Sacrament until he take us to the Glory of the Father or come again to us in the Glory of the Father Every Sacrament is a taking out a Certificat that Christ died and was buried but that he is risen from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 53. Every time the Bread is broken in a Sacrament we tell the world that our Lord was cut off out of the Land of the Living The pouring out of the Wine speaketh his powring out his blood unto death and for proof hereof we produce his Testament and last Will the last Will of our great Commander who made it In Procinctu when he was girt and in his Armour just ready to enter the conflict wherein he laid down his life for us The excellent Moralist and Historian Plutarch tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. it was the custome with the Roman Souldiers to make their Wills when they stood in Battel-aray Facientibus Testamenta in procinctu veluti ad Certam mortem eundum foret Velleius Paterculus lib. 2. I am sure when they went on a hard and dangerous design the more considerate amongst them made their last VVill as the Roman Historian reports of their Souldiers assaulting Trebonia in Spain Our great and Glorious Captain knowing that his hour was come and that he must dye for us disposed thus his estate by VVill or Testament which proveth the truth of his Death as fully as any VVill duly proved by course of Law proveth that the Testator is dead Now certainly good evidence to the truth of Christ's death must needs be very suitable to our publick declaration and Profession of his death and so must suit with this first End of the Sacrament which is to shew forth his Death until he come The valid and irreversible Testament proveth the Death of the Testator Now such a Testament we have exhibited in the Sacrament and who employs his thoughts on this meditation employs them so as they agree with the End of the Sacrament 2. Secondly Christ intended the renewal of our lively affections toward him Dying for us as another end of the Sacrament of his body and blood He did therefore appoint this Ordinance to continue after his Death that it might keep the affectionate remembrance of his love alive in our hearts He would not have his Death forgotten neither would he have it kept in memory without the vigour and strength of our love His friends were dead in sin and misery at that time he remembred these dead friends with life of affections and now his living friends must not remember him with dead affection A lifeless affection is next neighbour to no affection and to remember with such affection is very little more than quite to forget Now none of us should so forget our Dying Lord we could not see him dying as they did Luk. 23. v. 27. who followed him to Mount Calvary and saw him with their bodily eyes yet in every Sacrament of his Supper he is evidently set forth dying among us and so every one of us must remember him every place in the Church may put us in mind of our Lord but the Table and the Cross do more particularly and lively set our remembrance on work Sic oculos Sic ille manus c. Let me ask the question did you ever lose a dear friend who made you a Legatee in his Will or appointed you Executor of it how did your affections stir move yea melt your heart when you read over the Will when you came to demand your Legacy did you receive it with dry eyes Let us bestow our affections in reading over Christ's Will as we would bestow them in reading over the Will of a tender careful Friend and then I am sure we shall frame our hearts to this second end of the Lord's supper and demean our selves as Christ expects we should at his table We shall remember him with love for his loving remembrance of us we shall remember him with desires of his return and coming in glory to make good all that he hath bequeathed to us to put us in possession of all that which the Sacrament representeth and sealeth to us we shall say make hast come quickly oh Lord. 3. Thirdly A solemn publick and constant return of Thanks and Praise to the Lord is a third end of this Sacrament Christus voluit sacram suam coenam esse mortis passionis suae nostraeque per eam à peccato morte diabolo liberationis perpetuum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrae ea propter gratitudinis observantiae publicum Testimonium Ludoy Cappel Thes Salm. de Liturg. Ling. Ignot part 1. th 5. Christ would have his holy Supper be a perpetual remembrance as of his Death and Passion and as of our deliverance from sin death and the Devil so of our gratitude and observance would he have it be a publick Testimony as that Learned Professor hath expressed his sense and apprehension of this matter We can scarce meet with any one person amongst the lowest and meanest Professours of Christian Religion so little instructed in the nature and end of this Ordinance as not full well to know and openly profess it is an Ordinance appointed for continuing a thankful Remembrance of our Dying Lord. We cannot read any Writer Popish or other but in their writings of the Sacrament every page is full of it the most usual name of it is Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Syriack Version hath borrowed this Greek word to express it self in Act. 2.42 20.7 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which soundeth out Gratitude and Thankfulness so some render and translate Bread in Acts 2.42 10.7 broken in the Sacrament and call it the Breaking of the Eucharist but I will spare my time pains and paper and appeal to thy pretences and professions who goest to the Lord's Table I know thou canst not acquit thy self to thy Brethren with whom thou communicatest nor to thy own Profession unless thou declarest thy desire to remember thankfully the Death of thy Lord. Now the Love of Christ remembring thee by Will in his Testamentary disposition hath in it very many strong and prevailing perswasives to thankfulness and will certainly awaken the sober considerate soul unto gratitude and so will excellently well suit with the season and the duty of feasting with our Lord. Of which more shall be said in our following discourse if the Lord give leave Mean while the greatness of our legacy the freeness of love in the legator the unworthiness of the legatees the certainty of our future receiving it the present enjoying more if so be we would set our selves with more diligence and search to enquire into the deed of gift our Lord hath made to us These I say will certainly perswade us to constant acknowledging our debt of thankfulness to our dying Lord. Our life should be
are now entitled to the Legacies of this great Testator shall every one of you meet together to receive the full and total of what you can receive and Christ will give there shall need no such arguments no such reasonings no such intreaties to perswade you to Mutual Love There you shall not chuse but Love delight in and embrace each other Come then think what you shall be when you Feast all together at your Lord's Table in his Kingdom And judge with your selves is it nor meet we should be such now It will be then a part of your Glory And is not your mind and judgment convinced that it is the Glory of a Christian to strive to be now what he shall be hereafter Christ will bring the Scattred sheep of his flock into one Joh. 11.52 When there shall remain on foot-steps of their former folly and discord It is a high expression which the holy ghost useth Joh. 17.11 And I will now forbear to search in into Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are It is a place which ensureth us that such who by the Father are kept unto the future state of the Saints in Heaven are kept to a most intimate and Glorious Union Friendship and Love Now they who will not be perswaded to cement to unite affections to love one another here how highly do they cross the designe of Christ and of the Father Oh that I could perswade all who hear or read my words and oh that more lively sense of what I write were upon mine own heart Lord I read thy Will Joh. 17.22 The Glory which thou gavest me I have given unto them that they may be one even as we are one Oh let the Remembrance of thy designe of our future Union renewed in the Memorial of thy last Will at each Sacrament cause me and all believers to study and endeavour a present Union and Brotherly love more beseeming our future blessed Union and love It may be I shall be quarrelled at for this endeavour of gaining love from those that yet love me not possibly lose what I thought to keep the love of some that have embraced me with a more Brotherly affection than hereafter they will this may possibly be the Fruit of their passions and the unhappiness of my weak and imperfect discourses But I shall retire my self from such storms and view the blessed Legacies my dying Lord hath bequeathed me peace he hath left for me his peace he hath given unto me And with his Peace his Love I shall at last I Hope Love them for ever who now will scarce give me leave so to do they shall love me who think they never will What my words cannot exexpress what my explanations cannot yet make clear that day of glorious appearing of our blessed Testator to give us the full possession of all bequeathed blessings shall reveale to us and we shall understand All of grace in its Beginnings Improvements Perfection and Crowning in Glory to have been the free Gift of this great Testator dying far us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of the Second Part. Gal. 3. v. 13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us c. THese two verses do acquaint us with what Christ hath done for us and how he hath done it what he was made for us and what we are made by him He was made a curse for us we are made blessed by him In the words you may observe 1. A grand design of Favour proposed Parts of the words i.e. the conferring on us a great Blessing that we Gentiles might receive the blessing of Abraham 2. The accomplishment of the design by Christ he hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law c. 3. The Manner how he hath effected this being made a curse for us 3. The Proof of this that Christ was made a curse for us argued from the Manner of his Dying For it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree From which declining all but what directly tends to my purpose I commend to you this Truth viz. That the Blessings of Grace are procured for us imparted to us and increased in us Doctr. by Christ's becoming and dying a Curse for us The full blessing of Grace descends on us through Christ made a Curse for us Here I shall 1. Clear the Term. 2. Prove the Truth 3. Essay the Improvement of Grace by shewing how this may excite and exercise Grace Now in the explication of the Terms there are these Terms offer themselves 11. What is this Blessing 2. What is this Curse 3. How Christ was made a Curse Of each in order Sect. 1. This Blessing then is made evident in general by the Apostle vers 14. who calls it The Blessing of Abraham and explaineth it farther it was that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith That Covenant of Grace with all the immunities of it whereby the Jews for a long time had been the peculiar people of God Benedictionis pars maximè memorabilis in spiritûs dono sita est P.P. Salmur Thes de Baptis Sect. 23. and had been advanced high above other Nations is now made with the Gentiles who are now of Aliens made Heirs to the Covenants of Promise Children of God and endowed with the Spirit A most memorable part of the Blessing lieth in the Gift of the Holy Ghost So the words of the Apostle are a Conclusion from the premisses that the Gentiles should be made partakers of the free Blessing of Abraham by Christ Conclusio omnium superiorum gentes fieri in Christo gratuitae benedictionis Abrahami participes consequi promissam illam Evangelii Gratiam quam vocat Spiritum and should obtain the promised Grace of the Gospel which he calleth the Spirit Or in the words of the learned Critick and Divine Promissionem Spiritus pro Spiritu promisso accipio Et Spiritus nomine benedictionem aeternae spiritualis vitae intelligo Th. Beza in Loc. I take the Promise of the Spirit for the Spirit promised and by the Spirit I understand the blessing of an eternal spiritual life The blessing of Renovation and Holiness from the Spirit of Sanctification The blessing of Peace in our Pardon attested by the Spirit of Adoption The blessing of inconceivable Glory reward of all the obedience of our Faith In brief That spiritual life we extinguisht by sin that favour with God which we lost by our disobedience that glory which we fell short of when we fell from God all that happiness which the Law could not give to sinful man accursed by the Law for his transgressing of it But the Gospel hath given to many and still offers to all that it is sent unto This is the Blessing that the Apostle speaketh of and which the Doctrine I am speaking of doth
to excite our languishing graces and to strengthen our infirm graces which ought to be more especially found in us and acted by us in our approaches to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as shall particularly be be shewed in these that follow Sect. 1. Repentance is unquestionably a Sacramental Grace None is fit to commemorate the Death of Christ who repenteth not of the sin which occasioned his Dying The weeping eye and mourning heart are exceeding lovely to the Lord at his Table A Repenting soul is a welcome guest there Now let me trace Repentance through these paths and see as we go how it may be suitably fitted with improveing arguments from Christ our Sacrifice 1. Repentance beginneth ordinarily in a conviction of sin not in general only but particularly in the convictions of our owne sin The righteous need no repentance Mat. 9.13 it is the Sinner which is called to repent so long as a proud Pharisaical opinion of our own Righteousness is maintained by us we shall never embrace the practice of Repentance 2. Apprehension of danger either attends or flows from this conviction of the sinner and this forwardeth his repentance the shameful cursed death sin deserveth and the sinner feareth in the midst of his sorrows hath strong influence upon the soul to grieve for self-undoing sin Although a secure unconvinced sinner blesseth himself and feareth no danger the awakened convinced Penitent apprehends greatest danger from his sin 3. Consternation of mind or Amazement at the sight of sin and danger unavoidable for ought the man can do of himself for his own help this I might call if none will be offended at it a seasonable and profitable despair of our selves while we consider our selves and observe what we have done what we deserve what God hath threatned and what millions do and must for ever suffer for sin 4. A mixture of Hope that there may be and of Desires that there should be and of enquiry whether there be not some effectutal help remedy to be obtained The awakned soul doth as it were look about to see what or whence it's help may come Enquireth what shall I do to be saved How shall I escape c. Now when it descryeth mercy to be had upon it's Humbling of it self before God upon condition of sorrow for what is past and of hatred of sin for time to come the Penitent soul set's it self to exert all these and in a vigorous constant uniform exerting these consisteth the whole life and Practice of Repentance And I hope I shall cleare it Christ considered Dying our Sacrifice will be an awakening consideration preparatory to and promoting of this Repentance in its farther Exercise and Growth Sect. 2. Christ Dying a Sacrifice well considered will conduce much to the Convincing us of a state of sin and that we were in particular involved in it we were sinners and the righteous Law of God imputed the sin to us and the righteous Judge whose it was to execute the Law accounted thee and me and every one of the children of Adam as we are transgressours of the Law if thou seest not this look to the Lord Christ a Sacrifice for sin and ruminate what answer thou canst make to these few Questions 1. What need had there been of a Sacrifice for sin if there had been no sin to expiate by Sacrifice There is certainly sin committed where 't is necessary to take away wrath by a Sacrifice There is sin of the soul wheresoever an offering for sin is appointed Tell me then seeing Christ was made an offering for sin what was thy state and mine and what was the state of all men for whom he became a Sacrifice 2. Couldest thou escape the imputation of sin when Christ a Sacrifice for sin could not escape it Could he not be a sacrifice for sin by a voluntary susception of our cause but he must bear our guilt and shall we judge it likely reasonable or indeed morally possible that our wilful transgressings of the Law should be passed over not imputed If thy sins were imputed to thy sacrifice doubtless they had been imputed unto thy self if thou hadst not had a sacrifice Stand then a while and view this No need of Sacrifice to expiate where no sin is but alas I needed such a Sacrifice No need of Sacrifice where no guilt is imputed but I see my sin I see 't is imputed I must not delay or trifle in this matter my sin is evident its imputation is certain it will be laid on my own head or on my Sacrifice and oh how impossible is it I should escape the imputation of it if I carelesly neglect this great Sacrifice For 3. Whose is the guilt is it his or is it mine who deepest in the guilt he who did no guile or I who am full of guile who nearest the crime he who never did it or I who very wickedly committed it Did God impute it to him and can an unhumbled sinner think God will not impute it unto the committer of the sin 4. With whom was God angry who was it against whom offended justice was most incensed was it against him that was the Sacrifice or against him that needed the Sacrifice and brought it undoubtedly the Sacrifice can bear no other displeasure than what it bears for him whose Sacrifice it is and for whom it is offered And canst thou hope guilty offenders may escape when guiltless victims are charged with another's guilt and suffer another's punishment 5. Who hath greater share in the Love of God had Christ thy Sacrifice for sin or hadst thou for whom he became a Sacrifice I know thou wilt not pretend a comparison with Christ the only begotten of the Father thou darest not think but his share was greater in his Fathers love as his love obedience and likeness to his Father was greater infinitely more excellent than thine was or could be Tell me then if God imputed sin to the Son of his Love when his Son had undertaken to bear the fault and punishment of offenders will he thinkest thou spare those who hate him and might justly be hated of him 6. Would God admit his Son his eternal Delight to be thy Saviour on no other terms than that he should as a Sacrifice take upon him and bear the sins of his people imputed to him that they might not be imputed unto them and dost thou not believe canst thou perswade thy self to imagine that thou mayest though a sinner yet not be charged with thy sin Dost thou not clearly discern that God will charge sin either on the sinner or on his Sacrifice In a word or two whoever knows that Christ was made a Sacrifice for sin knows also that they were under a state of sin for whom he was made a Sacrifice and if thou art a Christian and professest that Christ was thy Sacrifice thou dost thereby confess that thou wert under a state of sin that unless mercy toward
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
the Death of Christ the Testatour so that thou and I are beholding to Christ a Testator for all the riches of grace consolation and glory Well worthy of thine and my praise thanks and hearty acknowledgments is Christ therefore for that he by his Death hath procured and by will hath entitled us unto such great and glorious advantages and benefits 2. Christ a Testator hath deserved thy most grateful resentments of his love for that he hath by this means removed all thy fears and prevented all thy doubts least at any time thou shouldst by reason of thy weak faith and defective love fall short of the goodness and blessings thou expectest for this as other Testaments is of force now that the Testator is dead and since he is dead none may either null it or alter it but it must continue for ever in strength And on this consideration of certainty and validity doth the Apostle Gal. 3.15 advance the excellency of the promises made to Abraham and to Abraham's seed Now what ever doth advance the excellency of the promises made to us doth likewise advance our debt of thankfulness for the promises 3. Christ a Testator is worthy of our highest Gratitude for so much as he hath by his last Will and Testament disposed of his rich inheritance amongst us so as we may duly expect and constantly fetch in as much as we will of grace for our present help and comfort reserving the fullness of all unto the final consummation of the elect redeemed Many a man loseth all or else much of his thankes by an unseasonable caution in his will that the Legatees shall have nothing of the gift until such a time to which it is uncertain whether he live but Christ deserveth our admiration as well as our thanks for the present benefit use and advantages we have from his Testament He hath so given that wee may now enjoy we so enjoy now that hereafter we shall receive present enjoyments were not to be compared with future the present improvement is sufficient to keep us handsomely the future is far above mine and your thoughts 4. Christ a Testator worthy of thy thanks for so much as he was thus mindful of thee at the last when enemies insulted and vaunted against him when sorrows and pains did seise him when his Friends stood aloof off and some of them denied him when many were content not to be known of his acquaintance when he foresaw what Friends we in our several generations would be to him for what these persons were under Christ's Eye was both an index or discovery of them and also a symptome or prognostick what we after them would prove And yet for all this his love continued firm to us and made them and us Heirs both of his own and of his Father's love also 5. And lastly consider this Christ a Testator is Christ Voluntarily Dying that he might make all sure to us He was not by nature under an unchangeable law of Death as we are if he had not loved us so much he needed not to have Died here then is his plea and Title unto our Gratitude he did Voluntarily and of choice put himself into a condition that he might dye to procure and confirm the promises to us And yet the kind and manner of Dying and pains he did foresee in his Death are the circumstances which as they set off and advance his love to us so do they increase and augment our debt of a loving hearty resentment of his kindness Sirs Christ must dye a curse under the vindictive justice of God ere he could convey by will the Heavenly blessed and everlasting Legacies which we now expect from him as a Testator Whoso shall cast an Eye upon these particulars if others more quickning do not occur yet these will either perswade to thankfulness or render unthankfulness inexcusable We do usually pick out such circumstances as these to commend the worthiness of our Friends love towards us at his Death he remembred me in what I most needed provided for me as much as I need or can receive he I thank him setled it by will that I might be sure of it And herein I am greatliest beholden to him that as I was unfit to be trusted with all at once and unable to subsist without any of it for present he did in wise kindness to me provide that the main part should be reserved for me and that the lesser be now given unto me So Christ that I might live and rejoice in the present grace of my Lord to me that I might be rich and happy in the possession of the whole when I was fit for and capable of it did wisely bequeath me a portion of peace in him grace from him comfort through him all which I needed but hath reserved fulness of Glory the immarcescible Crown the unchangeable Kingdom the inconceivable and unspeakable blessedness until I should be prepared to enjoy them all herein the love of Christ excelleth insomuch as he did all this for us when sorrows and troubles greater than can be equalled were besetting him nay he put himself into a state subject to all those sorrows and troubles from which by nature he was free that he might be liable to dye and make all this mercy sure to thee and me and such like us by Testament and thou and I must thank him that he did it for us who by our folly and wickedness were the causes of all this sorrow and trouble to him Here is love to be owned with highest rensentments and most enlarged affections Christ is the greatest conquerour of hearts and therefore to be crowned with a triumphant wreath of enflamed hearts oh live and dye in the grateful acknowledgments of his love If as some men will have it his Table where thou suppest with him be an Altar let not this Altar ever want a flaming Sacrifice Let thine heart be offered to him he deserveth more thou canst not tender less it were too little if thou had'st ought more it will be sufficient if thou dost not think it too much Oh my soul thy present income is worth thy thanks thy future full possession is fittest for an estimate and thanks in the highest Heavens CAP. V. Sect. 8. Humility Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator 8. THE eight Sacramental grace I did mention was Humility The proud and lofty heart bearing it self high upon its own deceived opinion is not fit for the Lords Table and Supper the Lord stands not as an endeared Friend to entertain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 4.6 Psal 22.26 but as an armed man to oppose the proud 'T is the meek shall eat and be satisfied as the Psalmist in anocase said who come to the Lords Table richly provided with their self-confidences are sent empty away Luk. 1.53 1 Pet. 5.5 whilst he filleth the hungry with good things In this clothing must we appear for however plain it may seem to be
bearing his sin its curse and punishment that Justice may not lay any sentence of condemnation upon it but absolve and acquit justifie and save it Where can the soul better rest and congratulate its happiness in its rest than in a pacified propitious God Tell me who ere thou art reading or hearing these lines canst thou desire more than happiness Is any thing greater and better in thy wishes Certainly either thou knowest not what thou answerest or else dost answer it is thy greatest dailyest hourly desire and that the man or woman who would assure thee of this would fill thy heart with raptures of joy Now behold these desires answered in the Lord Jesus dying to remove that Curse which kept thee from thy happiness If Joy be the enlarging of the heart to entertain a desired good lo here a good worth the entertaining Christ bearing thy Curse lo here a good so great that no heart but an enlarged heart can rightly entertain it Oh be perswaded to receive it and tell me then what affection it raiseth in thy soul Certainly he never feared because he never knew the danger of Hell who doth not greatly rejoyce in his deliverance and escape from it Open but thy heart to receive and thy Joy will as surely break out as the streams do when the springs and fountains are opened Secondly Christ dying a Curse for thee will heighten thy Joy For whatever thou canst approve a ground of Joy in other mens rejoycing without this thou mayest much more approve in thine own rejoycing in this without any other There is very much Joy in the world which is unseemly and there is some which is justifiable seemly and seasonable but whatever makes it so seemly that and much more is in the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us to justifie and warrant the Christian 's Joy I dare stand to plead the Christian's Joy to excel on this account as much as the Joy for recovery of a Crown and Kingdom doth excel the Joy of a wise man for the finding of a Pin. Could a Christian enlarge his Joy to the exceeding greatness of his cause of Joy it would incomparably excel all other mens Joy as much as the recovery from a mortal wound excels the healing of a scratcht finger Indeed all other Joy without this is the unseemly Joy of fools or madmen but this without all other is Joy of wise considerate and knowing men and might we enter the comparison it would appear what trifles men of the world how great soever and how wise soever in the account of the world do rejoice in It is reported of Francis the first recovering the French shore upon his delivery out of his Captivity Je suis le Roy. That he leapt and rejoyced with this I am a King And who that values liberty or safety or power or a Kingdom censureth him for it or doubts whether it were seemly But oh believing soul thou seest at a Sacrament a worse prison a more doleful Captivity crueller enemies and more deadly dangers left behind thee and thou set at liberty in a more blessed safety and entitled to a Crown and Kingdom as much better as Heaven is better than France was and this by Christ's Death as it was an accursed Death to free thee from the Curse The men of the world rejoice in their full harvests The victorious Conqueror rejoiceth in the dividing of the spoils The ambitious Courtier rejoiceth in his Court-preferment But what Joy will the Barns and Stores of the wealthy man be when he dies the accursed Death and with Dives is tormented in endless fires Will the Joy of the preferred Courtier continue to him under the disgrace which he shall fall into when God shall arrest imprison condemn and execute him as an accursed wretch What will become of the Joys of Victories and Triumphs when the Crowns shall wither before the hot displeasure of God and when the crowned Conqueror shall be delivered up an accursed wretched prisoner and captive in eternal chains In few words there are many daggers lifted up and striking at the Joy of every man who rejoiceth in any thing but the Cross of Christ and first or last some one or other of these daggers will reach the heart and let out the life of such Joys But the Believer's Joy in the Death of Christ dying a Curse for him is a Joy which is immortal and cannot be destroyed It is a Joy will most gloriously crown the Believer when other mens Joys do most shamefully forsake deceive and torture them If then any may rejoice the Believer may much more and this he may do at every remembrance of his Redeemer's dying a Curse for him And such renewed remembrance of our cause of Joy will undoubtedly renew our Joy he may rejoice still more than yet he hath rejoiced who seeth he hath more to rejoice in than all the jovial merry world ever shall have Thirdly Renewed Meditations of Christ's dying such a Death for us will renew our Joy appeareth from this That our Joy will be most full satisfactory and transporting to us when we come to the distinctest fullest and liveliest knowledge and apprehension of this Death of Christ They who most fully apprehend and who most particularly apply the Benefits of this Death to themselves who live upon it and know what life it is how excellent how happy c. These are fullest of purest Joy and truly as we abate in our ability and skill to meditate on this Death of Christ or as we abate in the exercise and actual meditation and thought of Christ's dying for us as a Curse the more our Joy will abate also The Saints in glory do now rejoice and will forever rejoice for they do ever behold the scars which this Curse hath left in Christ they ever remember that Christ dying a Curse hath given them that blessed Life in which they ever shall rejoice Now what it hath wrought on them and what it will work one day upon us proveth to us what it might work in us at the present It hath now all in it which it ever will have but we have not all in us which we shall have when this dying of our Lord shall fill us with a never-dying or abating love to him who did it and with Joy in the thing done for us The reason why the Believer rejoiceth more in the sight of Christ dying a Curse for him as his distinct knowledge of it groweth is not that his knowledge addeth any thing to it but because his knowledge of it now maketh more of that Death which appeared not so much then to his own eye so his Joy groweth with his knowledge But now it is not so with other Joys they lessen as our knowledge of them increaseth and those which at distance we flattering our selves hoped would be pure and deep sweet and lasting as a Crystal stream prove to us when we come nearer and
appointment he provided it when we were at a loss and could not find wherewith we should come before the Lord and bow our selves before the most High God when the fruit of our body could not expiate the sin of our soul when finite wisdom was non-plus'd then the Lord discover'd his Grace and Mercy and chose out a sacrifice for us he prepared this sacrifice We may as Abraham said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 varying the tense say God hath provided himself a Sacrifice This he shadowed out to us by prescribing all his Sacrifices This he telleth us when he saith He prepared a body for Christ when he saith He sent him and gave him to be a propitiation for us and sealed him c. and such like expressions He the Lamb of God because ordained of God was our Sacrifice These two things considered let the guilty convinced fearing and almost desponding soul debate the case against his own fears and distrusts Put such Questions to an issue 1. Shall I despair when I have a ground to hope Let him embrace his despondencies who cannot see a ground for hope my heart breaks not while my hope is whole and unbroken 2. Are not those hopes well bottom'd which are built on the assurance that sins my only dangers and fears are pardonable Cain perhaps would have hoped if he had apprehended his sin pardonable And I am bound to hope because God assureth me by this sacrifice that my sins are expiable and may be pardoned 3. Why is there an Expiatory Sacrifice admitted nay provided by God himself who is the supreme vindex culpae and who alone had jus poenae the power of executing punishment on the offenders Hath he appointed a Sacrifice to expiate my sin and can it be that my sin remaineth inexpiable unpardonable Is not that sacrifice sufficient which God himself sindeth out Away with unreasonable fears banish forever sinful distrust Here 's a Sacrifice to atone my offended Lord of his own providing and will he not accept it I will tender it I will mention it he will not refuse his own choice 4. Can any one be found who missed the benefit of a pardon that sought it in the blood of this Sacrifice Oh that I could believe and hope until I heard of one so disappointed then should I never be ashamed Hath he not put away sin by once offering of himself and hath he not by one sacrifice forever perfected those that believe that are sanctified 5. Am I not one who may betake my self to this sacrifice What should more hinder me than others Am I excepted out of the Act of Oblivion Why may not my sins be laid on this Sacrifice Do I not read that he liveth for ever to make intercession for those that come to God by him Oh glorious hope Intercession for all that come to God by him Then cheer up doubting heart here is a sacrifice for all that come to God by him for this Intercession is an act or exercise of Christ's Sacerdotal Office subsequent to and dependent upon his foregoing Sacrifice He sacrificeth for as many as he intercedeth if then the Intercession of Christ can impetrate and obtain favour it is because the Sacrifice of Christ hath expiated thy sin and crime Sect. 5. 5. Thus far Guilt Danger and Feares may by eyeing the Sacrifice convince the sinner how seasonable a good hope would be and this Sacrifice sheweth how good the believer's hope is Now would it well become the soul to humble it self and if thou find thy heart remain still proud and unhumbled ask it these Questions over thy Sacrifice 1. Canst thou be proud and yet be found worthy to die in thy Sacrifice can this be born wilt thou confess death is thy desert and yet bear up as if thou wert innocent and in no deserved danger 2. Canst thou be proud of any thing so long as thy life is the fruit of an Expiatory Sacrifice Thou livest by the death of another and wilt thou pride thy self as if thou neededst not any ones help 3. Canst thou confess guilt and yet profess a thought of worth in thy self How shameless is that pride which at the bar confesseth it's Guilt against the Law and advanceth it self against the Law-giver It is a most unseemly thing to behold a heart rising with pride and falling in a Sacrifice Let thy humility then sute thy state as it appeareth in thy Sacrifice and I dare say it will sute the state of thy soul in it's repentance and mourning for sin Sect. 6. 6. Fountains and Springs lye deep where the soul is laid thus low if it doth not freely and spontaneously weep bring it's Sacrifice into sight let that be viewed see it standing before an offended and displeased God who was provoked by thy sin look on it loaded with imputed guilt Alas my sin lyeth upon it observe thy Sacrifice falling before the Altar and say alas was not this for my sake should not I have fallen thus if he had not He bled and out of excess of love to me poured out his life for me he groaned sighed breath'd out his soul for my sake and could he do more alas have I brought my Sacrifice to this was ever man more unhappy to his friend to his Brother how hard are those stony Rocks how dry that flinty heart which gusheth not out with tears in Remembrance of these things My dearest Lord pity unrelenting soules and oh give a mourning heart that may be more equal in it's griefes and sorowes in it's teares and sympathies how many eyes weep at newes of an endangered troubled imprisoned and wrackt friend How many hearts are softned melted and broken with the sweats burning fits and Agonies of a dying man yea how many melting hearts and weeping eyes how many compassionate discourses on the death of some one deserving more than Law inflicts for his breach of the Law But how few over a suffering bleeding dying Saviour and Sacrifice whither are the compassions of men and women fled where may they be found where shall we seek or how shall we wooe and prevail with them Lo their friend and Lord charged with their guilt sweating under its weight groaning under its penalty sighing with sobs that drew blood out of his veins bleeding dying a Sacrifice loaded with our deserved punishment And few alas very few grieving hearts weeping eyes or mourners for their want of tears Lord give more that I may give some tears to wash thy bleeding wounds A second grace requisite to a Christian in the commemoration of the Lord's Death at the Lord's Supper 2d Grace Faith exercised and improved and improveable on consideration of Christ dying a Sacrifice is Faith a grace indisputably necessary to him that will come duly to that Ordinance and therefore I lay not out any time or pains on the proving thereof a grace well improveable by consideration of Christ dying our Sacrifice on which I intend to insist next
this part of the life of Faith is so evidently maintained upon the Death of Christ as our Sacrifice making our peace with God confirming the promises of grace and glory ensuring to us the grand expectations of this and the other world that I think it needless to insist farther on this particular Christ dying our Sacrifice is the great reviving comfort of an awakened convinced fainting yet believing soul 3. The third thing in the present Actings of Faith while it on good and sure grounds waiteth for the great things which are to be revealed is the active diligence of Faith to do the whole work which is appointed for it to do Faith giveth not a discharge from any one degree of our required industry in good nor doth it release to us any one of the Moral Precepts of the Law no Faith maketh not the Law void Rom. 3.31 The Apostle assureth us that the Faith of a believer engageth him to walk and to labour so as to be accepted with God so 2 Cor. 57. 9. We walk by Faith not by sight saith S. Paul ver 7. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him ver 9. It is but the counterfeit of Faith which lieth unactive and regardless to do the will of God when once the soul can judg which carrieth in it both an act of discerning and an act of beliveing or assenting to the truth That one viz. Christ died for all it doth presently conclude that henceforth they who live should not live to themselves but to him that died for them 2. Cor. 5.14 15. It is the rational conclusion Faith draweth from the Grace of God toward us in Christ dying for us that our life which we have of mercy must be laid out in duty and the reward we expect should animate us to the service God expecteth Mark the Apostle St. Peter's manner of arguing 2 Pet. 3.12 Since saith he We look and hasten to the comming of the day of God and again ver 13. We according to his promise look for new Heavens and ver 14. seeing Beloved that ye look for such things For as much as we are verily persvaded of the truth of these future things and for as much as we do by Faith expect an assured fulfilling of them Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless so the Apostle intimateth to us nay presseth it upon us as the proper business of Faith as it 's whole imploy to be pure and without blame and to be diligent herein Now what can be thought will excite and animate a believer unto this if the great things purchased and ensured to him by the Death of Christ his Sacrifice do not The Apostle well knew the weight of the argument your labour you know shall not be in vain in the Lord therefore see that ye abound in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 When thou art backward or sluggish take thy heart and discover to it what a Kingdom what a glorious Reward thy Lord hath secured to thee and ask if it be not worth thy greatest diligence and thy most active industry 4. The fourth concern of Faith in its present deportment and the influence it now hath on the heart is to strengthen and support it under all kind of sufferings and afflictions be they common to us as men or peculiar to us as Christians Our Faith is our life in the midst of these deaths Hence we find Faith joined with patience Heb. 6.12 When Abraham had received the promises Heb. 6. ver 13. which God made to him when he believed God would do all that for him which God had promised to him he did patiently endure and so obtained v. 15. The Apostle recounteth his many and great sufferings which with others he suffered for Christ Troubled on every side 2 Cor. 4.8 Perplexed ver 8. Persecuted cast down ver 9. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus ver 10. Alway delivered unto Death for Jesus sake ver 11. These were their sufferings and troubles now see their support which was a spirit of Faith ver 13 14 c. Read over the 11th chapter of Hebrews see what afflictions those faithful ones did through Faith undergo and it will be past controversie with you that for the present Faith doth mightily sustain the spirit under the variety and sharpness of afflictions and sufferings which it doth among other helps principally by looking to the greatness of its expected reward and glory secured unto it by the most immutable Covenant and Oath of God ratified in the blood of Christ our Sacrifice So the Apostle directeth us to look to Jesus c. Heb. 12.2 3. enduring the Cross and despising the shame to Jesus who endured contradictions of sinners against himself ver 3. This will be a means to prevent the fainting of our minds under our troubles and sufferings The reconciliation between God and us his Promise to us his Covenant with us his Oath and Christ's Sacrifice all assure us he is faithful who hath promised us our pardon and absolution from guilt and punishment our adoption and right of children to a glorious Inheritance our solemn and publick investiture and admission into possession of a Crown and Kingdom He is faithful who hath by means of most sacred obligations assured us a reward for every duty active and passive therefore let us hold fast our Profession without wavering Heb. 10.23 And who will not hold his Profession fast when he is assured that the Sacrifice Christ hath offered hath reconciled us to God so that our sufferings are not expresses of his vengeance but necessary exercises of our graces and proofs of the Love of God to us who would be weary of bearing who is perswaded that his sufferings are but light and momentany and that they do infallibly work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory How do things infinitely less valuable and extremely uncertain prevail with men to undergo hardships to adventure through fire and water to bear watchings toil nakedness hunger and thirst How patiently doth the Husbandman Merchant Souldier and Courtier submit to utmost hazards at utmost uncertainties to obtain their hopes which often do make them ashamed But now who looketh to the establishing of the Promise and to the greatness of the things promised and vieweth them in the Death of Christ as a Sacrifice expecteth greatest joys rewards and glory on the surest ground and most infallible certainty and therefore resolveth neither to yield to fainting or to sit down under weariness he will look to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and see what he may expect after sufferings and will suffer that he may enjoy what he doth expect Thus Faith may be confirmed and improved as to each part wherein it is concerned by duly considering Christ's dying our Sacrifice ensureth on most inviosable bonds the most desirable good things
way of wickedness in him Psal 139.23 24. It is that which giveth a trouble to God's Children that they are not perfect that their heart retaineth too much of its native guile and is deceitfull above all things Jer. 17.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 6.5 In brief with the Prophet they cry on t each one in sight of his Pollution wo is me I am of Polluted heart and lips When David saw the Divine jealousie breaking out on Vzza 2 Sam. 6.9 He was afraid and durst not bring up the Ark of the Lord whither he first intended He was afraid of the Lord that day and said how shall the Arke of the Lord come to me he feared and fears are troubles and questionless disquiet the mind his fears and the trouble of them arose from his foreseen unmeetness to entertain the Arke of so holy a God he was not as he desired a meet and prepared Receiver and lodger of that glorious guest This David's trouble this the disquieting thought of every good heart it cannot offer a Sacrifice pure enough immaculate and perfect as becometh the purity perfection and Majesty of his God 4. A Fourth and the last I shall now mention is a succession of doubts and jealousies lest guilt and unworthiness should hinder his acceptance with God and at last cut off his hope of every desireable blessing from God For although the believer is delivered from danger of condemnation and hath had often experiences of the favour of his God and is made upright and without prevailing guile in all his services which might in very reason be sufficient ground of a constant peaceful hope confidence and assurance that God will ever accept him and delight to bless him and at last reward him yet for all this many doubts and the same frequently returning do disquiet the soul putting it to suspect the worst and what shall never befall it Oh saith one my sins make me doubt lest that be my sad state which was Israel's complaint or should have been in Jeremiah's words Sins have hidden good things from me Jer. 5.25 And another is ready to suspect though I might be establisht yet my unbelief suggesteth apprehensions that I shall not for I have not been obedient I have been guilty of much unbelief A third complains of back-slidings and what doubts arise thence And almost every one hath his peculiar doubts or a peculiar ground for those which disquiet others as himself Now it is I judge needless to exemplifie the troublous nature of doubts and endless to enumerate the particular doubts of Christians or the easie returns they make on the souls who have frequently removed them and have thought sure now they should no more be disquieted with them I shall rather address my thoughts to the second thing I suggested viz. that there is in the Sacrifice of Christ for us somewhat which may remove these disquietudes of the soul And so Sect. 1. 1. In the first place for removal of the danger of condemnation the first disquietude mentioned there is sufficient in Christ dying our Sacrifice to effect this as will appear on these Considerations 1. Christ dying our Sacrifice was pleased to stand in our stead he was substituted in our room for us in this he became what is necessary in every Sacrifice a representative of us for whom he made himself a Sacrifice so the Sacrifice doth vices ejus qui reus agitur subire take the place or turn of the guilty of which substitution I have already spoken somewhat cap. 3. sect 1. This Substitution of the Sacrifice was so generally received an Opinion and an inseparate appendage to every Sacrifice expiatory that thou shall easily discerne it both in the writing of Heathens mentioning their Sacrifices as also in the writings of Moses relating the particularities of Jewish Sacrifices if an ordinary care be used in reading But I do not farther insist on that come we rather to see what quiet this substitution may afford to the soul how full of peace may the soul be which can carry all that is laid to it's charge to Christ which can say Christ stand's for me is substituted in my stead and if there be ought of danger it first falleth on him in whose hand never did any one miscarry who had Christ undertaking for him Christ now substitute for us stands between us and danger who are thus in Christ to allude to that of the Apostle Rom. 8.1 Are exempt from condemnation For in this substitution of our Sacrifice there is 2. A due sufficient and full transferring our guilt on our Sacrifice so that the guilty soul may now say mercy hath transmitted my guilt from me upon my substitute and he hath voluntarily taken that upon himself to answer it before my Judge against all accusers and how then can condemnation be justly feared when no guilt is found lying upon the person what servant or child needeth fear a chiding for that fault which the Master or Father hath on the interposing of a Mediatour transferred from the servant or child solicitous fears may de facto disquiet the soul for whom Christ made himself a Sacrifice but were such fears arrested examined and discovered they would be checkt discarded and cast out as groundless for it would then appear that they come intruders on innocent acquitted and imputatively guiltless soules Doth any such feare of future condemnation perplexe look to thy Sacrifice consider guilt which onely can condemne is by thy Judge in a valid sufficient form transferred from thee to thy Sacrifice and certainly thy Judge will as justly acquit the from thy guilt as he did mercifully transferre it he whose mercy so contrived to make thee innocent that thou mightest not be condemned His Justice will find thee what mercy made thee and thou shalt not be condemned Read that text 2 Cor. 5.2 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Certainly then the danger of Condemnation is over when we are made Righteous in Christ and he our Sacrifice made sin for us The Righteous Judge of Heaven and earth will do so justly that he will not codemn one whom grace hath made Righteous Though all we like lost-sheep have gone astray yet there is hope for the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.16 3. Christ our Sacrifice standing in our stead admitting the transferring of our guilt from us upon himself by his dying our sacrifice did undergo that punishment and did bear that wrath which our sin deserv'd that we might be absolved and acquitted so that now either we must doubt an after-punishment will be inflicted on us for the sin Christ hath born and suffered and we shall be condemned though he died to the end we might not be condemned which how little consistant with either the justice of God or his mercy any one may easily discern who will consider It
see then our duties are compared to incense and if the native scent of our duties cannot be pleasing to God yet the superadded sweetness of Christ's incense will render them very acceptable to our God though their savour be unpleasing which ascends with them out of our hands yet the savour which they carry with them ascending from the golden Altar doth delight the Lord do not give way then to discouraging fears that imperfect duties and unsavoury offerings will estrange God from thee God hath removed this fear also the Sacrifice of Christ will perfume thy Sacrifices which now become acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.4 3. Thirdly That there may remain no scruple or fear beside what he doth reconciling our persons to God and ennobling our Dutyes through the excellency of this Sacrifice he hath by the same Sacrifice made an atonement or expiation for the sinful defects of all the duties of Believers Although it is true so many culpable defects adhere to our duties that God might in the strict examination of them justly reject them yet he will not impute these defects to the persons nor for them reject the duties of his Saints because in Christ's Sacrifice he hath received an atonement and will pardon those defects an atonement and will pardon those defects to his children Let us then hold fast our profession of particular hope and delight in duties as of the general Doctrine of the Gosple Seeing we have a great High Priest who is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Now the Apostle presents us with Chrst as having Sacrificed and with the blood of that Sacrifice entring into Heavens i. e. to intercede for us in the vertue of that excellent Sacrifice so that we may well take boldness to draw unto God with hope that neither unworthiness of persons nor the worthlesness of duties shall ever be able to divert divine acceptance seeing that if the intercession of a High Priest of a Great High Priest in the Heavens in the presence of God if the intercession of Jesus the Son of God can prevail for the removeal of whatever might possibly impede our acceptation both we and our obedience shall be acceped In sum art thou a believer dost thou by faith commemorate the death of Christ thy Sacrifice dost thou believe there is vertue and worth in this Sacrifice how much vertue thinkest thou in it certainly either there is enough to reconcile thy person to recommend thy services to pardon thy sins or else Christ died in vain for as good not at all as not to purpose will be verified in this case he died a Sacrifice that he might bring these to good effect viz. That we might be reconciled that our duties might be a sweet smelling Sacrifice that our sins also might be pardoned which either are attained by the vertue of this Sacrifice or else Christ doth not attaine his purposes of love towards true believers which who but an infidel dares to surmise Sect. 4. 4. The fourth and last disquietude of the believing soul I mentioned to be the return of his doubts and fears lest God should with-hold the most desirable mercies and comsorts of this present state and hide good things from him who hath forfeited them all Many are the fears of those who shall never be condemned who have enjoy'd the light of God's countenance who are perswaded God accepteth their persons and duties also unto all the purposes of rewarding them hereafter who yet are apt to sear overmuch the stroakes of a smart rod here or the darkness of this present condition Now the Sacrifice of Christ well considered would remove all such fears and perplexing jealousies for 1. This Sacrifice removing sin removeth what would hide good things from us When the blood of this Sacrifice hath effected our reconciliation God will not think any mercy too good or great for us He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things also Rom. 8.32 Facilius enim dare amicis factis quam adbuc hostibus facilius omne quam filium dare Grot. in loc It is easier to conceive he should give to us made his friends then when we were enemies and it is easier to give every thing then to give a Son On a just stating matters it will appear that the Sacrifice of Christ removing guilt removeth the ground of all perplexing tormentful fears of what nature soever I do not say it removeth them actually I know the contrary by observation But I say there is no justifiable ground for such wracking fears of future occurrences in our life for the Believer hath through this Sacrifice a Covenant of Promises 2 Cor. 1.20 with 1 Tim. 4.8 both of this life as of that to come ratified and confirmed to him 2. This Sacrifice gives the believer a justifiable title to every mercy whether temporal or spiritual that he is capable of receiving and enjoying with safety and good to himself as with gloty to God and if any one particular mercy notwithstanding the believers desire of it and earnest labour after it be with-holden it is because his weak foresight and small scantling of wisdom cannot discern what the All-seeing Eye of God doth see and what his Infinite Wisdom knows viz. that it is fittest for the present to with-hold that particular desired mercy and to reserve it unto a season wherein it will be a choicer mercy and more advantageous Now a small measure of patience might quiet the heart in the absence of such blessings if the man would reflect upon his condition so well setled by Christ his Sacrifice that he hath by this a title to every good and that the time and the manner of entring on the possession of this good is assigned by the Lord in greatest love to us that we should not by our haste snatch an unseasonable blessing nor by our sloth lose a seasonable mercy It cannot enter my thoughts what may pacifie the soul dispel murmuring discontents and prevent perplexing fears if these will not viz. Christ by his Sacrifice hath reconciled me to the Eternal God and wrought me into such favour with God that he hath made over himself to me to be mine for ever and he hath assigned me with his Elect a portion in his alsufficiency and because I know not what measure and what season is fittest for me he doth employ his own Wisdom to determine both so that I know he hath love enough to give more if his Wisdom saw it not greatest love to give but so much 3. The hovering fears and doubts from uncertainties whether we shall enjoy our desired mercies for this present state might be scattered did we consider that this Sacrifice of Christ was not only expiatory of guilt but also a Peace-Offering In which kind of Sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portio Domino Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portio
adoptionis illius vim senserunt in Spiritu Sanctificante PP Salmur de Sp. Adop Sect. 12. so they who are sealed with the spirit of Adoption have still found the power of that Adoption by the spirit of Sanctification Now I say Christ Dying a Testator and leaving us his last Will or Testament to meditate upon hath left us a good answer to our doubts and the due meditations of the soul on the last Will of Christ will much dispel our fears and quiet the soul For whereas there are two sorts of fears which afflict a gracious soul 1. A fear it shall miss of Glory And 2. A fear it doth want truth of grace Christ by his last Will hath secured the believing soul against both these fears against the first by giving a Kingdom and Glory to such by Will he appointed them unto a Kingdom to a Glorious Crown Against the second by bequeathing the spirit of Truth and Grace unto them to lead them in holiness unto the end and this Will of our best Friend who Died to confirm it is a very sure Title on the sacred reverence authority of last Wills and Testaments Legum servanda fides suprema voluntas Quod mandat fierique subet parere necesse est Aug. Imper. de vol. Virg. which must be sacred and inviolate when the man is dead Command of Laws must duly be fulfill'd And so must that our dying friend last will'd how much more when he who died once hath for ever conquered death and lives for ever to see his own Legacies both bestowed and enjoyed which peculiar to Christ our dying friend gives greatest encouragement against such doubts and might very well ease us of all such fears and so be an excellent defence and prop to weak grace whence will soon follow a considerable growth in grace Sect. 3. 3. That which confirms the truth certainty and immutability of the promises improveth Grace I need not give long Proofs of so known a Truth Praecipuum maximè proprium objectum Fidei situm est in promissionibus PP Salm. de Fide sect 7. the promisies are the objects of our faith the good things contained in the promises are the object of our hope the grace and mercy making the promises is the Load-stone of our love In one word we are made partakers of the Divine Nature we do purify our selves and perfect holiness through these promises Grace is as the vine the promises are the frame which beareth up and carrieth the vine which thriveth best when it resteth on the surest and stedfastest frame Grace is a spiritual building which needeth a sure Foundation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is the promise which as the word of God is in it self sure and stedfast for it is impossible that God should lie Tit. 1.2 Heb. 6.18 Yet to this the Lord hath superadded the confirmation and certainty of a Testamentary disposition or last Will making all the promises in Christ and making them all sure and unchangeable by the death of Christ whereby they become to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 that we might have such assurance as should render it next to a moral impossibility for us soberly and deliberately to doubt them Now all this is excellently effected by resolving and moulding the promises into a last Will or Testamentary disposition which is of such a nature that it becomes unalterable on the Death of the Testator Heb. 9.17 for a Testament is of force after men are dead and so the law maxim ensureth us In publicis Lex in privatis Testamentum firmissimum habetur that what the law is in publick concerns that a last Will in private concerns is for ensurance and firmness In brief therefore the last Will of Christ Dying confirms the Promises to us what confirms the promises confirms our faith and hope with other graces faith and hope confirmed do greatly tend to purifying and sanctifying our hearts and making our life fruitful in these things lieth the growth and improvement of grace so that due reflections and right manage of our thoughts on Christ dying a Testator do as is said improve the communicants Graces Sect. 4. 4. That improves grace which doth soften the heart and as it were ripen it unto a mellow temper as the showers which soak into the earth in the spring time which soften the earth do both prepare the way that tender roots of trees and plants may spread abroad and root deeper and also do afford nourishing moisture and sap whence the verdure blossom and the fruit it self so it is here a hard and rocky heart is as unkind a soil for grace as stony ground is for Corn neither can take root to any good purpose Trees of righteousness are planted by the rivers of waters which is a tender soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the water courses divide themselves and run out into many branches gently and kindly softening the ground And though some vines of the Lord are planted in high Mountaines naturally hard and barren in proud and hard hearts yet these hearts are like plowed ground laid a fallowing and mellowing and so prepared for the seed time every high Mountain is laid low before Christ In one word the pleasant Lillies do grow in the Valleys low and softned grounds so grace thrives best in the humble and tender soul Now there are in the last Will of Christ many both common and ordinary as also Singular and extraordinary motives and inducements to tenderest affections towards Christ Whatsoever cause any true friend any kind Brother any dutiful Child can see in the care love and bounty of his Dying Friend Brother or Father expressed and contained in the porvision made by such one for him that all that and more may the meditating and considerate soul see in the last Will of Christ to melt him into affections for Christ in whose Death he may see love living and growing strong when life fainted and grew weak And as his veines and heart grew empty of blood both grew full of love to you and me So he loved his own to the end What in particular these common and speciall motives are I shall not now specify but reserve them to another more fit place thus you have the sum of this fourth argument before you in the next place Sect. 5. 5. That improves our graces which endeareth the Lord Jesus to us what increaseth our love to Christ doth increase our holiness and addeth to our graces love will long for a more close union love will study the most intire complyance it will ambitiously strive to advance and honour it will without ceasing endeavour to please That soul is most endeared to holiness and most studious of holiness which is most endeared to Christ and most in love with him such a soul keeps his Commandments Now the view and consideration of Christ s last Will and Testament will surely endear
were it all to be done over again Now this doth add new evidence of the certainty of the Promise and ought to add new degrees of strength to our Faith How sure must those Promises be which are the Promises of one unchangable and who repenteth nothing which he hath spoken Away then with unbelief and doubts banish them all from thy soul If thou wouldst but love thy Lord in truth of heart if thou grievest for thy deadness and non-proficiency if thou strivest to walk more worthy of thy relation unto Christ and of his love to thee be not too much dejected Thy Lord foresaw this and hath provided a pardon for and help against it and notwithstanding all the baseness thou confessest and bewailest in thy self Christ would make the same VVill if he were to make it anew and give thee as much as he hath done Raise up thy Faith therefore and at the Sacrament be think thy self Here are the Promises reduced to the form of a last VVill that they might be sure and they are so disposed by my Lord who foresaw all that can discourage me and who would not change any thing were all to be new done Surely he intends as he speaketh is in very good earnest he will perform that at last which he would not change or alter in the least Oh then I must perswade my self it is all truth which is in these Promises and I should believe them more stedfastly if I did understand them more clearly None can have such equal ground of believing his friend none shall equal me in believing Christ my friend and Lord. 6. Lastly let it be considered for ensuring the promises they are the legacies of one who is sole and supreme judge of all pleas and causes which can arise concerning our Right and Title to them Symbol Nicen. John 5.25 We believe that he shall come to be our Judge is an article of our faith and the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son having appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 who was adjudged by man unto death died and was buried but rose again and shall come to judge Quick and Dead whose sentence shall stand for ever good so he hath a Prerogative Royall peculiar to himself for others last wills are by other men decided if any thing of controversy arise concerning them No man is judge in the case and plea of right between those he hath made joint Legatees but one is the Testator and dieth another is the Judge and interpreter of the Testament whence it doth not seldom fall out that the Legatees are defeated of their right and lose the gift of their Friend and the mind of the Testator is not fulfilled because it is either not understood by the judge or because it must not be understood although indeed it is well enough known this therefore leaves some uncertainty in a man's claim and the event upon trial is sometime a disappointment But here is no such uncertainty in the event for he is Judge who is Testator and he is to declare his own mind of whom we expect the gift and who certainly doth well understand his own mind Besides in expecting and claiming the Legatee shall assuredly have all the favour shewed him that hee needeth It is a rule in law that wills should be interpreted in the more favourable sense That love which was so great to give the Legacy will be great enough to adjudge it to the Legatee Moreover it is not possible that a case should arise between the Legatees of Christ wherein the one should gain and the other lose for such are the gifts of Christ that they are intire and whole to each one none hath the less for any ones having much so the controversy shall never be but between the soul and its unbeleif fears and doubts between the soul and Satan accusing and impleading it And in this case Christ being Judge of his own Will you may soon say what favourable gracious and merciful judgement he will give and how surely he will adjudge their title good whose faith love and desires sue for it to him Awaken thy self then and look on what sure ground thou standest who hast Promises so full of certainty and unchangeable truth Let thy soul admit no more unbelief than the Promises confirmed by Christ framing them into his last VVill and Testament do admit uncertainty Let not unbelief enter until thou seest uncertainty attend thine expectation from the Will of Christ Reason with thy soul propose the case to thy serious thoughts At a Sacrament I do remember the Death of my Lord Dying and making his VVill wherein is given to me all that which the Sacrament representeth to me remission of sin peace in believing strength to walk with God and after my drinking this wine with his people at his Table Luke 22. The drinking it new with him in his Father's Kingdom This Ordinance is as all other Ordinances of Christ are exceeding full of grace for every one that heartily willeth it and this fulness of grace is bequeathed by VVill this VVill valid and to be judged if any case arise by him who made it Come then Will Christ think you enervate his own Will Can it be imagined that he will not see it performed who lives to be his own Executor who would make no other if he were now to die and make his VVill again Fear not oh believing soul thy claim will be adjudged good doubt not thy Plea of right he is Judge who gave thee the right stagger not through unbeleef He did designedly give thee all assurance possible not to prevent any unfaithfulness in himself but to prevent all infidelity in thee Not to confirm his own word by any new arguments or new bonds which might be sure to hold if others did break for his word and promise is faithfullness and truth but to confirm thy faith and that if unbeleef broke through some yet it might not break through others if it did prevail with the soul against any one it might not prevail against every one of the encouragements and perswasives to believe Weigh well the certainty of those promises which are confirmed by the last will of such I say of such a Testator who changeth not who cannot be overruled by any superiour Judge and then say how great your perswasion of the truth of them should be It should be great faith that hath such great assurance and strong perswasion which hath such perswasives Oh that our faith were porportioned to the ground of faith laid down before us in this very matter there can be no colour of doubt where these grounds and perwasives of our belief are rationally considered Bring therefore to the Sacrament an extract of the promises set them in order before your eyes see them all summarily contained in that one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 22.20 This is
that whosoever either loves him not or loves him not for his own sake is unworthy of this great ordinance It is disputed whether Judas did partake of this Sacrament but it is not disputable whether a heart like his whether a man or woman who loves Christ no more than Judas did love him be fit for the Sacrament It is a feast for Christs Friends it is an entertainment for his beloved ones if that invitation Eat O Friends drink yea drink abundantly O Behold Cant. 5.1 Be not intended principally for a solemn bidding to this feast yet the general equity or congruity of it warranteth the Friends and lovers of Christ and none else to come The enemies of Christ must expect other kind of entertainment it is bring those mine enemies and slay them before me In one word that heart which is not full of love to God is full unfit for any approach to God in any ordinary and common duty much more unfit for this extraordinary and solemn access to the Lord. Now in the Testament or last Will of Christ we may discern most evidently 1. A love which deserveth to be very highly prized a love toward us wich none but Christ ever did or could bear and express toward us A love which entitled us to a participation of a Kingdom for as the Father hath given a Kingdom to him so hath he given a Kingdom unto us herein appeareth the largeness of his love to us what he hath given declareth how much he loved and the time when he gave sheweth the constancy of his love to us he loved us to the last Now ingenuity sets a value upon men according to the love men bear to their Friends and I am assured who ever readeth the last Will of Christ readeth the greatest the constantest love and why then should it not be esteemed their duty to set the highest price on Christ 2. The incomparable excellencies which he was master of The Legacies which he giveth manifest what surpassing treasures he was possessour of these for kind are spiritual for duration eternal for suitableness full and satisfactory for use sweet safe and pure for certainty unchangeable of all which somewhat hath already been spoken therefore no more shall now be said The vast riches of some men have been kept close until their last will hath discovered them and how then have some men admired them indeed we cannot understand the full treasures of our blessed Lord until we come to read his last Will and Testament in the light of glory with eyes of immortality and then he shall be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 1.10 The believing soul when he views the treasures of grace comfort and glory made over to him by Christ's will cannot but admire the incomparableness of his person and although the believers estimate of Christ be so ingenuous as to prize Christ for his own worth yet it cannot be unthankful or not prize him for his gifts bestowed on us Whenever thou art going to a Sacrament if other more quickening motives do not offer themselves think on that which Christ hath given thee by will and consider how glorious and excellent a person he is who bequeathed these great and good things and who can and will bestow every one of them upon thee 3. Read over the will of Christ and ponder well what he hath given and bequeathed then reflect upon thy self and see what thou art now what thou wast when he gave and what thou art like to be so long as thou livest upon earth And when this is well considered thou wilt have cause to say that among all benefactours none can compare with Christ in the noble generous and free disposition of his mind And indeed the excelling beneficence of Christ toward believers doth win an excelling esteem and price in believers toward Christ who 1. Gave these great things of pardon and life of grace and holiness of peace and comfort of victory and glory contained in his Legacies to strangers disesteemers rejecters and in a word enemies of the giver and the gifts Now 't is a generous mind which will do good to miserable forlorn men and women who knew not their misery who undervalued their recovery who rejected the motion who declared their enmity against their deliverer He is a Physician of excellent temper who can and will pass by all these and cure a Dying body because he delight 's to heal Our Lord noteth in the parable Luk. 10.30 That a man went down from Jerusalem a Jew whom thieves robbed and left wounded and half dead insensible of his danger and unable to ask for help The enmity of the Jews against the Samaritanes arose on occasion of that Schism which the Samaritanes were guilty of and maintained against the Jews concerning the Worship of God Joh. 4.20 Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place c. This quarrel began soon after the Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Salmanesar 700 years before Christ was born and it had been countenanced by a High Priest and a Temple in a continued Succession of 300 years and somewhat more before the birth of Christ So old was this enmity whom a Samaritan pittied ver 33. Now observe there was a very rankerous enmity in the Jewes against the Samaritanes as appeareth from Joh. 4 9. 8. v. 48. But this generous compassion of the Samaritan checks the old quarrel and lendeth a helping hand such noble compassion is the compassion of our Lord to us to whom God commendeth his love that when we were enemies Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 However disingenious sinners slight and undervalue the person of Christ and his love toward them whilest they were very enemies yet whensoever grace appeath it changeth their minds and maketh sinners cease from sin and become Saints they shall at once both admire the excellency of Christ's person and love towards them and comdemn all their former low unbeseeming apprehensions of Christ his love As the compassion of Christ was thus generous in pittying of an undone enemy 2. So secondly it appeareth a noble and excellent compassion if it appear to thee what thou now art either thou dost not know why self and state or must confess Christ incomparably excellent in mind and disposition There is not now any worth in thee but what thou hast by vertue of Christ's Legacy where had others where hast thou thy grace but from the spirit of grace and note how the Apostle argueth this Gal. 3.14 15. by an argument drawn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Testament and Will of Christ Men do chose persons for some excellency or other and therefore do many times make them their heires But here 's a compassion and love that maketh us excel others by giving us what we could never have expected ex condigno by worthiness of our own The least Saint is more excellent than the eminentest carnal
enriching us it doth exceedingly enhance our worth honour we therefore are highly obliged to contend for his honour we rightly judge the son bound to plead the honour of his dying Father and we do as rightly judge the Christian much more bound to plead the honour of his dying Lord whose Testament hath made him a Son and gave him a share both in the honour and wealth of the family 2. In the last Will of our Dying Lord we read his Zeal and strength of affection for our peace our comfort our safety and our happiness all which falleth to the ground and vanisheth if the Legacies of our Lord fail us we had need therefore with Zeal contend for his honour not as though our plea would in any thing ratify or confirm for as we cannot give so neither needs he to derive ought of his authority from us he hath received all power from his Father But yet after the manner of men be it spoken we are bound to assert and defend the glory of his authority and power of disposing and bequeathing to us and to others whatsoever he hath by Will and Testamentary disposition left to us and to them If he had given what was not his to give we must either soon have parted with it or for ever have missed of it but herein lieth our advantage and comfort that the large Legacies of our Lord to us are as the fruit of so much Zealous love for us so they are the Acts of Soveraign power delegated to Christ by the Father as our Lord himself intimateth to us Luk. 22.29 As the Father hath appointed unto me so I appoint a Kingdom unto you Our Zeal then for the honour of Christ doth as well maintain our hope comfort and interess as it doth maintain his authority and what man would suffer the power to be nulled which gave him a rich and inestimable Legacy 3. The least degree of good bequeathed to us by the Will of our Testator in his will remembred by us in the Lords supper doth greatly surpass all the Zeal we can bear to his glory and honour read over his will and see there is justification in his blood shed for remission of sin assurance of peace with God secured by the frequent remembrance of the blood of sprinkling Sanctification consolation and future glory all these promised by him who being Mediator of the Covenant hath reduced the whole to the form of a Testamentary disposition and confirmed it by his death Now when thou art going to a Sacrament consider and judge with thy self should I not be very Zealous for his honour who hath given many inestimable gifts to me am I not less than the least of grace bequeathed is not remission of my sin greater love than my love can requite is not Hope of glory greater than mine obedience can ever equall shall I then ever think I have affection enough or have done enough for his honour by whom I have received what I have already by whom I shall receive what I hereafter expect No! No! I must be ever blowing my love into a greater flame of Zeal for his honour and yet his love and Zeal for me will outshine and overpower all mine for him 4. View the Will of thy Testator be perswaded to remember that he is now living in glory and beholdeth all that Love and Zeal which thou carriest in thy breast which thou expressest in thy life toward him he is not like other men who dying know no more of the deportment and behaviour of befriended survivours thou canst not bury the knowledge for dust hath not blinded the eye of the Lord he lives for ever and he knows how thou receivest improvest and resentest his Love and Zeal for thy good and with what face wilt thou appear before him one day if thou hast not been hired shall I say or bought with so great price into the love of and into a Zeal for thy beneficent liberal and incomparable Friend and Lord I observe Jacob dying recommended the care of his burial to Joseph above all his sons it was likely because cause Joseph more than any of his sons was debtor to the love and care of his Father for a double portion bestowed on him of all men we who have a double portion by Christ a portion of blessings on earth and in Heaven should zealously perform his will we must account it sacredly inviolable and shew it in shewing forth his praises 1 Pet. 2.9 CAP. V. Sect. 6. Joy Improved on Christ Dying a Testator A Sixth grace well suiting the Lord's supper 6th Sacramental grace Improvable Joy and Improveable on account of the Lord 's Dying a Testator is joy and gladness in the Lord and in his goodness It is confessed by all that it well suiteth with feasts of love that the guests should joy together and rejoice in their Friend who is equally Friend unto them all The soul which cometh burthened with sins and sorrows confesseth he should rejoice in the Lord and is well pleased that others do it whilst he cannot it is a spiritual joy which well becometh this spiriritual feast I do not say the heart is unfit for it who doth not rejoice I know the spiritual hunger and thirst of the soul speaketh the soul fit and such may such indeed ought to come yet when hunger and thirst after the Lord are accompanied with joy in the Lord the soul is better is more throughly prepared for this feast this commemoration of their Dying Lord. Now the Christian's joy beside the general motives of joy arising from the general nature of the object of delight and joy as goodness in the thing enjoyd propriety whereby it becomes ours and possession or presence of it with us according to our present capacity and exigency whether refreshing repairing or filling us or in what other manner of operation it affecteth in which the Christian joy and the delight of other men do agree The spiritual joy of the Christian hath great advantages from the last Will and Testament of his Lord As 1. First the transcendency of them If there were any blessings better than others in the possession and at the disposal of their Lord surely these should be given among the beloved Friends Servants attenders complemental visiters and such like common Friends possibly may be put off with common gifts but the best shall be distributed unto the best Friends A Kingdom in glory the spirit of Adoption remision of sins increase of all grace and consolations through faith c. are the choice blessings bequeathed to believers in Christ's Will and represented ensured and in praelibations or foretast conveyed to believers in the right reception of the Lord's Supper let it be therefore throughly considered and when either of those forecited mercies appear contained in his Will ask your selves whether the least of these do not deserve the highest pitch of your joy are they not better worth your delight than
't is really a clothing of very great price in the account of God 1 Pet. 3.4 to speak of the excellency of this grace is aliene to this place and the seasonableness and suitableness of it to the Sacrament I think so apparent that it needeth not any proof I rather address my self to point out the incentives which from Christ Dying our Testator do offer themselves to set forward and improve this grace of humility It will teach us to judge of our selves as becometh us and it will ever keep us lowly 1. The Apostles motive to humility 1 Cor. 4.7 offereth it self to us in the very entrance on this meditation what hast thou which thou hast not received look on either the beauty of thy renewed soul or the comeliness of thy holy conversation or the excellency of thy justified state or the honour of thy Adoption or look on the lustre of thy spiritual joyes thy heavenly Hopes And of all these in general or of any of the particulars comprised in them can'st thou say this or that is not received I know thou can'st not deny the receiving and if thou hast received why dost thou boast this Question like a needle opens the swoln bladder of pride and letteth out the wind of vain opinion which would either corrupt or break us Thou hadst had as little to pride thy self in as one who hath only his shame to glory in if thou hadst not received what is now thy glory it was the bounty of thy Rich and Loving Friend at his Death to enrich thee thou hast no reason either 1. To boast before God who hath chosen and called thee as others like thee weak foolish and base Free and Rich mercy hath raised made wise and excellent and now neither thou I or any flesh may boast before God 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28 29. For what we are we are in Christ as v. 30. And the glory is due to God alone as v. 31. 2. Nor to boast over thy brother who was every whit as Good as thou before Grace made the difference and may ere long be as Rich in Grace as any and more humble than thou art yet He who hath adorned and blessed thee might with the same freeness have adorned him whom thou despisest Since then all that Good which is in thee was given to thee by thy Dying Lord it is absurd and exceeding unseemly for thee to lift up thy self above thy brother or to Glory in thy self before thy God When thou intendest to approach the Sacrament and when thou art there attending on the Lord remember thou hadst been poor and destitute of all those blessings therein represented if thy Lord Dying had not by Will bequeathed all to thee 2. The Second perswasive to Humility drawn from the Death of Christ as a Testator leaving us such Legacies may be our incapacity to serve him in any real service of advantage to him We Never yet were we never shall hereafter be in any capacity either of deserving what we have received or of requiting the love which gave it to us He that gave it gave by Will and Dyed to confirm his Will and our goodness could not extend to our Friend in the other world Our Lord needeth it not wee are when our best is done unprofitable servants These are two things which have kept better men in a humble lowly thought of themselves David's prayer Psal 16.1 was from a humble heart and in an humbled state and he maintained his Humility on the observation of his uselesness and unprofitableness to his Lord his preserver ver 2 3. My Goodness extendeth not unto thee c. It is Elihu his argument Job 35. ver 5. with 7. 8. To perswade to humility And Eliphaz Job 22.2 lay's down man's unprofitableness first and leaves us to conclude that unprofitable man must be a humble man thou mayest not be proud before one who needs thee not thou must not boast in thy Best seeing thy best is not good to him before whom thou boastest Should a man boast himself in his smoaky cottage before his Soveraign in his magnificent pallace or should a lame and decrepit fool boast of his wisdom and strength and commend it to his Soveraign for the wars In a word or two 1. Were thy Lord but a man yet his present state of Majesty and certainest coming in Glory confirmed represented to thee in his Last Testament mindeth thee that he needeth not thy help Thou canst not say He can be but not so well without me 2. The largeness of that state he was possessed of before he gave thee interess in it and which he hath still in his possession since he gave thee a right to any part of it doth clearly demonstrate that thou hast nothing to pride thy self in before thy Testator amongst other causes of humility we shall find that the wealth and Riches of those we appear before is one which perswadeth us to a demiss and lowly deportment and behaviour there is an appearance of Glory in Riches Psal 49.16 For with increase of Riches there is in common esteem an increase of Glory Now in the gifts and Legacies of thy Dying Lord thou mayst clearely see those true precious and lasting Treasures of grace comfort and glory which he was and is still owner of with him are Riches and honour Prov. 8.18 To him therefore reverent carriage and humble thoughts affections and esteem of our selves in his presence is most suitable And who is not affected with humility and lowliness toward Christ is so much the more injurious to him by how much more excellent and precious Christ's riches and wealth excel the Riches of men which are so highly esteemed that they are judged sufficient ground of honour to the owner and sufficient cause of commanding humble carriage in the poorer 3. In Christ Dying a Testator thou mayest discern a dignity of dominion and Lordship over the things which are disposed of by will A dominion which cometh near to an absolute and uncontrouled dominion what a man may give by will to whomsoever he pleaseth is more under the dominion of that man than the things which need a farther and more large conveyance As the estate which may be devised by Will and so convey'd to a Child Friend or stranger is more under the dominion of the present owner than is that estate which some law entaileth on the owners heirs or Children Now this being the case Christ's dominion and absolute soveraignty over the good things he hath given by Will doth require and deserve a humble and lowly spirit in those who partake of these gifts Dominion is as a Ground of honour in those who are invested with it so a Ground of humility in those who are inferiour to it What would be esteemed Friendly familiarity in me towards my equal and a commendable deportment would be accounted insolent pride in me towards my Lord or Soveraigne and a carriage not to be endured
for us I know there are many other motives to Repentance which may be seasonably thought on at the Sacrament there are also in this sufficient inducements to that Godly sorrow which becometh the memorials of our Dying Lord and loving Friend 1. First the Christian as he is a man as he is principled and swayed with the affections of Humane Nature cannot but reflect with greif upon his carriages and deportment towards a Friend who loved him intirely who was recompenced with the disingenuous returnes of scorn neglect and hatred When we have unadvisedly or unwittingly sleighted any Friend we dearly loved or should have loved we cannot remember it without shame sorrow confessing praying pardon and excuse with promise to be more heedful more respectful for future There is no love so tender and apt to distil into tears as that which is won by a worthy excellent person conquering ungrounded prejudices unreasonable neglects and unjustifiable contempts such affronted love when it prevails at last doth kindle the strongest fires and heapeth up the coals which melt the hardest and most stubborn metal Many a hard heart hath by such flame been melted down to tenderness Saul grew warm by it 1 Sam. 24.17 18 19. And in the 1 Sam. 26.21 It breaketh out into a flame of affection toward David and against himself for his unreasonable usages toward David Saul accuseth himself but acquitteth David he confesseth his sin his folly and great errour in designing evil against one who did so well deserve his love Though Saul were disingenuous more than enough against his Son David yet the reflection of his thoughts on David's kindness drew him into tears 1 Sam. 24.16 Wilt thou be more disingenuous to thy Lord than Saul to David how long didst thou directly oppose bitterly hate scornfully reproach and unreasonably reason against Christ's Law ordinances waies and followers what kind of life didst thou in the days of unregeneracy live if thou wast not a violent persecutor yet thou didst long think hardly of Christ and the Gospel yet then Christ did not cut thee off nor leave thee to perish in thy contempt of salvation wilt thou not say thou hast erred greatly done foolishly and sinned canst thou do less than weep over the thoughts hereof In the Sacrament thou commemoratest the most unparalleld love and beneficence triumphing over unkindness and unthankfulness a Testator bequeathing grace comfort glory and salvation to thee and others like thee who undervalued opposed hated and persecuted him Canst thou remember this and not grieve canst thou review it and not be displeased with thy self and condemn thy folly 2. The Christian Sorrow is most highly Ingenuous and excellently tempered and therefore the Remembrance of such unkindness to such a Friend will work a deep impression of Sorrow and grief upon the heart of the Remembrancer The Scripture tells us the People of God are a willing People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a People of Ingenuities indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51.12 Grace reneweth nature to some degrees of created and primitive generousness Hence it is Cant. 6.12 the Church is stiled Aminadib God calls them my willing People and Isaiah doth very particularly describe this frame of mind and how it is wrought Isa 32.1 2 3 4. 5. By the power of Christ in the Gospel Now where such a sweet generous temper of mind is there will be reflections of dislike grief and Sorrow or repentance for any unseemly carriage towards one that deserved better The spouse Cant. 5.2 3. In drousy and careless fit neglected her beloved but when she was throughly awakned she discovereth a most deep sense of her neglect she fell into a deep sick fit of love ver 8. her heart failed her when she remembred what she had done such like workings of this Christian spiritual and renewed ingenuity you may observe 2 Cor. 7.11 in that sevenfold operation which conviction and remembrance of their fault wrought in them Carefulness or readiness to amend the errour clearing themselves or duly apologizing for themselves indignation against the offence and offender fear least the like should be committed or this not sufficiently taken away vehement desire of firm reconciliation Zeal for the injured and revenge such as becometh a Gospel repentance against the offence and against themselves for it Either thou art not well acquainted with what Christ hath done for thee in his last Will and Testament or thou hast not yet observed how little love service and honour thou hast returned him for his love or if thou knowest and observest both these they work in thee a readiness of mind to correct thine errours a defence for Christ and blame of thy self with indignation against thy former folly fear of being so foolish any more earnest desire to be one with Christ and Zeal for his glory with revenge on thy sins which eclipsed it Wheresoever Christian ingenuity springs from a renewed heart renewed Sorrow for unkindnesses will put forth it self and spring from that ingenuity Say then whatever the common ingenuity of a man whatever the enhanced generousness of a Christian should work in the reflections on its own unhansome carriages towards a sleighted friend all that should the renewed memory of my Lord Dying a Testator and by his Testament enriching me produce in me viz. all common and ordinary effects of hearty sorrow yea all especial and extraordinary effects of Christian repentance Of which I need say no more of which I dare not longer treat because I must not exceed bounds to much CAP. V. Sect. 11. Better'd obedience the Fruit of Christ's Dying a Testator 11. THE next grace suiting to the Lord's Supper and improveable on the consideration of Christ's Death as he died a Testator is Resolution and endeavour of New and better Obedience for future There 's no man that accounteth the ordinance a mercy that looketh on it as a Sealing ordinance a renewing our Covenant with God or a memorial of the Death of Christ Dying for us that we might live to him but confesseth New Obedience should be the effect and resolutions for new Obedience should be the preparatory for this Sacrament It is not therefore needful to prove it particularly and at large I speak to none but such as judge it their duty after they have been at the Lord's Supper to endeavour a renewing of their Obedience to the commands of Christ 1. The gain and reward bequeathed is worthy very well deserveth our Obedience We have had frequent occasion to tell you that the promises both of the life that now is and of that which is to come are the Legacies of Christ which promises are rich and precious they contain all necessary noble and high encouragements to Obedience when the labourers were hired and sent into the vineyard the husbandman perswadeth them to obey and work for saith he I will give you what is meet Matth. 20.4 What the Apostle saith
in a case little different from this I say to you cast not away your Obedience for it hath great recompence of reward Heb. 10.35 It is a harvest for its abundance and riches It is a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will give to them that finish their course 2 Tim. 4.7 8. It is a Crown of Glory which fadeth not away as the Apostle St. Peter hath it 1 Pet. 5.4 A Kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 Let us then have grace let us be so ingenuous and thankful to our Lord as to serve him to all well pleasing the Apostle argueth from the expectation of such a reward to the reasonableness of our serving the Lord with fear and trembling the renewed thoughts of this ample glorious eternal recompence of our sincere Obedience will surely renew our purposes and endeavours of bettering our Obedience what then should you and I do at the Lord's Supper but meditate on the greatness of the Legacies he hath given and with David demand of our selves What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits Psal 116.12 Wherein shall we express our thankfulness Shall it be in Sacrifices and Offerings No God doth not require these but to do justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with God Micah 6. To love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love our neighbour as our selves is more than all whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices Mark 12.33 A Discerning Obedience is a most acceptable Sacrifice to the Lord. In one word we are called to the Gospel and to the Knowledge of Christ in the Gospel and we must walk worthy of our Calling Ephes 4.1 worthy of the Lord Col. 1.10 worthy of the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Now as every one who believeth is bound by his first Call to walk in New Obedience so is every Believer bound by every renewal of his Call by every renewed remembrance of his Call to Christ to revive his Resolutions of renewing his Obedience to the Gospel of Christ 2. Thy Renewed Obedience to Christ must be the evidence of thy Right and Title to the Rich and Glorious Legacies which he hath bequeathed to his kindred Thou hast no more to shew for thy Right then thou hast of Renewed Obedience Christ thy Lord hath bequeathed a Kingdom and a Crown but it is on condition thou wait for both in a constant course of New Obedience It is a Kingdom which cannot be shaken the Apostle saith and it is true it is a Kingdom that can neither be shaken by a Plea against your Title nor by force against your Possession But observe those who have this Right and who shall have the Possession of this Kingdom are such who should 1. Have Grace which is of a growing nature And 2. They serve God they worship they obey him And 3. They do this acceptably with reverence and godly fear The Apostle useth a Verb of that Mood which expresseth matter of Duty or Exhortation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habeamus or habere oportet and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serviamus sive servire debemus the Syriack reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apprehending which speaks a voluntary and active seeking Grace and accipiamus which speaks a ready closing with Grace offered and retineamus which speaks a holding fast what we sought and acccepted thus furnisht with Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministremus ceu Sacerdotes spirituales qui Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.5 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 placeamus They ought to be such persons and to employ themselves in such exercises Do we then hear the Apostle's Exhortation Do we see a Kingdom offered Do we read the Will which investeth us with it Do we see the Will sealed in the Sacrament And will not all this stir us up to renew our Obedience Will we be so foolish to hazard our Title to it through backwardness and disobedience When he cast the Law of Grace and Mercy into the mould and form of a Testament or last Will he framed it so that he might strongly bind all to obedience who expected benefit by it Hence it is that we read He became Mediator of the New Testament to the end he might purge our consciences from dead works to serve the Living God Heb. 9.14 15. The Covenant of Promise which offereth grace Heb. 10.16 17. and engageth the Almighty to write his Law in our hearts was confirmed to us and is made good to every believing soul through Christ our Testator so that obedience to Christ is as much incorporated in the Testament as is Glory and Blessedness He is the Author of Eternal Salvation to those that obey him Heb. 5.9 Obedience is required of us as Salvation is promised to us How canst thou then renew thy Faith and Hope in expecting of the promised Salvation and not renew thy resolutions to perform required obedience How shall we look Christ in the face when we so separate what he hath joined How will you plead his Promise who have not obeyed his Precept or how should your expectations be answered by Christ when his expectations have not been answered by you It is the unreasonableness of ignorance and prophaness to boast of rich gifts made over to them by the Will of Christ and yet at the same time to sleight neglect and refuse the duty observance and obedience which Christ requireth of all his Legatees When thou comest to a Sacrament to renew thy assurance of interess in the last Will of Christ be sure thou observe what he expresly requireth as condition of this interess and consider He will be Author of Eternal Salvation to thee on no other terms than thy obedience to him 3. Christ dying once to conrfim the New Testament and to make a firm Will for our good did not as other Testators do continue under the power of Death but he rose again from the Dead according to the Scriptures and now observeth how thou and every one else do acquit themselves in this New Obedience required of thee and of them Let it be well weighed Christ doth now exactly know and particularly observe all thy works and what obedience thou givest him His countenance is as the Sun when it shineth in its strength Rev. 1.16 both for the luster of it and for the power of making manifest whatsoever is done both in the world and also in the Churches amidst which he walketh Rev. 2.1 Knowing the works the labour and the patience of each Church of each member of the Church He seeth who it is that laboureth and fainteth not Rev. 2.3 and who would not take courage from such an eye-witness to abound in the blessed works of obedience For whom will you labour if you will not labour for him who seeth you and will as certainly reward as he seeth exactly When
Prov. 14.20 Both these Motives to love the Believer seeth in every Believer Grace doth very much sweeten Nature and Grace doth very much enrich the person These Motives of love may be found in every Legatee who hath share in the choice Legacies of Christ he giveth an excellency of spirit which sweetneth their disposition they are meek lowly faithful and without guile He also giveth an Inheritance a heavenly a glorious Inheritance these win with the considerate Christian and either thou knowest not what Christ hath bestowed on Believers or thou must confess they are well worthy of thy love and brotherly affection 2. Another Inducement to Brotherly Love contained in this consideration of Christ Dying a Testator may be this Every Believer having interess in this Will was near to Christ's heart as art thou or I or any other who pretendeth title and interess in Christ's Last Testament Now should it not move us to love with hearty love every Christian for so much as every one of them was equally near to the hearty love of Christ Let our hearts be toward them Joh. 15.12 as Christ's was toward us and them It is a maxim in Love and Friendship that it extend it self to all our friends friends Hence the advice of Solomon that thy Father's friend be not forsaken Prov. 27.10 carries sound reason in it for he that is the Father's friend and heartily loved him that begot will be a friend to the Son and love him that was begotten too as the Apostle argueth in a like case 1 John 5.1 The Apostle urgeth this Love of Christ to us as argument to perswade us to love one another Rom. 15.5 with vers 7. to be of the same mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide 2 Cor. 13.11 Idem velle idem nolle ea demum est firma amicitia that so ye may live in Peace and Love which is the fruit of that Union the Apostle perswades us to 2 Cor. 13.11 and Phil. 2.2 where he explaineth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The being of one mind by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having the same Love The Love we should have for the Brethren of right should be so strong as death because that Love which Christ had for them equally and indifferently was even unto death This is the Apostle's Argument 1 John 3.16 And there is strength in it whether we apprehend it or no. In the last Will of Christ thou mayest discern a Love equally embracing all that believe that seek their portion in Christ There we may find Christ a friend to the poor as to the rich Believer to the unlearned as to the learned Believer to the despised as to the honourable Believer As the Apostle speaketh of Righteousness I may speak and you must understand of all the blessings of the Covenant and Testament The whole is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference Rom. 3.22 Now where Christ hath made no difference in his Love darest thou make so great a difference in thine as to withhold thy love from some Wilt thou not love those who are dear friends to thy dearest Lord thy best friend I do not press an equality of love to all Believers I know our brethren by nature our kindred by alliances our acquaintance and intimate friends have a right to our love and affections both Natural and Civil and where such a Right is doubled by our Relation to each other in Christ our affections may be allowed to double themselves also Whilst Grace and common Hopes do increase our love to each other they do allow for the respects which Nature calleth for of us We must love all with an unfeigned love though we may love some with a more fervent love whom Christ hath equally loved we must unfeignedly love and what reneweth the remembrance of such love to us should renew our love to others 3. In the last Will of Christ is to be seen That it is the express desire of our Dying Lord we should love one another heartily and unfeignedly He hath therefore put them all into one Will and into the same capacity every one by his Will made an heir The Saints do inherit the Riches of Glory Ephes 1.18 Their title is a joint-tenancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are coheirs Heb. 11.9 And this title is by gift of Christ in his last Testament Joh. 17.24 Who desired they should all be where he was that they might behold his glory And read we John 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you This is that Commandment that is so mine as if all others were to yield place to this This is the New Commandment Joh. 13.34 and 35. When Christ attended with Angels gave the Law to Israel the First Great Commandment was Love the Lord c. The Second was Love thy Neighbour c. When he was to die he renewed the Commandment of loving our Brethren Yea so resolvedly doth our Lord require this Brotherly Love that whosoever he is pretends to Christ must make good his pretensions to Christ by his affections to all that are Brethren in Christ Joh. 13.35 Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love for one another Add hereto 1 John 4.20 He loves not God who loveth not the Children of God For how shall he love God whom he hath not seen who loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen In a word read the last words of Christ's Intercession John 17.26 which do breathe out the earnest desire of Christ that such love may be among the Brethren one to another as was in the Father and in the Son to them all Now after all this vehemency of desire in Christ that we who are heirs by his Will should love one another Shall any of us dare to hate undervalue reject or despise the other Will you read the last Testament of Love with a heart of enmity Dare you come to the Ordinance which renews the remembrance of Christ's Love to us of his desire we should love each other and not labour to renew your love to them Renewed meditations on Christ's love to us will certainly renew our love to him and to all his renewed thoughts of his last desire of his earnest commending mutual love will renew mutuall love in us if any degree of ingenuity remain in us 4. In the Testament and Last Will of our Dying Lord we have this inducement to renew our love to the Brethren He hath by will designed one onely place in which with most perfect love to enjoy as all the blessed Legacies of our Lord so to enjoy all our fellow Legatees Whether I shall perswade now I know not whether my arguings be powerful enough to suppress envyings and jealousies to remove animosities and quarrels from amongst saints I cannot tell But this I know and this I will tell you when you who
chuse a Curse to himself The Jews had a Proverb that we must leap to Mount Gerizzim When God tells the soul it must either dwell on Mount Eball inherit a Curse or be willing to be led by Christ unto Mount Gerizzim it begins to say Let me go not a slow a loitering pace but the swiftest the speediest it is ready to leap to the Blessing Let me be any thing but a Curse let me by any means escape the Curse and if by a willingness if by an hearty desire to have Christ I may escape it oh let this very hour be the happy hour of my soul's escape Lord if it be so I accept thy Son my blessed Saviour offered in the Sacrament to bear my Curse There is a strong propensity in man's nature carrying him wtth great desire and with unwearied endeavours to shun the hard speeches of all and to hear a good report if it might be from all to be blessed by every one to be cursed by no one And there is a cheerful forward willingness to hearken to that advice and counsel which discovers how we may likely gain the good word of good men and escape the hard words of all men Now God proposes in Christ thus dying A sure way of obtaining his blessing which is infinitely better than the blessing of any man and in the Sacrament of his Son's body proposeth a sure means for our escaping from his Curse which is infinitely more to be feared than the curses of all men God can load thee with one Curse more than all the men in the world can do with all theirs 3. In Christ's Death considered as a Curse there is yet farther somewhat to engage the Desires of the soul unto Christ and to draw forth it 's willingness unto an embracing of Christ And that is the infallibility and certainty of our deliverance from this Curse upon our receiving Christ thou mayest be sure to escape for thou mayest be sure Christ will not lose his life if he die he will accomplish his own ends and thy hopes and the hopes of every believing soul by his death He hath indeed laid down his life but he hath not lost it He will not leave thee under uncertain and failing likelihoods if he makes himself liable to thy punishment he will be sure that thy soul shall escape it And if he bear thy Curse he will be ensured thou shalt not bear it Now having such a good as this deliverance and such an evil as the Curse in thy eye and such a sure and infallible means of escaping the one and obtaining the other Canst thou oh considerate oh discerning soul do less than desire this Christ this share and interess in his death If thou hadst no more than faint probabilities that it might be so well with thee thou wouldst in other cases strongly desire to try oh why not in this why not here other probabilities can awake perswade prevail and carry thee through tedious Journies and costly experiments and thou justifiest thy hopes and thy desires with the likelihood of success And what is the reason whence is it that so great certainty can do so little with thee in this oh the deplorable stupidity of man the sensless backwardness of his heart oh think I say think on it Jesus Christ was made and died a Curse for thee and it is certain thou mayest escape by him awaken thy desires and look after him But lastly 4. If thou yet wilt not desire Christ notwithstanding all that hath been said already yet at least consider with thy self and bethink thy self What dost thou here if thou desire not Christ Why art thou among them that apprehend they needed who do in the Sacrament commemorate and seek to find Christ dying and bearing the Curse for them If thou need him not why dost thou pretend to seek him if thou seek him why dost thou not really desire to find and meet him Consider this and argue it with thy soul say I must either contradict my self the ordinance and the people of God or I must be willing to receive Christ the Lord into my soul as well as to receive the symbols of Christ my Lord into my mouth and hands I hear and know that others do approach this Table this memorial of the Dying Jesus with desires to meet him and to exchange with him to bring their wretchedness and carry with them his blessedness I know if I know the Ordinance that it was appointed for the hungry thirsty desiring soul which would have fresh remembrances and vigorous longings for Christ for them who would feel their own cursedness and seek blessedness in Christ and my very presence my very approach to the Ordinance with others will either argue and prove me a Hypocrite or must awaken my desires after Christ if thou art not willing to find thou art an Hypocrite for seeming to seek And I will tell thee take it as thou wilt Thou that art not willing to find a blessing in Christ whom thou shouldst desire to meet in the Sacrament shalt find a curse which thou wouldst not Remember Judas and tremble Who doth cordially and truly seek the Lord shall find what he seeketh but he that is careless wants a willingness and desire shall find what he thinks not of and woe to him that finds and meets with Judas his guest at the Lord's Table And now give me thy thoughts Reader whether this should awaken in quicken thy willingness and thy desires after Christ And yet farther in the next place Closer application faster hold 3d. Sacramental grace Faith and strengthened resolutions to adhere to Christ do very well become this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper none have doubted or denied this but those who have denied all its efficacy and made the Sacrament a weak and impotent Ceremony Every one acknowledgeth this as the undoubted and proper fruit of this Ordinance who expect any fruit from it This spiritual feast was made to unite the soul and Christ in a more firm and close bond of friendship to incorporate them and to make them more one It was instituted that the memory of our great advantage by it Vt ejus ope tanti beneficii memoria magis ac magis in animis nojtris infigatur Thes Salm. Multa sunt quae nos co ducunt ut existimemus Christum habuisse potissimum eum scopum ante oculos ut fidem nostram augeret ac confirmaret cum ritum istum Ecclesiae tradidit celebrandum Thes de usu coen Dom. th 11. might be more deeply rooted in our hearts The Learned Professors at Saumur tell us Many things lead us to this perswasion that Christ chiefly eyed the increase and confirmation of our Faith as the end when he appointed this Ordidinance to his Church to be celebrated A true and lively Faith fits for receiving this Supper of the Lord and an increasing confirmed Faith shews that this Ordinance is fitly received We must not
continuing of me in my free noble and honourable condition If I depart from Christ through unbelief I shall go from honour to dishonour from excellency to baseness from the noble state of a Son to the ignoblestate of a servant of a slave And I know the considerate soul will not easily return to the baseness and ignominy of such a state No! no! Faith in my dying Lord did set me free from such baseness and advanced me to the dignity I now enjoy and my persevering confirmed faith will and must preserve and confirm me in that dignity This prerogative my Dying Lord purchased for me whenever I would believe this prerogative he gave me so soon as ever I did believe and there is none can take it from me so long as I do believe oh let me believe for ever that I may have it for ever I would never lose this honour I will never leave my Lord. Whilst thou art able to make the best of this Death of thy Lord commemorated in the Sacrament and presented to thy faith which is done on purpose that thou mayest make the best of it thou canst resolve or conclude nothing less than that thou wilt adhere now faster than ever In this manner may the Humiliation the Desires the Purposes of the Soul be wrought drawn forth and confirmed upon the consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us The sight of our cursed state will lay us low and convince us the sight of a deliverance by Christ will make us desire that deliverance may be ours and then knowledge of its being ours upon first believing and that it shall be ours so long as we believe will perswade us to look that our faith continue lest unbelief should reduce us into the misery of a Curse whence we almost escaped And let it be next observed 4. That Love to God and unto Christ 4th Sacramental grace Love to God and Christ is another Sacramental grace which I am sure will be well improved by a due consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us I do verily suppose it needless to attempt the proving of this every one knows that Love to Christ is a necessary and suitable grace for a Communicant God requires that every one of his servants should love him and serve him with all the heart in every duty much more in this which is a more solemn and more than ordinary one If thou wilt come to the Table of the Lord thou must come with love to the Lord of the Table thou must not come with enmity in thy heart nor with a sword in thy hand They are friends who are invited to eat and drink with Christ at his Table and it is a monstrous incongruity to sit down as though you would friendly feast Cant. 5.1 and yet watch a season to muther the guests or him that invites you God will not have an Absolon ' s feast in which one of the guests was murthered nor will he have a feast like the unhappy Phocus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose guests slew him It is the express will of our Lord that we come to his Table in love and charity with our Brethren and in love and with sincere affections to our Lord. We must here feast without the sowre leven of malice against our Brethren and without the swelling leven of hypocrisie toward God Now let me a little point out what inducements are in this Death of Christ to draw forth our love to our Lord and so let it be considered 1. Did my Lord die an accursed Death for me do I now celebrate the memorial hereof Would he have done this if he had not loved me as his own life It was a love that is ever to be blessed by me which made my Lord take on him a Curse for me Greater love than this could not be shewn to me and less than love to him for it cannot not be tendred by me Is Love the loadstone of Love and doth not thy heart stir toward Christ when he draws it with this attractive When he calls Look upon my Living Love in my cursed Death and give me what you judge a reasonable acknowledgment for my Love and when the considerate soul looks on this it is ready with David to say What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness What shall I render to God the Father who laid my Guilt Punishment and Curse on my Blessed Redeemer What shall I render to the Lord Jesus Christ unto God the Son who took this heavy load upon him What shall I render to God the Holy Ghost who supported the humane nature of my Blessed Redeemer that he should not fail nor be discouraged in this great work under this weighty burthen Oh Blessed Love of the Glorious Trinity worthy of an infinite Love though a finite creature is not able to give it Lord my Love shall be endless though it cannot be boundless though it is narrow it shall not be short I will make up its defect of intenseness with an addition of endless date let thy Love to me which caused thee to die once for me an accursed Death be a spring and source of Love in my soul to thee of such a Love as shall never die Lord thou deservest more than I can give but I would not be unwilling to give as much as thou deservest It was matchless Love that the Prince of Life would die for condemned subjects But 't is methinks more that the Lord of glory over all God Blessed for evermore should take upon him Death with a Curse 2. Do I celebrate the Death of my Lord dying a Curse for me why then oh my soul thou dost this day in this duty call to mind Christ's taking on him all faults and bearing all thy blame being content that thy faults should be accounted to him and that if there be as certainly there wlil be anger for it he will bear it Oh what endeared Love do servants in a family bear to that Son who is willing to excuse the servants fauls and to bear their blame to make up their peace and to continue them in or restore them to their offices again Reader whoever thou art that readest these lines it is thy case Thou oâ—est unto Christ the Eternal Son of God all thy innocence all thy safety all thy peace all thy continuance in the family of God unto Christ I say thou owest it for thou hadst sinned and provoked God thy Master and Lord he had cursed thee and would have damned thee he had declared thine office in his house void and would have turned thee out and then thou must have said with the unjust Steward what shall I do when God thus deals with me how shall I live Dig I cannot beg I am ashamed I shall be accursed on Earth and accursed iâ— Hell for ever oh thus had it been with me if my Lord Jesus had not stept in and took my faults upon him Blessed
live on them muddy and shallow scarce worth the tasting and which is worse yet they prove bitterer than gall and wormwood and of shorter continuance than a morning dew But our Joy in blessed peace with God in sweet hopes of glory in sure foundations of faith in endless happiness to crown our faith to satisfie our hopes and to be the manner of enjoying our God which are the pleasant fruits of Christ thus dying do increase upon us as our insight into them increaseth and are purest when nearest are deepest in the spring or rather ocean of true Delight and Joy are sweetest when most lived upon and are most lasting when we enter at last into them The Joys of others are never so great as their hopes nor so lasting as their desires But the Joy of a Believer in his Dying Lord is at last greater than his hopes and as long liv'd as his desires And in this he may exalt his Joy above the greatest that ever the world boasted of If ever mortal man satiated and glutted himself with worldly Joy it was with a sudden gush which left him so soon that he had the more time to lament himself and wofully wrack himself with the loss of it I believe Caesar never met his expected content and joy in obtaining Rome's Empire I know it lasted not with him so long as he desired in one or both of these it proved less to him when he knew most of it This made a good Emperour once say That if men knew what thorns and cares a Crown was lined with they would not take it up if they found it in the street Now oh blessed soul whose Joy lives upon the Death of thy Lord tell me did ever any experienced knowing and expert Christian abase the worth of those Joys with such a report of them Can thy own jealous fears suggest a rational probable likely ground of suspicion that these Joys are greater in hope than they will be in hand dost thou think that there is any disappointment in Heaven Are there any complaints that less is possessed than was looked for Hast thou ever had any cause to wish thou hadst known less of Christ and his Death or couldst thou ever say that the Joy had been greater if thy knowledge and experience had been less I know thou darest not say so nor debase the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus thy Lord. Turn therefore thy serious thoughts upon this meditate more that thou mayest know more for the more thou knowest of this the more wilt thou rejoice in Christ Thus renew thy Meditations on the Cause of thy Joys and they will renew thy Joys Others will see and thou wilt find in thy own soul that the more thy Cause of Joy aboundeth the more thy Joy will abound Now that Christ hath thus died thy soul oh happy Believer shall not be left in Hell nor shalt thou see an eternal corruption This is ensured to thee by the Lord whose Death thou commemoratest Say then and speak it with enlarged heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoiceth moreover my flesh shall rest in hope for God will not leave my soul in hell And now oh my soul set thy self to hear what may be spoken to thee By these who will have to do with thee in thy most weighty matters And so 1. First what would a judicious and affectionate Believer say What news would such a one tell thee from Mount Calvary from the Cross of Christ Suppose thou heardest such an one improving this Doctrine why should I fear when the iniquity of my heels compasseth me about hath not my Lord taken away all the Curse I feared Do I not see him evidently set forth crucified before mine eyes he drank off the bitter cup of astonishment I will therefore take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will rejoice in him yea and I will tell my Brethren the good news that they may rejoice with me Come all ye that fear the Lord hear and rejoice for I have found at the Cross of Christ the blessing which I lost in Paradise and which is more I found yours there too and if you will go with me quickly you shall find it too Come oh come and see Christ laying down a Blessing for thee when he took up thy Curse would not such a friend's voice sounding in thine ear ravish thy heart or at lest revive thy drooping spirits and turn thy grief into joy Could'st thou do less than smile to see thy lost Heaven found thy dying Soul recovered to life thy God reconciled and delighting in thee Hear next 2. What language the Embassadour of thy Soveraign and Gracious Lord useth to thee when he offereth a Dying Christ unto thee a Christ bearing thy Curse for thee Behold thou drooping Believer That Blood which I offer thee in this Cup is the purchase of that happiness which thou desirest the atonement of that wrath thou fearest Lo here is that Blood which can abate the scorching heat of a self-accusing condemning and tormenting soul Oh taste drink of it this never failed of curing easing comforting so many Saints in Heaven In one word Christ's Minister doth in Christ's Name offer thee that Blood which was shed for the remission of the sins of many and in which thou mayest find forgiveness of thine also and thou findest little if thou findest not Joy in the forgiveness of sins Thou art very slow of understanding if a Publick Officer proclaiming thee acquitted and cleared doth not raise thy joy But yet oh fainting soul hearken Lastly What will be the language of Christ himself to thee when he unfolds thy blessedness and declareth before Men and Angels that he took upon him thy sin thy guilt thy punishment was made a Curse for thee and so presents thee to God and makes good all thy claim to Blessedness What heart is large enough to conceive the thousandth par of that Joy Oh! a single sight of this one unrepeated once pronounced sentence of Christ's own mouth Soul thou art blessed for I was made a Curse for thee would swallow up all other Joys and would fill the heart of the believing soul with Joy unspeakable Now I must tell thee oh thou doubting sollicitous and trembling Believer that Christ will so bespeak thee ere long and so give thee an entrance into thy Master's Joy that thou mayest rejoice for ever in this Blessedness which I tell thee is the fruit of Christ's Death as it was an accursed Death And if after all this thou wilt weep and not be comforted I must also tell thee thy tears are not wiped away because thou wilt not suffer us to do it thou art a stranger to thy desired joy because thou art so much a stranger to the Death of thy Lord. Oh that our eys were opened to see that fountain whence most refreshing streams do flow continually
Lord give me a heart knowing how to turn this kind of my Lord's Death into what Joy is hidden in it and I know my heart will need no other will desire none but this Again in the sixth place A peaceable 6th Sacramental grace peaceable disposition to the Brethren compassionate and tender affection toward our Brethren our fellow Christians is a Sacramental Grace a disposition of mind which is never out of season and is most in season at a Sacrament Christians should ever live in charity but they should feast with their Lord and with their Brethren in highest measures of charity When they thus feast they should embrace each other when they walk together it should be hand in hand This Love-feast must not be allayed with any mixture of sowre murmurings bitter envyings or unsavoury grudges of discontent The Apostle doth give us a most excellent Rule for this 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Purge out the old leaven c. Let us therefore keep the feast not in the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice c. In malice we should ever be children but especially at the Lord's Supper I will not urge reasons why we must be thus affected each to other when we come to the Table of the Lord for it is so universally known by all and it is so necessary among many other graces that too many think this alone sufficient to prepare men for the Lord's Supper It is true who hath all other but hath not this preparatory is unfit Whosoever wants this alone is not fit though this alone will not fit him for the Lord's Table The want of this must keep him back from this Supper until he hath a mind full of sincere and true love to all men especially to all the invited guests of the Lord. Supposing therefore that it is nothing doubted peaceable affections and compassionate tender love or charity to the Brethren is a Sacramental Quality I shal insist a little on the manner how this may be improved and advanced by the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us And so 1. First When thou art at the Lord's Supper and seest a few of thy Christian Brethren there to celebrate the Death of thine and their Lord dying a Curse this in all likelihood will be thy first reasoning upon it If Christ died a Curse for us then were we all under a Curse then were we all plunged in misery all were under the guilt of sin and under the wrath of God and what tongue can tell what this is or what heart can think of it and not be compassionately tender over such poor creatures Can your obdured hardened hearts hear the groans of men tormented with the Strangury or Gout or Stone Can you look upon the miseries of an Hospital without yearning bowels or can you look upon the tortures of one wracked and torn upon a wheel or between wild horses without a wish oh that I might deliver them what kind of hearts do you bear toward persecuted murthered and tormented Christians when you see the pictures of them or read the history of them do not your hearts drop into tender compassions toward them Why now look on Christ dying a Curse he is the lively picture of thine and their woful state it is to be seen in his Death read over the story of Christ accursed it is the story of thy most woful state and of the miserable state of them who are now communicating with thee they were with thee sinful guilty dying creatures which ere long must have been groaning sighing howling under the avenging wrath of the Almighty if Christ had not thus died for thee and them Look upon them say as indeed they were behold what was saved of my shipwrack These were tossed in the same vessel dashed on the same rock taken up helpless and lifeless c. with me Oh I never see them but it comes into my thoughts and my heart my heart weeps over our common danger We do so often renew our compassionate affections toward our companions in dangers as the sight of them renews the thoughts of our danger That which in a different case David said When I remember these things I pour out my soul within me The soul redeemed from the Curse will be able to say when I remember these things compassion and tenderness are poured out The remembrance of a common danger Nihil ad misericordiam sic inclinat atque proprii periculi cogitatio August Misericordia est vicina miseriae Seneca de Clem. is a most prevailing enducement to compassion The Philosopher could tell us That this Pity is a neighbour to misery Whence likely it was that the Lord did enjoyn the Israelites to shew a hearty compassion unto afflicted strangers for They know the heart of a stranger for they were strangers in Aegypt We must compassionately and tenderly love wish well and affect those whose hearts we know for so much as we were in like case Now this is one part of our brotherly love or charity here it begins though it doth not end here This tenderness of heart is like the pith or tender pulp which runneth through the whole body of the tree This indeed is the Root on which the delightful Tree grows and from which the beautiful fruits of love do blossome bud increase and ripen And so often you water the root of Love as you do soften and mollify the temper of your heart which is done when soakt in the thoughts of our common danger I shall close this particular with that piercing Question Matth. 18.33 Shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee How shall we answer this Question if the consideration of our common danger do not stir up in us a love of compassion to others what bowels hast thou if they do not now yearn and move towards them We are apt to pity those whose tormenting diseases and sharp pains we have felt and if ever we felt the inward sorrow and trouble of an accursed state we shall pity such who are under it and with tender affection demean our selves towards those who were under it it will renew our sympathy and this will renew our love to them But Secondly In the remembrance of Christ's dying a Curse for us there is the renewing of a most self-abasing and humbling consideration Now the renewal of this will be a very likely means to improve our love which is a humble self abasing grace So that what increaseth our humility will increase our charity Solomon tells us that onely by pride cometh contention and our own experience proveth the proud man neither sit to be chosen for a loving friend nor to be trusted as one that will be constant in his friendship and love such an one will be ever breaking the laws of friendship of which the Apostle discoursing 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. tells us that it neither vaunteth it self nor is puffed up
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
thee impute thy sin to Christ justice will impute it unto thy own self View these these things and weigh them impartially possibly they may prevail to the convincing of the heart of its sinful state and of the certainty of a future imputation of sin unless it be prevented by repentance And lest thou shouldst flatter thy self that there is little or no danger in appearing before God under imputed sin I advise thee to consider Sect. 3. The greatness of thy danger as it will appear in thy Sacrifice See if thou mayest not descry 1. Death as certainly following thy Sacrifice as imputation of sin did follow the substitution of a Sacrifice He must die who took thy sin upon him he cannot escape who is thy Sacrifice If Christ taking thy sin on him could not have the Cup pass from him thinkest thou there can be any thing but death awaiting thee under thy sin is not here danger is not here great danger I know not what may be accounted danger if death be not I know not what is greatest danger if death under imputed sin be not 2. Was not the Death of Christ thy Sacrifice full of sorrows and grief he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 and if his life were spent in sorrows I am sure his death was full of them Look on him his in agony in the garden explain me the meaning of those unparalleld drops of blood tell me the story of his enemies cruelly buffetting spitting crowning him with thorns and forcing those into his tender temples his blessed head These were preparatory griefs was ever grief like this this thy sin deserved this thou must if Christ had not suffered thou must have been the scorn and triumph of Devils who forever would torment and wrack thee What then judgest thou of death thus aggravated what thinkest thou of the grief and pain of his soul when hands and feet were nailed to the Cross when he hanged there under the sharp pains of a lingriug death what grief was that breath'd out it self in that My God My God why hast thou forsaken me I speak not of the acuteness of his pains which the School-men speak of Let me obtain thy sober thoughts of the sorrows of our Dying Saviour and Sacrifice and then say whether there is danger and how great the danger of thy sin is then say canst thou think of thy danger without fear and astonishment what will become of sinners under the burthen of sorrows which their sins deserve and God will heap upon them 3. View the person who thus suffered view him I say in all his Interresse in the Father's love in all the Priviledges of his nature person and office in all the perfection and excellency of his obedience and see whether any one or all these could exempt him from or defend him against that flame thy sins had kindled and which his blood alone must quench or it will burn for ever and when thou hast thought of this then tell me thy danger 4. Was not his power and strength the power and the strength of a God united to the Humane Nature to support it and yet for all this his Fears Dangers Sorrows were enough to try all his power and albeit he conquered yet not without a bitter conflict How then couldest thou have escaped or born these dangers Thus make an unconvinced heart look on sin in it's Sacrifice make a self flattering secure fearless heart look on the certainty and greatness of it's own danger in the sorrows and grief which fell upon Christ our Sacrifice when thou hast proceeded thus far in this Matter bring thy self to determine these two things 1. whether thou canst bear all the misery which sin deserved and all the sorrows this Sacrifice did sustain Canst thou bear the displeasure of the Almighty if thou think'st thou canst I pity and mourn for thee if thou thinkest thou canst not then 2. say canst thou find out a way for thine escape if the infinit wise God hath not found out any expedient beside this dost thou think thou canst find it out well then if it be intollerable and thou canst not bear it if unavoidable and thou canst not fly from it what remaineth but being shut up under sin as the Scripture speaketh thou shouldst also be shut up in Prison reserved for the day of Execution without any hope in thy self for thou readest thy guilt in the Imputation of sin to thy sacrifice thou readest thy death and danger in the death of thy sacrifice thou readest despair in the unsupportableness of the misery and in the unavoidableness of it's approaches thou art undone and miserable in thy self which cannot but end in consternation of mind and amazement and likely may break out into such enquiries who can dwell with devouring Fire with everlasting Burnings who shall deliver us from wrath to come how shall I escape such great misery what shall I do to be saved Is there not yet Balm in Gilead is there not a Physician there may not this wound be healed dost thou begin thus to fear and enquire I send thee to this Sacrifice for hope and help Sect. 4. 4. Although the death of thy Sacrifice did preach thy danger and thy helpless state in thy self yet doth it also preach help for thee in another it proclaimeth hope of escape for here is a Sacrifice for sin and where a Sacrifice is admitted the offence may possibly be remitted and the offender may be reconciled They that sought out and prescribed their own sacrifices for their Gods maintained their false hopes by this mean And the carnal Jew mistaking the nature of his sacrifices kept up his presumptuous hopes by the same means concluding his peace was made because the sacrifice is offered But he among the Jews who understood the Institution Nature End and Use of the Propitiatory Sacrifices did obtain at first and did maintain unto the last a sound peace between his God and his soul Where there is an appointed sacrifice there is an open and plain declaration of our apprehensions that 1. Our sins are expiable 2. That sacrifice is the way of expiation And 3. That this sacrifice is believed by us fit to expiate our offence These are the common if not universal suppositions of all sacrificing offenders Now beside these common inducements of our hopes let me acquaint my Reader with two things 1. That God hath admitted this sacrifice whose Death we commemorate in the Sacrament Albeit he checked the formal Jew and rejected the Idolatrous Heathen and their sacrifices witha Who hath required this at your hands yet he never will discourage any one who tenders to him by a hand of faith this Propitiatory Sacrifice He will admit this if thou canst present it to him by faith Lift up therefore the feeble hands the drooping head the fainting heart there is hope nay assurance that sins may be expiated For 2. This Sacrifice is of God's own
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
Christ yet a little Friendship would kindle much Zeal for such love and bounty as is expressed by Christ in his Will and last Testament to us Sect. 6. 6. Joy and Gladness in the Lord the heart will rejoice in its own interess in Christ and glory in Christ when the great and good things done for it by Christ and setled upon it by the last Will of Christ are known and duely considered It is a vanity yet common among men to glory and rejoice in their rich Relations and in their ample estates given to them by the will of such Friends but it is no vanity in a believer to rejoice and glory in his large Legacyes bequeathed to him by Christ for the greatness and goodness of these things with the unbeleif and vilifyings which others cast upon believers their hopes and their Lord do warrant yea call for it Sect. 7. 7. Thankfulness and gratefull return of praise unto him who hath so remembred us is another grace improveable upon the considerate observance of Christ making his last Will and upon our meditating on his will it is so apparently due that every one doth usher in the mention of a Legacy or great gift by will with thanks to the Giver I thank him he remembred me c. Sect. 8. 8. Humility and a lowly temper of soul a sober esteem of our selves who have what we have and do hope for all that we can expect of free gift is another grace or Christian habit improvable by due and serious considering Christ's last Will and Testament made by himself before his Death and confirmed by his Death We had been all poor sheaks and pitifull beggars if it had not been for this rich and great Friend of ours I have heard men blow down the pride of some who were set up as we are by anothers bounty with one blast such had not been worth one groat if his Friend had not put him into his Will so do thou Christian consider and so say Sect. 9. 9. Patience in suffering for Christ's sake nay Patient bearing all the afflictions of our whole life is another grace which may be much increased by our due observing and applying our thoughts unto Christ's last Will or Testament He can never suffer too much for Christ who hath so much given to him by Christ nor may he be at any time weary of the labour he undergoeth for Christ who understandeth what is his legacy in the Testament or Will of Christ Sect. 10. 10. Sorrow for doing so little for him and grief for doing any thing at any time against Christ is another effect of our meditations and due observations of the love of Christ manifested to us in his last Will. This part of repentance is improveable by these like reflections on Christ Dying a Testator and putting us into his last Will. If there be any ingenuity lest among the Friends of a Dying person who giveth largely to them all though they all did slight reproach oppose and wrong him this gift will draw out tears for their former carriage toward him Sect. 11. 11. Setled purpose to live in future dayes more worthy of at least with endeavours after a carriage and deportment which may be more answerable to the love of Christ Dying for us and so carefully and bountifully remembring us before he died Renewed obedience is another effect which will be promoted and advanced by such thoughts Sect. 12. 12. A loving and peaceable disposition towards believers our joint Legatees who were in the heart of Christ as well as we and who are by the Will of Christ made joint-heirs with us Charity and Brotherly-kindness is a grace improvable by these sweet influences of Christ's love equally providing for them and us by his Will we shall be constrained to love those whom we know Christ so loved And thus you have in this Chapter the brief Summary of what graces may be increased Now the special influence which the last Will of Christ dying hath on the soul for the increase of each of these graces will occasion the resuming of them in the order I have here laid down and so will be our employment and your farther entertainment in the next Chapter CAP. V. Faith Improved by the last Will of Christ IN this Chap. I foresee I shall be much longer than in all the former and its length will necessitate me to cast it into more branches for I must discourse particularly and distinctly on those twelve Graces mentioned in the fourth Chapter I shall allot therefore a particular Section to each particular Grace in which Sections I hope to clear it That the last VVill of Christ hath a special Influence on the considerate meditating soul to improve its Grace Sect. 1. 1. The believing meditating and considerate Communicant may improve his Faith by the consideration of Christ's last VVill there lye hidden many inducements unto Faith and very strong supports of Faith all which consideration will draw forth and likely enough in some such order as this some of them may be drawn out Now the Scripture tells me that Faith is the substance of things hoped for a perswasion of the certain future accomplishment of those things which are promised to the Believer Credere est persuasum esse de veritate alicujus rei PP Salmur de Fide sect 15. To believe is to be perswaded of the truth of any thing proposed to be believed So that the more the clearer the surer our perswasives and arguments are to believe the stronger will be our Faith and Assent to the Truths which are proposed and argued the stedfaster and more unmoved will our perswasion be Persuasio non fit aliterquam admittendo aut introducendo in intellectum eas rationes caque argumenta quibus unaquaeque res sese veram esse demonstrat PP Salmur de Fide Disp 1. sect 15. Which is wrought in no other manner than by admitting or letting into the understanding those Reasons and Arguments whereby each thing demonstrateth it self to be true VVhich passage of the Learned Professours is a very fit Exposition of the Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things which are not seen it is the conclusion of the soul arguing with it self from the evidence of truth and from the certainty of those reasons which are discussed and throughly pondered as then there is more or less evidence and certainty in the promise or word on which our faith and perswasion is built so there is more or less strength in our faith or perswasion Confirmat fidem quod magis ac magis persuadet vera esse promissionem c. P.P. Sal. de Sacram. in gen sect 54 and a certainty which grows greater and greater will produce a saith which grows greater and greater like wise Let us then see what increase of our perswasion and faith may be made by the last Will and Testament of our Lord. In which thou