mischievous wherein Christian moderation and patience hath not place By doing nothing to serve our own passion or interest but all for God's glory onely and publick benefit And to let our hearts even bleed in pitty over those wicked wretches who dye by the hand of Iustice and abate rather then improve the rigour of the law any farther then is necessary for the terror of evil works Such was Ioshuah's carriage to Achan My son saith he give glory to God who nevertheless was ston'd to death We desire then in this petition that God would blot out all our iniquities and remember our sins no more that he would not impute our sins to us but cover our iniquities that he would pardon all that we have done amiss that he would not deal with us according to our iniquities nor reward us according to our sins But that he would deal bountifully with our souls and of his free grace pardon us that he would accept of what Christ his Son our surety hath done and suffer'd for us to take away the sins of the world that he would look upon his death as a sufficient ransome and a perfect atonement for sin that he would sprinkle us with his blood for justification and cloath us with the robes of his righteousness that as our sins were imputed to him for a shameful and cursed death so his righteousness may be reckon'd to us for glory and immortality That he would nail the hand-writing of the law against us to the Cross and bury our sins in his grave that they may never rise up against us neither to shame us in this world nor to condemn us in the next That he would break the rule and dominion of sin as well as free us from the guilt and punishment of it That he would create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us That he would loose us from the bands of death and quicken us to newness of life killing sin in us by the virtue of his death and raising us by the power of his resurrection who dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification That he would sprinkle our consciences from dead works wash away the stains of our natures of our lives though our sins be as red as crimson make them as white as wool That he would keep us from presumptuous sins cleanse us from our secret sins That he would lay the restraints of his grace upon us that we may not break out into foul enormities That he would mortify our lusts and subdue our corruptions and earthly affections That the pollution of our nature and original uncleanness may be done away by the water of Baptism in the layer of regeneration That he would forgive us all the evil of our doing our neglects in duty the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper age the vain imaginations and the evil concupiscence of our hearts every idle and unsavoury word all our wicked and ungodly deeds whereby we have dishonour'd him injur'd our neighbour or abus'd our selves our own sins and our other folks sins our national and our personal sins our civil our religious sins our rebellions apostasyes and our hypocrisy our righteousness our prayers our charity and our very forgiveness it self all the transgressions and violations of his law and the breaches of his holy commandments sins we have committed knowingly or ignorantly wilfully or weakly deliberately or upon surprise with temptation or without all that we know by our selves and that he knows by us who knows our folly and our frailty and how brutish we are that as his mercy is over all his own works so he would stretch it over all our works That he would be graciously pleased to doe what he requires us to doe to love his enemies and bless his persecutors That he would magnify his mercy in pardoning great sins and not let the mercy of man exceed it that he who is abundant in loving kindness and full of compassion would not come short of his creatures that since he has commanded us if our brother offend seventy seven times we should forgive him he would take pattern from his own command and pardon us our repeated abominations wherewith we provoke him every day that he would work in us the grace of repentance and charity and assure us of the forgiveness of our sins by our readiness to forgive others AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION As it was not enough that God should give unless he would also forgive us so neither will a bare forgiveness serve our turn to quit all that 's past unless we may have his assistance to prevent faults to come so that in the preceeding petition we desire to have our former debts struck of the score in this we beg a stock of grace and the supplyes of the spirit that we may run in debt no more nor fall into any more sin So that we intreat God to deal with us as a tender mother with her little one that 's yet unable to goe alone who takes it up when it catches a fall and holds it when 't is up that it may not fall again There we call'd for pardon here we ask for strength having been often foil'd by the tempter we implore spiritual aid that God would enable us to resist Satan that he may fly from us to withstand evil so that having done all we may stand That belong'd to justification whereby we are reconciled to God this pertains to sanctification whereby we are made like unto God who is both all good and is not tempted of evil AND. The Petitions which concern us have mutual connexion with and dependence upon one another Give us and forgive us and Lead us not but deliver us whereas the others which concern God stand apart and are not so coupled and joyn'd together because they are of themselves intire and compleat and one granted naturally infers the rest every thing that belongs to God being like himself infinite His Name his Kingdom and his Will each in a manner severally including the other two so that his glory is sufficiently provided for if any of them hold good For his name cannot be hallowed unless his Kingdom come and his will be done too And if his Kingdom come his will must needs be done and his name will be hallowed Or if his will be done t is a certain sign his Kingdom is come and his name as sure will again be hallowed But the benefits we crave for our selves are partial and such as God often disjoins gives apart as 't were by piece-meals For many times he bestows bread and an outward estate where he doth not vouchsafe pardon and peace of conscience nor gives grace alway to prevent the commission of future sins where he forgives sins past Some men are rich to their hurt and their fulness of bread is a curse whilest their abundance doth but
rise up against him by the evidence and verdict of their own conscience This Law being so perfect so pure and so holy 't is impossible for us who are altogether evill by our own natural strength to accomplish for we are not able of our selves so much as to think a good thought so that if we stand to the tenour of the Covenant of works whereby we are obliged to a punctual and exact obedience to the Law in all its parts in all our thoughts words and deeds and God should bâ— stricâ— to obsâ—â—ve what is done amiss and should in judgement proceed against us accordingly no flesh would be justified in his â—ight for we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God short of it both as the end and as the reward of our actions we have neither lived up to it nor can we upon our own account be made partakers of it Wherefore that all mankind might not faint under this intolerable yoak and sink under the unsupportable burden of this Law God was pleas'd out of his love to mankind to strike a New Covenant with us in the Blood of his Son who has made the yoak easy and the burthen light by bearing it for us The terms of the first Covenant are Dâ— this and live of the second Believe and thou shalt be saved The Covenant of Works requires an exactness the Covenant of Grace looks for the sincerity of obedience Nor doth this Law of Faith void and null the Moral Law but the terrours of the Law drive us to imbrace Gospel-terms for which reason the Law is called the Scholemaster to Christ. For when a sinner is convinced how unable he is of himself to fulfill the demands of the Law and how his multiplyed transgressions render him lyable to the curse of the Law and the fierce wrath of God he in the apprehension of his own guilt and insufficience flies to the Mediatour as to a city of refuge who hath fulfill'd the Law for us and hath undergon the wrath of an offended God and the curse of a righteous Law that he might be able to save those to the uttermost that should put their trust in him Neither doth the Law of works cease to be of use to those that are in Christ and are now under the Covenant of Grace for Obedience as well as Faith is required as a condition of the new Covenant for it must be a Faith acted or acting by love and though the person is justified by faith yet that faith must be evidenced by good works Shew me saith the Apostle thy faith by thy works The Moral Law then remains still in force as a rule of this obedience as it shews our misery and drives us to Christ so it regulates our gratitude when we are in Christ. The Law is a glass to present us with a sight of our sin by comparing our past actions with the rule and a lanthorn too to direct us in the path of our duty by comparing our future actions with the same rule In the one respect we see at what distance we have lived from the rule and repent in the other respect we see how to keep close to it and amend our lives The Law indeed has lost it's damning power as to the righteous but 't is still in force to direct though they are acquitted from the curse by the merit of our Saviours death they are not discharged from the duty as being risen again with him to a newness of life and created in him to good works Nay their obligations are heightned and they are to have greater respect to the Law that they may proportion the measures of their gratitude to the merits of their Redeemer for they who have had much forgiven must love much and love is the fulfilling of the Law Christ having bought us with a price we are no longer our own to fulfill the lusts of the flesh but we are his and we shall be known to be his by loving one another and keeping his commands And 't is plain that he meant not to release us from the Law but rather to improve and inhance the observation of it and in those things wherein the ties of the Law were slacken'd either by God's indulgence or false glosses and corrupt customes of men to fill it up and clear it from mistakes and lay greater weight on it's precepts as appears by his Sermon on the mount wherein he goes over most of the particulars And what the Apostle sayes before conversion If it had not biâ— for the Law I had not known sin so we may say after conversion Were it not for the Law we should not know our duty The Law is divided into ten Commandements whence 't is called the Decalogue or ten Words which were written upon two Tables four on one Table and six on the other 'T is not amiss to take notice of the division the Law is a rule of practice and the hand the great instrument of action a Table for each hand and for every finger a Commandement A brief survey of the method scheme by which the commands are distinguished we may take thus The first Table sets down the duties we ow to God the second Table contains our duties to Man our neighbours and our selves All is but Love but with difference of degrees for our love to our neighbour must be subordinate and inferiour to our love to God so our Saviour hath resolved the summ of all Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy mind with all thy soul and with all thy strength to as high a degree as possibly we can for it may be supposed that these several words signify but the same thing that is the highest intension of love It would be too Critical perhaps to make a different sense of each word that the heart should signify the will the mind note the understanding the soul stand for the affections and strength imply our bodily service It means sure the whole man And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And that one would think should be very well but this Law teacheth us how to love our selves too There 's scarce any one doth that so well as he should doe Our neighbour cannot quarrel us if we love him as our selves but God will not be content with that he will be loved above every thing above self it self We must love every thing else for God's sake and God for his own The duties to God take up the first place and those being discharged will à priori effect the second table duties He that go's thorough the first table will never boggle at the second Religion and Knavery are inconsistent Can he be holy that 's unjust fear God that honours not his King doth he conscientiously fear an Oath who makes no conscience of a Lye a zealous professor and a cheat a strict Sabbath keeper and an Usurper a
to our condition and to that station of life whereunto his good providence hath design'd us That he would give us strength of body and vigour of mind perfect health and all natural and moral abilities that may fit us for the discharge of our duties and above all a contented spirit that we may eat our bread with chearfulness and be satisfied with his gracious disposals of us and any condition that he shall in his wisdom cast us into either riches or poverty That he would neither send us so much of the world 's good as to tempt us to wantonness and riot nor so little as to make us repine but assign us such a competent portion that we may find a comfortable subsistence and have where with to doe good to others That we may be enabled to provide things honest and fashionable before all men yet not make provision for the flesh to satisfy the lusts thereof That our food may be wholsome rather then delicious so that in the strength thereof we may do him service That our attire may be decent and comely to cover shame not to show pride and vanity that we may not turn his gifts into wantonness or â—mbezill his talents but imploy them to his glory and others good â— and make us friends of the unrighteous mammon That he would bless our labours and give success to our honest undertakings that we may eat the labour of our hands and it may be well with us That he would procure us faithfull friends diligent servants dutifull children fruitfull seasons and furnish us with all other perquisites that may make our condition comfortable That he would bless the nation with righteous government and honest magistrates indue the nobles with courage the commons with loyalty bless all orders and conditions of persons from the highest to the lowest from him that sitteth on the throne to him that is behind the mill enlarge all that are in distress send us plenty and peace in our dayes crown the year with his goodness and make all his steps toward us drop fatness that we may thankfully acknowledge his benefits and be charitably disposed to those that are in want that we may be tender-hearted compassionate not forget to communicate and distribute and show gratitude to all those whom he has made instruments of good to us who have obliged us by any kindness and pray for them that God would restore seaven-fold into their bosome That he would keep us in an humble constant dependance on him and provide honest courses for us that we may not eat the bread of idleness or tempt his providence with the use of unlawfull means That he would deliver us from dangers and distresses preserve us from rapine and spoil and keep us from distrusts and anxietyes about the things of this life but that we may seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof assuring our selves that then all things else shall be added to us and whatsoever our share be of outward things take the Lord for our portion and our inheritance That he would to this end give us Christ the bread of life and with him all things and that he would with that bread which came down from heaven feed our souls to life everlasting strengthning our graces pardoning our sins and subduing our lusts AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US Pardon is as necessary for our spiritual life as bread for our natural For the soul that sins shall dy In many things we offend all even the righteous falls seven times a day For death came into the world by sin over all mankind but righteousness and life came by Iesus Christ And we have dayly need on 't too for we provoke God every day So then we are to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ that our souls may live And as Christ's flesh is bread indeed so is his blood which he shed for the atonement of wrath and forgiveness of sins drink indeed the water out of that spiritual rock which is Christ. Oh that our souls might thirst for the living God as the wounded hart panteth after the water-brooks OUR TRESPASSES The other Evangelist useth another word debts which comes all to one both signifying sins by a translated sense borrowed from dealings amongst men betwixt creditor and debtor the person suffering the injury and the person doing it For a debtor or trespasser that is not solvent or hath not wherewith to make satisfaction agrees with his adversary puts it to reference comes to composition and by mediation of friends takes up the business that there may be no arrest or inditement or other procedeur in law against him as knowing that he should come by the worst be cast in his fuit and be sent to prison where he must ly by it till he have paid the uttermost farthing which being utterly unable to doe he must never hope to come out but rot in prison The same is the case betwixt God and us we are bound to him by our creation to an observance of his laws or to undergoe the penalty of the breach which is everlasting death But we are fallen short and are unable to discharge that debt nor are we able to answer him one word of a thousand so that there are due to us all the plagues written in his book We have gone astray and done abominably we have broken all his laws and commandments we have been rebellious children from our youth up and the imaginations of our hearts have been evill continually we have neglected our duty in every thing and have not harkned to him to obey his voice so that to us belongs shame and confusion of face for ever Now Christ became our surety took up the business undertook our reconciliation and hath answer'd the law satisfied justice discharg'd our debts cancell'd the obligation and nail'd the hand writing of the law unto his cross making a new covenant of life betwixt God and us upon Gospell-terms of grace and new obedience yet still we are wanting on our part and deal treacherously in our covenant trampling upon his blood and despising so great salvation Nay even the best of Saints have their dayly slips and failings Who is he that can justify himself and if any perfectist say he has no sin he deceives himself and the truth is not in him Our sins All Adam's off-spring the whole race of mankind is tainted Behold saith the holy Prophet a man after God's own heart I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin hath my mother conceiv'd me And the Apostle has concluded all under sin so that we are all guilty of original corruption whereby all the faculties of our soul and members of our body are over-spread as with a leprosie from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot beyond the cure of all humane arts and helps Philosophy education
the tower of Babel and take a judicial cognisance of the bold attempt of the builders before he confounded them and their language He visits then in judgement when he comes to punish and to afflict for sin whence 't is usual to say of the plague or any grievous sickness it is Gods visitation THE INIQUITY If an iniquity will not scape what will become of gross transgressions And if children must smart for the iniquity of their parents what judgements are prepar'd for an Idolatrous posterity what penaltyes must the parents themselves who are wilfull transgressors and Idolaters expect to undergoe Thus the words afford a gradation OF THE FATHERS Mens sins doe not dye with them but survive and the wicked man leaves a sad legacy to his relations and makes divine vengeance his executor So much is posterity concern'd in the virtues or vices of their Ancestours that according as the fathers are good or bad so the children are to inherit a blessing or a curse Happy are those children who can challenge a share in God's favour by their interest in their Father's Covenant with God and as unhappy that family which hath God's wrath intail'd upon it by the wickedness of a progenitour What load of judgement is to fall upon the latter ends of the world when not only our own sins goe over our head as a burden too heavy for us to bear but the iniquityes of former times are also added to the heap UPON THE CHILDREN This procedure seems to thwart the rules of Iustice if the fathers eat sour grapes shall the childrens teeth be set an edge God himself has other where disclaim'd this course The son shall not bear the father's iniquity nor the father the son's but the soul that sins that shall dye it must be an extraordinary offence needs that puts God upon such an extraordinary way that makes him involve posterity in the calamity of their predecessour's guilt 'T is answer'd the 〈…〉 speaks it plain that 〈…〉 is conditional and supposes the children to tread in the steps of their fathers and then it will be but just that if the sin run in a blood the punishment should descend too And indeed the Text affords this answer for though we render it of them that hate me the Greek is more close to the Hebrew to them that hate me to intimate that only those children shall suffer for their father's Idolatry who practise it themselves And 't is commonly observed that children rather become worse then their parents then better by adding their own personal wickedness to that which they draw from their loyns besides the great advantages which domestick examples have powerfully to recommend any vice to childrens imitation This then will be no more then what we doe to young wolves whom we execute not only for the mischiefs the old 〈…〉 for a mischievous nature of their own Thus treason to a 〈…〉 the blood of the whole family down-ward and Idolatry is no less then high Treason to the King of Kings Another answer is that temporal afflictions are here meant which many times lay hold upon innocent persons for the guilt of their relations For we must not suppose that all are wicked who appear wretched seeing that Innocence may be exercis'd with the miseries of this life which will be acquitted from the torments hereafter justice so contriving it that the fathers shall see themselves punish'd in the affliction of their children TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION Gods glory is so much concern'd in this Commandement that upon the violation of it he gives the reins to his fury and vengeance reaks it self upon the offender and those that belong to him so fiercely that the children unborn shall rue it Upon other occasions he thinks it enough to bring the delinquent himself to punishment but in this the whole family lyes at stake and his anger as if he had design'd them immediately for Hell-fire burns from generation to generation One will not afford fewel enough for wrath nor sacrifice sufficient for atonement nor will the Three Persons of the God-head whose Majesty is wounded by Idolatrous worship be contented with two but there must be a third generation to satisfy the injured Trinity And because the sinner may live to see his great grand-children there shall be added a fourth in the sight of whose miseryes he may suffer Thrice then and four times i.e. compleatly and fully accursed are Idolaters The meaning may be too that judgement may sleep a while and forbear till one or two generations are over but God will awake and pursue and overtake the sinner at the least in his third or fourth generation and account with him in his posterity OF THEM THAT HATE ME. And who those are the opposition will shew for who are those that love God ' ris added by way of explanation Those that keep his Commandements who are those that hate him then but those that break them A Character which he particularly fixes upon Idolaters as if this Commandement were most dear to him and he had no enemyes but those that wrong him in his worship AND SHEWING MERCY This looks like Sun shine after a storm As God's justice deterrs from evil so his mercy invites to good The command is temper'd mixt with threat and promise which though it come last of the two is not the least but what it wants in the hast of proposal it has in the proportion of its extent for whereas justice reach'd but to three or four generations mercy spreads it self UNTO THOUSANDS i.e. thousand generations or else it do's not answer the third and fourth of the threat How merciful an expression this to stretch out mercy for many centuryes of years for some hundreds of generations beyond the end of the world for by computation Adam himself in strait line cannot be conceiv'd to have so many generations descending from him when three fourteens i.e. fourty and two generations make up the whole Genealogie of Christ up to Abraham and from Abraham upward are not very many This was to shew the Infinite excess of his mercy over his Iustice even to a boast which will be made good too for if God's servant have not generations enough to be partners with him in glory his own glory will receive the greater additions and himself inherit the blessing which would have been due to his posterity OF THEM THAT LOVE ME AND KEEP MY COMMANDEMENTS Or as the Hebrew has it and the Greek renders it To those that love me seeing that the children of the Godly forfeit their share in the promises if they be not godly too and their wickedness makes them uncapable of a blessing as God himself has declar'd it For Heaven is indeed an inheritance as God the Father of mercyes of his free grace bestows it but 't is a purchase too as we are bound to strive to enter and to work out our salvation Yet
as tender of his reputation as of thy own Thou shalt not be double-minded nor hasty in thy promises nor false in thy purposes but sincere and constant that thy sayings and doings may agree Thou shalt bridle thy tongue and avoid foolish speaking and let no rotten communication come out of thy mouth but with steady gravity weigh thy words aforehand speak to edification Thou shalt not discover secrets committed to thy trust nor vainly babble of every thing thou know'st nor yet conceal necessary truths but be faithful and trusty in thy silence and discreet in thy speech Thou shalt not be churlish of difficult address and hard to be spoke with nor yet full of insignificant complement and artificial craft but shalt shew thy self courteous and affable ready to hear and to answer Thou shalt not be clownish and rude in thy converse nor yet act the buffoon by abusing Scripture or jeering thy betters or other foolish drollery but use civil chearful language and according to thy company and occasion fit thy discourse Thou shalt not be over-forward and magisterial in finding faults nor yet cowardly and fearful of displeasing but tell thy neighbour freely of his sin when thy duty requires it of thee and opportunity invites Thou shalt not impudently proclaim thy sin and brag of thy evil doings nor be too confident in boasting of thy gifts but leave it rather to a stranger to commend thee nor yet to shift duty or out of vain glory speak meanly of thy self and lessen thy endowments but shalt put a just value upon thy self and thy parts that they may be useful and be wanting in no fair and modest way to keep up thy credit and maintain thy reputation Above all thou shalt by a blameless conversation indeavour to keep a good conscience before God and a good name among men and do those things which may make thee well spoken of And yet thou shalt not be over fond neither of thy reputation so as to affect applause but design rather to live to conscience then to same and whilst thou dischargest thy duty not to look on good report as thy reward nor to be discouraged by evil report from doing good and to mind more what thou dost then what others say or think of thee and refer thy self to God who sees in secret and will make righteous judgement If we call our selves to an account for this Commandement and say we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no Truth in us How has Truth fail'd amongst us How have our Prophets who should have been the Ministers of truth prophesied lyes in the Name of the Lord calling good bad and bad good and pretended the Lord sent them when he sent them not How have our Courts of Iustice been fill'd with falshoods and iniquity been enacted by a Law How have false witnesses and wicked Iudges rose up and sentenced the righteous and condemned the innocent How has Iustice been perverted to wrong ends and Law been made an instrument of oppression How have we in this Hypocritical age lyed and dissembled to one another and spoken with a heart and a heart with flattering lips and a deceitfull tongue How have we flatter'd the wicked whom God hated and slander'd the footsteps of the righteous How disingenuous are we how quick-sighted to spye moats in others eyes and not see the beams in our own How apt to magnifie our selves and think meanly of others How ready to believe every flying report to take all things that another does in the worst sense How little trust or honesty to be met with How perfidious and false how cunning and close how ill-natur'd and sullen have most men been With what starch'd graviâ—y and pretences of sanctity have we impos'd upon one another What vain babling and filthy talk obscenity and scurrility are abroad in the world How forward are we to censure others to speak the worst of every body and to find fault with our superiours and meddle with things that concern us not How doe we prize the commendation of men and yet slight conscience and cannot endure to be spoken ill of nor yet be at the pains to doe well How highly doe we esteem reputation and value a good name and yet care not our selves to be good and lead a blameless life free from great offences Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law All the other Commandements doe more immediately order the outward man the first and the tenth look inward and regulate the thoughts and the desires The first Commandement is the ground-work oâ— Religion and the tenth the top-stone of Morality That injoyning the Fear of God and This requiring Contentedness and self-denyal Atheism affronts the Worship of God and Covetousness disorders the Society of Men That will acknowledge no God and This will have no Neighbour Wherefore 't is well plac'd at the bottom of the second table as the master-Master-sin the great enemy of Charity and that which all the other transgressions resolve themselves into The other precepts indeed hold thy hand that thou mayst doe thy neighbour no wrong This holds thy heart that thou mayst wish him none Here is the sin forbidden Thou shalt not Covet and the object particularly express'd either for profit or pleasure Thy Neighbour's house his wife his man servant his maid his ox and his ass and then generally propos'd nor any thing that is thy neighbour's THOU SHALT NOT COVET or desire This strikes at inordinate affections at concupiscence which is that root of bitterness Thou shalt not out of envy to thy neighbour or out of love to thy self for so one of the words in Deuteronomie signifies Thou shalt not desire to thy self desire any thing away from him THY NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE his convenience of habitation the place of his abode where he has pitch'd his tent for his security and gather'd the comforts of his life about him be it a fairer or stronger building seated in a better aire encompass'd with better neighbours and furnish'd with better commodities of life THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUR'S WIFE This is not a distinct command from the former for 't is the act not the object which makes the sin and so the Apostle quotes it Thou shalt not covet and 't is plain that House Wife are not meant for several precepts though the one be coveted out of Avarice the other out of Lust for here follow other things in the former way of coveting as the Ox and the ass but for particular instances only the enumertaion therefore ending with an c. and all that is thy Neighbour's The House is reckon'd first and then the housekeeper the Wife to teach the man that he must first provide a livelyhood and way of subsistence before he think of a wife and to put the woman in mind that she ought to be a Hous-wife not to be a gadder abroad or live at random
in the New He that believes shall be saved That Covenant of Grace I say is not without good reason styl'd the New Covenant according as God himself promis'd by the Prophet even in the time of the Law that he would make a new Covenant I will be their God sayes he and they shall be my people And seeing that Christ's death hath put an end to the sacrifices formerly us'd for the ratifying of that Covenant though in substance God's Covenant both with the Iews and with the Christians be all one yet in respect of a different administration and a new and clearer dispensation This may well be call'd the New Testament That the Old WHICH IS SHED Truly yet mystically and spiritually in this Sacrament as sure as the wine by which it is represented is now powred out into the cup for your use For it cannot be conceived that when he spake these words he did really bleed it being before his Passion but he having taken our flesh and our blood on no other purpose then to break the one and shed the other for us he speaks of that as already done which was in God's everlasting counsel decreed to be done in which sense he is call'd the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Which is shed then is no more then which is to be shed which shortly will be shed and which partly had already bin shed for Christ spilt not all his Blood at once but at several times as at his Circumcision when he paid the first fruits of it to the Lord in his agony when he swet clots of blood at his scourging when he was cut with whips at his crowning when the thorns pierc'd his sacred head and the scoffs more his heart and lastly at his Passion when the nails fastned his hands and feet to the Cross the launce gored his blessed side so that there gushed out water and blood in such streams that his most holy Soul together with his Blood left him FOR YOU In your stead and to your benefit For I having taken upon me the office of a Mediator betwixt God and men am to undergoe that punishment which was due to to man for sin wherefore because by the decree and Law of God there is no atonement without shedding of blood I also am ready to powr forth mine that you being sprinkled with it may be acquitted from the sentence of the Law and justified in the sight of God Seeing that it will be but just that what I your surety have done and suffer'd in your behalf should satisfie the Iustice of God and discharge you from guilt and the penalty of the Law all one as if you your selves had done and suffer'd it One Evangelist hath it For many or rather Concerning many and then it may be understood of things to wit Sins which Christ's Blood did atone Wrath which it appeased the Law which it satisfied Guilt which it frees from Filth which it washes off and the Ceremonies which it put an end to And to all these purposes was Christ's Blood shed But if it be taken for persons it may have the same meaning as that For you The Greek word frequently importing the whole multitude so the Apostle to the Romans layes the comparison betwixt the old Adam the new that as by one man's disobedience all men became sinners so much more by Christ's obedience should many be made righteous Now the advantage of this comparision would come to nothing were not Christ's death of as universal influence for the justification of mankind as Adam's sin was for the condemnation though indeed the benefit thereof doe redound to none but those who doe with true Faith lay hold upon it i.e. to the elect alone and true believers who yet in respect of the rest that perish in their sins through unbelief cannot be call'd the many For many are call'd but few are chosen And no question but it was Christ's intent to tast death as 't is said for every man none excepted but who would wilfully run into damnation by despising so great salvation And that the many may thus mean the All is clear by other places where a word of the largest extent is us'd to wit the world which cannot in propriety of speech be applyed to signify the Church onely God so loved the world that he gave his Son and Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world and is a propitiation not for our sins alone viz. that are believers but for the sins of the whole world also FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS Whereas the Law doth pronounce sentence of death upon those that transgress it for the soul that sinneth shall dye And all men are concluded under sin for there is none righteous no not one and in thy sight shall no flesh be justified It was impossible for one that was meer man either to perform the Law or avoid the punishment had not Christ who was God as well as Man interposed For no man was ever either by gifts of nature or by the supplyes of grace advanc'd to that pitch of perfection that he could perform an exact obedience to all God's commands We have sinned all saith the Apostle and if we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Nay supposing one's life never so spotless yet cannot we make amends for that natural uncleanness of original sin which we are born with and which as soon as we live forfeits us to death according to the threatning In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Wherefore what was wanting in us Christ made up with the merits of his obedience who having fulfill'd the Law and being in himself altogether free from guilt became sin for us and was reckon'd amongst transgressours that we might be justified by his blood and sanctified by his spirit Our sins then are by his death done away so that if we lay hold on him by Faith that we may receive the benefit of his death we that are guilty must be acquitted because our surety that was guiltless was condemned we shall live because he dyed we shall escape the wrath which he underwent and our sins must be forforgiven because his innocency was censur'd so that now God stands oblig'd by his faithfulness and justice too to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity He is but faithful when he keeps his word and performs his part of that Covenant which he made with us in his Son and he is but just when our surety has paid the debt to discharge us Now this Sacrament being a seal of the Covenant doth assure us of that forgiveness and seals to our heart by the sprinkling of blood and the operation of the spirit a pardon of our sins and does withall oblige us to Faith and repentance which are the conditions without