that comes in to see his Guests and that bids them be merry yea and to eat and drink abundantly with an O Beloved Cant. 5.1 In the last verse of the 4th chapter the Church importunatly invites and sollicites the Lord Jesus to come into his Garden and eat his pleasant fruits namely when they were congregated together and waiting on and for him The Lord Jesus comes and tells them so Chap. 5.1 I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my myrrh with my Spice then he chears them up and bids them welcome be merry and eat and drink not sparingly but freely and abundantly O Beloved His holy Temples and this heavenly Feast are appointed and ordained for his Reception and Entertainments with his Beloved Rev. 2.1 2 Cor. 6.16 There are theâ— most joyful meetings and there do they hold and enjoy the most comfortable and heart-satisfying communion together as holy hearts can and do often experience For this end hath he instituted and for this end should all Church-members receive this Ordinance 4. As it is appointed for Communion between Christ and his inchurched-members so likewise for their Communion among themselves 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Good men have heart-dividing and love-separating lusts self-Interests world and Devil and therefore they need all proper means to unite and knit their hearts together in Brotherly Love Communion Col. 2.2 The Lord Jesus hath commanded and strictly charged his people to love one another as he hath loved them Joh. 13.34 Joh. 15.12 15. and that they love one another with pure hearts fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 That they walk in love and endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of peace Eph. 4.1 2 3. Eph. 5.1 2. Now in order to the obtainment of it and that Believers may be encouraged to mind and do his will herein the Lord Jesus hath by his own Laws and Authority formed them up into holy Temples and united them into spiritual Societies and given them occasion and opportunity to meet together and feast themselves at his Table at his cost and charges and that as Guests of his own bidding There they may often meet sit down and feed together of his dainties There they see and taste feel and smell and there they may speak of hear him and of his grace and love There they may see that they are all bought with the same price and redeemed with the same blood There they may see that they are members together of the same head and body that they are all Plants of his planting Trees of his watering Subjects of the same Grace and Spirit and the same objects of his care and protection There they may see that they are all bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh and that he hath fellowship and communion with them all That they are heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 and that they are all entitled to an eternal inheritance There they may see that they are all partakers of the same life and that the Lord Jesus hath made the same provisions for the everlasting happiness of all their Souls There they may see that they have the same faith and hope and that the covenant and promises belong to them all That there is a mutual Interest amongst them and that they are concerned in and with each other That they are engaged in one common cause with Christ and that they are not their own but one anothers All which things and considerations are of great use towards the knitting and endearing of their hearts one to another in spiritual love holy peace and Brotherly affection For by their sitting down altogether as one body at one Table of the Lord eating and drinking the same Bread and Wine and by faith the same body and blood of the Lord by beholding and believing their mutual interest in Christ and in all the benefits of his death and that they are all alike invited to the feast and all alike welcomb'd and entertained by their Lord and King they are much induced thereby to love one another to seek desire and rejoyce in the good of each other and to walk together as Heirs of the Kingdom of Glory keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And likewise in joyning hearts and hands together as one body in celebrating the worship and in magnifying the name and glory of Christ 5. An other great use and end of this Ordinance is to knit and endear the heart to Christ himself And it is a powerful means to effect it He is a most full and glorious Object of Love a most lovely Object indeed He is the fairest of Ten thousands and altogether lovely or altogether loves Cant. 5.10 ult He hath all glorious excellencies in him and is the perfection of beauty Psal 50.2 All ye glories of the Heavens and the Earth of Angels and men are but dark shadows unto this Son of Righteousness The Lord Jesus is most lovely glorious and beautiful in his love and grace to us in his obedience and death for us and in all his Laws and Promises to us But especially his Person is most beautiful glorious and lovely Psal 45. 1 Cor. 2.8 his most transcendant and glorious excellencies will be the eternal wonderment of Saints and Angels and they shall be for ever employed in adoring and praising him He is an Object too high for us now to reach and a Sun too bright and glorious for our dim eyes to behold only some Raies and Beams of his Glory he causes to shine on us and enables us to take them in in some degree Psal 63.1 2. But of all means the Lord's Supper is the most full and proper for the opening and representing unto us unto our faith the beauty glory and loveliness of Christ in his love and grace in his death and sufferings There we may read wonderful Stories and see glorious Mysteries indeed There we may read and see his love and grace to us streaming forth by his heart blood and there we may see the greatness freeness profitableness purity sweetness and the transcendant excellency of his love and loveliness There we may see the eternal Fountain of love and the inexhaustible-Treasures of his heart of his grace and kindness opened and running down to us and there we may see a bottomless Sea of mercies and affections discovered There we may read Christ loving us and giving himself for us unto an accursed death Gal. 2.20 Gal. 3.13 And Oh! my Brethren what an attracting Soul drawing heart-knitting object of love is the Lord Jesus represented to be to us in that Ordinance It is a Glass that represents and shews us nothing else but love and Christs loveliness It is an Ordinance that Preaches and Seals love to Believers and thereby provokes enflames and drawes out their love to him Love will be drawn and not driven and what drawes it into warm and strong Acts but lovely persons
by the Apostle Peter in his first Sermon after the coming of the Holy Ghost on him and other of the Apostles in Act. 2.39 when he was about the setting up of Churches and Church-Order Laws and Ordinances among them sayes he Repent yee and be Baptized why for the promise is unto you and to your Children and to all that are a far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call which is the same for substance given before to Abraham And Paul told the Galatians Chapt. 3.14 That the blessing of Abraham is come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ This Ordinance of Baptism is of meer Institution and made known to us in and by the Gospel The Light and Law of nature knows nothing of it neither are we bound to observe it but upon the command and appointment of Christ which is sufficient for us and we need no further warrant for our observation of it Fifthly The Lords Supper is clearly another Church-Ordinance And indeed it cannot be rightly and orderly administred and received but in a regular Church-state we never read of any Believers that received it or any Officers that administred it after Christ's ascension but as they were congregated en-Churched em-bodied and formed into a holy Temple but we read of Churches celebrating it as at Jerusalem Acts 2. Corinth 1 Epistle 11. and elsewhere We find the Institution of this Ordinance in Matth. 26.26 27 28. Mark 14.22 23 24. Luk. 22.17 18 19 20. 1 Cor. 11.23 to the end In this last Scripture we have many weighty things of and concerning this great Ordinance 1 The Institution its self 2 The time when the same night in the which he was betrayed 3 The Institutor namely the Lord Jesus 4 The manner of it 1. The Lord Jesus's own practise He took blessed brake and gave the Bread and said take eat this is my Body 2. By commandment this do ye in remembrance of me 5 Who should received it and how persons should be qualified and prepared for the reception of it 1. With light and faith They must be able to discern the Lords body the ends and use of the Ordinance and to make suitable and pertinent application of all to themselves 2. They must be able to examine themselves and actually to do it and be in a state and practical fitness and readiness to meet Christ in it to thank and praise him and to shew forth his death until he come 6 The danger and peril they are in who eat and drink and use this holy Ordinance unworthily 1. They are guilty of his Body and Blood 2. Of their own damnation 7 We are informed of some of the sad effects their unworthy receiving of this holy Ordinance had on some of them for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Sixthly Singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs is another Church-Ordinance or Institution of Christ Eph. 5.18 19 20. Col. 3.16 Mat. 26.30 Mark 14.26 This is a spiritual Ordinance and Duty yea it is a heart-warming Soul-refreshing Spirit-raising and grace-quickning Ordinance To the well performance of it much special grace and diligent exercise of it as also the spirit of grace is necessary Much wisdom and spiritual understanding life and vigor care and watchfulness is requisite sincerity and faithfulness spirituality and heavenly-mindedness is needful for our acceptable observance of it to God through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 14.15 Col. 3.16 Eph. 5.18 19 20. It is true that all men ought to sing praises and thanksgivings unto God for it is a natural and moral duty and it is as true that none can rightly holily and acceptably do it but such as are partakers of the grace and spirit of Christ and that the Lord Jesus hath instituted it and made it a Church-Ordinance And as or because he hath instituted and made it one of his Gospel-Ordinances for his Churches that therefore they ought so to observe it Sevently Holy discourses and heavenly conferences among the members of the Church is another Church Ordinance which all are bound to mind and practise as they have ability and opportunity for the observation and celebrating of which they should seek for occasions and seasons to meet together and endeavour to promote it and when they have them in their hands to use and improve them to the glory of God and their own mutual profit and that because it is their Lords Ordinance for their good The neglect of which is doubtless one of the procuring causes of those witherings languishings and most dreadful decays in grace and woful back-slidings which are so notoriously evident among Church-members This useful profitable Ordinance was once in esteem much accounted of by Believers but it is now almost laid aside forgotten by them it was their delight but now their burden They made happy earnings of it to their Souls but now they fancy that they have no need of it that there is neither duty nor priviledge in it But however it is and shall ever be an Ordinance of God and their observation of it their priviledge and duty Jude 20. Building up your selves in your most holy faith 1 Thes 5.11 Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another even as also ye do See also vers 14. and Heb. 3.13 Heb. 10.24 25. Mal. 3.16 17. Church-members must take heed that they meet together for the better and not for the worser as the Apostle told the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.17 that they so improve their occasional and determined meetings as to profit and better one another This holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ should be seriously frequently diligently spiritually and sincerely observed of all Church-members And if they shall so observe and practise it in obedience to his will and with holy designs and aims namely to please and honour God and to profit and better their own and each others Souls they will find it an exceeding profitable Ordinance to them for the promoting and carrying on the grace and interest of Christ in their hearts and it will be an effectual means to encrease love one to another unite their hearts and endear affections God will bless and empower it in your dependence on Christ and his free grace to keep your Consciences awake your Affections warm and your hearts ready to every good work Eightly Church-Discipline This Ordinance is instituted and appointed for the Churches regular and orderly walking for the preventing and curing disorders in them and there is as much need of this Ordinance and Institution as of any other as experience shews And it should be seriously minded and considered wisely and diligently observed and practised in the Church as much as any other Ordinance of God therein There is no Church in the world but is subject to disorders and too many irregularities because the Lusts Temptations and carnal Interests of some of the Member are strong and impetuous which causes many distempers and disturbances in the
Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ult Now that God and the Mediatour have so Covenanted promised and engaged for and in the behalf of Believers that Christ came and finished all the work that the Father gave him to do that Christ hath obeyed and suffered the Father satisfied and well pleased and that Peace Friendship and Reconciliation for men is obtained and that God is faithful who hath promised Heb. 10.23 and that he will not fail to perform the Truth to Jacob and Mercy to Abraham Micah 7. ult is continued and ratified unto Believers in and by the Lord's Supper For there is held forth a clear proof and confirmation of it This is my body that is broken and my blood that is shed or given 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. These are the first objects and matters our faith eyes and fixes on in the Lord's Supper and these are the first things that it seals unto 〈◊〉 us namely that God hath covenanted and promised these mercies upon Christ's dying that Christ hath dyed done the Fathers whole will and finished his work and that God the Father hath accepted his Mediation in our behalf justified his Son Jesus and is well-pleased with him and with us in him that God is faithful who hath promised and that he is able and will perform his promises made to Christ for and given down to us On these things our faith must fix and then this Ordinance of the Supper will confirm them us 2. As the Lord's Supper seals or ratifies and confirms to our faith the truth and reality of the Covenant and promises the death of Christ the faithfulness of God and his being satisfied and well pleased with Christ's mediation for us and that he will perform his Covenant and Promises unto the Heirs of promise so it seals ratifies and confirms Believers interest and propriety in them It ratifies and confirms to their own Consciences that they are interested in Christ that they are Christs and Christ is theirs that they are regenerated and redeemed that their sins are pardoned and their persons accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1.6 7. This Ordinance seals to them the fruits of Christ's death and to the truth sincerity and peculiarity of his grace in them that they are united to him and that he is their head and they are his Members That he loves them and they love him with special and peculiar love This Ordinance seals to them their Adoption and their right unto the eternal Inheritance and it assures them as a means of Christ's appointing for that end that God is their Father and they are his Children that Christ is their Husband and they are his Spouses and that they shall live and reign with him in glory But yet know that though there be a kind of a natural aptness in this holy Ordinance thus to seal the love of God to you as it is Christs Ordinance and instituted by him for this end yet it cannot doth not do it of or by its self or its own power but it seals as an Ordinance in the hand of the spirit or as a fit medium and means whereby and wherewith the holy spirit seals the Souls of Believers It is the proper work of the holy Ghost to seal ratifie and confirm his own work in Believers hearts Eph. 1.13 Eph. 4.30 And this great work he doth especially in and by the Lord's Supper on the hearts of good men For as the matters he seals to are his own works in their hearts so he onely can confirm them to their Faith and Consciences The love of God is said to be shed abroad into our hearts by him Rom. 5.5 and to this he sets his seal and gives in his Testimony Rom. 8.16 namely that he hath shed abroad the love of God in our hearts that God loves us we love him with special love and that he hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.2 He first writes his Lawes and creates his grace in our hearts puts the Lord Jesus into the possession of them forms saith Repentance and all other graces of Christ in them and then he seals ratifies and confirms all to us Cant. 8.6 2. Cor. 1.22 Job 33.16 So that now we know that we are passed from death to life Joh. 3.14 and are sure that we are of God that the Lord Jesus is ours and we are his Cant. 2.16 And can say with Thomas my Lord and my God and with David I am thine and with Paul and others if our earthly house be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Thus you see how this Ordinance seals up the love of God and the work of his grace in our Souls And therefore when ever you receive it be sure to look for and expect it and make use of it for though not only for this end and purpose And in order thereunto be careful and diligent in preparing and fitting your selves for the reception of this seal on your hearts and then you need not doubt of your obtainment of it 3. This Ordinance is instituted and given to inchurched Saints to bring the Lord Jesus and them together into the nearest clearest and closest fellowship and communion that can be in this lower state The Lord Jesus and they do greatly love one another and delight in communion with each other Cant. 4. ult Cant. 5.1 Believers in their holy obediential and orderly walking are Christs dearly beloved Spouses and he is their dearly beloved Husband Cant. 2.16 Jer. 12.7 They do greatly love and rejoyce in one anothers company and Society their speeches are pleasant and their countenances sweet and lovely to each other Zeph. 3.17 Cant. 1.4 Cant. 2.7 10 13. Cant. 2.14 There is a holy fondness and a heart-ravishing friendliness between Christ and his Beloved they lye deep in each others hearts and are so knit to one another in warm affections as that they cannot patiently bear each others absence Hence we find the Lord Jesus and his people inviting one another and importunately solliciting each other to come to them yea and proffering themselves and as it were inviting or pressing themselves upon or into one anothers company Cant. 2. â—0 13 14 7. Cant. 4.8 ult Cant. 5.1 Cant. 6. ult Cant. 7.11 12. Rev. 3.20 Joh. 14.21 23. Therefore hath glorious Jesus instituted Churches and gathered up his people into spiritual housholds formed them into holy Societies and made them his walled Gardens Therefore hath he brought them into a holy Band knit them together into bodies and given to them this Feast of fat things this Pledge and Token of his distinguishing love and this holy sign and seal that he may invite and bring them together to take and eat and that himself may come and be with them there He is the matter and the great master of the Feast and he is the King
things and actions love and lovely objects irritates and drawes forth love to them and the more lovely beautiful and glorious they are the more forceably and powerfuly they draw as experiences shews and we all know But then are such objects and things most attractive and powerful when they are our own or when we know that we have a right unto and an interest in them Now in the Lord's Supper you have these glorious objects and things handed out to you and sealed to you in particular Take cat this is my body that was broken and this is my blood that was shed for you 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. It speaks to sound-hearted Believers thus Here is your glorious Head and King your Redeemer and Saviour Here is the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for you Here is your Covenant and here are your promises sealed ratified and confirmed and here is free eternal and distinguishing love and grace shewed and given to you Oh! how strongly must this draw their love and how powerfully must this enflame their affections to Jesus Christ For this end it is appointed and this it doth in measure effect in holy hearts 6. It is instituted and appointed to strengthen and nourish inchurched Believers and to make them fat and flourishing in the house of God Psal 92.13 14. Psal 132.13 14 15. Psal 84.4 7. Believers have many grace-weakning and heart-wasting-lusts Snares and Temptations and therefore they have need of such strengthning heart-chearing and grace-nourishing means that they languish not but thrive and prosper in the inner man I have spoken somewhat of this before when I shewed you the priviledges of the Churches and the end for which all Believers should walk in Church fellowship and therefore shall not insist on it here Only let me add that you may find in this Ordinance both Food and Physick Here is as in the hand of an Ordinance food for your Souls and nourishment for your Graces and here is Physick for them also Here is the bread of Life and here is the water and wine of Life to feed and comfort you to fatten and nourish you to build you up and establish you and to make you strong men in Christ to encourage and help you and to make you fruitful in every good work Joh. 6. Col. 1.10 And here is not only food but Heavenly and spiritual Physick too Here you may have Purging and cleansing-Physick and here you may have comforting and refreshing Physick also And you do and still you will need both You need Lusts-purging and Heart-purifying Physick and behold here it is for you Christ gave himself and shed his blood that it might purge cleanse and heal us and that it might in and by his own means be conveyed to us I mean the vertue and efficacy of it for that end Eph. 5.25 26 27. Tit. 2.14 1 Joh. 1.7 9. Now in this Ordinance the purging cleansing and heart-purifying virtue of this blood is handed out and conveyed to the Faith of Believers which the Spirit in Christ's behalf applys and which we for our selves are to apply also The Spirit doth it powerfully and efficasiously and we by Faith are to do it dutifully and so it obtains its Ends on us And as it is purging cleansing and heart-purifying Physick to our Souls so it is Cordial Physick also to refresh and comfort to revive and chear our drooping sad and disconsolate Souls Of this Blood and for this End we may drink freely and constantly Here we may have our fill and drink abundantly according to our needs Here you may Augment your Light Faith Peace Hope Joy Courage Zeal Meekness Love and Patience and here you may obtain a measure of all spiritual good Here you may enrich your Souls with Christ Grace Assurance Experiences and Consolations and here you may obtain the destruction of your Lusts Here you will have the Spirit to feed you with the Bread of Life and here you may grow like a Cedar in Lebanon Psal 92.12 13. Therefore make use of this Ordinance for this blessed End also 7. It is appointed to shew and represent unto us the evil of sin also The great God represents sin to us in many glasses and shews it in and by several means He assures us that it is the Evil of Evils the Plague of Plagues and that it is the root and fountain the sink and sum of all Mischiefs that it is unexpressibly and transcendantly evil Rom. 7.13 That it is the object of his loathing abhorrence and hatred as being that which hath turned glorious Angels into hateful Devils and thrown them out of Heaven into Hell as that which hath defaced and marr'd his Image in men and made them Enemies unto and Rebels against God This he declares to us in and by his Word his Law and Gospel as also by the Judgments he executeth in the Earth on Sinners yea the whole Creation here below do loudly proclaim it But the clearest glass wherein God opens and manifests the odiousness and exceeding sinfulness of sin is Christ's Death and Sufferings which the Lords Supper plainly declares unto us and where we may see it displayed in all its most hateful and abominable colours Here you may by Faith see the exceeding great Evil of it and be provoked and stirred up to Hate and abhor it to eschew and avoyd it For by beholding the Curse and Wrath of God poured out on the Soul and Body of his dear Son Gal. 3.13 and by seeing him Reproached Buffetted Contemned Despised Crucified Hanged Nailed to the Cross Cruelly handled Tortured Tormented Pierced Murdered and above all the weight of divine Vengance pressing his precious Soul and wringing out Bloody Sweats and he pouring out his Soul to Death and all for and under the weight of our Sins and Guilt Surely the sight of this by Faith will greatly raise our hatred of all sin and disswade us from it 8. It is appointed and given to encrease and strengthen our Gospel-Repentance too Here we may look on Him whom we by sin have pierced and mourn and be in bitterness of Soul Zach. 12.10 for here is the Blood of the Scape Goat that is able to break the most stony hearts in the world And we stand in daily need of it for we are in danger every day of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and the world Heb. 3.13 But the Lord's Supper presents to us a heart-melting Object yea many such Objects There we may see heart-melting Love and there we may behold heart-breaking Grace There we may perceive the Lamb of God making Attonement for our sins and there we may understand that the Lord of Glory hath taken off from us our Sins Guilt and Punishment There we may discern him standing in our stead and between the living God and us Condemned dead men with the Censor of the Sanctuary full of his precious Blood making satisfaction for us to divine Justice There we
his Glory Isa 46.13 and that because they were a Church of his own planting and a Covenant people and for Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the little Remnant sake of Believers that were amongst them and who glorify him indeeed in Truth God bestows his Grace stamps his Image and infuses his Holynesse into men to meeten them for his Temple and Temple-work and then formes and sets them up in his own beauty and Glory in a Church-state that there as a Body compact they may shine forth to his Glory and praise in the World As many glittering daimonds in a gold Ring do shine more gloriously upon a mans hand than a hundred times so many more scattered up and down here and there would do so a company of men which are made pretious stones fitted for a House of God being well and orderly set in a Church-state or in a House of God do shine more gloriously there than many more can do in a single and individual capacity and standing alone to the honour and glory of God 3. God Institutes and builds Believers into Spiritual Houses for his peoples Spiritual profit and advantage that God may there Impart his Loves Cant. 7.12 and communicate his grace Truths and Counsels unto them as to his avowed and publique houshold and family Eph. 2.19 Christ Walkes and God the Father Dwells there the Holy Spirit Speaks to them in an especial and frequent manner Rev. 2.1 2 Cor. 6.16 Rev. 2.7.11 c. And assuredly Jesus Christ does not walk nor God the Father dwell there empty handed but distributes plentifully of their Love and fullness As great princes where they go and lodge they will give like themselves unto the houshold Servants and much more will God as some can and more may experience The Church-enjoyments of serious holy men are the fairest fullest clearest and strongest of all they have at any times and that because God dwells there as in his holy and delightful Temple and walks there as in his pleasant Gardens and Walks and where God mostly Dwells and Walks and takes most pleasure there he imparts most of his Love and Grace It is said in 1 Kings 8.10 11. That the Glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord so that the Priest could not stand to Minister because the glorious presence of God was so exceeding great there and his distributions of Love and Grace to Solomon and other Saints so many and great as that the people went home joyfull and glad of Heart vers 66. and in the 2 Chron. 7.16 says God speaking of the Temple mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually Now if God did so now that material Temple made of Wood and Stone as to manifest his Glory so much there impart so richly of his Love and Grace to his people and promised to dwell there continually how much more will he do so unto his New-Testament Churches of Believers They shall find that prophetical promise made good to them in Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his Glory Besides a Church-state is a safe as well as a thriving comfortable state for a Church of Christ rightly and duely formed and made up is a Garden enclosed Cant. 4.12 a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed or barr'd Whilst Wood and Stones lie scattered abroad they may be stollen and carried away from the owner so while Believers walk apart and lie up and down scatteringly they are in great danger of being seduced and lead away from Christ with some of the errors of the wicked and so in measure full from the Truth of Christ 2 Pet. 3.17 but now in a Church-state or formal House of God they are safer and more secure because there they are hedged in with the discipline of Christ there they are watched over by their fellow-members and by the Officers of Christ who are their overseers and watchmen there they are as in the orderly Instituted Family or houshold of Christ in the way and walks of Christ and under the Eye and with the special presence of Christ Whilst an Army of Souldiers walk as single and individual Persons scattered abroad they lie open to destruction by their Enemies but when they are formed up and walk together under officers and military discipline every one knowing his place and keeping it knowing the commands of their General and observing them they are safe and ready to defend themselves and offend their Enemies Particular and rightly constituted Churches of Believers are like an Army with Banners Cant. 6.4 10. marching under the constant conduct of Jesus Christ their Captain General Eph. 1.22 23. Heb. 2.10 4. They are formed and set up by Jesus Christ to be the only Seats and Subjects as of his glorious presence so of his Laws Ordinances Power and Authority that they might receive observe and obey his Laws declare before all men their owning of him for their Lord by their open and publique profession of and subjection unto him as such and that by their distinct and singular following of him in incorporated Bodies they might manifest to all men that they are his Subjects and disciples that they have chosen him for their Lord and King and his Law for their Rule and Obedience that they are not their own but his and that they have taken up in him as in their happiness and eternal Blessedness Col. 2.6 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 2 Cor. 5.15 That they are called out of the World Joh. 15.19 and set apart by his Grace for himself to live unto him and that they have taken upon themselves his holy Yoke and the observation of all his Laws So likewise that his subjects might with one mind and mouth together present their service and homage unto him as their only Lord Head and King For Churches as Churches or Believers walking according to his appointment and direction in Churches are capable of his holy Supper that glorious Pledge and Seal of his Love and Grace to them it is called the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 and says the Apostle to the particular congregated Church at Corinth we being many are one Bread and one Body vers 17. That great ordinance of the Lords Supper is not given to Believers as such only but unto Believers as in a Church-state or incorporated into a Body or Communion together having the name form and order of a Church of Christ and House of God The Israelites were not to permit any to Eat the passover until they became members of their Church Exod. 12.47 48. Neither will Christ Jesus have any to Eat his Supper out of a Church-State where and when they may have it in a Church-State And as was noted before it is observable that almost all the principal Doctrines and Laws of the New-Testament are given and directed unto the Churches or to Believers as inchurched as also Teachers and Ruling Elders are provided for and given
and endeavour the having of Christ upon the hardest Terms and do you desire c. that all may go for Christ his Person his Blood and Righteousness his Grace Love Life and Spirit for the pardon of your sins and Justification of your Persons that you may be found in him not having your own Righteousnesse but the Righteousnesse of Christ by Faith Phil. 3.9 and do you go and present your selves naked and as condemned Sinners to him and to God the Father in and by him that you may be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ and that God may pardon justify and accept you for his sake only 3. Do you seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour to have Christ Jesus for your Lord and Ruler too Col. 2.6 that he may Rule in you and over you and that your Lusts and your selves your Interests and your all may be subject unto him and be all at his command and disposal continually Is Christ the Lord as acceptable unto you as Christ Jesus the Saviour and are you willing to obey him and subject to his Authority and Lordship as well as to be saved by him Would you have him destroy your Lusts make an end of Sin and bring all under his Obedience 4. Do you seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour never to sin more but to walk with God unto all well pleasing continually Col. 1.10 and do you pray earnestly that God would work in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight Heb. 13.21 that you may in all your waies honour and glorify him as the end of your living in this World 2 Cor. 5.15 Would you indeed live to the praise of his glorious Grace and be an Ornament unto his Name and Gospel and would you be fruitful in every good Word and Work Are these things the Scope aim and intendment of your hearts and Souls in some good measure and degree daily in duties and Ordinances and at other times 5. Do you seriously and heartily chuse and desire communion with Christ and do you indeed and in truth endeavour so as to obtain it and keep it do you so seek for it in the way of Gospel obedience and in observing your duty and keeping Christs commands and do you prefer it before and above earthly carnal things do your hearts breathe and pant after it and are you willing to deny self and carnal Interests to get it Are you glad when you find it and sad when by your own carelesness you lose it doth it when obtained quicken your love to and zeal for Christ doth it warm your hearts and cause them for a time to run your race in Gospel obedience cheerfully doth it lead you unto and lodge your hearts in Christ and doth it oblige and bind them faster unto him and doth it stir you up to thankfulnesse 6. Do you seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour to be filled with Gospel sincerity towards God and men and had you rather be sincere and real hearted towards God than seem to be so towards Men had you much rather have the Praise of God than of men and to be approved of by him than extolled by men Is it your care aim and endeavour to carry your selves sincerely before him and to approve your selves unto him under the fear conviction of his all seeing Eye Is it the great thing you mind and aim at in your profession and practice namely sincerity and uprightnesse of Heart do you make conscience of drawing near to God with it and to season every duty with this divine Salt do you indeed desire chuse and endeavour to be after Gods own Heart as David was and Nathaniels indeed in whom is no Guile although you cannot get clear nor rid your selves of all Hypocrisy as you should Is Integrity and uprightnesse of Heart in your Eye resolutions and Intentions and is all Hypocrisy hateful and abominable unto you do you love sincerity and labour after it indeed Are you afraid of Hypocrisy and do you watch and strive against it as against an Enemy to God and your own Souls and are you grieved indeed when you find it in you 7. Do you desire and chuse Jesus Christ for the great object of your Love Delight and Joy and do you find him to be so in some Measure do you desire and endeavour to make him the object of your strongest and warmest affections and to love him Sincerely Heartily Spiritually fervently and constantly and do you express your Love to him by keeping his commandements and doing the things that are wel-pleasing in his sight Joh. 14.15 1 Joh. 3.22 Are you grieved and afflicted in Spirit because you can love him no more and do you earnestly pray unto him to Circumcise your hearts to love him Deut. 30.6 and to Shed abroad his love into your hearts by the Holy Ghost that you may love him as you should Rom. 5.5 Are you glad and do you rejoyce when you find your hearts Knit to him in love and is it your trouble when it is otherwise with you doth his Love and Lovelyness attract and draw your hearts to him and doth the Love of Christ in your hearts move and draw you to obey his commands Is it so indeed do you find it so sometimes with you 8. Is it the desire choice and endeavour of your Hearts and Souls to have all sin purged out of your Hearts and to have them filled with Christ Grace Truth and Holyness and do you hate your sin watch and arm against it and endeavour to keep it under do you indeed aim at desire labour and strive to be holy in Heart and Life and conformable unto Jesus Christ in all things Are your Lusts your heaviest Burdens and your greatest afflictions and do you intend and endeavour their utter ruine and destructions will no degree or measure of Grace satisfy you but you must and will be perfect to the utmost as Christ is Are you so much concerned with Christs honour your Souls holyness and happiness as that you dare not knowingly sin against them for a World or do in word or deed directly or indirectly by omision or commission that which may dishonour grieve or wound them Are these things so indeed 9. Have you a measure of Spiritual knowledge and discerning of Spiritual things do you a little understand the nature and concernments of a house of God and the work and duties the priviledges and enjoyments thereof and what you have to do there have you studied and learnt these matters and do you in measure understand them and can you make a right and competent Judgment of the ends of God in Instituting and erecting of Holy Temples and Spiritual Churches 10. Do you intend purpose and resolve in the light Life and power of Christ to seek for and endeavour unfainedly to obtain and prosecute the ends of Church fellowship when you shall be accepted among them and do you desire and aim at the
handled by God and Men for you Here you may see how I was Tortured Reproached Buffetted Scourged Crowned with Thorns Spit upon Hanged Nailed and Crucified Here you may see by Faith my Blood gushing out my Groans Sighs and Tears my Agonies and bloody Sweats and my soul made an Offering for your Sins Here you may see what a horrible and an exceeding great evil Sin is how infinitely God hates it And here you may see my Travels and Torments my Griefs unexpressible Sorrows for you I Dyed that you might Live I was made a Curse that you might be for ever blessed and I was put to Shame that you might be honoured I was made a Man of Sorrows that you might rejoyce and I was punished that you might be released I was debased that you might be exalted and I was scourged that you might be crowned I was condemned that you might be justified and I was slain that you might be saved In this Ordinance you may see a Righteous Man dying and yet under more guilt and punishment than ever man was here you may see a holy man dying as a great yea the greatest of Sinners Here you may as in a glass behold one put to the worst of Deaths for Sin and yet never sinned and here you may see the Lord of Glory murdered by the hands of wicked men In this Ordinance you may see by Faith as in a glass amazing and astonishing wonders the offended Person the Sufferer and the Offender set free The Innocent Surety taken and cast into Prison and the Necent released and set at liberty In a word here you may see the Prison doers sâ—t open for Prisoners to come forth freely Isa 61.1 2. and here you may see all Debts discharged Here you may see Divine Justice satisfied and God reconciled Isa 53. And here you may see sins pardoned and the Book crossed Here you may see the fountain of eternal Love opened to Sinners and God well pleased and here you may hear God saying Deliver them for I have found a Ransom Here you may see Truth and Mercy Justice and free Grace meet in that one Glorious Mediatour and here you may see God and Men in perfect peace and friendship Here you may see the everlasting Love of God streaming forth to you and here you may see the Grace of Christ flowing out to you Here you have a Token Sign and Memorial of it before your eyes that you may look on these things with great delight with joy and rejoycing and with admiration and thanksgiving Here you will read heart-ravishing matters and here you may see adorable objects This Ordinance sets forth the Love of God the Misery of Man the Grace of Christ and a Crucified Jesus to the life In it you may be even swallowed and lost for it holds out to you heights depths breadths and lengths of infinite free and adorable Love and Grace 2. The Lords Supper is a seal and pledge to inchurched Believers also It is not appointed for and given to them to be a sign token and memorial of God's Love and of the Grace and Death of Christ only but to be a seal and pledge to them too So the Apostle Paul tells us that the Ordinance of Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith that is of Christ the great object of Faith Rom. 4.11 Circumcision and the Passoever were the Isralites Seals and Baptisme and the Lords Supper are the believing Gentiles Seals Seals are appointed and made use of among men to ratifie and confirm their Contracts Covenants and Promises to men whereby they are made firm and irreversible Now the great God in allusion to the practises of men is pleased in his abundant Grace and Mercy not only to covenant and promise his greatest mercies to men but for their satisfaction and encouragement to seal them and thereby to ratifie and confirm them He need not to have done so upon his own account but he doth it only for our sakes Now I judge the Lords Supper Seals thus 1. First to the truth and reality of the Covenant and to the Blood of it namely Christ's which is called the Blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 and 2. To the Faith and Consciences of particular Saints That is it seals to them their right unto and interest in the Covenant of Grace the Blood of Christ and to all the benefits of his mediation and mercies of the Covenant But the first thing or matter it seals to is the truth and reality of the Covenant on God's part if I may so express it It pleased God to determinate and chuse to save men by Covenant or in a Covenant-way And this good pleasure of his took place in the bosom of his eternal Counsels before all time which Covenant of Grace was made with Jesus Christ in Eternity Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 Prov. 8. Eph. 1.4 but was made manifest in time unto men 2 Tim. 1.10 To them he gave Copies and Transcripts of it at first to Adam in Paradise Gen. 3.17 and afterwards to Noah Abraham and others until the promised Seed came when the whole of it was opened and unfolded In this Covenant God promised to give his Son Jesus Christ to and for men Isa 42.1.6 to make his Soul an offering for sin that he should see his Seed and of the travail of his Soul and that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand Isa 53.10 11. And the Lord Jesus he engaged to come and fulfil all the will of his Father for them that were given to him For so David and Paul bring him in speaking of himself in Psal 40.6.7 8. Heb. 10.6 7 8 9. In Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God and a Body hast thou prepared me c. David spake of him as to come but Paul as already come and all in pursuance of the old Contract and Agreement in Heaven but I cannot inlarge on this But I say that Christ came and did the Will of his Father by virtue of the eternal Covenant between the Father and Him as I could shew at large had I room and time to do it Hence he tells us by Solomon in Prov. 8. that his delights were with the Sons of men from the beginning That he came down from Heaven to do the Will of him that sent him Joh. 6.38 That he kept his Fathers Commandments Joh. 15.10 That He finished the work the Father gave him to do Joh. 17.4 And appeals to his Father in the case yea to his Righteousness and demands of him his promised Reward Joh. 17.4 5 24. God the Father promises to be well pleased with him and his Offerings and in him with those he mediated for That they should be pardoned healed justified washed and sanctified and that they should be accepted Eph. 1.6 That if Christ would be made sin for them they should be made