the Spirit but that what is wickedly in-bred from our conception should be shaken off from the tree and a better fruit spring up in the place from the increase of God Mark the rain that falls from above and the same shower that dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry plants in a garden and severally according to the condition of every plant in one stalk it makes a Rose in another a Violet divers in a third and sweet in all So the Spirit works its multiformous effects in several complexions and all according to the increase of God Is thy habit and inclination cholerick why try thy self if thou be very apt to be zealous in a good cause and it turns thy natural infirmity into holy heat Is melancholy predominant the grace of God will turn that sad humor into devotion prayer and mortifying thy pleasures to die unto the world Is thy temperature sanguine and chearful the goodness of God will allow it unto thee in thy civil life in a good mean but over and above it will make thee bountiful easie to pardon injuries glad of reconciliation comfortable to the distressed always rejoycing in the Lord. Is a man phlegmatick and fearful if this freezing disease which is in thee from thy mothers womb be not absolutely cured yet the Holy Ghost will work upon it to make thy Conscience tender wary to give no offence to make thee pitiful penitent contrite ready to weep for thy transgressions There are two handles to take hold of every thing says a Heathen A dissolute man takes hold of original frailties and makes them Serpents a holy man declines their Serpentine nature and catcheth them by that part which may conduce to all manner of vertue This is the comfort of Hope against original inquination that this great enemy by the operation of the Spirit shall be made our friend or our foot-stool O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 What is stronger than a Lion yet if the Lion be kill'd out of the strong comes forth sweetness Jud. 14.14 For all this the worst is not past beside natural pronity to sin we have contracted much more evil by custom education strong habits noxious examples bad enticements and infusions The Cockatrice-egge was laid when we were in our mothers womb but it proves more venemous being hatcht and grown able to flye abroad There are seventy sons of Ahab who shall kill thee Even the sword of the Spirit There is none like it as David said of that of Goliah 1 Sam. 21.9 This is sufficient not merely to cut down grass and briars but to hew down the tree to cut off the branches to shake the leaves to scatter the fruit to fright away the fowls from the branches and the beasts from grazing under it Dan. 4. verse 14. or as the Apostle comforts us in plain words without a Parable I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4.13 If you be over-toiled and heated too much you know how to cool cast off some garments wipe away the sweat sit still and stir not lest you enflame your self with motion Follow the same method lay aside the burden of sin that enflames you cast off the weight and the superfluity of naughtiness bear in mind that Christ sweat drops of bloud in his Agony to make you ashamed of toiling and sweating in Satan's drudgery Take ease in a Sabbath of holy rest and moil not in the unprofitable works of darkness Try what refrigeration this will give unto your Conscience else take heed that you be not put to a terrible sweat of fear lest God take you away in his wrath and give you up for ever to Satan whom you have served so willingly To the Law and to the Testimony mind no examples but when they are wrapt up therein Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind Rom. 12.2 What a case had Noah been in if he had framed his life by common practice when all flesh had corrupted their way Chuse better company as Enoch did to walk with God Gen. 5.24 And can two walk together unless they be agreed Amos 3. verse 3. It is more than agreement it imports endearment benevolence friendship with God No title can be greater or sweeter what can match that honour of Abraham and the Apostles to be called the friends of God and Christ No league in the world more sought for or more willingly accepted no amity less burdensom or more beneficial St. Austin 8. Confess Cap. 6. brings in a couple that served the Roman Emperor thus debating upon it What can we look for in this Palace more than to be call'd the friends of our Soveraign When we have got this it is no sure and unchangeable favour And how long shall we attend before we be promoted to it But let us turn to God in this hour and sue to be his friends and it shall be done instantly and remain eternally Ask and it shall be given seek and we shall find And as we trespass by sins of daily prevention there is a dailiness of mercy to comfort us But as you love Christ and would be beloved struggle with temptations do not yield upon
the Lions that devoured us This is Charity not only to have Communion with all the Saints but compassion for all the world Therein we follow the foot-steps of Christ in his mediatorship as far as we are able who hath an unchangeable Priesthood and ever lives to make Intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And who bare the sins of many and made Intercession for the transgressors Isa 53.12 Likewise it is the office of those that have great interest in God's favour to bless others with their Prayers as the Lord told Abimelech King of Gerar Abraham is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live Gen. 20.7 So he said to Eliphaz the Temanite and to his other two friends My servant Job shall Pray for you for him will I accept Job 42.8 All Israel had been destroyed for worshipping the Calf in Horeb had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath Psalm 106.23 What says an old writer art thou Moses more merciful than God art thou more pitiful to the people than he that saves us from all evil No says he thou art infinite short of the loving kindness of the Lord but he put thy Charity to the proof to see what vehement entreaties thou wouldst make for the deliverance of the Nation When the same people were like to be overrun by the Philistines what course did Samuel take says he Gather all Israel to Mizpah which was a Proseucha or place for publick Prayer and I will Pray for you to the Lord 1 Sam. 7.5 And you shall find most victorious success upon it Verse 10. What comfortable Orators are the mighty Saints of God what a safeguard it is unto us all when they live among us A wise man is the price and redemption of many fools says a Heathen so a Mediator that is very dear to God is a protection not only to the good but to the wicked that are about him Have we not cause then to Pray for the continuance of such that they may live long to Pray for us Should Paul need to desire the Prayers of the Thessalonians 1 Epist 5.25 or of the Hebrews Chap. 13.18 Could they forget that which so much concern'd their welfare Now the worthy servants of the Lord may prevail much one by one others of the common rank had need to meet by hundreds and by thousands in great congregations that every single mans Prayer may be a drop in a shower that while every man Prays for all all may Pray for every man So great is the opinion of good consequents from the Intercession of Gods servants that infidels and ungodly who thought it would be labour in vain to speak to God for themselves have sued unto the Saints on Earth to prefer petitions for them Darius that worshipt false Gods sent to the Jews at Hierusalem to Pray for the life of the King and his Sons Ezra 6.10 And they that persecuted Jeremy besought him Pray for us unto the Lord our God Jer. 42.20 And Simon Magus turn'd himself to Peter and the Apostles to intercede for him Pray unto the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me Acts 8.24 This is the summ that Intercession of Prayer whether active or Passive whether it be to give or to receive a blessing is exceeding full of Consolation II. To go in order to the next Head Who they be that shall get benefit and comfort by Prayer is quickly defined We know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 to none other you may be sure He that doth not truly call the God of Heaven his Father as Christ begins his Prayer shall have no share in the portion of Sons We may intercede for prophane and impenitent men and our Prayer shall return into our own bosom But while they remain such the mercies of the Lord will be strange unto them They are not of the body of the mystical Church and all the fresh Springs are derived unto them that are within the Sanctuary While the Jews continued under the hardness of their heart God discharged the Prophet for appearing in their behalf Pray not thou for this people neither lift up cry nor Prayer for them neither make Intercession to me for I will not hear thee Jer. 7.16 And with no less or rather more severity Ezek. 14.14 Though these three men Noah Job and Daniel were in the land they should deliver none but their own Souls And if the wicked commence a suit in their own name the Lord will not be entreated of them What have they to do with holy Ordinances that have no fellowship with holy practices To come before the Lord with a lap full of sins and a mouth full of prayers what an Heterogeneal Sacrifice is it will the Mediator Christ Jesus bring it for them before his Father If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psalm 66.18 And the throne of iniquity shall have no fellowship with thee Psalm 99. verse 20. Many in our land and in our days Pray for the confusion of them that brought all to confusion but themselves are in pursuance of notorious crimes and rebellion against God They would advance that government to which we have sworn to be faithful by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance but they make no conscience to break their Oaths and Covenants which they have made to God It is not to suppress sin and tyranny and injustice that they are instant with God but to be revenged for their own injuries and losses Their Prayers are compounded with such sins as quite marre them So many a pair of Beads have been dropt in corners for the extirpation of the Protestant Religion Many a Mass hath been said for the good success of Jesuitical Treasons Many a Rosary was run over to bring the Powder-treason to its bloudy birth If they have no better stuff than this in their Mattins they had as good Pray to Devils as to Saints I will that men Pray always or every where lifting up holy hands without wrath 1 Tim. 2.8 Let go wrath and malice and bitterness Holiness becometh the house of Prayer and holiness becometh the mouth of Prayer If any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Jo. 9.31 Do justly live chastly give charitably walk circumspectly and then Pray confidently For whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight 1 Epist Jo. 3.22 But then will the trembling Christian say wo is me for I am a great sinner wo is me for I am filthy and polluted and of unclean lips Isa 6.5 then how shall I turn me to my God in Prayer O thou that fallest low upon the Earth oppressed with the burden of thy sins stand up and be chearful before God none is fit for Prayer in the Militant
every Communicant Eats Christ to himself and the just shall live by his own Faith Nevertheless it is a Sacrament to combine and to knit together holding us fast into one Communion that there may be no breaking asunder of the parts and members Many grains of Wheat are kneaded into one Loaf many Grapes are trodden that their liquor may be pressed into one cup. We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 Now natural learning will teach us what a Comfort there is in Union and that fractions and dissolutions are painful and grievous Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is behold what a strengthening to the mystical Body to continue in one fellowship and breaking of Bread to link Faith and Love together in Jesus Christ It was but one deliverance common to all Israel whose solemnity was kept at the Passeover though every Lamb was Eaten by it self in a several family So it is one Cup of salvation which God hath given us to Drink though distributed to the faithful according to the multitude of persons and it is one Bread of which all do Eat though some have one share of it and some another It is necessary that many pieces be broken off from one Loaf to typifie the Body of the Lord broken for us and that the benefits of his Passion are distributed among us There are many instances that are pregnant to prove how pieces of something broken and divided into many shares do import a Communication of somewhat among the dividers The Heathen at the making of a League did now and then break a Flint-stone into pieces and they that entred into a League kept the parts in token of a Covenant Some upon a contract of marriage will break a piece of Gold and the two halfs are reserved by the contractors Shall I go further and yet come nearer to our case The Roman Souldiers parted our Saviour's garment among them and in that Symbolical accident is shewn that the Gentiles should share in the satisfaction of his death So Peter takes this morsel of the Bread John another c. yet Christ is not divided The same Ticket as it were in words in substance is put into every hand on which is written Take and Eat it in remembrance of me Take it says Christ and be not afraid as Saul was to take a Kingdom since Christ hath appointed it be not afraid as David was to be the Kings Son since such honour is predestinated to thee Take it and fear not as Peter did saying Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man it is the Lord's delight to seek and to save that which is lost Take it and take heed you let not go your hold the thing is fast and firm if you do not let it go and lose it Take it but not to hold the pleasures of the world and your sinful lusts in your gripe together if your hands be full of those things you can never hold this Take it and take Christ with it for He that made the Testament in his Bloud hath set the Seal unto the Testament which gives you interefs and possession of the Redemption by his Bloud Take it and reach out your hand to signifie that you receive Christ with the hand of Faith They are too nice for fear of I know not what in the Roman Church of losing a crum or so forth that they put the Body of Christ into the mouth of their Disciples and in pretence that they give it as a Mother doth her breast into the mouth of her Child whereas we receive this Sacrament not as Babes but as those that are grown to the measure of a good Age. And if we be not worthy to take it into our hands we are not worthy to receive it in our mouth Take it and eat it for it is not enough to be sprinkled without but to feed on Christ and to digest him within If upon the supply of Corn and Beasts and Cattel Paul might say that God had filled our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14.17 If we are glad of that which sustains us for a time and yet we must die How glad will we be to Eat of that as will give us such a life that will endure for ever Eat of the forbidden Tree says the Serpent to Eve and you shall not die but he lied unto her Therefore to dissolve the works of the Devil our Saviour hath appointed that which we shall Eat and assured the promise of Everlasting life unto it Eat as Jonathan did of th Hony-comb that you may be lusty to pursue your enemies and though Satan hath sworn your death as Saul did Jonathan's 1 Sam. 14.44 the Lord will deliver you Pine not away with the consumption of an evil Conscience but Eat and be strong in the Lord and in his mercy As the Spirit of the Aegyptian who was half dead came to him again when he had Eaten a little 1 Sam. 30.12 Eat and grind the Bread between your teeth to shew the Lord's death For Christ could have said This is my Body slain This is my Body crucified but he had rather say This is my Body broken for you to shew the great injuries of his sufferings Eat then and remember you Eat the Body as it was broken and remember that you Drink the blood as it flowed out of his wounds To keep these things in remembrance is the great design of the Sacrament an object which keeps the fancy of the Soul waking that otherwise it may be would fall asleep In the sixth of St. John Christ Preacheth over and over of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Bloud without a Sacrament by the power of Faith But to keep it in fresh and frequent meditation the Lord hath given us a palpable and signal token as if he would engrave it upon the palms of our hands and upon the roof of our mouth upon the membranes of our brain and upon the foreskin of our heart This is a blessing twice and twenty times given because it is given that it may never be forgotten They that love others would live in the memory of those they love it is because Christ loves us entirely that he would be remembred of us And no friend will say to another Remember me when I am gone but that he means reciprocally to remember his friend to whom he spake it If you will remember Christ he will remember you And the Thief on the Cross will teach you that it is good to continue in his memory Lord remember me when thou com'st into thy Kingdom O blessed Christ thou art good and dost good thou hast not only provided an invaluable benefit for thy Church but dost put it into our hands that we may not lose it and dost bring it into our eyes by clear ostension that we may not forget it We are apt to remember injuries and to forget benefits