vast estate of which he had the absolute disposal He was Lord of Heaven and Earth and could give what ever he pleased of the one or other unto his peculiar people It is true he acquired a new title and right by his death but it is as true that he had an unquestionable title and right to all both the Glory of Heaven with the grace that prepares and fits for it and to the goods of the Earth with power to give to best pleased him He did veil his glory and in the daies of his flesh forewent the exercise of that glorious royalty which was his due equally with his Father but he never did disseize or dispossess himself of that inheritance which by the right of eternal generation from the Father and which by the right of creation jointly with the Father he was and will be still seized and possessed of thus the Heavens were his the Earth also Heb. 1.2 He was heir of all things Now could it be likely or indeed imaginable that so great an heir seized of such an estate should die and not dipose of it had it not been wisedom to dispose of it to some or other if he had had no dependances that needed it the worth of the estate would have advised this if the indigency and want of the kindred had not perswaded to it But Indeed Sect. 2. 2. This great heir had a very great kindred and alliance Psal 2.8 who were even poor enough for the greatness of his kindred they were scattered over all the earth Rom. 15.11 Psal 110.3 Rev. 7.9 Heb. 11.12 he hath some of all Nations they were as the dew from the womb of the morning an innumerable company which no man could number as the sand on the sea shore so was his kindred to be And as they were many Rev. 3.17 so likewise were they exceeding poor they wanted much for they had by prodigality spent all they had wasted their goods God gave them a good portion did set them up bravely furnished but all was gone unless a little which the mercy of their Creditor spared to them to live upon There was a Judgment taken out only mercy forbore the Execution Now could such a mulof poor needy kindred be forgotten and neglected think you by such a Dying Friend and how should he have shewed himself of the kindred but by giving them legacies at his death If their unworthy deportment was such as would disengage any other yet it could not disengage him who would do what best became his affection not what best suited with their deserts Take therefore this farther into consideration Sect. 3. 3. That this great Heir had a most hearty and unparallel'd affection of pity and love for all his poor kindred He loved them with a love greater than the love of women he did bear the love of a friend a father of a husband his love to his was so great none could have greater for it was that caused him to die for them Now having thus loved his own he loved them to the end and love hath a good memory it will not easily forget I am sure Christ did neither abate of his love nor forget them he loved which perswadeth me to conclude that this great Heir so dearly loving his poor kindred would certainly provide for them and leave a Will or Testament behind him which they should all be the better for which I the rather incline to believe he would do because Sect. 4. 4. His poor kindred needed some such due lawful and valid Act or Deed to convey his estate unto them For Christ knew and he hath given us to know that we were not his Heirs at Law nor could we have claimed or recovered any part of it by the Law we had lost all our right made forfeiture of all we once were possessed of and God the great Governour and Lord of all had as we know Kings sometimes do given all the estate of the condemned Traitors to his Son and by especial gift had estated him in it Ask of me Psal 2. and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in him Our sin was our death and cut off all our claim and title to every desirable good Peccatum abolevit Naturalem eam communionem quae Creaturam cum Creatore consociabat Thes Salm. de trib Foeder sect 33. Sin abolished that Natural Communion which joined the Creature in friendship with the Creatour as the Learned Professors of Saumur observe And God hath set forth this emblematically in the dispossessing and ejecting Adam out of Paradise Whatever God bestow's now he bestow's it in and through Christ with him he giveth all things also This being the case of Christ's poor friends what more likely way of befriending them than by Will what surer way than by ordaining his last Will and Testament since they had no title by Law preceding his gift nor could they have any title any other way He gave it therefore by Will that it might be sure to come to them Sect. 5. 5. This great Heir died in perfect memory and with wisedom that excelled the measures of the wisest men who set and keep their houses in order he died not as some men do of a disease that should disable him to ordain his last Testament but was his own man unto the last he manifested this in his care of his mother his charity towards the sinful murtherers for whom he prayed c. I would add more proofs but that it would wrong your Christianity and call that into question He is not worthy the name of a Christian that is so much a stranger to the Death of Christ In a word he as well knew his friends needed he should give to them as he knew his enemies needed he should forgive them as he did in pity pray for the one so he did in love and care provide for the other And dying friends usually do provide in their last Will or Testament especially if they have what Christ had Sect. 6. 6. Time enough to dispose of his estate Some wise men leave their friends whom they dearly loved ill provided because the surprize and suddenness of death preventeth them But our Lord this great Heir of all things could not be surprized he knew when his hour was how it approached he knew all that concerned others he knew what was in Man and therefore could not but know all that concerned himself and his Death Out of all which circumstances I do adventure to conclude That Christ did before his Death ordain his last Will and Testament and in it provide for his poor kindred out of that vast estate which he was seized of which he possessed and inherited in the right of his infinitely Excellent Nature his Primogeniture his Powerful Creation and the Donation of his Father when Man
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
for future and doth for present sufficiently influence our Faith to quiet revive quicken and support the soul under fears languishings dulnesses and sufferings Go then aside and take a view of the particulars and meditate on them in the certainty which Christ suffering and dying our Sacrifice hath given to us concerning them and when thou hast so done observe well whether thou art not perswaded to believe in hope against hope and whether thou art not enabled to believe the Promises without staggering and to say thou faintest not because thy afflictions are light and yet do work out for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while thou art able to look to and see both him that is and the things that are invisible such a Faith will be our victory by it we shall more than conquer Having discoursed somewhat on the Improvement of our Divine sorrow and our Faith in the Commemoration of Christ Dying our Sacrifice I have made way for the Improvement of our Peace and Quiet of soul likewise 3d. Grace improved viz. Peace of Soul for this is a sweet fruit of our sound Repentance and sincere faith and carry's a proportioned dimension with the increase of those Graces But I purpose to attempt a more particular discovery of the influence Christ's Death our Sacrifice hath upon the Tranquillity and Peace of the soul of a Communicant who discerneth this Death as it was a Sacrifice and under that notion improveth his Redeemer's love to him Now if I can shew my Reader that there is in this Sacrifice somwhat sufficient to remove all that disquieteth the soul I need take no further care to perswade an opinion that Peace will follow Let the storm cease and a calm will follow if the Earthquake end the old Foundations will stand firm and well setled Let that be removed which alarmed the soul and all will be in Peace Amongst other lesser which I pass over there are four grand disquietudes of the soul 1. Danger of divine displeasure and wrath in condemnation for our sin The drawn sword of Divine vengeance hanging over the head is enough to affright all peace out of the heart and to fill it with amazing horrour and overwhelming terrours How did Adam's fears seize him when his sin had laid him open to that threat Thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 then his guilty conscience did chase Ea conscientia est quae filgat terret accusat damnat Parentes nostros Certissimum testimonium Deum tandem ultorem futurum omnis mali Fagius in cap. 3. Gen. 8. affright accuse condem him forebode a severer Judge and Avenger whom he could not escape or shun whom he could not stand before whom he feareth and flieth The Apostle elegantly expresseth the disquietude of a self-condemning heart by the trouble of bondage Heb. 2.15 The fear of death kept them in bondage all their life the expectation of death was death to them or ere they died and they scarce lived because they continually tortured themselves with the preapprehensions of a hastening death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot which to secure nature is the greatest of terrours though ignorance of what is consequent to death did hide the most dreadful part of death from the eyes of nature Psal 55.4 Psal 116.3 yet in David's phrase terrours of death will make the heart sigh under pain and fill it with trouble and sorrow too unless the heart be assured of the the removal of guilt the freedom from condemnation Joh. 8.21 24. Rev. 2.11 that the man dieth not in his sins nor shall be hurt of the second death No man's heart was strong under the apprehensions of the wrath of an Almighty and Eternal God nor can the greatest cheats of the world I mean hypocrites who can counterfeit almost every thing put on the counterfeit of boldness Isa 33.15 when they see the everlasting burnings and the devouring fire they are then surprized with fearfulness 2. Loss of the wonted sweetness of Divine favour and the refreshing expresses which God by his spirit did formerly give to the soul When once the soul hath been favoured with an acquaintance and knowledg of a Heaven upon earth it cannot without disquietude live on earth without it's Heaven Darkness cannot but greatly afflict the soul which enlightned once did rejoice in the light of God's Countenance shining on it What is said of the great darkness which fell on Abraham in his sleep Gen. 15.12 may be verified of all the desertions which fall upon the children of Abraham they are attended with horrour and trouble When God hid his face from David he was troubled Psal 30.5 and his soul refused to be comforted Psal 77.2 his spirit was overwhelmed ver 3. so troubled he could not speak ver 4. All which proceeded from the spiritual desertion he then lay under God hath cast off and he feared it was for ever ver 7. that he would be favourable no more c. verse 8 and 9. So that when David had lost the sense of God's love he could find peace or joy in nothing about him An Idolater once expostulated with a great deal of trouble you have taken away my Gods and do you ask what aileth me But whilst we deride or pity his blindness we should resent the real troubles of the soul which hath lost the sense of the Love of his God and Father and indulge him in a more than usual trouble for the suspence or intermission of his desired rest and peace wherein he found though imperfect yet a growing happiness and in David's words expressed his felicity He heard the joyful sound and walked in the light of God's countenance Psal 89.15 but now feareth his misery will recall his former happiness only to prove him as much sunk in woes as he was exalted in joys above other men Miserrimum est fuisse felicem this disquieteth the soul that it hath been what now it is not blessed 3. Sense of sinful weakness and suspition of worse insincerity and want of uprightness in its duties and the exercises of its Devotion towards God are a trouble to the soul in its reflections on its services and examination of it self it seeth sin adhere to every one of its best workes and it seeth imperfection still dwelling in its perfectest graces so that when he findeth to will yet how to perform he findeth not as Rom. 7.18 On which observation of his defects he judgeth himself in a miserable perplexity and under apprehensions hereof crieth out wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. ver 24. This worthlesness of persons and performances is the subject of the Church's complaints Isa 64.6 We are all as an unclean thing And our iniquities as the wind have taken us away iniquities saith David in his complaint prevail against me Psal 65.3 And elsewhere prayeth God would search him and try him and see whether there be any
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
which lyeth a Curse indeed Now this duly considered will promote the increase of our graces The Communicant who can meditate on Christ dying a Curse for us may thereby excite his graces and exercise them to an improvement of them such meditations will be as lesser streams to a River which they greaten whilst they run in the same chanel A brief specimen of this will satisfie I hope and set the soul on work wherein for his help I shall shew him an Essay in a rude draught of this in eight following particular Graces which well become a Communicant 1. Humility and Self-abasement is unquestionably a Sacramental grace 1. Sacramental grace improved a grace we should Bring to exercise at and improve by the Sacrament of our Lord dying for us And the consideration of his death represented under the circumstances of a Curse is a very suitable and a likely means to effect this For it doth represent to our thoughts not only the sufferings of our dearest Lord and friend but convinceth us that it was our sin which procur'd this to him and that we must have been miserable for ever if he had not thus died Thus our sin and misery is set before us and these will humble a soul these will bow the generous courage and stoutness of the noblest and highest mind Misery alone cannot break the courage of a virtuous and innocent mind Nil conscire sibi c. A soul clear and approv'd to its self is an impregnable fortress And the spirit of a man will bear these infirmities Indeed a base and degenerous mind breaks into shivers under a load of crosses But the soul under sorrows or in danger of deserv'd misery reflecting on its own guilt and looking through the vileness of sin on the greatness of its sorrows is the more humble because more refined and excellent in it's temper principles and aims True lowliness of spirit or humility that is genuine may possibly first gush out in a tear from pain But it 's constant running is in tears for sin Misery may broach the vessel but it is sin that keeps it running Misery may make the best despised in others eyes sin makes him despised in his own Men will tread on a distressed fortune but the humble soul will tread on its sinful self And now serious Reader cast thine eye upon Christ made a Curse and suppose for thy self and then tell me what is first reflected on is not thy misery the title page of that great Volume of sorrows which Christ did bear for thee when he was made a Curse and underwent it in thy stead wa st not thou in danger of that Curse didst thou not dwell on the borders of an eternal infinite misery and wast thou not every moment in danger to be haled and thrust headlong into a prison of wofullest darkness and unspeakable sorrows Did not the Curse laid on Christ hang over thy head It was thy sin thy misery that Christ lay under and this will humble thee if thou hast any spark of spititual ingenuity if there dwell any generous dispositions within thy breast 1. For what is it to be cursed but to lye under the transgression of a righteous Law and what will abase an ingenuous spirit if the baseness of sin will not Humility is the judgement or opinion of its little worth arising from due sense of sin Humility what Thus did Moses instruct Irsael to be humble Deut. 9.7 12 22. 23. 24. shews them how great their sin had been and leaves then to say how little their opinion of themselves ought to be tells them how near they were to utter ruine when nothing but a Moses and his prayer was between them and the execution of that word Deut. 9.6 14. I will blot out their name from under Heaven Let thy soul renew the memory of thy sin when thou renewest thy thoughts of Christ's dying a Curse Remember thy sins and do as they Ezek. 20.43 Gen. 41.9 Loath thy self for all thy sins The remembrance of a fault made a Courtier blush In a Sacrament thou seest Christ dying an accursed death in his Curse thou dost or shouldest see thy own sin and with Ezra in another case Ezra 9.6 Thou shouldest be ashamed and blush to look up to Heaven For 2. Thou most righteous and just hast condemned me and judged what my fault is how great how vile it is in the Curse my Saviour did bear for me It was not a rash hasty and inconsiderate passion of a man that cursed the sinner but it was the just deliberate sentence of a wise and holy God who never curseth one that deserves to be blessed who never curseth before the creature hath sinned and deserved it How inquisitive is a good disposition if he be cursed as David by a Shimei 2 Kings 2.23 or as the Prophet reproached by the Boyes of Bethel or by a contemptible beggar How ready are best natures to enquire into the cause Have I given an occasion to this reproach Have I deserved it And how is he abashed and ashamed that any reason is pretended for unreasonable railing Now much more abashed is the ingenuous spirit when a sober man when a judicious observer of his own words as well as of other mens carriages shall condemn and adjudge him worthy of a Curse But here it is the Lord who adjudged thee to a Curse and canst thou remember this and not be humble and not reflect upon thy sin which provoked so just a Wisdom and such deliberate Justice to execrate thee David was humble when Shimei cursed because it might be God had said to him Curse David When thou receivest the Sacrament thou remembrest Christ whom God made a Curse for thee there God tells thee Thou hadst been forever cursed if Christ had non been once cursed There thou mayest see a holy wise just and infinitely excellent person displeased with thee and provoked against thee and surely such a sight will I am certain it should make thee abhor thy self and be humble 3. Farther thou hadst a fair and open tryal of thy Cause and it now stands in the greatest Court of Record in the world It is there registred that thou art the son or daughter of a tainted blood a child of an accursed stock In the first Adam God tryed and cast thee and told thee what thou must expect in the second Adam he shewed thee this Record stood firm the sentence unrepealed and if the blood of Christ dying and bearing the Curse for thee had not washt out the stain thou hadst remained still under a curse and stain It is accounted a glory in an Antient Family that the blood is not stained with any treasonable practices against the Soveriagn and it is a disparagement and diminution of their glory and greatness that the blood is embased by disloyal designs and attempts When thou receivest the Sacrament and seest Christ dying an accursed death