s the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. ult which must doe it 1 Pet 1 22 as Iam. 1.16 Of his free will hee begat us by the Word of truth Iam 1 16 Trie thy selfe then by the usuall acts of the word of Regeneration and so thou maist gather that this Spirit belongs to thee This is no place for mee to digresse I will cull out onely two or three things which may serve for this use Deceive not thy selfe and God will not deceive the Didst thou ever then feele in thy selfe that this immortall seed cast into thy eare did so descend into thy heart as to worke any immortall hope in thee 2 Tim. 1 11. The Gospell reveales immortality and glory to the soule Did it ever bring to light any such thing to thee Did it ever conceive in thee a sensible distaste of all hopes below and raise thy affections above Did it ever cause the things of the earth long life health successe welth money pleasure to be despised in comparison of the hope which is set before thee Camest thou ever from the word another man in thy aime appetite savor and love than thou wentst Did thy heart ever burne within thee there And when thou camest with earthly base thoughts did the Lord so dash them by heavenly doctrine and the hope of Christ that thou returnedst to thy house with a distaste of thy selfe for them Wert thou ever so touched and taken with the promise of the word that thou wert loath to forgo it for any delight In particular try thy self thus Instances of the words working 1. Hath the word of the Law cast a destroying seede of death into thee taken a way that life of old Adam jollity in sin Hath it defaced thy old Image discovered thee to thy selfe to be an Alien from the Life of God and common-wealth of Israel the son of an Hittite and Amorite as odious as one of thirtie old would be to thee who never was baptized Secondly hath the Gospell cast a better seed of hope in Christ by the Covenant of reconciliation into thee In thy hearing of this glad tidings hath the Lord bored an eare in thee by which this seede might conceive and kindle in thy heart Hath it wrought the preparation of heart in thee by brokennesse tendernesse humilitie unweariednesse of paines selfe de-deniall c. Hath it setled and digested in thee as a thing of such beauty as in comparison of which all the glory of the earth is drosse Hath it abode in thee and brought an undecaying sweetnesse into thee Hast thou felt in thy wombe the paines of true life and the new birth viz. How corruption of nature selfe and infidelity have rebelled against the work both of the Law and Gospell Gen. 25 22. Hast thou with Rebecca in this combat gone to God with thy complaint of the infinite lets that have held thee from beleâ—ving And hath the Lord by his Promise and perswasions fastened thy anchor of soule upon his bottome of free grace and truth renouncing thy owne hopes feares performances So that now thou hast him close bound to thee in his word from ever forsaking thee Then I say to thee thou art he whom the word hath breed Christ in and formed life in thee by faith What wanteth then Oh! thy heart is fickle and too weake to buy and sell upon the bare word without wavering yea thou hast much adoe to get victory over thy uncertain heart Well no wonder Thou seest nothing and to resist sence is a great worke yet be faithfull with God and give not over his promise and by due cleaving to the bare truth of the Lord begge further light and rest not in thy measure much lesse yeeld to any love of sinne to darken and defile thee And so doing I assure thee that to thee and to none but such the seale of baptisme belongs thou shalt find the Lord will by his Spirit convince thee deeplier the Spirit of Baptisme shall bring forth Gods pledges shew thee them Ioh. 16 9.10 convey into thy faint heart strength confidence and courage of faith and set thee above thy distempers as if they had never annoied thee If I say hee have purposed such a decree of grace unto thee he will effect it in time else know that howsoever yet thy service is blessed and thy faith hath brâ—â—d the life of regeneration in thee Branch 1 Forthly let this be exhortation to urge us to apply our selves to Baptisme for the sealing work of the Spirit therin To young Novices And first I direct my speech to yong novices under the means Slight not off the first incklings of this sealing Spirit The 1. layes heates of the holy Ghost and fire doe usually breake forth in youth Consider it s not a dayes worke nor a thing easie to settle the Spirit of sealing upon thy soule there be many steps to it Oh! looke to it yee young beginners One cause why old Christians walke so heavily is because they never heeded or hatched the first motions of the Spirit in their beginnings If then the Spirit of God doe call and stirre in thee by early affections love zeale enquiry answer Speake Lord for thy servant heares put him not off by ease or bondage 1 Sam. 3 9. If such a thought come as this What a dramme of Grace and Life of Christ is worth or what vow thou madest in Baptisme and how retchlesse thou hast beene to keepe it dally not with such items shake not off either pangs of terrour by lusts of youth or pangs of hope and love with ease and sloth for so the Spirit of sealing is fore-stalled and the faire forwardnesse thereto will hardly be recovered Put in thy foote presently upon the Angells stirring the poole Ioh. 5 4. if thou have an heart none shall prevent thee heere as there If these seeds were not choked and these buds cropt they would proove the assuring sealing Spirit of grace in due time Through contempt of it the Lord leaves youth to that hideousnesse and ripenesse in sinne yea a spirit of desperate debauchednesse in drinking oathes Rev. 22.11 and villany as would not bee beleeved of such youth Branch 2 Secondly I speake to all other apply your selves to the Sacrament of Baptisme for this last evidence and seale of the Spirit To elder oneâ— to let yee know that yee are the Lords Lin not till the Lord hath seal'd yee for his owne set his marke upon you not to be blotted out Looke up at each Sacrament each Baptizing ye see to the Lord that which in the former point I speake as hee hath applied the grace of Baptisme by the promise unto you so now hee would apply is Seale of assurance unto you by his Baptisme Let not such a mercie be there to be had and you not aware of it Thinke it not too good to receive if God will grant it What is
body is it not of the body Be humble for thou hast nothing from thy selfe but from Christ by the channell of the Church Cleave therefore to the Church as members to the body if thou desire to get any blessing from her nourish love to the body as thou tenderest the good of thy selfe a member Vse 3 Lastly be as frequent as thou canst in the Congregation The Church is the Mother of us all as the Children flocke to the mother so let the people of God to the Assembly even as the youth of the wombe and as the dew falles upon grasse Psal 110.2 Circumst 6 The last Circumstance is the season The season of Sacraments In which I will be briefe because somewhat will be offered againe to speake in the doctrine of them Onely thus much As in the old Testament the Lord appointed a set day for Circumcision noting as some of the Fathers say the Resurrection of Christ so in the Gospell Baptisme hath no rigid season yet a proportionable Gen. 17 12. there ought to be a proportion Not that we are so tied to a day as the Iewes were but yet to declare our reverend esteeme of the Ordinances For as wee are not overmuch to hasten Baptisme which some doe without just cause so neither too much to protract it in respect of honour to the Ordinance The Lord esteeming it one part of his honour when his worship hath a predominant respect with us above our owne affaires or ends Touching the Supper although the Lord Iesus instituted it at night yet that being for speciall reason The season of the Supper altered justly because the Passeover was then to be eaten bindes not the Church but may be altered Which I speake to rectifie some mens consciences in point of tendernesse For to the end they may disproove some supposed abuses in the Sacrament they argue from the circumstantiall practise of our Saviour not seeing how many wayes crazie their argument is For is it not a jarre with the nature of a Supper to eate it in the morning Yes doubtlesse the Church hath her liberty in all such Circumstances as doe necessarily concerne worship So that she use it to edifie and not to destroy It is good to defend truths upon warrantable grounds least when wee rest upon unwarranted ones when they faile wee faile and suffer the truth to perish As touching the frequencie of the Supper which borders upon this point no doubt of it The frequēcy of the Lords Supper the Lord would have his people not onely to have an eare to heare him where he hath a mouth to speake but also a mouth to eate where he hath diet to impart And how can a man comfort himselfe in his hunger at any time who when God offers his dainties turnes his backe upon him I am not so punctuall as to condemne them who upon any tearmes receive not perhaps speciall unpreparednesse in a journey when its suddaine or after a journey or when Sacraments hold a weeke together or in some unavoideable perplexing occasions may fall out to excuse But the charge of God is for frequency He saith not As seldome as ye doe this but as oft as ye doe it speaking to them who did it dayly Acts 2. and 4. Continued daily in breaking of bread and prayer Vse 1 The formality of some in this kinde argueth a deepe leavening with Popish blindnesse who thinke that oft receiving may derogate from the honour of the Sacrament As those that come to some great mens feasts once in the yeere must looke for no more welcome there till next so heere Once at Christtide a Landlords feast and once at Easter Christs feast to come oftner were sawcie No no the seldomer thou commest the more unwelcome thou art to this Master of the feast If thou foundest it a feast the Lord should heare oftner of thee thy bare and starven soule is the cause why thou makest so poore haste to recourse thither And it is to be feared they who never receive though they may save at Easter never fast but in Lent that they never repent till they die Gods peoples wants pinch them so that they can neither fast repent or receive too often And when thou seest others of thy brethren to communicate oft and thy selfe depart doth not a voyce tell thee that either thou thinkest it too hard to prepare much or needest not so much as they What is this save to condemne the generation of the righteous Or to justifie thy selfe above them Vse 2 Secondly this serveth to teach us to enlarge our selves not onely in the substance of worship it selfe with all our strength and courage but even in the circumstances our gestures our seasons and like behaviours looke what time doth best sute with our spirits for more cheerefull affection for more zeale and intention likewise what gestures we finde to be aptest to quicken us from dulnesse and deadnesse wandring or wearinesse that ought we to chuse especially that the Lord may have the best of us and herein the Apostles tooke liberty to change the Supper of the Lords season from night to morning not as if they did determine it as an indifferency but for edification sake because the more early such solemne duties are performed the better is it for soule and spirit and wee owe the Lord the first fruits of all both of the day of our strength of our bodies and spirits if any Season be more golden precious stirring and provoking to goodnesse that we must chuse to prevent corruption The Lord deserves at our hands to be served with the best The rigid season of Baptisme at the day of Iewish Circumcision is removed howbeit either to over-hasten or to prolong or so neglect such a season of Baptisme as the Church deemes in her judgement to testifie our reverence and to preferre to it base ends of our owne is a contempt of the Ordinances which though I am farre from thinking any prejudice to the infant yet its a grosse blemish in the Parents Concerning which I shall say more in the particular discourse upon that Sacrament Let us so order our selves in the worship of substance that we neglect not the very Circumstances for although the circumstance be not worship in it selfe because undetermined yet when wee tender any we worship God in it and therefore had neede to looke to our selves that wee be as spirituall and carefull in it as we can that it may helpe the chiefe substance of the worship And this may serve for the first Chapter CHAP. II. Of the agreement and difference of Sacraments NExt we are to treate of the consent and dissent of Sacraments and first of the old and new Touching the which first of the consent Papists enemies of consent then of the difference In the former we have the Papists our maine opposites affirming that the old Sacraments were signes and Types onely not conveiers of grace and so in effect
freer than gift to an unworthy one Lord I have long sate waiting for it both by promise and Sacrament At length when I little thinke let thy Chariots come to my doore as Iosephs to Iacob Gen. 45 28. Luke 2 29. that I may say It s enough Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace I would not be to seeke of this againe for the world Say as Peter Wash not feete but all parts throughly drench mee in this laver Ioh. 13 9. urge the Lord Oh! though I am the unworthiest of thousands to enjoy it yet it is as easie for thee to set thy Seale upon mee as for mee to print soft wax to put on Iesus Christ upon mee Rom. 13 ult as for mee to put on my cloathes Let not my soule be sad and doubtfull all my dayes for that which its so easie for thee to give Let mee have that Seale Lord and it shal be above all securities of land and lease clothe me with this Robe and all other shreeds shall be base unto me Remember how long I have waitd for thy salvation Lord Gen. 49 18. as one that longeth for newes from a farre country Oh! they shall be welcome And for my part I confesse except thou helpe in the worke and apply thy Seale all my hearings all thy Ordinances Word Sacrament Promises shaâ—l leave me as they found me not one of the benefits of Christ can relish my heart nor goe into my spirit except thou draw it in to me Oh! how wofull shall it be Ioh. 6.44 to see all my labour as water spilt upon the ground Branch 3 Thirdly I adde this one item and caveat to all relapsed ones who are sunke from their first comfort hope in the promise To relapsed ones Give not the Lord over for all that Be not sullen and discontent with him nor thy selfe Mourne and spare not that thou shouldst no more watch to such a trust as the Lord hath put into thee That either thou shouldest be weary of clinging to the promise That Christ should not be to thee yesterday Heb. 13.8 too day and the same for ever That either by feare of holding out or presumption of thy owne or ease or worldlinesse or especially that body of death thou shouldst give way to new contents the divels painted bables and the fashion of this base declining formall hollow world But be not hereby discouraged and desperate with thy selfe Shall a man fall and not arise Looke backe to this Arke and ship of Baptisme Ier. 8 4. whence thou art fallen No new baptisme shall neede the old if ever thou wert baptised truly shall serve lay then hold of that and be comforted I knew an holy woman who never found her selfe ecclipsed and damped in her comfort but shee found comfort by her Baptisme but she was in indeede a very sweete patterne of humilitie and of acquaintance with God in all his Ordinances If thou consider well Baptisme is thy second boorde after shipwracke doe but lay hold upon one broken peice of this ship and say Lord I have beene thine save mee Psal 119 94. I have felt thee sweet in the Promise and Seale though now it be otherwise through a dead heart doe but crawle in the waters and touch a brim of this ship and lo the Pilot will receive thee in againe not to make a trade and falling sicknesse of often revolting but to make thee more wary and fearefull never to provoke the Lord in like matter through his grace sustaining thee Vse 5 Lastly if God have revived thy spirit by this Seale of Baptisme walke before him in the strength of it Seale backe to him the fruit of it in a most faithfull close and wary course Consider the sealing Spirit hath many blessed properties learne hold nourish them in thy heart and course Give testimony to God and his cause honour and Religion seale him this fruit of thy service who hath not neglected thee in such a favour Disdaine not any weaker ones who have not attained thy strength cannot saile upon the maine but are faine with their poore weake faith to goe by the shore pitty and helpe such with the Spirit of compassion for his sake who sealed thee when he ought thee no such mercy Apply thy selfe to the marks of this seale looke upon each letter of this stampe and let it teach thee thy duty The fruits of the sealing of Baptisme The sealing Spirit is a spirit of singular peace of conscience and joy in the lively hope of salvation liberty with God fulnesse of faith and perswasion confidence in prayer purenesse of heart and life and so of the rest Dost thou walke thus Approove thy selfe in some truth herein Touching the first 1 Pet. 3 21. S. Peter tels thee baptisme is the answer of a good that is an excusing conscience What is that If it be demanded whether it be broken humbled beleeving pardoned It answers yea Lord thou knowest it Hast thou peace therby Dost thou walke with it daily Rom. 5.1 and nourish it If so this peace will be as Armour to thee Ephes 6.15 Paul Eph. 6.15 calles it the shooes of peace for as by them our tender feete walke safely upon the flints and rockes and gravell which else would cut and wound us so by peace we have safety in troubles count them all joy Iam. 1.2 and are not unsetled by them in our course If so then also this peace will rule our hearts and minds Wee will be kept in awe by it that rather than we would lose and forfeit that Phil. 4 7. we would lose any jewell so deare it is and so hard to recover Oh! if so then wee shall not be moved in all the tumults of this hurrying world the malice of Tyrants the declining of Hypocrites the great jollitie of Timeservers the scuffling for honours and great things but this peace shall calme us Againe if this peace of heart by justification be in us it will present us with an holy complacence in our estate a sweet content in God above any other object as one that hath found a Pearle hath a fuller contentment than in the corne cattell and trifles formerly possessed this comprehends all and drownes them And the heart of such a man is at ease he carrieth more about him than they who have large possessions So there is not onely a quietnesse from former warre but an excellent reflexion of welfare such as was in Adam ere he sinned and in this better that he desires not to change it for any other And lastly to this present sweetnesse and joy there is also afforded to such a soule an undecaying taste of the glory to come a lively hope and waiting for it as one who hath an earnest in hand of a full summe waiteth for that summe to be wholly paid at the day appointed So is it here The peace which worketh sweetnesse of spirit
not for the fruit Vse all these in their kindes but enjoy these and in so doing ye have the perfection which nothing else can and these doe affoord to the soule But heere yee will say is the difficulty I answer I will point briefely at two or three branches of direction and so conclude Directions for it three The first delight in God Psal 37. The first is this Delight in the Lord for this perfection of soule-content which he offers in his Christ The perfection of love is joy let him have perfect delight of thy heart for his perfect nourishment If David said well Delight in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire how much more then set thy heart upon him when he hath already done it that hee may doe it more Vse the Ordinances of Word of Prayer yea of this Sacramentall Christ our nourishment as a stirrop to get up into this full safe pure and durable object of delight in the Lord his Christ and Spirit who when all these poore helpes which serve to proppe up a Pilgrims travell as so many baiting-places till he get home shall faile yet shall be the eternall delight of the soule in glory Beginne this complacence and well apaiednesse of heart heere and if it be hard pray to God to give thee a judicious heart to understand the weight and worth of the things and to delight groundedly in those things which are best approved of God to deserve it As if a Iueller assure thee of the value of a pearle he neede say no more And pray also that all thy affections may follow love joy feare to forgoe it sorrow if weakened and all the rest as in a Gentlemans house let the Master welcome a stranger and all the servants will striue to doe the like Beseech him that his Spirit of comfort by faith may not only shew thee the good things he hath given thee 1 Cor. 2 12. 1 Cor. 2 12. but shed a lively sweetnesse and joy in them into thee so that as the Vine said Iudg. 9 11 13. Thou wilt not forsake this thy fatnesse and sweetnesse for any thing Beseech him to purge thy conscience from all creeping defilements of thy selfe world Satan or crosses which might dampe it and so raise up thy soule by them above all this earth which might eclipse it If it be an heaven upon earth now and then to beleeve a promise to savor a Truth to receive a Sacrament to be in good company to resist a lust to revive a grace what should he be who is all these and whereby should the heart be sooner raised up to him than by that which makes all this good cheere the Sacrament of the body and bloud of the Lord Iesus Oh! maintaine no melancholy distrust against this But as Hanna 1 Sam. 1. 1 Sam. 1 1â— when she had heard Eli was quite another and wept no more so be thou Peninna still was a chokepeare and so shall there never cease some thing or other to correct thy content but yet Peninna now was no more thought of Remember if food and gladnesse alway go together as Act. 14.17 Act. 14 17. How shalt thou hold up thy face before the Lord of this feast if thy sad heart poison it Secondly 2 Maintaine communion with him adde thiâ—â—s maintaine this Communion with God daily As the influente of Christ in the Sacrament is a speciall peece of our communion with God so when wee are gone it should make us fond to hold it that wee might bee as it were drunk with the wine of his cellars and the pleasures of his house That so wee may keepe a communion with him daily from Sabbath to Sabbath and be alway breaking bread and receaving as those disciples at Ierusalem who attended the comming of the Holy-Ghost David was so ravisht with that hee felt in the house of God that he saith had I but one thing of God this it should be Psal 27. That I might behold his face in the beauty of his Temple and holinesse and yet he might never come into the Priests Sanctuary much lesse rhe Holy of Holies to see the merciseat and the Arke under it covered with glorious Cherubins which wee may doe daily This is to spend our whole life in Gods House Psal 23. ult Psal 23 6. Not to be never out of it which old Anna her selfe could not but to retaine that savor of immortalitie and hope of eternall life which the communion of Saints in the world and Sacraments doth breed in the soule Oh the smell of these spices in the garden which the North-winde of the Spirit doth afford to our nostriles Cant. 4 16. Cant. 4 16. should so perfume us as all other fellowship should stinke unto us as no douht Peter his nets did and all the world when he was with Christ and Moses and Elias upon the Mount and would have built three Tabernacles Math. 17 4. and said It is good to be there As those brutish ones longed When will the Sabbaths be gone and the new Moones be past meaning those feasts of continuance for weekes so shouldst thou long for them When will they come And with David Psal 84. Psal 84.3 Oh my heart fainteth and my feete long for to goe to thy Temple How rare are such in these dayes in which though our cups and vessels be of silver and gold yet our receivers are wood and stone for the most part and such as savor not this bread of life and food of Angels How should we be afraid lest this Idoll of forme eate up all as those leane Kine in Gen. 41 18. Gen. 41.18.16 20. and lanke eares devoured the fat and full ones Where is hee who so comes to the Sacrament as loth to leave it and to goe into the aire of the world againe I â—â—mmend not the excesse of these old Monkes who forsooke the course of the world for to live alway in holy services But this I say few such there are who doe so much as hold any savor of this communion of Christ Sacramentall a few dayes after Oh! then such as have found this hoord of grace in the Supper keepe it daily also that it may attend ye fortie dayes till the Mount of God Directions for it Therefore let our daily course hold this communion But how may some say I will adde one or two words of direction First in the due exercise and quickning of the graces of the Spirit within us both the life of faith in all estates blessings and crosses in all meanes ordinary and extraordinary in their season as well as the Supper all having their particular use also in all duties of both Tables and the fruits of this faith I meane the graces of hope love to the Saints the partners with us in this communion Psal 16 2. Psal 16 2. and patience humilitie courage thankfulnesse and the rest of
is the highest perswasion and Sacramentall sealing the highest sealing We doe not limit God to his Sacraments but ordinarily we say he limits himselfe in this kinde Lastly I adde the most apt way to get the perswasion of the Spirit in an higher measure is to hold close to the lower measure As in the promise the best way to get the perswasion of the Spirit of promise is to cleave to the bare naked word and truth of the Promiser for himselfe So the next way to compasse the best measure of sealing perswasion in the Sacraments is to come unto them with faith in the perswasion of a promise for marke the Spirit in multiplying perswasion doth never lose the former measures but holds them still as grounds unmoveable He that can now swimme without bladders yet retaines the skill he got first by them and he that makes true Latin of his experience and art yet forgets not his Rule by which he first attained it still the power of the bladders abides in the man who swimmes alone and still the power of the Rule is in him who of himselfe doth suddenly speake true Latine Even so the promise still abides in the seale of the Sacrament and the perswasion of the sealing Spirit although it be above a promise yet it is not without it but holds the relation close Even as the seale and delivery and seasin of a purchase is above a Covenant yet never without it but alway relating to it and adding a superiour strength which it had not before of perswasion and assurance Vse Terror in two Branche◠Now I finish with the Vses First if the Sacrament of the Supper hath this end to seale the assured growth of the soule in grace let it be terrour for two sorts 1. Papists who pervert the end of the Sacrament to base hellish ends of their owne of which before Secondly profane ones who come in their sinnes who turne the Table of God into the table of divels yea turne the seale of the grace of Christ into a Seale of Gods Curse into gall poyson and the water of triall of the Adulteresse The Sacrament is not given thee to beget thy soule to God but to nourish it being begotten When then thou commest to the Supper bearing the Lord in hand that thou art the Lords Lo thou callest for vengeance if thou be an unregenerate one still Thou saist in effect Lord let this Bread and Wine be my bane if I belong not to thy Covenant As shee that durst drinke the water of jealozie knowing her selfe defiled implied her craving the rotting of her wombe So I say to all such If they come not hither for the right end of God they cannot chuse but come for the wrong either for the better or for the worse A seale it must needes be no man can hinder it yea to a covenant if not to the Lords then to such a covenant as they belong too that is a league with hell Esay 28. a league with their lusts adultery pride c. As if the Lord should say Bee thou yet more filthy still by rebuke of my Sacrament more proud more profane Adde drunkennesse to thirst Fulfill thy measure It s not my Sacrament which causes thee to bee so but thy uncleane dungill which dare offer it selfe to the pure beames thereof As Ieremie Lam. 3. Lam. 3.65 So doth this ordinance cry in Gods eares Lord seale them to an hard heart which is thy curse to an hard hart which cannot repent mourne beleeve because they have abused all thy calles in the word all thy patience and meanes and dare come hither in their sin send them hence with thy blacke marke upon them for the scaring of others Nay the Spirit of this seale cryes after yee ere yee bee gone out of the presence of God saying how durst thou sit here to catch the food of my People with a dogs impudencie with that heart which thou bringest with thee frō the alehouse or thy harlot or oathes Goe thy wayes never fruit grow more upon thee No raine no dew fall upon thy hard heart That which was a snare to Iudas Iohn 13 26 even the Table and soppe of Christ be a snare to thee to fall and rise no more If thou wouldst avoyd this let this Doctrine of the seale pull thee to the knowledge of the Covenant Vse 2 Secondly let it be an use of mourning to us that we have so few to whom the end of this Sacrament pertaines Sure if it be the Sacrament of any it s theirs whose hearts want sealing of faith in the Promise question the perseverance of their faith their comfort hope peace Doubt that these decay so fast as they shall hardly recover them and feare that Gods measures of health growth setlednesse and fruitfulnesse is too good for them But alas where are these now a-dayes Hath not the streame of this age carried them into another extreame rather of formall presumption and securitie What shall then this Sacrament doe if there be so few whom it concernes Shall it returne in vaine to him that sent it No it belongs to those few for all are not alike whom the Lord loveth and will seale to the day of the full assurance and redemption The Spirit of sealing shall not be quite streightned for all the sinne of others Mica 2 7. Vse 3 Therefore thirdly let it be admonition to all such that they slight not this end of the Sacrament Admonition upon two grounds so that it should not effect that end which it serves for To which purpose remember these two items First that this holy seale annexed to the legacies of Christs last Will and Testament doth beare date from the first Institution and was purposely then ordained by Christ because he knew the next day following it was to be in his full vertue immediatly upon the Testators death as wee reade Heb. 9 16. Heb. 9.16 Ioh. 8.56 If then those rejoyced in this sealing day a farre off ere it come and saw it as Abraham and others by faith then what excuse shalt thou pretend who seest not this power and end of the Sacrament being after the death of the Lord Iesus and being offered under the Signes of his death thou mighst not doubt of the effect of it Secondly the Supper hath the preeminence in this kinde Grounds not onely above other Ordinances of growth but even the Word it selfe wherein although there be a power also of Sealing yet not under such Evidences of the Lord Iesus crucified nor under so great an authoritie and commission to Seale Vse 4 Lastly therefore let the Lords end in the Sacrament be thine even every poore soules portion which groanes in spirit for further perswasion of her growth and increase in pardon holinesse and glory Put not off any measures or the Seales thereof which the Lord offers thee Let there be no effect of any Ordinance which thou shouldst count strange
these is wrought in thee as yet no condition of them no knowledge no feare of the worst no degree of desire endeavour If Gods deare ones who have tasted his grace yet finde themselves so unfit to receive when they have fasted prayed worshipped and walked with God all the weeke long where shalt thou appeare who never wert so in covenant at all Renounce all thy false errors and counterfeit signes colour not with God who will not be mocked pretend not thy good meanings civility keeping of Church paying of debt being in charity giving of almes shedding of teares these amount not to the markes of a calling but say rather Oh Lord by all signes I see I want the faith of the covenant of God and have run into a premunire with justice all my life long and each Sacrament hath seal'd up my judgement God hath long suffered me I dare heape up wrath no longer I will a while cut off my selfe from the communion that the whilst I may get the faith of the covenant Do so and prosper Num. 12.14 Remember Miriam and how she was served when she abused Moses and would have yet abode in the Congregation the Lord forbad her saying If her father had spit in her face should shee not separate her selfe seaven dayes So doe thou and make use of thy separation to humble thy soule And yet doe not abuse the Lords cutting thee off for a time to lowre and quarrell with him saying This tryall hath hurt mee I had beene quiet and well if I had beene let alone and gone to the Sacrament but this searching hath snared me and now I am further off No this is nothing but Sathans delusion who would for ever pull thee from the Sacrament whereas the Lord would hold thee off onely for a time and shut thee up as a Leper for seven dayes â—eriâ— 1â— till the Lord Iesus the high Priest have beheld thee and clensed thee by beleeving This sicknesse is not to death but life endure affliction in thy spirit a while pray God to blesse this triall unto thee Repent with Miriam and thou shalt returne with Miriam and blesse God with Onesimus that thou departedst for a time that thou mightst returne for ever So much for the first sort Vse 2 Secondly this is exhortation to Gods owne people that even they also looke to this worke of trying their estate Exhortation to Gods people Perhaps such will say they have tryed it often and hold it by faith daily and therefore its needelesse so to doe But I answer yet honour this ordinance and renue your comfort by reviving the memory and presence of it The oftner you doe it the easier is the worke and the gaine Yee will object Christ Iesus is the same Heb. 13.8 yesterday to day and for ever True but your unbeleefe is great your inconstancy admits infinite feares wastings doubts and distempers Revive therefore the sence of former mercy and apply it each Sacrament a new Bee not weary of getting daily more sweetnesse in the promise and proove your calling and election more sure to your selves as it is sure in God â— Pet. 1 10. Pray for more insight savour and tast of this worke and injoy the comfort thereof at the Sacrament The lesse rust yee have gathered the lesse filing of your soule may serve Take either the three points of calling before said which are the surest or sometime revive the other markes and fruits of conversion Doe not divide them but try thy selfe by them all together if thou can if not then chuse out some few concluding markes and apply them to thy selfe if it be hard seeke to God to teach thee to search them in thy selfe mourne for any decay of them and humble thy heart for it and give not the Lord over till both thou know that thou hadst them and in measure they appeare to thy selfe presently Recover thy losse Heb. 12.7 quicken that hath wanzed strengthen the feeble knees or hands and so doing blesse God that by the occasion of the Sacrament thou hast seene those graces to abide in thee which thou thoughst thou wantedst For the Lords wayes tend not to destroy but to edify and not to turne thee off from the Sacrament with feare but to send thee thither with stronger consolation and hope So that thou shalt have small cause to repent thee for obeying God For loe in this thy strength thou maist goe to the feast of the hills Esay 25. to the Lords fat things and fined wines the which if the Master of the feast bid thee to neyther have any other nor thy selfe authority to forbid thee Object But heere some will object Put case many a poore soule do stagger and alledge if these be markes of a receiver I am none for I cannot proove my calling by any of these markes But rather call into question both my calling and the fruits both faith and holinesse for alas I feele not my selfe to live by the one and I sinne often against both the law and grace I am held under with lusts and corruptions I answer Answ For grosser breaches of duty the Lord taskes thee to serious humbling and repenting but not giving over thy confidence As for ignorance or infirmities unavoydable they shall not hurt thee If thou can say I have beleeved formerly I tell thee the seede of God in thee is immortall As appeares by thy longing after the Sacrament If then thou suspect the worst by thy selfe for thy omissions declining to ease to world to other evills if thou desire to know the worst by thy selfe to vomit up thy morsells and to recover thy hold upon the promise if the fruite of the Sacrament be so precious to thee that so thou mightst finde thy selfe an invited guest thou wouldst not bee kept from the Table of the Lord for the world then I say There is fire under the ashes rake them off that it may appeare and burne out Claspe about these markes though but but in poore measure and when measure failes cleave to thy uprightnesse and let not Sathan or selfe bereave thy heart of courage and hope to get by the Sacrament but know these must not beate thee from it Objection 2 Yea will some say But when all is sayed that can bee If I want faith it selfe the cheef grace that serves to cover all my unworthinesse I cannot come Now I feare I have it not For why faith overpowres and prevailes in a true beleever above doubting and carries the soule above all feares to the assurance and feeling of mercie and fills the heart with comfort and joy these I want therefore I have no faith Answ I answer Try thy selfe by that I have spoken about faith before and let that stay thy spirit Farr bee it from us to affirme fayth so to consist in the full sayles of perswasion and in the flaming out of comforts that where this measure is lacking the soule is to
it hath beene I have hung zeale and esteeme of Christ upon the hedge other matters have defeated them of their birthright Secondly 2. Vnbeleefe bee warned against unbeleefe This takes off the soule from all her right to Christ to Christ and therefore marres her plea If I be the Lords I have right to his nourishment and cannot chuse but pleade it as the infant pleads with the mother for the brest But if Satan doe get in so farre as to dazle the soule with unbeleefe lo all the ground of gracious appetite is gone and then what succeeds but fulsomnesse and staggering Vnbeleefe is the death of the soule Doth the dead child misse the breast No no above all things abhorre this wofull enemy of infidelitie and nourish faith to the conservation of the soule Heb. 10. ult Heb. 10.38 If the soule be upheld in her life and being life must have nourishment and want of it will proove hunger But if the soule have once withdrawne it selfe from the body what is it but a carrion Thirdly Thirdly surfeit of lusts cast all superfluitie out of the soule which hath secretly soked at unawares into it The wombe that will conceive must be cleane from all former conception it will not conceive upon conception If then a proud heart loving it selfe if a techy revenging spirit if the love of gold and silver if gallantnesse jollitie and pride of life scorning to take it as we have done if uncharitablenesse slighting and neglect of meanes defile us as alas what is easier if a man be let loose to walke after the guise of the world how can appetite last 1 Pet. 3.1.2 If ye will covet the word purge out all your superfluities for they oppresse the seate of appetite and while they lie there small appetite will appeare Fourthly Fourthly excesse of liberties Pro. 23.2 cast out the tickling excesse of all lawfull liberties eating drinking feasting recreations pleasures and vanities of all sorts To goe beyond our bounds in these under pretence of warrantablenesse doth as much jarre with the spirit of a Christian as open offences for by these colours Satan withdrawes the Spirit from a close cleaving to God selfe-deniall and faith poisons it with libertie bewitches it with ease and corrups it with a declining of heart from that diligence sinceerenesse power and delight wherewith it formerly walked Adde to these such as thou hast felt to dampe affection in thee perhaps ill marriage a bitter root of infinite branches jealosies suspicions and ill affectednesse to each other Never looke that the appetite after grace can hold while such scurffe is nourished I tremble to see by wofull experience how farre some dare venture in this kinde So also crossings in our estates and health and businesse which drawes the heart off for the most part from God as also too much businesse and padling in the world many irons being in the fire at once to distaste affection and to craze the sweet temper of it for Christ and his Sacrament Vse 4 Fourthly let it be a short exhortation Exhortation to all Gods people in these dangerous dayes wherin scarce one of an hundred quits himself without some crack and flaw to look to spirit fervencie of desire and affection to all the wil and waies of God constantly as farre as our weakenesse will permit to file off our rust and scrape off the barren mosse that will overgrow a tree of righteousnesse Vse all helpes and motives to cast our Snakes skin and Eagles bill and to scoure our selves upon the salt marshes as sheepe doe that health and appetite may be preserved I meane afflictions wisely used Be wary of thy company keepe the watch of God preserve tendernesse and jealousie double the use of best means set God above them and renue thy Covenant daily This will easily worke Sacramentall appetite in thee Come with it to the Supper emptie thy stomacke bring not thy browne bread and cheese in thy pocket to feed on at Gods feast the fowlest contempt which thou canst offer him Remember desire after Christs fulnesse is the most proper and peculiar worke of a guest if he would have his inviter thinke well of his presence Marriage feasts poure out men into affection without it such occasions are odious but to God much more If a Iudge oppresse being in the place of Iustice it is horrible So for a communicant to come with a dead heart and no stomacke to Gods feast is most wofull Say to Christ as once he said to his Apostles Lord with desire I have desired note the phrase Luk. 22.15 Luke 22.15 to eat this Passeover with thee Lord nourish it in my soule I desire Lord pardon my indifferencie Thou seest that commonly looke what thou seekest earnestly thou gettest eagar pursuit of mony of wil or lust cōpasseth them so desire of the Sacrament shall attaine her end Esau with teares sought a blessing not a spirituall Heb. 12.17 but a temporall if he had an heart to have craved a better he had it Take heede least the Lord thus lode thee one day for thy fulsome receivings and let all this be some quickning of thy soule to receive aright Vse 5 Fifthly come to the triall of this grace with thy selfe seriously whether it be renewed at the Supper or no some few markes I will mention leaving the Reader to judge of other trials by these Triall 1 First Triall of it this is one maine one Luke 5.8 If the sight of that fulnesse of grace that is in this feast of Christ doe emptie our soules to the bottome of all selfe-sufficiencie of our owne Contraries applied to each other doe greatly enlarge one another ignorance with knowledge purenesse with corruption the modesty of a Matron with the impudence of a Harlot Try then hath the Lord Iesus his fulnesse emptied thee of all thy base counterfeit shewes and left thee confounded in thy selfe for thy seeming vertues thy barrennesse of grace thy fulnesse of corruption Thou seest what Christ is doth thy owne spirit beginne to smite in thee to consider what thou art compared with him Alas if there were no more to lay thee open to thy selfe than now and then to meete with here a shred and there another of sinne thou wouldest be oppressed with selfe-love and waxe a dunghill of drosse Onely Christ can truely perfect the discovery of natural poyson If then all that is said of Christ leave thee as it found thee it s a signe of a wretch But if confounded and emptie a good signe Triall 2 Secondly it will not there stay neither but thy emptinesse will so pinch and disquiet thee that thou shalt finde no rest in thy selfe The Spirit of Christs Sacramentall fulnesse will affect thy spirituall stomacke as long fasting will thy bodily Thou knowest what a grievous paine thy stomacke will feele and how thy veines will shrinke and take on with intollerable grinding till