it as a farther assurance from God that his promises of mercy shall be made good to thee CHAP. VII The second benefit is Sanctification 2. THe second great benefit purchast by the Death of Christ and held forth in the Sacrament is Sanctifying Saving Grace for the enlivening and strengthning the souls of Believers There is no truth more plain in the whole Gospel than that one great end of Christ's Death was to obtain from the Father that the holy Spirit should accompany the proclaiming of the Gospel to enlighten the minds and soften the hearts of those who should not wilfully resist his workings that they might entertain the truth in the love thereof and that on these greater measures of grace should be poured forth to make them in all things conformable to their Maker according to the capacity of their natures which was the great design of the Redeemer even to restore apostate creatures to the image of God wherein they were created that so they might be made meet for his service here and the fruition of him hereafter A most lamentable mistake it is to confine Christs death onely to the procuring of a pardon and keeping sinners out of Hell since this was but in order to a work of grace on their hearts and onely such who submit to this work shall at last have a share in the absolute pardon For suppose a company of prisoners were taken in Warre who being weak and wounded cannot return into their own Countrey but must presently be put to death by the King that took them and in the mean time comes their own Prince and pays a great sum to obtain that the execution of them may be put off for some time and that his Physician may use medicines and apply plaisters to as many as are willing and that all such when they are made whole shall be sent to their own homes and the rest who will not be ruled by the Physician but spit out his potions because they are bitter and throw away his plaisters because they make them smart they are to remain in their prison and be put to death as they were sentenced Here we see the ransome that was paid was first to stop the slaughter of the prisoners and to get liberty to use means for their recovery to health and soundnesse and secondly to obtain that the recovered should be set free to return to their own Countrey and not onely the contempt of the ransome but of the Physician would bring death Thus had we by the Fall both brought our selves into danger of present destruction and disabled our souls that we could not return to that state whence we fell but the Son of God undertaking our Redemption obtained for us that the sentence of condemnation should not speedily be executed and that there should be assured hopes of escaping destruction and returning to happinesse for all those who make not their condition desperate by continuance in sin and rejecting of the cure which his Spirit would work upon them now the work of his Spirit is to plant and encrease grace in their hearts to heal the diseases and remove the weaknesse which sin hath caused that they may be enabled to walk in the ways of holinesse to their everlasting rest and the sending forth of his healing Spirit was the fruit of his blood Now as it will assuredly damn men to despise the blood of Christ as if it was of no force to be a ransome nor to attain those ends for which the Gospel saith it was shed so is it as dangerous and damnable to resist and sleight the Spirit of Christ let them pretend what esteem they will for his blood A like mistake also it is flowing from the former to limit the notion of free grace to meer pardoning mercy whenas it includes sanctifying 〈◊〉 so for in the instance now given the Physick I hope was as free a gift to the prisoners as the ransome that was paid for them notwithstanding this was without them and the other to be taken into them And in like manner is the giving of the Spirit into us as purely from the grace and mercy of God though merited by Christ as the giving of his Son for us accepting of us for his sake This I was willing to hint least any when they hear or read of being saved by Free grace should dream of a salvation to be had by a meer pardon without being sanctified by the Spirit That the making men holy in their hearts and lives was a principall end of Christs Death without which no happinesse is to be attained is I say a truth so evident in the very tenour of the Gospel that it may seem needlesse to produce particular proofs yet amongst the rest read these few Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works c. Eph. 5.25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. and that it might be holy and without blemish 1 Joh. 3.8 The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Pet. 3.24 Who bare our sins that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse Tit. 3.4 5 6. According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Read also Mat. 1.22 Luk. 1.75 Rom. 6.11 Galat. 1.4 Tit. 2.12 13 14. Heb. 9.14 Now though I acknowledge it is by the help of the Spirit that we are brought to believe for faith it self is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 yet I think we shall ordinarily find the promises of the Spirit to be made to those who are already Believers to advance and carry on the work of God upon their souls And to this end and of this nature is that Grace which is 〈◊〉 and given forth by the Sacrament even to refresh and nourish the souls of Believers to confirm and encrease those graces that are wrought in them and to bring them forward to farther degrees of perfection And this much the very elements themselves do teach us for as Bread is the support and stay of life and Wine that which makes glad the heart of man and both are needfull for the maintaining of life and encreasing our strength so are the Body and Blood of Christ alike necessary and usefull to our souls for he himself hath told us that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and that he who eats his flesh and drinks his blood dwelleth in him and hath eternall life with much more to the same purpose Joh. 6. The proper meaning whereof as will appear by the Context and the occasion of that Discourse I suppose is That they who believe in him having the same expectations of spirituall life from him that they have of temporall life from their food and accordingly receive digest and improve his doctrine hoping for remission of sins through his Blood giving entertainment to his Spirit and are filled and fed with those graces which he gives out that all such shall live forever
this canst thou without tears and groans look back upon all the disorders of thy life whereby thou hast done all that in thee lay to make those wounds of thy tender compassionate Saviour bleed afresh which he first receiv'd upon thy account I believe thou thought'st not of this no if thou hadst one would think thou could'st never have done it Thy design was onely to please thy flesh by all thy sensuall courses thou wast onely full of projects to maintain and raise thy self and thy posterity by all thy worldly designs and businesses wherewith through thy whole life though hast been so swallowed up But thou seest how the case stands that this while thou hast been most viley rejecting and even trampling upon the Lord Jesus who would have have brought thee off from thy vain conversation from all thy ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and hath followed thee with his Word and Spirit to that end and hath prest thee with arguments drawn from his matchlesse love discovered by his Death and hath besought thee to regard him yea to take pity on thy self but thou hast made light of all and hast gone on as securely and quietly in the ways of sin as if thou hadst never heard what sin did upon Christ. And what art thou resolv'd to doe so still shall nothing stop thee in thy career wilt thou not stay to hearken what a way it is thou walkest in nor think what unvaluable mercies thou all this while treadest under feet Hast thou not yet sufficiently abused thy Redeemers love and patience hast thou not made him wait long enough in vain wilt thou still make shew of deafnesse to all those messages he sends thee If so yet be thou sure of this thou shalt not be able to say at thy appearance before him that thou never knewest that sin was such an evil thing and so provoking to him for beside all other warnings that thou hast had I now declare to thee who readest or hearest these words that if thou still continuest in thy loose ungodly life living in swearing cursing drunkennesse whoredome covetousnesse cozening malice or any other known sin and wilfully neglectest thy duty to God going whole days without prayer or reading Gods Word profaning the Lords Day neglecting Sacraments if thou hold on this course thou dost no better than again crucifie and deny the Lord that bought thee and so hast no reason to complain if thou fall under the same condemnation which thou thy self wilt acknowledge Judas and Pilate and the rest of Christs enemies deserve and therefore that thou maist not be found amongst them loaded with the same guilt at Judgement I doe once again in the name of Christ beseech thee with all speed to change thy heart and life and use all means appointed to that end and after all thy wandrings now at length return to him the good Shepherd of souls who laid down his life for his sheep 4. Lastly the Death of Christ may powerfully move thee to repent of and forsake all sin as it holds forth this weighty but sad truth That all those who are despisers of this Death and by living and dying in their sins reap no saving benefit by it shall in their own persons undergo insupportable torments for this their unbelief and wilfull impenitence If thou believest the Gospel thou canst not but acknowledge that all men had been in a most miserable condition if Christ had not died and thou wilt grant that sin is a most perilous mischievous thing and an unspeakable provocation to the most holy God since nothing could appease his wrath but the Death of Christ without whose bloodshed we had obtain'd no remission And what then dost thou think is like to be thy case if through thy own fault thou art never the better for all Christ hath done but must thy self answer for thy sins and bear the punishment they have deserved Let the Death of Christ I say instruct thee what thou art like to expect if this be thy condition If as he himself speaks such things were done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry If he who was without the least stain of originall or actuall sin drank such a bitter cup when he stood in our stead what will be the portion of their cup who being poor frail creatures must make satisfaction for their own sins How will they ever up under all the load of Gods hottest wrath when he shall meet them in judgement and cause his fury to rest upon them And above all thy impenitent obstinate continuance in sin and contempt of Christ will lie heaviest upon thee in the day of vengeance These sins aganst the Gospel against mercy the greatest and freest mercy are most provoking to God most inexcusable in themselves and will therefore prove most pernicious to sinners Methinks then if thou hadst but any regard to thy self to thy own ease and comfort this should make thee out of love with sin to consider how dear its like to cost thee how pleasant soever it may now seem It was not for nothing that Christ felt so much sorrow and pain as thou shalt know to thy everlasting woe if thou pluck the heavy judgements of God on thy own head by sleighting him who would have kept them from off thee Assure thy self poor sinner as bold and confident as now thou art thou wilt never be able to contest with that wrath which exercised even the strength of Christ to bear it thou art never like to go away lightly with that which he felt so heavy For shame at length leave thy foolish plea that God will be more mercifull than to torment his creatures for hast thou not seen how he bruised his own Son who never offended him how he bruised him I say for our iniquities and will he then spare thee who in thy own person hast been a most stubborn hard-hearted rebel and hast cast away with loathing the mercies that were again and again even prest upon thee Thou hast no reason for such fond expectations What wilt thou tell Christ at Judgement that thou didst not believe that ever God would be so severe as to punish thee so dreadfully and everlastingly as his Word threatned and that therefore thou took'st somewhat more liberty in thy life than he allowed thee Darest thou come with such a plea as this But if thou should'st what wilt thou answer to Christ when he shall lay open what he underwent for thy sake and how thou madest light of his love will not this soon silence thee If he ask thee whether thou hadst not evidence and proof enough of the evil and danger that was in sin by his suffering so much for others transgressions wilt thou have any pretence left to justifie thy self I may perhaps urge this consideration but I mention it now as offered to us by the sufferings of Christ which doe most plainly declare that dolefull are the miseries prepared for those who
that dangerous mistake that thy belief in Christ may serve turn well enough for thy salvation without an holy life for if thou leadst not an holy life it 's most certain thou dost not truly believe in Christ. For it is not enough to prove thee such a Believer as shall be saved to trust in Christs merits and hope God will be mercifull to thee for his sake but it is also of absolute necessity that thou believe in him as Prophet and King and accept of him to teach and govern thee if ever thou hope for any saving benefit by him and therefore thou must believe his Promises and threatnings and faithfully endeavour to yield an universal obedience to his Commands and to follow his footsteps So that to say thou hast a good faith in Christ whilst thou livest an ungodly life is as flat a contradiction as to say thou art faithfull to thy Prince whilst thou risest up in arms against him and so much as an oath of Allegiance and fidelity to their Soveraign doth tye men from Rebellion so much doth saving faith bind them against wicednesse And to talk of keeping thy faith firm whilst thou livest in disobedience to thy Lord is as if a Wife should say she was carefull in keeping her Marriage-covenant whilst she liv'd in open adultery Thus much here I was willing to speak of this that thou maist be the more plainly convinc't that if thou livest in or lovest any sin and wilt not leave it though Gods Word and thy own conscience condemn thee for it that then thou art not sincerely in covenant with God Wherefore look well into thy life consider thy ways how thou behavest thy self towards God man and in all thy carriage in the World Art thou not a wilfull neglecter of thy duty to thy Maker living without a sense or acknowledgment of him in all thy wayes not so much as once in a day or perhaps in a whole week setling thy self seriously to pray to him in thy Family or Closer nor taking any pleasure in reading his word or in thinking and speaking of him to thy own and others advantage Dost thou profane the Lords day and turn thy back with contempt upon the Ordinances of God Art thou not us'd to swearing cursing and taking the holy Name of God in vain in thy common discourse Or art thou not guilty of lying cozenage injustice in thy trading and dealing with men of oppression and unmercifulnesse to the poor Dost thou not live in envy and mallice allowing thy self in railing back-biting and slandering Or dost thou not riotously abuse the good creatures of God eating and drinking to excess unfitting thy self for Gods service and studying only to please thy pallat Dost thou not pollute thy soul with wanton thoughts discourses and unclean practices Dost thou not mis-spend thy time in idlenesse and vanity carelesly wasting precious hours that should be improv'd for Gods honour by getting or doing good Dost thou not give way to thy pride in thy discourse carriage or attire lavishing money and time for the gratifying of this base lust Put such questions as these to thy soul and answer them impartially and truly And if thou livest in any of these or the like wilfull sins be assur'd thou hast been false to the Covenant which thou wast entred to in Baptism But if thy conscience can truly witnesse for thee that thou hatest every false way hast a respect to all Gods Commandments earnestly desiring and diligently endeavouring in all thy waies to approve thy self to the most righteous God longing after nothing more than that thou maist walk unblameably before him then thou maist safely conclude that thou art one of Gods Covenant-people and as such he will own thee and to thee belong the priuiledges and benefits of the Covenant and therefore the Seals of it too so that thou hast very good warrant to addresse thy self to this Sacrament whereby all the Promises of God are confirm'd to his people and whereby they professe the hearty rendring up of themselves to him By this time I hope thou seest what it is to be cordially in covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which all are engaged to by Baptism and which Covenant they renew at the Lords Supper namely to love God above all and to account his love thy chiefest happiness to accept of Jesus Christ as thy only Saviour to bring thee to this happinesse and to be willing to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost and led by him in the waies of holinesse Now if thou findst thy self strange to all this and didst never yet feel thy soul brought under the bond of this Covenant my next work is to perswade thee to it even to beseech thee deliberately seriously but yet speedily to make a firm and everlasting Covenant with God to be his upon his own terms to be absolutely devoted to him in heart and life as thou wast in Baptism Something I shall say to prevail with thee if possible for the performance of this weighty indispensable Duty But by the way take notice that all I am exhorting thee to may well be included in this one word even Believing in Jesus Christ which is that qualification I am now upon discovering the necessity of it in all Communicants And this I would have thee to observe that thou maist the better understand what I mean when I presse thee to faith in Christ as making it all one with the Covenant now mentioned For as I have before intimated He that truly believes in Christ receives him in the quality and office of a Mediatiour by him to attain to that happiness which he offers to men consents to be brought to in that way which he thinks fit to direct Now the happinesse he offers is the enjoyment of God in glory and this he hath procured for Believers by his satisfaction and intercession and fits them for it by his Spirit which cures all their distempers and raiseth them to a perfect love of God and likenesse to him and so makes them capable of full communion with him which is their blessednesse So that to receive Christ as he offers himself to us which is our faith in him not onely signifies our dependance on his merits for the pardon of sin but also includes in it our love to God above all to whom we hope to be reconciled and brought nigh by Christ and contains in it our resolution to submit to the working and guidance of the Holy Ghost who purifies the heart enables us to follow after holinesse till we are brought to the sight and fruition of God I shall attempt to make it as plain as may be by an easie comparison Suppose a King had banisht a great company of Subjects for rebelling against him into a forreign Countrey where they stay so long that they have even forgot the manners and language of their own Nation are become wild and barbarous like the people
prevail with them when they saw in good earnest what was like to betide them And if Christ would take this course and shew heaven and hell if that were possible plainly to their eye-sight it s like the most stubborn sinners would be awakened but he will not doe thus nor is there any reason he should Since we are made men to be ruled by reason why should he deal with us like bruits that must be led by their senses yet because he will not take this way with them bruitish sinners disregard him as if they needed him not But ah Sirs all you that could see no need of Christ when he was so urged and prest upon you when shortly you shall see all the world stand before him and shall behold the devouring flames into which all they must be cast who have not a part in his love then you will see what benefit comes by Christ then you will no longer count them fools that took it for their greatest businesse to get an interest in him Then if the most passionate wishes that you had been so wise would doe you any good if the loudest roarings and bitterest cries for mercy might preval you would think them all well spent but alas all will be to no purpose Cry Lord Lord with never so much noise and earnestnesse if thou wast here a worker of iniquity no other answer shalt thou obtain but Depart from me I know thee not And thou thy self shalt be forced to acknowledge that this Sentence is as just as terrible For didst not thou here hid Christ to depart from thee thou desired'st not the knowledge of his ways and is it not just he should then command thee to Depart from him as one he will not know nor own Heaven thou didst refuse since it was to be had on no other terms than submission to Christ and therefore thou must needs fall into Hell since there is no third place provided But perhaps thou wilt flatter thy self with a conceit that none of these things shall come upon thee in that as thou pretendest thou putst thy whole trust in God that he 'll save thee and reliest upon thy Saviour Jesus Christ alone to be kept by him from hell and the power of the Devil But beware I beseech thee how thou cheatest thy soul into that misery whence no trick or wile can ever fetch thee Dost thou put thy trust in God he 'll take thee to heaven when thou diest who now allowest thy self in those very sins for which he hath threatned to turn men into hell If indeed thou dost so then I hope it is some promise of his that thou bottom'st thy trust upon or else it is a vain confidence now shew me if thou canst one promise in the whole book of God that gives thee the least ground to hope for happinesse whilst thou continuest in an unregenerate naturall estate in love with thy sins take thy Bible and turn it over from one end to the other and see if thou canst find any such place but I could shew thee an hundred Texts where wrath is threatned to all unconverted sinners continuing such So that in plain English thy trust in God is no more than a wretched presumption that he will be so mercifull as to break his word to save thee and if indeed this word prove false than thy confidence will not deceive thee but if it prove true as for certain it will then woe be to thee for all this pretended trust And of the very same stamp is thy reliance on Christ whilst thou rebellest against him For tell me prethee does the Gospel say that every man who shall believe that Christ will save him shall be saved by him let his heart and life be what it will I am sure neither Christ nor his Apostles ever made known such a doctrine and if thy faith be grounded upon any other Gospel than Christ hath revealed thou art like to go seek another heaven than that he hath promised For he hath told thee plainly that without holinesse thou shalt never see the Lord that he is the author of salvation onely to those that obey him and that he takes off condemnation from none but such who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Now if thou dost truly believe in Christ thou wilt set thy self to seek for happinesse in the way that he hath appointed not in one of thy own devising for else it is a sign thou dost not depend upon him for salvation but on thy own fancy or Satans delusions or whoever it is whose directions thou followest rather than Christs If thou wast in a place where two ways meet and one man should bid thee follow him in this way and another should bid thee follow him in the contrary way if thou would'st come to thy journeys end is it not plain that thou believest him whom thou followest Or if thou hadst some dangerous disease and an able Physician should tell thee that if thou would'st depend upon him by the help of God he would recover thee and should leave with thee such and such Physick to take if in the mean time thou should'st take a conceit that thou mightest be well without following his advice and some one else should direct thee to an easier and cheaper way whereupon thou throwest away his medicines dost thou then depend upon this Physician for cure Thus the Lord Jesus the great Physician of souls assures thee if thou wilt depend on and trust thy self with him or believe in him he will keep thee from that everlasting death whereof thou art in danger and to this purpose he sends his Word and Spirit to cure thee of thy ignorance and wickednesse which is the disease of thy soul he would bring thee to Repentance and thoroughly purifie and sanctifie thy heart but thou think'st this a tedious course and wilt by no means submit to it come on it what will but fanciest thou maist be saved without so much adoe and that forsooth by reliance on Christ. Is not this a very wise businesse to rely on the Physician for health and throw away the Physick that should procure it I know well enough what thou would'st have Christ shall keep thee from hell but yet by all means he must give thee liberty to live in sin that is he must let thee carry fire in thy bosome but yet he must keep thee from being burnt he must let thee drink poison but yet he must keep it from griping thy bowels But believe it Christ came not into the World for any such ends This he hath purchast That no sins great or small shall damn the man that 's truly humbled for and forsakes them and depends upon him for a pardon and is made holy in heart and life but not that he who lives and delights in sin should escape misery which is indeed a kind of impossibility For man is in bondage and sin is his fetters now
And then in a secondary sense these words may be applied to the Sacrament so farre as this faith in Christ whereby grace is expected and derived from him is here particularly acted for thus he who in the Sacrament eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Christ hath eternall life that is he who comes with that fitnesse of soul as to be made partaker of the blessings and mercies hereby presented and earnestly desires that of Christs fulnesse he may receive suitable supplies of grace To the same purpose seems the Apostle to speak 1 Cor. 10.16 17. The cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the communion of th◠blood of Christ and the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many members are one body As if he should have said Hereby we have a communion with Christ himself we professe our relation to and interest in him and the benefits which come by him are communicated to us who truly believe in him his Spirit is diffused and shed abroad upon us and thereby we who make up one mysticall body whereof he is the Head being united and ingrafted into him as members doe live by him being acted and upheld by that life and vigour which he gives and continues to us Since then here is spirituall food sanctifying grace held forth and communicated to souls rightly disposed this farther informs us what kind of persons Communicants ought to be The dispositions of soul particularly suited to this benefit are 1. An earnest desire after grace to be given in and 2. A resolution to improve this grace received Hither Christians are to come earnestly longing to have communion with Christ himself who is not onely the Master of the Feast but the very food whereupon the Believer lives and this communion we have by his liberall communications of the graces of his Spirit to necessitous souls This desire of grace is that which is signified by those expressions of hungring and thirsting which we so often meet with in Scripture answerable to which the spirituall things desired are represented by things to be eaten and drank as by Bread Meat Milk Water and Wine And they are her◠shadowed forth under the elements of Bread and Wine and must be hungred after by all that come 〈◊〉 this Ordinance which teacheth us that none are fit to come who have not already received such beginnings of grace as may cause them to long for more who have not such a spirituall life wrought in them as may put them upon care to have this life supported and increast None can feel hunger but they that live none can desire after greater measures of grace who have not in some sort known and tasted the sweatnesse and excellency thereof But no humble souls need therefore be discouraged as if they were not worthy to feast at this Table where none are welcome but such as have true grace wrought in them since they may be confident of their acceptance if they can really find in themselves an appetite to the provisions made for them an hearty and sincere desire that their spirituall wants may be supplied their weaknesse strengthned and all their distempers healed and what true Christian whose grace is never so low but finds in himself a love to and a longing after more But this indeed condemns those who feel no need of any nourishment for their souls and therefore either wholly neglect Sacraments and other means whereby it is to be had or else come without any Stomach at all and content themselves with the shell and outside of the duty which will never feed them These full souls that loathe the honey combe are like to be sent empty away whilst the hungry onely shall be filled with good things Now to such sickly listless souls that even nauseate the most wholsome food I would say something briefly in order to their cure to bring them so farre into frame that they may come with quickened appetites and enlarged desires to the Lords Table as perceiving there are such good things here to be had which they doe most of all stand in need of 1. In order hereto labour to get sensible what needy empty creatures you are for till then you are not like to seek out for a supply Consider I mean chiefly how to destitute you are by nature and to this very day of that which is the true riches the beauty and dignity of the soul in that you are so unlike to God so full of corruption and wickednesse so empty of that Spirituall wisdome that holinesse humility heavenly-mindednesse and the like excellencies which alone can render you amiable in the sight of your Maker You cannot imagine if you have well studied your own hearts that you brought into the world with you all that grace which is of absolute necessity to perfect and accomplish your natures and it is too sad a sign you are still without it whilst you have no more mind to those means which God hath ordained for the conveyance and increase of it How happy a thing now was it if you were but throughly convinced of your own wants when you doe but perceive you need food or rayment or physick how industrious and impatient are you till you have one way or other got what you would have And thus ardently desirous would you be after the graces of Gods Spirit if you did rightly apprehend that these are the food and cloathing and physick of the soul. But alas how doe people generally labour under the sottishnesse and self-conceitednesse which was charged upon the Laodicean Church that thought her self rich increast with goods needing nothing and knew not that she was wretched and miserable poor and blind and naked Revel 3.17 'T is one of the greatest difficulties in the world to bring men to judge of their poverty or riches by the temper and frame of their souls to convince them that they are poor and needy whilst they are gracelesse though they should overflow in wealth and abundance of all externall things 2. Wherefore in the next place let me advise you to beware of a secret mistake which ruines millions in imagining that outward comforts may serve well enough to make amends for all your necessities that the husks of worldly enjoyments may serve instead of the bread that is in the Fathers house Oh take heed of inordinate thirsting after these puddles or of wallowing in them Doe not so eagerly pursue such unsatisfactory trifles as carnall profits and pleasures which divert you from the pursuit of those things that most concern you but examine well what there is in them to doe good to an immortall soul which you cannot but account your best part Beware then of being so devoted to
common stick Wherefore if you would not be lamentably wanting to your selves and Enemies to your own comforts I beseech you all you that love the Lord Jesus know your own priviledges and fix these things firmly on your mindes and let not the greatnesse of them hinder your belief since they are as sure as great but see that you apprehend a reality in all that is done at this holy Table See Christ himself in the Minister see also the benefits that come by Christ in the Bread and Wine and stedfastly believe that these are given you by Christ as verily as the Elements are given you by the Minister For pardâ—n and right to eternal life are things to be believed not felt so that it is by believing that you must perceive the comfort of them Wherefore beg of God to clear up these things to your apprehensions to remove doubtings to strengthen your faith and to joyn the inward seal of his spirit to the outward administration of his Ordinance And do you take the boldnesse though with the greatest humility to professe to God that you take this Sacrament as an earnest of all those mercies which you hope for from his bounty as hereby you deliver up your selves and all you have and are to his will and pleasure And as an earnest engageth both the Servant and Master to do according to their agreement so is God graciously pleased hereby to engage himself to his Creatures so that not only from his bounty but from his justice and faithfulnesse may you expect whatever he hath promised to do for you There being thus a sacred Covenant transacted betwixt God and your souls see only that you be not treacherous and Heaven and Earth shall sooner fail than God will depart from one tittle of all that he hath said With confidence may you look upon God as your Father Christ as your Head and Husband the Holy Spirit as your Comforter and Guide the Angels as your friends ready at Christs command to do you service the Saints in both Worlds as your Brethren and the full enjoyment of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the joyfull communion of Saints and Angels your assured everlasting portion 6. Since you in your selves are poor impotent creatures who without Christ can do nothing but must be beholden to that grace which drew you to this Covenant to hold you in it and to help you to perform your part and since there is of this grace even now to be given but to the prepared soul Let it be your care to get very sensible of your spiritual wants and to come hither earnestly desiring and expecting a supply Consider well with your selves what graces you finde weakest and most wanting what duties you are prone most to fail in and humbly beg suitable help and assistance Examine what temptations you are most exposed to and oftnest overcome by what corruptions you finde yet strongest in you and especially what those sins are to which you are inclined most by nature and custome or are most in danger of by your employments or converse in the World and represent all this in your prayer before God and beg of him more power and strength against them and now by this Ordinance to convey it to you Look round about and consider well the work you have to do the difficulties you are to grapple with the several relations wherein you stand and the duties they bring along with them and noâ—â—ue out for direction and assistance in all And for your encouragement remember what I told you that God hath engaged himself to all you his Covenant-people to afford you whatever may conduce to your happiness now since you stand in present need of the supplies of his grace you may confidently expect the same He that will bring you to the end will give you the means As if a King should call some of his poor subjects to give them great possessions in another Country which he had conquered and should also furnish them with store of money and provisions for the way even thus bounteously wil God deal with you oh Believers Hee 'l put strength into your feet and revive your fainting spirits that you may hold on in your way you that wait upon the Lord though you have no power or might in your selves yet shall renew your strength and run and not be weary and walk and not faint till you come to your journies end By faith in Christ we are engrafted into him as a branch into the Vine and are related as a Member to the Head so that he is become the root of our life and from him shall sap and nourishment be communicated to our needy souls He is the dispenser and fountain of Grace and his Ordinances are as Conduit-pipes and conveyances of the same And of this nature is the Lords Supper Here Believers are made to drink into the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Which words have a plain reference to this Sacrament Baptisme being mentioned at the beginning of the verse Come hither then oh yee thirstie souls and be refresht with the waters of life that shall flow in upon you in abundance Open your mouths wide and they shall be filled Be not straitned in your selves for the bowels of Christ are not straitned towards you Bring hither capacious enlarged hearts and you shall carry away accordingly The anointing of thâ— Spirit which is shed abroad upon you is like the Widdows Oyl 2 Kin. 4.6 It will not stay running whilst there is room to receive it Oh why is it then that we are so empty The fault is not in Christ we must needs acknowledge But let us examine whether we have not stuft our hearts with other things that leave little or no room for grace to be poured in there Are we not fill'd with the love of earthly things Is not our delight most of all in profits and pleasures And our desires eagerly carried out after them Do not Creature-comforts so possess and fill us that they even thrust forth the Holy Spirit from his habitation Do we not grieve him by our carnal joys and cause him to with-draw from us Oh! for shame let it be no longer thus with us Alas how little can these narrow hearts of ours contain of the fullness of God though they were widened to their utmost present capacity And shall we pinch and straiten them yet more by entertaining every trifle there This is that room which the King of Heaven would have entire to himself and shall every common guest every Beggar be lodged there Is it fit that Money-changers and Merchants should fill the house of God That it should be a thorow-fare for every Vessel every common and unclean thing Oh let your hearts then be consecrated as Temples for the Holy-Ghost not Dens of such Thieves as rob God of his due and draw away those desires and affections which he claims as his own And now let the gates of these Temples
the belief of that pardon which you have received in the hopes of that grace and glory which have been assured to you Meditations of heaven and the exercise of Thankfulnesse are now very proper works Consider also what you have done what an obligation you have laid upon your self how you are no longer your own Man having made a resignation of your self to God by Jesus Christ And beg the assistance of his Holy Spirit to enable you to stedfastnesse and perseverance in this holy Covenant whilst life shall last and beseech him that the Ordinance you have been made partaker of may become effectuall to your souls to all those ends that it was designed for and which are attainable by it Think it not enough to read over these things I entreat thee but do accordingly and now betake thy self to Consideration and Prayer to those ends I have exprest Review moreover what your miscarriages have been and humbly beg of God to forgive either want of due preparation or coldnesse and distractions that your hearts have not been affected suitably to the importance and excellency of the duty and the Majesty of him with whom you have herein had to do And be heartily thankfull for any measure of life and affection any raisednesse and comfort that God hath been pleased to vouchsafe you And here by the way let me caution all humble Christians to beware of a mistake to which they are too prone to wit To judge of their profiting in this or other duties by their present feeling and so to think they get no good except their souls are as it were lift up and ravisht with sensible joys and these onely they take for evidences of Gods acceptance and the having of communion with him But by this means you will often plunge your selves into needlesse sorrows and load your selves with unjust censures and which is worse you will hereby become lesse thankfull to God as thinking you have received little advantage because you found not those delights you expected and will be in danger of becoming weary of the work and ready to throw it off as thinking it unprofitable Wherefore to avoid these ill consequences and the mistake that begets them consider well That it is the uprightnesse and sincerity of your hearts in the performance of your duty which may administer most ground of comfort to you when you reflect upon it for be assured if you have this ornament you were really acceptable to him that lookt down upon you though this acceptance might not be testified with the giving in of any extraordinary joy Let it not then trouble you as if God was not well pleased with you because your affections were not raised up to an higher pitch since he doth not look so much at fits of passion as at the steady bent and tenour of the soul. Nor think because you mist of great joys that you had no favour from nor communion with God for consider again That the truest communion with God is to enjoy the câ—mmunications of his grace to your souls whereby you are made conformable to him and you may enjoy these saving influences of the Spirit when you cannot feel his more abundant consolations Moreover the fruit of this Ordinance is not so much to be discerned at present as in your after-conversation For the great benefit you are to expect being to receive farther measures of Grace from the Holy Spirit accompanying these means it cannot be well known what Grace you have received till you come to the exercise of it when tempâ—ations shall assault you And to allude to the Apostles words in another case Though this Ordinance may not at present be joyous yet it may afterward yield the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse to those that are conversant therein And lastly If you are but sincere as I said in your covenanting with God it is your duty to believe that you have this day received from him a seal to the promise of pardon and eternall life and in this belief may you take much rationall and solid comfort which otherwise you are not like to find And this is the ordinary way whereby the Spirit conveys comfort to the Soul first working in you a belief that the promises of God are in themselves most true enlightning you to the knowledge of your own souls and then enabling you to apply these promises to your selves as being such to whom they belong Thus the Apostle tells us their rejoycing was from the testimony their Conscience gave of their simplicity godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Wherefore you are not so much to expect any extraordinary immediate assurance from the Spirit that you are the Lords But see to get good grounds for your faith and so to have your hearts fill'd with peace and joy in believing Yet do not misinterpret what I have said thence to indulge your selves in any sloth or dulness or to content your selves with the bare doing of the work without heeding the frame of your heart therein no but take as much pains as you can to raise them to the greatest sensiblenesse affection and if you do so you may reasonably expect to find much sweetness and satisfaction in the work it self but my meaning in this caution is that you should not look so much at the feeling of extraordinary comforts as at the integrity of your hearts in vowing your selves to God and the continuing stedfastnesse of your resolutions to be true to these vows 2. And that 's the next thing I would exhort you to even to discâ—ver this inward truth and sincerity by your future holy and exact walking This is that which must crown all the rest I may say to you as Moses to the Israelites Deut. 26.16 17. You have this day avouched the Lord to be your God to walk in his ways and keep his statutes And the Lord hath avouched you to be his peculiar people And you have promised to take Christ for your Husband and Lord to live in love and obedience to him as you hope to be saved by him One thing now remains that you go and do likewise Say with the Psalmist I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgements Psal. 119.106 Now you have been remembring him that suffered in the flesh arm your selves with this mind no longer to live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. Let it not happen to you according to the Proverb The Dog is turned to his own vomit again and the Sow that was washt to her wallowing in the mire If God have spoke peace to your souls turn not you again to folly Call to mind particularly what sins you confest and promised to forsake and do accordingly You that have been guilty of drunkennesse or gluttony fornication and wantonnesse pride or covetousnesse be so no more you that have been wont to spend your time in
Pag. 76 Chap. 5. Perswasions to accept of the Redeemer and give up the Soul in Covenant to him Pag. 96 Chap. 6. IV. A right Remembring the benefits procured by his death 1. Of Justification Pag. 130 Chap. 7. The second benefit is sanctification Pag. 139 Chap. 8. The third benefit is eternal Happinesse with God Pag. 151 Chap. 9. V. It must be a thankful Remembrance Pag. 155 Chap. 10. VI. It must produce an holy Love to Saints Pag. 158 Chap. 11. Use An invitation to come to Christ and his Sacrament with Motives thereto Pag. 168 Chap. 12. Sacraments are not to be accounted vain because externals Pag. 196 Chap. 13. Against too seldome communicating in the Sacrament Pag. 205 Chap. 14. The Objection of unfitness answered As proposed by the doubting and careless Pag. 209 Chap. 15. Obj. We are not in perfect charity but at variance with our neighbours Answered Pag. 234 Chap. 16. Directions for a due preparation and right receiving Pag. 242 Chap. 17. Directions for duty after the Sacrament Pag. 286 CHAP. I. The Introduction lamenting the Ignorant Vulgars contempt of their Salvation and shewing the design of this Treatise THe blessed God who in these last daies hath spoken to us by his Son and more fully and clearly reveal'd the way to life and immortality which Christ hath brought to light hath abundantly manifested his infinite wisdome and goodness in suiting and accomodating his commands and institutions to the meaness of our capacities and as a God who knows our frame hath so fitted himself and the revelations of his will with a respect to our weakness that nothing but affected ignorance and meer wilfulness can keep out the understanding of what he hath taught us or hinder the performing of what he commands us The Doctrines of the Gospel which are of necessity to be believ'd in order to Salvation and upon which an holy life is built are few and plain which we may finde sum'd up in our common Creeds As for the precepts which are given to bee the rule of our life how easie are they to be known and remembred how exceeding reasonable in themselves and most agreeable to our rectified natures and apparently tending to the unspeakable advantage of particular Persons Families Towns and Common-wealths the Gospel being design'd not only to bring men to glory and pleasure hereafter but to better the world at present and to make this earth a kinde of type and shadow of heaven and so it would bee if men were but more generally broughâ— under the power and influence of the Christian Religion which doth not only forbid those sins which are destructive to the happiness of societies and single persons as the Laws and Religion of the Heathens might also do but strikes at the very heart of wickedness and gives the surest directions and best helps for the utter removal of the cause and root of all disorders in the world which it would be beside my purpose at present to speak of None have cause now to complain that they know not what to do to obtain eternal life since he that runs may read his duty To love God above all and our neighbour as selves to do as we would bee done unto to repent of all our sins and betake our selves to the mercies of God through his Son Christ Jesus for a pardon to be humble holy chaste and temperate is any of this difficult to be understood Have we not a plain word directing us how to lead the whole course of our life And have we not a monitour within us the Spirit of God by our Consciences in most cases telling us how wee should behave our selves The sum of all is comprehended in our Baptismal Covenant to Renounce the Devil and all his works the world with its pomp and vanities the flesh and the lusts thereof and to be devoted to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And as our duty is easie to be known so is it not difficult to be done where there is first a willing minde for indeed in this is comprehended all to bee unfeignedly willing to be such as God would have us and to do all that he bids us So that none can excuse himself for his disobedience which is nothing else but obstinacy or gross negligence And though of our selves wee are poor weak creatures yet through the almighty grace that is offered to our assistance we may be inabled to do all things needful for our happiness and those weaknesses that cleave to us which we allow not our selves in but strive against and bewail wee are assured through the merits of our precious Saviour shall never be laid to our charge And as the great truths and duties of our Religion are thus plain and easie so the positive institutions whereby I mean the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper are few and clear being neither burdensome to be practised nor the meaning of them hard to be understood Doth not that form of words which Christ hath enjoyned to be used in Baptism whereby we are solemlny received into the number of professed Christians sufficiently shew the meaning of it namely that we are hereby consecrated and given up to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And doth not our being Baptized with Water very plainly hold forth our washing and cleansing from the stains and pollutions of defiled nature and from the guilt of sin by the blood and Spirit of Christ. And who knows not that the Lords Supper is for remembrance of Jesus Christ that Died for us The breaking of the Bread and pouring forth of the Wine how fitly and evidently do they represent to us that his body was broken and his blood shed for us And the Elements of Bread and Wine which we commonly use to nourish and refresh us do naturally signifie that strength and comfort which we receive from Christ as I shall hereafter shew at large Since then the truths of our Religion are so evident the Duties so reasonable and excellent the Ritual part the Sacraments so easie so few and so exceeding profitable may it not well be expected that all who profess themselves owners of that Religion which Jesus Christ hath taught and established should be well acquainted with these weighty truths diligent in the practise of Duty to their Maker and Saviour and to one another and most devout and serious in the observation and use of these holy Sacraments constant in their attendance upon all Ordinances as publick Prayer and Preaching whereby they may be instructed enabled to know and do the will of him that sent them into the world But alas alas to the dishonour of God and our profession and to the grief of all that long after the advancement of true goodness in the world by sad experience wee finde the quite contrarary even in this our Nation that we look no further God forbid that I should go about to disparage the glorious fruits of our Reformation from Popish
proffered them on the same terms that Heaven is how greedily would they lay hold on them If a rich man should say to them Love but this Gold more than the Dirt under your feet and you shall have it Oh how quickly would they purchase it and never think the condition hard If the poor man was enjoyned to prefer bread bfore a stone and to desire it more and then it should be given him do you think he would ever bee without it And yet when the blessed God offers them ten thousand times greater mercies upon such terms as these they refuse them as if they were requir'd to do some great thing for that which was not worth their labour What doth God command us but to love himself more than empty creatures To value an everlasting Kingdome before the frail comforts of this short life And yet we will not do it He bids us but love our best part even our Souls more than these vile bodies and to take most care for that which deserves most as being the more excellent When hee enjoyns us to fly from sin and embrace holiness it is as if he should say Beware of that which will do you the greatest mischief and close with that which will do you the most good Accept of Liberty and freedome and do not lye in Prison and Fetters bee in Health and not in Sickness and yet men will not bee perswaded When God saith prefer my pleasant service before the bondage of the Devil and thou shalt be happy for ever he doth as it were say Be but heartily willing to accept of happiness here and thou shalt have it hereafter but the most are unwilling And upon this it is that not only God but all the world yea themselves will for ever lay the blame of their destruction by their resolvedness and willfulness in the waies of sin they are merciless murderers of their own Souls The Devil may tempt and the world may allure but they cannot not force them to sin There is not one of all those millions that perish who can truly say that hee was unfeignedly willing to have sav'd himself but could not But as for those that perish from amongst Christians they have least of all to plead in their own excuse For they have been exhorted and besought again and again to put away their evil-doings to renounce their lusts and turn to the good waies of God and yet they would not hearken What though the Devil entic'd them to wickedness did not Gods Spirit also move upon their hearts to have drawn them to holiness But they who knew not how to resist the Devil as they were commanded could resist and grieve and offer despight to the Spirit of Grace Whilst they knew not how to reject nor get away from a sinful Companion they could put off their Ministers and godly Friends with flat denials if not with contempt and jeers What though the flesh was craving for forbidden fruit unlawful pleasures and satisfaction Yet did not Conscience contradict and check it Why then should flesh which had no reason for its desires be hearkned to and obeyed whilst Conscience which is the voice of God must be slighted and silenced Tell me whoever thou art that makest a Trade of sin and livest in the neglect of thy Duty to God that made thee and keeps thee alive not accounting it the business of thy life to serve and honour him but goest from one day to another without the serious thoughts of his glorious Majesty and all his wonderful works and mercies thou who seest no need of hearing or reading Gods Word of constant Prayer or receiving Sacraments that puttest off the thoughts of Death and Judgement and art careless of making preparations for the same Tell me I beseech thee what 's the reason of such a wretched sinful course as this Is it because thou knowest no better Was 't thou never told how thou oughtest to behave thy self Didst thou never hear who it is puts men upon sin and what wages they have for it at length Didst thou never read nor hear of a Saviour that came to call men to repentance and holiness and laid down his life to save all that will be his faithful followers and Servants It 's very strange indeed if thou hast lived in any such dark corner that thou wert never acquainted with these matters But it is most likely thou hast heard them again and again but all hath been to no purpose What dost thou not know who made thee and why thou wast made There 's few Children but can answer such questions as these and yet how few men that consider them or that live as if they knew them There are indeed many to be found especially of the meaner sort who tell you they cannot read nor are Book-learned and therefore they hope God will hold them excused and not require much of them but yet these people have learning enough to look to their business in the world and if they be sick they 'l seek for help or if they are wronged they 'l look out for relâ—ef And what have they not learning enough to know what they must do to be saved Have they been idle and unwilling to learn so much as to read plain English and do they think this will serve their turn to plead for their ignorance and neglect of Duty and wilful Rebellions against God What were they taught or commanded such difficult things that none but Scholars can understand or do them They can tell as simple as they are that the light of the Sun is greater than the light of a Candle that Gold is better than Brasse that a King is above a Constable that its better to have an estate of their own which they shal enjoy as long as they live than to be Tenants to another to be turned out when he will Do they know these things and is it any harder to know that God who made all things and put that goodness into them which they have is better than all those things which he made and therefore should be preferred before all Creatures That he who is Lord of all should be obeyed above all that to be like him is better than to be like the Beasts that a certain everlasting Glory is more worth than short uncertain comforts here below Again these men knew well enough how to eat and drink and to take heed of what might hurt their bodies they could avoid the persons and places that were infected if the house was on fire they would run out of it and call neighbours to help to quench it if they are upon the way and are told of quicksands and quagmires they can avoid them And yet have they not learning enough to do good to their souls and to take heed of that which will destroy them for ever and hearken to others that warn them of their danger They can be diligent enough to please those that do them
it not enough to be able to say the bare words to repeat your Creed without book or the like but labour well to understand them and fix them deeply upon your minds as those things which are of greatest necessity to be known and remembred of any in the world But yet barely to know and remember them will not profit you except you so digest and improve them that they move your affections and guide you in your conversation It s a most lamentable mistake to think that the meer saying of what you believe and what you are to doe will save your souls as if there was some strange force in the very words which would make them usefull to all that should patter them over for by this means a Parrot might passe for a good Christian. If you had a Receipt given you directing you how to cure the Toothache doe you think it would take away the pain to get it without book and say it over by rote would you not rather see to read it and make use of the medicine which it should appoint Even thus must you read Gods Word and good Books to know what is your duty that you may set with all your might to the doing of it And indeed your knowledge is defective till it come thus to affect your heart wherefore let that be the mark by which you may judge of its truth and sincerity if it raise your affections and leads you forth to action 1 Joh. 2.3 4. For if you know that God hath in himself all fulnesse of goodnesse and know that you are needy and indigent and can onely receive supply and satisfaction from him you cannot but desire after him and seek how to get a part in his love If you know that you are in your selves lost undone creatures and that Jesus Christ and he alone is able and willing also to recover and save you you will then betake your selves to him for healing and saving mercy If you know that sin is your disease bondage and dishonour and holinesse your glory liberty and health you will readily comply with the Spirit of God to be freed from sin and to be made as holy as your nature is capable This then is true and saving knowledge which must be in all that can affectionately remember Christ at the Communion Of this knowledge Christ speaks Joh. 17 3. This is life eternal to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And of this the Prophet speaks Isa. 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many that is he shall justifie those who have such a sound and working knowledge of him as leads them to the performance of what he requires of them For if men once come indeed to know that Christ is the Son of God who earnestly desires their good and enjoyns them nothing but what makes thereto surely they will readily then hearken to and obey him All this I adde to knowledge because it is very imperfect till it become thus fruitfull and will not vindicate those in whom it is from the imputation of ignorance Now to get your knowledge to be thus powerfull upon your hearts and lives I cannot advise you to any more necessary course than these two 1. Humbly to beg of God to work the truth with power upon your souls that you may receive it in the love thereof When you go to hear or sit down to read beseech God to accompany the Word by his mighty Spirit that it may sink into your minds and not become unprofitable but that it may enlighten and awaken you and reach to the very inwards of your souls and give you such insight into your selves and such a discovery of your duty that you may vigorously be carried on to the performance of it And then 2. You must often consider of those truths that you know you must dwell upon them in your minds till you are moulded changed and wrought upon by them For want of this Consideration chiefly it is that so many remain in ignorance and that many others who have some sleight knowledge are no more bettered by it for you must meditate upon what you read or hear that you may more clearly and distinctly understand it which you cannot doe if words slip out of your thoughts as soon as they are out of your ears And then after the doctrines of the Gospel are well understood you must farther consider wherein they concern your particular case and what use you are to make of them for otherwise how is it possible they should profit you Though you have never so much book-learning and brain-knowledge what are you the better for all if you improve it not your own good by this serious consideration Can you think ever to have a profitable saving knowledge of Christ if you use not seriously to think of him what need you stand in of him and what benefit he will be to you and what must be done to make him yours Can you get your sins mortified and pardoned if you will not so much as bethink your self what an evil thing sin is and what your particular sins are Can you be move with the hopes of glory if you have it not in your thoughts Can you escape your danger if you forget it and so are out of fear If then you would ever have any profit by your knowledge follow the Apostles advice to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.7 Consider what is said to thee at at any time and that 's the next way to obtain from the Lord understanding in all things so likewise 1 Tim. 4.15 Meditate on these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all If you have not time to spare purposely for meditation yet take time as you are upon the way or about any businesse which will permit you And let this be the chief subject of your thoughts which I am sure deserves them most even how you should doe to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ and never leave following on this enquiry till you be fully resolved to set about what 's required of you to that purpose As there must be this sound knowledge of Christ and of the chief points of Christian Religion in all that can duely remember Christ at a Sacrament so it will be readily granted that this Jesus Christ must be believed to be indeed the Saviour of the world as is declared in the Scriptures and all that is there laid down of his Incarnation Life Death Resurrection Ascension Intercession and coming again to Judgement must be believed to be true I will not make a distinct Head of this because it s necessarily supposed in the former as I have explained it for our knowledge of these truths is never like to be effectuall with us if we are not first of all perswaded that they are truths And the Reader might be offended if I should make any question whether he believes the Christian Religion and
find that thou art such a one still as ever thou wast as earthly and carnall as ever as hard-hearted and stupid and as mad of Sin as ever and know'st not what it means to have thy heart broken for thy offences committed against the great God of Heaven and Earth Nay it may be thou prid'st thy self in being of the very same mind and disposition that thou art now ever since thou canst remember Thou art one that hast always lov'd God and believed in Christ and bore a good conscience towards all men and then I fear all 's little better than stark naught with thee for though there may be multitudes of good people in times of light and having good education that cannot distinctly tell when they were in a more especiall manner wrought upon and brought home to God yet few if any but can remember that once they were much worse than they are even that they were too like the rest of the world but now they find they are washed and cleansed Perhaps when thou hast sworn or been drunk or committed any the like wickednesse thou could'st cry God forgive me and say thou art a great sinner but still goest on and remainest as bad as thou wast If this indeed be thy case if thou art yet a meer stranger to this work of Christ upon thy soul who is exalted in 〈◊〉 first place to give repentance thou art at present very unfit to drink of that Blood which was shed for and which seals the Remission of sins Now that I may proceed in the method I promised by directing to the attainment of those graces which are wanting in order to the breaking of thy hard heart and humbling thy soul for Sin I might advise thee in the first place to look back into thy heart and life to find out thy particular sins not being content in the generall to confesse thy self a sinner as all men are for this is not so likely much to work upon thee but to fasten upon thy most remarkable sins and dwell upon and bewail them and so all lesser evils and that body of death which thou carriest about thee continually which was born with thee and is the ground of all the rest In this method partly may you find David's confession Psal. 51. at the beginning to the 5. verse Further I might direct thee earnestly to beg of God to open thy eyes and shew thee what thy estate is and discover to thee more of the evil of Sin before thou feel its sad effects when repentance will come too late Moreover thou art to use all other means appointed for the working of a true and saving sorrow for Sin as to observe what God speaks against it in his Word and to attend diligently to the most searching and awakening Preaching and to be much employ'd in those considerations that have a special tendency to the begetting of this frame and of this sort I might name severall as for instance to think frequently how great and gracious a God sin is committed against and what particular reasons thou hast to serve and please him from the mercies and means thou enjoyest think how he stands related to thee as thy Creator Preserver and Ruler and therefore disobedience to him is most odious impudent and undutifull Withall its good to consider how much hurt Sin doth to the soul which is so excellent a Being how it defiles debaseth and disquiets it how it exposeth the whole man to all kind of evils and sufferings here on earth and to everlasting torments hereafter and deprives men of those unspeakable joys which are to be had with and from God But to avoid tediousnesse I shall passe over these and many the like considerations and keeping to the Subject in hand shall rather direct thee to fetch matter for humiliation and repentance from the Crosse of Christ the remembrance whereof at the Sacrament should still keep up and renew thy godly sorrow If then thou art one who never yet sawest any great hurt in Sin but for all the ill language which is given it canst quietly and lovingly entertain it let me beseech thee a while to fix thy thoughts upon a crucified Saviour and then remain of this wretched opinion if thou canst Behold the Son of God become Man a most innocent holy person whose whole life was spent in doing good who heal'd Diseases cast out Devils pitied all that were afflicted taught the ignorant pray'd and wept for poor Sinners after all behold this blessed Jesus who had never in all his life been guilty of the least sin in thought word or deed nor ever gave just cause of offence to any man living behold him I say in the Garden a little before his crucifying sorrowfull even to the death in such a bitter agony that he sweat great drops or clots of bloud and what inward pains and sorrows dost thou think must those needs be which put him into such an unnaturall sweat as this though his patience was as much greater than any mortall mans as his sufferings themselves were for we cannot imagine that he who so calmly bore all those indignities and cruelties which were offered and inflicted by insolent men should be lesse patient in regard of those sufferings which he underwent immediately from God but we may conclude that these were infinitely the greater Then after this beginning of sorrows and after he had been most vilely abused and set at nought by the Rulers the chief Priests the Souldiers and common people after he had in a jeer been cloathed in a purple Robe with a Crown of Thorns on his Head and a Reed in his Hand after he had been laught at spit on whipt and buffeted behold him brought forth to be stretcht upon the Crosse where his enemies stood gazing shouting and wagging their heads at him whilst his tender hands and feet are struck through with nails that fasten him to the wood and in his soul he felt that pain which wrung from him that doleful complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Now let me beg thee to dwell a while upon this Subjâ—ct with the reason and bowels of a man and then tell me whetheâ— in thy Conscience thou think'st it was for a small matter that the Lord of Glory underwent such grâ—evous sufferings What was Christ so prodigall of his Blood as to shed it for a trifle or was God so cruel as to put his own dearly beloved Son to all this smart for an inconsiderable thing Certainly if thou art a Christian thou canst not harbour any such base thoughts Well then what was it that put Christ to all this sorrow and shame and smart Ah friend it was thy sin and mine and the rest of the worlds that was the cause and canst thou then imagine it an harmlesse thing If thou doubt of what I say hear the plain word of God Isa. 53.4 5 6. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we
thou dar'st not affirm either of these beware how thou mincest and lessenest thy sins when thou should'st repent of and bewail them for by so doing thou dost in effect thus blaspheme God Oh then let sin be call'd to the barre indict it for a murtherer as well thou mayst accuse it as guilty of the bloody death of the Lord of Life shew all the wounds and stabs that it gave him and see that thou pronounce sentence against it even utter death without any pity or remorse and heartily lament thy own basenesse in having so long given loving entertainment to such a monstrous murtherer and traitour And when ever thou find'st any favourable thoughts of sin arising in thy breast call to mind what it did against Christ and let that make thy heart rise against it and even boil with an holy hatred and desire of revenge And let the frequent remembrance of those streams of blood which thy sins fetcht from him open thy eyes to shed streams of tears or however work thy heart to an unfeigned sorrow for all thy iniquities for which thy Saviour was thus wounded 2. The next thing I would have have thee to enlarge thy meditations upon in the sufferings of Christ in order to the bringing of thee to a kindly repentance is that unspeakable love which is hereby manifested to the lost sons of men when I speak of Repentance I mean not meerly thy shedding of a few tears but an inward change of thy mind as I before shewed that thou should'st turn from Sin to the love of God and I know not what can be more likely to produce this than to shew thee the intolerable evil and mischief of sin that thou maist turn from it and the infinite goodnesse of God that thou maist be drawn to him Both these the Crosse of Christ most admirably holds forth so that well might the Apostle call Christ crucified the wisdome of God and the poweâ— of God 1 Cor. 1.23 24. How it shews the evil of sin to bring us to loath and leave it I have already shown and shall doe more in two following particulars That which I would now set thy thoughts upon is the inconceivable love of God in giving Christ for us and of Christ in being willing to lay down his life that as many as believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life Consider seriously how the great God hath sent after thee a poor worm the God whom thou hadst sinn'd against makes thee offers of peace the God who needs thee not yet appears desirous of thy happinesse when he might have poured out everlasting wrath upon thee he was willing to shew his compassion And see what he hath done in order to thy recovery He hath sent his own Son made of a woman made under the Law and delivered him to death for our offences and accepted of the satisfaction he hath made on the behalf of all that shall by him come to that God from whom they are faln and by his death not onely pardon of sin and deliverance from hell but a glorious Kingdome that shall never fade is purchast for all true Believers So that here 1. Thou seest plainly there is hope of pardon and acceptance upon thy hearty sorrow for and resolutions against sin And whom would not this encourage to come in freely acknowledging and protesting against their former backslidings and rebellions If indeed thou wast past hope it were as good keep thy sins while thou maist and make thy best of them But this is not yet thy case and if it hereafter should be thou maist thank thy own wilfulnesse For Jesus Christ hath brought in a better hope there is by him liberty proclaim'd to the captive freedome to all that are bound ease and rest to all that are burdened a pardon to all that are penitent And what will not this make thee stirre Is a golden Scepter held forth and wilt thou not lay hold of the opportunitie Is God willing to put up all the affronts he hath received from thee if thou wilt now come and submit thy self and will not this bring thee in Is he ready to be reconcil'd and art thou backward what dost thou rather hold off because he doth so invite and importune thee to him Because he is pleased with so much earnestnesse and compassion to call thee off from sin to himself dost thou the more securely run on in wickednesse Oh base ingratitude and meer madnesse Because there is hope of pardon discovered by the Gospel as procured by Christ therefore even therefore doe wretched sinners harden their hearts and embolden themselves to continue at a distance from God as if it was a matter of nothing to get their peace made with him or as if he must of necessity pardon and save them let them live as they list Thus vilely doe they pervert the very design of the Gospel Whereas were they ingenuous and reasonable they would acknowledge it to be a most forcible motive and engagement to cast away sin to hear that there was hopes of having forgivenesse and favour from God If a company of Subjects should rebell against their Prince what course would be more effectuall in all probability to reclaim them than to assure pardon to all that would throw down their arms But if they should be so base as to abuse the mercy of their Prince and think because he was so compassionate they might the safelier persist in their rebellion it is but just they should be destroy'd If thou love thy soul then beware how thou abusest the grace of God Wilt thou put away from thee the evil of thy doings wash thee and make the clean and so with humility and submission flie to God for mercy if so this mercy through Christ shall be assuredly thine But otherwise know there is not a word of comfort for thee in the whole Gospel nothing but what may strike thee with terrour For remember well that the death of Christ gives all the encouragement in the world to Repentance but not the least to Sin Yea it hath done more to destroy sin than all the terrours and threatnings of the Law Well then though thou art a lost sinner departed from God once without hope yet behold the God of heaven and earth takes pity on thee he would not have thee utterly perish though thou hast done so much to destroy thy self He calls thee back to him if thou wilt hearken and obey and humble thy self before him for thy departure from him and for all the dishonours done to his holy Name and wilt now at length devote thy self to his fear thou need'st not doubt of his favour So then here 's hope of mercy that may encourage all that hear it to Repentance 2. And in the next place there is so much love and goodnesse manifested in that way whereby this mercy is procured and tendered that may serve to work upon the hearts of all but flat
Christ as may prevail with all that love themselves to make out after it and depart from sin which alone can keep them from it And that 's the second Consideration which the Death of Christ helps us to in order to the working of a kindly Repentance namely the great goodnesse of God hereby revealed to poor sinners 3. From all that hath been said will more clearly appear the hainous nature of sin as a farther motive to Repentance in that it is a contradiction to all this love of God and an undervaluing of the greatest mercy that was ever bestow'd upon the world being in effect a trampling under foot of the blood of the Lord Jesus whereby we should be sanctified And hereby I mean those sins which have been committed since men heard of the Gospel For as the evil of sin did appear in the greatnesse of those sufferings which Christ underwent to procure a pardon so these his sufferings doe exceedingly aggravate their sins who have continued in them after they have been told again and again what their Saviour hath done to make satisfaction for them if they would not undervalue and despise it Oh how have you made a shift so often to hear and read of the life and death of Christ and yet have done all that in you lies to crosse the end of his coming into the world and to make his Death of none effect to you whilst yet you pretend to believe that his design was wholly for your good Oh unthankfull wretches to make such a requitall for such unvaluable love As if you studied how you might most dishonour and displease him who thought not his own life too dear to lay down for you Could you see him upon the Crosse wounded torn and bruised for your sakes and could you think of no other recompence but to give him fresh wounds by your wilfull sins Did he once despise the shame and endure the crosse for you and could you find in your hearts again to put him to an open shame and as it were crucifie him afresh Did he indeed deserve such dealing as this at your hands Bethink thy self Reader whether this hath not been thy case Hast thou not liv'd in those sins which Christ died to deliver thee from And what hast thou thereby done lesse than proclaim That there is more to be got by thy lusts than by thy Saviour that its better to remain in thy polluted corrupt estate than to be washt in the blood of Christ whereby our consciences are purged from dead works to serve the living God And did they vilifie Christ more that contemn'd him jeer'd him and put him to death If thou take thy fleshly pleasures and worldly profits to be of greater advantage than any thing that can accrue to thee by Christs Death dost thou not think as basely of him as any of his Crucifiers did And hadst thou been there with this frame of heart is is not most likely thou would'st have joyn'd with them what ever thou maist now think As they hated Christ because he told them the truth and reprov'd them for sin and therefore did all they could to rid themselves of one whose preaching and presence was such a burden to them so dost thou appear in effect an hater of Christ his life and doctrine whilst thou walkest so flatly contrary thereto And what 's this lesse than desiring that there was no God nor Christ to govern and judge thee no such Rule as the Gospel to be thy guide Nay let me tell thee thou who hast profest thy self a Christian and yet hast behav'd thy self thus unworthily toward Christ thou art herein more guilty than the Jews themselves for what they did was very much out of ignorance but thou after thou hast known that he is the Son of God and that he laid down his life for our sins hast manifested all thy contempt of him and rejected him from being thy Saviour whilst thou would'st not be saved by him from thy reigning lusts which thou hast loved more than him as Judas loved the money for which he was hired to betray him After thou hast known of that friendship which by the Crosse of Christ was shewn to the ruined world yet thou hast been an enemy to this crosse whilst thou hast made thy belly thy God and minded earthly things whilst thou hast delightfully liv'd in the practice of any known sin What then were the Jews prickt to the heart when they were convinc'd that they had crucified that Jesus whom God had made Lord and Christ and shall it not have the same effect on thee to consider thou hast been guilty in some sort of the same wickednesse and hast shewn forth the very same spirit that was in them For think not thy self more blamelesse because thou never saw'st Christ nor hadst any hand in his Death nor didst joyn with his enemies in accusing condemning and reproaching him but criest out against them as monsters of men that persecuted the most spotlesse Innocence with such savage fierceness for all this while thy guilt may be as great as theirs whilst thou hast as great an enmity against the image of Christ and the Law of Christ as they had against his person And that thou dost not wound him and spit in his face is not from the goodnesse of thy nature but because he is out of thy reach for were he now before thee and could it gratifie thy lusts so to deal with him it s much to be feared thou would'st not stick at it Whilst the Pharisees condemned their fore-fathers for killing the Prophets they followed them in the very same sin And suppose a Father had two Sons the one at mans estate the other an infant and the elder of these by following wicked courses should break his Fathers heart and occasion his death and the younger when he was grown up should lead the very same life that the other did but yet should take on him very much to condemn his Brother for being so disobedient and hard-hearted as to bring his Father to the grave is it not plain for all this that had he been in his Brothers stead he would have done the same that he did since he also takes those courses which were so grievous to his Father Thus it is to be remembred that Sin was that which put Christ to death as well as the Jews and this Sin is it thou lovest though thou seemest to hate them And as those Jews put his body to pain by their cruelties so dost thou grieve his Spirit by thy wickednesse And know he takes it as hainously from thee that thou should'st thus displease him as he did from them that they should persecute him to the death Nor art thou like to get a pardon at any easier rates than they even no other way than looking on him whom thou by thy sins hast pierced and bitterly mourning for this thy bloodinesse and ingratitude What saist thou then after all
great men their friends recommending themselves to the world by their sumptuous Houses great Retinues rich Cloathes gentile deportment and the like braveries others by their strength beauty wit learning and the like accomplishments of body or mind Thus you see according to the nature of mens happinesse they make use of means to reach it Search well therefore whether some of these or the like empty trifles have not been more set by and laboured for than â—hâ—ist himself If so never say thou takest him for thy Mâ—diatour for it is apparent thou dost not make him so No but those things are indeed thy Mediatours which thou makest use of to accomplish thy selfish dedesigns And hereby thou dost in effect as much reject and vilifie Christ as if thou didst revolt from him and take Mahâ—met fâ—r thy Saviour Oh beware of deceiving thy self in this point which is so easie so common and dangerous to talk of trusting and relying on Christ whiâ—st the heart relies most upon some outward enjoyment to bring it to the happinesse it seeks for and the most they look for from Christ is to have him keep them from Hell after they have been all their days gratifying their lusts and serving the Devil but they never think of improving him as a Mediatour betwixt God and their souls expecting all their mercies of this life and the next to come by him and by him offering up all their services to God Wherefore I beseech you to remember that nothing will prove you sincerely in Covenant with Christ as one of his living members but a thorow stedfast willingnesse to be brought to happinesse by him in his own way and let it be your care to examine whether you are thus heartily willing And then lastly hast thou submitted thy soul to the powerfull workings of the Holy-Ghost to renew and regenerate thee Hast thou faithfully rendred up thy self to him to be transformed into the divine likenesse to have thy corruptions purged away and all saving graces implanted in thee It is the office of the Holy Ghost to carry on Christs interest in the souls of men to fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power to bring them to the Father by the Son No man can cry Abba Father and be fill'd with a child-like disposition and nature but he who hath received this Spirit of Adoption and no man can call Jesus Lord and be heartily subject to him but by the help of this almighty Spirit He shews men the vanity of the Creature and the goodnesse the fulnesse and all sufficiency of God and enables the heart firmly to cleave to him He convinces men of sin and shews them the odiousnesse and danger of it and discovers to them a Saviour by whom they may be Redeemed from all their iniquities from the dominion and from the condemnation of sin and he begets in the soul a saving faith making men not onely willing but earnestly desirous to accept of Christ to both these ends Reflect upon thy self then whether thou hast experienc'd any such workings in thy soul or not whether thou art changed by this divine power into a new and heavenly nature and art hereby become a new creature as all in Christ are old things being done away Hast thou ever found the vigorous and warm movings of this holy Spirit upon thy heart conveying light and life to thy dark soul dead in trespasses and sins Hast thou carefully cherisht these motions and complied with this sanctifying work which spreadâ— it self through the whole man And art thou willing to be governed by him to hearken to his voyce within thee and to that word which was inspired by him to be a lamp to thy feet If these things be so then indeed thou hast performed the engagement that was laid upon thee by being baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost But call thy self to account whether it hath not been quite otherwise with thee Dost thou not still remain in the carnall selfish state alienated from the life of God through a blind mind and a wicked stubborn will being still at enmity with him Hast thou not quenched the Spirit and stifled convictions and resisted his operations upon thy soul Art thou not rather guided by the seducing spirit and thy own unmortified lusts Doe not these still remain in strength and power so that whatever they draw thee to must be done let the Word and Conscience say what they will If it be thus never boast of having God to be thy Maker nor Christ thy Redeemer for if thou art not sanctified by the Holy Ghost God will never own thee for his who accepts of none but an holy people Thus by looking carefully into your hearts you may discern whether you are truly in covenant with God or not And if this seem any matter of difficulty to know what your hearts are or rather least you should pretend your hearts are thus right when it is no such thing I shall give one instance more whereby you may know how you stand related to God and that is by the consideration of your lives and conversations for if you are sincerely devoted to God in your hearts then you must needs shew it in the holinesse of your lives which is nothing else but the keeping of that Covenant which is made betwâ—xt God and the soul. If you do indeed fâ—llow after holinesse it 's a sign you account it your chief happiness to see God If you are patient and unwearied in well-doing it 's a sign you seek for honour and glory with God And if you keep the Commandments of Christ endeavouring to walk as he walk't it 's manifest that you love him and believe in him If you bring forth much fruit hereby you and all men may know that you are Christs Disciples that you are living branches of him the true Vine then have you received Christ if you walk in him And if you shew forth the fruits of the Spirit in your lives it 's a sure token that his graces are sown in your hearts If you are led by and walk after the Spirit then indeed the Spirit is with and in you and you live in him Gal. 5.25 But on the other hand it 's as certain thou art a stranger and Aliene from this Covenant I have beâ—ore described if thou be one that servest the Devil rather than the true God Make what profession thou wilt to love God and believe in Christ if thou allowest thy self in any one known sin all thy great pretences will at length come to nothing What doth that man love the Lord who doth not hate evil Nay who delights in that which the Lord abhorrs and wherewith he is griev'd and provokt to fury Doth hee take Christ for his Lord who will not be obedient to him Doth he take him for his Physitian who would not be heal'd but had rather keep his diseases Beware as thou lovest thy soul of
word and all providences shall help forward thy happinesse All thy outward affairs thy heavenly Father who knows what thou hast need of will see to and regard at all times he will so dispose of and provide for thee as shall be most for thy advantage no affliction shall befall thee but will prove as Physick to thy soul in all estates and conditions he will be near to thee to direct and preserve thee if thou retain thy integrity so that neither men nor Devils shall prevail against thee to thy ruine And the Holy Ghost will be thine to enlighten sanctifie guide and comfort thee to assist thee in duties and to seal thee up to everlasting happinesse When thou diest the Lord Jesus will receive thy Spirit and preserve thee from the roaring Lion and the pit of destruction and vouchsafe thee the beginnings of happinesse with himself which shall be compleated and perfected at the great Resurrection day when thou shalt be raised up by his power and brought into appearance not in wrath but in mercy and shalt be publickly owned by that Christ whose person and cause thou didst here embrace and own and by him thou shalt be openly justified from all accusations of Satan or the Law and shalt be presented pure and holy into the presence of the Father and shalt be eternally blessed in the enjoyment of all those treasures of infinite love and goodnesse which God hath laid up in store for believers This is the inheritance which we come to by Christ we are made heirs of God yea coheirs with his own Son we enter upon the joy of our Lord with him we shall abide in the mansions that are in our Fathers house Then at length we shall know all the designs of Divine wisdome and love when they shall be accomplish'd in us and for us and by the fruition we shall understand what is that exceeding and eternall weight of glory for which there were made such wonderfull contrivances such solemn preparations by that God who doth all things like himself being infinitely wise and good Then shall we reach to and find those glorious things that are spoken of the City of God yea those things which it was neither lawfull nor possible for Angels or Men to utter To be short thou shalt then be advanced to the utmost possible perfection of thy nature thy soul shall be fitted for those actions and employments which are most suitable to it even the loving and praising thy Maker Saviour and Sanctifier and shalt be made capable of tasting the most ravishing satisfying sweetnesse and joy in these employments in pleasing the blessing God and in feeling thy self encompassed with the warm embraces of his dearest love And as this thy blessedness shall be infinite and unspeakable so shall the continuance of it be eternall Nor shall thy delight be once abated or interrupted through all this eternity but be ever exalted to the highest pitch it shall always flow yea overflow but never ebbe This is the joy which hath no end no measures or decay This is the glory which Christ will give his servants not as the world gives gives he unto them This he tells us is the will of him that sent him that every one that sees the Son and believes on him may have everlasting life Joh. 6.40 The water which he gives us to drink shall be in those who partake of it a well of water springing up into everlasting life And some beginnings of this divine life now there are brought into the soul whilst it is made in its measure conformable to God and is carried out after him with the strong workings of love and desire and feels the shedding abroad of his love in it self and lives in the joyfull expectations of an advancement to the abundance of life the perfection of blisse which I before mentioned And now Reader if thou believest all this which I think thou must needs except thou take the Gospel for a cheat if then thou believest it to be true I would know of thee whether the invitations Christ makes thee to come to him be not backt with sufficient motives to prevail with all that are not quite beside their wits in matters of the greatest moment By this time I hope thou seest that thy Redeemer seeks thy interest whilst he is so importunate with thee What is all for in the result but this That thou would'st make thy self blessed for ever This he commands thee this he beseeches thee to And shall such commands be disobey'd shall such requests be denied Good Lord How strange a thing is this That man a reasonable Being whose wisdome sets him above all other creatures on earth should be thus woo'd thus call'd upon and entreated to be happy and yet that he should stand dallying and deliberating whether he had best be so or not yea that he should peremptorily refuse to be so Which should I most admire in this case the distraction and base ingratitude of man or the inconceivable mercy and patience of God so long to bear with such unworthy creatures and so frequently to renew the offers of blessednesse and even presse it upon them Well then dost thou think there is any gain in godlinesse Is there enough to be had with Christ to make him and his gifts worth the accepting For that I tell thee still is all that is expected from thee be but cordially willing to take him and all his benefits together and for certain all shall be thine Thou shalt find every promise of the book of God made good to thy comfort yea thou shalt find ten thousand times more than ever thou could'st understand or conceive from the fullest promises the highest expressions that ever thou mett'st with concerning the priviledges of Believers Shall all that is said then bring thee to be one of that number or not Dost thou know where to make a better bargain for thy self If so take thy own course and make thy best on 't for be assured Jesus Christ needs not thee His glory doth not so depend on thy subjection to him that it should be lessened in case of thy disobedience Doe thou as thou wilt he knows how to secure his own interest but fain he would perswade thee to take pity on thy self and save thy own soul. If there be any in all the world that hath done more for thee than Christ or that will doe more hearken to him and spare not But before thou conclude there is any such person or thing examine matters well on both sides and then doe as thou seest meet Indeed the case is so plain that the veriest child or fool almost may know how to decide it Bethink thee well what thou art like to have from the world from thy lusts from the service of the Devil or from any thing that would keep thee from Christ. Canst thou think that the satisfying of thy senses with what they call for or pleasing thy fancy with
examine well whether thou art such a one as I have here described yea if thou hast any desire to escape everlasting misery and be received into heaven when thou diest examine thy self for except thou beest or becomest such a one as sure as God is true thou art never like to be saved CHAP. XI An invitation to come to Christ and his Sacrament with Motives thereto Use. MY next work now is to call upon and exhort all thus to examine and prepare themselves and so to come and eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. Ho! all you that have any love to the blessed Jesus who loved you to the shedding of his warmest hearts-blood for your sakes come hither and shew forth his death till he come If Christ be precious to you let his memory be precious and be you carefull to preserve it by your due and frequent attendance upon this Ordinance set up on purpose for the Remembrance of him All you whose eyes have been opened to discern the vilenesse of your natures and conversations come hither and give a kindly vent to your sorrow beholding sin at the worst in those wounds that it gave to your dearest Saviour All you that are indeed convinced that Christ is the true Messiah come forth from God to give life to the world and are resolved to hearken to him that your souls may live come hither and before God Angels and Men professe these resolutions and bind your selves over to him to be his Disciples and most obedient servants Be not asham'd of the Crosse of Christ but a vow it before all the world that your hope of happinesse is placed onely in that Jesus who was slain and hanged on a tree but is risen again and ascended into the heavens hereby own that you are Christians let others be what they will Come hither all you that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and feed upon him who here conveys of himself to the empty longing soul and satisfies his people with good things suitable to their wants Come hither poor dejected drooping soul that dost unfeignedly love thy Lord but art afraid thou shalt never obtain his favour come and see what he hath done to assure thee of the reality the freenesse and fulnesse of his love Come and tast the provisions he hath made for thy comfort and rejoyce in the sense of his bounty All you that expect shortly to look your Redeemer in the face come hither and behold him where till then you may most clearly discern him Here stamp his imâ—ge firmly upon your minds that he may live in your breasts though for a while he is out of your sight that till you shall see him you may never be forgetfull of him Come hither young ones and betimes list your selves under Christ your Leader here Remember your Creatour and Redeemer in the days of your youth Come hither ye aged that have stood idle in the Market-place till the eleventh hour of the day now at length hire your selves under the Lord of the Vineyard to be more industrious in his service for the hour that is behind Come hither ye poor and partake of a Feast that shall cost you nothing Come hither ye rich to a Feast more precious and costly than ever you were at which cost the Master thereof his own life to provide it Come hither ye Masters and promise to become the servants of Christ. Come hither ye Servants and by taking Christ for your Lord become his Free-men Yea all you that have been the most estranged from God and greatest despisers of Christ yet now at length if you will come in acknowledging the folly of your former ways protesting against any longer continuance therein humbly imploring mercy and acceptance from God through his Son even you are invited hither to testifie the truth of your return to him and to receive the pardon that is ready for you Behold Wisdome hath builded her house and furnisht her table and calls to all to eat of her bread and drink of the wine that she hath mingled to all that are fully determined to forsake the foolish and go in the way of understanding Hearken you foolish prodigâ—ls whose souls are out of tast with all solid food through your feeding upon the luscious delights of sin and the creature which yet have onely deluded never satisfied you Cast away these empty husks and come to a plenteous Feast here made ready wherein you will acknowledge there is sweetnesse and fulnesse if your distempers be cured and your appetite and relish changed So large is the commission which Christ hath granted that in his name I dare confidently invite all whoever they are or whatever they have been even the most profane and sensuall drunkards and whoremonger the proud and covetous if now at last you will be perswaded to bid an everlasting farewell to all your ways of wickednesse and for the time to come to walk in the holy path see that you are sincere and you may come boldly to the Sacrament there to manifest and confirm these purposes If at length you are weary of that miserable drudgery wherein the enemy and tormentour of mankind the Devil hath imploied you labouring to keep you in bondage to sin than which there is not a more loathsome stinking dungeon more intolerable chains in all the world if I say you would fain be delivered from this slavery and will take on you Christs easie yoke that you may find rest for your souls come hither and enter your selves into his service engaging to be subject to him all the days of your life In a word all you that have been baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and understanding what that signifies doe consent to the obligations thereby laid upon you come to the Lords Supper and manifest this consent and renew this covenant to be the Lords Some considerations I shall lay before you to quicken you to the performance of this weighty duty which I propose not so much to those who are already prepared that they would come to this Feast but rather to all indifferently that they would prepare themselves and come away without any longer delay 1. To that end first consider this is the expresse command of Christ as you may find at his first institution of this Sacrament before mentioned Luk. 22.19 This do in remembrance of me And to whom was this command given do you think onely to the Apostles or in them to all Christians What reason can be given why it should be peculiar to them and not common to others They were lookâ— upon and spoke to here as Disciples and therefore all Christs Disciples are concerned therein And you cannot think this was an injunction that had reference to that time onely the very phrase Remembrance speaks the contrary for this implies something that 's past or absent which shews they were to do this after the Death of Christ should be past and
your souls not to come hither in love with your sins or without resolutions to turn from every evil way Be it known to you God will be sanctified in those that draw neaâ— him and will severely punish irreverence and profane rudenesse in those that pretend to his solemn worship and service as you may see in that terrible instance of Nadab and Abihu Levit. 10.1 2 3. And for unworthy Receiving of the Lords Supper the Apostle tells the Corinthians For this very cause many were weak and sickly amongst them and many faln asleep and because they would not judge themselves therefore God judged them 1 Cor. 11.30 31. He 's an holy God and commands all those to be holy that hope for acceptance in their approaches to him And he 's a God that searches the heart so that there 's no hope of deceiving him Wherefore stand off all you that have design'd to persist one moneth or week longer in your rebellions against the Soveraign Majesty Dare not to offer so great an affront to him as to thrust in amongst his subjects whilst thou art a resolved traitour as if thou would'st make a triall whether he could discern thee in that croud He 's a jealous God and will not endure to be so tempted And sooner or later be sure thy sin shall find thee out If then thou dislikest the holy Laws and government of Christ take not an oath in a mockery that thou wilt be subject to him which beforehand thou intendest not to keep Here 's no jesting or dallying beware how thou playest with edge-tools These are serious things wherefore either be serious and sincere in thy medling with them or keep at a distance Avoid I say all you loathsom defiled sinners that are in love with your filth and will not be washed and cleansed whilst this is your posture you are no way fit to fit at the Table of the King of Glory there to Feast with his beloved friends whom he hath purified and made meet for his fellowship and favour But perhaps you 'l presently reply you like all this well enough this is that you would have and you agree with me to stay away as perceiving your own unfitnesse And are you indeed resolved to stay away and to continue in this unprepared posture as thinking you have hereby some more dispensation for a carelesse ungodly life than others have Alas poor wretches how willing you are to be cheated into misery And how desirous do you seem of a freedome to do your selves the greatest mischief But a little to undeceive you Let me assure all you that live upon this earth and are endued with reason whether you will bind your selves to God by this Sacrament or not there lie so many other indispensable engagements on you to his service that you have not the least liberty more than others to rebell against him and that will sufficiently appear if you do but consider these two things 1. The relation wherein you naturally and necessarily stand to God 2. Your more expresse and profest obligations to him For the first Consider Are you not his creatures and â—e your Maker And is he not the upholder of your being the lengthner of your lives and the giver of all your mercies Is he not therefore your owner and Governour Do you not owe your selves and all you have to him And is it not your duty to serve and obey him whether you have promised you will do so or not Do you think he hath no title to you till in some solemn manner you have profest subjection to him Do you think the service you owe to God is so purely a free-will offering that if you will render it you may and if not you are in no fault By this reason God must be much beholden to you for it What do not his Laws bind till you have given your consent Must he ask you leave to govern you Do you think it is with you in this case as with a Servant that owes this man or that no duty till he hath hired himself into his service Sure you cannot be so stupid But rather will you not yield that from your very birth you are at least as much obliged to obedience to your Maker as any Child to his Parent And pray tell me what would you think of that Child who when his Father bad him do any thing should stubbornly refuse and tell him he never promised him any such obedience Would you think this a satisfactory answer Do you not easilie perceive that Children are bound to obey their Parents even by virtue of that relation they stand in to them though they never enter into any formall engagement to be dutifull Even thus do you stand absolutelie bound to obey God the Father of Spirits before ever you professe you selves to be his people And all your professions though they are as so many farther ties upon you to obedience yet they give not God any new right to you which before he had not onelie hereby you acknowledge his right and promise to render him what is his due Hence then you may see what an absurd conceit it is that you may any whit more freelie sin against God before you have taken the Sacrament than after Can you be so sottish as to imagine that such excuses as these will serve your turn at that day when you must be called to render a reason of your doing When the Gospel first came to the Heathens I hope you 'll grant they were bound to receive it and yet they had never before given their consent to be rul'd by Christ nor had made any Covenant with him But why stand I so long on a case so plain And then take notice farther that by virtue of this subjection which you owe to God as his creatures you are bound to expresse your resolutions to serve him by what signs and in what manner he shall appoint you now he hath commanded you to expresse these resolutions by receiving the Lords Supper as I have before proved And will you disobey this particular command and then think this will excuse you from obedience to the rest To make the case plain by a like instance Suppose when the King had commanded all his Subjects to repair to severall places in the Kingdome there to take the Oath of Allegiance many amongst them should absent themselves and refuse to take it and afterwards should conspire together and rise up in arms against him do you think it would excuse them to plead that they never swore Allegiance to him Why first it was their fault that they did not since they were commanded to do it and then however they were engaged to peace and faithfulnesse by living in the Kingdome and receiving protection from their Prince Even thus will your neglect of Sacraments be charged on you as a fault for which you had no reason but will be farre from being admitted as an excuse of any other sins
against which you were sufficientlie tied by your living meerly upon God and receiving all you had from him But then in the second place consider you are already obliged by your own promises and professions to walk in the fear of the Lord and therefore have not the least ground to alâ—ow your selves in sin from your not having received the Loâ—ds Supper as an engagement against it For bethink you a little do you not profess your selves to be Christians And what 's the meaning of that but that you worship God by Jesus Christ and acknowledge him to be your Maker and Ruler and Christ to be your Saviour And accordinglie are you not devoted to God by Baptisme whereby you stand bound to renounce the Devill the World and the Flesh and to be Christs faithfull servant to your lives end I confesse you were thus consecrated to God by your Parents in you infancy when according to the Law of God and Nature they had full power thus to dispose of you but now you are come to years of discretion do you consent to what they have done or not In plain English Doe you renounce your Baptisme wherby you stand obliged to be the Servants of God and his Son Christ Jesus You that I am now speaking to will I know deny this with great earnestnesse and cry God forbid that you should be such apostate wretches from Christians to turn Heathens and Infidels Well then if you acknowledge your selves under the bond of your Baptisme assure your selves you are hereby as much tied from the least sin in thought word or deed as you can be by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper What will you do then in this case will you dare to run on in those sins from which your Baptisme doth bind you and so renounce it in your practise whilst you own it in profession Or will you hereafter be so silly as to abstain from the communion for fear of engaging your selves to an holie life to which you stand engag'd already by your own consent If you continue in this mind it 's too plain a sign that in your hearts you disown your Baptisme it self and what a case are you in then For let me ask you if you had been born of Heathen Parents and were but just now come to the understanding of the Christian Religion and were acquainted what kind of Persons they must be that own'd it would you be baptiz'd into this Faith and hereby professe your resolutions to lead such an holy life as all Christians are commanded If you say you would not hence then it follows that you dislike your Baptisme since if it was to be done again you would none of it And if indeed you wish your selves in the case of unbaptized Heathens now you are reallie worse than they and shall be in a worse condition shortlie But if you say you would readilie be baptized if it was yet to do then fain would I know why you are so backward to receive the Lords Supper wherein you do but renew the Covenant that is made at Baptisme acknowledging your selves to be true Christians and promising that you will remain so what possible reason can you devise for this unwillingness Withall take notice all you that are baptized into the name and Church of Christ and do stand to your Baptisme you have hereby bound your selves to be his faithfull servants to obey his commands and to behave your selves in his Church as he directs you Now he hath commanded all Christians that are of capacitie to prepare themselves and so to receive the Sacrament of his Supper Do you not clearlie perceive then how your Baptisme bindes you to this dutie you being now come to the use of your reason How is it then that you dare neglect it whilst you are so straitlie engag'd to it And further beside your own Baptisme you Fathers that have Children every time you bring them to be baptized do professe before God and the Congregation that you renounce the Devil the World and the sinfull lusts of the flesh that you believe the Articles of the Christian faith and will keep Gods holy will and commandments walk in the same all the days of your life And are you sincere in all this If you are why should you stay away from the Sacrament where you are required to professe and promise no more However I hope hence you may be convinc't that before you partake of the Lords Supper you are so far bound to an holie life that you have no allowance for the least sin any more than you have afterward which is that I am proving And this is farther evident by all other duties of religion which you perform to God every one of which ties you to the most exact obedience to him I suppose you are not so Atheistical but that sometimes you pray to God and when you pray do you not beg of him pardon of sin and grace to do him faithful service When you say the Lords Prayer do you not therein beseech God to forgive you your trespasses and not to lead you into temptation but deliver you from evil And what dare you ask of him forgivenesse of sin whilst you are resolved to continue in it still I presume you hope to obtain what you ask and can you so much as flatter your selves with any hope that God will pardon your sins whilst yâ—â— will not forsake them Hath not his word plainly old you the contrary And when you pray to be kept â—rom sin and the power of Satan is it not to be suppos'd that you desire these things and doth not the expression of your desires engage you to do what you can to obtain what you pray for and are you not therefore bound to take heed of sin to watch against and resist temptations except you take God for an Idol and make your prayers in a mockerie as if your servant should come and entreat you to help him do his work and then run away and never set his hand to 't or as if your Childe should pray you to keep him from falling into the water and should throw himself into it as soon as he had done dare you venture thus to play and dally with the All-mightie And when you desire him to save your souls and keep you from Hell it speaks you resolv'd not wilfully to destroy and damn your selves or else you are horrid mockers of God Methinks you should never have the impudence to come neer him or speak a word to him whilst you are fully bent to go on in those waies that are so contrary and provoking to him The like I might say of hearing the word you are thereby engaged to give obedience to it for you cannot think sure you serve God sufficiently by hearing your duty whilst you set not about it And for you to come to hear what God shall say by his Minister with a secret purpose to hold on in such and such
that here thou bindest thy self to even this thou should'st thirst and aspire after but yet thou art not to be discouraged if thou never attain it till thou art taken into the number of the Spirits of just men made perfect Mistake me not as if I was indulging thee an allowance in any the least sin no this is it I warn thee of and against this thou must covenant in the Sacrament to wit against a willing loving entertainment of any sin whatever And thou shalt be accounted true to this Covenant if thou hate and strive against all and art humbled under the sense of thy remaining imperfections being farre more desirous to be rid of them than to retain them and if upon knowledge of any slip or stumble thou risest again by true repentance and recourse to the blood of Christ for mercy and to his Spirit for fresh strength being resolved to take more heed to thy ways for the time to come It is here as if thou should'st promise thy Pâ—ysician thou would'st be carefull of thy health this doth not imply that thou wilt never be sick more but yet it implies thus much that thou wilt not wâ—lfully bring diseases upon thy self but wilt use the means that are appointed to preserve thy health and whatever sicknesse cleaves to thee will be thy trouble and thou wilt desire and endeavour to be freed from it Even thus art thou bound to regard the health of thy soul and to look upon sin as a spirituall sicknesse and therefore never to fall in love with it but to do thy best toward its utter removall Even those infirmities to which the best are liable are not to be cherisht and pleaded for no more than thou would'st plead for the keeping of a little head-ach or any bodily pain Thou should'st not by thy good will be guilty so much as of a vain thought an idle word or the least motion to any sin but yet it is not required of thee to promise absolutely never more to be guilty of any of these nor art thou to judge thy self unfit for the Sacrament because thou find'st such imperfections cleave to thee so long as from thy heart thou abhorrest them and do'st ordinarily overcome all temptations to more grosse and wilfull sins Whilst thou art in the flesh thy state is like to be so farre imperfect that it will be thy daily duty to grow in grace and to pray for the forgivenesse of thy trespasses to improve Christ both as a treasurie of grace whence thou art to be supplied and as an Advocate with the Father through whom thou maist be pardoned This I mention that thou maist not say I discourage thee from the Sacrament by making it an engagement to greater strictnesse than it 's possible for man in this life to come up to since I do assure thee thou maist safely come hither if thou art but sincerely resolved to doe what in thee lies to please God and not to run wilfully into those actions which thou know'st are contrary to his will And this also may take away that fond opinion of some ignorant people that it 's best never to receive the Sacrament till they come to their death-bed as thinking that every sin afterward will damn them but remember what I have told you that we do not promise never to sin more but not to allow our selves in sin and to this sincere endeavour to keep all Gods commands we are before as strictly tied by our Baptisme and therefore by your reason this should be deferred till we come to die as some of the ancients did partly through this mistake and thinking this washt away all the sins before committed And if you should be of this opinion also that the Sacrament gives you a pardon of all your former sins and therefore it 's good to put it off to your death-bed consider well that it 's by virtue of Gods promises that you have any ground to expect pardon of sin and by those promises to which the Sacraments are seals this pardon is assured to all penitent believing ones so that Baptisme and the Lords Supper do seal your pardon even of sins that may hereafter be committed if you truly repent of them and betake your selves to Gods mercy in Christ for forgivenesse But if you think when you have liv'd an ungodly life to make up all by taking the Sacrament when you are sick know to your timely conviction this will not do the work as you shall know to your terrour if you depend upon 't for remember what I told you that if you do not truly repent of sin it is not the Sacrament that will give you a pardon and this true repentance few upon a death-bed have that put it off till then Moreover you that are for deferring this duty till you come to die I might ask you how you know whether you shall not die suddenly or have the use of your reason taken away by your distemper or be visited with the Plague that no Minister dare come near you and farther you seem not to consider that this Ordinance is exceeding helpfull to us for the overcoming of lusts and leading our lives as we ought and this brings me to the second thing which I would have you take notice of 2. Namely That if thou art but once come up to a resolution to do thy best against sin and to please God and addressest thy self to the Lords Supper with an earnest desire of grace to be here given thee from Christ to enable â—hee to perform thy promises thou maist very confidently expect strength and assistance from him and even now to partake thereof Little do'st thou think what a mightie blow thou mightest give to thy strong lusts and to the kingdome of Satan within thee by such a firm resolution as this made with an humble dependance upon Gods grace bound upon and confirmed by taking the Sacrament Oh! if thou wast but brought into so ingenuous and good a frame as to be truly grieved that Sin and Satan should have so much interest in thee and didst heartily desire that God would cast them forth and take possession of thee for himself in how good a way wast thou then to a deliverance If God saw thee labouring under the burden of thy lusts tugging with thy backward heart to bring it tâ— him thou canst not imagine what help he would soon afford thee Wherefore sit not down in a faint dejection say not there is no hope of ever getting up such strong lusts which are so deep rooted in my nature and so confirmed by long custome it 's to no purpose to attempt it Why man must not this work be done or thou perish for ever And the longer it s delaid the harder it 's like to be Thy case is sad indeed but not desperate yet Let neither thy presumption nor despondency make it desperate The things that are impâ—ssible with men are possible with God Wherefore rouze
and think your selves secure enough if you come not hither in this evil mind If these be your thoughts pray answer me these two things 1. How can you desire of God the forgivenesse of your sins whilst you refuse to forgive others Have you the impudence to doe it Or the ignorance and presumption to think such desires would be granted See where the contrarie is expresly told you in that forementioned place Mat. 6.15 Nay tell me plainlie How dare you so much as say the Lords Prayer wherein you beg of God to forgive your trespasses as you forgive those that trespasse against you What do you pray that he would remember your iniquities and charge them upon you and take vengeance of you For thus it seems you deal with those that offend you Or do you think to make your case somewhat the better by never saying this Prayer or by leaving out this Petition Can you imagine this will hinder God from dealing with you according to the tenour thereof Methinks you should not be so weak No be you sure God will make good his word that if you forgive not you shall not be forgiven whether you give your consent or not If you say you do forgive your enemies then I ask you again why upon account of any differences you should neglect the Sacrament But if you dare not forgive them you see it 's as dangerous to say your Prayers whilst you are in this mind as to come to the Communion 2. But again If through these differences with your neighbours you are unfit for the Sacrament pray bethink you well whether upon the same account you are not as unfit for death And dare you continue in such a desperate condition as this Do you not believe that the charity which is required to make you fit for the Communion of imperfect Saints here on earth is as necessary for your admission into the communion of Saints in glory Are you not fit to go to the Lords Table and are you then fit to appear before his Tribunall Take this for an undoubted truth that if you so farre allow your self in malice or any other sin that you are according to the Gospel rule unworthy of the Sacrament if you die in this condition you will be thought unworthy of everlasting life Methinks then you should never dare to live in such an estate wherein you dare not die You take it to be a dangerous thing to die out of charity with any and is it safe think you to live out of charity or in any other sin for those that are liable to death every moment Wherefore to conclude my advice to you is that you would without any longer delay go to your brother and if you have wrong'd him acknowledge it and make all due reparation and do what in you lies to be reconciled to him but if he prove obstinate or have wrong'd you see that you heartily forgive and clear your breast of all spight or desire of revenge so being carefull in all other respects duly to prepare your selves come to the Lords Table there to receive a confirmation of peace betwixt God and your own souls And thus I have done with the severall objections that are made against this duty CHAP. XVI Directions for a due Preparation and right Receiving IN the last place according to my promise I come to give some Direction to those who are willing to addresse themselves to this work to instruct them for their immediate preparation to their behaviour in and after the same And though I have already at large shewn what the design of this Ordinance is that so we might the better know how to behave our selves thereat and have thence discovered what kind of persons Communicants ought to be yet I shall in a few words premise a repetition of the same that you may the better apprehend and remember it Know then that it pleased our blessed Lord Jesus in the evening of that night wherein he was betrayed to appoint this Sacrament of his Supper partly for the present comfort of his Apostles who began to be cast down upon the knowledge of his sufferings and removall from amongst them but principally for the benefit of them and all other Christians in the times that were to follow even till he should come to Judgement till which time it never ought to be laid down in the Church The great end of it was as I have said to preserve fresh in the minds of all Christians the memorie of their Lord and Master and especially of that unvaluable mercy shewn in his dying for them his Death being very clearly held forth by the breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine But we must not think that it was for an idle uneffectuall Remembrance of him that he commanded this duty but for such a Remembrance as might tend to the great advantage of our souls even that by Remembring our Redemption we might be brought to have low mean thoughts of our selves who were lost and undone but recovered by Free-grace that we might keep up a sence of the exceeding great evil of sin which made us liable to those miseries whence onely his Death can deliver us and so might be stirr'd up to a greater sorrow for hatred of and resolutions against sin the occasion of his Death and that by the Remembrance of his love we might be the stronglier engaged to him and here in a visible and expresse manner might solemnize our Covenant with him and frequently renew our promises of faithfulnesse Moreover here Christ hath made a familiar representation of the blessings he hath obtained for Believers that hereby we might be quickned to earnest desires after them and so being at present fitted for the communications of grace to our souls might receive the same and might here also receive a confirmation of our faith that we shall in due time enjoy those priviledges that are invisible and yet to come And farther he hath ordained that his Death should in this lively manner at set times be represented to us that having it fresh in our thoughts we may be the more powerfully moved at such seasons as these to celebrate and adore that wisdome and goodnesse which hath so wonderfully appeared in the contrivance and accomplishment of our Redemption and that Fellow-Christians meeting together for this work may be the more endeared to one another and quickned to long after a perfect communion in the praises and love of God and their Redeemer in that future glory whereof they have here a shadow and forecast Now as the ends for which this Ordinance was appointed inform us what kind of persons they that frequent it ought to be as to their habituall qualifications so do they also teach us what ought to be the workings of our soul in our approches to it since here we are to exercise and put forth those graces which are before required to be wrought in us but yet for your plainer
shapen in iniquity and being hereby a Childe of wrath Think how ignorant thou art of God how much at enmitie with him naturallie how exceeding prone to all sin and how averse from goodnesse as by experience thou hast sadly found and didst soon begin to finde so that thou maist well acknowledge that in thy flesh dwells no good thing And then remember with brokennesse of heart how early thou didst set upon a trade of actual sinning wherein thou hast been so constant all thy days And call to minde the several ages of thy life which thou hast past through and the particular sins of those times the sensuality and pride and all the follies of thy youth thy mispence of precious time in idlenesse and foolish sports and pastimes Reflect also upon the sins of thy riper years if thou art yet come to them such commonly as company-keeping drunkennesse and wantonnesse or on the other hand covetounesse over-eager following of the World to the neglect of Gods service injuring and over-reaching your neighbours uncharitableness to the poor Call to mind also the places and relations you have lived in and the sins you were therein guilty of as whilst you were at home with your Parents at School or in service or any other way dispos'd of think whether you were not guilty of telling lies of disobedience slothfulnesse and unfaithfulnesse which are the usual sins of those times You will finde it very profitable and affecting to be as particular and punctual as you can in this review as to think at such a place in such company I was guilty of such and such sins And then fetch in matter for your humiliation by considering the several aggravations of your sins as your being devoted to God by Baptisme and yet revolting from him when you came to the use of your reason receiving all you had from him and yet rebelling against him abusing your mercies to the dishonour of the giver Moreover your sins are much the more hainous who have had good education and been brought up to hear and read the word of God and have been plainly told what is your duty and yet have neglected it who have had many a time convictions of the sinfulnesse and danger of your courses and yet have gone on in them and have had some purposes of a reformation and yet have soon lost them or it may be under some pangs of conscience or in a fit of sicknesse you have made promises of amendment and yet all came to nothing but after that you went on in a carelesse course of life You whom I now suppose to be thorowly converted to God let it grieve your hearts thus to remember the sins of your unregenerate state that you should live so long estrang'd from God and entertain such unworthy thoughts of him and do so much to provoke him whom you have since found so good and gracious How can you with dry eies think of that time when you were like others foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Me thinks you should be fil'd with a kinde of horrour when you do but reflect upon that dismall state when you think how neer you were to the burning Lake and yet how secure and when you consider what a meer sink of loathsome sins your hearts once were Oh sirs was not that a sad time when you could take delight in nothing but in doing your selves mischief when nothing tasted sweet but draughts of poison when the very bent of your souls was contrary to God and godlinesse so that whatever had a tendencie hereto was nauseated by you Prayer was a burden hearing a burden holy conference strange and troublesome and a godly life was accounted the greatest toil and slavery in the World so that you could go whole daies and weeks without any thought of God and never feel any hurt in it Oh can you without shame remember how you have many a time hearkned to Satan's temptations whilst the good spirit of God hath been resisted and griev'd How did your loving Saviour follow you from time to time and by his spirit and Ministers beseech you that you would be reconcil'd to God and yet you did stubbornly and unkindly put him off when he had laid open to you what he had done for you and what advantages he came to bring you yet you slighted his offers as if they were inconsiderable things Are you not amazed at your own daring impudence and presumption to make the great God wait on you so long in vain He who in a moment could have stopt that breath which he gave you and thrown you into the Hell you deserved that yet you durst disobey his commands yea even reject the suit he made to you to save your own souls But to proceed you are also to call to minde your miscarriages since God by the power of his grace brought you home to himself and shew'd you so much of the evil of sin that you acknowledged your former behaviour to be full as vile as I have been representing it and did ingage your selves to him to become his obedient people Now consider how you have answered this engagement And though since that time your sins may not have been so gross nor so frequent as before they were yet they are now of another nature and capable of greater aggravations as being committed against greater light and experienced love even against that God who hath freely pardoned you and received you into his favour Think then how unsuitably you have walkt to the profession you have made and the means you have enjoy'd how unthankfull you have been for mercies how unfruitfull and unserviceable since you became the servants of God though heretofore you had done so much against him think how little you have done as Parents Masters and Neighbours to advance his glorie and consider and bewail all other failings in the duties of your Relations Oh think what folly it was in you so much as to venture upon the least sin who have been convinced that its your own greatest hurt or to start aside from the holy path to walk in which you have found to be infinitelie most for your own ease and advantage Let it grieve you to finde such remnants of sin yet in your selves any inclination to evil and backwardnesse to good With sorrow look back upon all your slips and haltings and partial backslidings that you have made no more progresse in holinesse nor got more good by the privâ—ledges vouchsaft you Be humbled in the remembrance of your dullnesse hypocrisie formality in religious duties being either prone to neglect them or slubber them over in a cold and drowsie manner or else to rest in them Call to minde also your unfaithfulnesse to the many promises you have made of better obedience in your Prayers or at the Lords Table and especially review your carriage since the last Sacrament you who have formerly received it And having by such like considerations
apposite Text Ezek. 16.62 63. And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God It is to be considered moreover that the promises of joy are principally made to this frame The spirit of the humble and contrite God hath promised to revive They that mourn shall be comforted And they who come to the Table of the Lord weeping are most likely to return from thence rejoycing 4. And when you are wrought to this humiliation for and hatred of sin you will easily be brought to the next part of your work which is stedfastly to resolve by the grace of God never more to give willing entertainment to the same but to be entirely devoted to God by Jesus Christ to love please and serve him all your days I have told you how at the Lords Supper you renew your Covenant to perform those duties which you were engaged to by being Baptized into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Renouncing carnall self you professe to place your happinesse in the love of God and no farther to regard or please your selves than is consistent with his pleasure Renouncing the world your own abilities righteousnesse and worthinesse and all ways to to happinesse which are set up against Christ you professe to take him alone for your Redeemer and to resign up your selves to him that he may bring you to the fruition of God and therefore Renouncing the Devill who would draw you from God and Christ to gratifie your lusts with earthly things you professe your resolutions to be led by the Holy Spirit of God in those ways that lead to his everlasting kingdome You who are truly willing to all this for to such I speak I would have you in the most serious manner to professe the same before God and especially in the prayers that you make in preparation for the Sacrament Bind your selves over to him by the strictest vow that he shall be your God and you will be his people Professe to him that he shall be the portion of your souls that you will have none in heaven but him and will desire nothing on earth in comparison of him that if he will but vouchsafe you his saving love in Jesus Christ you shall be indifferent to all things here below as knowing that in his favour alone you are abundantly provided for Acknowledge his right to govern you and dispose of you being your Maker and Preserver infinitely wise and good and engage to take him for your Soveraign and Lord to render a sincere unlimited obedience to his commands and quietly to submit to his dispensations Professe to him that you relinquish all right to your selves and give up all into his hands to do with you what he pleaseth consecrating all to his glory whatever he doth or shall afford you being resolved through his assistance so to improve and employ it Promise to him that neither your own will nor the will of any mortall man shall be obey'd in contradiction to his And bethink your selves of those sins whereof you have been more especially guilty in thought word or deed and of the duties you have omitted and engage your selves particularly against those sins and to the performance of those duties And then Remember under what notion you enter into Covenant with God and what kind of creatures you are even poor lost sinners loaded with much guilt which you could never by any satisfaction of your own making take off from your selves and also exceeding weak so that you cannot by your own strength give that obedience to God which he requires nor vanquish the difficulties which you will meet with wherefore it is of absolute necessity that you accept of Jesus Christ as your Deliverer and your Strength for he onely who hath the Son hath the Father also Professe then before God your unfeigned willingnesse to close with the Lord Jesus to all those ends for which he offers himself to the world Acknowledge to him that you neither expect mercy for any merit of your own nor set upon duty in your own might nor look for acceptance of any service for its own worth but that you humbly depend upon Christ the Mediatour for all that you stand in need of Acknowledge his right to rule over and in you as having bought you out of slavery with his own most precious blood to whose mild and gracious government you will therefore submit your selves Professe your willingnesse and earnest desire to have your hearts purged and sanctified by his Holy Spirit and your lives thereby directed according to the precepts of the Gospel Thus professe your acceptance of Christ and submission to the Spirit that you may be brought into the favour of God and be enabled to please and glorifie him by your holy conversation for all tends to this even to make you holy in heart and life Therefore are we married to Christ that we may bring forth fruit unto God Râ—m 7.4 And the fruits of righteousnesse are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 In him we are created unto good works This is the effect of his death and resurrection that we might be dead to sin but alive unto God Rom. 6. throughout They are Christs Disciples that bring forth much fruit to the glory of God the Father Joh. 15.8 And therefore is the Spirit of life given us through Jesus Christ that we may be made free from the power of sin and death that the carnall mind might be taken away and we made subject to God and able to please him yea that we might rise up to an higher kind of life more spirituall and heavenly than was ordinarily attainable under the Law Rom. 8. the former part of that Chapter This being then the summe of all to devote your selves to God by Jesus Christ to live in his love and fear and in strict obedience to his laws till you shall be taken glory you that are firmly purposed to do this and have made promises thereof betwixt God and your own souls Do you eat thâ— Bread and drink the Wine in the Sacrament as a confirmation of these promises Let this be remembred I beseech you whatever you forget That hereby you do most straitly engage your selves to live a Righteous Sober and Godly life from this very day and to the end of your days This some give as the reason why the Name Sacrament is put upon Baptisme and the Lords Supper because they are of a like nature with that Oath which Souldiers were wont to take to be obedient to their Generall and rather to die than to forsake their Colours which military Oath was called a Sacrament and thus both by Baptisme and the Lords Supper are we consecrated to the service of God
idlenesse and vanity in sinfull company or excessive recreations spend it so no more you that have been wont to give way to your exorbitant passions and suffered them to break forth in unseemly actions and language do so no longer You that are Masters or Servants Parents or Children Husbands or Wives consider well what particular duties your relations call for and be faithfull in the performance of them You that are Subjects obey them that are set over you in the Lord. Towards your neighbours and all with whom you converse be just and honest loving and courteous avoiding all backbiting lying and slandering all foolish and filthy speaking Be compassionate and charitable to all that need your help in one sort or another Be conscientious for the future in the more immediate service of God Be frequent serious in his worship both in publick and private alone and with your families Beware of swearing and cursing or of taking the holy Name of God or Christ in vain make not mention of him in your common discourse without due reverence that you are not like to have if at every turn you are crying oh God and oh Lord as is the custome of careless people Profane no more Lords-Days as you may have formerly done but improve them to your souls good Whatever talent you have of wit wealth time or honour employ it to his honour who entrusted you therewith In all things study to please God and so commit your self and all concernments to his will and quietly submit to all his dealings with you without murmuring or repining To a sincere endeavour after all this you have bound your selves by the Sacrament where you have taken God to be your God and have profest your selves his people Wherefore I beseech you beware of that dangerous and yet too common mistake To think this weighty action terminaâ—es in it self and that all 's done when the work 's over I have endeavoured all along to prevent this false conceit and I care not how oft I inculcate it for if this be not removed all my labour will be lost and so will yours too yea and worse than lost your receiving of Sacraments will then prove but an idle unprofitable ceremony and will help forward your damnation rather than your salvation whilst you heed not the design of it nor improve it to its due end What would you think of that woman that when she had promised a man to be his wife and was solemnly married to him in the face of the Congregation should think there was now nothing more required of her but that she might go whither she list and live with whom she pleased Even just such is your folly and grosse absurdity who when you have been in the most solemn manner engaging your selves to God and have taken the Sacrament upon it that you will live in obedience to him then think that you may go away and live as you list Beware how you make such mistakes as these for believe it God's in earnest whether you are or not If you would not have him take you at your word you had better never have made such fair promises Since then the great design of this duty is to be an engagement to and an help for holinesse of life I shall finish this Treatise with a Direction or two for the promoting carrying on of â—he same 1. And to that end first let me advise you to be frequent in considering the engagement you have hereby laid upon your selves and let that hold and quicken you to faithfulnesse This is the principall thing which we are to do in order to the due improvement of Sacraments to our advantage even to remember often what a strict Covenant we thereby entred into that by the remembrance thereof we may be the more aw'd and restrain'd from doing any thing against it Thus ought you to make use of your Baptisme which is I doubt too seldome minded often you should think how absolutely you are bound to take him for your God to whom you were so early devoted Remember the end of it and now see to answer and attain iâ— which you may find fully exprest Rom. 6.3 4. Therefore are we buried with Christ by Baptisme into his Deâ—th thâ—t like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by or for the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newnesse of life Whenever you see a Child Baptizâ—d let it bring to your mind that you were once so dedicated to God and admitted into his Church and then think how you ought to walk who have such a bond upon you And thus improve the Lords Supper where you have personally owned and renewed your Covenant with God Especially make this use of it when you meet with temptations to any sin whatever or when you begin to grow carelesse and remisse in your carriage If old companions should set upon you and entice you or if your own heart should incline you to any former sinfull courses then say with your selves How can I do this and go back from the vow that I have made No I must not I will not the oath of God is upon me and shall I be forsworn with the living and true God How severely will he avenge himself on all such dissemblers wicked Herod seemed so fearfull of perjury that he permitted the murdering of a Prophet to avoid it and shall I be guilty of it rather than destroy my lusts God's and my own greatest enemies Most justly may I argue that for my Oath 's sake and for those that sate with me I will not do thus For not one of my Fellow-communicants but might witnesse to God against me that they saw me make a Covenant with him And God himself who stood over me will be witnesse as well as Judge How then should I appear before him with this heinous guilt upon me Wherefore Depart from me yee evil doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God If you 'l come a long with me and walk in the holy path come and welcome but never hope to draw me back again with you into those waies that have cost me so dear and which I have protested against I am now no company for you For I have taken the Sacrament Depart Satan and tempt me not from my Allegiance to my Lord and Master I will not forsake him I have obliged my self afresh to be a Christian a sworn enemy to thy Kingdome and a faithfull Souldier under Christ's Banner therefore depart from me For I have taken the Sacrament And think moreover with thy self Hath God been so gracious to me as to vouchsafe me a pardon for all former transgressions and to seal it to me at his Table and shall I go and wilfully run upon the score again Should I thus turn his grace into wantonnesse and abuse his patience how justly might I fear that his anger will be kindled against me and that he will no
lay his head It 's like you think if Christ was on Earth you 'd follow him though but in the company of poor Women and Fisher-men and though the most of the World should laugh at you for so doing why know hee 'l take it as well at your hands if you will but tread in his foot-steps and adhere faithfully to his interest though it should cost you the losse of all you had and of life it self And let the death of Christ be much in your thoughts let the love of God which was herein shewn be your daily delightfull study and ever leave a sweet tincture upon your spirits that by the power of love you may be moved and carried on in the whole of your duty Let this shame and drive you from sin let this make you laborious and unwearied in his service When you are set upon by a temptation stay so long as to set a bleeding Saviour before you and think how you have much such a case now before you as the Jews once had to wit whether Christ or Barabbas should be prefer'd whether your lust should be subdued or your Lord crucified afresh If you approve of the Jews choice in this case you had best imitate them If that which would murder your soul deserve to be spared rather than he who dyed to save it then go on give Christ a stab and sin boldly Consider further how Christ by his death hath acquired a title to you so that you must glorifie him both with body and soul as being not your own but bought with a price Bought you are not out of the hands of the Father that you should now have liberty to sin against him but out of the hands of Satan that being free from sin you may become subject to God and the servants of righteousnesse How wilfully blinde are they who take the more liberty in sin from the consideration of that death which was undergone to redeem us from a vain conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Where 's that Man's reason and ingenuity who when he was fallen into his Masters displeasure and brought into favour again by the great industry of the Son should think he might now safely disobey his Master Though the Son pittied the servant so much that he was loth to see him perish yet he loves his Father so well that hee 'l never purchas'd an allowance for his disobedience and indeed the servants disobedience is his destruction Christ died once to save the penitent but hee 'l never die more to save those that remain willfully disobedient Consider also Christ by his death hath purchast abundant grace for the supply of all your wants and now being at the Fathers right hand hath full power to give out of this store wherefore make use of him to obtain the same Even as the Egyptians received food from Pharaoh by the hands of Joseph so must you receive all you have from the Father by his Son Jesus Let then the very life you live in the flesh be by faith in the Son of God By earnest desires vented in fervent prayers be ever deriving virtue and vigour from him your head Be as desirous and craving as you are necessitous as hungry as you are empty that the good God accoâ—ding to the riches of his grace may furnish you with all plenty of spiritual blessings til you shall come up to the measure of the stature of Christs own fulnesse Eph. 4.13 3. If you would thus grow in grace Be diligent in the use of all the means of grace which Christ hath afforded and let them be used and improved as means You must I have told you be much in earnest Prayer to God in the name of Christ for what ever you are wanting in Let not one day pass without the practice of this duty you that have Families call them together and pray with them morning and evening If you neglect this how little do you differ from those Heathens who call not upon God and upon whom he will pour out his wrath Be diligent in attending to the publick preaching of the Word and prepare your selves before-hand with a resolution to obey what shall be made known to you to be the wil of God and beg his blessing on what you hear Consider when you come home wherein you are particularly concern'd in what you have heard and accordingly follow it Setting against that sin or upon that duty that you are thereby convinc't of When you can get time spend it in reading Gods Word and good Books which may explain and enforce that Word Especially you that have not much time on the week-days spend the remainder of the Lords day after publick worship in some such good employment and waste it not in idlenesse no nor an hour at any other time Read also to and with your Family and ponder of it afterwards that it may be more profitable to you Often discourse one with another about the matters of your souls soberly and seriously that you may afford each other what help you can It would be exceeding well if when you sit with your neighbours you would be thus employed in holy savoury conference to the use of edifying rather than in idle chatting and talking of persons and things that concern you not But especially they who are of the same Family and are more neerly relaâ—ed have more opportunity and engagement hereto and should be admonâ—shing one anoâ—her daily and provoking to love and good woâ—ks For the Lord's Supper I have already directed you at large and I hope you will practise answerably and be frequent therein not ordinarily neglecting any opportunity when you are call'd to it But as I desire you not to neglect these exercises of Religion so on the other hand as earnestly I would wish you to beware of resting in them as thinking all Religion is confin'd to them and so becoming lesse carefull of your carriage as to justice temperance inward piety and all vertuous actions Methinks the wretched error of those Sects that throw off all external duties of worship and crie up themselves as above Ordinances may teach this wholsome lesson to all professing Christians to beware of resting in these things and framing to themselves a Religion out of them These I grant are parts of obedience to God for he hath commanded them and they are waies for the exercise and encrease of our graces and to be as helps to godlinesse but to think that they give any discharge from the practice of godlinesse and make amends for sins we are loath to leave for which we do as it were compound with God by these formalities making sin our pleasure and his service a pennance for it these are conceits so gross that methinks none but a Papist or one willingly ignorant should entertain them Religion is no road of performances but a new nature attended with a new life It is the subjâ—ction of the soul to the will of God expressing it self
in all commanded acts of obedience an eager and ingenuous pursuance after the blessed God in all those waies where in he is to be found and whereby he communicates himself to the soul of Man so that there is no contradiction betwixt inward holinesse and outward duties but much-what the same relation that there is betwixt life and eating breathing and motion for in these the divine life is exprest exercised and nourished But to think that Sacraments Prayers and hearing c. may serve turn without any inward holinesse and universal sincere obedience is as if a Man should think that the forced motion of a Puppet should make it pass for a living creature that great promises may pass for performances and that knowing what we must do and talking of it may serve instead of doing what we are taught Let them lay this seriously to heart who when their practices are ungodly and loose think to salve all by keeping their Church and saying their Prayers and all such who make more adoe about the externals in devotion than about the right ordering of their hearts and lives whereas all our devotions should tend to better these 4. If you would make good the promises you have made at the Lords Table to live a strict and godly life you will find it of singular importance yea of flat necessity to retain a great watchfulnesse over all your ways Ever keep up a sense of the danger you are in by reason of the frailty of your nature the deceitfulnesse of your hearts and the many temptations you are every where exposed to And therefore let this care secretly run through the whole course of your actions to beware of being surprized by sin therein In all emploiments companies and affairs still keep up this watch And think beforehand where your danger is greatest where you are most apt to be overtaken and there place the strongest guard Set a watch over your eyes ears appetites tongues hearts and hands that you be not by them betraid into any miscarriage When you find your self endangered by a present temptation then have some solid reason ready at hand to repell it with store whereof you should alwaies be furnisht with reasons drawn from God Christ Heaven or Hell or from your Sacramentall engagements as I shewed before and be sure have a strong resolution to check the first risings and beginnings of sin before it have gone so farre that your judgment is brib'd and blinded by your affections and have speedy recourse to the God of all grace that he would send you help from above Consideration Resolution and Prayer are three weapons wherewith the Christian Souldier may do wonders against the tallest sons of Anak that shall assault him in his way to Canaan Often take account of your selves and review your behaviour in actions that are past and let one days experience still teach you how to live the next better But upon the sense of any miscarriage let not your guilt drive you farther from God put you into unprofitable vexations and horrors but presently make hast to the throne of grace get your peace made with God through Christ and renew your watch with more diligence than ever but alwaies with the most humble and absolute dependance upon divine assistance ' T is too probable that some lazy wretches will here flye out as Naaman in a rage did against the Prophet when he heard he must wash seven times in Jordan for the cure of his Leprosie which he thought would have been done with a word speaking so perhaps you 'l tell me that you had thought Receiving of the Sacrament would so have kill'd your lusts and cleansed your hearts that you need have been at litle care about them afterward and will be ready to ask what good you got by it if you must take all this pains notwithstanding You slothfull souls may you not as well ask what good you get by Christs death and the giving of the Spirit Since notwithstanding both these you must take pains or else you are never like to be saved For know God will have you employ the faculties he has given you and the work of Grace is to heal your faculties and enable them for their proper employments He that made you Reasonable creatures will make you holy and happy as such and the help which he affords is to bring you to diligence and assist you therein and by that means to save you Thus Sacraments are onely profitable to the diligent and industrious their use being to quicken and strengthen but they are no refuges for the slothfull no encouragements to idlenesse Never think that God will make such a way to heaven that you may walk in it without using your legs 'T is you that must do the things required though it be by Christ strengthning you for whose sake also your frailties are forgiven Wherefore let me renew my advice that at all times and in all things you would be watchfull and maintain an holy jealousie over those hearts that have too often shown what they have in them Take this for the greatest work you have to do in the world to beware of sin and to be carefull to please God as the Souldier's whole work is to serve his Generall and the Servant 's to obey his Master yea more absolutely than so ought a creature to study his Maker's will and account this work your own greatest happinesse So avoid sin and all occasions and appearances of it as you would do the Plague in a Visited Town and be as carefull to watch all opportunities of doing good both to the souls and bodies of others as men ordinarily are of laying hold on their gain Often ask your selves wherein God is honoured by you or others profited and be ashamed to live to no better purpose than to eat and drink to sleep and dresse your selves for work or play And do not object against this constant watchfulnesse that it will take up all your time and hinder your necessary employments for by using it awhile it will grow even naturall to you and will no more hinder you in your affairs than it hinders a traveller in his journey to take heed of running into bogs and ditches Is it any hard matter to be alwaies carefull least you should hurt your bodies Wherever you are and whatever you are doing cannot you keep up this care and yet follow your businesse well enough Why then can you not take the same heed of your souls with as little trouble or hindrance 5. To help you in this watchfulnesse and guide you in an exact circumspect walking it will be exceeding profitable for you at all times to retain upon your minds a very awfull sense of the presence of the most Holy God Whatever you are about remember he observes you and ponders all your paths though you perceive not him Wherefore always order and behave your selves as before him Speak your words as in his hearing Spend