men of contention beware of acting out of wrath spleen or revenge yea or of doing any thing out of meer selfishness for even in your temporal concerns about your estate credit c. Gods interest should be more aimed at than your own and you should not so much endeavour to secure or recover these for your own sake as that you may hereby be more capable of honouring God and if you saw that through some circumstances it might tend more to Gods honour to neglect a vindication of your right than to prosecute it in such a case it would be your duty to sit still They that have devoted themselves and all they have to God will understand this and none else Hence you finde the Apostle expostulating with the Christians why they would not take wrong and even suffer themselves to be defrauded rather than contend whereby they did then so much disgrace Religion Vers. 7. Of that forequoted Chapter But yet I say when it is your duty to maintain your right against those that would abuse you you may do this and yet have no spight against their persons nor any desire of their hurt if your own hearts be right and may really forgive them whilst you endeavour to avoid the injury which they would offer you And let this suffice on supposition that you are thus well-affected towards those that make themselves your adversaries which if you indeed be I hope I need use no more words to perswade you that other Mens malicious behaviour toward you need be no hindrance to your coming to the Sacrament But on the other side give me leave to deal plainly with you all you that insist upon this reason for neglecting your duty because there 's difference betwixt you and your neighbours I strongly suspect that you your selves are very much in fault and indeed you confesse as much by your practice whilst in your words you disown it for why is it you make this a ground of abstaining from the Sacrament but that your consciences tell you you bear so much ill will to your neighbours that its a dangerous thing for you to receive it Oh look back upon your waies and see whether instead of bearing wrongs you have not wrong'd and defrauded others Have you not opprest or needlesly vext them through eager designes of raising your selves by their ruines not caring whom you have injured and trampled upon so you might but get your own ends Of if you will not own this yet look faithfully into the temper of your souls Do you not stand vilely affected towards some that have done you injuries and whom you take for your enemies Are you not backward to any thorow reconciliation with them Do you not stand upon your terms expect that they should come first and humble themselves and stoop to you before you 'l seek after any peace with them your great spirits scorn to be first in this work nay it s well if you are not resolv'd against it let them do what they will Oh proud wretches Is this like Gods dealing with the World when we had given him the offence yet who was it began first to treat of a peace Hath the great God given you this example and yet are you too good forsooth to seek to your fellow-creatures to be at peace with you If this be your goodnesse may not the Devil himself passe for good for he hath pride enough and what 's yours better But further do you not cherish a secret spleen against them which fills you with implacable desires of being reveng'd on them and makes you griev'd to see them do well in the World whereas you could heartily wish their ruine and would delight to be in a capacity of doing them a mischief and long to bring them under you that you might insult over them and make them repent that ever they displeas'd such as you Oh divellish and monstrous spirit that ever it should dwell in the breasts of any that call themselves Christians Christians are they call'd they deserve not the name of Men. Certainly there are many as good Christians as these hang'd at Tyburn for cutting Mens throats For did not the fear of Man restrain them you should quickly see their envenom'd rancour break out into as bad effects But suppose your malice be not boild up to such an height yet if you harbour so much as makes you unfit for the Sacrament as according to your own acknowledgment you do whilst it keeps you from it it 's a plain sign your souls are yet under miserable distempers far from being truly sanctifiâ—d you live still under the power of self-love unmortified pride or covetousnesse which are the secret cause of this your discord with others And alas though these present differences were ended you would be farre from a fitnesse for the Sacrament whilst you abide in the condition you are yet in not having your peace made with God but being in enmitie against him through a subjection to your reigning lusts And therefore you might more trulie say you are not fit for this dutie because you are proud and covetous and envious than because you are at variance with any one onely you hope for some kind of excuse by laying the fault on others but that I have taken off before And furthermore is it not a plain discoverie how little love you have to Christ and your own souls that you can willingly be so long absent from this Ordinance upon such a silly pretence as this that your neighbours and you are not agreed It 's a sign of an ill stomach when people are glad of an excuse to save them from eating What could not you if you had been so minded have got an agreement before now Or at least could not you have done so much towards it as might have satisfied your Consciences that you were not in fault Was there but any worldly advantage to be got by doing thus much you would soon set about it I 'le warrant you But being I doubt very indifferent to Sacraments or to any thing that concerns your souls a very little reason serves to keep you from them since you find no want of them nor can imagine how you should be much bettered by them And whilst you are in this wretched frame be sure you shall never want one thing or other to hinder you To bring you to better apprehensions of things let what I have said before suffice for I now hasten to a conclusion onely let me wish you to beware of cheating your selves with that mâ—stake which I endeavoured to remove under the last Objection to wit That whilst you come not to the Sacrament you may safely persist in such and such actions or in such a temper of mind which ought to be changed before you go thither for thus you seem to think whilst you stay away because there are fallings out betwixt you and others being it seems resolved to continue in your enmitie
did as it were reprieve the world and kept us from being suddenly destroyed by divine justice which otherwise would have laid hold on us and did obtain for us that we should be tried once again for our lives so that our first fall should not be our damnation if we would accept of that way of Salvation which he had procured for and revealed to us Now since our first happinesse did consist in our being like to God being righteous and holy and obedient to him that it might appear that Christ consulted for his Fathers honour as well as our interest the way to salvation which he appointed was this That we should love God above all and count it our greatest happinesse to be reconcil'd to him that we should humbly acknowledge and repent of all our sins of nature and practice whereby we had provoked his anger against us and be sincerely willing to live in obedience to his Laws and that we should own him the Lord Jesus as our onely Redeemer and depend upon him onely for ability to perform these conditions and to obtain the pardon of sin and the favour of God upon performance of them And then that we might have this ability who by the fall were become weak and unable for good but strongly bent to evil Christ by his death obtained of the Father that the Holy Ghost the third person of the Trinity should be employ'd to bring men to the performance of those conditions which Christ required of all whom he would save And accordingly the Holy Ghost in pursuance of this work did inspire the Apostles and their fellowers to write and preach the Gospel and sealed to the truth of it with miracles for the conviction of all that should hear it And in some places in all ages hath enabled men to make it known and moreover this Holy Spirit doth accompany the Word to the hearts of the Hearers and where he is received doth enlighten the mind and soften the heart and heal and change and sanctifie the nature of man and restores him to the image of his Maker and begets in him a strong love to God and a willingnesse to please him in all things and brings him to an hearty sorrow for and an hatred of all his sins and enclines and enables him to come to Christ to believe in him to love and highly to esteem him for this work of Redemption which he hath wrought ascribing it wholly to his merit that he hath hopes of mercy from God and any power to please him And then for all those who by this assistance of the Spirit are made willing thus to come to Christ and to God by him for these Christ hath purchast that their sins should be forgiven them and greater measures of the Spirit bestowed on them in a word that they should have all things good for them here and be received into everlasting glory hereafter But all they who reject these offers of sanctification and salvation shall die in their sins and be everlastingly in torment with the Devil and his Angels And this same Jesus Christ will be the Judge of all men and at the end of the world shall come with great glory and power and raise up the bodies of all that were dead and change those that are alive and shall pronounce and cause to be executed the sentence of absolution and glorification upon the righteous and the sentence of condemnation upon the wicked This is that Jesus the Redeemer of the faln world whose memory ought to be so precious to you And these were the weighty causes and the glorious effects of that death which you shew forth and keep up the remembrance of in celebrating the Sacrament I suppose it needlesse to turn you to the particular Texts of Scripture proving these things they being so common and well known and the truth of them so plain that they cannot well be doubted of by any that own the Christian Religion And I hope they are neither so many nor so difficult that you should pretend you want time or learning or wit to get well acquainted with them I dare say you could learn other kind of matters than these if you could get any worldly advantage by it If Books were Printed that should teach you how to be rich and honourable to live in ease and pleasure to enjoy health long life and all kind of prosperity you would pore sufficiently upon such Books and beat your brains day and night but you would get to understand and remember them But if indeed you have so little regard to your souls that you will perish for lack of knowing those things which might easily be known your damnation is just And as for you that think the most sottish ignorance is excusable because you are no Schollars and yet take your selves for as good Christians as the best let me tell you plainly if you be without the knowledge of these principal Heads of Religion you are not fit to be so much as called Christians Are you Disciples of Christ that are so blockish and stupid that you have not yet learnt the first principles which he teacheth his Schollars Nay if you refuse to learn them you thereby renounce Jesus Christ to wit as he is your Prophet and Teacher which if you doe expect not salvation from him And as without being acquainted with these fundamentall truths you are able to perform no duty aright so especially not this of receiving the Lords Supper for I say can he remember Christ as he should that knows not who he is what he has done for him or what need he stands in of him And they who being in this wilfull blindnesse venture upon this Ordinance must needs doe it to their own hurt coming to it as a common meal or meerly for custome and fashion sake and so are guilty of the very same miscarriage which the Apostle represents as so dangerous 1 Cor. 11.29 They eat the Bread and drink the Wine not discerning the Lords Body not having that knowledge of Christ who is there represented whereby they might be enabled to give him that reverence and honour which is required of all that are admitted to these mysteries I need not sure spend time in examining the Reader whether he know these truths before laid down or not If thou hast the use of thy reason thou canst tell I hope what it is thou knowest and what thou doest not wherefore take thy self to task and go over the severall points of Religion as I have before briefly mentioned them if thou thinkst fit and take account of thy own apprehension and understanding and where thou findst thou art most wanting be diligent to inform and satisfie thy self and to this purpose make conscience of hearing the word Preacht and of reading the holy Scriptures in private And get well acquainted with the grounds of Religion as you may find them in Catechismes or the plâ—inest Books that treat of them But think
great men their friends recommending themselves to the world by their sumptuous Houses great Retinues rich Cloathes gentile deportment and the like braveries others by their strength beauty wit learning and the like accomplishments of body or mind Thus you see according to the nature of mens happinesse they make use of means to reach it Search well therefore whether some of these or the like empty trifles have not been more set by and laboured for than â—hâ—ist himself If so never say thou takest him for thy Mâ—diatour for it is apparent thou dost not make him so No but those things are indeed thy Mediatours which thou makest use of to accomplish thy selfish dedesigns And hereby thou dost in effect as much reject and vilifie Christ as if thou didst revolt from him and take Mahâ—met fâ—r thy Saviour Oh beware of deceiving thy self in this point which is so easie so common and dangerous to talk of trusting and relying on Christ whiâ—st the heart relies most upon some outward enjoyment to bring it to the happinesse it seeks for and the most they look for from Christ is to have him keep them from Hell after they have been all their days gratifying their lusts and serving the Devil but they never think of improving him as a Mediatour betwixt God and their souls expecting all their mercies of this life and the next to come by him and by him offering up all their services to God Wherefore I beseech you to remember that nothing will prove you sincerely in Covenant with Christ as one of his living members but a thorow stedfast willingnesse to be brought to happinesse by him in his own way and let it be your care to examine whether you are thus heartily willing And then lastly hast thou submitted thy soul to the powerfull workings of the Holy-Ghost to renew and regenerate thee Hast thou faithfully rendred up thy self to him to be transformed into the divine likenesse to have thy corruptions purged away and all saving graces implanted in thee It is the office of the Holy Ghost to carry on Christs interest in the souls of men to fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power to bring them to the Father by the Son No man can cry Abba Father and be fill'd with a child-like disposition and nature but he who hath received this Spirit of Adoption and no man can call Jesus Lord and be heartily subject to him but by the help of this almighty Spirit He shews men the vanity of the Creature and the goodnesse the fulnesse and all sufficiency of God and enables the heart firmly to cleave to him He convinces men of sin and shews them the odiousnesse and danger of it and discovers to them a Saviour by whom they may be Redeemed from all their iniquities from the dominion and from the condemnation of sin and he begets in the soul a saving faith making men not onely willing but earnestly desirous to accept of Christ to both these ends Reflect upon thy self then whether thou hast experienc'd any such workings in thy soul or not whether thou art changed by this divine power into a new and heavenly nature and art hereby become a new creature as all in Christ are old things being done away Hast thou ever found the vigorous and warm movings of this holy Spirit upon thy heart conveying light and life to thy dark soul dead in trespasses and sins Hast thou carefully cherisht these motions and complied with this sanctifying work which spreadâ— it self through the whole man And art thou willing to be governed by him to hearken to his voyce within thee and to that word which was inspired by him to be a lamp to thy feet If these things be so then indeed thou hast performed the engagement that was laid upon thee by being baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost But call thy self to account whether it hath not been quite otherwise with thee Dost thou not still remain in the carnall selfish state alienated from the life of God through a blind mind and a wicked stubborn will being still at enmity with him Hast thou not quenched the Spirit and stifled convictions and resisted his operations upon thy soul Art thou not rather guided by the seducing spirit and thy own unmortified lusts Doe not these still remain in strength and power so that whatever they draw thee to must be done let the Word and Conscience say what they will If it be thus never boast of having God to be thy Maker nor Christ thy Redeemer for if thou art not sanctified by the Holy Ghost God will never own thee for his who accepts of none but an holy people Thus by looking carefully into your hearts you may discern whether you are truly in covenant with God or not And if this seem any matter of difficulty to know what your hearts are or rather least you should pretend your hearts are thus right when it is no such thing I shall give one instance more whereby you may know how you stand related to God and that is by the consideration of your lives and conversations for if you are sincerely devoted to God in your hearts then you must needs shew it in the holinesse of your lives which is nothing else but the keeping of that Covenant which is made betwâ—xt God and the soul. If you do indeed fâ—llow after holinesse it 's a sign you account it your chief happiness to see God If you are patient and unwearied in well-doing it 's a sign you seek for honour and glory with God And if you keep the Commandments of Christ endeavouring to walk as he walk't it 's manifest that you love him and believe in him If you bring forth much fruit hereby you and all men may know that you are Christs Disciples that you are living branches of him the true Vine then have you received Christ if you walk in him And if you shew forth the fruits of the Spirit in your lives it 's a sure token that his graces are sown in your hearts If you are led by and walk after the Spirit then indeed the Spirit is with and in you and you live in him Gal. 5.25 But on the other hand it 's as certain thou art a stranger and Aliene from this Covenant I have beâ—ore described if thou be one that servest the Devil rather than the true God Make what profession thou wilt to love God and believe in Christ if thou allowest thy self in any one known sin all thy great pretences will at length come to nothing What doth that man love the Lord who doth not hate evil Nay who delights in that which the Lord abhorrs and wherewith he is griev'd and provokt to fury Doth hee take Christ for his Lord who will not be obedient to him Doth he take him for his Physitian who would not be heal'd but had rather keep his diseases Beware as thou lovest thy soul of
wrath which thou art treasuring up for thy self against the day of wrath Thou liest wholly at his mercy whom thou art daily provoking to fury In all thy ways which are so defiled the holy God beholds thee in anger and even loathes thee for thy filthinesse And he alone knows how short a while he is determined to wait on thee thy glasse is running his patience is expiring death and judgement are hasting hell is ready burning and thou canst not promise thy self a moments safety Whilst thou art sleeping or waking eating or working talking and laughing the heavy doom hangs over thy head and thou hast every day reason to expect the dreadfull vengeance of the Lord to seize upon thee nothing but meer mercy hath kept it off this while which will not always last At night when thou goest to bed it s a great hazard but thou maist awake in flames and never more see the comfortable light or when thou goest out of doors it 's a question whether thou maist not with Judas go to thy own place the infernall mansions before thou returnest home For ought I know or thou either this may be the last Book that ever thou maist read this may be the last warning that ever thou maist have Think a little whether this be a comfortable case for a man to continue in and what wise people they are that venture all upon a Repentance hereafter Moreover in all the troubles thou maist meet with in the world I know not what support what comfort can be administred to thee for there 's none to be given thee from God I am sure whilst thou art a resolved enemy to him What shift thou makest to get a little ease and relief at such a time I cannot but wonder onely the remnants of thy carnall comforts and the hopes thou hast of seeing things better its like may help thee to some false peace But alas poor man Death will shortly arrest thee Death that will strip thee of all that thy heart delighted and trusted in Death that will break the neck of all thy fond hopes and utterly frustrate thy expectations Death that will carry thee out of thiâ— beloved world into a place to which thou hast been a meer stranger not thinking of it at all or but coldly and seldome or with horrour and aversenesse this Death I say will shortly lay hold on thee and then whither wilt thou look for comfort who art a stranger to God and Jesus Christ Into whose hands wilt thou commend thy departing soul who would'st not whilst thou wast living resign thy self to the God who made thee bought thee with his Sons blood Canst thou expect Christ should now receive thee who would'st not be perswaded to receive him What receive a rebel into the kingdome of peace A filthy Swine into the communion of Saints No never expect it And if he will not receive thee who must If heaven may not hold thee what place will Thou canst easily answer these questions And when by a resurrection to condemnation thou art made with all the rest to stand in the presence of thy Judge how wilt thou then appear before him For the Lord's sake yea for thy own sake poor sinner thou that canst not be brought to like of Christ nor his holy Laws and ways not the sanctifying work of his holy Spirit put these questions as thou readest them close to thy heart What wilt thou then say to Jesus Christ for this thy contempt and dislike of his person and government Darest thou then justifie thy unbelief and impenitence when he calls thee to answer for it Or who wilt thou get to plead for thee when the onely Advocate shall condemn thee Who wilt thou make thy friend when he who alone could and would have been so is through thy own fault become thy greatest enemy Dare Angels or Saints speak a word for him against whom their Lord shall speak Or would they if they durst No they will approve his righteous sentence Will the Devil take thy part dost thou think Hath he any power there to secure his followers Why it 's he that is thy accuser and if need be would rather aggravate those faults which he drew thee to Wilt thou then hit him in the teeth with the large promises he made thee and call on him to make them good Alas he 'll but laugh at thee and scorn thee and make thee acknowledge that most justly are all they so served who would trust to the Devils delusions rather than to Gods promises Or dost thou expect relief from thy companions in torment Ah poor creatures they would rather help themselves if they could but cannot Oh then with what an heart with what a countenance wilt thou hear that last dolefull sentence Depart from me ye cursed when thou shalt look round about and see no help no hope but that down thou must lie in that burning lake which the breath of the Lord's fury like a stream of brimstone doth kindle what a posture will thy soul be in I can tremble to conceive it easier than I can expresse it And when thou hast lain some thousands of years in that place of torments what then will the workings of thy heart be when thou hast felt that tribulation and anguish which comes upon those that work evil what thoughts wilt thou have of the ways that brought thee thither what would'st thou not doe for the least dram of hope in that miserable despairing state for the least glimmering of light in that gloomy darknesse But there is none to be had no nor ever will be through a whole eternity the force of which word eternity and the meaning of Hell is now known and felt in another manner than when careless sinners could laugh at the mention of them or sleep whilst they were preacht on But what canst thou not perswade thy self that there are any such torments prepared for unbelievers If not it s to be feared thou art one of those unbelievers for whom they are prepared But if Scripture may convince thee read amongst other places 1 Thes. 1.8 9. Mat. 25.46 Joh. 3.36 and then tell me thy judgement Now indeed all this is but talk Hell 's out of sight and the most terrible words are but wind and therefore it is there is so little care in the world to make sure his favour who can save them from this misery which because it 's neither seen nor felt is sleighted and forgotten Should a King take a company of men out of prison who had committed some fault worthy of death and offer pardon to those that would be sorry for their crime and promise never to be guilty of the like but threaten Death to those that would not and withall should shew them pardons ready sealed and great hopes of money to be given to the penitent but racks and gibbets and fires ready kindled for the execution of the obstinate Doe you think this would not easily
it as a farther assurance from God that his promises of mercy shall be made good to thee CHAP. VII The second benefit is Sanctification 2. THe second great benefit purchast by the Death of Christ and held forth in the Sacrament is Sanctifying Saving Grace for the enlivening and strengthning the souls of Believers There is no truth more plain in the whole Gospel than that one great end of Christ's Death was to obtain from the Father that the holy Spirit should accompany the proclaiming of the Gospel to enlighten the minds and soften the hearts of those who should not wilfully resist his workings that they might entertain the truth in the love thereof and that on these greater measures of grace should be poured forth to make them in all things conformable to their Maker according to the capacity of their natures which was the great design of the Redeemer even to restore apostate creatures to the image of God wherein they were created that so they might be made meet for his service here and the fruition of him hereafter A most lamentable mistake it is to confine Christs death onely to the procuring of a pardon and keeping sinners out of Hell since this was but in order to a work of grace on their hearts and onely such who submit to this work shall at last have a share in the absolute pardon For suppose a company of prisoners were taken in Warre who being weak and wounded cannot return into their own Countrey but must presently be put to death by the King that took them and in the mean time comes their own Prince and pays a great sum to obtain that the execution of them may be put off for some time and that his Physician may use medicines and apply plaisters to as many as are willing and that all such when they are made whole shall be sent to their own homes and the rest who will not be ruled by the Physician but spit out his potions because they are bitter and throw away his plaisters because they make them smart they are to remain in their prison and be put to death as they were sentenced Here we see the ransome that was paid was first to stop the slaughter of the prisoners and to get liberty to use means for their recovery to health and soundnesse and secondly to obtain that the recovered should be set free to return to their own Countrey and not onely the contempt of the ransome but of the Physician would bring death Thus had we by the Fall both brought our selves into danger of present destruction and disabled our souls that we could not return to that state whence we fell but the Son of God undertaking our Redemption obtained for us that the sentence of condemnation should not speedily be executed and that there should be assured hopes of escaping destruction and returning to happinesse for all those who make not their condition desperate by continuance in sin and rejecting of the cure which his Spirit would work upon them now the work of his Spirit is to plant and encrease grace in their hearts to heal the diseases and remove the weaknesse which sin hath caused that they may be enabled to walk in the ways of holinesse to their everlasting rest and the sending forth of his healing Spirit was the fruit of his blood Now as it will assuredly damn men to despise the blood of Christ as if it was of no force to be a ransome nor to attain those ends for which the Gospel saith it was shed so is it as dangerous and damnable to resist and sleight the Spirit of Christ let them pretend what esteem they will for his blood A like mistake also it is flowing from the former to limit the notion of free grace to meer pardoning mercy whenas it includes sanctifying 〈◊〉 so for in the instance now given the Physick I hope was as free a gift to the prisoners as the ransome that was paid for them notwithstanding this was without them and the other to be taken into them And in like manner is the giving of the Spirit into us as purely from the grace and mercy of God though merited by Christ as the giving of his Son for us accepting of us for his sake This I was willing to hint least any when they hear or read of being saved by Free grace should dream of a salvation to be had by a meer pardon without being sanctified by the Spirit That the making men holy in their hearts and lives was a principall end of Christs Death without which no happinesse is to be attained is I say a truth so evident in the very tenour of the Gospel that it may seem needlesse to produce particular proofs yet amongst the rest read these few Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works c. Eph. 5.25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. and that it might be holy and without blemish 1 Joh. 3.8 The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Pet. 3.24 Who bare our sins that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse Tit. 3.4 5 6. According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Read also Mat. 1.22 Luk. 1.75 Rom. 6.11 Galat. 1.4 Tit. 2.12 13 14. Heb. 9.14 Now though I acknowledge it is by the help of the Spirit that we are brought to believe for faith it self is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 yet I think we shall ordinarily find the promises of the Spirit to be made to those who are already Believers to advance and carry on the work of God upon their souls And to this end and of this nature is that Grace which is 〈◊〉 and given forth by the Sacrament even to refresh and nourish the souls of Believers to confirm and encrease those graces that are wrought in them and to bring them forward to farther degrees of perfection And this much the very elements themselves do teach us for as Bread is the support and stay of life and Wine that which makes glad the heart of man and both are needfull for the maintaining of life and encreasing our strength so are the Body and Blood of Christ alike necessary and usefull to our souls for he himself hath told us that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and that he who eats his flesh and drinks his blood dwelleth in him and hath eternall life with much more to the same purpose Joh. 6. The proper meaning whereof as will appear by the Context and the occasion of that Discourse I suppose is That they who believe in him having the same expectations of spirituall life from him that they have of temporall life from their food and accordingly receive digest and improve
apposite Text Ezek. 16.62 63. And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God It is to be considered moreover that the promises of joy are principally made to this frame The spirit of the humble and contrite God hath promised to revive They that mourn shall be comforted And they who come to the Table of the Lord weeping are most likely to return from thence rejoycing 4. And when you are wrought to this humiliation for and hatred of sin you will easily be brought to the next part of your work which is stedfastly to resolve by the grace of God never more to give willing entertainment to the same but to be entirely devoted to God by Jesus Christ to love please and serve him all your days I have told you how at the Lords Supper you renew your Covenant to perform those duties which you were engaged to by being Baptized into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Renouncing carnall self you professe to place your happinesse in the love of God and no farther to regard or please your selves than is consistent with his pleasure Renouncing the world your own abilities righteousnesse and worthinesse and all ways to to happinesse which are set up against Christ you professe to take him alone for your Redeemer and to resign up your selves to him that he may bring you to the fruition of God and therefore Renouncing the Devill who would draw you from God and Christ to gratifie your lusts with earthly things you professe your resolutions to be led by the Holy Spirit of God in those ways that lead to his everlasting kingdome You who are truly willing to all this for to such I speak I would have you in the most serious manner to professe the same before God and especially in the prayers that you make in preparation for the Sacrament Bind your selves over to him by the strictest vow that he shall be your God and you will be his people Professe to him that he shall be the portion of your souls that you will have none in heaven but him and will desire nothing on earth in comparison of him that if he will but vouchsafe you his saving love in Jesus Christ you shall be indifferent to all things here below as knowing that in his favour alone you are abundantly provided for Acknowledge his right to govern you and dispose of you being your Maker and Preserver infinitely wise and good and engage to take him for your Soveraign and Lord to render a sincere unlimited obedience to his commands and quietly to submit to his dispensations Professe to him that you relinquish all right to your selves and give up all into his hands to do with you what he pleaseth consecrating all to his glory whatever he doth or shall afford you being resolved through his assistance so to improve and employ it Promise to him that neither your own will nor the will of any mortall man shall be obey'd in contradiction to his And bethink your selves of those sins whereof you have been more especially guilty in thought word or deed and of the duties you have omitted and engage your selves particularly against those sins and to the performance of those duties And then Remember under what notion you enter into Covenant with God and what kind of creatures you are even poor lost sinners loaded with much guilt which you could never by any satisfaction of your own making take off from your selves and also exceeding weak so that you cannot by your own strength give that obedience to God which he requires nor vanquish the difficulties which you will meet with wherefore it is of absolute necessity that you accept of Jesus Christ as your Deliverer and your Strength for he onely who hath the Son hath the Father also Professe then before God your unfeigned willingnesse to close with the Lord Jesus to all those ends for which he offers himself to the world Acknowledge to him that you neither expect mercy for any merit of your own nor set upon duty in your own might nor look for acceptance of any service for its own worth but that you humbly depend upon Christ the Mediatour for all that you stand in need of Acknowledge his right to rule over and in you as having bought you out of slavery with his own most precious blood to whose mild and gracious government you will therefore submit your selves Professe your willingnesse and earnest desire to have your hearts purged and sanctified by his Holy Spirit and your lives thereby directed according to the precepts of the Gospel Thus professe your acceptance of Christ and submission to the Spirit that you may be brought into the favour of God and be enabled to please and glorifie him by your holy conversation for all tends to this even to make you holy in heart and life Therefore are we married to Christ that we may bring forth fruit unto God Râ—m 7.4 And the fruits of righteousnesse are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 In him we are created unto good works This is the effect of his death and resurrection that we might be dead to sin but alive unto God Rom. 6. throughout They are Christs Disciples that bring forth much fruit to the glory of God the Father Joh. 15.8 And therefore is the Spirit of life given us through Jesus Christ that we may be made free from the power of sin and death that the carnall mind might be taken away and we made subject to God and able to please him yea that we might rise up to an higher kind of life more spirituall and heavenly than was ordinarily attainable under the Law Rom. 8. the former part of that Chapter This being then the summe of all to devote your selves to God by Jesus Christ to live in his love and fear and in strict obedience to his laws till you shall be taken glory you that are firmly purposed to do this and have made promises thereof betwixt God and your own souls Do you eat thâ— Bread and drink the Wine in the Sacrament as a confirmation of these promises Let this be remembred I beseech you whatever you forget That hereby you do most straitly engage your selves to live a Righteous Sober and Godly life from this very day and to the end of your days This some give as the reason why the Name Sacrament is put upon Baptisme and the Lords Supper because they are of a like nature with that Oath which Souldiers were wont to take to be obedient to their Generall and rather to die than to forsake their Colours which military Oath was called a Sacrament and thus both by Baptisme and the Lords Supper are we consecrated to the service of God
the belief of that pardon which you have received in the hopes of that grace and glory which have been assured to you Meditations of heaven and the exercise of Thankfulnesse are now very proper works Consider also what you have done what an obligation you have laid upon your self how you are no longer your own Man having made a resignation of your self to God by Jesus Christ And beg the assistance of his Holy Spirit to enable you to stedfastnesse and perseverance in this holy Covenant whilst life shall last and beseech him that the Ordinance you have been made partaker of may become effectuall to your souls to all those ends that it was designed for and which are attainable by it Think it not enough to read over these things I entreat thee but do accordingly and now betake thy self to Consideration and Prayer to those ends I have exprest Review moreover what your miscarriages have been and humbly beg of God to forgive either want of due preparation or coldnesse and distractions that your hearts have not been affected suitably to the importance and excellency of the duty and the Majesty of him with whom you have herein had to do And be heartily thankfull for any measure of life and affection any raisednesse and comfort that God hath been pleased to vouchsafe you And here by the way let me caution all humble Christians to beware of a mistake to which they are too prone to wit To judge of their profiting in this or other duties by their present feeling and so to think they get no good except their souls are as it were lift up and ravisht with sensible joys and these onely they take for evidences of Gods acceptance and the having of communion with him But by this means you will often plunge your selves into needlesse sorrows and load your selves with unjust censures and which is worse you will hereby become lesse thankfull to God as thinking you have received little advantage because you found not those delights you expected and will be in danger of becoming weary of the work and ready to throw it off as thinking it unprofitable Wherefore to avoid these ill consequences and the mistake that begets them consider well That it is the uprightnesse and sincerity of your hearts in the performance of your duty which may administer most ground of comfort to you when you reflect upon it for be assured if you have this ornament you were really acceptable to him that lookt down upon you though this acceptance might not be testified with the giving in of any extraordinary joy Let it not then trouble you as if God was not well pleased with you because your affections were not raised up to an higher pitch since he doth not look so much at fits of passion as at the steady bent and tenour of the soul. Nor think because you mist of great joys that you had no favour from nor communion with God for consider again That the truest communion with God is to enjoy the câ—mmunications of his grace to your souls whereby you are made conformable to him and you may enjoy these saving influences of the Spirit when you cannot feel his more abundant consolations Moreover the fruit of this Ordinance is not so much to be discerned at present as in your after-conversation For the great benefit you are to expect being to receive farther measures of Grace from the Holy Spirit accompanying these means it cannot be well known what Grace you have received till you come to the exercise of it when tempâ—ations shall assault you And to allude to the Apostles words in another case Though this Ordinance may not at present be joyous yet it may afterward yield the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse to those that are conversant therein And lastly If you are but sincere as I said in your covenanting with God it is your duty to believe that you have this day received from him a seal to the promise of pardon and eternall life and in this belief may you take much rationall and solid comfort which otherwise you are not like to find And this is the ordinary way whereby the Spirit conveys comfort to the Soul first working in you a belief that the promises of God are in themselves most true enlightning you to the knowledge of your own souls and then enabling you to apply these promises to your selves as being such to whom they belong Thus the Apostle tells us their rejoycing was from the testimony their Conscience gave of their simplicity godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Wherefore you are not so much to expect any extraordinary immediate assurance from the Spirit that you are the Lords But see to get good grounds for your faith and so to have your hearts fill'd with peace and joy in believing Yet do not misinterpret what I have said thence to indulge your selves in any sloth or dulness or to content your selves with the bare doing of the work without heeding the frame of your heart therein no but take as much pains as you can to raise them to the greatest sensiblenesse affection and if you do so you may reasonably expect to find much sweetness and satisfaction in the work it self but my meaning in this caution is that you should not look so much at the feeling of extraordinary comforts as at the integrity of your hearts in vowing your selves to God and the continuing stedfastnesse of your resolutions to be true to these vows 2. And that 's the next thing I would exhort you to even to discâ—ver this inward truth and sincerity by your future holy and exact walking This is that which must crown all the rest I may say to you as Moses to the Israelites Deut. 26.16 17. You have this day avouched the Lord to be your God to walk in his ways and keep his statutes And the Lord hath avouched you to be his peculiar people And you have promised to take Christ for your Husband and Lord to live in love and obedience to him as you hope to be saved by him One thing now remains that you go and do likewise Say with the Psalmist I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgements Psal. 119.106 Now you have been remembring him that suffered in the flesh arm your selves with this mind no longer to live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. Let it not happen to you according to the Proverb The Dog is turned to his own vomit again and the Sow that was washt to her wallowing in the mire If God have spoke peace to your souls turn not you again to folly Call to mind particularly what sins you confest and promised to forsake and do accordingly You that have been guilty of drunkennesse or gluttony fornication and wantonnesse pride or covetousnesse be so no more you that have been wont to spend your time in