119.60 as all spiritual purposes are to be manag'd but yet leâ— it be done with greatest seriousness and fulness of consent it being a bargain never to be broken a covenant never to be forgotten and doing a thing never to be undone again If the desires after Christ you make this Covenant with be true they will make worldly desires in a good measure dye and run low Sometimes you desire a thing so that all other things are so little they scarce come into your thoughts for that same thing you love so â—uch Such a desire had Christ to redeem us that even Sufferings were desirable in order to its accomplishment I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished 13 â—o seal our covenant are we come even that Câ—venant he maâ—e with his Christ the everlasting Covenant the sure and ordâ—red Covenant wherein lies all our salvation hereafter and all our consolation here O let our hearts be carried out according to the loving kindness of the Lord shewed in it Consider all the mercies of this Covenant and labour to taste in every one of them that the Lord is gracious This is the Salt of the Covenant without which our Morâ—el will be unsavoury There is something in the Covenant better than Salvation better than Heaven and that is the Lord our Righteousness and Jehovah our God He is not ashamed to be called our God let not us be a shame but a praise to him To have him for your God is to have all in God for your good and O then let all that is in you be for God Christ is here sending us by the hands of his Commissionated Officers the Cluster of Grapes as the first fruits of the Land of promise and commanding you to take and eat the Bread of Life He is reaching unto the thirsty Soul the fruit of the Vine turning it Sacramentally into his Blood bidding you drink it in remembrance of him till he come and feasting you with his fullest Love and satisfying you with the pleasure and presence of his glory Great and glorious things are soâ—nd here under the plainest dress that the eye of faith may be most exercised The glory of their Ordinances under the Law was a stumbling block to them for they rested in the Cabbinet and over-looked the Jewels The meanness of our Ordinances are so to us for we look not for the Treasure in earthen Vessels The Types were rich and our Memorials poor they had finer Spectacles we better Eyes If their Tree had more shadow ours hath more fruit Christ in commanding us to do this in remembrance of him builds a Monument of himself before he dies plain and simple to the eye but firm and lasting to continue till he come again and all that is said of him in the Gospel is here to be seen in this Sacrament Here may we see him dying and paying our Ransom the Lamb of God lying bound on the Altar heated with his Father's wrath On the Table we have a fair prospect of the Cross with the sacrifice of the Son of God set before us And let us say Lord if thou remember our sins we will remember thy Christ For in remembring his death we must by all means mind that as our sins slew him so his death conquers sin and expiates guilt and this is the food of the sacrifice that our souls must live upon And if this be rightly apprehended you see the great benefit by Christ here represented confirmed and participated And it 's easy to perceive how far they forsake their own mercies that for the sake of sin come not up to the terms of the covenant Iâ— ye think good give me my price it not forbear Any that come hither thinking to â—old â—ast their sins receive not Christ in the â—acrament but Satan receiâ—es them as he did Juâ—as after he had received the Sop Such be all these who come not hither to repent of sin but to câ—ver it 14. When we look into our Bibles we fâ—nd the Death and sufferings of Christ represented here a far greater matter than many make of it bearing so great a part in the â—criptures and making so great a figure there â—or we find the sufferings and satisfaction of Christ the chief thing manifested by the Spirit of God to the Prophets together with the Glory that should follow thereupon to him and his redeemed ones 1 Pet. 1.11 which shews us their prime study was taken up in this And this was likewise the end of all the discoveries of sin and threatnings of God's wrath in the Law even to point out the necessiâ—y of his sâ—tisfaction Rom. 10 4. And lastly the very substance and signâ—â—â—â—â—m of all Typeâ— aâ—d sâ—crâ—fices was but to point out the sufferingâ— of Christ and the glorious effects thereof Heâ— 20.1 Now no hing we hear of his Sâ—ffâ—rings in the World or see thereof in Sacraments makes any saving impression upâ—n us till thereby siâ— bâ—comes exceeding siâ—fâ—l and Christ exceeding prâ—cious among the many things we have seen in the World and works we have done whâ—n shall we begin to see sin in its own colourâ— viz. To sâ—e it the only thing that breâ—ks the Law and so dishonoureth the Law giver Crucified Christ Grieves the Spirit gratifies Sâ—â—an debaseth human nature dâ—stracts the world and damos Souls And yet for all this men cannot hatâ— sâ—n becaâ—sâ— it 's oâ—r â—o k Hel 4.10 O monstrouâ— sinful sâ—lfishâ—ess that fâ—r all the inconceivablâ— evâ—l in sin yet cannot hate it because it 's ours whâ—n â—o tâ—â—t we should hate it more than all th◠〈…〉 the whole woâ—ld Now this due sense of Sâ—n 〈…〉 exâ—lt Christ and make him â—â—â—â—â—ous who is the â—â—â—ha and Omega â—n the busâ—â—â—ss of Relâ—giâ—n without him you câ—n do nothing and lok for nothing It'â— by hâ—s â—treâ—gâ—h 〈◊〉 muâ—t wâ—â—k and by his Righteousâ—ess you muâ—t be â—ccâ—pted Isa 45.24 For indeed we cannot for sin â—hink of any mercy till God turn our eye on Christ in whom he is gâ—acious And the end of all we see Christ to be for â—s is to oblige us to love and obedience We have new representations of the favour of God and grace of Christ daily in these Ordinances that our obedience may be new our hearts and livâ—s â—â—larged and consecrated to the service of such a Saviour who hath Redeemed us with the blood we come here to commemorate Iâ— Faith â—ake these things real to our minds we shall be affected now and reformed hereafter If unbelief reign and we abide under its Power we shall be dead still and worldly as we were But look to him for a share of Heavenly Grace to â—xcâ—te our minds aâ—d thoughts to a Holy Zeâ—l and higher â—ctings than we are usually acquainted with in the lower regions of our converse 15. Having given up our names to Christ in Covenant we are obliged often to renew it to shew the â—â—â—câ—ritâ— of our heart
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-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
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