is my Blood which is shed for you This Meditation hath three Points and Obiects I. The body and blood of Iesus Christ in these words My Body My Blood II. The Oblation of this Body and of this Blood in these words Which is broken which is shed III. The Fruit of this oblation intimated in these words Broken For You Shed For Many for the remission of Sinnes In the first of these when you heare Iesus Christ proposing his body and his blood the meditation then required of you is That it being so that we have so expos'd our selues to the wrath and so incurred the indignation and revenge of God by reason of our sinnes and transgressions that the Iustice of God must bee satisfied consequently that either wee must beare Gods wrath and malediction and so for ever stoop and faint vnder the heavie burthen thereof or else that some other thing must bee substituted in our steed and place to satisfie the Iustice of God But nothing could bee found out in the whole world to bee appointed in the place of man and worthily to satisfie for his sinnes From the beginning of the world beasts have beene offered and these Sacrifices of beasts by the sense and feeling which our conscience hath ever given to men of a sufficient valable satisfactiō for sin have been practised in all the whole world In the old Law a man came and put his hands on the head of the beast which was to bee sacrificed as putting her in his place and roome with an intent and hope to discharge and transferre his sinnes on her but contrariwise natural reason sheweth that that could no way appease or satisfie God For Gods Iustice being of it selfe most perfect can no way content it selfe with a payment or satisfaction so vnequall and imperfect to the Debt because all the beasts of the Earth placed and numbred vp together are not equivalent or to bee compared in valew to one man Heer then O here is the Sacrifice or Victime after which without knowing it all the world sighed and respired in offering these Sacrifices and this is the Sacrifice which all others ought to reverence and looke on When therefore you heare Iesus Christ saying This is my Body you must figure and represent him to you as proffering and offering vp to God his Father these admirable words and speeches recited by the Apostle to the Hebrewes Hebr. 10. Thou wilt have no Sacrifice or offering but thou hast given and appropriated mee a body Thou hast taken no delight in Sacrifices And then I haue said heer I am I come And in the beginning of the Booke it is written of mee that I doe thy will O God So heer Christ Iesus comming to present himself in the place and steed of all these Sacrifices which had beene offered vp vnder the Law and which were daily reiterated continued because as the same Apostle said in the same Chapter Ibid. v. 4. That it was impossible that the blood of Buls and Goats should take and wash away Sinnes And therefore my beloved brethren obserue heer the readinesse and favour which the providence of God makes and provides for you of a most conuenient and requisite Victime and Oblation When Isaac was to bee sacrificed there was a Ramme found tyed by the Hornes to a bush to bee sacrificed for him But here O Sinners behold in these words This is my body that great Sacrifice and Oblation which the wonders of Gods divine providence haue addressed and sent you and reioice that heer is the true Sacrifice or Victime which comes to assist and defend you from Gods heauy wrath and Indignation But Iesus Christ as being simply God could not present himselfe in a Sacrifice for men for there wanted a humane Sacrifice because Sinne had beene committed and perpetrated by man wherefore our Saviour Christ tels you This is my body Hee saith not This I am but This is my body therby purposely to conduct and lead you to the mysterie of his Incarnation whereby he is descended from Heaven hath taken and assumed a carnall body and is made man for vs so that conioyntly with these words you at one time see your great Sacrifice taken from Earth and yet descended from heaven Taken from Earth for it is a body descended from Heaven for it is My Body said our Saviour Iesus Christ that is to say of mee true God with the Father Heer therefore is the wonder which you ought to meditate on That nothing being found in all the world no nor in the infinit multitude and infinitie of all Gods Creatures which could be capable to bee our ransome towards God Then loe Iesus Christ himselfe the only Sonne of God descended so low as he made himselfe man and a creature to the end that hee might bee offered vp a Sacrifice for vs Hee whose Essence was wholly simple and spirituall assumed a body and being materiall and carnall Hee who was inuisible to our eyes hath made himselfe conspicuous and visible to vs permitted and suffered himselfe to be beaten tyed and nayled to a Crosse yea to bee runne thorow with a Speare and in a word capable to be sacrificed And heer you may know and find why Iesus Christ holding the Bread said not This is my Divinity but This is my Body That is to say because not his Divine but onely his Humane nature could bee offered vp in Sacrifice The Divinity is well considered but still as offering not as offered according as the Apostle said to the Hebrewes Heb. 9.14 That Iesus Christ offered himselfe vp to God by the eternall Spirit By which means It is not the eternall Spirit which hath beene offered For that which was offered was to die But the body hath been offered by the eternall Spirit And here ariseth vnto vs another wonder to wit that although Christs humane nature be offered neverthelesse it is of as great a price and value as if his Divinity it selfe could have beene offered and the reason hereof is because this his humane nature composed not but one and the same person with the divine nature For this body which was crucified was personally vnited to the eternall Spirit and this miracle or wonder is given you for your meditation in that Iesus Christ holding the bread said not indefinitly This is my Body which is broken for you but This is my Body as if hee said This is a humane Body and yet mine to the end wee might know that this vivifying or quickning flesh that is to say to bee a worthy Ransome for the life of the world Sith it is the flesh of a man who is both God and man In the Leviticall Law Moses sprinkling of blood when God contracted Alliance with the Israelites said This is the blood of the Testament which God hath ordained for you But this blood was the blood of Beasts Now heer in the Sacrament of his Supper is proposed and presented to you
THE DIVINE POVRTRAIT OR A true and liuely Representation of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper with our due Preparation how to receiue the same worthily Delivered in a Sermon at the Reformed Church of Paris on Easter day last By Monsieur Iohn Mestrezat Minister of the Word of God there Vpon these words of our Saviour This is my Body Englished by John Reynolds LONDON Printed by A. M. for G. Baker and are to be sold at his shop neere Charing-crosse 1631. TO THE RIGHT HOnourable Most Religious and Vertuous Lady MARIE Countesse of DORSET Gouernesse to our High and Hopefull young Lord and Master Prince Charles MADAME KNovving and considering that your Honour as a sanctified vessell of Pietie and as another Elect Ladie spendes the greatest part of your time and of your Selfe in Prayer and in the sweet and sacred calmes of Heavenly Meditations and Contemplations And that you make and esteeme the first to bee as indeed it is your chiefest Ioy the second your greatest Delight and both of them your divinest Ambition and Felicitie heere on Earth I therefore according to the dignitie of your merits and the qualitie of my duetie doe heere embolden my selfe most humbly to present and Dedicate to your Honour a small Translation of mine from French Of a Sermon lately delivered by a worthie Servant of the Lord in the Protestant Church of Paris vpon the firmest poynt of our Faith and the greatest and most Sacred Mysterie of our Salvation The Lords most blessed Supper And if my affection to the Authour thereof doe not deceiue my iudgment He hath drawen this Divine Pourtrait of that blessed Sacrament so divinely and so artificially and curiously depaynted it at life according to the sacred Will and Testament of the Great and Heavenly Institutour thereof Our Lord and Saviour CHRIST IESVS as I both hope with confidence and presume with safetie that your Honour will receiue it graciously behold it affectionately and loue and cherish it religiously and consequently that all other Readers will doe the like by the powerfull Influence of your Honourable President and pious Example And in regard that your constant Pietie and inflamed Zeale towards God as the Queene of all your other relucent Vertues generally makes you to bee rather admyred then imitated of the best and Noblest Ladyes of Great BRITAINE Therefore neither to flatter your Honour or to infringe the truth I confidently beleeue that this Pietie and this Zeale of yours was the primarie cause which first mooved God to mooue and inspire the heart of our Potent and Prudent King to giue you the Superintendencie over his young Son our Prince A singular favour of God a most speciall honour of our Soveraigne towards you which yet your Honour deserved before desired and received before you any way expected or dreamt thereof And the which so infinitely reioyceth the hearts and and soules of the most and best of all his Subiects that they tryumph in this his Maiesties happie choyce and election of you and in your Honourable and Vertuous Administration over this our Royall Faglet As fully hoping and therefore perfectly assuring themselues that as you are now made Governesse to the first Sonne of one of the first and greatest Kings of the world So that your Illustrious vertues in your selfe your watchfull eye over him and vigilant care of and for him will by Gods propitious Favour and Assistance infallibly crowne his Royall Parents with true Content and their Kingdomes and Subiects with perfect Felicitie to see this Princely Blossome and Royall Plant futurely flourish and sprout foorth to be one of the loftyest Cedars of Christendome and next to our Sacred Soveraigne King CHARLES his Father the greatest Champion of Christ and his Gospell and the Truest Defender of his Heavenly Spouse the Church And Madame because if wee make Pietie and Religion the Soule of our life heere on Earth That wee are therefore assured God will then heereafter infallibly make it the life of our Soules in Heaven was likewise a strong motive and a most pleasing and acceptable Inducement to me to make this Sermon or Divine Pourtrait of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper to speake English for that this spirituall and celestiall Banquet given by our great Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST to his beloved Apostles and in them to vs a little before his glorious departure and ascension from Earth to Heaven is the very true life and essence yea the spirituall Food and sacred Manna whereby all faithfull and regenerate Christians are eternally incorporated into Christ and Christ into them A sweet and sacred Meditation for every one to know and contemplate and also most infinitely necessarie for all by a liuely Faith verie often and frequently to apply vnto their Consciences and Soules because it is a matchlesse Iewell and an inestimable Treasure which includeth all earthly riches and compriseth and containes all Heavenly benefits and felicities in it Neither am I or so Ignorant or so Presumptuous to direct this Sermon of the Lords Supper to your Honour out of the least shadow of any premeditated intent or purpose thereby to instruct or teach you in this sacred Mysterie of your Salvation because contrariwise I firmely know that your Honour is truely able to teach and infinitely capable to instruct others therein But I did it purposely to recreate your Zeale and to foment and cherish your Pietie in this your solemne Preparation to receiue that blessed Sacrament now at this approaching great and ioyfull Feast of Easter and next therevnto as an eternall pledge and testimony of my dutie to your Honors Service The operation â—ind benefite which the reading and meditating of this small Booke may worke in your heart and soule I wholly leaue to the Divine Providence and Pleasure of Almightie God whom I religiously pray may ever blesse your Honor and yours with all true prosperitie and happinesse in this life and with all perfect felicity and glory in that to come Aprill 2. 1631. Your Honours humblest servant Iohn Reynolds THE TRANSLATOR his Preface to the Christian Reader IT was with a holy admiration and a religious and sanctified zeale that the Royall Prophet King David contemplating on the excellency of Gods creatures and meditating on the preheminence and dignitie which hee gaue man over them Cryed out Psal 8.4 O Lord our God how excellent is thy name in all the world And what is man that thou art so mindefull of him and the Sonne of man that thou visitest him If David who was a liuely Type and Figure of Christ were rapt into this spirituall extasie of admiration and ioy when he considered of Gods power and providence in the workes of his creation How much more infinitly and thankfully should wee poore miserable sinners reioyce with true admiration and admire with perfect ioy at the vnspeakable and incomprehensible love of God towards mankinde Phil. 2.8 Col. 1.14 In giving vp his onely begotten Sonne Christ
Iesus to death yea to the shamefull death of the Crosse for our redemption and that he was so gracious a God and so mercifull and indulgent a Father to vs that he suffered his blessed Sonne to dye for vs Tit. 2.14 That hee might redeeme vs from all iniquitie and purge vs to be a peculiar people to himselfe For wretched sinners that we are In Paradise where our Forefathers gained their life there by their wilfull disobedience and transgression they lost their righteousnes and we in them because the foule staine and Leprosie of that their originall sin hath successively and actually made vs their vnfortunate seede and posteritie guilty both of Death and Hell and there iustly adiudged to haue our Portions with the Devill and his Angels But notwithstanding all this God yet hath beene as mercifull to vs as we have bene sinnefull to him for although wee were lost in Adam by Nature yet we are againe both found and saved in Iesus Christ by grace 1 Tim. 2.6 Who hath given himselfe a ransome for all men Isai 53.4,5 Hath borne our infirmities and carried away our sinnes and sorrows by suffering himselfe to bee wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities So that it is the present ioy of our hearts and the future happinesse of our soules Eph. 2.4,5 That God who is rich in mercie Eph 2.4,5 through the great loue wherewith he loved vs when we were dead by our sins hath quickned vs together in Iesus Christ by whose grace we are saved And to the ende that all true Christians should not despaire of Christs promises vnto them nor so much give themselues over either to the reprobate sense and pleasures of sinne or to the sugred insinuations and trecherous temptations of Satan as any way to doubt of their salvation in the Lord Why this our sacred Lord Master Christ Iesus the great Shepheard of his Flocke and Saviour of his people who by incorporating his Divinitie with his humanitie was wholly composed of loue mercy toward them Hee I say a litle before his bloody yet blessed death and passion on the Crosse was gratiously pleased to honour and sanctifie his Apostles and in them vs who are of the true seed of Abraham with the holy Sacrament of his most blessed Supper as a diuine pledge and a firme authenticall confirmation of his inestimable loue towards vs and of his watchful care and vigilancy for our saluation I meane for the full perfecting and accomplishing of our glorification in Heaven with God his father Rom 6.4 That sin might haue no more dominion over ver vs because we are now no longer vnder the Law but vnder Grace but that by the worthy receiving and holy partaking thereof In the imitation of Christ and his blessed Apostles Ephes 2.6 wee might be raysed vp together with him in heavenly places It is therefore not our owne merits but onely Gods mercies not our own workes which are sinfull but onely the blessed death and passion of Christ Iesus which is sacred that must be both the triumph and glory of a Christian And I confesse with ioy and acknowledge with Confidence and Consolation that this holy Sacrament of his most blessed Supper wherin the bread of his body was broken and the wine of his blood powred out and shed for the sinnes of all mankind is the perfect pledge the sacred seale the full ransome and the divinest mysterie of our redemption in Iesus Christ And that as wee are absolutely cleansed and washed from our originall sinne by the water of Baptisme when wee enter into the State of Grace in the Church militant heere on earth That so by the blood of this Paschall Lambe Christ Iesus in the Sacrament of his blessed Supper our sinnes are wholly defaced and washed away and consequently that therefore wee shall enter into the state of glory in the Church triumphant in heaven So that fighting vnder the banner of Christ his Crosse and being spiritually armed with these two sacred Sacraments we may boldly beleeue confidently assure our selues that neither Sathan nor hell shall have power to prevaile against vs. And here Christian Reader before I proceed farther in this my Preface to thee I give thee to vnderstand That I am not ignorant with what a great world of different opinions and controversies this our little world of Christendome is perplexed and troubled with about this blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper betwixt the Protestant and the Papist especially about Transubstantiation the Reall Presence and communicating in one kind In so much that an infinite number yea too great a number of pens pulpits and presses are pittifully because vnprofitably oppressed therwith and that Christs blessed body in this Sacrament without pietie reason or charity is daily dilacerated and torne in peeces with these contentions whereas his owne Coate or vesture was without peece or seame So that our silly soules may well feare drowning when the barke of our weake faith masted and rigged with curiositie sayleth in so dangerous and turbulent an Ocean that hath neither bottome nor shoare and which is daily and hourly tossed and ready to be split and dashed in peeces either with the wavering waves of levity and inconstancy or with the boysterous winds of propensd malice or scandalous and erronious virulency without looking vp to the true day-Starre of their hope Iesus Christ or to the Sunne of their saluation God or without endevoring or thinking safely to arrive and cast anchor in the Cape of good hope Heaven O that the spirit of Pietie should without piety thus bee conuerted and transformed into the spirit of Contention And as for mee who am the meanest and most vnworthie of all Gods Seruants and Children bingeniously confesse and acknowledge that in some few languages I have read so many of these intemperate Contreversies and vntimely Contentions that I am wearie of reading them And yet so That I rather pitie then maligne first their Authors for their sakes and then them for their Authors sakes and my witnesse is in heaven in mine own besome that with my heart soule I wish that all these vnspirituall quarells might be composed in peace and amitie and that these vnfortunate disputes and lynes might terminate in one and the same Centre Charitie and that their learned Authors having their curiosity vanquished with the honour and glory of God as Christian members might bee inseparably fast knit and vnited to their Head and grand Captaine Iesus Christ and because contention is not the way to heaven and that God was found in the still and quiet and not in the whirle and tempestuous winds As also that where the great Lamps of learning and lights of the Church contend fight about matters of faith that there assuredly the weake ones and the more illiterat Christians doe infinitly suffer in this quarell That therefore in the name and feare of God they would
thee in the Lord Yet because I am an humble Seruant to Christ both in my desires and affections aswell as I am the shaddow and Echo of my Author in this my translation Therefore I trust in the goodnesse of God and hope in the integritie of mine owne heart that I shall rather right thee then any way wrong him in presuming poorly to gleane after his rich haruest by aduenturing to propose and give thee a word or two of spirituall aduice and directions of mine owne vpon the receiuing of this blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper before I commend this Divine Pourtrait thereof to thee thee to it and you both vnto God When therefore thou resoluest Iam. 4.8 to draw neere vnto God that God may draw neer vnto thee by receiving and partaking of this his blessed Sacrament Thou must in the innocency of thy heart and the purity of thy soule 1 Pet. 5.6 first humble thy selfe vnder the mighty hand of God that hee may exalt thee Iam. 4.10 And cast thy selfe downe before him that hee may lift thee vp 1 Cor. 15.34 Thou must awake to live righteously and resolue to sinne no more but henceforth to become a new man and a new Christian Gal. 3.24 for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof Thou must set thy affections on things which are above and not on things which are on the Earth Phil. 3.20 Anâ— thy conuersation must bee iâ— heaven from whence thoâ— must expect thy Sauiour eveâ— the Lord Iesus Christ Gal. 5.25 Foâ— if thou live in the spirit thoâ— must also walke in the spirit Psal 4.4 Thou must tremble but nâ—… sinne and thou must examinâ— thy selfe vpon thy bed Psal 68 1â— Foâ— God will try thee as siluer iâ— tryed Thou must not deceive thy selfe Galat. 6.7 for God wilâ— not bee mocked Thou musâ— not be hot in thy sinnes anâ— cold and frozen in thy devotion and piety towardâ— God neither must thou seeme now to bee that in thy humility and zeale which thou art not Because Hypocrisie towards God proves treacherie towards our owne soules But runne thou a Contrary Course with thy heart and soule at thy receiving of this great act of thy Saluation this blessed Sacrament for bee thou the death of thy sinnes and then God will assuredly be the life of thy Soule As for those who either vnworthily receiue or carelesly deferre or wilfully contemne the receiving of this blessed Sacrament they doe assuredly spin out the webbe of their owne damnation and so being dead in the Lethargie of their owne securitie and prophanesse they hood-wincked ride post to Hell Consider and remember with thy selfe Ioel. 1.15 That the day of the Lord is at hand 2 Pet. 3.10 And that death and destruction comes from the Lord as a Thiefe in the night That death the grimme Pursivant and Sergeant of the Lord dâ—th neither spare nor pardon any sexe or age but with his fatall Dart and Mace without respect or difference aresteth as well the King as the begger the Priest as the people and the young as the old Wee must not therefore put farre from vs the evill day Amos. 6.3,4,5 nor stretch our selues on our beds of Ivorie nor sing to the sound of the Violl wherby the Prophet meanes all excesse of riot and vnderstandeth all degree of obscene pleasures and beastly voluptuousnesse For if we love God we must honour him and if we will honour him wee must loue him Amos 6.3,4,5 And not wearie him with our sinnes nor presse him downe with their burthen as a Cart is with Sheafes Consider wee againe That as there is but one way forvs to come into the world so that there are a thousand waies to go out of it That we are subiect to as many diseases as sinnes yea and that diseases doe as frequently and as insensibly steale into our bodyes as sinnes doe into our soules That wee are never neerer death then when we think our selues farthest from it and that when we suppose our selues to be strongest in Nature wee commonly are then weakest in Grace As also that a theeuish Impostume a poore Apoplexie a Cut-throat Squinancy or a fierce and furious visitation of the Pestilence doth many times in a moment of time violently snatch vs away from the world and the world from vs yea and which is more to be admired though no lesse to bee pittied That some times in the very twinckling of an Eye we are choaked with a Fly a Kernell of an apple a crumm of bread or a small Fish bone Or else have our braynes dashd out with a fall either from a Horse or a staire O therfore how seriously ought we to ponder in our hearts and how maturely and religiously to consider in our soules how extreame dangerous it is for vs to procrastinate and deferre and consequently how infinitely necessary expedieÌ„t it is for vs frequently to receiue this blessed SacrameÌ„t of the Lords Supper Consider wee further Iam 4.14 That wee cannot tell what shall betyde vs to morrow for that our life is but a Vapour that appeareth for a smal time and then vanisheth away 1 Pet. 1.24 That all flesh is grasse and all the glory of man is as the flower of grasse and that the grasse withereth the flower thereof falleth away Heb. 13.14 That we haue no abiding Citie heere but must therefore seeke one to come which is aboue That as the tree falleth it lyes That there is no sorrowing for our sins in the grave and that after our death there is no place nor hope left vs for a second repentance Heb. 10 31 And that it is a feare full thing to fall into the hands of the living God Armed in this manner with a lively faith towards God and with periect love and Charity towards our neighbour and having freed and cleared those sinfull spots of our hearts and reformed and cleansed those foule affections and imperfections of our soules by our vnfeigned godly repentance and sorow And having now assumed and taken vp a firme resolution ever hereafter Eph. 5.10 to approve and doe that which is pleasing to the Lord And contracted a solemne Covenant betweene God and our souls Eph. 5.11 never any more to have any fellowship with the workes of darkenesse but reprove them and not henceforth to dare to looke back with affection on our forepast deerest and darling sinnes but with infinite hatred detestation of them Then I say let vs follow the aduice of the Apostle Heb. 4.16 Let vs goe vp boldly to the Throne of Grace that wee may receive mercy Let vs goe boldly to this table to this pretious banket of the Lords blessed Supper and eat that sacred bread of his body and drinke that heavenly wine of his blood in a strong Confidence and CoÌ„memoration That Christ dyed for vs on the Altar of
on earth in his Sacrament gives vs the first tastes and relishes because the peace and ioy of conscience and the refreshing and replenishing of the soule in God is a true beginning and a shining ray of the delights and felicities of heaven wherfore faithfull Christian reioyce thou at these beginnings in hope of that happy heavenly accoÌ„plishment which is promised thee and through the eyes of thy faith behold cheerefully and ioyfully the tree of eternall life which is in the Paradice of God and the hidden Manna the bread of Angels which thy Lord and Saviour prepares for thee and behold the fulnesse and satiety which is prepared for thee in the sacred and glorious face of God whereof David in the times of the thickest and obscurest shaddowes said Psal 16.11 In thy presence O Lord is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore And againe in another place Psal 65.4 O how blessed is hee whom thou choosest and causest to come vnto thee he shall dwell in thy courts and shall bee satisfied with the pleasures of thine house and of thine holy Temple and likewise in another Psal 36.8 They shall bee satisfied with the fatnesse of thine house and thou shalt give them drinke out of the River of thy pleasures Contemne therefore O Christian all earthly pleasures in Comparison of those heavenly delights which passe all vnderstanding because by this blessed Sacrament thou art inuited and called to the wedding banquet of the Lambe where thou halt sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and where thou shalt be satisfied and ravished with God And these my beloâ—ed brethren are the meditations and functions which God requires of vs condignely and worthily to receiue the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to entertaine vs religiously piously in the expectaÌ„ce of his comming as this Sacrament was purposly instituted to declare and foretell vs his death and the inestimable benefits which issue and proceed thereof vnto vs vntill he come Let vs therefore examine and prooue our selues if wee are of this holy dispositioÌ„ for feare lest eating this Bread or drinking this Wine vnworthily wee thereby make our selues guiltie of the Lords body and blood and consequently eat and drinke our owne damnation And if wee find not this holy sanctified disposition in our hearts let vs then effectually endeavor to produce enkindle it in vs by the often reading and meditating of the sacred Bible the divine Oracles and written Word of God as also by frequent incessant Prayer For this Word of God I say is the Looking glasse wherin opeÌ„ly beholding the glorie of the Lord face to face 1. Cor. 3.18 wee are transformed and changed into the same Image from glory to glory as saith the Apostle I say likewise by Prayer because the Lord most benignly and graciously conferres and giues wisdome to all those who seeke it of him and hath promised his holy spirit to all those who with humble contrit hearts demand it of him And let vs possesse and retain this consolation amidst the defects and imperfections which we feele in our hearts that if we are discontented or sorrowfull if we are afflicted heavie laden that yet notwithstanding Christ wil not reiect vs because he saith Come vnto me all yee that are heavie laden Or if we hunger thirst after righteousnesse for this hunger and thirst is a desire of Gods grace proceeding from a liuely and sensible feeling of our sinnes he promiseth to replenish and satisfie vs. May it therefore please thee O our blessed Lord and Saviour to call vs to this sacred Banquet to send vs thy holy Spirit and giue decent and religious dispositions and because hee now knockes at the doore of our hearts by his holy Word giue vs grace that we may open it vnto him in the obedience of our faith to the end Revel 3. that hee may sup with vs and we with him and that he himselfe may be both our Hoast and our Banquet Amen A Prayer to prepare our selues before we receiue the holy Supper of the Lord. O God how shall I present my selfe before thee being a wretched creature defiled polluted with sin If the Angels who haue never sinned overvaile and cover their faces wheÌ„ they appeare before thy holinesse how much greater ought my astonishment and confusion bee who am guiltie of so many foule faults transgressions and likewise my griefe and sorrow sith thy wrath reveales it self from heaven against sin and that on every side we see the effects therof Nature is afflicted and troubled and our bodies are already possessed of diseases and death and therfore what greater punishment may our soules attend and expect and if in this life thy wrath and indignation be thus manifested what will it be when we shal appeare before thy Tribunal and that thou pronounce a sharp and heavie sentence against vs but O Lord in this feareful amazement here ariseth vp to vs newes of grace and matter of comfort and consolation Thou hast had compassion of mankind thou hast sent thine only Son here below to reconcile and expiate our sinnes the earth had nothing for the saluation of man the Angels who have no part of righteousnesse or of life but for themselues could not resist thine anger but in stooping and sincking downe vnder the burthen therof But O Lord thou hast opened thine owne bosome from wheÌ„ce alone could come saluation and from it thou hast sent thine only Sonne to cloth himselfe with our nature and to suffer therein the punishment due to our sinnes and fully to satisfie thy Iustice for all our transgressions so that we haue redemptioÌ„ by his blood to wit remission of sins according to the riches and treasure of thy mercy and we heare this thy Son to pronounce these sweet pleasing words in his Gospel Come to me all ye that are oppressed and heauy laden and I will refresh and comfort you Overloaden then as I am with the heavie burthen of my sinnes I come to discharge disburthen them on thy crosse because he hath borne our sinnes in his body on the wood therof And wherfore should not I fully beleeue it sith this soveraigne loue immense goodnes was worthy of thee and that not onely by thy Testament but also by this Sacrament of thy blessed Supper thou givest mee this redemption and placest it as it were before mine eyes For wherfore serveth this great Sacrament but to represent to my soule by faith this great sacrifice of Christs body which he hath given presented thee on the Crosse So because I see my ransome and redemption have I not therefore iust cause O my God to reioyce and comfort my self in thee that ransome I say which thine owne selfe hast freely given me A divine ransom of a most inestimable price and value because it is the body of thine only begotten Son true God together with thee