read 1 Cor. 6.9 11. Even then when there was nothing but unworthyness and abominableness in us did Christ-dye for us Now is this a thing to be made light of or to be lightly esteemed of by us this argues us to be the most ungrateful unthankful wretches living upon the Face of the Earth The very Angels stand and wonder and vent their astonishment at what Christ hath done for us And shall not we admire at it our selves Never was there such love manifested before nor since Greater love than this hath no Man than that a Man lay down his life for his friends John 15.13 But Christ hath evidenced greater than this in doing and dying and laying down his Life for his Enemies Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his Life for us What for us Friends no but for us Enemies Rom. 5.10 nay for us Enmity it self Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God Was ever love like this love The Apostle Prays for the Ephesians That they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.18 19. Here are Four Dimensions that the Apostle measures this love of Christ by Phylosophy knows but Three viz. Longitudo Latitudo Profunditas Length Breadth and Depth But Divinity adds a Fourth viz. Altitudo Height To intimate that Christ's Love is beyond all ordinary Measure and Dimensions There is Depth in it says †Roberts Communicant p. 186. one without bottom There is Height in it without top Breadth in it without side and Length in it without end Yea it infinitely surpasseth the capacity and grasp of a finite limited understanding to comprehend and take in And O that every one of us who have been so lately Celebrating and Commemorating the Death and Sufferings of our Loving Lord that have had such Lively Representations of what he hath been doing and suffering for us may find our esteem in some measure and degree answerable and proportionable to the love that was manifested and evidenced in it But yet farther there is another consideration in what Christ hath done and suffered which if rightly and duely weighed might be a means of raising and heightning our esteem of it and that is the sufficiency efficacy acceptableness and merit of his Obedience and Sufferings This was an odour of a sweet smell most acceptable to God The Law was fully answered and Divine Justice was fully satisfied in their fullest and highest demands Tho' his Sufferings were but short yet what was wanting in the duration of them was infinitely and abundantly made up in the dignity and excellency of the Person that suffered for it was infinitely more that the Son of God should suffer one moment than if all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth had suffered to Eternity Such a sufficiency there is in what Christ hath done and suffered that there needs nothing more to be done nothing more to be suffered in a way of satisfaction to the Justice of God for he by once offering up of himself hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 There needs no more sacrifice for sin There is sufficiency enough in the Death and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to procure pardon for the greatest of sins and the chiefest of sinners to redeem and save the whole World nay ten thousand Worlds And if it should be asked why are not then all redeemed and saved To this I answer it is not upon the account of any insufficiency of the Blood of Christ for it is sufficient to have redeemed as many Worlds as there be Stars in the Firmament it was sufficient to have redeemed all but it was not shed for all but only those that the Father from all Eternity gave to him For these and these only it was shed to these and these only it becomes effectual unto redemption and Salvation It pleased the Father from all Eternity to elect some to everlasting life these in the Covenant of Redemption he gave to Christ to redeem and save these Christ undertook and engaged for in that same Covenant transaction for these he dyed and suffered and shed his hearts Blood which was a sufficient price for their redemption it being the blood of that Person who was God as well as Man The dignity of the Person was that which highly dignified his Passion This was that which put such an All-sufficiency into the Death and Blood of Christ that made it sufficient for all the ends for which it was designed O that poor trembling souls and misgiving hearts would consider of this and take hold of it and plead it against all the accusations of the Law against all the accusations of Conscience against all the subtile charges of the Devil Poor Soul it may be thou art terrified and amazed at the sight and sense of thy sinfulness and guiltiness it may be many doubts and fears and scruples are ready to arise in thy mind whether ever God will look upon or accept of or receive into favour such an one as thou art but know this for thy comfort whoever thou art that there cannot be so much Unrighteousness in thee to render thee loathsome but there is more Righteousness in Christ to render thee lovely in the sight of God There is sufficiency enough in what Christ hath done and suffered to procure God's favour and acceptance only do thou stedfastly rely upon it and put thy whole trust in it never did any miscarry who ventured their all upon this bottom There is sufficiency enough in the Blood of Christ to procure pardon for as many sins as there are moments in thy Life or thoughts in thy heart Be thy sins never so many for multitude or never so great for aggravation yet the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Unrighteousness Not only from lesser but from greater Transgressions not only from some but from all Unrighteousness Tho it is true there is one sin which is called a sin unto Death or the unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven neither in this Life nor that which is to come and that is the sin against the Holy Ghost But it is not upon the account of any insufficiency in the Blood of Christ that this sin is Unpardonable but he that sins this sin is rendered altogether uncapable of laying hold of or applying the Remedy viz. the Blood of Christ which in it self is sufficient to cleanse from all Unrighteousness The last consideration is the blessed Benefits that do issue and proceed from hence and so we are to express our Thankfulness by an high esteem of them Hereby sinners are Justified and sin purged away the guilt of sin that was so wounding to the Conscience is removed Hereby enemies to God are reconciled and peace with God procured the distance nay the enmity is removed and God and the Soul walk
apprehension of this love of Christ might constrain every soul of us to give up our selves to him Are we bought with a Price Are we Redeemed from the greatest slavery and tyranny that ever poor creatures were under from the Wrath and Vengeance of God who is a consuming fire From the Curse and condemnation of the Law from the dominion of Sin and Satan and the World Why this is a great and unspeakable Priviledge and happiness indeed Ay but how came we to be thus Redeemed Why it was by a great price that was laid down and deposited ye are bought with a price says the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.20 But what price was this Was it Silver or Gold no it was by the price of Blood But what Blood was it The Blood of Bulls and Goats no it was the Blood of the Son of God 1 Pet. 1.18 19. It was the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God that redeemed us with his own Blood What can we do less then glorifie him with our Bodies and Spirits O how Thankfully ought we to walk all our days and we cannot better express our Thankfulness than by dedicating and devoting our selves to his service and glory This is the greatest return that we can make and the highest gratitude You know the first fruits were in former times dedicated unto God partly to show God's right to the whole crop and partly in token of thankfulness from the people for all the rest Now this giving up our selves to the Lord Jesus is the best expression of our thankfulness that we can make This exceeds the most melting acknowledgments and the highest verbal resentments of all his love and kindness to us When a poor creature is deeply affected with a sense of the love of Christ to him falls down at the foot of Christ and says Lord Jesus I am one of thy Redeemed ones whom thou hast redeemed unto God by thine own most precious Blood from the slavery and tyranny under which I lay thou didst freely lay down thy life to save mine thou didst shed thine own Blood and offeredst thy self upon the Cross a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice and make Attonement for my sins and to bring me nigh unto God who once was alienated from and an enemy to Father Son and Holy Ghost in my mind by wicked Works And thou wast not only offered upon the Cross for me but thou hast been lately in the Supper Ordinance exhibited and offered to me with all the virtues and benefits and victories and purchases and priviledges of thy death for the strengthning and nourishing of my Faith for the enlivening and quickening and raising my hope for the filling up my joy and encreasing my comfort for the carrying on the Spiritual life with greater vigour and power in my Soul for all this dear Jesus how shall I express and testifie my Thankfulness Why I will do it thus I do here solemnly and seriously and fully give up my self to thee to be thine and only thine both now and to Eternity that is to say everlastingly thine This is the best way of expressing our Thankfulness and this we are every one afresh obliged to who have been sitting down this day at our Lords Table For one end of this Ordinance is to be a seal of the Covenant all the Blessings and Benefits and Priviledges and Promises and Grace of the New Covenant are confirmed to Believers by it Now the Covenant binds mutually God bindeth himself to give Grace to us and we bind our selves to live to him In all Covenants there is not only something to be done for us but there is something to be performed by us God seals the Benefits of the Covenant on his part and we seal to the Durys of the Covenant on our part The exhibiting the signes is the seal on God's part the receiving the signes is the seal on our part Every time we receive we bind our selves to new and better Obedience to live more to God and to dy more to sin I have Read that Pliny should say he learned it of some Christians That at their Meeting they did Sacramento se obstringere ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent c. Bind themselves by the Sacrament that they would not commit these sins of Theft and Robbery and Adultery And so should every one that have been eating the Sacramental Bread and Wine look upon our selves as bound to live more to God and Jesus Christ and to cleave to the Lord with fuller purposes of heart and more stedfast Resolutions of Soul Our Blessed Saviour never Instituted this Holy Ordinance to qualify Persons for some advantagious Post and to sit Men for Publick Places and Offices or to be a Stepping-stone to Worldly Preferment as it is now adays only used by many to the great shame of a Protestant Nation may it be spoken that so Sacred an Ordinance should be thus Abused and Prophaned But he designed it to be a stronger Tye and Obligation upon us to a more Holy Life and Circumspect Walk and indeed if we do not answer this end we do but Prophane this Ordinance every time we partake of it And instead of eating and drinking to our own Salvation we shall but eat and drink Damnation to our selves 4. We are to Walk after this Ordinance more Believingly and Fiducially that is with a stronger Faith and Trust in Christ and Relyance upon him 2 Col. 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablisht in the Faith as you have been taught abounding therein with Thanksgiving None are so stablished but they may grow still in Faith None have taken so much root but they may take yet more root Faith is such a Grace as is capable of farther improvement A weak Faith may become strong and a strong Faith may become yet stronger The Apostles prayer was this Lord increase our Faith Luke 17.9 Many are crying out for more Riches for more Honour for more Wealth for more Pleasure But let this be the desire of our Souls for a stronger Faith This is a Petition very proper and suteable to be put up by us after we have been at this Supper Lord increase our Faith What the Apostle said of the Thessalonians concerning Brotherly Love You need not that I write unto you for you your selves are taught of God to love one another and indeed you do it towards all the Brethren which are in all Macedonia But yet he saw it necessary to press after a farther growth and encrease of it But we beseech brethren that ye encrease more and more The same I trust may be said of many here concerning Faith Ye are taught of God to believe and indeed ye do believe but however this Exhortation or desire is not needless viz. That ye encrease more and more Those that have any measure of Faith already are to be endeavouring after a growth and
it than this a becoming walk or a suitable walk but let your Conversation be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So in the 1 Thes 2.12 That you would walk worthy of God who ha h called you into his Kingdom and Glory It is the same word in the original in all these places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the forquoted place rendered becoming Let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel Let your Conversation be worthy of the Gospel or becoming the Gospel of Christ So here walking worthy of God is no more than walking suitably to the Nature of that God who is the true and living God That ye may walk like a People that are taken into Covenant with God and express the Virtues and Praises of him who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvelous Light in your Lives and Conversations according to that which we have in the 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Or that ye should walk suitably to this great Mercy and glorious Priviledges and Benefits ye have received from him So that to walk worthy of the Lord is to live and behave our selves as becometh those to whom God hath vouchsafed so great a Mercy that passing by many Thousands of a nobler extraction of a sweeter disposition and in many outward respects better than we That he should out of his meer Grace and Love in Christ chuse and call us out of the World to be partakers of Eternal Life with him That he should take us and leave others chuse us and pass by others as it is wonderful and astonishing so it ought to influence us into a walking some way suitable and becoming these great Mercies bestowed upon us And if we would know what this suitable walking is why the next words explain it It is a walking unto all pleasing so that the observation is this viz. Observ That where a Person or a People receive great Mercys Benefits or Priviledges from God there ought to be a suitable answerable and becoming walking thereunto or thus It ought to be our study and endeavour to live and act suitably and becoming the Mercies and Favours we receive from God God hath dealt Bountifully and Graciously with us remembered us not only with Common and Temporal but with Special and Spiritual Mercys too Do we enjoy Peace and Quietness when many other are involved in great Troubles and Perplexities Is Plenty and Fulness our Inheritance when Scarcity and Want is the lot of many others Do we enjoy such a competency of Health and Strength when many others are Sick and weak Languishing and Dying Hath God set any of us at Liberty from our Confinements wrought out a Recovery for any of us from any tedious and dangerous Distemper which detained us from waiting and attending upon God in the Publick and Solemn Dutys of his Worship when many others are still confined to their Chambers and many to their Beds How doth it concern such to walk answerably and suitably to the Mercies they have received Let such remember that advice of our Saviour to the man upon whom he had wrought a great cure John 5.14 And he said unto him go thy way behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing befal thee God hath done great things for us and in some respects for all of us In bearing so long with our renewed and repeated Provocations insomuch that we are under a necessity of acknowledging and confessing that it is of the Lords Mercys we were not consumed that our Bodies are not in the silent Grave and our Souls roaring in Hell That notwithstanding all our Barrenness and Unfruitfulness under the means and Seasons of Grace that yet the day and season of Grace should be lengthned out to us that after so many denyals and refusals Christ should still continue to knock at the door of our Hearts That when we have so frequently turned a deaf Ear to the calls and invitations of Christ in the Gospel that he should still continue to call and invite and promiseth a kind Reception and hearty Welcome to all those that will come unto him That he should still continue wooing and beseeching us by his Ministers and Ambassadors to be reconciled unto God after our so long continuance in ways of Enmity and Rebellion against him O the Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of God! that ever he should so long put up the affronts and indignitys that are every day offered to his Blessed Majesty by such crawling Worms of the Earth bear so long with the Rebellions and Ingratitudes of his Creatures Lord how good art thou to the worst of Men and the vilest of Sinners in sparing and forbearing them in protecting and providing for them in calling and inviting them in waiting to be gracious to them in offering Mercy and Pardon and Grace and Christ to them in affording them time and space and opportunity for Repentance and turning unto God in vouchsafeing to them many Temporal Blessings and Favours in the midst and face of such dayly Provocations and abuse of his Bounties Thus I say in some respects God is good to us all and hath done great things for us all even for the worst and vilest Sinner now in his Presence And to some of us he hath been more peculiarly and specially and distinguishingly good In chusing and calling us not only by the outward call of his Word but by an inward and effectual call of his Spirit out of darkness unto light and from the power of Sin and Self and Satan and the World to Himself out of a state of Nature unto his Kingdom and Glory unto his Kingdom of Grace here and in a little time longer will call us to his Kingdom of Glory In Justifying us freely by his Grace and Sanctifying us by his Holy Spirit throughout and adopting us into his Family In remembering us in our low and lost estate and condition when we were blind and naked and wretched and miserable cast out into the open field to the loathing of our Persons in the gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity held in the snare of the Devil and led captive by him at his pleasure under the power and dominion of many vile Lusts and Corruptions in bondage and slavery to Sin and Satan subjected and enthrawl'd to Death under the Wrath and Curse of God liable to all the miseries of this Life and to the pains of Hell for ever ignorant of God and Christ and Spiritual things nay enemies to God and Christ nay enmity it self When we were in such a forlorn helpless and miserable state and condition as this he pittyed us and helped us when none other eye pittyed us nay when we had no pitty for our selves he pittyed us and helped us when none other could help
us Others passed by us and took no notice of us but he looked upon us and behold it was a time of Love with us He threw his Skirt over us and covered our Nakedness and poured Water upon us to wash away our filthiness He Swear unto us and entred into Covenant with us to be ours and we to be his he to be our God and we to be his Peculiar People He hath given Himself his Son his spirit to us Himself to be our God and Portion Jer. 31.31 32 33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts and will be their God and they shall be my People And what Tongue can express What Pen can describe the happiness of that People who have God to be their God David in the 144 Psalm v. 15. says Happy are the People whose God is the Lord. He doth not say how happy for it is beyond express But this we may truly say that all our happiness and felicity and comfort lies in this in having God to be our God If there be no want to them that fear God I am sure there can be none to them that enjoy God who is a Soul-comforting Soul-refreshing Soul-satisfying Object It matters not what our Circumstances and Conditions are here in this World be they never so low and inconsiderable if we have but God for our God we are happy Happy is that People whose God is the Lord. He hath given us not only himself but his Son too John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Given him for us To obey and suffer to bleed and dye and suffer and satisfy for us to rescue and redeem us from those evils and miseries under which we lay viz. the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law by laying down his life for us a life more precious than the lives of all the Angels in Heaven or Men upon Earth Not only given him for us but given him to us to be believed in and rested upon for Life and Salvation to dwell in us and be united to us to be made of God Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption to be to us and do for us all that God hath appointed and designed him to be Again he hath not only given us himself and Son but his Spirit also to us To open our Eyes to enlighten our Minds to incline our Wills to change our Hearts to Turn and Convert us to himself To convince of Sin to lead to Christ to be the guid of our ways to be the death of our sins to quicken and enliven and strengthen our Graces To witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God To comfort us in all our Troubles to succour us in all our Temptations to resolve us in all our Doubts to help us against all our Infirmities To conduct us safe through this evil World and to seal us up to the day of Redemption But yet farther he gives us liberty to wait upon him in the solemn Dutys of his Worship He gives us Praying seasons and Hearing seasons and Communicating seasons for the carrying on begun Grace in our Souls Thus richly doth he furnish our Table in this howling Desart and bountifully provides for us in a strange Land We have not only Food for our Bodies but Food for our Souls not only the Bread that perisheth but that which endures to Everlasting Life The Lamb is slain and behold all things are ready The Marriage Supper is prepared and a welcome ready for all that come to it This is Christ's language to all his guests O friends drink ye eat â—e drink and eat abundantly O beloved And what do you think is the matter of this Feast Why it is Christ with all his saving Benefits even Peace and Pardon and Comfort This is the Gospel Feast unto which poor Sinners are invited The Lord Jesus Christ is both the master and the matter of this Feast This is that Bread which came down from Heaven which is othergates Food than that Manna was which fell in the Wilderness of which it is said Our Fathers did eat and they are dead but whosoever eateth of this Bread lives for ever John 6.48 49 50. This is the Lamb that was slain from the Foundations of the World whose Flesh is Meat indeed and whose Blood is Drink indeed Thus bountifully hath God provided for our Souls we have not only the sincere Milk of the Word that we may grow thereby but more substantial Food even that sealing strengthening confirming Ordinance of the Lords Supper where Christ and all his Benefits are represented sealed and applied to Belivers who was not only offered up upon the Cross for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice and the expiation of our Sins but offered upon the Table for the satisfying our guilty minds and for the Food and Nourishment of our Souls Here it is that we may take a view of Christ's dying love Here we see him Bruised and Broken and Bleeding for our sakes and for our Sins Here we may see him broken and bruised by his Father in the day of his great Wrath when his Body was torn his Soul in a dreadful Agony his side pierced his Blood shed these are in a most lively manner represented by the breakof the Bread and pouring out of the Wine Here is a Wounded Broken Bleeding Jesus represented to us The Elements in this Sacrament signifie and set forth the unconceivable Sufferings of our blessed Lord both in his â—ody and in his Soul The Bread signifies the Sufferings of his Body And the Wine which is a representation of his Blood the Agonvs of his Soul because the Spirits whereby the Soul acts are in the Blood All the Sacraments that ever were instituted since Adams fall to this very day both ordinary and extraordinary both Old Testament and New Testament Sacraments they all of them principally represent and point at Jesus and him Crucified Adams Sacrifices were Types of Christ the true Sacrifice Circumcision a pledge of our Hearts Circumcision thro' Christs Blood Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ The Passover was a token and Type of Christ our Passover Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Baptism this doth point at the Death of Christ we are said by Baptism to be Baptised into Christ and into his Death Rom. 6.3 4 5. And the Lords Supper is a most lively representation of the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew the Lords death till he come This is a standing memorial and a lasting monument of our blessed Lords love in bleeding
and dying for us and is to continue to the end of the World even till the coming of our Lord to Judgment So that Christ and his Death Christ as Crucified is that which is represented and pointed at in this Sacrament Here it is that Christ Jesus is as it were afresh Crucified before our eyes bruised by his Father pierced by the Souldiers bleeding for our sins Here is a sweet love-token indeed betwixt Christ and his Church betwixt Christ and Believers What greater love can be imagined than to dye for us Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend Ay but here was greater love than this here was Blood shed and a Life laid down for very Enemies This Ordinance may truly be stiled a Love Feast Every thing in it speaks love The Mysteries in it speak love Here is Christ's Body not whole but broken Christ's Blood not in his veins but shed and freely poured out for poor sinners The benefits intended to us by it speak great love Here is compleat Provision and full Nourishment for our Souls for our Faith and all the graces of the inward man intended by it A fresh seal of the Pardon of our Sins in the Blood of Christ Fuller and clearer discoverys of God's reconciled face in and thro the Attoning Blood of the Lord Jesus that Blood of the Everlasting Covenant A more full confirmation and a more close application of the New Covenant and all the Promises Comforts Benefits and Priviledges thereof to our Souls and a more full Communion with Christ in his Grace and fullness in his Death and Sufferings in his great Undertakings and glorious Transactions in his high Dignitys and Relations in his great Victorys and Atchievements and in those necessary offices of Prophet Priest and King to his Church these are some of the great benefits that are intended to us by this Ordinance Now we that have been so lately entertained at this Table of the Lord that have or might have been feasting and satiateing our Souls upon this Banquet of Christs love it behooves and concerns every one of us to walk worthy of the Lord unto all-pleasing to walk worthy of this love of Christ in doing and suffering in bleeding and dying for us That is to walk suitably and some way becoming those expressions of love that have been exhibited and represented to us in this Ordinance I say it highly concerns every one of us who have been feasting at this Banquet of Christs love it concerns us to keep up and maintain a suitable and becoming walk after it Remembring that it is not enough to Eat and Drink worthily at this Supper but we must also walk worthily after this Supper we have oftentimes bills put up for a prepared heart and a suitable frame that persons may come prepared to this Ordinance of the Lords Supper that they may not eat and drink unworthily But I do not remember that ever I saw a bill for a suitable walk and behaviour afterward It is not enough that we duely prepare before act worthily in but we must also walk suitably after Communicating And there is as much need to put up a Prayer and to dispatch a cry to Heaven that we may walk worthily after as well as come preparedly to this Supper By walking worthily I mean no more than walking suitably and becomingly But here it may be asked what is this suitable walking or wherein doth it consist or how is it that we are to walk after this Supper Ordinance To this we shall answer I. More Generally II. More Particularly I. The general answer to this is more Holily after this Supper of the Lord we are to walk more Holily Now to this holy walking there must be a Principle of Grace wrought in the heart I say before there can be any holiness in the life we must first suppose that there be Grace in the heart A person must be holy before his actions can be holy For till a Man be Regenerated and act from a Principle of Grace in his heart all he doth is but the shadow and imperfect imiation of a good action as an Ape would imitate a Man or as an artificial motion doth resemble that which is natural Grace must first be infused to beget life and then we are visibly to express it in a course of godly walking And then there must not be only a Principle from which we must walk but there must be a Rule by which we must walk and that is the Law or Word of God which meets and sets out the bounds of Sin and Duty which tells us what evil we are to decline and shun and what good we are to prosecute and persue Now there is a twofold Holiness Internal and External Internal which lies in the hatred of sin and a love of that which is good External and that is expressed in avoiding of the one and persuing after the other Now this Holy Walk doth consist in a careful avoiding that which is evil and sinful and in an eager persuite after that which is good It hath two parts The one Privative The other Possitive The Privative part which is called Mortification or a dying to sin The Possitive part which is called Vivification or a living unto Righteousness The one is the purging out of Sin the other is the spiritual refining of the Soul The one is a ceasing to do evil the other is a learning to do well The one is a strenuous opposition of Sin the other is a vigorous exercise of all Grace Now after this Supper Ordinance we are to walk more Holily To hate sin more than ever and to love God and Christ and the things that are spiritually good more than ever To dye more unto Sin and to live more unto Righteousness It is true we cannot be more Elected we cannot be more justified after Communicating than we were before But we may and ought to be more sanctified than before Sanctification is a progressive thing it is compared to seed that grows first the blade springs up then the ear then the ripe Corn. We are not so much sanctified but we may be more sanctified We do not walk so holily but we may walk more holily still there is none so good but he may be better 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. So I may say having these love Banquets these Sacrament seasons and Supper Ordinances dearly beloved time after time returning upon us let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Tho' Justification doth not admit of Degrees yet Sanctification doth that is still encreasing like the shining light or Morning Sun that shines more and more and brighter and brighter unto the perfect Day Prov. 4.18 and should be daily growing more
which we are to express our Thankfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ for what he hath done and suffered for us by often thinking of it our selves or speaking of it to others to the eternal praise and renown of our dear Redeemer 2. Another way by which we are to express our Thankfulness is by magnifying and setting an high esteem and value upon what he hath done for us Estimation of Benefits received is one way of expressing our Thankfulness for them Unthankfulness always lessens and vilifyes and makes light of a kindness or benefit received as Israel did the Manna Numb 21.5 And the People spake against God and against Moses Wherefore have you brought us up out of Aegypt to dye in the wilderness for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread Numb 11.5.6 We remember the fish we did freely eat in Aegypt the Cucumbers and the Melons and the Leeks c. but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all besides this Mannah before our eyes Oh what unthankful ungrateful People were these to make light of such excellent Food which yeilded such excellent nourishment and in the strength of which they were able to go so many and such tedious Journeys Their entertaining such base low mean thoughts of it argued their great unthankfulness for it Thus unthankful wretches do by Christ even as these Israelites did by the Mannah they make but light of Christ the greatest Gift that God could have bestowed upon the Sons of Men. But yet at the same time they despise both Giver and Gift it self by despising the Gift they affront the Giver They see no lovelyness no beauty no excellency in Christ that they should desire him What is thy beloved more than another beloved was the Answer to the Spouse when she was so earnestly enquiring after her Beloved Cant. 5.10 A Lust a Pleasure is by many preferred before Christ A Lust that will Damn them before a Saviour that will Save them A Carnal Pleasure shall be embraced when Christ and his Benefits shall be despised this argues great Ingratitude and Unthankfulness vilifies and lessens both the Person that shews the kindness and the kindness it self when as true Thankfulness esteems and values both Person and Benefit both he that hath done and what he hath done for us Now this way we are to express our Thanfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ by our esteem of him and the Benefits we receive by him Now what esteem have we for Christ Do we esteem him as the Apostle did who desired and determined to know nothing else but Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 He looked upon all other knowledge as vain and unprofitable in comparison of Christ and him Crucifyed this shewed his value and esteem for Christ And such an esteem had he for Christ that he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ yea all things but dung that he might win Christ and be sound in him Phil. 3.8 9. He could despise and trample upon the pleasures and profits and preferments of this present World that he might but win Christ and be found in him Endure and undergo the greatest hardships and sufferings for the Name and sake of Christ The greatest of his glorying and boasting was in a Crucifyed Jesus God forbid says he that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Jesus Christ by which the world is crucifyed unto me and I unto the world Nothing had that place in his esteem as Christ's had And then is our esteem of Christ right indeed when we esteem him above all and before all above Estate above Relations above all other outward comforts and conveniencies when we are willing to let go all for Christ I am sure there is that worth and excellency in Christ both Personal and Relative whether we consider him as he is in himself or in those comfortable relations he stands in to his People I say consider him which way we will in his Offices in his Grace and Fullness in his Honours and Glorious Titles and there is that in Christ which truly deserves our greatest and highest esteem Thus we are to express our Thankfulness by our high Esteem of Christ of his Person and as of his Person so of his Deeds and Actions of what he hath done and suffered for us and the great Benefits that issue and proceed from thence Is it not wonderful that a Person so high and honourable so excellent and glorious that the Son of God and God by Nature who was equal with God in Glory Wisdom and Power and in all other Divine Excellencies and Perfections that he should suffer this Glory of his to lie obscure for a time under the Vail of his Humane Nature That a Person so far above and beyond us should come and joyn himself to us Marry into such a poor broken beggarly Family as ours That he who was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law under the Observation of the Law to fulfil the Righteousness thereof and under the Malediction of the Law to undergo the Penalty and Curse of it That the Judge of Quick and Dead should become Undertaker for Guilty Condemned Wretches That he who knew no sin should be made sin and submit to be dealt with as if he had been the Chiefe of Sinners bruised and broken upon the Wheel of Divine Wrath Reproached and Vilifyed by Men forsaken of his Father vir dolorum a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief O the pains of Body and the anguish of Spirit that he underwent the wearysome Life and at last the Painful and Accursed Death that he endured and all this to save an handful that were not worth the looking after or taking notice of who neither desired it nor deserved it Well might it be said That he had mercy upon whom he will have mercy and that he loved us because he loved us Alas Who are we or what are we that Christ should fix his heart's Love upon us Would we know what we were why lost undone miserable Sinners Enemies nay Enmity it self dead in Trespasses and Sin in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity Many of them for whom Christ hath done and suffer'd such things were it may be Blasphemers Persecutors and Injurious to Christ and his Followers Such an one was that eminent Servant of Christ the Apostle Paul as he himself acknowledges 1 Tim. 1.12.13 And I thank Jesus Christ who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious but I obtained mercy c. Some of them it may be have been guilty of the foulest and grossest Sins as some of the Corinthians were Fornicators Idolaters Adulterérs Thieves Drunkards c. yet these obtained Mercy were Washed were Sanctifyed were Justifyed in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God as we