mind for as Christ is now bodily in heaven so will he not be spiritually and sacramentally in any but a heavenly mind the doors must be list up before the King come in 10. Look on Christ your Passover Sacrificed for you and be humbled 1. That you were worthy to dye 2. That you live by the death â—f another 3. That your sin should Crucisy the Lord of â—â—ory What a humbling sight is it to â—ee Christ thy Sacrifice fall before the Altar and laid upon it and burn yea consumed by the Fire of God's wrath for thee O sigh and say alas Was not this for my sake should not I have lyen there suffering and satisfying for ever if he had not interposed and bore my Burden Shall he sweat and bleed for me and I not grieve for him But tâ— make the remembrance of Christ's Death for me the more affectionate consider first it was the Death of the humblest and worthiest person that ever appeared on the Earth the Son of God the Lord of Glory the eternal God the Heir of all things on Earth was never his like Secondly He was no greater than Good the innocent and spotless Lamb of God that Holy thing who knew no sin and yet he suffered Death In his Life was no spot and in his Death was no complaint or murmuring This Noble and Just One died for us was our ransom and attonement He who knew no sin made sin i. e. a sacrifice for ours our sin imputed to him who had none of his own our sorrows made his and by his stripes we are healed We live by his Death Gal. 2.20 He is taken and â—â—e â—â—ape If ye seek me let these â—o their way leâ—â—â—n â—eâ—â—r he charged on mine Elect My sâ—â—ep I lay down my life for tho they bâ— under a â—â—aw condemnation for breaking of it yet let them be acâ—â—â—â—d for my â—eeping of iâ— parâ—oned on my account and all their scores reckâ—ned for with me Look on the blessed Surety of the Covenant and be hold him obeying and dying for us For albeit the Law be not now a Covenant Believers are under yet the meaning is not that perfect Obedience is not required even of believers but not being sound in them it 's performed by our Surety the Second Adam for the exchange is only of the person not of the righteousness Thus was laid on him the Iniquities of us all and if it had been laid on us it had sunk us for ever But that love that deliver'd him up was unparallell'd Whatever Satan Sin Conscience or the Law charge upon you shew you here the Lord's Death 11. Every Sacrament is a Certificate of Christ's Death and hereby we tell the world we believe our Lord was cut off out of the Land of the Living Now to shew forth this death are we come hither he would not have his Death forgotten but to remember it as we often do without lively affections is next door to a total forgetting of it Without an affectionate remembrance of the death of Christ and a Soul inflamed with love to our Ransomer we partake not of his body we may be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord when we put forth polluted hands to take it and take all with unbroken is hearts And indeed the sweet of the Pasâ—ver is lost for want of the bitter herbs of godly sorrow for sin that slew the Lord of Glory Now let the remembrance of our Lord here not only affect us but change us into another temper and disposition to be his and for him to conform to him to carry a way better thoughts of him to live a life of remembring of him to give him alone the Glory of so wonderful a work as our Redemption by his death to love him that hath so loved us and to hate sin that so offended his Father and crucified him If we weep not over him we have no fellowship with his sufferings if we wash not here we have no part in him if we carry not away a better remembrance of him we come here but to mock him if we prefer the World to him we shew our selves unworthy of him and if we can go away and live in our sin we do but seal our own damnation by coming hither What is it to undertake a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to weep a tear over the holy Grave but to return with a new heart and another life is the business And to affect you further with this Representation by his accursed but blessed death to us he seals the Testament and confirms a great Legacy to us that he may not only keep the condemned from going to prison but settle a Revenue on the poor and needy and make them rich for ever and set them wâ—th Princes even with the Princes of his people that had nothing but rags and poverty and now he lives for ever to see his Legacies bestowed 12. The Gospel-Proclamation is Christ's Invitation Whosoever is a thirst let him come Desires are the Soul's hunger after Christ they are the best sawce they add a sweetness to the bread of life A man that â—ath lost his stomach and can taste no sweetness in the choicest food is not fit to sit at this Feast who hath no desires after Vnion and Communion with Christ. He that is the desire of all Nations will be sought after and found of all that do desire him Not to desire him is to despise him Is 53.2 3. and to hide our face from him Will he disclose his Secrets to them who hide their face from him If we desire him not we shall never enjoy him The same thing that is the Saints desire now will be his satisfaction for ever Let us not think a desire of Christ a light thing In the Gospel a poor man's hunger is his blessing Mat. 5.6 in the world it is his misery God accepts of our appetite as much as if we pay'd ready money for his Graces and their hunger is insteaâ— oâ— a price Is 55.1 There was never Soul miscarried with longing after Grace O blessed hunger that ends always in fulnâ—sâ— The wooâ—e ife of Christian is but a holy desire saith Austin And the soul desires Christ absent but tâ—ese desires are raised in the Soul by Christ present We burn with a desire to settle our selves but mistake the way and build Castles in the air but the Sum of â—anctified desires is unutterable groans for the â—ull application of good things promised and eager thirâ—ting for a larger communication and before Christ hath perâ—ected his Gracâ— in the Desires of the Soul it will find it self so inflamed with them that if Hell should stand between its Beloved and it he would wiâ—lingly pass through its very flames to embrace his dear Redeemer And seeing it is to him we come to seal his Covenant by Soul-resignation let the matter admit of no dispute or deâ—ay but be dispatched with all haste and speed Ps
present world seduce many Souls from their Allegiance to Christ and the care that is due to their Salvation How are most deceived with the specious appearances and painted Slavery of the world to make us happy enough without Christ The covetous Pharisees mocked at Christ and Farms and Business do still excuse worldings from a serious and hearty imbracing of Christ's glorious Offers Q. What shall we do that we may not betray Christ and prove false to our Covenant and Profession in times of Tryal A. 1. Leave not a root of bitterness behind no beloved Lust unmort fied this was Judas his bane the love of the world he kept up under a profession and this betrayed him into Satan's hand and he stuck not to betray his blessed Master into his Enemies Hands 2. Rest not on doubtful Evidences of your Heavenly Interest but get things better cleared between God and your Consciences It will be a dreadful snare to you when sufferings come to the loss of Life and Estate and not be sure of Christ and Heaven 3. Keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal Life Love if alive will be strong at Death all the floods of Affliction cannot drown it 4. Keep up a close Communion with God constantly in secret If you slack in secret Prayer and wear out of personal acquaintance with the Fountain you will wither and your strength dry up like a Pot-sheard and your foot soon slide 5. Let never a day go over your head without actual Faith on some promise that this may keep you from fainting under discouragements Ps 27.13 6. The most refined formal lifeless Religion will not always secure you from being scandals on Earth and being cursed wretches in Hell eternally 45. That your minds may not be empty and wandring doubtful what to fix upon enquire Q. What doth this Ordinance call for A. 1. A Crucified Christ calls for Crucified sins 2. Be saying to thy self did this Blood satisfy God and shall it not satisfy me Why then O my Soul do'st not thou rest more intirely in this ransome and possess more of that rich Legacy his word hath left us and his Death hath purchased My peace I leave you my peace I give you and in me ye shall have peace and this man shall be the peace 3. Think whose Body and what a Body is here represented The blessed Body of the Son of God that was our Sacrifice broken bruised and bleeding on the Cross for us That same body that his Father gave him who needed it not but for us to receive our buffering in that Body that Devils envy to this day even that the Human Nature should be assumed into a personal Union with the Divine An honour denied the Angels That Body that hung on the Cross a spectacle to men and Angels for shame pain and a curse due to us That same Body that was laid in the Grave and raised up unto Glory God in our Nature appearing in Heaven for us preparing a place for us perfuming it with his Glorious Possessions and Presence 4. Think how due it is I should remember him in my Life who remembred me so kindly at his Death especially having made a Law for it in this Ordinance and making the remembrance no more costly nor painful than you see it this day He might have sent us a Jerusalem Jouâ—â—â—y to the holy Grave and appointed some costly Offerings there But let us bless our Merciful Lord and Law giver that hath spared us these expences and is content we should remember him in this plain Gospel Simplicity 5. Think you are now remembring your best and dearest Friend in Heaven or Earth who loves you beâ—â— and hath done most for you Wherefore with what affections should he be remembred and how precious should every thouâ—hâ— of him be to your Souls Song 1. 4 Psal 139.17 6. Think how miserable you had been to eternity if he had not remembred us in our low estate And what you have deserved that needed such a surety and Sacrifice Q. How may we know if our remembring of Christ in this Ordinance hath been good and right A. 1. If we have here a remembrance of the right stamp we leave not off remembring of Christ when we are gone but the life of a Christian in hearing reading meditating and praying will be much more a remembring him in his ways than others attain to 2. We will cause others remember Christ with us as we can Psal 45. ult 3. It will leave a lasâ—ing desire of remembring him here again Psal 42.2 4. 〈◊〉 right its Virtue will run thro gâ—â—all our Diâ—â—ies and Actions till we come again 〈◊〉 thâ—ll find is more easy to perform every duty and â—bey every precept As we sind sin that Dagoâ— fall before this Ark of the Lord temptations resisted and services Spiritualized we may jâ—â—g of this case 5. A right remembrance of Christ will make a Sanctified Soul even forget the best and most needful things on Earth to remember him now in Heaven 6. It will humble thee for former forgetting of him and stir up a holy hatred against vain thoughts that kept Christ out a few moments of a Sanctified remembring thy sweet Saviour here will send thee away with a sad Heart for thy forgeting of him days without number 46. Q. What came we hither to learn at the Table of the Lord A. 1. Humility from a meek and lowly humbled suffering Saviour Phil. 2.57.2 Patience from this Lamb of God that opened not his Mouth Learn here to possess your Souls in Patience and suffer not every trifle to provoke you 3. And here may we learn to Love where it shines out so gloriously 4. Self-denial and a publick Spirit who not regarding his own ease and pleasure glorified his Father in Redeeming us 5. See here your strong rock and learn to live by Faith A sight of a Crucified Sanctified Saviour should give us confidence both in Duties and Dangers In Duties this sight should lift you up above all your doings when you see what your surety hath done and suffered for you And in Dangers your great help to believe he will not let your temporal evil sink you is his delivering your Souls from eternal Miseries and Hell and the second Death 6. We can no where at a better advantage learn with them that are Redeemed from the Earth the new Song of Promise than here at such a solemn sight of our Suffering Redeemer But that we may learn our Lessons the better let us be considering where and with whom we are sate Solomon says Prov. 23.1 When thou sittest with a Ruler consider what is before thee It 's a great Ruler we sit with and a great Feast ser before us Now let us consider we sit at the Table of the Lord and we eat the Supper of the Lord. If this be the Table of the Lord what wonderful condescention is this that
against prevailing Iniquities and predominant Corruptions that your jea ous Lord and Husband may give Idols a deadly blow at such a time 4. For the 〈◊〉 â—pirit of Jesus to make Graces lively that 〈◊〉 â—piknâ—rd may send sorth the smell thereof and the Spices slow out 5. For growing in all grace that Gods own work in the heart may be sâ—t forward by our waiting on Christ in his so precious appointment 6. That he would suspend quarrels yea â—â—move the ground of all by forgiving grace and send away poor penitents comforted with a sealed senâ—e of it in their own bosomes 7. For further manifestations of God's Love and clearer Fâ—â—â—dences of an heavenly Interest 8. For a more fruitful Life of Godliness to the praise of the gâ—ory of his grace 9 For Families and Relations that it might please the Lord to bring ours hâ—me to Christ make them his by grace and build them up to glory 10. For poor Zion that he would pity her desolations heal her breaches plead her cause pardon her sins help her to improve her mercies and prepare her yâ—t for greater deliverances from Evil when â—er grâ—cious God shall see good to grant them 11. That God would pity the â—â—rk corners of the Earâ—â— and open the Eyes of bold and blind sinners among us Q. What he the Resolutions this solemn occasion should puâ—â—â—â— ponâ— 1 To love Christ â—â—re 〈◊〉 â—â—tly 2. To remember him more frequently 〈◊〉 we 〈…〉 to remember him here thâ—â— we may forget him when gone 3 To perform all duties more spiritually 4. To watch our hearts more narrowly 5. To walk more tenderly 6. To follow him more sully 7. To renounce and deny self more freely 8 To trust in Christ more intirely 9. To take his part more boldly 10. And to keep Covenants more faithfully 38. Here have we the most amazing Instance of love that ever was given in the world and when you have travell'd the Vniverse over to seek for Love here lies the richest and rarest manifestations of Love that God gave his Son and Christ gave himself This is the heighth depth length and breadth of the love of God that passeth knowledge So great a ransom so rich a purchase so great a one become so low to set thee on high make himself so poor to enrich thee empty himself to fill thee and to do all this yea God to lay out his All on such unworthy and undeserving ones others love for some worth or good quality but God loved us when lying in our blood Now what â—an we do less for all this but make heart returns of love again Love being the very heart of the new creature and he that hath most love hath most grace and 〈◊〉 the best Christian And to provoke your love to this Beloved you may assure your selves 〈◊〉 he would never have died for you if he had not loved the meanest of you better than the highest Angel in Heaven can love him And besides if you can but love him his love will breed you more delight and hearâ— ravishing pleasure than all the love of creatuâ—es can Read but that Song of Love between Christ and his Spouse and see the unparallell'd delights of divine love between Christ and his Church Well if you love him keep his Commandments be careful to please him be tender of his honour deny your selves for his sake account all loss to win Christ thirsting after his communion longing to be perfectly free from sin that grieves his good Spirit and keeping your selves in the love of God looking or the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life No such motive to love God as studying his love to us and surely he must love us that sent his Son from his bosom to fetch us thither But why should a little love of creatures affect us so much and the great 〈◊〉 God affect us so little Aâ—â— Meerly bâ—â—â—us â—e are â—â—ore â—â—esh than spirit and have alâ—◠〈◊〉 sâ—nsâ— then faith Weak faith makes 〈◊〉 impressions of all spiritual things 〈◊〉 faith and better rooting would make â—â—â—â—â—â—ions â—aâ— more â—â—â—â—y Pet. 1.8 Now if we love Christ we will prize the â—â—ast token of his â—â—ve before all 〈…〉 can give us â—nd will thi◠〈…〉 sight of him 39. It s recorded of the Quâ—â—â— of â—beba that when she had seen the sitting of Solomon 's Servants there was no more spirit in her 1 King 10. How much more may this sight of our sitting confound and amaze us That Christs sinful servants should be set with himself at his Table considering 1. That he hath not a higher board on Earth than we sit at now and the Lord himself speak of stting with us Soag 1 12 Rev. 3.20 2 That tho it becometh â—s to stand when the King sitteth yet this glorious King came not to be ministred unto but to minister to us to gird himself as a Servant and mash the feet of his poor disciples 3. Wonder that we who deserved to lye in Hell should sit so high here 4. And the greatest wonder of all is that we should be fed at the King's Table with his own flesh allude to Job 31.31 Job 6. Shepherds use to eat the flesh of their flocks but here the good Shepherd gave his life for his sheep and feeds them with his flesh and blood And wonder also that we sit at peace a midst so many enemies that envies our feeding but it 's of the Lords great power â—nd bounty both that he prepares us a Table in this Waldernâ—ss and fills our cup in the presence of our enemies Now at this sacred so â—emnity is represented unto us the weightiest things of our Soul-concerns viz. Our sins and Christs sufferings we offending and he punished for our offences something in his Sufferings answering to our sin we a life of sinning and he a life of suffering we a load oâ— sin and he of suffering as our sin was God's provocation so is his suffering Gods satisfaction He was taken and we seâ—â—ree his death was our release Josh 20.6 there was no release nor returning in safety for the Man-slayer till the death of the High-Priest We have been light-hearted in suning but our Surcty groaning and heavy even unto death for our sin We contracted the debt and he taid the score sor us Now charge your Souls with Love Repentance Faith and Obedience with love to so friendly an â—ndeâ—taker who valued nothing whatever it cost him if he might but ransom thy soul and set thee â—â—ee◠〈◊〉 pâ—ntâ— ance for those bloody â—â—â—s that maâ—â— him sweat and weep Faith in that blood that made so perfect satisfaction and is so â—ull of Vertue to purge thy peâ—ssured and guilty soul And Obedienâ—e even a wâ—â—le Life of graceful Obedience to him that hath redeemed thy soul from Hâ—â—â— 40 The upper end of this Holy Table of the Lord is to get hearessâ—â— Chrish at the Kâ—s own Elbow when he 〈◊〉 tâ—â—â—â—â—t his Table Q
What shaâ—â— we do to get this appâ—â— end A. 1 Love 〈◊〉 an inâ—â—â—â—â—ing â—hing He that Loves most gets â—â—â—â—st Christ John 14.23 And if we Love God dâ—â—eâ—â—eth in us It was the be oved Discipie that leaned on Christ's Bosom 2. The farther we keep from sin the nearer we get to Christ 3. Faith and Hope in their lively actings bring us near to God It 's said That by the better hope the Gospel brings in we draw near to God Heb. 7.19 It hinders â—â—r approaches much to keep off from Christ by estranging unbelief and keeping the Affairs of our own Soul unsetled 4 To have Zion much on our Hearts might bring us nearer sometimes than all our own affairs can even when Abraham became an Intercessor for Sodom he drew near much more we for Zion If the things before us here rightly understood work not upon us we may conclude nothing will or ever can that comes from Heaven If God's good word and Christ's Seals of Love left with us make not Hearts stir towards him there is no hopes of Life in our case tho one should be sent from the Dead to Preach and Administer among us To get the Heart above to God by his Ordinances blessed of God is to have part in the first resurrection that the second Death may have no power over us Look to it that ye be none of them to whom Christ will say I never knew you even when you have pleaded by your eating and drinking in his presence For many may never come to tast of thâ— Supper of the Great King at last for all their â—â—ting here And that you may not miss of the blessed Entertainment of that Supper take heed that in Sealing Covenants here with the Lord you be truly devoted unto Christ and see the danger by Ananias and Saphira of keeping baâ—k any thing from God that is so solemnly once made his let heart and life be his and for him since the Lord Jehovah makes himself yours and all he is for you And after you have Covenanted to be his let your great care be to be meet for his Communion and fruitful for his Service even to abound in the work of the Lord. And let never your Heart grudg any pains in preparing to meet your God since one lock of God's reconciled Face by Ch i st Sacrificed for â—s will abundantly compence all the pains of your Preparation and charge of Service Lev. 9.4 where God's gracious appearing to his people is made their encouragement of costly service 41. Luke 22.20 This is the New-Testament in my Blood The Old was the Blood of Beasts the New is the Blood of God Acts 20.28 The Church of God purchated with his own Blood Nothing without Blood can profit us in the New Covenant No remission nor purging and washing without Blood no converse with God nor access to Heaven without it Heb. 9.12.10.19 For Christ enters in by his own Blood or he could make no entry for us All is done by Blood but no worse Blood could serve than God's which shews our loftness and his Love We lay in our Blood and Filthiness Christ brings his tâ— wash us other Blood defiles this makes white Rev. 7.14 O! Precious Blood and rich love it's strange that this â—east of Fat things should in some respect be a Banquet of Blood We know that in the Treacherous and cruel Worlds Banquets and Feasts of pretended Kindness have been finisned with the Blood of the Guests themselves but no such thing here it 's the Master of the Feast entertains the Guests with the purchase of his own Blood Moses's Wife said to him in a pet A Bloody Husband hast thou been to me because of the Circumcision but a Bloody Wife hath the Church been to Christ by â—eason of sin Redeeming us from it with his own Blood Now that Advice Acts 20.28 belongs to us Take heed to the Church of God purchased with his own Blood Now if the Ministers the Shepherds aâ—e to take heed to the Flock because purchased with â—hrists Blood then 1. Let us take heed to our own Souls for the same reason because they weâ—e so dear bought I neâ—lect them not let them not live to sin be estranged from God nor guilt lye upon them and drop into Hell at last 2 Take heed unto the Souls of one another that were purchased with this precious Blood Do nothing that may tempt them to sin and think light of Christ 3. Take heed to this Ordinance for the Blood of Christ is in it 4. Take heed to Christ himself for the sake of this Blood shed for your Sins to purchase your Souls Hear ye him that hath redeemed you turn not away from following and hearing him who justly might have turned you into Hâ—ll for your sins but hath blessed every one of you in turning you away from your Iniquities and to take you away into Heaven Now this great sight of this precious Blood are we come hither to behold in the Glass of this solemn ordinance Great Solemnities call for great Preparation and Observation especially what is represented and for what end come and behold the Works of the Lord Psal 46.8 even the glorious work of your Redemption by the Death of Christ A work greater than that of making the world yea the greatest work that ever was done in the World nay more one great end of making this goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth was that it might be a stage upon which that glorious work of our Redemption should be Acted a work wherein Mans happiness lies wherein Gods attributes are Glorified to the height and for which the Church Triumphant shall think Eternities leasure little enough to sing forth their Heavenly Hall â—llujah's 42. Many things commend this Ordinance of the Supper above all others 1. It 's setled in the Church for all Christians to remember Christ unto the world's end even till he come again while the Sun and Moon endure will Christ have the kindest commemoration in this Ordinance 2. It was that wherein Christ had his last Fellowship with his Church on Earth Now we please our selves by calling to mind our last meetings with our dear deceased friends their last words and actions have their special remarks most commonly â—et Christ's last entertainment have the best impression It was this shut up all his sweet converse with his own before his death 3. Divine Wisdom hach suited this Ordinance to our weakness and capacities accommodating heavenly things to our outward and natural senses for as we hear of a Saviour in the Word so here we see taste and handle him in the same meat Mary was forbid to touch our Lord as not ascended but now this ascended Lord allows us to touch taste and handle him in those appointed figures of him 4. It hath the greatest fitness and advantage of awaking our affections representing his dearest love in dying and redeeming us in suffering and satisfying for us
MENSALIA SACRA OR MEDITATIONS ON THE Lord's Supper WHEREIN The Nature of the Holy Sacrament is Explain'd and the most Weighty Cases of Conscience about it are resolv'd By the Reverend Mr. Francis Crow late Minister of the Gospel at Clare in Suffolk To which is prefixt a brief Account of the Author's LIFE and DEATH London Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultry 1693. A Brief Account of the late Reverend Mr. FRANCIS CROW Author of the ensuing Treatise IT has been a Custom I cannot say whether more Laudable or Ancient to transmit to Posterity some Account of the Lives of such persons as have been eminently Great or Good Our Piety towards our deceased Friends ought not to terminate at their Graves How fond are we even of the Pictures of those who either by reason of their Alliance to us or their invulgar merit claim a large share in our Esteem and Affections Alas these can but faintly represent the Lineaments of their outward Vizage but Biography expresses their better and more noble parts Many of the Hero's of Antiquity had been bury din Obscurity as well as covered with Dust were we not beholding to the Pen of a Plutarch or a Cornelius Nepos who by letting us know what in them was worthy of our imitation have rescu'd their Memories from Oblivion and crown'd their Names with Immortality It is the priviledge of the Righteous that they shall be had in everlasting Remembrance And such a one I think I may venture to call Mr Crow For if a holy exemplary Life and a no less Pious and Instructing Conclusion of it can justly confer that Character upon any Man certainly it was his due It was not my happiness to be acquainted with him in his Adolescency the paucity of my own years prohibited that therefore this brief Account of what I observ'd of that blessed man has its Scene laid much later and only comprehends a short Tract of Time But in that as in a curious piece of Miniature we have in some measure a prospect of the rest I shall consider him in two Capacities as a Minister of the Gospel and as a private Christian In both which respects his Eminency was conspicuous to all judicious and observing Spectators that either sate under his Ministry or were admitted to any Intimacy of Acquaintance with him As for those Gifts and Abilities that were more immediately requisite to qualifie him for his Honourable and Important Function they were such and so many as very rarely unite and center in any one Man His Judgment was great his Fancy rich his Memory retentive and his Elocution correspondent The Hebrew and Greek are the Two Spectacles not to say Eyes of a Divine because the Holy Scriptures were written originally in those Cryptick Languages And in both of these his skill was such as others may sooner admire than imitate I my self have seen amongst his Manuscripts which were full as excellent as numerous a judicious Collection of most of the Etymologies or Derivations of the Hebrew words us'd in the Old Testament A work of great Industry and Usefulness especially to such as labour in the Lord's Vineyard Nor was he meanly vers'd in the copious Delicacies of the Noble Greek Tongue It was one of his learned Recreations as indeed I knew of none others that he us'd to propound Questions to young Scholars that came to visit him concerning the meaning of some difficult Greek words and after they had given their sense of them he would with a grave sweetness peculiar to himself charm their Ears with a Learned Discourse of the Depths and Mysteries that he had observ'd in them Indeed I know but few that may be reckon'd his Equals in Sacred Philology His preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper work of a Minister was sufficient to demonstrate what a concurrence there was of the Divine Blessing with his Sedulous Endeavours He did not as too many do starve the Souls of his Hearers with Empty Notions and Flashy Conceits which can have no further tendency than a barren unimprovable Speculation but what he deliver'd was both serious and solid weighty Matter coucht in apt Expressions For he did not studiously affect a lofty unintelligible Jargon which some Men are apt to miscall Rhetorick But only conform'd himself to such a modest decency of Stile as was sufficient to preserve him from the contempt of those who principally regard the Form not the Substance of a Sermon And no wonder if such a Ministry had its Seals I suppose many a poor Soul in and about Clare may upon his account use the Language of Augustine to God upon his going to Millain to hear Ambrose preach I come not to him as to an Instructor Non ad illum ut ad Doctorem veni per te enâ—m ducebar nescius ut ad te per illum sciens aducerer Possid in vita D. August Thou broughtest me to him ignorantly that he might bring me to thee knowingly A most singular Dexterity had he in expounding Obscure and Difficult Texts of Scripture He was in this respect like Joseph Zophnath Paaneah sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a revealer of hidden things And this was to his great honour remark'd by a Worthy Minister that preach'd his Funeral Sermon His Catechising of Children and some of Riper Years was so well intended and so successfully prosecuted by him that tho I should be silent many of those who have been educated at the Feet of this so great a Doctor of the Divine Law are yet alive to trumpet forth his praise And his Memory will even for this be pretious to succeeding Generations But hitherto I have spoken of him as an Embassador of Jesus Christ as a Workman that needed not be ashamed And tho much more might be truly said of him as such yet it no ways comporting with my present Design I shall wave that and descend to the other part of his Character which is to consider him as a Private Christian But before I make any progress in that I judge it convenient in two or three Lines to premise that his Life and Doctrine were exactly parallel and what was said of Origen may with no less reason be apply'd to him As he liv'd Quemadmodum vixit sic docuit quemadmodum docuit sic vixit so he taught and as he taught so he liv'd His sincere Piety and real Holiness deserves particularly to be taken notice of This alone is capable of repairing the defects of our Nature contracted by Adam's Fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyssen And it is nothing else but an imitation of the Divine Nature of God And how closely did he walk with his Creator Could the Walls of his Study speak they would tell you how often he was upon his knees secretly worshipping of and praying to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascen lib. 3. Orthod Fid. Prayer is an Elevation of the mind to God An
desires of sin obeyed and the commands of Christ slighted and yet these are the most common sights we see on earth O! what pride self conceit passion prejudice revenge worâ—dlynes spiritual sloath and slumbering about salvations work is there among us These we oppose not as the enemies of our souls who thinks that a sweet lust is the poison of his soul the disgrace of our nature the cause of our unhappiness bereaves us of true delight subjects us to Vanity and Satan tyranny and Gods wrath We hide and smother sins deformity and damnableness under the mask of pleasing and pitying our selves O might Christ prevail this day with our hearts to perswade us to be up and doing even acquitting our selves liâ—e men in this matter to assault our corruptions like them who are really allarmed from heaven against our mortal enemies O that ye would resolve to give your selves no rest till you be rid of them Except not against this counsel by saying that they stick too fast and are too good friends and the work too hard and they too strong I answer all hell can put in against mortifying of lusts with this one word viz. Where eternal salvation is concerned there is no excuse to be taken Rom. 8.12 It were better to pluck out your ey s yea bowels than spare your sins and perish Be not affraid of hurting your self by parting with sin no no could we fall upon our sins and cutt them off O what free lives might we live what noble Lords and brave conquerours were we And for their strength fear it not Go forth against them in the faith of this Lord you see crucified for them and invites you to partake of the life purchased by the death this ordinance calls us to remember It ill becomes us to complain of the strength of this enemy that Christ hath overcome All sin's strength consists in our cowardice Fight and ye shall overcome conquer and ye shall be crowned 6. If we eat of the sacrifice let us have faith that we may partake of the Altar and have Christ in it We may say to you in this sacrament as Philip to the Eunuch in the other if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest Act. 8.37 At all times we have need of faith for we must live and walk by faith but in no step more need than in this John 6.56 We cannot eat his flesh unless we dwell in him now Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 Faith is the eye to discern the Lords body here the hand to receive him the mouth to feed on him We do neither see receive nor feed here without Faith Now it 's an easier matter to look with a bodily eye on bread and wine than to behold the slain lamb of God bruised for us The world think it easy to believe who never had a true sight of their sins nor sense of Gods wrath nor were ever sifted or shaken by Satans temptations nor troubled with terrours of Conscience nor acquainted with natural weakness and Christian infirmities and our own insufficiency for so much as a right or good thought of God Is it easy for a proud heart to deny it self in the point of salvation And wholly to take a Righteousness from Christ heartily submitting to a Gospel salvation in saith and patience Is it easy to see Christs humiliation and look for exaltation out of it and to look for pleasure by his pain Riches by his poverty strength by his weakness and life by his death and a blessing by his curse There is a kind of bastard faith is easy to come by you 'll find every where too much of it but the Faith of Gods elect peculiar to them even the spirit of Faith which purifieth the heart and worketh by love and maketh the soul live is not so common Now 1. this faith is never without heart humiliation for sin even a looking on him whom we have pierced with a tender sense of the dishonour and wounding of him by our Rebellions and Unbelief O! here the soul sees its baseness and weeps that so blessed a Redeemer should bleed for the sins of such a wretch and be still so insensible of this love 2 And then it wonders at infinit mercy and mourns more misery and mercy pierce the soul and make it even exceed in tenderness and tears to think of abuseing such inestimable treasures of grace 3. And it wonders at the glorious freedom of love that it should chuse such objects and this even confounds a sinful soul and makes it with a holy shame lye down in the dust and open its mouth no more Ezek 16.63 4. It renounceth carnal reason and a rebellious will and now gives up all to him who hath won its heart and payed its Ransom and therefore it 's called the obedience of faith 5. It abandons a vain world and tramples on all its glory Psal 119.96 6. And now resolves to trust in Christ for all other things since it sees a sufficiency in him for saving its soul 1 Tim. 4.8 Rom. 8.32 Luk. 12.32 7 I am affraid some come hither to seal a Covenant who never knew to make or keep a Covenant Isa 19.21 Even to enter into a perpetual Covenant with Christ to be wholly and unreservedly devoted and resigned to him in love and obedience and who have taken him to be all that the Father have given him to be to the souls of his Eâ—ect i. e. Not only to be a high priest to ransom their â—ouls from sin in hell and to appear for them before God in heaven but likewise for their great prophet to â—each them the wâ—â—le will of God and a King to conquer their lusts even a leader and commander to the people in all the ways of his revealed will Now whosoever comes hither short of this at best the seal is but set to a blanck and so stands them in no stead for they receive not Christ and carry none of his benefits with them yea it 's well if it seal not their damnation And I 'm likewise affraid of another sort that may come hither who formerly might have covenanted with Christ but for want of a lively and well exercised faith grow blind and see not astar off and have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins and so turn formal and customary And readily such Consuetudinaries who follow the drove can give little other account of their coming but that it 's the way other good people go in and it they should not come they might be missed by good neighbours and how could they keep up a name to live if they cast themselves out of good company It 's to be feared many such things are with us But if so such may eat and drink Judgment to themselves temporal Judgments in stead of spiritual enemies For such things many were weak some sick and others fallen asleep in the Church of Corinth 1. Cor. 11.30 And if such
becomes a means of fortifying and fixing the heart 2. Renewing Covenants are of great use to recover us out of backslidings after which we are to put forth the same acts again in Covenant way by closing with Christ which we acted and put forth at first conversion 3. It 's of great use to revive our declining delight in God And certainly if we make a covenant with all our heart as Asa and Israel did 2 Chr. 15.5 It 's almost impossible not to rejoice in it considering the great ends and purposes it 's made for and the Noble Person Christ that Plant of Renown we make it with a Marriage covenant with the King's Son a new Wedding-day in bringing back the Soul from its sinful wandrings unto its first Husband with whom it's much better than with any elsewhere 21. We come hither professing our selves Christ's Disciples sitting at his Table as they did that night he was betrayed whereby we say we are his sheep who hear his Voice receive his Grace and follow him yea that we are his Spiritual House to offer up spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ But yet Grace received had need to be strengthened and quickened and therefore are we come Had not Repentance and Humbling work need to be quickned and renewed by considering our sins and miseries Faith by Meditating on the Promises Love by the sense of his mercies even his tender-mercies in Christ we come to taste of to day and to pay the Tribute of Praise for bestowing such special favour upon us O! let us magnify that Mercy that hath Redeemed us at so dear a rate that all his humblings were to raise thee to Honour his Sufferings to keep thee from Perishing All this tends to bring home our Hearts to him that hath bought them so dear Now Love hath no such incentive in all the World as the Cross of Christ it grows out of it it lives in it and we are Crucified by it to all other Lovers that would seduce us from the Loyalty we owe to our own Lord Alas what can these silly pretenders say Were they Crucified for us Hereby perceive we the Love of God or else we are very Blind for he hath writ his Love in capital letters on his cross laying down his Life for us when we were â—nemies seek the world over for such Love and it cannot be found Now the very Publicans love those that love them and will ye be worse And shall our love be so faint and luke-warm when his is so flaming and passionate Look up to him that can warm thy heart at his own Table with his sacred Fire And now when Love to your Lord begins to revive think what Lust you harboured last and this is the time to get above it yea to Kill and Crucify it tho it hath been rampant and raging hitherto despising all opposition offer it now as a Sacrifice to him who was a burnt Offering for thee Shall ever sin that slew the dear Husband becomes the Wises Darling If ever you think of dwelling with Christ give it a Divorce and that the rather your Lord hath drawn the Bill with his own hand All ye that Love the Lord hate evil Love Christ and hate Sin are the two great lessons this Ordinance teacheth Love Christ that suffered for you and here sin that flew him Now here he is who descended the same also who asended follow him thither but while here look to the Grave where he lay and then to the higher House he was taken into above and leave not off looking for him till he come again 22. Here are we come to our great Physitian of Souls And among our many Diseases we had need to seek cure of these two viz. Christians faint-heartedness in sufferings and dead-heartedness in Duties Now a look of Christ would cure both What is the reason Christians faint under Sufferings but because they mind not their suffering Lord who endured all so patiently overcame all so powerfully and hath Sanctified all so comfortably to us Consider him lest you grow weary and faint in your mind that is the Remedy prescribed and so we are dead hearted and formal in Duties because we consider not Christ that is to come with Salvation at the last It 's his first coming to suffer must sweeten our Sufferings and his last coming with Salvation that must quicken us to Duties look more to the recompence of reward for ginding your Loins to the word of God Isa 35.3 4. And that you may meet with something that may do you good amidst the waverings of an unsetled mind labour to fix something on thy thoughts that may help to stay thy mind on God such a principle as this men cannot make me miserable not the world make me happy my true misery is my sin bound up and a hard unbroken Heart for it My happiness is not my thriving in Health and Wealth but my interest in the Covenant and partaking of the Divine Nature Let thy heart be breathing how happy should I go home if I might be but more Holy and live more to the honour of my Lord and be in some better condition for his blessed Service Hath not God said Behold I will make a new thing on the Earth How many such new things hath he done on the earth as to give us all new hearts and new thoughts of the things of God to Day Our Lord is saving to sinners Mind your Souls and make much of my Salvation Your Souls are precious and my Salvation is great and if ever your Souls enjoy my Salvation hereafter they must be set a longing after it now Psal 119.81 Neglect it not for it cost him dear and if you miss of it it will cost you dear For how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation 23. There be three things that commend Christ most unto any viz. His personal excellencies his usefulness and his love As for the last love lies at the bottom of the whole work of our Redemption The midst thereof paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem Song 3.10 We have the Father loving his Son for laying down his life for us Job 10.17 and and shall not we love him for it And as the Father loves the Son for this love to us so he loveth us for loving his Son John 16.27 the first pleads for our love to the Father in loving the Son for our sake in the undertaking of our Redemption the other pleads for our love to Christ since our loving of the Son commends us to the Fathers love O unheard of wonders of divine love That as the Father loveth the Elect in Christ and for Christ so he should seem to love him for our sake being so forward in our cause to suffer for us and save us from our sins It 's this love that this ordinance brings to remembrance you see it is a feast of love and love must keep the feast or all
is nothingâ— for the unparralleled pattern and spring of all love is here represented to the life believe his love and let him have love again you may well believe it for he that loved us so as to lay down his life for us when enemies how will he delight in us when washed in his blood and renewed to his likeness and if Christ have his due he will have love again And if true love it longs to see him and can deny it self to please him it will desire to know his will and delight to do it We must prove our love as our Lord did his John 14. â—1 A soul in love with Christ reckons him chiefly worthy of his love endeavours the nearest Union with him and is still going out after him Hence spring Langour and melting to enjoy him and receive his impressions resignment of will to him and a concern for his interests Love the Lord all his Saints for he keepeth their souls Love him once and all he saith and doth will be more acceptable to you and all that you do in love will be pleasing to him Love him and you will be loath to offend him â—esirous to please him and satisfied in his love Love God and you are sure of love again Prov. 8.17 Now that you may love him contemplate his goodness and see him in the face of Christ and behold his love in the design of our Redemption in the person of our Redeemer in the promises of grace and in all the benefits of Râ—demption Yea if you would love him look to the sin he hath pardoned Luk. 7.47 the spots he hath washed the Covenant he hath made the Adoption he hath bestowed the Hell he hath redeemed you from the Heaven he hath appointed and prepared for you And now get some further preparations for him and it too by loving him better and loathing your selves more We might all love God more 〈◊〉 we could love our selves less Could holy Mr. Pradford sit and weep at dinner till the â—â—â—rs â—â—ll on his trencher because he could love Christ no more and we sit dry here at his own table with hearts void of Love to him 24. Here have we our gracious Redeemer with died garments glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength staining his raiment with the blood of his enemies and ours trading the wine press of Gods wrath alone mighty to save ready to pardon This ordinance of the supper â—ives us the best occasion of airing our selves in the sweet and spacious field of our Lords sufferings And we cannot be good Christians if we do not hartily imbrace the opportunities the Gospel gives us of calling his Cross to remembrance The bent of every believers mind stands this way else how can we be said to live by the faith of the son of God who gave himself for us And if we be not led by a natural complacency to converse with a crucified Saviour how dwelleth the Love of God in us Or how can we clear an interest in his Death for us Hath he the heart of a Christian that cares not to meditate on the death of Christ Did the Apostle bear always about the dying of the Lord in his body and should not we do the same in our hearts Now since our great business here is about Christ crucified let us enquire a little what doth the Lord require of us The sum of all is in three words Behold me Receive me and Walk in me First observe how that great Gospel-invitation of the Gentiles Isa 65.1 15. is doubled Behold me Behold me 1. To shew how serious a suiter Christ is for our souls 2. to shew our natural aversness from looking unto Christ 3. To shew how much of a Christians work lies in looking unto Christ 4. To take in and comprehend all kinds of people and sorts of sinners 5. To hold out the delectably variety of sweet Sights a soul may have of Christ in his Natures Person Offices and Excel encies and Usefulness 6. To teach that tho' the first look of Christ should not please yet to look again and not to leave looking till we can find something in Christ to aâ—lure us Secondly Receive me rest in me and build upon me Receive him that is come so far to you and suffered so much for you When I was abundantly well with my Father always rejoycing before him and was daily his delight yet my delights were with the sons of men And down came I to be cloathed with your flesh a course garment for the Lord of Glory to go in â—â—at in your nature I might bear your curse and dy the death you deserved to dy and to redeem you from that misery you must have groaned under for ever And should such a Comer not be welcome Be summoning up all the powers of your souls to give him the hastiest Reception Lastly as you have received him so walk in him by a constant depending on him drawing vertue from him and keeping Communion with him yea farther we are to walk in Christ as we have received him i. e. with the same freshness of affections bent of will satisfaction in him and obsequiousness to him daily repeating that consent and renewing that Covenant we made at first with him Thus are we to behold him with an eye of faith receive him with a hand of faith and walk in him by a life of faith and so shall we have the blessed end of our faith the salvation of our souls 25. The sanctuary of the Lord may be profaned by us when we little think of it The truest notion of profaneness is a contempt of sacred things Heb. 12.16 Now we shew our contempt of them not only in keeping far from the things of Christ and salvation but by setting about them with an ordinary and common frame careless in preparing to meet our God in them with a broken heart becoming best an ordinance that shâ—ws forth a broken Christ for us In common providences we cannot know love or hatred by all that is before us But here is something before us whereby we may see Gods love to our souls and his hatred to our sins If we could by this Sight be stirred up to hate our vile lusts and love our dear Saviour more then were we fit guests for the table of the Lord. Let us not look off this precious attonment here represented till our hearts be turned against the sins that put our Lord to all the pain and shame he suffered for them Let never any of us love our selves till we can heartily loath our selves for sin and then Christ will love us and delight in us Next to our considering what sights shall we have of Christ our thoughts should be taken up with what a sight is he like to have of us We come hither to see Christ And be sure the King comes in to see his guests if there be ever a one that wants the wedding
like Lions against sin and Satan 3. Hath he not past his promise for feeding his own yea to eat and be satisfied Psal 22. 6. Psal 111.5 Prov. 10.3 4. Hath he not made them worse than Infidels that feed not their own Family 5. Did he feed the multitude because he had compassion on their Bodies and wi l he not have compassion on the Souls or his own 6. Doth he feed young Ravens and will he starve Believers 7. Have we not his own invitation to the Feast and will the Master of the House make it a Fast 8. Shall we ear of the Tree of Life and hidden Manna in Heaven Surely he n ver meant to starve such by the way but allow t â—m sâ—me cauâ—â—r of the first ripe Grapes to refresh them in the Wildâ—rness 9 May we not plead with our loving Lord thus Lord I hear thou keepest a good House having bread enough to spare give me such a Portion as may commend it unto me and I will commend it to others 10. We may say How many hast thou refreshed of thy poor and needy Hast not thou said Whosoever will let him come and Drink freely upon thy call I come to drink of Wisdom's spiced Wine of this consecrated Cup that I may here and hereafter remember thy Love more than Wine 11. I plead my own necessitiâ—s and wants where should the poor be filled and the hungry feed but at the gates of the Rich and Full If thou hast not enough send me away empty but I make a Vertue of Necessity I must live by my Food as other Creatures do and is not Christ the food of a hungry Soul 12. I plead thy Glory for my feeding here will this commend thy bounty and compassion to send away from thy Fulness a starving Beggar without supply Let us cast an eye on that Miraculous Feast Christ made the Multitude Luke 9.17 And they did eat and were all filled and the fragments gathered up far exceeded the poor provision it was made of O! but it had Christ's blessing and that made much of a little And when we are Christ's Guests we should not only eat but look to be filled And gather up the Fragments incomes and expences of Divine Love and Favour Now that we may take this Feast up aright it is not a Sacrifice but a Sacrifical Feast or Covenant Feast of Peace and Friendship a Feast after a Sacrifice and by our eating here is declared our interest in that Sacrifice of Christ's Flesh offered to reconcile us to God even as they under the Law did â—â—t of the Sacrifice and so partake of the Altar to shew it was theirs that the Priest offered as if they had been at the Altar with the Priest And further this is a Feast of God's providing as Abraham to Isaac God will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt Offering and therefore was the Sacrifice accepted because it was of his providing for known unto him alone it was what would satisfy his own Justice And strâ—ngâ— it was that this Sacrificeing of his Son should be a sweet smelling Savour a more wonderful word was never written Eph. 5.2 How dear must our Salvation be unto God that made the greatest Sufferings of Christ so pleasing to him which other wise the Lord would have abhorred Wherever the Sacrifice is said to be a sweet Savour its â—aid to be made with Fire Num. 28. and 20 chapters shewing that nothing but Christ s Sufferings can Satisfy for our sin For all the Sacrifices only signified Christ but could not satisfy God 36. Our proper exercise here consists of Meditation Petition and Resolution For Meditation the thoughts of the righteous are right it 's no small part of our work to have right and proper thoughts at present 1. Think how unworthy I am to appear here and have place among them that stand by tho I were not admitted to sit down with my Lord himself I who to Natural Corruption have added such a heap of actual Transgressions inward enmity and outward contrariety to God Ignorance unbelief apostasy despising of grace and abusing of patience have so filled up my measure and made so great a part of my wretched days and unworthy Life 2. Think how worthy and honourable is Christ to whose holy Table I presume to approach He who is the Fathers dorling and delight the light of Heaven and the great Blessing of all Nations who hath obtained a name above every name at whose name every knee must bow and whom the Angels of Heaven all do Worship He whose Table I am now sitting at on Earth sits highest in Heaven at this very moment 3. Think again how good it is to sit here with a sound Heart we cannot be better set on Earth But if a Hypocrite how ill I am set having not on a Wedding Garment I mock God harden my own heart heap up wrath eat and drink damnation by Crucifying the Lord afresh 4. Think what is my business here but to meet the Lord Chriâ—t by his own appointment that I may get more acquaintance and grow more in Love with him and to be more obliged to him by a new sight of my Redemption by him and receiving some Spiritual gift 5. Think what is prosered me here His Love his Grace his Peace his Pardon his Covenant and Kingdom 6 You have never a right thought here if you think not of a bleeding Christ a suffering and satisfying Redeemer hanging on the Cross and all your sins hanging on him For what else could ever bring him there having no sin to suffer for of his own and all power to avoid suffering by any And think again how he was dealt with on terms of Justice that we might be dealt with on terms of Mercy And â—â—â—t which would have been in so many drops of an Eternal Hell to us was made to meet on him in one great Sea drinking up Dregs and all O! think ransomed Saved Sinner if Christ had not drunk thy Cup of Wrath to free thee thou must had such a Cup put to thy head as if brought to a great Sea fill'd with Gall and Wormwood and Justice say to thee Now sinner thou that likedst so well the Cup of sin â—o here is the Cup of wrath drink and never leave Drinking while one drop is left Now see your obligation to Christ and despise him if you can And see how sad it had been to be without him 37. As for Petition and Resolution that belongs to this purpose in hand Q. What Petitions are here to be preferred A â— For much of Christs gracious and powerful presence a clear day without clouds that he would not hide himself at such a time and disappoint the Expectation of the needy but so countenance his owâ— work as we may comâ—â—â—dâ—â— unto others 2. For a heart humbling look of your dear dying Lord O how should it humble us to see how my sins humbled the Lord of glory 3. Put in
I who have sate so long at the Table of Devils by feeding my Lusts and serving Satan should be advanced to feast it with the Lord of Glory Even I who deserved the lowest place in Hell should here be sate in the highest place on Earth Let the thoughts of such wonderful love lead you into his Banqueting-house and suffer your Souls to be overcome with this Banner of his love that unparallell'd love that loved you and washed you in his own blood Again consider it is the Supper of the Lord he setteth us down unto This is that we eat and drink even our Lord's Last Supper on Earth This was the parting-Cup after which he was not to drink till he drunk it new in the Kingdom of God For preciousness Cleopatra's Cup was nothing to this tho filled with dissolved Pearls O the love that lay at the bottom to sweeten this Cup to us tho the bitterest to him that ever was put to the head of any Mortal and the more Gall and Wormwood to him the more Love and Good Will to us for whom he drank it This Last Supper on Earth is a Emblem of an after-Supper in Heaven And truly that large and long sumptuous Supper of the Lamb 's preparing above may make a Saint sit down satisfied with a short Dinner on Earth Let the Heirs of Glory never grumble at a dish of green herbs the poorest and meanest Morsel wiâ—h a Cup of cold water since the finest of the Wheat and Honey out of the Rock are too low expressions of thy Heavenly Commons a coming And for what our blessed Lord allows you here you have it with the heartiest welcome Christ sayeth to none of you Eat and drink and his heart is not with you That you are forbid to eat of for it 's the â—â—eâ—d of him that hath an evil eye Prov. 23.6 7. But this you are commanded to eat we offer it in his Name take it in obedience and believe a blessing 47. My sighing come before my eating says Job So must ours doâ—â—w before we can comfortably eat and drink here many a sigh and groan the body of death will cost us many a sad heart for sin Sigh saith the Lord to the Prophet to the breaking of thy Loins 1. That thou shouldst have been so unhappy as to have hand in cutting off the Messiah and slaying this Lamb of God that thy sins nailed him to the Cross and pierced his siâ—e yea his hands and his feet wounding the Son of God even to death with thy sins 2. That his Love hath been neglected so long and so much that the offers of his redeeming Grace hath met with so little hearty entertainment that his sufferings for our sins have been so faintly resented that we have carried so strangely to him that was so deeply concerned for us 3. That he hath had so little honour by us for whom he hath made so rich a purchase that we have laid out our selves so sparingly for him that spared not to pour out his blood for us yea that we should ever prove treacherous to him that was so true to our Interest 4. That now we can love him no more when his Banner of Love is so fairly displaved over us in this Ordinance of his own Supâ—er this Feast of fat things Oh that such choice entertainment should meet with so sorry welcome and such dull affections That our ordinary food should more refresh us than this heavenly Manna That we can meet our suffering Lord with so little remorse for sin and so little delight in his Love But tho grief preceed and go before yet let Joy take its own place and enter his Courts with praise Let transports of heavenly joy fill our redeemed souls that ever the glad tidings of the great salvation sounded in our ears that ever we heard of that great gift of God Jesus Christ and that he hath been at any time recommended to our heart with power that the holy Trinity hath so well contrived our Redemption in that ancient Covenant wherein the Father gave his Elect to Christ to be redeemed and the Son most readily undertook the Work and went through all its steps with such heroick and hearty resolution and good acceptation Rejoice O righteous ones that the Father laid help upon one so mighty able to answer all his demands and to pay our debts Rejoice that Heaven sent to the Earth by so sure a hand and hath made with us so sure and well-ordered a Covenant in all things we can be concerned in for life and Godliness that the Gates of Paradise which our sins shut are now so open unto us that sinners through their High Priest in Heaven have so free and bold access to this exalted Throne of grace but alas for our bruitish stupidity and unbelief that have carnal minds much more taken with a vain World and empty dying comforts than with all the Treasures of Grace and Mansions of Glory 48. This Feast of fat things here presented who can feed upon it Do we know the entertainment of this Table Here is represented the singular and wonderful love of a dying Saviour The great Mystery that Angels desire to look into The Lamb of God Sacrificed for sinners Can we behold it with dry eyes and dead hearts Qu. What impressions should it make upon us and leaves us under Ans 1. I 'll never give sin a good look again thro the grace of God that cost my loving Lord Jesus so dear 2. I 'll despise the love of creatures never lay it in the ballance with Christs Whether they smile or frown I 'll be little affected For her 's a love puts all love down A love who can comprehend in It 's matchless adventures and transcendent exceedings 3. My love should be a constant careful study of some answerable returns of love again 4. I 'll never like my self again Farther than I may be serviceable and suitable to this loving Lord that bled for me My members shall all be servants of righteousness unto Holiness my soul shall ever magnify the Lord my thoughts shall be captivated unto him I shall know no Friends nor Enemies but his My prayers shall be to him My Joy and my delight shall be in him My faith shall firmly rest in his righteousness and satsfaction my patience shall be imployed to bear his Cross my heart shall stand ever open to his Calls The zeal of his house shall eat me up My life shall be a transcript of his Laws and my death a desired dissolution to be with him In a word the Covenant I now renew with him at his own holy table I am willing should be laid against me for Conviction Accusation and humiliation in all my departings from him But knowing that without him I am nothing and can do nothing all my expectation is from him and amidst my best purposes sensible of my sin and weakness I do with holy David say O Lord when wilt
be a solemn renewing of the holy Covenant first enter'd into by Baptism consenting to the Covenant we are there to renew 3. To be a living means to exercise and encrease Grace by representing the evil of sin and the infinite love of God in Christ 4. For a solemn profession of our Faith love and Obedience 5. For a sign and means of Vnity and Communion of Saints Christ hath appointed their consecrated representations to be in the eye of the Church in their manner and measure to supply the room of his bodily presence while he is in heaven The table in the tabernacle Exod. 25.23 24. May represent this Table of the Lord overlaid with pure gold and a crown of Gold round about it because of Holiness becoming it and a King sitting at it At this table should we be asking our own Souls what our thoughts are of Christ and what we have for him that it may be no idle visit you make or fruitless view you take of him but let your requests and great askings be ready on the string for more grace to your selves or true grace to your Relations what is upon your hearts for your Soul child yoke-fellow or son the Church of God Make sure you have grace before you come if you can I say if you can for every worthy communicant cannot profess himself certain of his sincerity but so far as he can discern by observing of his own heart he is truely willing to have Christ and his benefits on the terms that they are offered i. e. To take Christ in all his offices as King to rule him as Prophet to teach him and as Priest to pardon and save him And next we must be careful to exercise grace given They who have no grace can act none and therefore mustly by and sit idle here gazing on an unknown Christ And if any be here who know themselves to be ungodly ones I think they had best rise and run from their own damnation Some feed without fear or remorse for sin yea perhaps resolve to keep up some lust they know of To what end is this ordinance for you It 's a day of Darkness and no Light 2. The great voice of this Ordinance is Behold me Behold me We are called here to look on a pierced Lord Jesus And what shall we see in him See the maker of all things bowed down under the burden of our sins and weight of Gods wrath Look on him whom you have pierced and mourn Look on his wounds and weep Look on his Love and wonder Look on his satisfactions and Believe Look on his Victory and rejoyce Look on his purchase and contemn your earthly interests Here is the best and brightest glass in all the world God gives us to behold his son in and we may come as near him here as any ordinance can bring us When you look on the Elements stay not there till you ascend and see him who is invisible When by faith you come to see him whom your Soul loveth prostrate thy sinfull Soul with a holy wondering that sinfull dust and ashes may draw so near Study to get the fixed eye on him as loath to take it off being so well pleased with his beauty and worth Learn to think the less of other objects after you have seen the Lord. As Mahometans put out their eyes some of them after they have beheld Mahomets tomb that they may never defile their eyes with an other sight after so goodly and glorious a one The name of the Lord being so eminently engraven on all we are about should strike a dread and holy reverence on all our hearts the day the table the supper we are at are all the Lords but what if we be not the people of the Lord truly if we be not he bids us not welcome and what if we be here and the Lord not with us Then we had far better be else where But how may we know if we have him present even his sweet society and blessed company It 's his table we sit at and that is no small honour for he is a â—ing and that is not all he will sit with us himâ—elf and give us his own company and we may know it by this when the King sâ—tteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof Song 1.12 Whence Obs 1. Believers wâ—ll observe what others doe not viz. When Christ is at the table and when not and it will be empty to them when he is absent 2. That Christs own presence must be depended upon both for sensible comfort to believers and for reviving their graces and making them lively It 's the exalted Kâ—ng oâ— glory 's own presence that makes his own grace in our hearts livelâ— and savoury It 's our keeping near him and his condescending to keep near us makes all his gracious work in us to bud and blossom 3. O the great condescention of God to sinful mortals that when he was invisible by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours he made himself to be seen in the flesh and now by his ascention having made his flesh also invisible by reason of the vast distance between his place and ours he hath made his flesh in a mystical sence even to be seen and tasted in the sacrament O if he hath humbled himself thus far unto our senses let us not by an odious ingratitude humble him lower even under our feet and trample on this precious blood of the Covenant by rushing on this so solemn and sacred a thing with a careless and unprepared frame taking no pains to get a broken and holy heart to intertain him with To take this sacrament into an earthly dirty heart is to take this heavenly bread and throw it into the dirt O do's any of you think to come hither and take these holy mysteries into your covetous proud lustful unrenewed hearts It 's plainly to resolve upon laying up his richest treasures in a noisom Sink and what an indignity is this Christ is in heaven himself and will not enter into any but an heavenly heart here And he who exposeth himself so much to the view of your senses calleth you to Spiritualise your earthly senses let that mouth that cateth at this table never speak vanity nor lies that hand which is reached out to receive him be no more a right hand of falshood or injury to any these eyes which look on your Lord here be no more gazing on Vanity or forbidden objects But to raise your hearts above beggarly Elements which you see this day with eyes of flesh consider this ordinance signifies and seales Christ and his Covenant with all his rich promises of grace and glory The body of our blesed Lord is really in heaven for he is risen and ascended but his body is as truely sacramentally here as really in heaven making the most clear representation of his death and solemn commemoration of it that the
earth bears or we are capable of in the flesh If there had been a more proper and better way we are bound to believe our Lord would have left it with us And since this is a token left with us to remember us of his dearest love in dying for us and washing us in his own blood let us receive and celebrate it with the liveliest affections and the heartiest acceptation we are capable of Still considering with our selves that tho' it be good to be here where much more of Christ is to be seen to day than many places of the earth can afford yet that it 's far better to be in heaven where the vail of our mortality shall be rent and the vail of this infirm flesh of ours shall be made spiritual and glorious the shadows of Sacraments fly away and the glass of all Gospel ordinances be removed as useless even the pitcher be broken at the fountain and the great Riddle of our salvation fairly unâ—olded to us all clouds and vapours of sin and darkness dispelled and patience and prayers and o edience we l rewarded And in a word where a more immediate and princely presence of Christ shall be intimately and constantly enjoyed without any oâ—lowing fears of parting Now the hope and assurance of all this we come to seal Trifle not with so sacred a thing but set your heart to the receiving of your Lord here with all his sanctifying quickning and comforting vertue which our sinful sinking souls need so much Now for this end he meets us here to day 4. Here is the staff of bread and wine that maketh glad the heart of man The Communion both of the body and blood of our Lord â—hrist Lo here is both a peace offering for you and an offer of peace to you under heavens broad Seal How many burdened and weary souls have unloaded at this port O let not weakness so much deterr as wants drive us hither for sense of wants and weakness and unworthiness and wrath all fit for him who hath all fulness strength worth and merit and who bare the wrath of God for them that flee to him for refuge And think it not enough to make your appearance here without some fitness for so solemn an action It is not so incongruous to sport and laugh at your Father's Funeral as to sit here restless and unconcerned at the commemoration of our blessed Lords death yea bloody death and bitter passion Shall we see the head wounded here and the members have no feeling That we see the bread broken which represents the breaking of Christs precious body for us and have no broken hearts Yea shall we be called to Contemplate the wrath of his provoked Father pour'd into his Cup and drinking the dregs thereof and crying out under the weight of our Sins which brake the very rock of our Salvation and made the Stones of the Temple to rend in sunder Was his Body broken to let out his Blood And shall not our Souls be broken to let in ☞ Look well to three things if you would be worthy Communicants viz. To have Grace ere you come to exercise Grace here and to increase it by coming Now for you that have Grace but it runs low and is not lively as you would have it to entertain your Lord withal Know there is smoaking Grace as well as flaming Grace and Christ will not quench the smoaking flax and what if he suffer thy Graces to keep low to day that thy Heart may be lowly for it ☞ But for them that are at high water and Spring-tide let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Sensible Enjoyments are but slippery things here Man in his best estate in this Life is altogether vanity but while the Lord allows them on us let us be careful to improve them well ☞ But what if all within lies still and an heavy heart stir not yet for all that is said Then look unto him that can remove Mountains and raise the dead The warm breathings of Heaven must be fetch'd in by believing Prayer Song 4. ult And when thou hast called on thy Soul to awake and work and yet nothing within thy rebellious Soul will obey then call on him whom Seas and Winds obey When we cannot fetch Life into our dead Souls then remember the Prince of Life quickens whom he will ☞ 5. A sight of sin and a sight of Christ who suffer'd for it are our fittest Objects at such a time and in the sufferings of Christ we see most of sin's evil The death of all the creatures under the Law for man's sin was nothing to the death of Christ for it As God looks on Believers through a dying Christ and loves them so let us look on sin through a dying Christ and hate it Thy sin is indeed the Object of God's hatred but thy misery that comes by it will God pity and so pardon sin and shew thee mercy if thou canst hate thy sin and in token of thy hatred of it flee far from it and cry to God mightily for grace and strength against it And if a poor soul hath been labouring last night and this morning for a more humbling sight of sin than yet hath been granted him he must never think to see sin so exceeding sinful as in seeing Christ a sacrifice for sin and if it had not been for our sin all the other enemies would never have slain the Lord of Glory And when the worst of sin is in Christ's sufferings for it we must not only make use of Christ as a Glass to see sin in but as a Physician too to cure it And when he hath shewed us our sin we must not go to King Jareb with our wounds but the same hand which broke us must bind us up And be your sins what they will if you can penitently and believingly plead pardon in the mediation of a broken Redeemer there will be found Balm enough to cure and Blood enough to wash yea drown them all in the depths of divine mercy tho we must not sin that grace may abound and go and sin to make work for the Blood of Christ and go about prophanely to pose his mercy for tho the Blood of Christ for fulness and efficacy be a Sea yet for tenderness it 's a Sea of Glass and mingled with fire to burn up our Lusts We come either to God as a Physician or a Judge for either we bring Souls full of sores to be cured or full of sins to be damned To meet with Christ and not to part with sin is sad and dreadful as Christ came into the world to destroy sin so should we come now to Christ for the same end O the sin of our natures that old man the ill habits the strong lusts the ill haunts our hearts have got venture to set Christ against them all to day We cannot speak good of Christ but ill of sin too How sad to see the