his lusts he that despises riches and conquers himself does works as pleasing to God and as profitable to himself as he that removed Mountains and cast them into the Sea Nay such works as these are better for us and more acceptable to God than the power of doing the greatest Miracles He that lives well does more than he that wrought Miracles It was not the power of doing Wonders that made men Christians Their Christianity did consist in the obedience of there lives He that obeys the Gospel and our Faith teacheth us to do so receives the grace mercy which it offers If we could do wonders and yet remained void of the love and image of God we would not be in the state of Salvation The lives of the Apostles made them dear to God and not their miracles And St. Luke when he writes the story of what the Apostles did does not give his Book the title of the Miracles of the Apostles but the Acts or Practices of the Apostles is the title which it bears Our Saviour bids the Disciples not to rejoyce that the spirits are subject to them but rather says he rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luk. 10.20 Our obedience does intitle us to Gods favour but so does not our power to do wonderful works If we work iniquity it is not the gift of working Miracles that shall stand us in stead Many says Christ will say to me in that day Lord Lord have not we prophesied in thy name And in thy name have cast out Devils And in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Matth. 7.22 23. That Faith which wrought Miracles endured but for a time but the Faith which works righteousness is to abide for ever If our Faith cleanse and purifie our hearts we shall not need be troubled that it does not remove Mountains If we be condemned at that great day it shall not be because we did not work Miracles but because we did not feed the hungred and cloth the naked c. Matth. 25. Jam. 2.15 16. 'T is our sincere obedience to the Gospel which God requires and will reward hereafter We must shew our Faith by our works as Abraham did or else we shall have no reason to judge Faith saving If it be such a Faith as cleanseth our hearts if it enable us to forgive our enemies if it help us to overcome the World if it make us strong against Temptations patient under Afflictions constant under Trials and careful to obey God then it is such a Faith as God requires of us But if on the other hand it be but a lazy belief of the truth of the Gospel and a confident expectation however of grace and pardon it is not such a Faith that will save our Souls And let us never so much vaunt our selves that we magnifie the free Grace of God when we profess a recumbency upon Christ and a resting upon him for Salvation yet if we remain idle and disobedient this Faith will not avail us He does savingly believe that does assent to the truth of what God hath revealed and is so far in love with it also that he does sincerely and heartily give himself up to the obedience of it And he that does this as he ought is so far from depressing the freeness of Gods Grace and exalting himself that when he hath done all that he can and which is commanded he can say from the bottom of his heart that he is an unprofitable Servant and hath done that which was his duty to do Luk. 17.10 CHAP. IX BUT as we must examine our Faith towards God so we must try our love towards one another For the Eucharist is a feast of love and a Sacrament of Charity And was not only designed for our renewing our most solemn Covenant with God but also for the maintaining a fervent Charity with one another as hath been shewed before Now as we are too forward to profess a Faith which we have not so it is to be feared we do commonly profess a Charity when we are devoid of it And therefore it will very highly concern us to enquire diligently whether or no we have a fervent Charity and Love to one another For the Holy Scriptures commend to us a Love without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 a Love that is fervent and with a pure heart 1 Pet. 1.22 A Love which does not lie in Word and in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth 1 Joh. 3.18 Now though we do make pretences of Love to one another yet it is much to be feared that we do frequently but pretend it and that under this great pretence of kindness there does frequently lurk a secret root of bitterness Now notwithstanding Charity be a most extensive Grace yet I shall consider it at this time as it does import these two things First a readiness to do our Neighbour good Secondly to forgive evil For where there is a true Love we shall be ready to give and forgive to do all the good we can and forgive all the evil which is done against us These two will make our love to one another like the love of God to us who does not only forgive our offences but does also load us daily with his benefits First we shall be ready to do our Neighbour all the good we can if we do love him as we should And if we would make a right judgment of the sincerity of this love which we bear our Neighbour we must judge of it by that love which we bear our selves for we are strictly obliged to Love our Neighbour as we love our selves Mat. 22.39 Now before we can be said to do this we must 1. Wish our Neighbour the same good which we wish to our selves We must have the same sincere affection to our Neighbour which we have to our selves This must be the standard by which we are to measure our love And as it is very easie to discern that we do very sincerely wish well to our selves so must we do by our Neighbour also before we can be said to love him as we love our selves And this must be understood in the greatest latitude Certain it is that we wish well in the general to our own souls to our Bodies our Credit and Estate though we many times use not the means which tend to their welfare we must do thus as sincerely by our Neighbour also And 2. We must in all our actions do by him as we in the like case should or may reasonably desire that he should do by us This we must inviolably observe before we can be said to love our Neighbour as we do love our selves And it is a very plain case that we would not that our Neighbour should invade our just rights and therefore if we love him as we love our selves we shall be as careful not to invade his If
we are in misery or want we shall be glad of our Neighbours compassion and relief and when we love him as our selves we shall as readily afford him ours We shall be very ready to preserve our Neighbours credit to put a fair interpretation upon his actions to relieve his wants to bewail his misery to farther the Eternal welfare of his Soul if we do love him as our selves And indeed it will not avail us that we do pretend to love our Neighbour if we do not help him and do him good If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily Food and one of you say unto them depart in peace be you warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the Body what doth it profit Jam. 2.15 â—6 Certainly we are devoid of love to Our Neighbour if we do him not good as we have an opportunity Whose hath this Worlds good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his Bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 Joh. 3.17 If we love our Neighbour we shall most readily do him good and we shall always stand ready to do good offices to all with whom we shall converse And Secondly we must forgive the evil which our Neighbour does to us This we must also heartily do before we can worthily partake of this Holy Sacrament And I shall shew 1. what it is to forgive and 2. what great reason we have to do it when we partake of this Sacrament First what it is to forgive or what kind of forgiveness the Gospel requires of us and of this I shall speak 1. Negatively 2. Positively Negatively 1. Forgiveness implyes more than a bare profession of kindness This is a very common thing and may well be supposed to take place amongst those that yet remain very great enemies It is common to make great protestations of an hearty reconcilement Our Saviour requires that we forgive one another from our hearts Mat. 18.35 2. Forgiveness implyes more than a bare abstaining from making spiteful returns There may be a secret malice where there is no visible injury done We are obliged to love our enemy 't is not enough that we do him no harm 3. Forgiveness implyes more than doing kindnesses to our Brother It does indeed require a readiness to do this but yet the doing kindnesses to our enemy is no certain argument that we have forgiven him We may be bountiful and liberal and yet devoid of Charity 1 Cor. 13.1 We may give and yet not forgive And perhaps we may do our enemy a kindness out of pride and vain-glory or else we triumph over his misery and rejoyce that he who was before the object of our envy is now become the object of our pity Positively 1. He that forgives a right does it universally That is he forgives every man and every Trespass and at every time We easily forgive little offenders and the smaller faults of our Neighbour But the sincere Christian does more than this he forgives not only a professed enemy but a treacherous and false friend not only him that despises him but the most curseing Shimei that reproaches him to the face His Charity beareth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 2. He is so far from taking revenge that his mind is free from all the intention of it The leaven of malice is quite purged out of his heart he is so far from watching an opportunity of mischief that he desires it not And so far from doing evil that such is his Charity he thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 3. He does heartily pity his Enemy and pray for him And in this is a follower of the Precept and of the example of his Blessed Saviour Mat. 5.44 Luke 23.34 He does not only not requite his enemies with evil but he returns him good As for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my Soul with fasting and my Prayer returned into mine own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my Friend or Brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his Mother Psal 35.13 14. 4. He does not only forgive but forget He is most willing to let the remembrance of the injuries he hath received pass away And as a proof of this he is most ready to do his enemy a kindness and that out of no other design at all but a sense of his duty and a real Love which he finds in himself towards him He does not do it out of ostentation nor with a purpose to upbraid him with ingratitude or enhance his guilt but meerly because he loves him and desires his welfare with no less sincerity than he does his own And still as a farther demonstration that he forgets the injury received he is most ready to restore his enemy to the same degree of Love which he had before he did the wrong He is willing to admit him to the same kindness which he enjoyed before aye and to the same trust and confidence also upon his Repentance or the probable indications of it In one word he does not retain any thing of malice or ill-will but on the other hand finds in himself a most sincere love and good will and by all his actions does shew the great sincerity of it No less than such a forgiveness does the Gospel require no less does the true Christian find in himself And certainly it cannot be any thing short of this For we must forgive as we desire God to forgive And sure I am we desire from Heaven no less than such a forgiveness and must therefore think our selves obliged to do no otherwise by our Brother than we would that God should do by us For in this matter that is the Rule we are to go by we are to imitate God to forgive our offending Brother Even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4.32 Secondly I come to shew what great reason we have to forgive our brother when we come to this Sacrament Now that I shall shew in the following Severals 1. Because in this Sacrament we keep in remembrance the death of Christ This was one great end of its Institution and this does strongly oblige us to forgive our brother Whether we consider the death of Christ 1. In it self as obliging us to put away all our sins for which he dyed It is but reason we should put away our sins which put our Lord to death And if he dyed for sin then ought we by no means to live in it If we do we crucifie our Lord afresh and are more cruel to him than Judas or Pontius Pilate We make his pains of no effect and shew our selves void of all pity to our bleeding Saviour They were our sins that put him to his shame and to his sorrow and if we retain them we do but trample upon his precious blood we are very wretched Creatures if we maintain his enemies and add to
Blessed Saviour But our remembrance of it must be 1. Affectionate and vigorous as we remember the death of a dear friend that died and died in our quarrel and defence who at once shed his blood for us and for the truth How passionately can we rehearse the praises and preserve the memory of such an one as this 'T was thus with our dearest Lord he fell a Sacrifice at once for the testimony of the truth and for the sake of our precious Souls He died that he might rescue us from eternal misery and death And this we must remember when we do remember the death of our Blessed Lord. 2. With all thankfulness to God for so unspeakable a mercy Let us awaken our Psaltery and Harp all our powers and faculties and all that is within us to praise his holy name Let us have our hymn of praise Matth. 26.30 'T is an heavenly feast we are going to and who goes to a feast with a sad countenance or heart Let us be filled with the spirit Speaking to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and making melody in our hearts to the Lord Ephes 5.18 19. We are Gods guests at this time and God loves we should be chearful and rejoyce He would have the Jews so in their Festivals Deut. 16.11 14. And certainly we have more reason to be so than they God having provided some better thing for us Heb. 11.40 This Sacrament is an Eucharist or service of praise and as such was observed by the first Christians Who breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favour with all the people Act. 2.46 47. 3. It must be such a remembrance as works in us a detestation against our sins which put our Blessed Saviour to death Coâ—â—â—â—ve you saw him hang upon the Cross and saw the nails pierce his hands and feet that you heard him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And that you saw the blood he sweat and the thorns he wore That you saw the Sun darkened the Dead arise and the rocky Earth rend in pieces certainly if your hearts were not more hard than the rocks you would relent especially when you consider that all this was for your sins and that he died that you might live 'T was thy Covetousness that betrayed him Thy Iust that made him bleed Thy unbelief and wickedness that loaded Him with the Cross that crowned Him with thorns that nailed his hands and pierced his side and filled his Soul with horror and amazement This should work in us a great indignation against our Sins as that which crucified our dearest Lord. Should a tender Mother lose a Child by a knife or some other instrument that is but the occasion of its death Surely she would not endure to see that instrument in her sight If we loved our Saviour we should hate our sins which made him bleed and bow his head Since 't is a most certain truth that he that commits sin does more displease i. e. does that which is more against the mind and will of Christ than Judas that betrayed him and those that hanged him upon his Cross And therefore as you pity your Saviour add not to his sorrows as you have any compassion to Him add not to the bitterness of his Soul Bring not with you instruments of crâ—â—lty when you pretend to remember his love â—e shewed in his death But think thâ—◠〈◊〉 that if God did not spare his Son that 〈◊〉 might not go unpunished that he will mucâ— less spare you who go on in your sins and love them III. Another great end of this Sacrament is that Christians might by it be united together in the strictest bond of love and charity It is indeed a feast of love and that which does not only joyn us to God but firmly cements us also to one another This indeed is the great Commandement of our Blessed Saviour that we should love one another as He hath loved us John 15.12 Nay he hath made this the mark by which his followers shall be known from the rest of the World By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Joh. 13.35 And in the early days of Christianity the Heathen World took notice how the Christians loved one another Nay the Holy Scriptures tell us that in the beginning of Christianity The multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul Act. 4.32 And they shewed their love to one another by making all things common that there might be no lack and wants among them Acts 2.44 45. But then 't is added when it was that they loved one another thus greatly viz. While they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart verse 46. Whiles there were frequent Communions in the Church of God there did remain a fervent Charity among Christians But when they were but seldome celebrated Charity also grew cold For indeed this Sacrament was appointed for the keeping up a fervent charity among the followers of Jesus And very plain methinks are the words of the Apostle to this purpose We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread 1 Cor. 10.17 i. e. We that partake of this Heavenly feast are by that made one we are of one kind and 〈◊〉 just as Bread and Wine though they be made up of several grains and grapes yet are made up together into one similar body all whose parts are homogeneous and of the same sort or kind so we that are Christians tho as men we differ from one another and have our several affections and designs distinct from each other yet for all this by the death of our Saviour and by the participation of the Sacrament of our Lords Supper we are made one we are reconciled to the same designs and interests acted by the same Spirit and by this Sacrament united into one Spiritual body However we are other wise divided it is the intention of this Sacrament to make us One. And therefore the Ancients called the Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a Collection or gathering together into one those who were otherwise divided The partaking of this Feast makes the partakers of one mind and heart where they do receive it worthily What is said of Pilate and Herod when our Saviour was about to suffer That they were the same day made friends together who before had been at enmity between themselves Luke 23.12 The same is true of all true Christians that do aright partake of this Sacrament of the death of Christ they are now united and reconciled and made of one heart and mind And this seems to be the great design of the Eucharist to unite Christians together in the closest bond of unity and
his sorrowes He did not dye for sins that we might live in them but that we might dye to them His Death is a very forcible argument against the life of our lusts and a great motive to obedience We little regard our dying Lord if we at once remember his Death and break his Lawes 2. Again our Lord at his Death gave us a very great example of forgiveness of enemies and therefore when we remember his death we have very great reason to forgive our offending brother Our blessed Lord met with great enemies and such as had the greatest reason to be his friends He that eat of his bread lift up his heel against him He was betrayed by his own Disciple delivered to death by him that pronounced him innocent scourged and mocked by a rude and heady multitude He is numbred among Transgressors who had committed no sin He was hanged on the Tree who had never tasted the forbidden Fruit. He was put to death by those whom he came to seek and to save He had done them many kindnesses whilst he was among them He healed their sick fed their hungry restored their blind dispossessed their Daemoniacks and raised their dead He offended none of their Laws He paid Caesar his Tribute took care the Priest should have his Offering observed their customs went to their Festivals and was so far from profaning their Temple that he shewed a great zeal for defending it from common uses There could be nothing said against his Doctrine nothing against his Life His enemies that bare witness against him could not agree and it was infinitely plain that he was innocent And yet his Countrymen thirst after his blood and prefer a Murderer before him They want patience when our Lord wanted none They cry out Crucifie him crucifie him And what does our Lord do he cryes out too but not for Vengeance but for Mercy Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23.34 Certainly then we should be ashamed to remember these things with malice in our hearts well may we forgive our enemies when our Lord hath forgiven his We must not dare to remember the Death of Christ and to remember our Neighbours unkindness together We may not think of revenge when our Lord shewed so much mercy We cannot rightly remember Christs Death when we do not imitate his example He taught us what we should do by what he did himself We shall look very unlike our Lord if we retain our malice and ill-will 3. If we consider that Christs Death was not only for sins but also for our sins we shall still find a greater obligation upon us to forgive one another God gave his Son to dye than which there cannot be a greater miracle of Love and if God so loved us we also ought to love one another 1 Joh. 4.11 It was for us our Saviour laid down his life and who are we Had we deserved this love were we his friends that he was at this pains and cost No surely but we were sinners and enemies and yet he laid down his life for us Rom. 5.8 10. If then Christ dyed for his enemies we ought to forgive ours and then especially we are obliged to do it when we pretend to remember the Death of Christ How can we now pull our brother by the throat for a few pence when our Lord hath forgiven us so many Talents We are very ungrateful for our Lords kindness if we are unkind to one another Did we but consider Gods mercies to us we should think our selves obliged to be merciful to one another And methinks it should be easie for us to forgive our Neighbour if we did but consider how very much we need Gods forgiveness and how far we are from deserving it If our Lords eye have been so good to us why should ours be evil to one another what miserable wretches should we be if Gods mercies to us had not been greater than ours is to one another He hath forgiven us our great scores let us not retain then our grudges to our brother For shame then let us purge out this leaven of malice when we keep this Feast Let us shew our selves kind to each other when we do remember the kindness of our Blessed Saviour Besides our brothers offences against us are small in respect to ours against God We offend against an infinite Majesty we transgress the Eternal Laws of Reason How coldly do we pray to him for the greatest Blessings How insensible are we of his many mercies How very stupid and incorrigible under his severest judgments How void of the love of him who hath loved us so much If he should mark iniquities how should we be able to stand We are not able to answer for one of a thousand But yet we hope for Mercy upon our Repentance and our Faith We expect pardon from God for all these amisses And had we not this hope we should be of all men the most miserable We have then very great reason to be reconciled to our brother when we stand in so great need that God should be reconciled unto us and when we hope for the pardon of our sins from God which we do from Christs death and at this time when we do commemorate it we have a sufficient motive to forgive our brother Especially our Saviour having said If you forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will aso forgive you But if ye forgive not men their Trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Mat. 6.14 15. 2. Another great end of this Sacrament is that Christians may be knit together in the strictest bond of Love and Charity It is as I shewed you before a Feast of Love It was designed to bring us together and to make us all of one heart And a very effectual instrument it is were it rightly understood and used to that end and purpose It would soon make us one again It would bring together those who now are separated from one another When Communions were frequent in the Church Christians loved one another and kept together But when they became more seldom selemnized then the feuds among the professors of Christianity grew also For indeed this Sacrament was intended to maintain us in Love and Charity And therefore if we do not heartily forgive our brother we do destroy also this end of its Institution It is very indecent to see men at odds that eat and drink at the same common Table But it is a great wickedness to come to this Holy Table with malice and ill-will to our brother in our hearts We must not keep this feast of love with the leaven of malice VVe cannot partake of this Sacrament but we must profess a kindness to our brother and if we mean it not we are like Judas that gave his Master good words when he was ready to betray him and shall be miserable as he was into whom the Devil and the morsel entered at