Prov. 14.20 Both these Motives to love the Believer seeth in every Believer Grace doth very much sweeten Nature and Grace doth very much enrich the person These Motives of love may be found in every Legatee who hath share in the choice Legacies of Christ he giveth an excellency of spirit which sweetneth their disposition they are meek lowly faithful and without guile He also giveth an Inheritance a heavenly a glorious Inheritance these win with the considerate Christian and either thou knowest not what Christ hath bestowed on Believers or thou must confess they are well worthy of thy love and brotherly affection 2. Another Inducement to Brotherly Love contained in this consideration of Christ Dying a Testator may be this Every Believer having interess in this Will was near to Christ's heart as art thou or I or any other who pretendeth title and interess in Christ's Last Testament Now should it not move us to love with hearty love every Christian for so much as every one of them was equally near to the hearty love of Christ Let our hearts be toward them Joh. 15.12 as Christ's was toward us and them It is a maxim in Love and Friendship that it extend it self to all our friends friends Hence the advice of Solomon that thy Father's friend be not forsaken Prov. 27.10 carries sound reason in it for he that is the Father's friend and heartily loved him that begot will be a friend to the Son and love him that was begotten too as the Apostle argueth in a like case 1 John 5.1 The Apostle urgeth this Love of Christ to us as argument to perswade us to love one another Rom. 15.5 with vers 7. to be of the same mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide 2 Cor. 13.11 Idem velle idem nolle ea demum est firma amicitia that so ye may live in Peace and Love which is the fruit of that Union the Apostle perswades us to 2 Cor. 13.11 and Phil. 2.2 where he explaineth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The being of one mind by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having the same Love The Love we should have for the Brethren of right should be so strong as death because that Love which Christ had for them equally and indifferently was even unto death This is the Apostle's Argument 1 John 3.16 And there is strength in it whether we apprehend it or no. In the last Will of Christ thou mayest discern a Love equally embracing all that believe that seek their portion in Christ There we may find Christ a friend to the poor as to the rich Believer to the unlearned as to the learned Believer to the despised as to the honourable Believer As the Apostle speaketh of Righteousness I may speak and you must understand of all the blessings of the Covenant and Testament The whole is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference Rom. 3.22 Now where Christ hath made no difference in his Love darest thou make so great a difference in thine as to withhold thy love from some Wilt thou not love those who are dear friends to thy dearest Lord thy best friend I do not press an equality of love to all Believers I know our brethren by nature our kindred by alliances our acquaintance and intimate friends have a right to our love and affections both Natural and Civil and where such a Right is doubled by our Relation to each other in Christ our affections may be allowed to double themselves also Whilst Grace and common Hopes do increase our love to each other they do allow for the respects which Nature calleth for of us We must love all with an unfeigned love though we may love some with a more fervent love whom Christ hath equally loved we must unfeignedly love and what reneweth the remembrance of such love to us should renew our love to others 3. In the last Will of Christ is to be seen That it is the express desire of our Dying Lord we should love one another heartily and unfeignedly He hath therefore put them all into one Will and into the same capacity every one by his Will made an heir The Saints do inherit the Riches of Glory Ephes 1.18 Their title is a joint-tenancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are coheirs Heb. 11.9 And this title is by gift of Christ in his last Testament Joh. 17.24 Who desired they should all be where he was that they might behold his glory And read we John 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you This is that Commandment that is so mine as if all others were to yield place to this This is the New Commandment Joh. 13.34 and 35. When Christ attended with Angels gave the Law to Israel the First Great Commandment was Love the Lord c. The Second was Love thy Neighbour c. When he was to die he renewed the Commandment of loving our Brethren Yea so resolvedly doth our Lord require this Brotherly Love that whosoever he is pretends to Christ must make good his pretensions to Christ by his affections to all that are Brethren in Christ Joh. 13.35 Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love for one another Add hereto 1 John 4.20 He loves not God who loveth not the Children of God For how shall he love God whom he hath not seen who loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen In a word read the last words of Christ's Intercession John 17.26 which do breathe out the earnest desire of Christ that such love may be among the Brethren one to another as was in the Father and in the Son to them all Now after all this vehemency of desire in Christ that we who are heirs by his Will should love one another Shall any of us dare to hate undervalue reject or despise the other Will you read the last Testament of Love with a heart of enmity Dare you come to the Ordinance which renews the remembrance of Christ's Love to us of his desire we should love each other and not labour to renew your love to them Renewed meditations on Christ's love to us will certainly renew our love to him and to all his renewed thoughts of his last desire of his earnest commending mutual love will renew mutuall love in us if any degree of ingenuity remain in us 4. In the Testament and Last Will of our Dying Lord we have this inducement to renew our love to the Brethren He hath by will designed one onely place in which with most perfect love to enjoy as all the blessed Legacies of our Lord so to enjoy all our fellow Legatees Whether I shall perswade now I know not whether my arguings be powerful enough to suppress envyings and jealousies to remove animosities and quarrels from amongst saints I cannot tell But this I know and this I will tell you when you who
continuing of me in my free noble and honourable condition If I depart from Christ through unbelief I shall go from honour to dishonour from excellency to baseness from the noble state of a Son to the ignoblestate of a servant of a slave And I know the considerate soul will not easily return to the baseness and ignominy of such a state No! no! Faith in my dying Lord did set me free from such baseness and advanced me to the dignity I now enjoy and my persevering confirmed faith will and must preserve and confirm me in that dignity This prerogative my Dying Lord purchased for me whenever I would believe this prerogative he gave me so soon as ever I did believe and there is none can take it from me so long as I do believe oh let me believe for ever that I may have it for ever I would never lose this honour I will never leave my Lord. Whilst thou art able to make the best of this Death of thy Lord commemorated in the Sacrament and presented to thy faith which is done on purpose that thou mayest make the best of it thou canst resolve or conclude nothing less than that thou wilt adhere now faster than ever In this manner may the Humiliation the Desires the Purposes of the Soul be wrought drawn forth and confirmed upon the consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us The sight of our cursed state will lay us low and convince us the sight of a deliverance by Christ will make us desire that deliverance may be ours and then knowledge of its being ours upon first believing and that it shall be ours so long as we believe will perswade us to look that our faith continue lest unbelief should reduce us into the misery of a Curse whence we almost escaped And let it be next observed 4. That Love to God and unto Christ 4th Sacramental grace Love to God and Christ is another Sacramental grace which I am sure will be well improved by a due consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us I do verily suppose it needless to attempt the proving of this every one knows that Love to Christ is a necessary and suitable grace for a Communicant God requires that every one of his servants should love him and serve him with all the heart in every duty much more in this which is a more solemn and more than ordinary one If thou wilt come to the Table of the Lord thou must come with love to the Lord of the Table thou must not come with enmity in thy heart nor with a sword in thy hand They are friends who are invited to eat and drink with Christ at his Table and it is a monstrous incongruity to sit down as though you would friendly feast Cant. 5.1 and yet watch a season to muther the guests or him that invites you God will not have an Absolon ' s feast in which one of the guests was murthered nor will he have a feast like the unhappy Phocus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose guests slew him It is the express will of our Lord that we come to his Table in love and charity with our Brethren and in love and with sincere affections to our Lord. We must here feast without the sowre leven of malice against our Brethren and without the swelling leven of hypocrisie toward God Now let me a little point out what inducements are in this Death of Christ to draw forth our love to our Lord and so let it be considered 1. Did my Lord die an accursed Death for me do I now celebrate the memorial hereof Would he have done this if he had not loved me as his own life It was a love that is ever to be blessed by me which made my Lord take on him a Curse for me Greater love than this could not be shewn to me and less than love to him for it cannot not be tendred by me Is Love the loadstone of Love and doth not thy heart stir toward Christ when he draws it with this attractive When he calls Look upon my Living Love in my cursed Death and give me what you judge a reasonable acknowledgment for my Love and when the considerate soul looks on this it is ready with David to say What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness What shall I render to God the Father who laid my Guilt Punishment and Curse on my Blessed Redeemer What shall I render to the Lord Jesus Christ unto God the Son who took this heavy load upon him What shall I render to God the Holy Ghost who supported the humane nature of my Blessed Redeemer that he should not fail nor be discouraged in this great work under this weighty burthen Oh Blessed Love of the Glorious Trinity worthy of an infinite Love though a finite creature is not able to give it Lord my Love shall be endless though it cannot be boundless though it is narrow it shall not be short I will make up its defect of intenseness with an addition of endless date let thy Love to me which caused thee to die once for me an accursed Death be a spring and source of Love in my soul to thee of such a Love as shall never die Lord thou deservest more than I can give but I would not be unwilling to give as much as thou deservest It was matchless Love that the Prince of Life would die for condemned subjects But 't is methinks more that the Lord of glory over all God Blessed for evermore should take upon him Death with a Curse 2. Do I celebrate the Death of my Lord dying a Curse for me why then oh my soul thou dost this day in this duty call to mind Christ's taking on him all faults and bearing all thy blame being content that thy faults should be accounted to him and that if there be as certainly there wlil be anger for it he will bear it Oh what endeared Love do servants in a family bear to that Son who is willing to excuse the servants fauls and to bear their blame to make up their peace and to continue them in or restore them to their offices again Reader whoever thou art that readest these lines it is thy case Thou oâ—est unto Christ the Eternal Son of God all thy innocence all thy safety all thy peace all thy continuance in the family of God unto Christ I say thou owest it for thou hadst sinned and provoked God thy Master and Lord he had cursed thee and would have damned thee he had declared thine office in his house void and would have turned thee out and then thou must have said with the unjust Steward what shall I do when God thus deals with me how shall I live Dig I cannot beg I am ashamed I shall be accursed on Earth and accursed iâ— Hell for ever oh thus had it been with me if my Lord Jesus had not stept in and took my faults upon him Blessed
be that Love which hath so loved me Let him carry away all my affection who thus hath carried all my transgressions He shall have my love whilst I live by whose love it is that I live Oh let my love at the Sacrament revive where there is the revived memory of my Lord his love to me None but those foolish and mad creatures who are in love with their faults and with their misery will withhold their love from Christ who delivered us from both 3. Did Christ die such a death in thy stead let this then awaken thee to consider how thou wouldst resent another mans suffering for thee and speak what interess thy friend should purchase in thy affections by his undergoing afflictions for thee Wouldst thou love thy rich friend that took thy debts on him wouldst thou do less than dearly love thy skilful friend that cured thee of thy disease thy powerful friend at Court who rescued thee from a prison thy watchful friend who kept strict and careful watch lest thou shouldst be surprised and ruin'd whilst thou wert sleeping secure in greatest danger and in greatest ignorance and security But what wouldst thou say if thy friend should deliver thee from thine by making it his own disease or should go into a prison that thou mightest go out of it or expose himself to ruine that thou mightest be indemnified Just so did Christ for thee he did bear thy disease and took thy sickness upon him he became a prisoner first to unjust hands seizing on him and then to the grave which could not hold him yet a while he was a prisoner there for thy sake in thy stead and what acknowledgment wilt thou make of all this How wilt thou certifie the Christian world that thou dost well resent what Christ hath done if thou wilt not love him for doing it Thou lovest those that speak well of thee that bless thee that wish well to thee and endeavour to do thee good and what law reason or equity wilt thou pretend why thou dost not love Christ who speaks best of thee to his Father and who wished best to thee and hath done most for thee and all this by his dying a Curse for thee Let thy own heart ponder this and draw to a conclusion what ought to be done in this case say Had any man whom I know done this for me which Christ hath done I could not but love him and why do I not love Christ if I did see my friend loaded with curses and reproaches and bearing them patiently for me that I might not be reproached that I might not be cursed it would endear such a friend to me why now in the Sacrament the visible memorial of Christ's dying a Curse for me I do see such a friend so loaded for my sake that I might not be loaded with my deserved Curse I may not I will not be less to him than I would be to another I will love him more than any else for he hath done more for me than all could and I see it in the Sacrament the blessed memorial of his cursed Death Fourthly and lastly Is the Sacrament of the bloody Death of Christ a memorial of his dying an accursed death for me oh then I see the evidence of a love to me which surpasseth the love of best friends which indeed exceeds the thoughts and belief of most considerate men For who will believe beside a Christian who is taught by the revealed word of the God of truth that Christ would become a Curse for us Some men will hardly believe that the Apostle spake his very thoughts when he wished that he himself were accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen after the flesh Some judge it so inconsistent with reason that they think the Apostle could not soberly sedately and rationally desire it but that he did use the liberty and freedom of an Orator to commend his greatest affection to his kindred by a greater expression But behold Reader Paul's wish for his kindred is Christ's own act for his what Paul wisht but could not do for his brethren Christ hath undertook and undergone for his brethren What some do think was too great for a rational and sober desire in the one hath been found not too great for the choice and performance of the other Now let Christ have but a serious view of this he hath done for thee and answer thy self this or such like questions Is that too little to engage my love which was too great for any to undertake but Christ Do I see Christ doing that which few men will believe a man could wish he mght do and do I still withhold my heart my affection from Christ Do I know that his love was stronger than death he was content to be accursed for the sake good life and salvation of Believers I see him for a while separated from God that he might bring me to God and now he shall have that love which is too great for any one since he hath done what is so great for me In the fifth place 5. Joy in believing a Sacramental grace The Believer's Joy is or at least might be considerably improved in the commemoration of Christ dying as a Curse for us It is not to be questioned whether joy and rejoycing through faith in the Lord be seasonable in our feasting with the Lord. Joy is the souls rest with delight in the Lord and such a disposition of mind doth the Lord require and accept at this seast Now let us observe how that his dying a Curse for us may increase our joy and this may appear 1. From the Nature of Joy which is the triumph of the mind in its freedom and deliverance from its fears or in its attaining and possessing of its hopes It is a rational security of our best hopes and a due removal of our worst fears singing a rest and happiness to the soul Joy is the rapture of our soul hearing and observing desired events sweetly keeping tune with our desires and hopes It is the Tripudium Animae the soul's dance to the Musick which the God of Heaven makes for it If there be any exstasies of joy it can be from no other harmony than which is heard not from Pythagoras his melodious spheres but from the Cross of our Blessed Lord seting Heaven and Earth in a blessed concent by his accursed Death The Philosopher will tell us Dilatatio cordis ob bonum praesens that Joy is the dilatation of the soul the enlarging of the heart to entertain a present desired good Good wished for is the Sun the heart is the Heliotrope the flower of the Sun Joy is the opening and turning of this flower towards the Sun This or somewhat like this is Joy Now in what can the soul triumph if not in its freedom from a dreadful Curse What may possibly be imagined will secure the rational hopes and wishes of a Christian better than Christ's
is our happiness that we do believe the word of which there shall be an accomplishment Luk. 1.45 Now this promise the foundation of our Faith is greatly confirmed to us in the Death of Christ Dying a Sacrifice so that as it confirmeth the foundation of our Faith it cannot but add strength and stability to our Faith As whatever strengthens the foundation of the building addeth stability to the whole superstructure Now Christ Dying a Sacrifice giveth us assurance 1. That the promise is the word of a God reconciled to us who hath in a most tender compassion to us forgiven us our sins and given his woad of promise to be our claim of further mercy In Christ our Sacrifice we may read remission of sin a Propitiation for us and a gracious acceptance of us with our God Now what is there which a believing soul may not rationally expect from the love of his reconciled God He will heal back-slidings he will love freely he will be as the dew unto Israel when Israel is reconciled to him Hos 14.3 4 5. God will then have mercy upon such as had not obtained mercy and be their God Hos 2.23 So then let Faith see what foundation for its expectation it can find in the love and kindness of a reconciled God and see how God becometh reconciled to it and certainly this Sacrifice will appear the effectual means of reconciliation and atonement 2. Christ offered a Sacrifice for confirmation of the Promise assureth us the Promise is cast into the mould of a most solemn Covenant which may not be violated In this manner were the Eastern people used to confirm and ratifie conditions of Peace and the promises of Friendship by the solemn offering up sacrifice and feasting together as Gen. 26. v. 28 29 30. between Isaac and Abimelech and between Jacob and Laban Gen. 31.44 with 54. who ratified the covenant of their friendship by Sacrifice Eorum more qui foedus pepigerant According to the manner of those who had made covenant as Vatablus glosseth the words According to this sense I suppose is that of David Psal 50.5 Gather my Saints those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice Quirapportent les Sacrifices a leur droit fin Qui est de seeler confermer Palltance d'adoption qui dieu a fait avec les fideles Gal. 3.17 Rightly paraphrased by a French Annotatour Who refer Sacrifices to their right end which is to seal and to confirm the Covenant of Adoption which God hath made with the faithful Lo then promises of friendship between God and a Believer reduced to the form and certainty of a Covenant by this Sacrifice And were it but a man's covenant once ratified none addeth to it or taketh from it who then shall dare to alter a Divine Covenant How unmoved might our Faith stand on the Covenant thus confirmed View thy bottom on which thou standest poor doubting Believer and tell me whether it be not in thine judgment like a Rock that cannot be shaken 3. To these is also added the oath of God which was wont still to attend every alliance or league which of old was confirmed by Sacrifice as is evident from the places cited concerning Abimelech Gen. 26.28 29 30 31 44. 54. and Isaac and Iacob Laban Yea the Lord who is not a man that he should lye dealing with the sons of men who are ready to suspect his Truth is pleased to give them his promise his Covenant his oath Luk. 1.72 73. Luk. 1.73 So when God made the promises to Abraham by the Sacrifice of the Ram Gen. 22.13 In stead of his son Isaac and in the Typical resemblance of Christ our Sacrifice He confirmed the Promse of the covenant by oath ver 16.17 18. Which the Apostle citeth and enlargeth on Heb. 6.13 14. seq Strongly arguing the immutability of the covenant from the oath of Confirmation ver 17 18. When thou lookest to Christ thy Sacrifice look also to the oath which God hath interposed and then tell me thythoughts what thou apprehendest of the Foundation of thy Faith and what thou apprehendest of it's stability come with me let us view our grand hopes full absolution from guilt publick declaration of our Adoption Glorious investiture which a Crown and a proportioned reward of all our obedience Thess are the grand expectations of faith will it's foundation bear them sure it will be thou judge thy self in the case what is there in any of the particulars which thy interresse in the Friendship of thy reconciled God may not warrnnt thee to expect which of them all is not comprised in the covenant thy God hath made with thee which is there not procured by Christ's Sacrifice which of them is not confirmed by the Oath of the Almighty if the Friendship of God can afford them if the Covenant hath promised them if the oath of an immutable God hath ensured them if a most immaculate Sacrifice hath procured them what can intercept them what can shake such a foundation of Faith hast thou not all assurance given that reason or religion can devise and tell me 1. would you not trust a man under hand and seal confirming articles of agreement and ratifying them by oath wouldst thou not say I have him fast enough And wouldest not thou rest secure 2. couldst thou allow thy self to be worse than thy promse wouldst thou not performe thy covenant with others wouldst thou be perswaded or frighted into a falsifying of thy oath wouldst thou not judge him unreasonably distrustful who were not satisfied with this assurance from thee who meanest plainly and uprightly 3. Wilt thou not much more trust and believe thy God who hath condescended to bind himself unto thee by all that is inviolable by all the bonds that men account sacred Hath he not removed whatever difficulties lay in the way to hinder his entring into Covenant with us and difficulties being once removed hath he not power enough to keep them still from returning and interposing Our sins lay a bar on our part making us unfit to enter Covenant These are done away by this Sacrifice The Justice of God honour of his Law and Government might be obstacles on God's part But this Sacrifice hath satisfied Justice advanced the honour of God's Law and Government and so prepared a way for our being received into Covenant with our God whose wisdom is so perfect he could not entangle himself in his Covenant or make it so that he should see a necessity of breaking or altering it and whose riches of grace and mercy are such he will never fail frankly to give what he hath faithfully promised he will give He will never think any mercy too good to give which he did not think too great to promise This is the foundation of Faith and thus surely and immovably laid for us to build on which is the second part of the grand concern of Faith Sect.
vast estate of which he had the absolute disposal He was Lord of Heaven and Earth and could give what ever he pleased of the one or other unto his peculiar people It is true he acquired a new title and right by his death but it is as true that he had an unquestionable title and right to all both the Glory of Heaven with the grace that prepares and fits for it and to the goods of the Earth with power to give to best pleased him He did veil his glory and in the daies of his flesh forewent the exercise of that glorious royalty which was his due equally with his Father but he never did disseize or dispossess himself of that inheritance which by the right of eternal generation from the Father and which by the right of creation jointly with the Father he was and will be still seized and possessed of thus the Heavens were his the Earth also Heb. 1.2 He was heir of all things Now could it be likely or indeed imaginable that so great an heir seized of such an estate should die and not dipose of it had it not been wisedom to dispose of it to some or other if he had had no dependances that needed it the worth of the estate would have advised this if the indigency and want of the kindred had not perswaded to it But Indeed Sect. 2. 2. This great heir had a very great kindred and alliance Psal 2.8 who were even poor enough for the greatness of his kindred they were scattered over all the earth Rom. 15.11 Psal 110.3 Rev. 7.9 Heb. 11.12 he hath some of all Nations they were as the dew from the womb of the morning an innumerable company which no man could number as the sand on the sea shore so was his kindred to be And as they were many Rev. 3.17 so likewise were they exceeding poor they wanted much for they had by prodigality spent all they had wasted their goods God gave them a good portion did set them up bravely furnished but all was gone unless a little which the mercy of their Creditor spared to them to live upon There was a Judgment taken out only mercy forbore the Execution Now could such a mulof poor needy kindred be forgotten and neglected think you by such a Dying Friend and how should he have shewed himself of the kindred but by giving them legacies at his death If their unworthy deportment was such as would disengage any other yet it could not disengage him who would do what best became his affection not what best suited with their deserts Take therefore this farther into consideration Sect. 3. 3. That this great Heir had a most hearty and unparallel'd affection of pity and love for all his poor kindred He loved them with a love greater than the love of women he did bear the love of a friend a father of a husband his love to his was so great none could have greater for it was that caused him to die for them Now having thus loved his own he loved them to the end and love hath a good memory it will not easily forget I am sure Christ did neither abate of his love nor forget them he loved which perswadeth me to conclude that this great Heir so dearly loving his poor kindred would certainly provide for them and leave a Will or Testament behind him which they should all be the better for which I the rather incline to believe he would do because Sect. 4. 4. His poor kindred needed some such due lawful and valid Act or Deed to convey his estate unto them For Christ knew and he hath given us to know that we were not his Heirs at Law nor could we have claimed or recovered any part of it by the Law we had lost all our right made forfeiture of all we once were possessed of and God the great Governour and Lord of all had as we know Kings sometimes do given all the estate of the condemned Traitors to his Son and by especial gift had estated him in it Ask of me Psal 2. and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in him Our sin was our death and cut off all our claim and title to every desirable good Peccatum abolevit Naturalem eam communionem quae Creaturam cum Creatore consociabat Thes Salm. de trib Foeder sect 33. Sin abolished that Natural Communion which joined the Creature in friendship with the Creatour as the Learned Professors of Saumur observe And God hath set forth this emblematically in the dispossessing and ejecting Adam out of Paradise Whatever God bestow's now he bestow's it in and through Christ with him he giveth all things also This being the case of Christ's poor friends what more likely way of befriending them than by Will what surer way than by ordaining his last Will and Testament since they had no title by Law preceding his gift nor could they have any title any other way He gave it therefore by Will that it might be sure to come to them Sect. 5. 5. This great Heir died in perfect memory and with wisedom that excelled the measures of the wisest men who set and keep their houses in order he died not as some men do of a disease that should disable him to ordain his last Testament but was his own man unto the last he manifested this in his care of his mother his charity towards the sinful murtherers for whom he prayed c. I would add more proofs but that it would wrong your Christianity and call that into question He is not worthy the name of a Christian that is so much a stranger to the Death of Christ In a word he as well knew his friends needed he should give to them as he knew his enemies needed he should forgive them as he did in pity pray for the one so he did in love and care provide for the other And dying friends usually do provide in their last Will or Testament especially if they have what Christ had Sect. 6. 6. Time enough to dispose of his estate Some wise men leave their friends whom they dearly loved ill provided because the surprize and suddenness of death preventeth them But our Lord this great Heir of all things could not be surprized he knew when his hour was how it approached he knew all that concerned others he knew what was in Man and therefore could not but know all that concerned himself and his Death Out of all which circumstances I do adventure to conclude That Christ did before his Death ordain his last Will and Testament and in it provide for his poor kindred out of that vast estate which he was seized of which he possessed and inherited in the right of his infinitely Excellent Nature his Primogeniture his Powerful Creation and the Donation of his Father when Man
adoptionis illius vim senserunt in Spiritu Sanctificante PP Salmur de Sp. Adop Sect. 12. so they who are sealed with the spirit of Adoption have still found the power of that Adoption by the spirit of Sanctification Now I say Christ Dying a Testator and leaving us his last Will or Testament to meditate upon hath left us a good answer to our doubts and the due meditations of the soul on the last Will of Christ will much dispel our fears and quiet the soul For whereas there are two sorts of fears which afflict a gracious soul 1. A fear it shall miss of Glory And 2. A fear it doth want truth of grace Christ by his last Will hath secured the believing soul against both these fears against the first by giving a Kingdom and Glory to such by Will he appointed them unto a Kingdom to a Glorious Crown Against the second by bequeathing the spirit of Truth and Grace unto them to lead them in holiness unto the end and this Will of our best Friend who Died to confirm it is a very sure Title on the sacred reverence authority of last Wills and Testaments Legum servanda fides suprema voluntas Quod mandat fierique subet parere necesse est Aug. Imper. de vol. Virg. which must be sacred and inviolate when the man is dead Command of Laws must duly be fulfill'd And so must that our dying friend last will'd how much more when he who died once hath for ever conquered death and lives for ever to see his own Legacies both bestowed and enjoyed which peculiar to Christ our dying friend gives greatest encouragement against such doubts and might very well ease us of all such fears and so be an excellent defence and prop to weak grace whence will soon follow a considerable growth in grace Sect. 3. 3. That which confirms the truth certainty and immutability of the promises improveth Grace I need not give long Proofs of so known a Truth Praecipuum maximè proprium objectum Fidei situm est in promissionibus PP Salm. de Fide sect 7. the promisies are the objects of our faith the good things contained in the promises are the object of our hope the grace and mercy making the promises is the Load-stone of our love In one word we are made partakers of the Divine Nature we do purify our selves and perfect holiness through these promises Grace is as the vine the promises are the frame which beareth up and carrieth the vine which thriveth best when it resteth on the surest and stedfastest frame Grace is a spiritual building which needeth a sure Foundation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is the promise which as the word of God is in it self sure and stedfast for it is impossible that God should lie Tit. 1.2 Heb. 6.18 Yet to this the Lord hath superadded the confirmation and certainty of a Testamentary disposition or last Will making all the promises in Christ and making them all sure and unchangeable by the death of Christ whereby they become to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 that we might have such assurance as should render it next to a moral impossibility for us soberly and deliberately to doubt them Now all this is excellently effected by resolving and moulding the promises into a last Will or Testamentary disposition which is of such a nature that it becomes unalterable on the Death of the Testator Heb. 9.17 for a Testament is of force after men are dead and so the law maxim ensureth us In publicis Lex in privatis Testamentum firmissimum habetur that what the law is in publick concerns that a last Will in private concerns is for ensurance and firmness In brief therefore the last Will of Christ Dying confirms the Promises to us what confirms the promises confirms our faith and hope with other graces faith and hope confirmed do greatly tend to purifying and sanctifying our hearts and making our life fruitful in these things lieth the growth and improvement of grace so that due reflections and right manage of our thoughts on Christ dying a Testator do as is said improve the communicants Graces Sect. 4. 4. That improves grace which doth soften the heart and as it were ripen it unto a mellow temper as the showers which soak into the earth in the spring time which soften the earth do both prepare the way that tender roots of trees and plants may spread abroad and root deeper and also do afford nourishing moisture and sap whence the verdure blossom and the fruit it self so it is here a hard and rocky heart is as unkind a soil for grace as stony ground is for Corn neither can take root to any good purpose Trees of righteousness are planted by the rivers of waters which is a tender soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the water courses divide themselves and run out into many branches gently and kindly softening the ground And though some vines of the Lord are planted in high Mountaines naturally hard and barren in proud and hard hearts yet these hearts are like plowed ground laid a fallowing and mellowing and so prepared for the seed time every high Mountain is laid low before Christ In one word the pleasant Lillies do grow in the Valleys low and softned grounds so grace thrives best in the humble and tender soul Now there are in the last Will of Christ many both common and ordinary as also Singular and extraordinary motives and inducements to tenderest affections towards Christ Whatsoever cause any true friend any kind Brother any dutiful Child can see in the care love and bounty of his Dying Friend Brother or Father expressed and contained in the porvision made by such one for him that all that and more may the meditating and considerate soul see in the last Will of Christ to melt him into affections for Christ in whose Death he may see love living and growing strong when life fainted and grew weak And as his veines and heart grew empty of blood both grew full of love to you and me So he loved his own to the end What in particular these common and speciall motives are I shall not now specify but reserve them to another more fit place thus you have the sum of this fourth argument before you in the next place Sect. 5. 5. That improves our graces which endeareth the Lord Jesus to us what increaseth our love to Christ doth increase our holiness and addeth to our graces love will long for a more close union love will study the most intire complyance it will ambitiously strive to advance and honour it will without ceasing endeavour to please That soul is most endeared to holiness and most studious of holiness which is most endeared to Christ and most in love with him such a soul keeps his Commandments Now the view and consideration of Christ s last Will and Testament will surely endear
Christ unto the soul there the soul seeth the real Testimonys of his Saviour's love Last Wills or Testaments are those in which we profess all our affection Quibus affectum omnem fatemur Brisson de Form After this men can do no more at this time therefore they will do what they can for their beloved Friends This love is an immortal love attempting to fill the cistern to leave it full when the spring head dryes up it is a love surviving Death when the lover cannot a peice of Friendship rescued from the hand and power which kills thy Friend When Jacob could live no longer to love his Joseph his love could not die but fleeteth from his feeble dying heart and reposeth it self in the sacred and unviolate treasury of Jacobs last Will where it doth and shall still survive both the Lover and the Beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 48.22 1 King 1. in this you discover Joseph had a double share in Jacobs love When David was to make his last will you may see which of all his Sons had most of David's heart so true is it that last Wills are open windows of the heart through which we may see the living affection of our Dying Friend This is undeniably true of the last Will of Christ who looks into it shall see the dearest love the tenderest affection the faithfullest friendship the seasonablest care and the fullest provision and who seeth this can do no less than wish he had a more dear affection to return for that which is so incomparably grater than all other Sect. 6. 6. That improves Grace which shakes off security and awakeneth out of sloth security is the lethargy of the soul and it must be cured or the soul Dyeth sloth is that scorbutick disease of the soul which weakens all its graces and takes off the edge of them and this must be removed by a vigorous exercise of that strength and life which yet remaineth in Grace or Grace will decay wither and dye rid the soul of these two and Grace will suddenly recover it self and grow Now it is unquestionable that the last Will of Christ carrieth in it sufficient considerations to awaken the soul out of pernicious security and to quicken it unto vigorous diligence For all the legacies of Christ are conditional requiring either precedent conditions or enjoining subsequent conditions of love and obedience and this love with obedience will be found such as will take up all thy time and strength set to it so soon as thou wilt here will be work enough for thy Christian care Thou wilt find life short love long work weighty strength weak The Philosopher rowsed himself with this Vita brevis ars longa life is short Art is long Christian look over Christ's expectation expressed in his Will and Testament and write this presently as thy monitory Vita brevis Fides longa The time of Life is short the work of Faith is long and rowse up thy self both from security and sloth make haste to do thy Lord's will that thou mayest have large share in the last Will of thy Lord. When a very rich gist is given by Will upon conditions and reservations and all revoked from every claimer who performeth not those conditions and disposed to others who will do and have done and performed the conditions how great care and diligence doth this awaken how speedy is the considering Legatee what haste doth he make to perform lest non-performance of his duty should disappoint his hope and cut off his claim Christian thou hast the Inheritance given by Will and that Will prescribes thee thy duty and if ever thou intendest to put in claim for it look thou put thy hand speedily to the doing of what is there enjoyned thee For I tell thee thy Lord who made the Will who prescribed the terms who enjoyned thy performance and before whom thou must make thy claim is not now dead but liveth is not far off but near to thee seeth and observeth all thy sloth and laziness and will reject thy suit and dash thy pretences and confound thy hopes unless sight of his Will quicken thee to do his will CAP. IV. Graces enumerated Improvable by the last Will of Christ I Have performed 〈…〉 at potui â—amen if not as I would yet as Bernard said as I could the three first parts of my Promise I shall now endeavour the performance of the fourth viz. in a particular enumeration of those graces which I apprehend may be much improved by the consideration of Christ's last Will or Testament renewedly remembred at the Communion of the Lord's body And Sect. 1. 1. First Faith is one Grace which is improvable by due managing our thoughts of Christ's ordaining his last Will ere he died and dying to ratifie and make his last Will firm and irrevocable This gives us greatest assurance of the truth of the Promises and so addeth to the evidence of things that are not seen Man verily believeth and boldly pleadeth his title and right to the Legacy which his dying friend bequeathed to him Sect. 2. Secondly Hope and Expectation of enjoying the good things promised is another grace improvable by the application of Christ's Death dying a Testator and ordaining his last Will. The certainty of future enjoying and the goodness of the thing to be enjoyed is the life of hope the root and strength of it Now the goodness of that we expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the certainty of our future enjoyment are jointly contained and declared in the last Will of our Lord to which in more particular manner we hope to speak Sect. 3. 3. Longing desires of surer interess in the Covenant or Testament of Christ and desire of nearer union unto Christ is improvable upon the reflections of our serious thoughts on the Death of Christ dying and making his VVill. Every one who needeth would wish himself of the kindred and affinity of that rich bountiful and kind friend who enricheth all his kindred by his large Legacies at his Death and he will desire to be so related unto Christ who duly considers what may be obtained by Christ Sect. 4. 4. Love to the Lord and a high prizing of his person and concernments is an other Grace of the believer improveable by this meditation of Christs Death as the Death of a Testator Every one honoureth the remembrance and speaketh well of him who doth liberally and wisely provide for his indigent and needy relations strangers do value such an one and much more doth his ingenuous and considerate Friend Sect. 5. 5. Zeal to his glory and honour a spiritual fervency of heart in all that such a Friend is any whit concerned in is another qualification of a believer and this also is improved by the due manage of our knowledge of Christs last Will and Testament Were there but little cordial Friendship in the heart of a believer toward
man this the Saint hath from Christ by whose Testament he is heir to a Crown yet the excellentest Saint is less than the least of the Legacies of his Lord. In our present state there is nothing to commend us which doth not more commend our Lord who bestowed it By the grace of God we are what we are whether children heirs or Legatees And if we know as St. Paul did know we shall account all things as he did loss and dung Phil. 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Penuria defectus who hath all without Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poor 'T is loss when he computeth the product of all his hopes that are short of Christ and the things which Christ freely gives and instead of ought gained he must writ much lost Such then is the excellency of Christ that without him nothing can be gain with him nothing shall be loss And 3. When thou hast viewed the great Legacies of thy Lord look on thy self what thou wilt most certainly be so long as thou art on earth and this will commend the noble excellent temper of thy Lord. He knew that thou wouldest repine be unthankful live much below his Royal gifts and in many things dishonour the free giver Yet all this never could discourage or change the resolutions and purpose of thy most bountiful loving and tender Friend and Lord. Behold here is love as the Apostle hath it 1 Joh. 4.10 Not that we loved God but he loved us c. here love is Triumphant indeed In a word or two either we must conclude the Christian a most disingenuous person or else conclude that the survey of the great Legacies his Lord hath given him will raise the Christians esteem of Christ it will enlarge his affections toward Christ Thus the love of Christ discovered in his last Will and Testament will draw out love to him again and love will find whereever the excellency of what is loved doth lye rather than want an excellency to justify the passion we see men will phancy and make an excellency and then value it Spiritual love needs no such help to esteem Christ it may find an infinite worth in him and indeed doth judge him the chief of ten thousand None but he would dye none but he dying would make such provision for us 4. This great Testator was brought to his end as we say by the faults and through the folly of us whom he did so highly befriend We sinned and he died our wickedness brought him to the Cross Isa 53. Now whilst we like sheep went astray and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of as all the precious life of the shepheard ransomed the life of his wandring sheep what would have been the manner of men in this case would it not have been I 'le cross them out of my will I intended a bounteous Legacy but be it now as far from my mind as I was from theirs this would have been the resolution of man But this was not the mind of Christ more excellent than man No no but this his Noble disposition I will do the most my Friends need from me though they have done the most they could against me I 'le conquer their unkindness and they captives to my love shall set an eternal Crown of triumphant glory and praise on my head I know whither to bring them and where they shall be of another temper and disposition towards me for my love I will bequeath them a Crown of glory though they have pierced me with a Crown of thorns I know when they shall look on me and mourn when they shall heartily resent their unkindnesses and in requital of my love shall prize me higher than their own life So let my soul ever say thy love oh Lord surviving death and conquering my ingratitude deserveth a higher esteem and larger affections than a narrow heart and low apprehensions can offer thee CAP. V. Sect. 5. Zeal for Christ Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator A Fifth grace suiting to the Sacrament 5th Sacramental Grace improvable and improveable by considering Christ a Testator making his will when he Died is Zeal to his glory and honour I think it not needful to prove the suitableness of this grace to the Sacrament The heighth of love to Christ the indignation against former sins fervent setled resolutions to oppose suppress and overthrow all lusts and the stirrings of lusts which as formerly they have risen up so now would afresh rise up against Christ all which as they are in every prepared communicant and which are the constitutives of Zeal so they would clearly prove this but I take it none will deny or doubt that Zeal to the glory and honour of Christ doth well suit with the constant ordinary course of the Christians conversation how much more doth it beseem him in his nearer accesses to Christ The people which are his peculiar must be Zealous of Good works Tit. 2.14 Rom. 12.11 fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Now beside what arguments arise from the common professed Friendship of the Christian to Christ As 1. The candour and humanity which we shew to every man who is dead of whom either nothing ought be said or nothing but good an ingenuous person is moved with Zeal for the name and credit of the dead when they are traduced especially 2. When the innocency of the person was in his whole life well known to all who in any degree of acquaintance knew him we should not take up the buried miscarriages of of the dead nor may we disguise the good workes of those that are not by to plead for themselves 3. When our Friends were useful to all that needed and would make use of them we endure not they should be traduced by surviving rancor and envy 4. When all this Friendship innocency usefulness and generous beneficence of our Friend met with nothing almost but causeless vexations and troubles and of these one succeeding the other without Rest we think it hard as indeed it is very exceeding hard measure that it neither meet with rest in life nor death that it should be defamed where all men have a priviledg securing them from piercing censures and envious reproaches these and such like motives of Zeal for the honour of our dear Friend who Dying from us left his love to live with us are equally applicable to any such Friend if any such may be found among the sons of men But over and above all these in centives there are some special incentives to Zeal for the honour of our Lord on this very account that he dyed a Testator making his Testament and last Will. 1. Hereby we are embodied into the family whereof Christ is the head and cheif so that our zeal for his honour is a zeal for the honour of our whole family That we are of his family is a very high ennobling us a very great
the Death of Christ the Testatour so that thou and I are beholding to Christ a Testator for all the riches of grace consolation and glory Well worthy of thine and my praise thanks and hearty acknowledgments is Christ therefore for that he by his Death hath procured and by will hath entitled us unto such great and glorious advantages and benefits 2. Christ a Testator hath deserved thy most grateful resentments of his love for that he hath by this means removed all thy fears and prevented all thy doubts least at any time thou shouldst by reason of thy weak faith and defective love fall short of the goodness and blessings thou expectest for this as other Testaments is of force now that the Testator is dead and since he is dead none may either null it or alter it but it must continue for ever in strength And on this consideration of certainty and validity doth the Apostle Gal. 3.15 advance the excellency of the promises made to Abraham and to Abraham's seed Now what ever doth advance the excellency of the promises made to us doth likewise advance our debt of thankfulness for the promises 3. Christ a Testator is worthy of our highest Gratitude for so much as he hath by his last Will and Testament disposed of his rich inheritance amongst us so as we may duly expect and constantly fetch in as much as we will of grace for our present help and comfort reserving the fullness of all unto the final consummation of the elect redeemed Many a man loseth all or else much of his thankes by an unseasonable caution in his will that the Legatees shall have nothing of the gift until such a time to which it is uncertain whether he live but Christ deserveth our admiration as well as our thanks for the present benefit use and advantages we have from his Testament He hath so given that wee may now enjoy we so enjoy now that hereafter we shall receive present enjoyments were not to be compared with future the present improvement is sufficient to keep us handsomely the future is far above mine and your thoughts 4. Christ a Testator worthy of thy thanks for so much as he was thus mindful of thee at the last when enemies insulted and vaunted against him when sorrows and pains did seise him when his Friends stood aloof off and some of them denied him when many were content not to be known of his acquaintance when he foresaw what Friends we in our several generations would be to him for what these persons were under Christ's Eye was both an index or discovery of them and also a symptome or prognostick what we after them would prove And yet for all this his love continued firm to us and made them and us Heirs both of his own and of his Father's love also 5. And lastly consider this Christ a Testator is Christ Voluntarily Dying that he might make all sure to us He was not by nature under an unchangeable law of Death as we are if he had not loved us so much he needed not to have Died here then is his plea and Title unto our Gratitude he did Voluntarily and of choice put himself into a condition that he might dye to procure and confirm the promises to us And yet the kind and manner of Dying and pains he did foresee in his Death are the circumstances which as they set off and advance his love to us so do they increase and augment our debt of a loving hearty resentment of his kindness Sirs Christ must dye a curse under the vindictive justice of God ere he could convey by will the Heavenly blessed and everlasting Legacies which we now expect from him as a Testator Whoso shall cast an Eye upon these particulars if others more quickning do not occur yet these will either perswade to thankfulness or render unthankfulness inexcusable We do usually pick out such circumstances as these to commend the worthiness of our Friends love towards us at his Death he remembred me in what I most needed provided for me as much as I need or can receive he I thank him setled it by will that I might be sure of it And herein I am greatliest beholden to him that as I was unfit to be trusted with all at once and unable to subsist without any of it for present he did in wise kindness to me provide that the main part should be reserved for me and that the lesser be now given unto me So Christ that I might live and rejoice in the present grace of my Lord to me that I might be rich and happy in the possession of the whole when I was fit for and capable of it did wisely bequeath me a portion of peace in him grace from him comfort through him all which I needed but hath reserved fulness of Glory the immarcescible Crown the unchangeable Kingdom the inconceivable and unspeakable blessedness until I should be prepared to enjoy them all herein the love of Christ excelleth insomuch as he did all this for us when sorrows and troubles greater than can be equalled were besetting him nay he put himself into a state subject to all those sorrows and troubles from which by nature he was free that he might be liable to dye and make all this mercy sure to thee and me and such like us by Testament and thou and I must thank him that he did it for us who by our folly and wickedness were the causes of all this sorrow and trouble to him Here is love to be owned with highest rensentments and most enlarged affections Christ is the greatest conquerour of hearts and therefore to be crowned with a triumphant wreath of enflamed hearts oh live and dye in the grateful acknowledgments of his love If as some men will have it his Table where thou suppest with him be an Altar let not this Altar ever want a flaming Sacrifice Let thine heart be offered to him he deserveth more thou canst not tender less it were too little if thou had'st ought more it will be sufficient if thou dost not think it too much Oh my soul thy present income is worth thy thanks thy future full possession is fittest for an estimate and thanks in the highest Heavens CAP. V. Sect. 8. Humility Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator 8. THE eight Sacramental grace I did mention was Humility The proud and lofty heart bearing it self high upon its own deceived opinion is not fit for the Lords Table and Supper the Lord stands not as an endeared Friend to entertain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 4.6 Psal 22.26 but as an armed man to oppose the proud 'T is the meek shall eat and be satisfied as the Psalmist in anocase said who come to the Lords Table richly provided with their self-confidences are sent empty away Luk. 1.53 1 Pet. 5.5 whilst he filleth the hungry with good things In this clothing must we appear for however plain it may seem to be
Sarah's severity made Hagar weary of her service and fly from it I observe she was perswaded to return to submit her self and to become obedient to Sarah at the command and upon the promise of God who liveth and seeth Gen. 16.13 For memorial of which she gave name to a Well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling it Beer-la-hai-roi Christian thy Lord who commandeth thy obedience and encourageth thy diligence and willingness both liveth and seeth Wilt thou not obey that he may perform his promise to thee What shall slothful careless and unfaithful servants shake off sloth and put on a shew of diligence and faithfulness whilst under the eye of their Master and shall not the Christian who is ever under the eye of his Master be thereby perswaded to care diligence and faithfulness in his obedience Whoever thou art that attendest at the Lord's Table dost know or else now learn it that for future thou mayest know it and consider it That the Lord of the Feast cometh to entertain his Guests and to receive their promises of renewed Obedience and when thou hast made the promise Christ makes the observation what diligence thou usest in performing thy promise he seeth whether thou art mindful of thy promise and will one day call thee to account for it and require it of thee And what wilt thou answer to such a demand Friend wast thou not guilty enough under the single guilt of neglect but must thou needs add the guilt of perfidiousness and falshood to thy other guilt How didst thou dare to affront me to my face to give me thy promise at the Sacrament and under my eye break the promise thou madest me Let me O God! ever keep it in mind my Testator liveth and seeth may he see my obedience renewed in its fruits as my obligations are renewed in the Sacrament 4. Consider in Christ a Testator living and seeing who do or who do not perform the conditions qualifying the Legatees for the receiving the Legacies Thou mayest see him Judge supreme Judge of all the claims that are made to the whole or to any part of what he hath bequeathed In this he excelleth all other Testators who can only make their Wills and dye they cannot judge and determine the pleas and pretences which are made upon their last Testament Hence it often falleth out that such get and possess the goods bequeathed whom the testator never intended should be the better for them But here no pretender can by sleight and fraud get any of the great and rich Legacies of Christ Nor shall any who hath good right ever miss of them Oh! let us look to our Blessed Redeemer the Soveraign Judge of his own last Testament and readily diligently constantly do what he commandeth that we may receive what he promiseth Fulfil his holy Will that he may make good his last Will to us Let Sacraments bind us to an increase of Obedience for this will be the only Plea allowed by our Judge this will be the only Plea advantageous to us These are some few of many inducements which may move us to renew our obedience for so much as we obey our Lord a Testator bequeathing us Legacies rich and worth our greatest obedience Legacies no way to be attained but in the sincere obedience of our life and heart Legacies that shall be given by him who is now living to see who obeys him as he once died to ensure the reward to their obedience Legacies that must be adjudg'd to the obedient by him who commands the obedience and made the Will out of all which resulteth 1. A Motive that may prevail with our ingenuity and hopes we obey in expectation of a Noble Reward our Legacies are worth better obedience 2. A Motive that may work on and prevail with our fears and our less ingenuous principles Our Judge his eye is on us and he is our Judge who will give only to the obedient 3. A Motive that may meet with and prevail on our mixed affections to encourage our hopes to manage our fears to enforce our backwardness we must obey or lose our reward to cherish our ingenuity the reward is generous and noble exceedingly well becoming the ingenuity of the most free and noble spirits CAP. V. Sect. 12. Brotherly kindness improved on Christ's last Testament THE Twelfth and last Grace mentioned cap. 4. sect 12. as a Sacramental Grace well suiting with the Lord's Supper that Feast of Love and improveable by the consideration of Christ's dying a Testator is Brotherly Kindness and Charity a peaceable disposition of mind towards our Christian friends and a loving affection for our Brethren in Christ This grace is so needful that none are so ignorant as to doubt none so prophane as to deny it a needful qualification yet whilst ignorance and prophaneness confess it in words they are both far from the true exercise hereof The considerate meditating and discerning communicant will be careful to provide this grace for this Sacrament and to improve it by the Sacrament which may very well be done by such considerations as these 1. First Our Christian Brethren whom we should love are made truly lovely by the Legacies which Christ hath bequeathed to them and which he hath in some part already bestowed upon them For Christ the great bountiful and wise Testator hath as is already observed so disposed his estate and treasures of grace consolation and glory with other advantages and needful supplies that all his friends should be handsomly maintained out of his Treasury although the principal of the estate be reserved in Heaven to enrich them there As Rebeccah was adorned with rich Jewels before she was brought to Isaac who invested her with all when she came to him and the marriage was consummate So the Church so each particular Believer is adorned with very rich Jewels of grace gifts and comforts in which she is brought to Christ who will invest all on her when he shall consummate the Marriage in Glory The Crown it is true is reserved for the future state of Glory but there are many single Jewels already bestowed The King's daughter is all glorious within Psal 45. The Saints of God the Righteous ones are the excellent on earth Psal 16.3 They are filled with the Spirit of Christ and they are led by that Spirit into all the waies of Truth Holiness Meekness Goodness Long-sufferance and the like The Philopher tells us that true Friendship is only among the true vertuous Vice cannot be a cement of Friendship In the Redeemed Called Sanctified there is what fitteth them for and renders them worthy of our love and brotherly affections Two things do ordinarily prevail with men to excite Natural love first the sweetness of disposition a skill and delight to shew our selves friendly as Prov. 18.24 He cannot be much beloved who is not ready and prone to love Secondly the largeness of estate and wealth it is the Rich man that hath many friends
Sacrament until he take us to the Glory of the Father or come again to us in the Glory of the Father Every Sacrament is a taking out a Certificat that Christ died and was buried but that he is risen from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 53. Every time the Bread is broken in a Sacrament we tell the world that our Lord was cut off out of the Land of the Living The pouring out of the Wine speaketh his powring out his blood unto death and for proof hereof we produce his Testament and last Will the last Will of our great Commander who made it In Procinctu when he was girt and in his Armour just ready to enter the conflict wherein he laid down his life for us The excellent Moralist and Historian Plutarch tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. it was the custome with the Roman Souldiers to make their Wills when they stood in Battel-aray Facientibus Testamenta in procinctu veluti ad Certam mortem eundum foret Velleius Paterculus lib. 2. I am sure when they went on a hard and dangerous design the more considerate amongst them made their last VVill as the Roman Historian reports of their Souldiers assaulting Trebonia in Spain Our great and Glorious Captain knowing that his hour was come and that he must dye for us disposed thus his estate by VVill or Testament which proveth the truth of his Death as fully as any VVill duly proved by course of Law proveth that the Testator is dead Now certainly good evidence to the truth of Christ's death must needs be very suitable to our publick declaration and Profession of his death and so must suit with this first End of the Sacrament which is to shew forth his Death until he come The valid and irreversible Testament proveth the Death of the Testator Now such a Testament we have exhibited in the Sacrament and who employs his thoughts on this meditation employs them so as they agree with the End of the Sacrament 2. Secondly Christ intended the renewal of our lively affections toward him Dying for us as another end of the Sacrament of his body and blood He did therefore appoint this Ordinance to continue after his Death that it might keep the affectionate remembrance of his love alive in our hearts He would not have his Death forgotten neither would he have it kept in memory without the vigour and strength of our love His friends were dead in sin and misery at that time he remembred these dead friends with life of affections and now his living friends must not remember him with dead affection A lifeless affection is next neighbour to no affection and to remember with such affection is very little more than quite to forget Now none of us should so forget our Dying Lord we could not see him dying as they did Luk. 23. v. 27. who followed him to Mount Calvary and saw him with their bodily eyes yet in every Sacrament of his Supper he is evidently set forth dying among us and so every one of us must remember him every place in the Church may put us in mind of our Lord but the Table and the Cross do more particularly and lively set our remembrance on work Sic oculos Sic ille manus c. Let me ask the question did you ever lose a dear friend who made you a Legatee in his Will or appointed you Executor of it how did your affections stir move yea melt your heart when you read over the Will when you came to demand your Legacy did you receive it with dry eyes Let us bestow our affections in reading over Christ's Will as we would bestow them in reading over the Will of a tender careful Friend and then I am sure we shall frame our hearts to this second end of the Lord's supper and demean our selves as Christ expects we should at his table We shall remember him with love for his loving remembrance of us we shall remember him with desires of his return and coming in glory to make good all that he hath bequeathed to us to put us in possession of all that which the Sacrament representeth and sealeth to us we shall say make hast come quickly oh Lord. 3. Thirdly A solemn publick and constant return of Thanks and Praise to the Lord is a third end of this Sacrament Christus voluit sacram suam coenam esse mortis passionis suae nostraeque per eam à peccato morte diabolo liberationis perpetuum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrae ea propter gratitudinis observantiae publicum Testimonium Ludoy Cappel Thes Salm. de Liturg. Ling. Ignot part 1. th 5. Christ would have his holy Supper be a perpetual remembrance as of his Death and Passion and as of our deliverance from sin death and the Devil so of our gratitude and observance would he have it be a publick Testimony as that Learned Professor hath expressed his sense and apprehension of this matter We can scarce meet with any one person amongst the lowest and meanest Professours of Christian Religion so little instructed in the nature and end of this Ordinance as not full well to know and openly profess it is an Ordinance appointed for continuing a thankful Remembrance of our Dying Lord. We cannot read any Writer Popish or other but in their writings of the Sacrament every page is full of it the most usual name of it is Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Syriack Version hath borrowed this Greek word to express it self in Act. 2.42 20.7 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which soundeth out Gratitude and Thankfulness so some render and translate Bread in Acts 2.42 10.7 broken in the Sacrament and call it the Breaking of the Eucharist but I will spare my time pains and paper and appeal to thy pretences and professions who goest to the Lord's Table I know thou canst not acquit thy self to thy Brethren with whom thou communicatest nor to thy own Profession unless thou declarest thy desire to remember thankfully the Death of thy Lord. Now the Love of Christ remembring thee by Will in his Testamentary disposition hath in it very many strong and prevailing perswasives to thankfulness and will certainly awaken the sober considerate soul unto gratitude and so will excellently well suit with the season and the duty of feasting with our Lord. Of which more shall be said in our following discourse if the Lord give leave Mean while the greatness of our legacy the freeness of love in the legator the unworthiness of the legatees the certainty of our future receiving it the present enjoying more if so be we would set our selves with more diligence and search to enquire into the deed of gift our Lord hath made to us These I say will certainly perswade us to constant acknowledging our debt of thankfulness to our dying Lord. Our life should be
Christ yet a little Friendship would kindle much Zeal for such love and bounty as is expressed by Christ in his Will and last Testament to us Sect. 6. 6. Joy and Gladness in the Lord the heart will rejoice in its own interess in Christ and glory in Christ when the great and good things done for it by Christ and setled upon it by the last Will of Christ are known and duely considered It is a vanity yet common among men to glory and rejoice in their rich Relations and in their ample estates given to them by the will of such Friends but it is no vanity in a believer to rejoice and glory in his large Legacyes bequeathed to him by Christ for the greatness and goodness of these things with the unbeleif and vilifyings which others cast upon believers their hopes and their Lord do warrant yea call for it Sect. 7. 7. Thankfulness and gratefull return of praise unto him who hath so remembred us is another grace improveable upon the considerate observance of Christ making his last Will and upon our meditating on his will it is so apparently due that every one doth usher in the mention of a Legacy or great gift by will with thanks to the Giver I thank him he remembred me c. Sect. 8. 8. Humility and a lowly temper of soul a sober esteem of our selves who have what we have and do hope for all that we can expect of free gift is another grace or Christian habit improvable by due and serious considering Christ's last Will and Testament made by himself before his Death and confirmed by his Death We had been all poor sheaks and pitifull beggars if it had not been for this rich and great Friend of ours I have heard men blow down the pride of some who were set up as we are by anothers bounty with one blast such had not been worth one groat if his Friend had not put him into his Will so do thou Christian consider and so say Sect. 9. 9. Patience in suffering for Christ's sake nay Patient bearing all the afflictions of our whole life is another grace which may be much increased by our due observing and applying our thoughts unto Christ's last Will or Testament He can never suffer too much for Christ who hath so much given to him by Christ nor may he be at any time weary of the labour he undergoeth for Christ who understandeth what is his legacy in the Testament or Will of Christ Sect. 10. 10. Sorrow for doing so little for him and grief for doing any thing at any time against Christ is another effect of our meditations and due observations of the love of Christ manifested to us in his last Will. This part of repentance is improveable by these like reflections on Christ Dying a Testator and putting us into his last Will. If there be any ingenuity lest among the Friends of a Dying person who giveth largely to them all though they all did slight reproach oppose and wrong him this gift will draw out tears for their former carriage toward him Sect. 11. 11. Setled purpose to live in future dayes more worthy of at least with endeavours after a carriage and deportment which may be more answerable to the love of Christ Dying for us and so carefully and bountifully remembring us before he died Renewed obedience is another effect which will be promoted and advanced by such thoughts Sect. 12. 12. A loving and peaceable disposition towards believers our joint Legatees who were in the heart of Christ as well as we and who are by the Will of Christ made joint-heirs with us Charity and Brotherly-kindness is a grace improvable by these sweet influences of Christ's love equally providing for them and us by his Will we shall be constrained to love those whom we know Christ so loved And thus you have in this Chapter the brief Summary of what graces may be increased Now the special influence which the last Will of Christ dying hath on the soul for the increase of each of these graces will occasion the resuming of them in the order I have here laid down and so will be our employment and your farther entertainment in the next Chapter CAP. V. Faith Improved by the last Will of Christ IN this Chap. I foresee I shall be much longer than in all the former and its length will necessitate me to cast it into more branches for I must discourse particularly and distinctly on those twelve Graces mentioned in the fourth Chapter I shall allot therefore a particular Section to each particular Grace in which Sections I hope to clear it That the last VVill of Christ hath a special Influence on the considerate meditating soul to improve its Grace Sect. 1. 1. The believing meditating and considerate Communicant may improve his Faith by the consideration of Christ's last VVill there lye hidden many inducements unto Faith and very strong supports of Faith all which consideration will draw forth and likely enough in some such order as this some of them may be drawn out Now the Scripture tells me that Faith is the substance of things hoped for a perswasion of the certain future accomplishment of those things which are promised to the Believer Credere est persuasum esse de veritate alicujus rei PP Salmur de Fide sect 15. To believe is to be perswaded of the truth of any thing proposed to be believed So that the more the clearer the surer our perswasives and arguments are to believe the stronger will be our Faith and Assent to the Truths which are proposed and argued the stedfaster and more unmoved will our perswasion be Persuasio non fit aliterquam admittendo aut introducendo in intellectum eas rationes caque argumenta quibus unaquaeque res sese veram esse demonstrat PP Salmur de Fide Disp 1. sect 15. Which is wrought in no other manner than by admitting or letting into the understanding those Reasons and Arguments whereby each thing demonstrateth it self to be true VVhich passage of the Learned Professours is a very fit Exposition of the Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things which are not seen it is the conclusion of the soul arguing with it self from the evidence of truth and from the certainty of those reasons which are discussed and throughly pondered as then there is more or less evidence and certainty in the promise or word on which our faith and perswasion is built so there is more or less strength in our faith or perswasion Confirmat fidem quod magis ac magis persuadet vera esse promissionem c. P.P. Sal. de Sacram. in gen sect 54 and a certainty which grows greater and greater will produce a saith which grows greater and greater like wise Let us then see what increase of our perswasion and faith may be made by the last Will and Testament of our Lord. In which thou
for their meanes and where this discord happens there ever is a great deal less in performance than in purpose farre less in execution than in design and intention But where a great heart possesseth an estate carryeth an interess and enjoyeth opportunities large as its self there are ever great designs rich promises vast expectations and these give being to a hope that maketh not ashamed The favorites of Kings enlarge their hopes to the greatness of those gifts their Princes use to give It were a dishonour to a Prince if his Friend and favourite should hope for a mean and poor gift such as every ordinary man bestows upon his Friend 1 Sam. 22.7 Saul spake more like a King bestowing gifts when he talked of olive-yards and vine-yards and making them Captains over thousands And the ambitious mother measured her hope and request for her sons by the greatness of their masters state when she begged that they might sit the one on the right hand the other on the left hand of their Lord in his Kingdom So let our hopes eye the riches and treasures of our Dying Lord and grow great as his mind and good will as his means and ability to enrich us to satisfy us with most excellent Legacies with Royall gifts 3. As his mind and means were great so was his love and affections toward us Jonathan's love to David was a love that exceeded the love of women but fell short of the love of Christ to believers It is hard to find a love that may shadow out the love of Christ but it is impossible to find out a love that can equal it or set it forth to us in its gaeatness It is greater than the love of a Friend a Brother a Father a wife greater than all these could we compound them all into one Now where so great love to us in so great estate in the hands of so great mind there out hopes cannot but exceed the hopes of a man who hath the largest hopes from his Friend his Brother or Father He knows not the heart of Christ nor the riches of Christ nor the love of Christ who contents himself with small hopes or doth not enlarge his heart towards a hope great as the love of Christ See then what thou mayest expect should be thy legacy think what it likely should be that Christ Dying would bestow upon thee would he not give the greatest he could should you not hope the greatest you are capable of do not men close handed narrow hearted and loath to leave what they have do they not give the most they can to those they love most at their death have not they largest gifts by will who were greatest sharers in their good will is not this the standard by which waiting hoping Heirs measure their hopes and expectations from a Dying Friend let it be thine also and at a Sacrament remember thy hope is justifiable when exceeding great for so much as it is raised upon so great love of so great a mind in so great estate and meanes that none can equall or justify it self in a comparison with it none I say though it were the grandeur of a King of the greatest King ever the Sun did shine upon for if more crowns than one are at his disposal yet can he not bequeath a crown to every loyal subject to every faithful councellour to every dear Friend to every dutiful child Christ thy King thy Friend oh believing soul could alone do this and indeed hath done it by will Luk. 22.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this thou shouldest remember and consider at the Sacrament The renewed memorial of Christ thy Friend Dying a Testator and renewed thoughts of thy Friends greatness who is thy hope will be a renewing of thy hope and an addition to its greatness Sect. 2. 2. As the greatness of our expectations so in the next place the goodness and real loveliness of what we expect either doth add or might justly add to the growth and increase of our Hopes Their Hope may well be a growing Hope which is animated and quickened by such growing goodness Among many cross occurrences which may this often doth lessen our Hopes their greatness may possibly want commensurate goodness the quality and rellish of it may not be sweet enough though the fruit may be larger then we expected The massy bulk may be too great whilst the usefulness and profit of it may be to little David speaks of some who had more than heart could wish but this overgrown increase adds to their pride and atheism and proves a snare to them Psal 73.4 5 6. With the 8. 9. verses Their vices increase as do their riches This a poysonous quality of all worldly greatness and this venom frequently embâ—tters the considerate man's Hopes and this ialwayes empoysoneth the inconsiderate man's enjoyments But on the other side the believers Hope through the death and Testament of Christ hath in it goodness as well as greatness goodness to sweeten our Hope and to sanctify our enjoyment the unbelievers Hope and acquisition makes the estate greater and the person viler but this of the believer makes his estate more great and his person more gracious it makes him happier in his possessions and holier in his affections and so betters both the man and his condition In this the believers Hope excelleth all other which will I hope clearly appear if at a Sacrament we meditate on 1. First the Moral goodness and excellency of those things which Christ hath willed to us they are full of purity and therefore full of loveliness If Moral vertue were so desirable in the eye of the Philosopher that he could say every one would fall in love with it if it were or could be set forth in its native beauty to the eye what then will the Holiness of Christ's Legacies be to a gracious soul what will Moral vertue whereof Christ's Legacies are full enhaunced and dignified with the addition of grace which Christ doth adde to his Legacies Joh. 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever ver 16. The spirit of truth Behold here a Legacy which bequeaths all Moral vertues and all sanctifying graces at once in this one gift you have greater and choicer gifts than all the world can give Here is greatness and riches here is goodness and righteousness In one word the great gifts of dying friends have corrupted many a fair and well tempered nature but lo here 's a Legacy greater then all those and which hath rectifyed and beautifyed many a crooked and vitiated nature I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them fom the evill Joh. 17.15 Now as he praies it may be so with them he powerfully worketh upon them and it is so with them they are kept from the evil For he imparteth those internal operative
that whosoever either loves him not or loves him not for his own sake is unworthy of this great ordinance It is disputed whether Judas did partake of this Sacrament but it is not disputable whether a heart like his whether a man or woman who loves Christ no more than Judas did love him be fit for the Sacrament It is a feast for Christs Friends it is an entertainment for his beloved ones if that invitation Eat O Friends drink yea drink abundantly O Behold Cant. 5.1 Be not intended principally for a solemn bidding to this feast yet the general equity or congruity of it warranteth the Friends and lovers of Christ and none else to come The enemies of Christ must expect other kind of entertainment it is bring those mine enemies and slay them before me In one word that heart which is not full of love to God is full unfit for any approach to God in any ordinary and common duty much more unfit for this extraordinary and solemn access to the Lord. Now in the Testament or last Will of Christ we may discern most evidently 1. A love which deserveth to be very highly prized a love toward us wich none but Christ ever did or could bear and express toward us A love which entitled us to a participation of a Kingdom for as the Father hath given a Kingdom to him so hath he given a Kingdom unto us herein appeareth the largeness of his love to us what he hath given declareth how much he loved and the time when he gave sheweth the constancy of his love to us he loved us to the last Now ingenuity sets a value upon men according to the love men bear to their Friends and I am assured who ever readeth the last Will of Christ readeth the greatest the constantest love and why then should it not be esteemed their duty to set the highest price on Christ 2. The incomparable excellencies which he was master of The Legacies which he giveth manifest what surpassing treasures he was possessour of these for kind are spiritual for duration eternal for suitableness full and satisfactory for use sweet safe and pure for certainty unchangeable of all which somewhat hath already been spoken therefore no more shall now be said The vast riches of some men have been kept close until their last will hath discovered them and how then have some men admired them indeed we cannot understand the full treasures of our blessed Lord until we come to read his last Will and Testament in the light of glory with eyes of immortality and then he shall be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 1.10 The believing soul when he views the treasures of grace comfort and glory made over to him by Christ's will cannot but admire the incomparableness of his person and although the believers estimate of Christ be so ingenuous as to prize Christ for his own worth yet it cannot be unthankful or not prize him for his gifts bestowed on us Whenever thou art going to a Sacrament if other more quickening motives do not offer themselves think on that which Christ hath given thee by will and consider how glorious and excellent a person he is who bequeathed these great and good things and who can and will bestow every one of them upon thee 3. Read over the will of Christ and ponder well what he hath given and bequeathed then reflect upon thy self and see what thou art now what thou wast when he gave and what thou art like to be so long as thou livest upon earth And when this is well considered thou wilt have cause to say that among all benefactours none can compare with Christ in the noble generous and free disposition of his mind And indeed the excelling beneficence of Christ toward believers doth win an excelling esteem and price in believers toward Christ who 1. Gave these great things of pardon and life of grace and holiness of peace and comfort of victory and glory contained in his Legacies to strangers disesteemers rejecters and in a word enemies of the giver and the gifts Now 't is a generous mind which will do good to miserable forlorn men and women who knew not their misery who undervalued their recovery who rejected the motion who declared their enmity against their deliverer He is a Physician of excellent temper who can and will pass by all these and cure a Dying body because he delight 's to heal Our Lord noteth in the parable Luk. 10.30 That a man went down from Jerusalem a Jew whom thieves robbed and left wounded and half dead insensible of his danger and unable to ask for help The enmity of the Jews against the Samaritanes arose on occasion of that Schism which the Samaritanes were guilty of and maintained against the Jews concerning the Worship of God Joh. 4.20 Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place c. This quarrel began soon after the Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Salmanesar 700 years before Christ was born and it had been countenanced by a High Priest and a Temple in a continued Succession of 300 years and somewhat more before the birth of Christ So old was this enmity whom a Samaritan pittied ver 33. Now observe there was a very rankerous enmity in the Jewes against the Samaritanes as appeareth from Joh. 4 9. 8. v. 48. But this generous compassion of the Samaritan checks the old quarrel and lendeth a helping hand such noble compassion is the compassion of our Lord to us to whom God commendeth his love that when we were enemies Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 However disingenious sinners slight and undervalue the person of Christ and his love toward them whilest they were very enemies yet whensoever grace appeath it changeth their minds and maketh sinners cease from sin and become Saints they shall at once both admire the excellency of Christ's person and love towards them and comdemn all their former low unbeseeming apprehensions of Christ his love As the compassion of Christ was thus generous in pittying of an undone enemy 2. So secondly it appeareth a noble and excellent compassion if it appear to thee what thou now art either thou dost not know why self and state or must confess Christ incomparably excellent in mind and disposition There is not now any worth in thee but what thou hast by vertue of Christ's Legacy where had others where hast thou thy grace but from the spirit of grace and note how the Apostle argueth this Gal. 3.14 15. by an argument drawn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Testament and Will of Christ Men do chose persons for some excellency or other and therefore do many times make them their heires But here 's a compassion and love that maketh us excel others by giving us what we could never have expected ex condigno by worthiness of our own The least Saint is more excellent than the eminentest carnal
enriching us it doth exceedingly enhance our worth honour we therefore are highly obliged to contend for his honour we rightly judge the son bound to plead the honour of his dying Father and we do as rightly judge the Christian much more bound to plead the honour of his dying Lord whose Testament hath made him a Son and gave him a share both in the honour and wealth of the family 2. In the last Will of our Dying Lord we read his Zeal and strength of affection for our peace our comfort our safety and our happiness all which falleth to the ground and vanisheth if the Legacies of our Lord fail us we had need therefore with Zeal contend for his honour not as though our plea would in any thing ratify or confirm for as we cannot give so neither needs he to derive ought of his authority from us he hath received all power from his Father But yet after the manner of men be it spoken we are bound to assert and defend the glory of his authority and power of disposing and bequeathing to us and to others whatsoever he hath by Will and Testamentary disposition left to us and to them If he had given what was not his to give we must either soon have parted with it or for ever have missed of it but herein lieth our advantage and comfort that the large Legacies of our Lord to us are as the fruit of so much Zealous love for us so they are the Acts of Soveraign power delegated to Christ by the Father as our Lord himself intimateth to us Luk. 22.29 As the Father hath appointed unto me so I appoint a Kingdom unto you Our Zeal then for the honour of Christ doth as well maintain our hope comfort and interess as it doth maintain his authority and what man would suffer the power to be nulled which gave him a rich and inestimable Legacy 3. The least degree of good bequeathed to us by the Will of our Testator in his will remembred by us in the Lords supper doth greatly surpass all the Zeal we can bear to his glory and honour read over his will and see there is justification in his blood shed for remission of sin assurance of peace with God secured by the frequent remembrance of the blood of sprinkling Sanctification consolation and future glory all these promised by him who being Mediator of the Covenant hath reduced the whole to the form of a Testamentary disposition and confirmed it by his death Now when thou art going to a Sacrament consider and judge with thy self should I not be very Zealous for his honour who hath given many inestimable gifts to me am I not less than the least of grace bequeathed is not remission of my sin greater love than my love can requite is not Hope of glory greater than mine obedience can ever equall shall I then ever think I have affection enough or have done enough for his honour by whom I have received what I have already by whom I shall receive what I hereafter expect No! No! I must be ever blowing my love into a greater flame of Zeal for his honour and yet his love and Zeal for me will outshine and overpower all mine for him 4. View the Will of thy Testator be perswaded to remember that he is now living in glory and beholdeth all that Love and Zeal which thou carriest in thy breast which thou expressest in thy life toward him he is not like other men who dying know no more of the deportment and behaviour of befriended survivours thou canst not bury the knowledge for dust hath not blinded the eye of the Lord he lives for ever and he knows how thou receivest improvest and resentest his Love and Zeal for thy good and with what face wilt thou appear before him one day if thou hast not been hired shall I say or bought with so great price into the love of and into a Zeal for thy beneficent liberal and incomparable Friend and Lord I observe Jacob dying recommended the care of his burial to Joseph above all his sons it was likely because cause Joseph more than any of his sons was debtor to the love and care of his Father for a double portion bestowed on him of all men we who have a double portion by Christ a portion of blessings on earth and in Heaven should zealously perform his will we must account it sacredly inviolable and shew it in shewing forth his praises 1 Pet. 2.9 CAP. V. Sect. 6. Joy Improved on Christ Dying a Testator A Sixth grace well suiting the Lord's supper 6th Sacramental grace Improvable Joy and Improveable on account of the Lord 's Dying a Testator is joy and gladness in the Lord and in his goodness It is confessed by all that it well suiteth with feasts of love that the guests should joy together and rejoice in their Friend who is equally Friend unto them all The soul which cometh burthened with sins and sorrows confesseth he should rejoice in the Lord and is well pleased that others do it whilst he cannot it is a spiritual joy which well becometh this spiriritual feast I do not say the heart is unfit for it who doth not rejoice I know the spiritual hunger and thirst of the soul speaketh the soul fit and such may such indeed ought to come yet when hunger and thirst after the Lord are accompanied with joy in the Lord the soul is better is more throughly prepared for this feast this commemoration of their Dying Lord. Now the Christian's joy beside the general motives of joy arising from the general nature of the object of delight and joy as goodness in the thing enjoyd propriety whereby it becomes ours and possession or presence of it with us according to our present capacity and exigency whether refreshing repairing or filling us or in what other manner of operation it affecteth in which the Christian joy and the delight of other men do agree The spiritual joy of the Christian hath great advantages from the last Will and Testament of his Lord As 1. First the transcendency of them If there were any blessings better than others in the possession and at the disposal of their Lord surely these should be given among the beloved Friends Servants attenders complemental visiters and such like common Friends possibly may be put off with common gifts but the best shall be distributed unto the best Friends A Kingdom in glory the spirit of Adoption remision of sins increase of all grace and consolations through faith c. are the choice blessings bequeathed to believers in Christ's Will and represented ensured and in praelibations or foretast conveyed to believers in the right reception of the Lord's Supper let it be therefore throughly considered and when either of those forecited mercies appear contained in his Will ask your selves whether the least of these do not deserve the highest pitch of your joy are they not better worth your delight than
Joseph advanced to be Ruler over all the Land of Aegypt must be saluted with a Bowing Knee Gen. 41.43 Which was the outward and visible expression of that double apprehension Gen. 27.29 Isa 49.23 Esth 3.2 5. 1. of his worth and honour 2. of the meanness and lowness of the rest who bowed It is a very general and ancient signe of the respect we bear to the dignity and worth of any one we bow before The insolent souldiers in their carriage toward Christ when they bowed the knee Math. 27.29 Shewed us what humility becometh subjects and what honour is due to Soveraigns Look then on that absolute dominion and power which appeareth in Christ's last Will and Testament be then Judge in the case and say What beseemeth thee in Receiving gifts from Soveraigne power from an absolute Lord will it not beseem thy low abject and poor state to attend the presence and receive the gifts of such a Lord as Christ is with a bended knee and a humble heart What might be farther said in this particular I shall leave to each one 's larger meditations because I will hasten to an end of the Chapter and subject CAP. V. Sect. 9. Patience in Sufferings Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator A Ninth Grace well suiting with the Lords Supper and Improvable on consideration of Christ Dying a Testator is strong and settled resolution with patience to undergo for him all hardships and sufferings which the Lord shall permit to come upon us A praemeditated survey of all the sufferings for the Lord Christ and his Gospel with advised purposes not to shrink from them is required of every Christian and doth very well fit the thoughts of a Sacrament in which the Christian communicateth with a Lord who was in his whole life a Man of sorrows and accquainted with griefs for our sake We celebrate the memorial of his sufferings we should confirm our resolutions not to shrink away from Christ for fear of sufferings The antient Christians under persecutions were wont to fortify their purposes and resolutions of adhering to their Crucified Lord in midst of all persecutions in order hereunto they were wont to Celebrate the Lord's Supper often thereby as often renewing their courage and resolution to dye if need be for him And the ordinary name of this ordinance viz. Sacrament implieth so much For it was the old Latine word expressing the Romane Souldiers obligation to obey his Generall Sacramentum Patres Latini à militari jurejurando uti opinamur ad eam partem nostrae Religionis significandam c. Thes Salmur de Sacrament in gen disp sect 2. Now common sense telleth us that who comes and listeth himself a Souldier under a Captain or Generall either knoweth not what he doth or else bringeth Resolutions to undergo all the hardships of the war he entreth on I tell thee Christian thou knowest not fully what thou art doing at a Sacrament if thou doest not there add strength to thy resolutions of Enduring hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ If thou dost only confirm thy Hope of and thy waiting for the coming of thy Lord and shewest this by shewing forth his Death untill he cometh yet I must tell thee since thou professest hope of and waitest for the coming of thy Lord it well becometh this hope this faith to have attendant the Resolution of Enduring all for Christ's sake There are these Motives in it 1. First in thy Dear Friends Will thou seest his Love to thee and it is but endebted ingenuity to be ready for and patient in sufferings for one who sincerely Loved us As the Love of our Friend to us increaseth so should our readiness to suffer for our Friend Christ did thus commend his Love above the love of all other friends That he died for us Rom. 5.8 And this Love constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.14 It doth by a sweet and invincible power draw us into this conclusion That we should live no longer to our selves but to him who died for us ver 15. We ought not only to bear some but all not little only but great not common but extraordinary dangers distresses and afflictions for his sake He is by a sacred right Lord of our life and when he biddeth us venture it in hazards or lay it down in unavoidable death for him we must do it His love ought thus to constrain us The sacred story tells us that Jacob served seven years for Rachel Gen. 29.18 During which service he underwent Losses Gen. 31.39 was consumed with drought in the day and with frost in the Night thus he served him fourteen years for his daughters to the younger of which he had such love that seven years of hardship seemed to him but a few dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the love he had to her Gen. 29.29 Either thy own Reason condemneth thy want of love to Christ who deserveth it insomuch as he hath given thee rich Legacies by his Will or thy Love will command thee resolvedly and patiently to suffer for him Either thou must not pretend any interess in Christ's Gifts or thou must intend to Love him for them and resolve to suffer for him thou Lovest In thy going to the Sacrament view the kindness of thy Saviour in his Last Will and Testament and judge with thy self what sufferings for him thou couldst reasonably refuse He Loved not himself or life too well when it concerned thy life and Soul He died for thee and canst thou do less than venture life or estate for him whilest thou readest his love in his Legacies raise thy resolutions to face stand out and bear dangers losses reproaches or Death for him His love to thee deserveth it for no man hath Joh. 15.13 or can have greater than that Christ had for thee and the rest of his friends 2. Thy Testator hath provided by his last Will and Testament that all thy sufferings should be recompenced to thee with a reward that surpasses all thy sufferings If thou and I weigh the Sufferings for Christ and our Gain by Christ this will exceedingly outweigh those The least degree of reward weighed with the heaviest burthen of sufferings will praeponderate and outweigh them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for heaviest burthens of afflictions are but light 2 Cor. 4.17 But the glory they work for us is an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory And besides all that which shall hereafter be the recompence of sufferers for Christ they are 1. First honoured by God in that they are called to suffer for his Son God puts an honour on such who are called to suffer reproach for Christ Acts. 5.41 1 Pet. 4.14.2 It is a gift which God doth not bestow on every one however men judge of it the Apostle tells us it is Given Phil. 1.29 And well might the Apostle so account it for 3. It fitteth us for the Kingdom of Heaven our sufferings do not fit us with a fitness of worth
for us I know there are many other motives to Repentance which may be seasonably thought on at the Sacrament there are also in this sufficient inducements to that Godly sorrow which becometh the memorials of our Dying Lord and loving Friend 1. First the Christian as he is a man as he is principled and swayed with the affections of Humane Nature cannot but reflect with greif upon his carriages and deportment towards a Friend who loved him intirely who was recompenced with the disingenuous returnes of scorn neglect and hatred When we have unadvisedly or unwittingly sleighted any Friend we dearly loved or should have loved we cannot remember it without shame sorrow confessing praying pardon and excuse with promise to be more heedful more respectful for future There is no love so tender and apt to distil into tears as that which is won by a worthy excellent person conquering ungrounded prejudices unreasonable neglects and unjustifiable contempts such affronted love when it prevails at last doth kindle the strongest fires and heapeth up the coals which melt the hardest and most stubborn metal Many a hard heart hath by such flame been melted down to tenderness Saul grew warm by it 1 Sam. 24.17 18 19. And in the 1 Sam. 26.21 It breaketh out into a flame of affection toward David and against himself for his unreasonable usages toward David Saul accuseth himself but acquitteth David he confesseth his sin his folly and great errour in designing evil against one who did so well deserve his love Though Saul were disingenuous more than enough against his Son David yet the reflection of his thoughts on David's kindness drew him into tears 1 Sam. 24.16 Wilt thou be more disingenuous to thy Lord than Saul to David how long didst thou directly oppose bitterly hate scornfully reproach and unreasonably reason against Christ's Law ordinances waies and followers what kind of life didst thou in the days of unregeneracy live if thou wast not a violent persecutor yet thou didst long think hardly of Christ and the Gospel yet then Christ did not cut thee off nor leave thee to perish in thy contempt of salvation wilt thou not say thou hast erred greatly done foolishly and sinned canst thou do less than weep over the thoughts hereof In the Sacrament thou commemoratest the most unparalleld love and beneficence triumphing over unkindness and unthankfulness a Testator bequeathing grace comfort glory and salvation to thee and others like thee who undervalued opposed hated and persecuted him Canst thou remember this and not grieve canst thou review it and not be displeased with thy self and condemn thy folly 2. The Christian Sorrow is most highly Ingenuous and excellently tempered and therefore the Remembrance of such unkindness to such a Friend will work a deep impression of Sorrow and grief upon the heart of the Remembrancer The Scripture tells us the People of God are a willing People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a People of Ingenuities indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51.12 Grace reneweth nature to some degrees of created and primitive generousness Hence it is Cant. 6.12 the Church is stiled Aminadib God calls them my willing People and Isaiah doth very particularly describe this frame of mind and how it is wrought Isa 32.1 2 3 4. 5. By the power of Christ in the Gospel Now where such a sweet generous temper of mind is there will be reflections of dislike grief and Sorrow or repentance for any unseemly carriage towards one that deserved better The spouse Cant. 5.2 3. In drousy and careless fit neglected her beloved but when she was throughly awakned she discovereth a most deep sense of her neglect she fell into a deep sick fit of love ver 8. her heart failed her when she remembred what she had done such like workings of this Christian spiritual and renewed ingenuity you may observe 2 Cor. 7.11 in that sevenfold operation which conviction and remembrance of their fault wrought in them Carefulness or readiness to amend the errour clearing themselves or duly apologizing for themselves indignation against the offence and offender fear least the like should be committed or this not sufficiently taken away vehement desire of firm reconciliation Zeal for the injured and revenge such as becometh a Gospel repentance against the offence and against themselves for it Either thou art not well acquainted with what Christ hath done for thee in his last Will and Testament or thou hast not yet observed how little love service and honour thou hast returned him for his love or if thou knowest and observest both these they work in thee a readiness of mind to correct thine errours a defence for Christ and blame of thy self with indignation against thy former folly fear of being so foolish any more earnest desire to be one with Christ and Zeal for his glory with revenge on thy sins which eclipsed it Wheresoever Christian ingenuity springs from a renewed heart renewed Sorrow for unkindnesses will put forth it self and spring from that ingenuity Say then whatever the common ingenuity of a man whatever the enhanced generousness of a Christian should work in the reflections on its own unhansome carriages towards a sleighted friend all that should the renewed memory of my Lord Dying a Testator and by his Testament enriching me produce in me viz. all common and ordinary effects of hearty sorrow yea all especial and extraordinary effects of Christian repentance Of which I need say no more of which I dare not longer treat because I must not exceed bounds to much CAP. V. Sect. 11. Better'd obedience the Fruit of Christ's Dying a Testator 11. THE next grace suiting to the Lord's Supper and improveable on the consideration of Christ's Death as he died a Testator is Resolution and endeavour of New and better Obedience for future There 's no man that accounteth the ordinance a mercy that looketh on it as a Sealing ordinance a renewing our Covenant with God or a memorial of the Death of Christ Dying for us that we might live to him but confesseth New Obedience should be the effect and resolutions for new Obedience should be the preparatory for this Sacrament It is not therefore needful to prove it particularly and at large I speak to none but such as judge it their duty after they have been at the Lord's Supper to endeavour a renewing of their Obedience to the commands of Christ 1. The gain and reward bequeathed is worthy very well deserveth our Obedience We have had frequent occasion to tell you that the promises both of the life that now is and of that which is to come are the Legacies of Christ which promises are rich and precious they contain all necessary noble and high encouragements to Obedience when the labourers were hired and sent into the vineyard the husbandman perswadeth them to obey and work for saith he I will give you what is meet Matth. 20.4 What the Apostle saith
are now entitled to the Legacies of this great Testator shall every one of you meet together to receive the full and total of what you can receive and Christ will give there shall need no such arguments no such reasonings no such intreaties to perswade you to Mutual Love There you shall not chuse but Love delight in and embrace each other Come then think what you shall be when you Feast all together at your Lord's Table in his Kingdom And judge with your selves is it nor meet we should be such now It will be then a part of your Glory And is not your mind and judgment convinced that it is the Glory of a Christian to strive to be now what he shall be hereafter Christ will bring the Scattred sheep of his flock into one Joh. 11.52 When there shall remain on foot-steps of their former folly and discord It is a high expression which the holy ghost useth Joh. 17.11 And I will now forbear to search in into Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are It is a place which ensureth us that such who by the Father are kept unto the future state of the Saints in Heaven are kept to a most intimate and Glorious Union Friendship and Love Now they who will not be perswaded to cement to unite affections to love one another here how highly do they cross the designe of Christ and of the Father Oh that I could perswade all who hear or read my words and oh that more lively sense of what I write were upon mine own heart Lord I read thy Will Joh. 17.22 The Glory which thou gavest me I have given unto them that they may be one even as we are one Oh let the Remembrance of thy designe of our future Union renewed in the Memorial of thy last Will at each Sacrament cause me and all believers to study and endeavour a present Union and Brotherly love more beseeming our future blessed Union and love It may be I shall be quarrelled at for this endeavour of gaining love from those that yet love me not possibly lose what I thought to keep the love of some that have embraced me with a more Brotherly affection than hereafter they will this may possibly be the Fruit of their passions and the unhappiness of my weak and imperfect discourses But I shall retire my self from such storms and view the blessed Legacies my dying Lord hath bequeathed me peace he hath left for me his peace he hath given unto me And with his Peace his Love I shall at last I Hope Love them for ever who now will scarce give me leave so to do they shall love me who think they never will What my words cannot exexpress what my explanations cannot yet make clear that day of glorious appearing of our blessed Testator to give us the full possession of all bequeathed blessings shall reveale to us and we shall understand All of grace in its Beginnings Improvements Perfection and Crowning in Glory to have been the free Gift of this great Testator dying far us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of the Second Part. Gal. 3. v. 13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us c. THese two verses do acquaint us with what Christ hath done for us and how he hath done it what he was made for us and what we are made by him He was made a curse for us we are made blessed by him In the words you may observe 1. A grand design of Favour proposed Parts of the words i.e. the conferring on us a great Blessing that we Gentiles might receive the blessing of Abraham 2. The accomplishment of the design by Christ he hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law c. 3. The Manner how he hath effected this being made a curse for us 3. The Proof of this that Christ was made a curse for us argued from the Manner of his Dying For it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree From which declining all but what directly tends to my purpose I commend to you this Truth viz. That the Blessings of Grace are procured for us imparted to us and increased in us Doctr. by Christ's becoming and dying a Curse for us The full blessing of Grace descends on us through Christ made a Curse for us Here I shall 1. Clear the Term. 2. Prove the Truth 3. Essay the Improvement of Grace by shewing how this may excite and exercise Grace Now in the explication of the Terms there are these Terms offer themselves 11. What is this Blessing 2. What is this Curse 3. How Christ was made a Curse Of each in order Sect. 1. This Blessing then is made evident in general by the Apostle vers 14. who calls it The Blessing of Abraham and explaineth it farther it was that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith That Covenant of Grace with all the immunities of it whereby the Jews for a long time had been the peculiar people of God Benedictionis pars maximè memorabilis in spiritûs dono sita est P.P. Salmur Thes de Baptis Sect. 23. and had been advanced high above other Nations is now made with the Gentiles who are now of Aliens made Heirs to the Covenants of Promise Children of God and endowed with the Spirit A most memorable part of the Blessing lieth in the Gift of the Holy Ghost So the words of the Apostle are a Conclusion from the premisses that the Gentiles should be made partakers of the free Blessing of Abraham by Christ Conclusio omnium superiorum gentes fieri in Christo gratuitae benedictionis Abrahami participes consequi promissam illam Evangelii Gratiam quam vocat Spiritum and should obtain the promised Grace of the Gospel which he calleth the Spirit Or in the words of the learned Critick and Divine Promissionem Spiritus pro Spiritu promisso accipio Et Spiritus nomine benedictionem aeternae spiritualis vitae intelligo Th. Beza in Loc. I take the Promise of the Spirit for the Spirit promised and by the Spirit I understand the blessing of an eternal spiritual life The blessing of Renovation and Holiness from the Spirit of Sanctification The blessing of Peace in our Pardon attested by the Spirit of Adoption The blessing of inconceivable Glory reward of all the obedience of our Faith In brief That spiritual life we extinguisht by sin that favour with God which we lost by our disobedience that glory which we fell short of when we fell from God all that happiness which the Law could not give to sinful man accursed by the Law for his transgressing of it But the Gospel hath given to many and still offers to all that it is sent unto This is the Blessing that the Apostle speaketh of and which the Doctrine I am speaking of doth
Lord give me a heart knowing how to turn this kind of my Lord's Death into what Joy is hidden in it and I know my heart will need no other will desire none but this Again in the sixth place A peaceable 6th Sacramental grace peaceable disposition to the Brethren compassionate and tender affection toward our Brethren our fellow Christians is a Sacramental Grace a disposition of mind which is never out of season and is most in season at a Sacrament Christians should ever live in charity but they should feast with their Lord and with their Brethren in highest measures of charity When they thus feast they should embrace each other when they walk together it should be hand in hand This Love-feast must not be allayed with any mixture of sowre murmurings bitter envyings or unsavoury grudges of discontent The Apostle doth give us a most excellent Rule for this 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Purge out the old leaven c. Let us therefore keep the feast not in the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice c. In malice we should ever be children but especially at the Lord's Supper I will not urge reasons why we must be thus affected each to other when we come to the Table of the Lord for it is so universally known by all and it is so necessary among many other graces that too many think this alone sufficient to prepare men for the Lord's Supper It is true who hath all other but hath not this preparatory is unfit Whosoever wants this alone is not fit though this alone will not fit him for the Lord's Table The want of this must keep him back from this Supper until he hath a mind full of sincere and true love to all men especially to all the invited guests of the Lord. Supposing therefore that it is nothing doubted peaceable affections and compassionate tender love or charity to the Brethren is a Sacramental Quality I shal insist a little on the manner how this may be improved and advanced by the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us And so 1. First When thou art at the Lord's Supper and seest a few of thy Christian Brethren there to celebrate the Death of thine and their Lord dying a Curse this in all likelihood will be thy first reasoning upon it If Christ died a Curse for us then were we all under a Curse then were we all plunged in misery all were under the guilt of sin and under the wrath of God and what tongue can tell what this is or what heart can think of it and not be compassionately tender over such poor creatures Can your obdured hardened hearts hear the groans of men tormented with the Strangury or Gout or Stone Can you look upon the miseries of an Hospital without yearning bowels or can you look upon the tortures of one wracked and torn upon a wheel or between wild horses without a wish oh that I might deliver them what kind of hearts do you bear toward persecuted murthered and tormented Christians when you see the pictures of them or read the history of them do not your hearts drop into tender compassions toward them Why now look on Christ dying a Curse he is the lively picture of thine and their woful state it is to be seen in his Death read over the story of Christ accursed it is the story of thy most woful state and of the miserable state of them who are now communicating with thee they were with thee sinful guilty dying creatures which ere long must have been groaning sighing howling under the avenging wrath of the Almighty if Christ had not thus died for thee and them Look upon them say as indeed they were behold what was saved of my shipwrack These were tossed in the same vessel dashed on the same rock taken up helpless and lifeless c. with me Oh I never see them but it comes into my thoughts and my heart my heart weeps over our common danger We do so often renew our compassionate affections toward our companions in dangers as the sight of them renews the thoughts of our danger That which in a different case David said When I remember these things I pour out my soul within me The soul redeemed from the Curse will be able to say when I remember these things compassion and tenderness are poured out The remembrance of a common danger Nihil ad misericordiam sic inclinat atque proprii periculi cogitatio August Misericordia est vicina miseriae Seneca de Clem. is a most prevailing enducement to compassion The Philosopher could tell us That this Pity is a neighbour to misery Whence likely it was that the Lord did enjoyn the Israelites to shew a hearty compassion unto afflicted strangers for They know the heart of a stranger for they were strangers in Aegypt We must compassionately and tenderly love wish well and affect those whose hearts we know for so much as we were in like case Now this is one part of our brotherly love or charity here it begins though it doth not end here This tenderness of heart is like the pith or tender pulp which runneth through the whole body of the tree This indeed is the Root on which the delightful Tree grows and from which the beautiful fruits of love do blossome bud increase and ripen And so often you water the root of Love as you do soften and mollify the temper of your heart which is done when soakt in the thoughts of our common danger I shall close this particular with that piercing Question Matth. 18.33 Shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee How shall we answer this Question if the consideration of our common danger do not stir up in us a love of compassion to others what bowels hast thou if they do not now yearn and move towards them We are apt to pity those whose tormenting diseases and sharp pains we have felt and if ever we felt the inward sorrow and trouble of an accursed state we shall pity such who are under it and with tender affection demean our selves towards those who were under it it will renew our sympathy and this will renew our love to them But Secondly In the remembrance of Christ's dying a Curse for us there is the renewing of a most self-abasing and humbling consideration Now the renewal of this will be a very likely means to improve our love which is a humble self abasing grace So that what increaseth our humility will increase our charity Solomon tells us that onely by pride cometh contention and our own experience proveth the proud man neither sit to be chosen for a loving friend nor to be trusted as one that will be constant in his friendship and love such an one will be ever breaking the laws of friendship of which the Apostle discoursing 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. tells us that it neither vaunteth it self nor is puffed up
or a burning fever or a loathsom leprosy or a sad and solitary blindness But more than this more than all I can speak did Christ deliver us from when he did die a Curse for us Oh unparallel'd love of Christ and oh the unparallel'd ingratitude of Christians Sirs though you and I must leave the greatest the best part of this work of praise to another world yet let us not leave it all let us do somewhat whilst we live and are among men on earth Heaven is full of those praises which did we hear would ravish us Let Earth be witness that we do not quite forget our Lord. Whereas you could have born all the envy anger and malice of creatures and it may be have contemned the weakness of it you could never have stood under nor have made head against the anger and indignation of the Lord nor have fortified your selves with resolutions to lessen the fury by lessening your apprehensions of it The dear children of God in their bitter complaints cry out if an enemy if any but God himself had done it I could have born it And the hopeless unbelievers cry out the same in effect let any thing come let all come upon us rather than the wrath of the Almighty let rocks grind us to powder or mountains bury us for ever under their weight Oh the heaviest of all these are lighter than one stroak of an angry avenging God! All these may be more easily endured than one Curse of the Law See then and consider what thou owest oh my soul to Christ made a Curse for thee remember and be thankful let thy heart oh thou who feastest with thy Lord weigh first the burthensomness of that Curse which justice casteth upon every sin and then weigh the exceeding great love of Christ who did take this Burthen and bear it for thee and I do nothing doubt but as often as thou layest these in the ballance thou wilt still find thy praise thy thankfulness too light thou wilt be still with the Apostle adding Glory and Power to him who loved thee Rev. 1.5 6. and washed thee in his blood And with the great Apostle of the Gentiles Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory Could you and I entertain these things within our breasts and renew our thoughts and meditatations we should more clearly discern that if there be sweetness in our mercies or respite from our fears or absolution and discharge from our guilt or deliverance from accursed sorrows miseries and death we owe it all unto this kind of Death of our Lord beside all the positive blessings of grace and glory of which I may not now speak if the blessing of Abraham on the Gentiles be worth our thanks then our thanks is due to Christ dying thus for he was made a Curse for us that we might be redeemed from under the Curse of the Law and that we might be restored to a blessed state In one word whosoever seeth his own blessedness procured by Christ dying a Curse for him cannot but see so much thanks as blessedness is worth due to Christ and so the reviving of the memory of Christ's Death considered as a Curse will be the reviving of our thankfulness and reviving of thankfulness will be an increasing and improving of thankfulness So much to the seventh Sacramental Grace The eighth and last I shall now mention followeth viz. A disposition and purpose of mind to walk in new Obedience towards God in all manner of conversation 8th Sacramental grace New Obedience such a mind must every welcome guest bring to the Lord's Table No man may come thither who intends to go thence to his old course of sinning We must not as Naturalists report of some venemous creatures which lay down their poison when they go to drink and having drunk suck it up again we must not so lay aside our old sins while we go to the Lord's Supper as to renew our old acquaintance with them nor tender our service to them so soon as we depart from the Table of the Lord Men will not endure such sycophants and parasites who come to their table for a meals meat and to fill their bellies but then sort themselves for months together with the veryest enemies they have in the world No more will God endure him for a guest at his Table who comes for a meal out of a customary formality and then sorts himself with those sins which God hateth and commandeth should be slain This above many others aggravated Judas's treason that he came and ate with his Lord when he had resolved to betray him this is to kiss him with All hail Master when the kiss is the very token by which his enemies should know and apprehend him The Lord Jesus who knoweth what is in man and needeth not that any should testify of man will never let a man who lives and dieth of this temper escape deserved punishment He knows they flattered him with their lips but their hearts are far from him Thou that comest to make a Covenant with thy God at a Sacrament must come with a firm purpose to keep thy Covenant for God will not be mocked Better never come at all than come with a mind hating to be reformed God will ere long ask such hateful hypocrites what they had to do to declare this Statute of his or that they should take his Covenant into their mouths Psal 50.16 c. It is confessed of all sides and would to God it were as well practised on all sides that every Sacrament should engage us to better lives to holier conversations that we should sin the seldomer because we have been so often at the Lord's Table Now I say that the remembrance of the Death of Christ dying for us a Curse hath in it good and strong reasons to move us to renew our obedience and if these reasons be well considered I do not doubt but they may prevail with some to renew their purposes and endeavours of living less to sin because Christ died a Curse for us sinners For 1. First In this manner of his dying beside the powerful influence of his Death considered in the general of which I speak not now I say In his dying thus as a Curse for us we have a clear discovery of the vileness of sin how much it abaseth and depresseth us We look upon cursed things as the vilest and basest of things A curse and a reproach go together Jer. 42.18 This was the thing which brought our Lord into so low estate that he was despised of men this made him of no reputation because of our sin imputed to him and the Curse due to us for our sin laid upon him he became like a servant and so died Now then let a sober judgment be made of this and see how forcibly it disswadeth from continuing in sin Do I renew the remembrance of my Lord dying as a Curse Could sin which he
see then it is self-deceiving flattery to hope for the love and favour of God whilst I love my sin and continue in it if I will have his love and escape his hatred I must leave off sin for he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.6 He hateth the evil way Prov. 8.3 I must either leave the evil way or perish in his hatred For none ever escaped perishing who by continuing to sin provoked his displeasure and wrath against them Resolve therefore as becomes a man O my soul fly and hasten thy flight from wrath to come prevent the misery of being hated and accursed of thy God cast off thy sin cease to do evil and then God will cease to be angry There cannot be any thing in sin to compensate thee to reward thee for the loss of the favour of God Sin can never heal the wounds which the hatred of God will make in thy soul Poor creature thou wert better have all the men on Earth and all the finite invisible powers of light and darkness to hate thee thou mightest bear this than have one God to hate thee thou canst never bear this In fine therefore saith the believing serious and considerate soul I will not hazard I will not run the venture and danger of divine displeasure of the hatred of an Almighty God for I see in the Curse which my Lord lay under what I must lie under for ever if I will by continuing longer in sin own my former sins pull the punishment of them upon my self and love that which my God so perfectly hateth I will every day labour to hate that with perfect hatred which my God hateth I will seek his love by a present separation and divorce from sin I will this day renew my purpose and attempts to leave my cursed sins for God hath renewed my thoughts of his hatred against sin by the renewed remembrance of Christ dying a Curse for my sin Fourthly In the renewed thoughts of this kind of death The Believer hath the renewed sight and evidence of a death hanging over the head of every sinner which of all deaths is the most dreadful which is fullest of horrours and soul-tormenting fears Death is the King of terrours though represented and cloathed in the lest dreadful manner it can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotel No kind of death but is terrible enough but of all this is the most terrible and only to be feared it is this at the heels of the other that makes it dreadful It is a most undoubted truth that every one continuing to sin and so dying shall die under a Curse for his own sin though the sinner should live to an hundred nay to many hundred years yet if he live and die a servant to his sin he shall die accursed and this we may be sufficiently assured of by the accursed Death of our Lord for he died so for as much as the sins of God's Elect and chosen ones were laid to him he was loaded with them and all the guilt of them was charged on him and therefore was he punished therefore he died in such a manner He was made a Curse because the guilt of our sins was laid on him and punishment due to that guilt inflicted on him Nothing more certain He was wounded for our transgressions Isa 53.5 He bare the sin of many ver 12. He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 And all this evidently set forth before our eyes so that the serious and considering soul soon comes to this conclusion that whoever doth bear the guilt of sin he must die a Curse for it and he needs no other proof of it but this Christ did bear guilt and this brought him to a cursed Death Now then he begins to argue the case with himself Can I continue in sin and not bear the guilt of sin Can I yield my self a servant to sin and yet not be accounted a servant of sin Can I do the works of iniquity and not be thought by judicious and wise men a worker of iniquity How much more will the just and righteous God occount me so When I do any fact for which the Law of man will call me to account can I do the fact and the Law not impute it to me It is most sottish folly to continue in the service of sin and to flatter my self that I shall not be accounted a servant of sin or to hope I shall not be loaded with the guilt of my sin And it is no less folly to think that we may lye under the guilt of sin and yet not sink under the importable burthen of a Curse No no either I must leave my sinning or I must die that Death which of all is the most terrible I must be a Curse under the wrath of God Now therefore resolve what thou and I shalt do God proposeth a Christ dying a Curse for thee to encourage thee to leave sin or to shew thee what thou must trust to if thou live in sin He preacheth to thee this Doctrine Life through Grace if thou wilt obey if thou wilt renounce thy evil way for then thy Saviour shall be thy Peace bear thy Guilt and endure thy Curse or else Death if thou wilt still refuse to convert and leave thy sin And let me tell thee it is Death with a Curse and consider thou whether thou canst endure it and let me ask thee these few questions 1. Dost thou not believe that there is somewhat more in Death when it is sharpened with this sharp and piercing sting Dost thou not think that the Curse doth add unto the dread and fear of Death When God proclaimeth any one blessed in death dost thou not perswade thy self that God taketh away much of the terrour of death if so then certainly when God addeth a Curse with death he addeth terrour to it and thou must confess it also if thou wilt consider it Now then say Canst thou contentedly think of dying for thy sin Canst thou think of doing more than dying for thy sins Vntil that time be come wherein thou canst say thou wouldest be willing to suffer more than death for sin thou should'st not be willing to serve sin any more in thy life I know when we come to die we shall judge sin unworthy of such a pledge of love or service as one pang or one fear or one sigh for its sake oh then we shall say He loved sin too much who for sin's sake added the lest pang to death Whatever thou dost therefore leave to sin lest tlou add the misery of a Curse to thy death 2. Let me ask thee Is there no manner of dying which is a terrour to thee more than ordinary If thou wert now to die and mightest chuse thy death wouldst thou chuse any that were full of pains or loathsomness or both these continuing long Are there not some kinds of death from which
to the soul For they are desires fixed upon a good which is in some degree already enjoyed Christ and his benefits are ever enjoyed whilest sincerely desired These messengers of the soul seeking for Christ are sent by Christ himself who is with the soul much as he was incognito with the Disciples before he made himself known in breaking of bread The soul desireth Christ absent but these desires are raised in the soul by Christ present And as a Friend in a disguise sometime visits and feasteth with his Friend cheering and comforting him and minding him of his absent Friend and raising wishes and desires after him as absent who indeed is present with him and entertaineth him so doth our blessed Lord satisfy the desires of them that love him and that long for him He is enriched by Christ who truly desireth the riches of Christ These the advantages of the Christians desires oh then let out thy desires fear not to set thy soul in a longing fit for Christ whilst thou longest thou shalt enjoy and ere long thou shalt see how much thou hadst of him all that time wherein thou thoughtest thou hadst no more of him than an empty desire or hungring wish for him thy desires are like the Mariners approaches to the spicy Islands the sweet and delicate odours assure them they are not far off and delight them untill they set foot upon the shore so Christ assures and delights the desirous soul so Christ sends abroad the sweet perfumes of grace and glory These refresh the soul untill its arrival where it shall live upon full satisfactions which is a 3. Third excellency in which the believers desires after these Legacies of Christ do exceed all the best desires of other men who must ever write over them lesse in hand than in Hope Minuit praesentia famam the believer on the contrary must write this as the motto of his possessed desires great in Hope greater far in hand or as the Queen of Sheba said in another case 1 King 10.8 It was a true report which I heard in my own land but the one half of their glory was not told me These things which draw out the desires of other men are like the Apples of Sodom beautiful and please the eâ—e at distance but they moulder into ashes when the hand gathers them and they who feed on them feed on ashes Such are honours such are pleasures such are the riches of this world and of men of this world fully uncertain when we purpose to seek them fully vexatious whilst we are seeking them fullest of torment and disappointment when they are grasped and possessed yet our desires after them are passionate and earnest our contrivances to obtain them are solicitous and secret our pursuit vigorous and unwearied But Christian here is honour a crown bequeathed here is joy an eternal feast on the fruit of the true vine in the Kingdom of thy heavenly Father here are treasures bequeath'd an inheritance a Kingdom and all proposed to thy desires with transcendent advantages they are certain that thou mayest pursue them with Hope they do refresh whilest thou art pursuing that thou mayest not languish and faint they satisfy fully and eternally that thou mayest never repent thy labour Look on these and let them have but as much of thy desire as there is of desireableness in them above all other things and then I am sure thou wilt desire them above all and rest in them after all Awake Awake oh my soul and before thou make thy approach to the Lord's table look over the last Will and Testament of Christ thy Lord see there is pardoning mercy to take away death which is the desert of sin there is purifying mercy to take away the filth of sin to dry up the poisonous fountain of sin there is pacifying mercy to take away inward distracting troubles there is interceding mercy to procure acceptance of all the good thou dost there is preserving mercy to keep thee from falling away and perishing there is crowning mercy to encourage thy expectations and satisfy thy best and largest desires In a word here is Christ's Spirit his Righteousness his Kingdom with eternal life given by Will and last Testament and all these tendered to thee as Christ's Minister tenders the body and blood of Christ to thee all these things are delivered to thee in the copy of Christ's will sealed unto thee at the Sacrament and thy desires are now expected Good things and possible yea certain and ensured to thee if thou wilt but heartily desire them Awake therefore a sincere wish a strong longing after them that they might statisfy thee All these are thine if thou wilt be Christ's oh then desire he would unite thee to himself that thou may'st be one among them that are one with Christ these shall be heirs to these great things these must be of Christ's kindred and alliance this alliance is not by natural consanguinity it is by a foederal covenant Union and this Union is effected by us for our part by willingness and desire say then art thou willing to lose and miss these great things or dost thou think them unworthy of thy desire or rather dost thou not wish thou couldest desire them dost thou not feel thy heart kindly bubling forth such affectionate desires as these after Christ oh that I were of that happy family which are so blessed with Christ oh that my name were written in the will oh that there were a blank where I might secretly or openly write mine own name there then I would as Jacob yet without offence steal a blessing oh that there were some would shew me how I might imbody my self with this houshold and kindred why now if such desires stir behold here is a short but a sure method Longings and desires after nearer Vnion and closer conjunction with Christ heary desires of communion with Christ will do this great work and ensure this exceeding rich blessing to thee Blessed are they who thus hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfyed Thus renewed meditations on the common in centives of desires and renewed meditations on the peculiar and extraordinary incentives of our desires in likely-hood can do no less than increase our desires after this most desireable Union to Christ CAP. V. Sect. 4. Love and esteem of Christ Improved by his Dying a Testator A Fourth Grace improveable by the meditation of Christ's Death as such a loving and bountiful Legator Love and Esteem of Christ 4th Sacramental Grace improved is love and high esteem of his person and concernment There are some graces which may be better spared in part or in whole others that are more needful for a communicant at the Lord's table joy in believing may be little perhaps none yet the soul not unfit for the Sacrament But the grace of love to Christ with an high esteem of the person and concernments of Christ is so needful