man this the Saint hath from Christ by whose Testament he is heir to a Crown yet the excellentest Saint is less than the least of the Legacies of his Lord. In our present state there is nothing to commend us which doth not more commend our Lord who bestowed it By the grace of God we are what we are whether children heirs or Legatees And if we know as St. Paul did know we shall account all things as he did loss and dung Phil. 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Penuria defectus who hath all without Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poor 'T is loss when he computeth the product of all his hopes that are short of Christ and the things which Christ freely gives and instead of ought gained he must writ much lost Such then is the excellency of Christ that without him nothing can be gain with him nothing shall be loss And 3. When thou hast viewed the great Legacies of thy Lord look on thy self what thou wilt most certainly be so long as thou art on earth and this will commend the noble excellent temper of thy Lord. He knew that thou wouldest repine be unthankful live much below his Royal gifts and in many things dishonour the free giver Yet all this never could discourage or change the resolutions and purpose of thy most bountiful loving and tender Friend and Lord. Behold here is love as the Apostle hath it 1 Joh. 4.10 Not that we loved God but he loved us c. here love is Triumphant indeed In a word or two either we must conclude the Christian a most disingenuous person or else conclude that the survey of the great Legacies his Lord hath given him will raise the Christians esteem of Christ it will enlarge his affections toward Christ Thus the love of Christ discovered in his last Will and Testament will draw out love to him again and love will find whereever the excellency of what is loved doth lye rather than want an excellency to justify the passion we see men will phancy and make an excellency and then value it Spiritual love needs no such help to esteem Christ it may find an infinite worth in him and indeed doth judge him the chief of ten thousand None but he would dye none but he dying would make such provision for us 4. This great Testator was brought to his end as we say by the faults and through the folly of us whom he did so highly befriend We sinned and he died our wickedness brought him to the Cross Isa 53. Now whilst we like sheep went astray and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of as all the precious life of the shepheard ransomed the life of his wandring sheep what would have been the manner of men in this case would it not have been I 'le cross them out of my will I intended a bounteous Legacy but be it now as far from my mind as I was from theirs this would have been the resolution of man But this was not the mind of Christ more excellent than man No no but this his Noble disposition I will do the most my Friends need from me though they have done the most they could against me I 'le conquer their unkindness and they captives to my love shall set an eternal Crown of triumphant glory and praise on my head I know whither to bring them and where they shall be of another temper and disposition towards me for my love I will bequeath them a Crown of glory though they have pierced me with a Crown of thorns I know when they shall look on me and mourn when they shall heartily resent their unkindnesses and in requital of my love shall prize me higher than their own life So let my soul ever say thy love oh Lord surviving death and conquering my ingratitude deserveth a higher esteem and larger affections than a narrow heart and low apprehensions can offer thee CAP. V. Sect. 5. Zeal for Christ Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator A Fifth grace suiting to the Sacrament 5th Sacramental Grace improvable and improveable by considering Christ a Testator making his will when he Died is Zeal to his glory and honour I think it not needful to prove the suitableness of this grace to the Sacrament The heighth of love to Christ the indignation against former sins fervent setled resolutions to oppose suppress and overthrow all lusts and the stirrings of lusts which as formerly they have risen up so now would afresh rise up against Christ all which as they are in every prepared communicant and which are the constitutives of Zeal so they would clearly prove this but I take it none will deny or doubt that Zeal to the glory and honour of Christ doth well suit with the constant ordinary course of the Christians conversation how much more doth it beseem him in his nearer accesses to Christ The people which are his peculiar must be Zealous of Good works Tit. 2.14 Rom. 12.11 fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Now beside what arguments arise from the common professed Friendship of the Christian to Christ As 1. The candour and humanity which we shew to every man who is dead of whom either nothing ought be said or nothing but good an ingenuous person is moved with Zeal for the name and credit of the dead when they are traduced especially 2. When the innocency of the person was in his whole life well known to all who in any degree of acquaintance knew him we should not take up the buried miscarriages of of the dead nor may we disguise the good workes of those that are not by to plead for themselves 3. When our Friends were useful to all that needed and would make use of them we endure not they should be traduced by surviving rancor and envy 4. When all this Friendship innocency usefulness and generous beneficence of our Friend met with nothing almost but causeless vexations and troubles and of these one succeeding the other without Rest we think it hard as indeed it is very exceeding hard measure that it neither meet with rest in life nor death that it should be defamed where all men have a priviledg securing them from piercing censures and envious reproaches these and such like motives of Zeal for the honour of our dear Friend who Dying from us left his love to live with us are equally applicable to any such Friend if any such may be found among the sons of men But over and above all these in centives there are some special incentives to Zeal for the honour of our Lord on this very account that he dyed a Testator making his Testament and last Will. 1. Hereby we are embodied into the family whereof Christ is the head and cheif so that our zeal for his honour is a zeal for the honour of our whole family That we are of his family is a very high ennobling us a very great
Christ unto the soul there the soul seeth the real Testimonys of his Saviour's love Last Wills or Testaments are those in which we profess all our affection Quibus affectum omnem fatemur Brisson de Form After this men can do no more at this time therefore they will do what they can for their beloved Friends This love is an immortal love attempting to fill the cistern to leave it full when the spring head dryes up it is a love surviving Death when the lover cannot a peice of Friendship rescued from the hand and power which kills thy Friend When Jacob could live no longer to love his Joseph his love could not die but fleeteth from his feeble dying heart and reposeth it self in the sacred and unviolate treasury of Jacobs last Will where it doth and shall still survive both the Lover and the Beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 48.22 1 King 1. in this you discover Joseph had a double share in Jacobs love When David was to make his last will you may see which of all his Sons had most of David's heart so true is it that last Wills are open windows of the heart through which we may see the living affection of our Dying Friend This is undeniably true of the last Will of Christ who looks into it shall see the dearest love the tenderest affection the faithfullest friendship the seasonablest care and the fullest provision and who seeth this can do no less than wish he had a more dear affection to return for that which is so incomparably grater than all other Sect. 6. 6. That improves Grace which shakes off security and awakeneth out of sloth security is the lethargy of the soul and it must be cured or the soul Dyeth sloth is that scorbutick disease of the soul which weakens all its graces and takes off the edge of them and this must be removed by a vigorous exercise of that strength and life which yet remaineth in Grace or Grace will decay wither and dye rid the soul of these two and Grace will suddenly recover it self and grow Now it is unquestionable that the last Will of Christ carrieth in it sufficient considerations to awaken the soul out of pernicious security and to quicken it unto vigorous diligence For all the legacies of Christ are conditional requiring either precedent conditions or enjoining subsequent conditions of love and obedience and this love with obedience will be found such as will take up all thy time and strength set to it so soon as thou wilt here will be work enough for thy Christian care Thou wilt find life short love long work weighty strength weak The Philosopher rowsed himself with this Vita brevis ars longa life is short Art is long Christian look over Christ's expectation expressed in his Will and Testament and write this presently as thy monitory Vita brevis Fides longa The time of Life is short the work of Faith is long and rowse up thy self both from security and sloth make haste to do thy Lord's will that thou mayest have large share in the last Will of thy Lord. When a very rich gist is given by Will upon conditions and reservations and all revoked from every claimer who performeth not those conditions and disposed to others who will do and have done and performed the conditions how great care and diligence doth this awaken how speedy is the considering Legatee what haste doth he make to perform lest non-performance of his duty should disappoint his hope and cut off his claim Christian thou hast the Inheritance given by Will and that Will prescribes thee thy duty and if ever thou intendest to put in claim for it look thou put thy hand speedily to the doing of what is there enjoyned thee For I tell thee thy Lord who made the Will who prescribed the terms who enjoyned thy performance and before whom thou must make thy claim is not now dead but liveth is not far off but near to thee seeth and observeth all thy sloth and laziness and will reject thy suit and dash thy pretences and confound thy hopes unless sight of his Will quicken thee to do his will CAP. IV. Graces enumerated Improvable by the last Will of Christ I Have performed 〈…〉 at potui â—amen if not as I would yet as Bernard said as I could the three first parts of my Promise I shall now endeavour the performance of the fourth viz. in a particular enumeration of those graces which I apprehend may be much improved by the consideration of Christ's last Will or Testament renewedly remembred at the Communion of the Lord's body And Sect. 1. 1. First Faith is one Grace which is improvable by due managing our thoughts of Christ's ordaining his last Will ere he died and dying to ratifie and make his last Will firm and irrevocable This gives us greatest assurance of the truth of the Promises and so addeth to the evidence of things that are not seen Man verily believeth and boldly pleadeth his title and right to the Legacy which his dying friend bequeathed to him Sect. 2. Secondly Hope and Expectation of enjoying the good things promised is another grace improvable by the application of Christ's Death dying a Testator and ordaining his last Will. The certainty of future enjoying and the goodness of the thing to be enjoyed is the life of hope the root and strength of it Now the goodness of that we expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the certainty of our future enjoyment are jointly contained and declared in the last Will of our Lord to which in more particular manner we hope to speak Sect. 3. 3. Longing desires of surer interess in the Covenant or Testament of Christ and desire of nearer union unto Christ is improvable upon the reflections of our serious thoughts on the Death of Christ dying and making his VVill. Every one who needeth would wish himself of the kindred and affinity of that rich bountiful and kind friend who enricheth all his kindred by his large Legacies at his Death and he will desire to be so related unto Christ who duly considers what may be obtained by Christ Sect. 4. 4. Love to the Lord and a high prizing of his person and concernments is an other Grace of the believer improveable by this meditation of Christs Death as the Death of a Testator Every one honoureth the remembrance and speaketh well of him who doth liberally and wisely provide for his indigent and needy relations strangers do value such an one and much more doth his ingenuous and considerate Friend Sect. 5. 5. Zeal to his glory and honour a spiritual fervency of heart in all that such a Friend is any whit concerned in is another qualification of a believer and this also is improved by the due manage of our knowledge of Christs last Will and Testament Were there but little cordial Friendship in the heart of a believer toward
or a burning fever or a loathsom leprosy or a sad and solitary blindness But more than this more than all I can speak did Christ deliver us from when he did die a Curse for us Oh unparallel'd love of Christ and oh the unparallel'd ingratitude of Christians Sirs though you and I must leave the greatest the best part of this work of praise to another world yet let us not leave it all let us do somewhat whilst we live and are among men on earth Heaven is full of those praises which did we hear would ravish us Let Earth be witness that we do not quite forget our Lord. Whereas you could have born all the envy anger and malice of creatures and it may be have contemned the weakness of it you could never have stood under nor have made head against the anger and indignation of the Lord nor have fortified your selves with resolutions to lessen the fury by lessening your apprehensions of it The dear children of God in their bitter complaints cry out if an enemy if any but God himself had done it I could have born it And the hopeless unbelievers cry out the same in effect let any thing come let all come upon us rather than the wrath of the Almighty let rocks grind us to powder or mountains bury us for ever under their weight Oh the heaviest of all these are lighter than one stroak of an angry avenging God! All these may be more easily endured than one Curse of the Law See then and consider what thou owest oh my soul to Christ made a Curse for thee remember and be thankful let thy heart oh thou who feastest with thy Lord weigh first the burthensomness of that Curse which justice casteth upon every sin and then weigh the exceeding great love of Christ who did take this Burthen and bear it for thee and I do nothing doubt but as often as thou layest these in the ballance thou wilt still find thy praise thy thankfulness too light thou wilt be still with the Apostle adding Glory and Power to him who loved thee Rev. 1.5 6. and washed thee in his blood And with the great Apostle of the Gentiles Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory Could you and I entertain these things within our breasts and renew our thoughts and meditatations we should more clearly discern that if there be sweetness in our mercies or respite from our fears or absolution and discharge from our guilt or deliverance from accursed sorrows miseries and death we owe it all unto this kind of Death of our Lord beside all the positive blessings of grace and glory of which I may not now speak if the blessing of Abraham on the Gentiles be worth our thanks then our thanks is due to Christ dying thus for he was made a Curse for us that we might be redeemed from under the Curse of the Law and that we might be restored to a blessed state In one word whosoever seeth his own blessedness procured by Christ dying a Curse for him cannot but see so much thanks as blessedness is worth due to Christ and so the reviving of the memory of Christ's Death considered as a Curse will be the reviving of our thankfulness and reviving of thankfulness will be an increasing and improving of thankfulness So much to the seventh Sacramental Grace The eighth and last I shall now mention followeth viz. A disposition and purpose of mind to walk in new Obedience towards God in all manner of conversation 8th Sacramental grace New Obedience such a mind must every welcome guest bring to the Lord's Table No man may come thither who intends to go thence to his old course of sinning We must not as Naturalists report of some venemous creatures which lay down their poison when they go to drink and having drunk suck it up again we must not so lay aside our old sins while we go to the Lord's Supper as to renew our old acquaintance with them nor tender our service to them so soon as we depart from the Table of the Lord Men will not endure such sycophants and parasites who come to their table for a meals meat and to fill their bellies but then sort themselves for months together with the veryest enemies they have in the world No more will God endure him for a guest at his Table who comes for a meal out of a customary formality and then sorts himself with those sins which God hateth and commandeth should be slain This above many others aggravated Judas's treason that he came and ate with his Lord when he had resolved to betray him this is to kiss him with All hail Master when the kiss is the very token by which his enemies should know and apprehend him The Lord Jesus who knoweth what is in man and needeth not that any should testify of man will never let a man who lives and dieth of this temper escape deserved punishment He knows they flattered him with their lips but their hearts are far from him Thou that comest to make a Covenant with thy God at a Sacrament must come with a firm purpose to keep thy Covenant for God will not be mocked Better never come at all than come with a mind hating to be reformed God will ere long ask such hateful hypocrites what they had to do to declare this Statute of his or that they should take his Covenant into their mouths Psal 50.16 c. It is confessed of all sides and would to God it were as well practised on all sides that every Sacrament should engage us to better lives to holier conversations that we should sin the seldomer because we have been so often at the Lord's Table Now I say that the remembrance of the Death of Christ dying for us a Curse hath in it good and strong reasons to move us to renew our obedience and if these reasons be well considered I do not doubt but they may prevail with some to renew their purposes and endeavours of living less to sin because Christ died a Curse for us sinners For 1. First In this manner of his dying beside the powerful influence of his Death considered in the general of which I speak not now I say In his dying thus as a Curse for us we have a clear discovery of the vileness of sin how much it abaseth and depresseth us We look upon cursed things as the vilest and basest of things A curse and a reproach go together Jer. 42.18 This was the thing which brought our Lord into so low estate that he was despised of men this made him of no reputation because of our sin imputed to him and the Curse due to us for our sin laid upon him he became like a servant and so died Now then let a sober judgment be made of this and see how forcibly it disswadeth from continuing in sin Do I renew the remembrance of my Lord dying as a Curse Could sin which he