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
was as weake in the grace thereof Act. 2. end and the sealing power of it The Gospel hath more fulnesse of seede and begets more unto God than the Law could doe and therefore Baptisme is a farre fuller Sacrament to confirme the soule in her new birth than the other was So for nourishment The Gospel exceeds by many degrees the ministery of the Law in Point of her building up and nourishing the soule in the grace of the new birth the Gospel hath filled the brests of the Church with farre more milke and stored her with farre more provision than the old Testament could doe For thereby the Spirit is powred our upon all flesh Ioel 2.28 Esa 44 3. Looke what difference there was betweene them and us for the fulnesse of bodily food that in a sort may bee said for spirituall fulnesse How many Creatures for kind or for Circumstance as in case of blood or strangled might not they touth the Hog the Conie the Hare and many other both beast and foule tame and wilde which to us are cleane and sanctified How much more doth the Lord afford us fuller feede of the Sacrament of the Supper than their passeover Even as a feast exceeds an ordinary Therefore Paul calls theirs a ministry of the letter ours of the Spirit not because they had not the Spirit but in comparison of the fulnesse and power of ours The new more effectuall Now for us our Sacraments are farre more effectual The very change of the old into new argued the excellenter efficacy of them As the traine of a Prince personally riding in progresse is richer than an Herald or Harbinger The Sabbath wee know was changed at the resurrection to honour it So the Sacraments at his annointing to his office and at his passion to magnifie them How should they so doe if their Trayne were not greater I meane if the spirit of Christ and his sealing perswading setling comforting pacifying power were not greater Also except that blessed traine of his Graces more glorious and plentifull as humility heavenly-mindednesse patience hope love zeale ability to walke with God more closely to discharge our callings more fruitfully to suffer more willingly to live by faith more setledly and the like gifts of Christ Sacramentall attended them Hence is that of Austin so common Our Sacraments saith he are in efficacie greater than theirs in profite more gainefull in performance more easie and in number fewer Beside ours in their understanding are most sublime in observation most pure and in signification most excellent They lived in the Porch of Sacraments we in the Parlour Let us take heede least as they in their age when no Nation under heaven enjoyed any Sacraments save themselves were so puffed up by their priviledge that they disdained all as Dogges in respect of themselves cleaving onely to the barke of these Ordinances without any seeking after the Spirit and power of them and so opened a way to Gods wrath to bring into their steed the Gentiles who alwayes thirsted after them so let us feare least wee stand so much upon our dignitie above theirs that in the meane time there shall be found even among us baptized ones and communicants far more blinde prophane carelesse than the Iewe was yea and some of us who goe for better be found as formall barren as far from the Covenant as estranged from forgivenesse and as destitute of the life and sealing power of Baptisme and the Supper as they of their Circumcision and Passeover If it be so our dignitie shall so lift us up to heaven that it shall throw us downe to hell and I will not only say the Lord will not be pleased with us as with them 1 Cor. 10.5 1 Cor. 10 5. but as it is Heb. 2.2.3 Heb. 2.2.3 by how much more powerfull grace is put into his Sacraments and by how much more eminent waies and ordinances hee hath honoured us by so much the more shall our condemnation for our unbeleeefe be more fearefull than theirs who had so dimme a Covenant and so weake Seales in comparison of us Rather let us labour to enjoy the priviledge of our priviledge above them in carrying about us that evidence of faith and that peace of conscience and that joy of soule which our Sacraments seale up to us that wee may be as much better than they as our Sacraments excell theirs in efficacy and then that kingdome of Christ within us as well as that without us shall be a kingdome not of words onely and signes but of power also And so much of the former generall of this Chapter Agreement and difference of the 2. new Sacraments Touching the latter how farre Baptisme and the Supper doe differ or agree briefely understand that as they agree in Circumstances concerning Sacraments in generall so also in the definition of a Sacrament wherein as specialls contained under one Kind they communicate They are both ancient and within three yeares one as ancient as the other they are both alike publique as being equall legacies of the Church militant they have both one founder although the one by mediate Commission as Baptisme by Iohn the Baptist by extraordinary calling the other immediatly by Christ himselfe they both agree in the Name Necessity of a Sacrament Againe whatsoever is true of the definition of a Sacrament is equally true of both these as in the next Chapter shall more fully appeare For why In both the Lord conveyes spirituall grace by visible resemblances set apart by himselfe and furnisht with power to that end But in a word that I would say of their mutuall agreement Their Agreement is this First they both agree in the offer and representation of whole Christ joyntly and undividedly to the soule Touching the first 1 In the joynt offer of Christ Know that when we call the Sacrament of Baptisme the Sacrament of entry and ingrafting of us into the body of Christ and of begetting us to Christ yet wee divide not Christ imputed from Christ inherent wee must not thinke Baptisme gives us an estate in Christ for justification onely for it estates us in Christ wholly both for wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption though justification makes us truly the Lords yet because the Sacrament conferres whole Christ therefore it conferres him as God offers and the soule needs him that is both for justification and sanctification Christ our pardon and Christ our life for without both equally ours all Christ is not ours A speciall point to be noted for the better understanding of the act of faith in applying Imputation and Sanctification both at once to the soule of which point I treat elsewhere So againe the Sacrament of the Supper conveyes Christ to the soule wholy and undividedly Practicall Catechisme not onely for the encrease of our Sanctification but our Iustification also Part 3. Article 2. For although Iustification as it is a benefit of Christ
when yet his heart was with him But these lusts will come againe as Absolon and that with more violence and sway afterward because the heart is not turned from them and set in a contrariety Hatred is not become love nor love hatred outside is not inside and inside outside Still old love abides and the falling out of old friendly lusts prooves a renewing of love A bad signe 3. By the forme Thirdly try it by the inward forme and nature of renovation which is the worke of the Spirit infusing the habit of Gods holinesse into the soule and letting in the efficacy of his power into the same to forme it to a new creature in righteousnesse and according to the Image of the Creator Ephe. 4.22 It s the second breathing of the Lord the breath of life not to be a living soule 1 Cor. 15.45 but a quickned spirit Try thy selfe hereby if repentance bee in thee then the Lord Christ is in thee and stampes thee for his owne sets his superscription upon thee as upon his coine Ier. 31.33 causes thee to be like himselfe and endues thee with his owne savour and qualities purgeth thy old caske and sweetens thee with new liquor Now purenesse innocency faithfulnesse thankefulnesse sobernesse and contempt of the world with deniall of thy selfe are powred into thee If then thou finde no presence or operation of new savour instinct appetite and affections to be wrought but old Adam still as he was wont as sensuall carnall proud selfeloving thou hast no repentance 4. By the parts Fourthly try it by the parts of renewing quickning and killing By quickning 1. Quickning I meane that power of Christ his righteousnesse and resurrection not onely in a dead habit but in a revived power Rom. 6 8 9 10. Rom 8.11 whereby thy dead spirit to the matters of God is stirred and changed to a lively life of grace We doe not say that a man is alive to his trade and businesse when he lies on his deathbed though he live yet hee is not lively unwearyed active and cheerefull to it Againe by killing 2. Killing Rom. 6.6 7. Rom. 8.10 I meane that other part of the Spirit of Christs crosse and grave which destroyes that old life and vigor of sinne that rankenesse jollity and crowne of pride which was in corruption For though sinne be call'd but a privation yet by the law it conceaves a kind of being and becomes living turbulent rebellious and venemous in the soule till the power of the Law of Christ doe suppresse this strong man and spoile him and tumbles him into the grave of Christ that he may lye and putrify there This is an excellent tryall when a man can say I was once dead to goodnes without the Gospel but now I am lively to it Rom. 7 9. I was alive to sin and where I would be but now dead to it as a woman to a dead husband as Abigail to dead Nabal A living death and a dying life is in my soule and a stirring spirit in both 1 Sam. 2â— enâ— My owne dead and living spirit is gone and Christs both dead living spirit is come in place and in both my heart is stirring and on wing neither flat in mortifying evill nor unoccupied in good but to both set at liberty I say this is good Fiftly try it by the extent both in parts and degrees 5. By the Extent If it be sound renewing it will be both universall and encreasing In the first respect it is like Leaven which being hid in three peckes of meale leavens all and sowers all Mat. 13 33. So doth this Leaven of renewing it seasons and sweetens all the parts the understanding judgement and memory The will and choice thereof the passions the spirit and conscience the appetite of nature the sences and the members Though it be weake in all yet it is entire and through all body soule and spirit And it is encreasing in all for life is growing as life is decaying Try thy selfe by this also For it is with most of us as with one that is in debt who perhaps would sell off some peeces of his land lying out of the way and lesse looked at But as for his faire lands of inheritance which lye close and about his Mannor he will not deface them nor sell them for any price So it is with most men Their renewing stands in some outsides they can tip their tongues or colour their braines and commande their sences but when Gods Image must bee in the inner man also they will none of that Rom. 12 2. Their spirit must still run it owne streame to dye for it And so for their growth many have some violent offers of goodnesse as mercy zeale and religion but alas All they doe addes no one cubite to their former stature they keepe not the good they had much lesse put it to advantage 2 Iohn 8. growing to to more sweetnesse and ease by experience or cleaving to God with fuller purpose of heart Act. 11.23 when they see the most to warpe This is a bad but the contrary a good marke 6. By the combate 1 Cor. 13. end Sixtly by the combate of the Spirit within it selfe For because we live heere to be conformed to our head Christ therefore we cannot be wholly spirituall and mortified but we abide in part renewed in part old not because Christ cannot make us better but because wee are not capable of perfection till we live by sence Therefore Grace will worke a perpetuall sence of strife in our soules against the law of sinne in our members Not onely a desire to be with our head in fulnesse of glory Psal 137.2 Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 But the whiles to grone and sigh under our burden till every drop of blood thereof be spent especially to warre against our strong personall beloved lusts which fight in us till we recover strength and get victory till the house of Saul be downe and the house of David be up We shall feele this combat in us Gen. 25.22 as Rebecca felt in her wombe by her twins Till the Lord answer us The elder shall serve the yonger Try then thy selfe heerein if this strife be held up in thee by the spirit not in thy judgement onely against thy ill will and lusts But in the very same part of thee in which corruption fights judgement against judgement will against will affections against affections conscience against conscience grace against sinne it is a good signe But if sinne rule and there be not scepter against scepter if there be much foyling many falls few or no resistances but rather willing slavery and bondage both by sinne and to it it is a poore signe And this is all I will say of a mans trying the roote of renovation in himselfe Perhaps the view of these may doe some good to comfort an heart
wee Yea hereby the latine vulgar Translation of the Bible falsely called Ieromes and magnified by Papists usurpes liberty to abuse the Text and though not alwayes yet for the most part the Translator when hee meets with the word Mystery there he thinkes he hath found a Sacrament as in Ephe. 5.29 Ephe. 3.2 and first of Timothy 3. the last verse in all which he translats Mystery by Sacrament And that so corruptly that even things not sacred for spiritualnesse but onely for ordinance are called by him Sacraments By which reason the investiture of a King and his annointing or coronation might be a Sacrament which yet is a civill performance although sacred for the ordeyning For a thing may retaine his temporall nature still although it receive a marke of sacrednesse for prevention of corrupt abuse and violation And thus in part crept in that multitude of Popish Sacraments into the Church Whereas if men had not beene thus lascivious and bold in using words of their owne invention generall words for peculiar meanings much corruption about Sacraments had beene prevented Vse Teaching us not to bee bold in coyning words of our owne heads to expresse divine things But keeping our selves close to the termes of the holy Ghost who calls them seales of the covenant to abandon from Sacraments whatsoever repugnes to the seale of the covenant The right use of this name Now although wee still retaine this so unavoydable and received terme of Sacrament yet wee must correct the abuse and use it properly And whereas sometimes by use of speech we meane by this word the Act of God and Christ in ordaining or concurring with it or the act of a Minister or people consecrating and offering it or receaving it and sometime the externall Symboles or solemne action of the Sacâ—ament yet here we doe most truly apply this word to signify the whole complete performance of this holy institution as it comprehends all these relations Circumst 2 Touching the second Antiquity Antiquity this I say no man can taxe the Lord that he ordained them no sooner For it is he onely in whose hands times and seasons are Act. 1.7 he knowes when the Church is aptest and capablest of the Sacraments and therefore best knowes when to appoint them He could have given them first to the Church in Adams house or Sheths or after the flood to Noahs or Shems But his wisedome was to settle the first Sacrament of Circumcision in the family of Abraham Gen. 17.10 Age of Circumcision Gen. 12.2 The covenant of God was doubtlesse knowne to many families before but more fully to Abraham in whose seede all the Nations of the earth should bee blessed When therefore the season of revealing the covenant more clearely was come then was the season of revealing the Sacrament of Circumcision of the fore-skin of the flesh to be cut off as a seale thereof Abraham desired to see the day of Christ and saw it therefore he was to see the seale also Now why God kept it so long from other families his wisedome is the cheefe reason although this I may adde that no family continued the constant memory of the covenant without interruption eyther before or after the flood till Abrahams from whom though with much eclipsing oftentimes no doubt the truth of God â—â—scended from age to age lesse or more without utter intercision sa it formerly had in the ages before So then although we goe no further than Abrahams time although some Heralds fetch the pedegree of Sacraments from Adams innocency affirming that the Trees of life and of knowledge of good and evill were both positive or negative Sacraments Age of Passeover I leave to determine yet surely the institution of the first Sacrament will be neare 4000. yeares old Long after this even above 400. yeares Age of Passeover it pleased God to adde the latter Sacrament of the old Testament to wit the Passeover even at and by occasion of the departure of the Children of Israel out of Egypt Why there should be such distance and why one so long before the other God knoweth onely this I say There was greater necessity of Circumcision than the other to be so soone ordeyned because that being the seale of the covenant for the essence of it it was weightier than the other which concerned onely the better being and confirmation of it yearely But even this of latter institution is now above 3000. yeares old Age of two Sacraments of Gospell And touching the ancientnesse of the two Sacraments of the Gospel whereof one exceeded the other little more than 3. yeares wee know that though their birth is not much above 1600. yeares since yet since they were in the two former Sacraments of the old Church as Paul calls the one Circumcision not of the flesh but of the spirit meaning Christ our Circumcision 1 Cor. 17. and the other of the Supper hee calls Christ our Passeover therefore wee esteeme the antiquity of the one by the other To bee sure the yongest of them all farre exceeds the forced Sacraments and all other devises of Popery Vse 1 Teaching us both to rejoyce in the truth of that doctrine of the covenant and seales which now by Gods mercy we enjoy They are no new matters nor our Religion new which is as old as the Egyptians first borne destroyed yea and Abrahams dayes the one in the infancy the other in the more manifest appearance of a Church We are not then so moderne as our adversaries would make us from Luther Oh! how it should confirme us that Abraham the Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles beleeved in the same covenâ—â—â— and seales which we doe Vse 2 Secondly what honour should this procure from us to Gods Sacraments Nothing was ever so despised as those of circumcision and the Passeover And as the Papists doe now overprize their so called Sacraments ascribing to them the conferring of Grace by the worke wrought so its manifest we Protestants through our ignorance of their sealing nature esteeme of them too little Whereas if ancientnesse can make them honourable wee cannot thinke too highly so wee doe it not superstitiously of the Sacraments An old man wee behold with reverence old coynes bookes manuscripts monuments buildings have a face of honour in our eyes we use to proove a man noble because descended of an auncient house How much more then the Sacraments Our Lord Iesus to smite reverence of his person into the Iewes told them before Moses was I am so before Popery was the Supper Baptisme were in their integrity nay in the old circumcision Baptisme was and in the old Passeover the Supper was as Moses is said to speake of Christ and the legall covenant to include the Evangelicall so did those Sacraments teach these Oh how then should we esteeme and honour them Circumst 3 The third is Of their teaching in the Church the Necessity of the due teaching and opening of
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
had more Elements of resemblance then we And that in two respects First there was a multitude of signes wherewith the old Church was clogged and burdened to keepe them the better within the bounds of true worship Col. 2.14 from Idolls and wil-worship which yet were so farre from helping that they by account rather hindred the Sacrament For indeed all the ceremonies the sacrifices the Altar of incense the law of the first borne and almost what not did more or lesse concerne and typify Christ as well as the Sacraments although they were a little more reall especially circumcision which was imprinted on their flesh yet I say as one hath well expressed in the whole frame of ceremonies all did relate in one respect or other more or lesse to Christ How then could it be avoyded but such a multitude of semblances must detract from the peculiarity of Sacraments which the Lord authorized with farre more signification and efficacy than the rest The number therefore of shaddowes hindred the people from discerning Sacraments in their distinct and speciall use from other inferior ones But secondly and specially even the same Sacraments for realnesse yet held not countenance and colour but admitted according to succession of time divers elements Which argued their impotency and changeablenesse Thus Circumcision admitted two other compeers viz. The passage of the red sea and the cloud over the Tabernacle in their travell raining and wetting their bodies 1 Cor. 10. The passeover admitted two other viz. Manna and the water of the Rocke which was as Paul saith the same spirituall drinke and food that wee have in our Supper So then wee must not thinke they had more Sacraments for sence kind and signification but more Elements reiterated and added passage wise transeunt ones added to the standing which in the absence of the others intermitted in the Wildernesse might stand them in steed Now marke the fewer more standing and lesse mutable Sacraments are the stronger they be and contrariwise the weaker We know if Phisitians distrust their receits they prescribe the more if builders dislike the slightnesse of their Timber they put the more peeces into the building So heere Fewer under the New But under the Gospel it s otherwise God hath delivered his Church under the New Testament from such multiplicity of Sacrments Esa 49 11. Onely the popish Church the mother of darkenesse ignorance and confusion compasseth herselfe with her many sparkles and Sacraments shewing thereby what an enemy shee is to the truth of God and to the priviledge of Evangelicall Sacraments For as shee hath darkned the Doctrine of the Covenant the freedome and onelinesse of it so its just she be left to darken her Sacraments to abolish the Supper to defile Baptisme and to mixe a multitude of bastard ones to pollute the legitimate Now therefore the paucity of our Sacraments argueth their pith and comprehension as we say things united are the stronger Our fewer more durable and constant Sacraments doe more fully and exactly exhibite the Lord Iesus than theirs so manifold and oft repeated could doe And as theirs so changed betokened their vanishing away as indeed they did so ours once and no more instituted argue that they are as durable as the Church and of themselves conteine whatsoever Christ offers to his Church to partake from him either for being of welfare of soule and body So that the Papists by their multitude of Sacraments do exceedingly alay and weaken that excellency of them which they would lift them up to God grant it may be a signe of their vanishing and that speedily as certainly they are some of that drosse which must bee consumed with the breath of his mouth before his owne shall be purged and restored to their integrity The third efficacy But thirdly and especially we and they differ most in the efficacie of the old and new which as I said flowes of necessity from the difference of clearenesse in the old and new Covenant Efficacy alway attending truth Old Sacraments weake First by their darkenesse in two respects the sealing power of the Sacraments of the old Testament must needs be weaker because the truth which they sealed was darker Which want of power I doe not ascribe to the defect of true relation or union Sacramentall or as if I denied their Sacraments to be spirituall for whatsoever sacrament is not Christs and hath not the spirit of Christ annexed to it is but a counterfeit Circumcision therefore was Christ Sacramentall and so was the passeover But the one sort was onely a seale of a thing to come in time the other of the Gospel seales of the same thing come and already having performed whatsoever was promised Now as a thing enjoyed excells a thing hoped for say never so sure so the seale of the latter exceedes the former in all the efficacy of it perswasion peace joy contentment to the soule Absence breeds suspence presence expells it and represents certainty and satisfaction to the receiver So then this I say ordinarily the Iew could not except in some especiall cases persons enjoy such a measure of sealing power from their Sacraments as we doe or may they received not such certainty of perswasion of their reconciliation being in Covenant as we nor found such fruit as we may Because the sealing power of the Spirit and of faith was but weake As the King is so his kingdome must be if he obscure and unknowne his authoritie is weake So heere in the old Testament Christ himselfe was an obscure King and Priest and Prophet in his Church his Kingdome therefore and authority was according But now the kingdome is as the King and standeth in power peace and joy of the holy Ghost and therefore needes must both the Word and Sacraments be so by which as by Channels they are conveied And yet doubtlesse God left them not destitute of such fruite as that age was capable of they were commanded to rejoyce in their feares and affections of gladnesse and joy they had and so spirituall as their carnall and sensuall spirits were fit to receive the Lord supplying that want of spirituall clearenesse which now is offred by some sensible and outward feelings and expressions so farre as the generals of a blessed seede to come and happinesse by him were apprehended The distinct kinde whereof perhaps wee can not so well distinguish But to be sure Heb. 11. ult God finished their dayes without the promise seene and fulfilled that they without us should not be perfect I may ad one thing more out of Act. 2.17 and Ioel 2. compared That the weakenesse of dispensation and as I may call it barrennesse Barrennesse of power in the ministry of the Word among the Iewes made the Sacraments also as barren in their grace and sealing power Wee little reade in the old Testament of such numbers of converted ones as after the ascension therefore no doubt Circumcision
of thy selfe so be stript and empty of all good and grace in thy selfe feele in thy soule an utter absence of life of sence motion and power towards the inner man of grace Lie before the Lords Sacrament as a forlorne wretch Say thus If thy baptisme Lord be for my regeneration what am I without it A dead dogge a very lumpe and masse of sinne and curse utterly void of the least dramme of life savoring nothing but earth vanity lusts world pleasures a very slave to these and a very carcasse of all goodnesse and being of God Oh Lord strip me starke naked plucke off my mufflers shame me drive me out of my selfe as one poore miserable blind and naked This is the first worke of faith to put off the soules ragges and to void all conceit of life hope or grace in it selfe and to set it before the Lord as Adams red earth lay before him when he was to breathe the life of Creation into it Now the Lord is creating thee anew by his Sacrament Remember Creation is of nothing Baptisme never made new creature where it finds any thing of ones own Baptisme should then not create but rather draw somewhat out of our owne principles to make us somewhat to which we bring matter of our owne Oh! people come to the Sacrament full of their owne devotions and looke that God should make them new creatures of their owne stuffe this were to patch and soden our old not to create a new man in us Apply our selves to the Word Secondly being thus nothing in our selves apply wee our selves by the word to the worke of the Spirit of union Sacramentall bare poore empty water which hath in it selfe no Sacramentall substance yet by the vnion of the Spirit of Baptisme incloseth the Lord Iesus to regeneration in it If thou canst say water is not a more beggerly Element in the Sacrament without Christ than thy soule is emptie unsubsisting without regeneration Looke to the Lord by thy faith and pull hard at him for the Spirit of Baptisme to renew a life a spirit and being of pardon and holinesse in thee If while the word lasts and the Spirit of Baptisme endures even to the worlds end Christ and water shall never be sundred from the Sacrament Beleeve thou as firmely that Christ as water shall never be severed from thy poore soule that lies humbly before him destitute of all life in thy selfe and lost for ever except Christ be thy life and succour I say the Lord Iesus shall never be wanting to such a soule in the point of regeneration Plead then thy cause strongly with the Lord behold here is Christ in water What letteth why thou maist not be baptised Actâ— 8 16. as Philip said of the Eunuch Shall water ever lose her cleansing Were it not madnesse to thinke so And shall Iesus Christ then lose his power to cleanse the soule Hath hee not annexed his cleansing to waters cleansing Is it possible that all the divels in hell can dissolve the Sacramentall Vnion of Christ and water Oh Lord why is this Vnion and for what serves it Is it good for any thing save as it is Sacramentall Was it Christ before Is it Christ after No sure but during the Sacrament onely And why so Surely to teach me all this Vnion is for me Christ water serves for my soules washing He delights not to be one with a base Element for it selfe but that in and with a creature of a cleansing quality he might flow into my soule with his renewing Spirit Oh Lord I beleeve thy word Lord let thy Spirit convey thee with water into my soule Be it Oh Lord as thou hast said Separate not thy Spirit from thy Sacrament but give it the power of begetting mee to the life of faith and a new creature 3 Abhorre carnal reason Ioh. 3.9 Thirdly look off from all thy carnall reason and the sillinesse of the creature Say not with Nicodemus How shall this be Consult not with flesh and bloud cavill not 1 Ioh. 5 8. Mat. 3 ult aske no further signe thou hast three in heaven and three in earth bearing witnesse to Gods truth Water is one of these it is the instrument of the Spirit though it be on earth yet that is from heaven call not for a voyce from heaven the second time it s enough that in the Baptisme of Christ it as manifest Hold close to the Word and Promise Go teach and Baptize and lo Mat. 28 ult I am with you till the end Let all conceits of Reason vanish in the truth of God and when corruption hath done all it can yet roll thy selfe upon the promise and by the Perspective glasse thereof thou shalt see that grace in the Sacrament which else is invisible to flesh and covered under the ashes of unbeleefe Let all be quâ—sht with this My soule God hath said it I see nothing but water but there is Christ with water to regeneration Lastly cloze with the Spirit and meete it at the Sacrament 4 Close with the Spirit of the Sacrament If thou meete it not there it s because thou bringest not faith with thee for that is there for ever inseparably Grone in thy spirit unto the Spirit of Christ that thee may susteine thy bottomelesse heart in her desire after the grace of the Sacrament Say thus Oh blessed Spirit of Baptisme remember thou wert given by the Lord Iesus at his ascension for thy Church Ioh. 7.56.57 Now Christ is glorified Ioh 7 56 57 now let thy Spirit be given to bring the life of the Sacrament into mee Once when the world was a Chaos the Spirit of creation fostred and brooded the waters and brought forth order and matter for each part of the world Oh now come downe with thy fire and warme this water make it effectuall for the scattering of my darkenesse errour rebellion corruption Gen. 1 2. and the purging of old Adam the mortifying and consuming of my concupiscence and lusts And then travell againe with mee in this thy ordinance till Christ and the new creature be formed in mee Make mee thy off-spring Gal 4 19 and generation breede the thoughts affections and disposition of the new birth in me Oh make this fountaine â—nd laver blessed and fruitfull to be the seede of Christ in me Once thou didst so worke with Iordan that the washing of a Leper 1 King 5 12 caused his flesh to returne as the flesh of a child Take away my leprosie also Ioh. 5 3.4 and make me as a little child Once thy Angell so stirred the Poole that who so stept in next was healed of what disease soever he was sicke Oh stirre this poole also make it an healing water put into it the vertue of him that with a word spoken could cure all maladies Heale mine Lord by this poole if an Angell could heale a lame legge a blinde eye a deafe eare thy Spirit
speech The Lord is my portion thou shalt maintaine my lot and my chance Christ is able to uphold his owne worke and the portion which hee hath in his As Iohn 17. Iohn 17 11. he prayed for it Father keepe them in thy Name so hee can doe it and of his fulnesse they receive grace for grace Iohn 1 17. Iohn 6 55. His flesh is meate indeede and his bloud drinke indeede it s a seene upon their faces and runnes in their veines it puts sappe and vigor of joy peace and hope into them and will not suffer them to looke worse and worse as it s said Dan. 1. Dan. 1.15 That the pulse they eate by the blessing of God made them looke as well and fresh at seven dayes end as if they had eaten the Kings fare How much more then shall the Kings diet doe it Gods servants neede not forsake his house and fare for the diet of the world joviall bold wanton libertines and timeservers the Lord hath better fare than so for them He counts it a dishonor to his housekeeping to see any of his to looke meager or evill-favoured And therefore looke what grace he hath put into them he upholds it in them by his diet by his flesh by his bloud So that they have the true Spirit of nourishment in them they doe not coole in their love through the abundance of iniquity they are not pulled from their stedfastnesse by the errour of the wicked they doe not decline in their zeale love affections judgement savor by the malice of Satan the corruption of their owne spirits the examples of formall and temporizing ones they leave them to themselves and looke to what they once received and to him they have once betrusted themselves with and from his nourishment they finde themselves to be enabled to keepe the good things they have swet for as a Iohn 8. 2 Iohn 8. which in so bad and degenerate world as this is no small portion The second degree Growth in grace The 2. degree of Christs Sacramentall influence is growth And this still argues more prosperitie of soule and that their nourishment doth them good Wee see it in the creatures and bodies of men health wil cause growth by the constant use of nourishment And this is when not onely the soule holds even termes with the Lord What it is Esay 63.3 4. but outstrips her self as a tree of righteousnesse shouts forth her branches and as the willowes by the waters doe every yeare grow in length thicknesse and tallnesse that they doe not onely not wanze and wither but get still and grow bigger and bigger So it is with a true prospering soule Phil. 3 13. He lookes not behind him what he hath beene is not weary of health and welfare waxeth not resty lazie carelesse and standing at a stay as who say I have held long enough and abode the heat of the day Let hypocrites who stand upon their own bottome keep a measure of their own within them doe so These are in another stocke planted by the hand of the Lord Iesus into himselfe and therefore looke what the seede is of which they were borne Luke 2. ult the like is the pitch they aspire to they looke still forward to that which is before aiming at the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus In whom Ephe. 4.16 Ephes 4. the whole body fitly joyned and compact according to the effectuall working of Christ in each part maketh encrease of it selfe till Verse 13. it grow to a perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ So that looke what dimensions are in Christ what his length depth and bredth is Ephes 3 16. that in proportion the soule united to him by his Spirit doth covet and seeke after by a kinde of holy instinct and never thinkes her selfe to prosper and to be in good case till she thrive and grow in grace and although she mourne for insensiblenesse in this kinde and that any outward growth is more discerned than this yet she rejoyces that she hath some secret motions in her that way Psal 101 3. that as shee loathes to cleave to such as decline and wax dead so she abhorres also to stand still luskishly lazily wearisomely in the way and worke of Christ Therefore sweetly Peter 2 Epist last Chap. and the end joynes these two to hold our owne not to be pulled from our steadfastnesse with growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus And to the end she may doe thus The Lord Iesus can doe these how 1 By himselfe she beholds him into whom she is ingrafâ—ed from his stocke she drawes juyce and moysture continually She doth not onely behold his flesh and humanity how that grew in stature or at his example how he by the assistance of his godhead grew in grace with God and favour with men although these be sweet helpes but she beholds the Mediatorship and unction of the Lord Iesus Heb. 1 9. how by the unction of his flesh with God he was sanctified for his Church and her use how all his obedience and growth in it was not for himselfe but for his beleeving ones that they might grow up in more meekenesse humblenesse brokennesse of heart mercy love patience holy example more in quality of graces that they might be more purged from the uncleanenesse of their owne spirit and be more pure and savory more in the quantity and measure of them that as a little did some good and went a little way so more may doe more and goe a farre greater give more light seeme more beautifull afford more savor beare downe an ungracious world more powerfully and witnesse more sweetly to their owne heart the truth of Regeneration than ever By his Sacrament And to helpe themselves herein they apply themselves to the Ordinances of Christ not onely to the word that they might grow thereby But to the Sacrament of the Supper especially being the especiall helpe appointed to this onely end to bring the Lord Iesus into the soule for her nourishment and growing in grace So that needs it must be that this growing in grace which a poore soule seekes is one of the most especiall fruits of Christ in the Supper and Baptisme doth not more truly assure her of Regeneration than the body of the Lord Iesus and his bloud in the Sacrament doth assure her of her groth in grace Matth. 13.8 Such as the seed is such is the crop wheate brings forth twentie thirtie or sixtie fold it still of wheate even so the food of Christ which is heavenly and holy for the flesh profits nothing nor the bloud although one had dranke it under the crosse Iohn 6.63 it s the Spirit onely which quickneth and was given for the breeding and nourishing the soule in grace it breeds an heavenly groth and a spirituall
power of them and that not in doing onely but in suffering also Christ will be a Bulwarke unto them to fence them with courage and armour against assaults enemies Satan and the errors of the wicked that they may not be pulled from their stedfastnesse Lastly 2 Pet. 3. ult the Lord Iesus will nourish them so fully and so roote them in himselfe and set their pipes so in his well-spring so dwell in them that out of their bellies shall flow rivers of waters able to water all their practise Ioh. 7.38 and to make each part of their life fruitfull I say hee shall heale their barrennesse extend their grace so that it shall suffice them for many uses of lif as formerly for few Conclusion of the use Briefely then trie your selves by these markes Sure it is they catch many in their snare convincing them either to be none of the Lords or else to dishonour his Diet and to call the Lord a hard Master who reapes where he sowes not and keepes a bare house Mat. 25.25 whereas the very hired servants of his house fare better than the jolliest and bravest that live out of it Oh! if ye be these children that have their daily portion from Christs trencher as Ierem. 52.54 it is said of poore Iehojakin that prisoner happie is it for you these trials shall not hurt you Ier. 32 54. but if ye be not such certes to try may doe you good and prevent that danger which all bad Receivers are liable unto Which grace the Lord grant you Vse 3 And nextly as in due place whom should I turne my speech unto save unto these Iehojakins of the Lord be not offended at the name seeing its probable God at last shewed him mercy for his obedience I meane such as by this daily portion of his Christ farewell and prosper in goodnesse In two Branches These I must diversely speake to first the stronger sort then the weaker 1. The strong To the 1. in a word this I say That if the Lord in mercy have granted you this portion and these blessed fruits of prosperitie whereby ye are eased and cured of that Epidemiall disease of the age a declining hide-bound unsetled and barren course with God I say unto you blesse God in secret who hath given you morsells and draughts which the world knowes not count your portion to be fallen into a good ground Psal 16.6 and desire not to change it for the huskes of Swine no nor the feasts of Princes To you I shall say more after in the point of enjoying Christ 2 The weake But unto you weake ones let me speake otherwise and take your sad words out of your mouths you cannot deny but the Lord hath both bred you and fed you by his Sonne and by his Sacrament yours they are and as Christ is Gods so you are Christs but yet that nourishment of Christ which I have here described in the parts and degrees of it which dogges do catch at bouldly perhaps you dare not apply to your selves you are affraid that this my discourse will condemne you Dub. for you are farre from the tyth thereof you say farre from improoving the Sacrament to all those ends or in such degrees as the last use presseth your faith notwithstanding all your Sacraments is weake your comfort peace freedome of heart small your grace little stirred up in you to your feelings your inner bent of spirit still faint and your streame weake your conversation full of disorder and the staves of your wheele which should support the race of it pittifully broken your errors many in ruling your tongues families liberties and selves aright and you say if this be the fruit of the Sacrament to make Christians prospering in health growth staiednesse and fruitfulnesse oh what shall then become of you Sol. I answer Hold the Evidences of your Baptisme and regeneration proove your calling to be sound and keepe that you have gotten mourne that you have not improved Christ in his foode and welfare since you knew your selves to bee the Lords perhaps there hath beene a fault this way that you have rested too much in that and too little stirred up the grace of Baptisme by the Supper Let that humble you and covenant for heereafter to make better use of the promises and Sacrament of nourishment than you have done and then for your comfort this I say The Lord hath taken away your sinne you shall not dye the Supper is the nourishment of the weake as well as of the strong All measures are not alike By those which I have heere noted I doe not desire to snare any but to shew Gods bounty and what Christs fulnesse can beteame not what each receiver carries away Therefore bee not discouraged God is like a tender mother who hath both strong children and weake shee hath meate for them all But if any one be poorer and weaker than another that shall have the deintiest not that it may ever looke to lye upon her hand But that being cherisht by her cordialls it may grow stronger and be free from such maladies Therefore in Gods feare if there be truth and a mourning heart for faylings and hunger after the best measures of grace which Christ hath for thee let not this view of doctrine dismay thee Encourage thy selfe to wayte for pardon of old defects and the Lord shall by that I have sayd rouze up thy spirit to an earnest coveting and a true enjoying of such welfare in Christ as thy heart longeth after Desist not thy diligent receivings and holy humble preparing of thy selfe for if thou leave Christ as Peter sayd when those carnall followers departed whither shalt thou go He onely hath both words and foode of eternall life But heere some may step in and say yea wee should have hope of this if onely we had some defects and decayes in grace and goodnesse But its worse with us for we have harboured our corrupt qualities of sloath ease deadnesse yea perhaps a proud uncleane covetous heart yea rebellious against many knowne truths of God sinned against his mercy by much presumption against his threats by security against his charges by contempt and disobedience our hearts accuse us of coldnesse selfe-love unthankfulnesse forgetting of Gods administrations wearinesse of the yoake of a strict walking with God and counted it precisenesse taken the uttermost of our liberties counting them our enemies who have reprooved us And now loe the Lord arraigning us at the Barre of justice we are confounded in our selves and almost driven to despaire when our consciences doe rise up against us and the Lord seemes to leave us to our selves wee seeme to be in hell Is there any hope for such as wee I answer first I wish such to try their Baptisme and the truth of their first calling to be sound of which after in the triall of our estate and if they can proove that they
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
doth at last cast her selfe upon the promise resigning up her selfe to it so farre as to beleeve it to be her owne portion 3. Why Thirdly the Lord calls the soule from misery to mercie to the end that it might enter into a covenant of holinesse and become a Saint by calling Rom 1 7. called to sanctification and the image of him that called it That as the soule lives by grace so grace might live in the soule And this hee doth by the voyce of the Spirit of Regeneration and Baptisme The which by the immortall seede of the word sheddeth the love of God into the soule to the end his seede may beget the image of God in it By which meanes the whole bent and frame of it is changed subdued and turned from sinne to God so that now Gods Spirit is that unto and in it which old Adam before was according to the capacity of the soule This Power the Spirit of Grace workes in the beleever because it is that Spirit of Christ which cannot be divided in her parts of Reconciling and renuing but carries the soule into Christ for both More plainly and breefely this Spirit writeth the purpose of the covenant in the soule to wit Iere. 31.33 that it may have the law engraven in it it may be cleansed as with pure water and may be caused as by an inward new Principle to walke in the Obedience of all Commandements of Law and Gospell as compting them an easie yoake and perfect freedome These three are wrought according to the measure of mercy in every calling one and are not so much the markes as the parts of effectuall calling and who so is thus called is also in covenant with God and by vertue thereof hath true right to the Sacrament of the supper for the growing up in the grace of the covenant Howbeit because it is hard for a Camell to goe through a needles eye 2. Triall of estate by markes of calling and every poore soule can not receive all this whole frame all at once to try it selfe thereby I will helpe it a little by taking it so into peeces that each severall triall may enter in at the narrow dore the more easily Let then the soule that would try it selfe about her calling proceede in this or the like manner First hath God called thee Try it by his Preventing grace canst thou say 1 Make Preventing Grace That when thou thoughst of nothing lesse than grace yet God was found of one that sought him not Did the Lord so mightily over rule and so order thy occasions of education company acquaintance calling ministry placing employments that in all thou sawest God spreading his net for thee that thou mightest not run thy course but bee taken in it and bee brought homewards Did the Lord by this way of Providence make thee of a dead unsavory peece of flesh to beginne to hearken after and savour the things of God It s a good signe Secondly canst thou say That the Lord suffered thee not to content thy selfe with vanishing devotions and groundlesse hopes or wishes of good But by his word wrought thy heart to see into thy corrupt heart and course Did the Lord discover thee to thy selfe either in thy particular lusts or generall bad course or in thy Originall poyson of heart Did he knocke thee off from all thy colours shifts and excuses Convince thee of sinne and curses and cause thee to stinke in thy owne nosethrils It s a good signe especially when the 10. Commandement did it Thirdly did the Lord keepe thee from extremities in this case Either from revolting backe to thy old lusts as one weary of Gods yoake before the time or rushing into desperation or falling into a presumptuous loosenesse and peace of heart in this thy dangerous condition I say did the Lord hold thee downe under his hand of the Spirit of bondage till thy ranke jolly and lusty heart were kill'd and tamed in thee It is a good signe Fourthly when thou wast in thine owne sence as one hanging betweene heaven and earth at an utter losse joylesse in any earthly thing and yet voyd of spirituall did the Lord yet in secret put some poore hope of not utter perishing into thee and whisper thus Yet what if the Lord will turne away his fierce wrath And didst thou feele thy selfe by this meanes stayd till better newes came It is a good signe In the 2 place I aske hath God called thee Try it by his Assisting grace 2. Marke Assisting grace thus Did not the Lord leave thee thus but ply thy heart with the word and nourish thy feeble hope with more and more light in his Promise Canst thou say this light was no Moone light darke and doubtfull but as the light of the morning dawning and encreasing in thy soule It s a good signe Mat. 24.27 Secondly did this light vanish and fleet away into flashy pangs of joy without any abiding or did it draw thee to behold something in God able to bottome thy hope as the Law was to unsettle thy rotten peace Did it cause thy spirit within thee to goe aside and hide this pearle digest it the worth the weight of it Mat. 13 44. To ponder the truth and warrant of the promise thou that mightest see how able it was to beare thee So that thou wouldst not in so weighty a thing as this leave all at sixe or seaven and trust rather than try It s a good signe Thirdly when thy Affections were up in armes to pursue this grace with a broken hungry heart and desire felt'st thou the resistance of thy selfe and selfelove to breed in thy soule even the paines of conception or quickning in thee Did this cause thee to discerne selfe in the worke selfe pride selfe unworthinesse selfe feares selfe hope carnall reason cavills objections Felt'st thou Satan heere to plye faster with buffetings and temptations than presently the word it selfe could stay thee Did this conflict of selfe against the light of the word so affect thee as the strugling of the twinnes in her wombe affected Rebecca when she went to God for counsell Didst thou enquire still for counsell and by degrees labour to see the heavenly rest and ease of a promise the wofull restlesse pudder of selfe within thee Did this still make thy soule more to loath selfe and dive into the freedome and fulnesse of Christ in the promise It s a good signe Fourthly when thou couldst not feele such an overuling power in the word as thou desirest but rather selfe and doubting over ruled the word canst thou say that in this suspence and darkenesse of thine thou yet strovest to hold to the naked truth of God To his faithfull covenant in which he cannot lye Sawest thou enough in that to satisfie thee although thou wantedst a bucket to draw up this water out of the wells of Salvation And did this sustaine thee in the others
object of faith The second object which is the promise which containeth 2. things either the good things offred in the promise or the hearty meaning and purpose of him that freely markes the promise The good thing offred in the promise pardon peace a purged conscience life of grace support in grace the earnest penny of the Spirit and the like serve to draw the affections which carry the soule unto God and to dash out of countenance all false objects of gaine ease pleasure lusts to draw the soule to God in desire esteeme of mercy and in hungring mourning and endeavouring after Christ Secondly the manner of offring these good things being free full faithfull entire and simple exceeding desirous the soule should embrace them Rom. 5. ut supr sorry it should reject them urging it to beleeve serves to put it out of question that the Lord meanes as hee speakes else needed he not to have prevented us at all but seeing even when we were enemies neither deserving nor desiring any favour yet the Lord out of the meere graciousnesse of his heart would needs bestow it upon us Triall by this therefore he would have us conclude he will not repent him of his freedome if wee come in to lay claime and plead this promise Try thy faith then by the promise thus first whence came those dispositions of heart in thee I meane those teares of thine those desires prayers fastings and diligent searching after grace Came they from selfe-love or from an heart of basenesse bringing thy money and cost to God to buy mercy If so thou hast little to boast of but if the good things of the promise wrought them in thee if thou can say that faith and the preparations to faith proceeded from the promise The good things offered therein drew thee to God as with cords If thou canst say that thy good affections could never purchase faith rather that promise which bred faith bred also those affections in thy soule because thou sawest God willing to save thee and pardon thee therefore thou mournest after him prayest unto him Ionas 3.9 and as Nineve couldst not give him over the rising of the Sunne caused this dawning of heart in thee and these making towards grace it is a good signe Secondly try thy selfe thus If the freedome fulnesse and strength of the promiser have truly wrought upon thee then thy base conceits of the Majesty of God are vanish'd I meane thy enmity and hatefull spirit is gone And whereas thou once couldst not thinke a good thought of him but all thy thoughts framed him rather to be angry envious cruell unbeteaming now thou stoppest and as one better setled beginst to say oh my poore soule who couldst never get out of thy slavery and slightnesse thinke of the promise a little better What wilt thou say if by all this offering urging expostulating charging to be reconciled upon paine of hell the Lord meanes thee well Perhaps he may If while he seekes to save thee thou devize how to get out from him will it not be bitter at last Thus weake hope breakes the ice and sets the soule forward Then the Spirit of grace createth in thee both thoughts and affections of such strange goodnesse bounty long-suffering free grace and compassion that thy heart breakes into wondring at him and saying Who is a God like to our God Mica 7. ult 1 Sam. 24 19. forgiving and passing by the sinnes of his people Who could finde his enemie at the vantage and not destroy him Therefore my soule is even carried into the streame of his grace and perswaded to beleeve I see the good will and meaning of his heart shining in his promise and whereas it was wont to be a barren sound and emptie noise for me to heare a promise now I see it as a vessell standing full and running over yea a streame to carry me in with holy confidence saying If the strength of Israel can lie if free grace if faithfulnesse it selfe can shrinke backe and deny it selfe I am content to perish Thirdly trie it thus If a promise have beene thy Object then thou confessest that the power it selfe to beleeve is in a promise as well as the motives to beleeve The promise is the instrument of the Spirit to perswade And as when the Lord made a promise to the Iewes that if they did come to the Temple to worship hee would keepe their dwellings and goods safe the whil'st Lo this promise had in it such a power as held off all Robbers and enemies from attempting any pillage they durst not they could not so much more in the promise to a loaden heart there is alway the strength of God to effect that which he promiseth and such a soule neede not stand out strangerlike and say here is a sweet promise if I could beleeve But here is a promise strong and able to cause mee to beleeve it If in any measure these trialls be in thee they are all good signes Triall 3. By the roote of it Thirdly trie thy faith by the roote of it which root is selfe-deniall All other graces seeme to have some inherencie and being of their own in the soule onely faith is rooted in the overthrow of a mans selfe This selfe is nothing else save the spirit of old Adam resisting the Spirit of grace and as we see in defenced cities some of their Bulwarkes are out-workes and retrenchments others are maine sorts neere the walls wherein their chiefe strength consisteth So here selfe hath her out-workes selfe-wealth selfe-ease credit and esteeme learning parts experience These are more easily cast downe because Christ and they are of two severall kindes Others are forts of greater consequence in which the heart more trusts as carnall reason and the wisedome of the flesh which Paul in 2 Cor. 10.5 2 Cor. 10.5 calls high thoughts and strong imaginations of flesh setting themselves up against the obedience of faith so also Religious duties and performances whether will-worships of Papists or duties required as Iewish righteousnesse by the Law and all the devotions of carnall Protestants To these I may adde the secret counterminings of the heart mixing it selfe with the preparation to faith and so destroying the worke of God as selfe-mournings desires and use of meanes Now of all these the Scripture tels us That if any will beleeve hee must denie himselfe and be content to be stript of those or else grace will not dwell in him Trust not in thy owne wisedome but trust in the Lord Prov. 3.5 Prov. 3 5. So Paul That I may be found not having my owne righteousnesse of the Law Phil. 3.9 but of faith See how Paul opposes them All the frame of Creation Redemption yea of the whole Word of God prooves it Esay 42 6. God will not give his glory to another He that boasteth must boast of the Lord. Two suites of apparrell may as well agree with
the woefull course which hee hath runne Deut. 29.19 Rom 2 3 4. adding drunkennesse to thirst and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath that hee is as one who hath run out above his ability to pay and therefore his booke of accounts is yrkesome to cast over it is death to him to thinke of it Thus it was with Cain each hundred of yeeres that hee lived the debt of his murther was so encreased by other sinnes and the penalties thereof that at last it became inextricable But repentance in the true children of God causes the view of sinne and the chaine thereof to bee presented with some hope of forgivenesse because although perhaps the conscience is amazed yet it s not privie to that trechery which the wicked were carried by in sinning Psal 51 4. Mark 14 72. And therefore their sinne is sayd to bee ever before them they are sayd to come to themselves Peter is sayd to weigh his sinne ere hee went out which argues that the weight of it oppressed him not Thi reviving of the mind from the horrour and oppression of it is a great mercy in the midst of such misery Iona was infolded as in a labyrinth of Sea Ionah 2 6. Whale and conscience yet in this gulfe hee was not swallowed up but conceaved in his mind a possiblenesse for God to bring order out of his confuzion So that the first occasions of revolt the circumstances attending the degrees following and the danger incurred rather serve to magnifie mercy in keeping the soule from utter Apostacy from the living God than to beate off the soule from hope The 4. Branch The fourth and one of the many is the recovering of a sensible and broken heart after long hardnesse by the deceitfulnesse and sweete baites of sinne Heb. 3 12. A most sweete fruit of the spirit of election For it was not possible for the hard heart of Saul or Iudas to relent upon the checke of conscience there was no droppe of the seede of repentance in them It would seeme impossible that Peter and David after so long a lying in so hideous sinnes Mark 14 72. 1 Sam. 12 3 4. should at the first conviction of Nathan relent and breaking through all the barres of his sinne say I have sinned It was not in the words speaking 1 Sam. 15 24. Mat. 27 3 4 for Saul and Iudas spake the same but in the broken heart which uttered them But the cause was That grace and mercy which lay at the roote Oh! that they should after such mercy once felt and vowes so oft renued so basely handle the Lord and hazard as much as in them lay their title to heaven and sell their birthright And yet should the Lord renue a second charter or rather the first a second time Oh! it pierces them to the quicke This chases away the cloudes of dedolence and impenitency and cleeres the coast againe The fifth is The 5. Branch That yet they doe not so easily shake off their feares the Lord so orders it that either by his word or workes they feele his wrath for their revolt so seazing upon their conscience that it doth worke out and purge their corruption through mercy so that they vomit up their sweete morsells And as one under the Phisition his hand lying in an hot bath sweates out the venome of his disease so is it with a penitent soule Gpd mixes gall and wormewood for them to drinke Hee causes them to possesse the sinnes of their youth with sorrow though long since committed Lam. 3 19. Psal 6 5. hee payes them for old and new at once makes their bed a bath of teares till hee have caused all that sinne which they dranke in with such greedinesse to returne backe with as much loathsomnes Then being under this racke hee makes them feele in their owne spirits how their sinne lyes upon his shoulders and by their owne pinching hee makes them confesse Now I see what my pride ill company stollen liberties come to and must cost ere I be rid of them As I like such sawce so let me returne to the meate againe I thought I had but dallied I cast arrowes and darts into the flesh of the Lord Iesus in sport But now they gugg mee Now I see ihe Lord will not beare all I must beare somewhat and if I provoke him it must bee to the confusion of my face As I troubled and greeved the Spirit of God so the Lord troubles mine this day Iosh 7 25 The shame the ill report the sorrow and sting outward and inward which I sustaine sinne is no trifle The 6. Branch Sixtly the Lord now in season proceeds to offer himselfe in a promise to this revolting penitent And that in two kinds First That their revolt hath not extinguisht mercy Esay 57.17 18. Ier. 3 1 2. See Esay 57 17. I will heale their covetuousnesse Ier. 3 1 2. If a mans wife play the harlot wilt thou returne to her Wilt thou not write her a Bill of divorcement Yet returne to me and I will receive thee after all thy whoredomes And againe I will heale all their backeslidings c. So Ier. 3.12 Rev. 2 5. 3.19 Revelations chap. 3 verse 19. Bee zealous and amend Yea the spirit of grace in that fulnesse of Satisfaction by Christ doth fixe and settle such promises upon the soule so that it heares them not as the sound of many waters but dwells upon and digests them as concerning her So that they leave not a wanzing conceit as in presumptuous hypocrites who sinne that grace may abound But they so fasten upon the promise as a reall comfort to cure them of their falling sicknesse Rom 6 1. Secondly the Lord reveales the promise to them as the due order of their recovery For whereas the ungodly doe returne to their trade See Iona 3 21. â—1 upon the suppozall that their doggish vomit shall serve the turne Lo the Lord alway comes betweene the revolting and repenting of his owne with a savory application of the promise Teaching them that if there were no more but their mourning to make up their repentance Alas It would vanish and come to nought Therefore hee will have them lay hold upon the promise of free grace which may quiet and clense their conscience Psal 51.10.12 and restore them to that former influence which they had from grace And although their pipes are still set in the welhead yet because they are stopped the Lord by faith cleeres the passage of grace for them that they may partake that strength and encouragement from their head which may cause their repentance to bee sound and put new hope of holding out into them Lastly by this meanes They keepe themselves well while they are so The 7. branch and dare not by that experience they have gotten of smarty sinne adventure upon it any more They abhorre to tempt