the representation of it But loe here is more than a representation Christ is set forth in this Ordinance as Crucified for you as suffering and enduring all this in your room and stead Now Suppose Reader thy self to be justly Condemned to the torture of the Rack or Strappado and that thy Father Brother or dearest Friend preferring thy life to his own would become thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ransomer by undergoing the torment for thee and all that is left for thee to suffer were only by way of Sympathy with him Suppose now thy self standing by that Engine of Torture and beholding the members of thy dear Friend distorted and all out of joynt hearing the doleful groans extorted by the extremity of anguish and under all these torments still maintaining a constant love to thee not once repenting his torments for thee couldst thou stand there with dry eyes could thy heart be unaffected and stupid at such a sight Write him rather a Beast a Stone than a Man that could do so But this is not all The Believers interest in Christ is Sealed as well as the sufferings of Christ represented in this Ordinance And is a Sealed Interest in Christ so cheap or common a thing as that it should not engage yea swallow up all the powers of thy soul O what is this What is this The Seal of God set to the Soul of a poor Sinner to confirm and ratifie its title to the Person of Christ and the inestimable treasures of his Blood Surely as the Sealing up of a man to Damnation is the sum of all misery and that poor Creature that is so Sealed hath cause enough to mourn and wail to Eternity So the sealing up of a soul to Salvation is the sum of all mercy and happiness and the Soul that is so sealed hath cause enough to lie at the feet of God over-whelmed with the sense of so invaluable a mercy Secondly As the nature and ends of the Ordinance call for the greatest composedness of spirit so the danger of unworthy receiving should work our hearts to the most serious frames For if a man be here without his Wedding-garment if he eat and drink unworthily it is at the greatest peril of his soul that he doth so 1 Cor. 11. 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. To prophane and undervalue that Body and Blood of the Lord is a sin above measure sinful and the punishments of such sins will be most dreadful for still the more excellent the Blessings are that come by any Ordinance the more dreadful the Curses are that avenge the abuse of such mercies How soon may a man draw fearful guilt upon his soul and dreadful judgments upon his body by an heedless management of such sacred mysteries For this cause many are weak and fickly among you and many sleep ver 30. It is a most weighty Note that a worthy Pen sets upon this Scripture they discerned not the Body of his Son Jesus Christ in his Ordinances but instead of that holy reverend and deep-dyed behaviour which was due to it both from their inner and outward man as being a Creature of the highest and deepest Sanctification that ever God Sanctified Sanctified not only to a more excellent and glorious condition but also to many ends and purposes of far higher and dearer concernment both for the glory of God and benefit of men themselves than all other Creatures whatsoever whether in Heaven or Earth they handled and dealt by it in both kinds as if it had been a common or unsanctified thing Thus they discerned not the Lords Body And as they discerned not his Body so neither did God in some sense discern theirs but in those sore Strokes and heavy Judgments which he inflicted on them had them in no other regard or consideration than as if they had been the bodies of his Enemies the bodies of wicked and sinful men Thus drawing the model and plat-form of their punishment as usually he doth from the structure and proportion of their sin Thus the Just and Righteous God builds up the breaches that we make upon the honour belonging to the body of his Son with the ruins of that honour which he had given unto ours in health strength life and many other outward comforts and supports O then what need is there of a most awful and composed spirit when we approach the Lord in this Ordinance Thirdly As the danger of unworthy receiving should compose us to the greatest seriousness so the remembrance of that frame and temper Christs spirit was in when he actually suffered those things for us should compose our spirits into a frame more suitable and agreeable to his when we see his death as it were acted over again before our eyes was his heart roving and wandering in that day Did he not sense and mind the work he was going about Was his heart like thine stupid and unaffected with these things Look but upon that Text Luke 22. 44. and you shall see whether it were so or no. It 's said when this Tragedy drew nigh and his Enemies were ready to seize him in the Garden That being in an Agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of Blood falling down to the ground And Matth. 26. 38. he saith My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death His soul was full of sorrow and is thine full of stupâ—…y God forbid If thy heart be cold Christ's was hot If thou canst not shed a tear he poured out clods of blood from every part Oh! how unsuitable is a dry eye and an hard heart to such an Ordinance as this Fourthly As the frame Christs spirit was in at his death should command the most solemn frame upon our spirits at the recognizing of it so the things here represented require and call for the highest exercise of every grace of the spirit in our souls for we come not thither as idle Spectators but as active Instruments to glorifie God by exercising every grace upon Christ as Crucified for us Behold here among the rest 1. The proper object of Faith 2. The flowing spring of Repentance 3. The powerful attractive of Love First The proper object of Faith is here This Ordinance as a glass represents to thine eye that glorious Person of whom the Father said This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 17. 5. Of whom he said I have laid help upon one that is mighty This was he that was made Sin for us who had no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Who trod the Wine-press alone and is here to be seen in his red Garments Every drop of his precious Blood hath a tongue calling for Faith to behold it poured forth as a Sacrifice to God for sin This saith he is
Predication is very Emphatical it is meat indeed and drink indeed which notes two things First Reality in opposition to all legal shaddows and types Secondly Transcendent excellency far surpassing all other food even Mannah it self which for its excellency is styled Angels food My Flesh is meat indeed i. e. true substantial and real food to souls and choice excellent and incomparable food Hence observe Doct. That what meat and drink is to our bodies that and much more than that the Flesh and Blood of Christ is to believing souls Two things require explication in this point First Wherein the resemblance or agreement lies betwixt the Flesh and Blood of Christ and Meat and Drink Secondly Wherein the former transcends and excels the latter 1. Query Wherein lies the resemblance and agreement betwixt the Flesh and Blood of Christ and material Meat and Drink Sol. The agreement is manifest in the following particulars First Meat and Drink is necessary to support Natural life we cannot live without it Upon this account Bread is call'd the Staff and Stay i. e. the support of the natural spirits which do as much lean and depend upon it as a feeble man doth upon his staff Isa. 3. 1. But yet how necessary soever it be the Flesh and Blood of Christ is more indispensibly necessary for the life of our souls Joh. 6. 53. Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Our souls have more absolude need of peace and pardon by Christ than our bodies have of meat and drink Better our bodies were starved and famished than our souls damned and lost for ever Secondly Meat and Drink are ever most sweet and desirable to those that are hungry and thirsty It is hunger and thirst that gives value and estimation to meat and drink Prov. 27. 7. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and so it is in our esteem of Christ Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink When God by illumination and conviction makes men deeply sensible of their miserable lost and perishing condition then ten thousand worlds for a Christ. All is but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Christ Jesus Thirdly Meat and drink must undergoe an alteration and lose its own form before it actually nourishes the body The Corn is ground to pieces in the Mill before it be made Bread to nourish us And Christ must be ground betwixt the upper and neither Milstones of the wrath of God and malice of men to be made Bread for our souls The Prophet saith Isa. 52. 14. His Visage was marr'd more than any mans He did not look like himself the beauty and glory of Heaven but the reproach of Men and despised of the People Oh what an alteration did his Incarnation and Sufferings make upon him Phil. 2. 6 7. Quantum mutatus ab illo Fourthly Natural food must be received into our bodies and have a natural Union with them and Christ must be received into our souls and have a spiritual Union with them by faith or else we can have no nourishment or benefit by him An empty Profession a meer talkative Religion nourishes the inner man just as much as the sight of meat and our commending of it doth our outward man It 's Christ's dwelling in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. our receiving of him Joh 1. 12. our eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood Joh. 6. 53. i. e. the effectual application of Christ to our souls by faith that makes us partakers of his benefits Fifthly Meat and drink must be taken every day or else natural life will languish and spiritual life will never be comfortably maintain'd in us without daily communion with Jesus Christ If a gracious soul neglect or be interrupted in its course of duties and stated times of prayer it will be quickly discernable by the Christian himself in the deadness of his own heart and by others also in the barrenness of his discourses And in these things stands the Analogy and agreement of the Flesh and Blood of Christ with meat and drink 2. Query The next thing is to open the transcendent excellency of Christs Flesh and Blood above all other food in the world and this appears in four particulars First This Flesh and Blood was assumed into the nearest Union with the second Person in the blessed Trinity and so is not only dignified above all other created Beings but becomes the first receptacle of all grace intended to be communicated through it to the Children of men Joh. 1. 14. Secondly This Flesh and Blood of Christ was offered up to God as the great Sacrifice for our sins and Purchase of our peace Col. 1. 20. Eph. 5. 2. and so it is of inestimable price and value to Believers The humane Nature of Christ was the Sacrifice the divine Nature was the Altar on which it was offered up and by which it was dignified and sanctified and made an Offering of a sweet smelling savour to God Eph. 5. 2. Thirdly This Flesh and Blood of Christ is the great medium of conveyance of all blessings and mercies to the souls and bodies of Believers It lies as a vast pipe at the Fountain-head of blessings receiving and conveying them from God to Men Col. 1. 14. 19. So then it being united to the second Person and so become the Flesh and Blood of God it being the Sacrifice offered up to God for Attonement and Remission of sins and the medium of conveying all grace and mercy from God the Fountain to the souls and bodies of Believers how sweet a rellish must it have upon the pallate of faith Here faith may tast the sweetness of a Pardon a full free and final pardon of sin than which nothing in this world can be sweeter to a Sin-burdened Conscience Here it tasts the incomparable sweetness of Peace with God a Peace which passeth Understanding the breach Sin made is by this Sacrifice made up for ever Col. 1. 20. Here it tasts the unexpressible sweetness of acceptation with God and an interest in his favour a mercy which a poor convinced soul would give ten thousand worlds for were it to be purchased Yea here it rellisheth all the sweet Promises in the Covenant of grace as confirmed and ratified by this Sacrifice Heb. 9. 5. So that well might he say my Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed the most excellent New Testament-food for Believers 1. Use of Information First See here the love of a Saviour that Heavenly Pelliâ—…an who feeds us with his own Flesh and Blood You read Lam. 4. 10. of pitiful Women who eat the flesh of their own Children but where have you read of Men or Women that gave their own flesh and blood for meat and drink to their Children Think on this you that are so loth to cross and deny your flesh for Christ he suffered his
and Angels in any work of God since the beginning of time as it hath done in the designation of Christ to be the Lamb of God a Sacrifice for sin Behold the Lamb of God and in him behold the unsearchable Wisdom of God in recovering the Elect perfectly from all the danger of sin and yet making sin more dreadful to them by the way of their recovery from it than ever it could be made by any other consideration Infinite Wisdom in suiting the Sinners remedy to the cause of his disease The Disease was the Pride of Man the Remedy was the Humiliation of the Son of God Man affected to be as God that ruin'd him God comes down assumes flesh and will be found in fashion as a man that saved him O profound Wisdom which from the loss and ruine of our Primitive glory which was the undoing of us soul and body takes the occasion of raising us to a far better state and settles us in it with a much better security than the former Who but Jesus Christ the Wisdom of God as he is called 1 Cor. 1. 24. could ever have ordered and over-ruled the worst of evils so as by occasion of the breach of the Law to raise more glory to God than ever could have been given to him by the most punctual observation of its commands or by the most rigorous execution of its penalties O the astonishing depth of Wisdom Thirdly The love of God is in Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! and in him behold the love of God in the highest and most triumphant discovery that ever was or can be made of it in this world 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins O here here is the love of God to Sinners he manifests love to us in our daily provisions protections deliverances and comforts That we have health when others groan under pains therein is love That we have bread to eat when others are ready to perish therein is love O but to have Christ to be a Propitiation for us when the Angels that fell were left desperate therein was love indeed All the love that breaks out in the variety of providences for us in this world in our Health and Estates in our Relations and Comforts is nothing compar'd with this love Herein is love indeed Fourthly The tender mercies of God over poor Sinners are in Christ as Christ is the mercy promised Luk. 1. 72. the capital mercy so he is the Chanel through which all the streams of Gods mercy flow freely to the Sons of men Jude 21. the mercy of God to Eternal life or his saving mercies are only dispenced to us through Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! A Lamb prepared by the astonishing mercy of God a Sacrifice for us when no Sacrifice is laid out for fallen Angels Mercy alone hath made this difference mercy opened its tender eye and looked through Christ upon us in the depth of our misery In Christ it is that the milder attribute of mercy is exercised upon us whilst severe Justice punishes them Fifthly All the hopes of poor Sinners are in Christ Col. 1. 27. Take away Christ and where is the hope of our souls 1 Tim. 1. 1. 'T is by the Blood of the Lamb that we have hope towards God In his Oblation and no where else our hope of Salvation finds footing On him it is the Anchor of hope is fixed and the soul stayed when the storms of fear and inward trouble do arise and beat violently upon it Sixthly The Salvation of our souls to Eternity is in Christ Acts 4. 12. Neither is there any other name given under Heaven by which we must be saved He is the Ark in whom we are preserved Jude ver 1. Look as the sprinkling of the Blood of the Paschal Lamb upon the Door-posts of the Israelites was that which preserved them from the destroying Angel so the Blood of Christ the Lamb of God Typified by that Blood saves Believers from the wrath to come But who can open the unsearchable riches or recount the ravishing excellencies found in Christ Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect behold and admire for ever-more the incomparable excellencies of Christ. Heaven would be no Heaven to them if they could not behold Christ there Psal. 73. 25. But my business rather lies in improving this point than endeavouring farther to unfold it for new wonders will appear in Christ if we behold him to Eternity And all the improvement I shall make of it shall be in one use of Exhortation bespeaking every one of you what ever your present condition and estate be to behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world And First If there be found among you any that are sensible of a stony hard heart which cannot relent and mourn for all the wrong done to Jesus Christ by sin whose affections are benum'd and stupified by sin so that no considerations they can urge upon their own hearts are able to thaw them cause a relenting pang for sin To such I would direct the words of this Text as the most effectual means to melt such hearts Look hither hard heart Behold the Lamb of God Consider believe and apply what is here sensibly represented and thy heart is hard indeed if it relent not upon such a view of Christ. It 's said Zech. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn Behold the Son of God brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter for thee a vile polluted Sinner Behold the invaluable Blood of this Sacrifice shed for thee Bring thy thoughts close to this subject think who it is that was made a Lamb for Sacrifice for whom he endured all his unspeakable sufferings how meekly and willingly he endured all the wrath of God and men standing in his perfect Innocency to be slain for thee Behold he was made sin for thee who had no sin that thou who hadst no Righteousness mightst be made the Righteousness of God in him O who ever loved thee at that rate Christ hath done Who would endure that misery that Christ did endure for thy sake Would thy Father or the Wife of thy bosom or thy Friend that is as thy own soul be content to feel that for thee though but one hour which Christ felt when his sweat was as it had been great drops of Blood falling down to the ground Nay thou wouldst never taste such a cup for the saving of thine own Child as Christ drank off when he cried My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Behold how he loved thee Surely if the Rocks rent asunder at his passion thy heart is harder than a Rock if it thaw not at such a sight as this Fix thine eyes a while here and thine eye will affect thy heart Secondly Is there any among
my Earthliness the hardness of my heart the corruption of my nature the innumerable evils of my life that brought him down to the dust of death He was made sin for us who knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. Who can believingly eye Christ as suffering such pains such wrath such a curse in the room of such a Sinner such a Rebel so undeserving and so ill-deserving a Creature and not mourn as for an only Son and be in bitterness as for a first-born Fourthly Faith melts the heart by considering the effects and fruits of the sufferings of Christ what great things he hath purchased by his Stripes and Blood for poor Sinners a full and final pardon of sin a well-settled peace with God a sure title and right to the eternal Inheritance and all this for thee a Law-condemned a Self-condemned Sinner Lord what am I that such mercies as these should be purchased by such a price for me for me when thousands and ten thousands of sweeter dispositions must burn in Hell for ever Oh what manner of love is this Fifthly Faith melts the heart by exerting a three-fold act upon Christ Crucified First A realizing act representing all this in the greatest certainty and evidence that can be These are no devised fables but the sure and infallireports of the Gospel Secondly An appying act he loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood Rev. 1. 5. Thirdly and lastly By an inferring or reasoning act If Christ died for me then I shall never die If his Blood were paid down for me then my sins which are many are forgiven me If he was Condemned in my room I am acquitted and shall be saved from wrath to come through him O how weighty do these thoughts prove to believing souls 1. Use for information 1. Then sure there is but little faith because there is so much deadness and unaffectedness among Professors A believing sight of Christ will work upon a gracious heart as a dead Son a beloved and only Son uses to do upon a tender Fathers heart Reader was it ever thy sad lot to look upon such an heart-rending object Did'st thou ever feel the pangs and commotions in thy bowels that some have felt upon such a sight Why so will thy heart work towards Christ if ever thou believingly lookest on him whom thou hast pierced 2. Infer Then the acting and exercising of faith is the best expedient to get a tender heart and raise the dead affections We are generally full of complaints how hard how dead and stupid our hearts are we are often putting such cases as these How shall I get a broken heart for sin How shall I raise my dead heart in duty Why this is the way no expedient in all the world like this Look upon him whom thou hast pierced 'T is the melting Argument 2. Use of Examination But that which I especially aim at in this point is for the tryal and examination of thy heart Reader in the point of true Evangelical Repentance which is thy proper business at this time And I will go no further than the Text for rules to examine and try it by 1. Rule All Evangelical Repentance hath a supernatural spring I will pour out the spirit of grace and they shall mourn Till the spirit be poured out upon us it is as easie to press water out of a Rock as to make our hearts relent and mourn There are indeed natural meltings the effects of an ingenuous Temper but these differ in kind and nature from Godly sorrow 2. Rule Godly sorrows are real sincere and undissembled They shall mourn as for an only Son Parents need not the help of an Onion to draw tears on such accounts O! their very hearts are pierced they could even die with them Sighs groans and tears are not hang'd out as false signs of what is not to be found in their hearts 3. Rule Evangelical sorrow is very deep so much the mourning for an only Son a first-born must import These waters how still soever they be run deep very deep in the bottom channel of the soul. See Act. 2. 27. They were cut to the heart 4. Rule Faith is the instrument employed in breaking the heart They shall look and mourn This is the Burning glass that contracts the beams and fires the affections 5. Rule Lastly The Wrong sin hath done to God and the sufferings it hath brought Christ under are the piercing and heart-wounding considerations They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn The piercing of Christ by our sin is that must pierce thy soul with sorrow THE TENTH MEDITATION UPON John 6. ver 55. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed IN this context our Lord Jesus Christ makes a most spiritual and excellent discourse to the Jews about the nature and necessity of faith in him taking the occasion thereof from the Bread which a little before he had so miraculously multiplied and fed them with raising up their minds to more sublime and spiritual things and letting them know that Bread how sweet soever it was was but a shaddow of himself infinitely more sweet and necessary These words are a proposition in which are these three things observable First The subject my Flesh and my Blood Secondly The Predicate it is Meat and Drink Thirdly The manner of Predication it 's Meat indeed and Drink indeed First The subject my Flesh and my Blood i. e. my Humanity this is meat and drink true spiritual food If it be demanded why he had not said I am meat and drink indeed but rather chuses to say my flesh and blood is so the reason is evident saith Learned Camero because if you take away Flesh and Blood from Christ he cannot be Food or Life to us For in order to his being so he must satisfie God for us and obtain the Remission of our sins but without shedding of Blood there is no Remission Now for as much as by the offering up of his Body and shedding of his Blood he hath obtained pardon and life for us therefore his Flesh and Blood is call'd our Meat and our Drink that by which our souls live Which brings us to the second thing Secondly The Predicate it is meat and drink i. e. it is to our souls of the same Use and necessity that meat and drink is to our natural life which cannot be sustained or continued without them The life of our souls as necessarily depends upon the Flesh and Blood of Christ as our natural life doth upon meat and drink Yet beware of a mistake here the Flesh and Blood or the Humanity of Christ is not the Fountain of our spiritual life but the Channel rather through which it flows to us from his Divinity By reason of his Incarnation and Death Righteousness and Life comes to us Thirdly The manner of