God in the eternal life and happiness of my body and soul which consists in my union with and fruition of God in heaven for ever which is effected by the Spirit and grace of God through the merits of Jesus Christ drawing my soul through faith in the Son of God made Man to himself who by the evil of sin both original depravation and actual Commissions am removed at an infinite distance from the love of God the fountain of happiness and placed in a state of Guilt liable to the justice and wrath of God and by consequence to eternal misery and Damnation II. A State not more miserable in it self than unavoidable by me unless the free grace immense goodness of the Almighty which brings sinners to repentance had prevented both my desert and desire by an eternal purpose of offering pardon life and salvation to sinful mankind which good pleasure and purpose in himself God hath clearly revealed according to the divers dispensations of his wisdom and providence even from the first promise of Christ made to the first sinners to the personal coming of the Son of God into the World to bear the Name and Office of the Saviour of Sinners and hath fully accomplisht and clearly reveal'd unto Mankind this undeniable truth of the eternal purpose of God to give pardon life and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ his only Son who became Man and died for the sins of the World and so satisfied the Justice of God for them that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life III. That great saying and most comfortable Truth Preached by Christ witnessed by the Apostles Dictated by the Spirit of God written by the Evangelists Confirmed by many Miracles delivered by the Church by constant Tradition and believed on in all ages this God requires me to believe as a certain and infallible truth in it self and by faith it becomes to me saving and comfortable It brings my soul to see by the law it s own sinful and desperate estate it calls me off from my self and all Creatures and assures me of immortal happiness for ever by adhering and relying upon Christ and that free grace of God in him and through him bestowed upon my soul IV. This faith and trust in the free Grace through Jesus Christ as it is first wrought by the word of God and his holy Spirit in my soul which is the beginning of this spiritual and eternal life so that it may be further nourished and strengthened to a farther degree of comfort and assurance God hath out of a wonderful Indulgence to our weakness and difficulty of believing annexed to his word these holy Sacraments as visible and most manifest Seals of this Covenant of Grace and Mercy that the soul might in no sort doubt of it nor be discouraged at the sight of it 's own sin and unworthiness when it sees the love of God and its pardon confirmed and assured to it by all its senses and his Saviour the great worker and teacher of this salvation by these sensible means lively set forth in his death and sufferings and himself with all his merits personally offered and conveighed to its self in particulars V. This then is the End to which this holy Sacrament as other means of grace is especially directed that it may be to the souls spiritual life of such efficacy as Food is to the Temporal life of our Bodies a means to maintain life to encrease strength and inward comfort to enable holy actions and cheerful obedience to assure our hopes and affiance in the great truth of God for the pardon of sins and bestowing the Son of God Jesus Christ our great Redeemer who is the Fountain and conveigher of life through these Conduits of the outward means to the penitent and believing soul Secondly The Author by whom it was Instituted I. Was the Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World who being the Lord of power and the Jesus of Mercy is both able and wiling to make this holy Ordinance the means of that Mercy and Grace which he promiseth to us which means are effectual to this supernatural end not by any proportion of innate vertue or Physical efficacy of themselves as food hath to our temporal life by the common rule and ordination of Providence but by a Spiritual Divine and most Mysterious appointment Instituted by our God and Saviour himself whose Authority only could Institute and whose power only can make effectual his Institution by uniting earthly sensible so small and unproportionable means to so heavenly spiritual and excellent an End II. So that in this great mystery though reason assures us in the general assent that the Omnipotency of God can make effectual whatever means he pleaseth in his wisdom to ordain to an end though never so unproportionable yet for the particular demonstrating of the matter of efficiency whereby such means do certainly convey to us so great an end and benefit Reason is quite dazl'd and blind having no ground to fasten upon but devolving all the work of this holy mystery to faith which relies upon the truth power and love of the Institutor Jesus Christ who while he was yet on Earth by a Corporal and Natural presence conversing with men but chiefly with his choice and Domestick Company the Twelve Apostles a little before his death Instituted this Sacred Mystery after his last Supper which he made with them III. By the evidence of this Sacrament exhibiting himself to them and all beliving souls in such an extraordinary and eminent degree of comfort and personal assurance as might greatly establish their faith and hearts in the near and dismal Times of his sufferings shortly ensuing and after his Ascention might be a continual memorial and Seal of the Covenant of Grace established in the death of Christ a support of the faith of Belivers a lively token pledge of his spiritual presence with his Church during his bodily absence till his second coming as also a badge of the profession of the Christian Religion and that mutual love and charity of Believers who are all united by faith to one and the same Saviour of whom they are all partakers in this one Sacrament as well of the invisible Grace as the outward and visible signs the bread and wine Thirdly The outward Means suitable to this end I. The choice of which familiar signs made by our Saviour for the outward means discovered a wonderful wisdom and no less love and condescention to his Church while he made choice of such things for the Representation of his greatest Grace and our comfort as best sitting this staâ—e of Senses and Infirmity such as for the Community may be had of all Nations and in all Countries either by native Commodities as in most or by cheap and easy Commerce with others whose abundance may spare though where the proper species of bread and wine cannot be had those means of nourishment
wine but substantially flesh and blood besides innumerable monstrous and most absurd Consequences and Contradictions which follow that Opinion which all do infinitely perplex and torture the minds of Christians If the Opinion were granted and all these absurdities swallowed by a wide and enormous Faith yet were there no advantage of Efficacy or Comfort gained to the Receiver by a gross and Carnal Eating and Drinking the body and blood of Christ. III. If those which Crucified him had done so or they who then believed in him when he was slain yet would they not any way have furthered their souls good and life which can no more be fed with carnal and sensible Objects than the body with light and truth which are of a Spiritual nature nor doth this first violent act of faith which they require of a Receiver in believing the essential change of the Bread and Wine into the body and Blood of Christ make a worthy Receiver except his Soul by a further act of Faith apply the virtue and merits of Christ's Death and Passion which is done effectually without the thought of Transubstantiation by that Faith which we say is necessary for a worthy Receiver which doth as clearly perceive and as really receive its proper Objects the Truth and Merits of Christ's Death and Sufferings to which no distance of place or time can be any impediment as the Sence doth its sensible Objects which requires a fit time and distance for perception IV. As for the Sacramental words given in the name of the Body and Blood of Christ to the consecrated Bread and Wine I believe them to be most true in the sense and meaning of our Saviour which sense I do not only guess at or implicitely believe but easily and plainly gather and understand by the like expressions both of our Saviour himself and the stile and phrase of the whole Scripture which never make such substantial predications of one thing to be another by way of transmutation of one into the other but by allusion relation similitude proportion designation of use and Sacramental Union or application no more than the Paschal Lamb which was a Type and Sacrament of Christ and his Sufferings was the very substance of Christ or that Rock on which St. Paul affirms it was Christ or that Christ is to be thought a natural door way vine light c. all which he affirms to be himself by a like manner of speech or more nearer the Cup to be the New Testament c. So that Reason Religion and the Rule of Faith the Holy Scriptures teach Christians to give commodam interpretationem a fit and agreeable interpretation V. Nor can we have a truer interpreter of Christ's meaning than himself who tells us that the Flesh profiteth nothing that is in that carnal and gross acceptation but his words are spiritual and must have a spiritual sense which is suitable to the Nature and Capacity of the Soul the dignity of Chiristan Religion and the sacred Mystery the Propriety of the object of Faith and the stile and tenour of God's Word which never enjoyns us any carnal thing horrible or inhumane For though the Letter may sound so yet the Figure in the words doth relieve our Faith and accommodate a fit and true meaning to such words and expressions nothing being more usual than for the Spirit of God to set forth Spiritual things and duties by corporal notions VI. So that as the Bread and Wine by their natural qualities and vertues are fit to represent the spiritual efficacy of the Body and Blood of Christ yet by a natural power are no whit able to impart to a Communicant the Body and Blood of Christ with the benefits of them to the Soul so that our blessed Saviour hath made choice of them for the First and hath given to them a Sacramental Virtue and a supernatural efficacy for the Second which they truly do as Remembrancers as Signs and Seals really conveying to the believing and prepared Soul by the concurrent Spirit and Power of the Institutor Jesus Christ that which in their nature they do fitly represent VII Which is all that I conceive I need beleive of or expect from this Sacrament which is appointed only to strengthen and confirm that Faith in us by which we believe in Christ crucified for Life and Salvation which Faith grounded on the Word and wrought by the Spirit is first confirmed and sealed by Baptism and may be true and sufficient to save a Christian who never lives to come to the Supper of the Lord nor hath any thought or use of Transubstantiation in this no more than of the substantial change of the Water in Baptism into the Blood of Christ which was never yet dreamed of yet our Saviour tells us Joh. the 6th Except a man eat his Flesh and drink his Blood he cannot have Eternal Life which many have who never eat of the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper yet dye believers and by Faith have eaten and drank the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually yet really without which they could not be saved VIII Neither to secure children of Salvation in case they dye before years of discretion need we resume the antient but erroneous practice of the Church now long since abolished by all sides viz. to put the Eucharistical Bread and Wine into the mouths of Infants which Error sprang from the gross and corporeal interpretation of our Saviour's words not considering that every Believer either in the internal disposition which is secretly wrought by the Spirits sanctifying Power in Baptism according to the capacity of the Subject or in the real exercise and actuating of his Faith which comes by Hearing in his riper years must necessarily and doth effectually and really Eat and Drink the Body and Blood of Christ to Salvation though they never come to receive in the Holy Supper so that it is but one Christ his Body and Blood the same Crucified Saviour which is received in both Sacraments and but one Faith for the kind that layes hold and feeds on Christ in them all only it receives degrees and addition of strength in this of the Supper the Word beginning the Life of Faith and by it the Believer into Christ the other maintaining and encreasing it to a further strength and assurance IX We deny not a true and real presence and perception of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament which reality even they of the other gross Opinion do not imagine is to Sence but to Faith which perceives its Objects as really according to the manner of Faiths perception as the senses do theirs after their manner I believe therefore that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are both objects presented to and received by a Worthy Receiver first the Bread and Wine in their own nature and substances distinct do remain as well as their accidents which are the true objects of our sence and fit signs to represent
and favour of God detaining my mind in such degrees of ignorance as may render my sin less odious to me and make me less sensible of my misery and want of Mercy hardning and consirming my will against those Pious and Good motions by which the Spirit of God oftentimes attempts to soften it to an ingenuous submission to God and his Will disordering my affections and diverting them from those right Objects which Reason and Religion propound and my own Conscience cannot but approve VI. Which makes my sin out of measure sinful and dangerous so that in the shame and confusion which this sight of it self casts upon my Soul I have enough to do to see and weigh my own unworthiness and fill my Conscience with that fear of the Wrath of God and horror of Eternal Judgment which I confess might justly punish all my sins with despair and it as the greatest of all sins with Damnation And beyond these thoughts I could noâ— I durst not go in this gulfe of sin and the apprehensions of my misery should I sink not daring to send up the least thought to Heaven for a better Estate nor apply my self to the means of any Use or Happiness VII If I did not see by a Divine and Glorious Light of Truth a Hand of Mercy and means of recovery and Salvation stretched out to me and assuring me by the unerring and undeceiveable veracity of God and the infallibility of his Promises that his Thoughts are thoughts of Mercy and Pardon to sinful Mankind that he hath graciously found a way of satisfying his Justice and taking off the Guilt and Punishment of our sins from our Souls by the sufferings of Jesus Christ God and Man transferring the Guilt and punishment of our sins to him and imputing the Merits of his Righteousness to us upon condition we believe on him and cast our Souls how sinful soever they be into the Arms of his Mercy and by the serious apprehension of this infinite Love and Goodness be won from the Love of sin to Repentance and Amendment of Life Upon this Truth and Grace revealed by God to his Church and my Soul in particular I lay hold and cast my self with all the Guilt and Burden of my sins what aggravations soever for number or quality they admit being assured that they are infinitely less than the Mercies of God and Merits of Jesus Christ This wonderful Truth of God which I dare not I cannot deny this Mercy which above all things I need adds new Mercy to my dead and languishing Soul this represents God to me in the face of Jesus Christ as the highest Good most to be desired loved and admired VIII This shews me my sin in the true colours of ingratitude vileness end unworthiness against that Mercy which offers Pardon for my sin against a Saviour who hath died for me This stirs up a hatred and resolution against sin out of a principal love and apprehension of a wonderful desert and obligation of love and unspeakable Kindness to me that as I have the greatest cause that can be to be humbled in the sight of my sin and self so that the surest ground that can be whereon to settle my Faith and Comfort is the Truth and Mercy of God which by the Word Spirit and Son of God is assured to me that although by my sin I have highly displeased and dishonoured God Almighty yet by my trust and believing in his Truth and Promises of Pardon and Salvation through Jesus Christ I shall greatly please and honour him giving him the Glory of his Grace and Mercy by sealling to his Truth which to question or deny or not to believe is to make all my other sins unpardonable and add a sin of a higher nature than any I have yet committed that is unbelief or giving God the lye and its inseperable companion impenitency IX Won therefore and melted by this great certain and preventive Kindness and Love of God which in no sort I could deserve yet cannot deny or doubt of I grow dayly to see more clearly and embrace more firmly affectionately the Goodness of God to my Soul and from thence to a more tender sense and greater detestation of sin not so much now daring to sin as not willing to sin denying the motions and occasions to sin not so much out of fear of punishment as a love to please and an extream secret shame of returning evil to such wonderful Goodness abhorring sin not so much for the evil which follows it as for the evil which is in it and deformity and vileness of it which I see by the glymps of that Beauty and Loveliness which I discover in Holiness and Vertue the Image of God the highest Ornament and Happiness of the Creature X. Thus in some degrees freed from the Fear and Love of my sin Holy desires and good affections as followers of the Sun's Accession in the Spring begin to arise in my heart and though they suffer a great allay by the Earth of the Body in which the Soul is planted yet they assure me that the Spirit of God hath moved upon that Chaos the deadness and barrenness of my Soul and by a secret but most effectual influence hath made me a New Creature by ingrafting me into the Tree of Life Jesus Christ and washing me in that pure Fountain of his Blood which was shed for the Remission of my sins Thus now I desire nothing more than daily to attain a fuller Sight and Capacity of this admired Mercy that as my knowledge in the Greatness and Truth of it increaseth so my Faith in the applying of it may be strengthened my Affections in the thankful return of my self may be enflamed my Charity and Virtue towards others may be excited glad to have occasions really to express my Love Pity and Forgiveness of others that grateful Sense I have of God's Love to me in Christ XI And that the whole course of my Life may be so ordered as becomes one who is united to the Son of God not only by the Community of the humane Nature but by the efficacy of the same Holy Spirit and raised to the hopes of the same Glory and Happiness that now nothing is more acceptable to me than to meditate of this great Mystery of man's Salvation nothing more delightful than the thoughts of God reconciled to me in Jesus Christ nothing more welcom than the use of those means by which God doth further confirm and assure this Mercy and Truth to my Soul whose many failings though they often shake my confidence and obscure my comfort yet the sight of the Promises and the seals of the Sacrament annexed to them in which I behold Jesus Christ crucified does again establish my heart and assure me that the All-powerful Love and Grace of God will not be overcome by the sin and wickedness of man but will effectually repair the breaches of my dayly infirmities and satisfie the doubtings of
requirest of me look not upon me I meekly beseech thee as I am in my self in my frailties of sinful nature but graciously behold me in the beauties and perfections of thy blessed Son Lord give me that holy hungring and thirstings after thee that my longings may be earnest for thee let thy holy Table be delightful to me and sweeter than all outward enjoyments that I may truly love it and joyfully possess thy Heavenly comforts by it III. Almighty God who so perfectly hatest sin that thou hast most severely punished it in thine only and beloved Son whom thou freely gavest not only to dye for sin but also to condemn it and to call sinners to repentance for it have mercy upon me I humbly beseech thee thy vile sinful and most unworthy servant Who have not only foolishly and sinfully imagined that thou wouldst cherish that in me which thou hast so sharply punished in my Saviour but also wickedly divided thee in thine own essence and there by my self from thee in the loosing of thy gracious presence have pity upon me and release me from these misty fogs of sin and ignorance and lead me by thy blessed light of grace to those thy blessed paths which lead to glory IV Lord I have sinned and I desire to repent I tremble at the greatness of my sin and humbly beg thy pardon for it in the richness of thy mercy O let thy sweet saving and preventing grace make this my humiliation effectual unto me O let me no longer vainly think the guilt only of sin to be mine and the punishment my Saviours but let me faithfully believe that untill by thy grace I am made truly conformable to him I have no part nor portion in him but am yet in my sins and thereby liable to thy sorest punishments Lord give me a saving Faith to believe in him a sanctified life to be a true follower of him and a Blessed death to live for ever with him Amen Meditations for Thursday Morning on the Holy Sacrament AFfliction is the proper object of Compassion misery the proper object of mercy and therefore we read how Pilate willing to release Jesus he brings him forth having his back surrowed with the Whips his Head harrowed with the Thorns and his derisive purple stain'd yea drencht with blood and presents him thus ghastly a spectacle to the Jews with an Ecce homo behold the man supposing so sad a sight would have moved malice to mercy and envy it self to Compassion now what Pilate did to the Jews with Christ Christ in a fit resemblance and apt allusion does with the penitent to his Father he brings him forth in the Court of Conscience having his heart wounded with sorrow his Spirit broken in Contrition and his Soul fainting in Languishments of repentance and presents him so sad a spectacle to the Father with an Ecce homo behold the max. II. Behold the man once so lofty in his pride now so lowly in his penitence once so hardned in his rebellion now so humbled in his contrition once so obstinate a Sinner now so pittifull a Penitent and oh whilst this man of sorrows mourns in affliction how does the Father of mercies melt in Compassion when the wounded sinner is presented by the wounded Son and the penitents tears cry aloud with the Mediators Blood how must the Fathers compassion needs melt into sins remission III. This affliction and pain is either that of the penitent sinner or that of the devout Saint that of the penitent sinner who having withdrawn himself from the World and retired into the secret closet of his conscience how does he with Hezekiah even overturn the Annals of his life in the bitterness of his Soul and after a strict survey having faithfully observed the sins which he hath committed and the several circumstances by which they are aggravated he then summs them up into a Catalogue which is no sooner in his eye but sorrow is in his heart endeavouring to blot our those letters of guilt with his tears of repentance through faith in the Blood of Christ IV. And whilst he sets his sins in order before him oh how does a secret affrightment chill his blood and make his heart to tremble in apprehension of their loathsom filth and dreadful curse yea in beholding himself under the heavy sentence of the Laws condemnation oh how is he wholly encompassed with terror and amazement when he looks within him oh the terrors of an accusing conscience and a killing guilt when he looks without him oh the horror of a deserved death and a tormenting Hell when he looks above him oh the dread of an offended Majesty and an avenging Judge oh whither then shall this poor penitent fly for succour where oh where shall his affrighted and afflicted soul seek for shelter where but at the Cross of his Redeemer V. And when Christ so full of pity so full of love when he beholds the humble suppliant and sincere penitent in the lowest depths of his humiliation pouring out his complaint at the foot of his Cross when he hears his mournful sighs his painful groans the earnest messengers of his asslicted soul it is then as impossible for Christ to forget the passions of sorrow which he suffered as not to compassionate this poor penitent for whom he suffered he who stopped not his ears at the Jews blasphemies will certainly not stop his ear at the penitents complaints he that turned not away his face from his enemies buffetings will not turn away his Eyes from the suppliants tears though the Devil hath bereav'd the sinner of his purity yet can he not deprive his Saviour of his pity Christ doth not Christ cannot so remember the sins that man hath committed that he forgets the soul which himself hath purchast his eye and nothing else indeed can do it but his eye of mercy that looks through the guilt of sin to behold the sorrow of the sinner and that affliction moves his compassion VI. The sorrow of affliction and pain in the penitent becomes destructive of sin through the power of faith in the blood of Christ for that God will be sanctified in all them that come nigh unto him and therefore he being a consuming fire in the fury of his vengeance when we humble our selves before him tho with the deepest of afflictions unless it be by faith in Jesus Christ as the Mediator God will be a just Judge to condemn rather than a merciful Father to forgive for it is not our tears without Christs blood not our sorrows without his sufferings not our affliction without his passion that can quench the fire of Gods wrath satisfie the severity of Gods Justice and move the tenderness of his mercy when therefore acted by love and strengthned by faith we pour out our complaints unto our God in a sincere repentance our affliction and pain shal become the proper object of his divine mercy A Prayer for Thursday Morning preparatory to the