framing the uniforme truth of God to the text in hand and the text and use of it to the occasion of their people That so Gods Spirit might not seeme streightned for ease carelesnesse and forme seeme to eate up all power and spirit in men causing people to misapply truthes so deluding themselves Vse 3 Thirdly what a sweete ground of instruction is this to all to magnify Christ Sacramentall in the wisedome of his stewardship To ascribe his due honour to him in seeing and serving the wants and turnes of not congregations but particular beleevers What member is there of a great noble mans house whose eye is not set upon the steward of the house from him they have their meate their physicke their cloathes their lodgings their wages each one his portion therefore of all others he is the cheefe object of honour if faithfull Oh! couldst thou see the most curious wisedome of the Lord Iesus thy steward in the dispensing of Sacramentall graces neyther superfluously nor niggardly neither the apparell of the growne to the young nor Physicke in stead of foode nor strong meate in stead of milke nor any of these out of season when the soule is past them and starven but these fully justly wisely tenderly and all in season yea to all so that the number of his people wearies not his dispensation Oh! how would it ravish thee It s the ignorance of the stewards excellency which makes him so little set by Men make use of him for every thing and honour him for nothing and indeede rather cozen themselves of him than him of his due None of his graces serve onely for a dumbe shew but for use Consider what a steward thou hast who cuts out himselfe for thee beeing made of the Father to this end It s hee who is the dispenser of the manifold graces of God yea so doth he parcell them out to thee that he was pleased himselfe to partake them Hee would be baptized himselfe would eate and drinke the Supper himselfe that he might sanctifie his Minister to distribute his people to receive this nourishment that he might by his owne holy dividing eating and drinking cover all the defects of his Church in both and encourage them to come unto him even in their weakest preparations Alas not himselfe was the better for these but in all his Churches welfare he is refeshed as in his owne and when hee can make us accepted in himselfe and wel-pleasing he hath his desire Vse 4 Fourthly this should informe us of the excellency of the Sacrament and how it addes a blessing to the promise For the promise makes the Proposition of a Christians comfort All that thirst hunger beleeve may come and be eased refreshed But the Sacrament is the Assumption and addes But thou art that party To thee I offer these good things take thou eate drinke thou thou poore soule fearefull to apply the promise I speake to thee it s thy portion although thou wilt not acknowledge it I know thee to be such an one I come now to thy doore and lay this refreshing unto thee take it it s thine Many poore soules cavill against the promise and say If I were named as the party to whom the Lord Iesus belonged I durst but alas how dare I how many step in before me Indeede to the Church these things belong in generall but in so great a numbeâ— of men how easily is such a poore wretch as I trod downe No no the Sacrament is the hand of Christ thy steward seeing thee singling out thee looking downe for such as are broken empty base and fatherlesse that he may bee strong with all such And now in speciall to thee he saith Thou art this thirsty beleeving soule apply the promise to thy selfe Iohn Thomas such a man or woman for in a manner the Sacrament supplies the defect of the word both in personall and peculiar application It tells thee thy name is written in heaven it gives thee a ticket in speciall from God to secure thee to be his and as it offers whole Christ to the Communion of Saints so it severalls out thee and tells thee that thou art not forgotten among the rest but to thee the Lord Iesus broken belongs Thou seest not the parcell of bread and wine more personally offred to thy hand than Christ to thy soule So that as by vertue of generall Christ thou deniest thy selfe and prayest Our Father give us this day our daily bread forgive us leade not us into tentation that is compst thy selfe to serve onely for the use of the body so by vertue of Christ cut out and divided to thee thou sayst I beleeve in God I beleeve in Christ I beleeve in the holy Ghost I beleeve my selfe to bee the Lords and fasten so upon Christ not as every beleevers but mine owne in speciall to pardon to save me as if I were the onely person And not onely thus but after this Assumption comes in a Conclusion Therefore Christs benefits are thine all his graces his enablements for doing for suffering supply of thy ignorance releefe of thy forgetfulnesse wandrings earthlinesse coldnesse c. I say Christ is peculiarly thine with all his nourishment to eternall life Learne to make this use of the Sacrament Vse 5 Fiftly its instruction to the people to ground their hearts duly in the esteeme of the Minister of God Hee is in this dispensation of Christ both in word and Sacrament the true arbiter or middle man to convey from God to them the Lord Iesus in all his good things and the returner backe againe from them to the Lord the Calves of their lips their renued thankes affections covenant and obedience Surely they should behold him as an object of singular love and esteeme for his workes sake How oft should they muse with themselves Oh singular favour that the Lord should treate with us by entercourse of his Minister allow him in his stead to divide Christ to us in Word and Sacrament to reach us out our peculiar portions as our steward wisely and tenderly to speake to my heart aptly pertinently and then to apply it by the Sacrament more specially to separate the precious from the vile to bring a personall promise home to thee a peculiar supply of thy wants Oh! how should the feete of such be beautifull The truth is I grant the unfaithfulnesse of some is the cause which holds them from due honour when people see nothing in them tending to this mediation no tendernesse to their soules no love but seeking their owne ends polluting the ordinances both by admitting the worst dismaying the best discouraging the weake and defiling themselves Oh! how should this procure them honour But doubtlesse if as Shepheards they would take the weake sheepe on their shoulders and be all in all for Christ dividing him in word and supper aright what esteeme would follow them how should the best honour them and the vilest not dare to open
rather he is scant in good speech scant in preaching no more than needs must in hearing prayer meditation barren and poore so in the graces of the Spirit little love small humility compassion so in duties so in meanes Alas the roote is bare and therefore the tree is unfruitfull So also the deeper the soule is rooted in Christ Christ it this roote of fruitfulnesse Iohn 11 3. and 12 1.2 the larger roome he hath in the heart the more scope and entertainment he finds the greater graces he affords If we compare Mary and Martha's house with the houses which now and then Christ was bidden too no doubt but wee shall finde that his fruits of preaching love converse miracles and good doing were more fall in the former than the latter Why There was no stop he might be sure to be welcome at all times therefore hee shewed himselfe more there than elsewhere Christ then the more he is rooted in the soule the fuller hee is of influence and so growes more fruitfull For what is fruitfullnesse Surely when a Christian being ashamed to consider what a barren heart hee hath had under full meanes and how little and narrow the good is which he hath done for God to himselfe and others and beholding the cause thereof his want of true stocke of knowledge and faith mourneth for this his misery and seeking for an heart fuller of Christ and his nourishment doth from his treasure extend himselfe plentifully to the exercise of such graces meanes and duties as may be usefull to himselfe and in the communion of Saints If a poore shopkeeper almost banquerupt be set up and holpen up againe with new stocke what will hee doe Ply the matter runne to London furnish himselfe with the best of wares and choise of them bring them home fill his shop in every corner and satisfie the turne of every buyer Oh! what a change is there So it is with a Christian recovering out of a fruitlesse course by the Lord Iesus his raizing and setting him up againe stores himselfe with plentie of graces sets them on worke and fills each part of his life with duty yea sets himselfe against his former unprofitablenesse Adding to his knowledge faith to his faith love meekenesse patience experience hope that so he may not be unfruitfull in the Lord Iesus 2 Pet. 1 1 5 6. If he have risen up well apaid in his morning awaking he rests not there as before but fetches from his treasure a cheerefull heart to his calling from thence proceeds to family duties and government from thence to doe good and take good in company thence to be well occupied alone thence ready to visite the sicke to admonish to comfort to advise others and when all is done 1 Cor. 15 ult to nourish in himselfe the life of faith one while humblenesse another while forbearance long suffering in prouocations thanks for blessings patience if crossed sometime in one sometimes in another duty yet neither hurt by one from another nor glutted by succession of service but fruitful unwearied in all with one eye to his ground another to his end Even as a man of an active spirit if well apaid in diet and refreshed in body sticks not from morning to night to be doing loathes to be idle and thinkes himselfe to have lost that day wherein hee hath not beene full of emploiment Now so is it here the Lord Iesus his nourishment so enables the soules of his that they seeke occasions to expresse goodnesse as eagerly as a barren heart shunnes them that which strikes the one dumbe and as dead as a stone yea is as bane to him that quickens and joyes the other because the fulnesse of grace makes the worke most sweet and welcome Now wherin is the Lord Iesus so full a nourishment as in his Supper in which he brings forth all his store and Magazine to fill the soule that is empty with good things and so to send it away from his Table furnish'd as the Apostle saith as a vessell of honour and prepared for every good worke so that none comes amisse 2 Tim. 2.21 Thus I have given to the Reader an Answer to this question what the Lord Iesus our nourishment is both in his parts and degrees one of the maine things which I would wish him to marke in the whole Treatise for the true conceiving of the vertue of the Supper Now I come to the use which is as weightie Vse 1 And first thisDoctrine is one of the fearefullest terrours that can fall upon the profane sort of men that live within the bosome of the Church visible All Atheists Neuters meere Civillians Ignorant Profane Libertines and Hypocrites Is the Lord Iesus the Sacramentall nourishment and influence of his Church Oh wofull then your condition who cut off your selves frem all communion and fellowship with him I say not in some but in all grace of his or part in his Ordinances Alas the day is to come that ever yee saw neede of him to subsist in him at all Your bondage enmitie and hell seeme liberty amity heaven to you The divell hath bored your eares for vassals to himselfe as notorious wretches who are willing slaves when ye may be free Who then wonders if the Supper of Christ and that offer of welfare which he makes therein to his be as a fulsome thing unto you Alas as long as your drinke lusts play company sleepe and belly-cheere be granted you who wonders if ye despise with Esau this birthright If with Swine ye tread these Pearles and this Manna in the dirt Alas Matth. 7 6. it availes not you to have such a previledge as Christ to feede your soules if the whilest ye want your carnall appetite satisfied If this foode were but as a messe of Pottage Heb. 12.16 as the wearing of your lockes ye would have had him ere now But oh saplesse barren and unsavory wretches to whom these dainties as are a dry chip Who come and goe to the Sacraments as to dumbe Pageants more fit for a masse of trickes and apish ceremonies than the Solemne feast of Christ Sacramentall Woe be unto you oh ye Dogges and Swine your morrall sinnes are fearefull your swearing your lying cosenage drunkennesse But your chiefe misery is that you are carnall wretches sould under your lusts destitute of all union or communion with God your hearts are not where your bodies are when you come to Christ and the Supper But as the fooles heart is on his left hand Eccles 10.2 so are yours with your lusts which are your appointed meate drinke and pastime unto you Acts 8.21 Therefore you have no fellowship in this businesse your Sacraments are the wofullest markes of wrath which ye can carrie about you Law fashion custome feare formalitie are your grounds of receiving Christ ye come not for and your hearts tell ye he belongs to no such Therefore ye are as yet in the gall of
servant Math. 28.32 Did not I forgive thee all the debt even of many Talents How then oughtest thou to forgive him the debt of pence Till then the soule be seasoned with the love of God in pardon and holinesse both to save and sanctifie it cannot possibly love his brother spiritually Can a rush grow without mire Iob 8 11 Or can love be in us till a principle of the Spirit infuse it It is commended by the Lord Iesus himselfe A new Commandement give I unto you that ye love each other Ioh. 13.34 Rom. 13 9. 10. All the Law is fulfilled in it It s infinitely magnified in all the Scriptures in 1 Cor. 13. It s described by abundance of both negative and positive properties all which shew the Originall to bee divine But especially in the first Epistle of Saint Iohn 1 Ioh. 3.11 3.10 4 7 8. 5 2 c. where it is made first the charge of God Secondly the offspring and birth of God Thirdly A marke of the Elect and saved Fourthly That which especially is occupied about brethren such as are borne of God members of the militant Church All these argue of what kinde and seeede it is not of flesh nor of the will of man but of God Vse To discerne this coine of heaven from all counterfeit stampes in this kinde There is a deepe vicious love contracted by the fellowship in sinne Simeon and Levi Gen. 49 5. brethren in evill yea this is almost as strong and deepe as hell Theeves have their league and drunkards their love union and fellowship yea sworne brotherhood The spirit of error and heresie is strong to linke the heart in love yea Iesuites are so knit to their Catholique league that death can not dissolve it And yet Paul imployes that this may want true love 1 Cor. 13 1. Men have a garish humour of love and pangs of affection so that in a moode they pretend the greatest love but on the sudden they either stabbe each others or else hate each other more than ever they loved As the bands are which tie men so is their love Carnall lusts gaine sweetnesse of manners politique respects to make use of each other naturall regards likenesse of manners or professions or disposition of soothablenesse and curtesie derived from Parent to child or a civill love standing in an entercourse of mutuall offices love mee and I will love thee or such like all of them are a sort of love which Religion doth not disanull but season and subordinate in the elect to this fruit of the Spirit even as the powers of the naturall and sensible soule are subject to reason A Christian hath other love yet from a better principle of spirituall love 2 The Parent The second thing is the begetting cause of it and that is faith effectuall and unfained Hence Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 saith Love proceedeth from a pure heart and faith unfained and as a workeman both makes a toole of his trade and workes by it also 1 Faith breeds it so faith begets this love and worketh by it Now faith in thus worke doth two things 1. It breedes it 2. Purgeth it first it breeds it and that two wayes 1 By an infusing qualitie 2. By a perswading The infusion of it is this Faith having possessed the soule with the love of God in reconciliation Rom. 5 5. diffuseth this love into the facultie of the will planting it there and causing the sweet thereof to dwell in it Christ comes not into the heart without the Spirit of Christ Now the Lord Iesus his manhood was filled with this grace of love the Spirit of the Godhead shedding it without measure into him Ioh. 1.17 That from his fulnesse wee might receive grace for grace Looke then what a loving heart tender mercifull See Act. 2.22 Mat. 11.19 Luk. 7.13 23.34 c. Act. 2.36 forbearing forgiving doing good to body to soule looke what amiablenesse gentlenesse sociablenesse usefullnesse was in his heart that is shâ—d into the beleever Now what that was his whole life shewed he loved and prayed for his rankest enemies died for those that crucified the Lord of life converting three thousand of them at once hee loved Mary and her sister Martha and Lazarus and Iohn his disciple most deerely Ioh. 11.5 36. See Acts 2.22 How he went about doing good even to all healing diseases preaching converting This Spirit then of the head is derived to us to be a privy marke unto us whether wee are his or no for hee that loveth not is not of God for God is love 1 Ioh. 4 8. 16. and hee who loveth dwelleth in God Secondly by perswasion For this see 2 Cor. 5.14 2 Cor. 5 14. The love of Christ constraines us for wee thus judge c. Marke There is a secret perswasive in this love to cause us to love one another and that by judgement and good reason This is that which Paul presses to the Ephesians Ephes 5 2. Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us as an offring of a sweet savour So againe Col. 3 13. Put on as the Elect of God the bowels of mercies kindnesse forbearing c. Why Even as Christ forgave you so also doe ye This is a strong dispute from relation of head to members reaching to all holinesse but especially to this branch For what a disproportion were it for us to joyne the body of a Lyon fierce and cruell to the head of a lambe loving and meeke What villany were it for a man dealt mercifully withall by his Master to take his fellow by the throte Ephe. 2 13. If Christ hath destroied enmitie broake downe the wall of separation and made peace for me when I was past hope how should I love and live with my brother Christ ought me nothing but I owe him him my selfe Should I after such love ever know any enemie Or if I should Philem. 19. should not such love as this quash it for ever If I should live in heartburning jealosie bitternesse and hatred should I not looke that the sweet morsell of mercy should come out at my nostrils 1 Ioh. 4 10 11 Hence it is that Saint Iohn so presseth this point Herein is love not that we loved him but be us Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another Secondly faith doth purge love from manifold corruption By name from these eyesores First from all partialitie Secondly faith purges it 1 From partialitie Wee restraine and limit our love to such persons as wee our selves affect for some parts and indowments others are not so precious in our eyes wee cannot affect them because we see closenesse harshnesse techines pride and selfe to abound in them But love is unpartiall as well reaching to the undeserving provoking as to the amiable in point of soundnesse
I meane though extent may differ and over-comming evill with good for the roote of it is an higher thing than self-selfe-love and drownes all distastes in him that forgat all our injuries and died for us 2 From inconstancie Secondly from all inconstancy Every foole loves in his moode while the pang lasteth But as the torrent is soone up and soone downe so it is with many lovers they are either as high as the skies or as low as hell either men are the best with them or worst living Whence is this from their fickle heart which wants a bottome Love causes the soule to be firme constant equall and if occasions be offered of any breach Gal 4.18 3 Folly yet soders it up betimes that they grow not deepe and incurable So thirdly from all so injudiciousnesse and error Love is wise imparting it self as it sees the Object require it is not alike to all There is a false and counterfeit love in some men who out of either a weakenesse or formality of curtesie will impart themselves to such as they meete with very gently and a man would thinke this came from a deepe habite of love But if ye observe them it commeth from a slightnesse and emptinesse for they will impart themselves to all alike The best Divine in a countrey and the veriest Ruffian shall share equally in their affections no difference They will be liberall to good causes but so they will to bad and base ends also What a fulsome love is this What amiablenesse discerne these in the object of their love who can love the hatefull and to be abhorred as well as the best 4 From weaknesse Fourthly from all weakenesse and suspiciousnesse There is in some tempers a marvellous jealousnesse which makes us so conceited that the least toy or wry countenance puts them into a new frame when as yet the occasion conceived is meere nothing in all the world Melancholy may afford some seede to this ill humour but pride is the fomenter of it and selfe-love the nurse It is enough that these men thinke themselves slighted or wronged it skills not whether they be or no conceit affords realnesse sufficient But this love is too rough hewne to couch close in the building of communion 1 Cor. 3 16. Candor and ingenuousnesse of spirit loth to think ill of that which is so more than needs must but abhorring it 5 From streightnesse when no cause is and rather striving to interpret all at the best is a more meete stone to lie in this frame Fiftly all streightnesse and as I may call it hide-boundnesse of spirit many Christians are of so dry a temper so narrow-brested that their love lyes onely in a course of slight trifles they thinke it a superfluity to love in any other measure than that they may feele no vertue to goe out from them to others They cannot beteame any the enlargement of their bowels they thinke it waste to breake a boxe of oyntment upon thee feete of the Saints Iohn 12 3. But if any shredds will serve such shreddes as they can part with and feele no losse yee shall have from them This causeth them to bee uncomely members in the Communion of Saints and their love to bee odious and unsavory for love is as her object requires where an ounce is needed a dramme shall not serve the turne within her power a pound is as ready as a shilling or a shilling as a peny O yee Corinthians saith Paul I am enlarged unto you because I love you I can beteame you any thing even my owne soule so 1 Cor. 13 4. 6. From selfe love is bountifull and not shrunke up as a bottle in the smoake Sixthly all selfe and selfelove the very bane of communion When men will alway see some such addition to the grace of a man that although hee seeme to love for grace yet except there bee some other by and squint ayme of sweetenesse and curtesie of Pleasure gaine reputation or that which some way satisfies it selfe alas their love is cold and falles off Such shall bee markes in their eye as will prayse their gifts or lend them as their needes are or doe them good offices so as they may serve their turnes But for others they are not very forward to seeke them Whereas true love is selfe-denying and cleane handed Psal 16 2. Sets heart where God sets his and although as the case may stand offices of love are due and owed yet for those respects a good man abhorres to love and loves for that excellency of grace which hee beholds That sparkle of divine nature which shee can discerne to shine out of a soule in any kinde as Humility uprightnesse faith mercy innocency or the like are the Loadestone which knits them and drawes them together Seventhly pride and vaineglory 7. From pride For many there are who thinke themselves so compleate as if the body held not them Rom. 11 18. but they it They are too proud to have entercourse with others of all rankes They must be very choise and peculiar Divines of great fame and worth whom their love must honour But if of a meaner sort they have no edge to them Their love is as proud as his in Saint Iames who sayd to the gold ring and Pearles sit thou heere as deserving my love But to the meaner man sit thou at my foote-stoole Iam. 2 1 3. Oh! Saith the Apostle is not this to have the love of our Lord Iesus in the acceptance of persons 1 Tim. 1 4. Others out of singularity affect new opinions by themselves weary of the old grounds of truth as too meane for their curious and fine wits and thus bring in scisme and faction in steed of peace and consent in the Church Others are sicke of a Praesident and stiffe selfewillednesse Rom. 12 16. so that looke whatsoever they have once vented and broached bee it never so unsound Iohn 19 22. Gal. 5 ult yet they will stand out in it and what they have written they have written whatsoever confusion they cause thereby So also others are so vaineglorious that either they must sway and rule the rost in what companyes so ever they become if they bee not attended onely their gifts and parts admired and all cry Grace grace to their opinions though they disdaine the gifts of others better than themselves all is marred 1 Cor. 13. Whereas love is humble Rom. 12 10 and 16. thinkes better of others than it selfe in giving honour goes before others and is equally minded to those of lower degree moderate in her tenets willing to submit to any that shew better reason 8. From censoriousnesse Eightly censoriousnes For then if they see any goe in any other way than themselves they never enquire into their reasons much lesse forbeare and sympathise them in their supposed weakenesse but condemne them presently unheard and unknowne
Psal 122.6.7 prayes for this That our sonnes may be as plants our daughters as polished stones That our garners be full our sheepe plentifull our Oxen strong and no beggers in our streetes But especially love lookes at the inward prospering of the Church that it may goe well with it that the kingdome of Christ may be set up throughout it farre and wide Dan. 9.7 And therefore first shee mournes for the spiritull sinnes of the whole body Ezra 9 6. especially those that threaten her ruine dallyance with the word contempt and profanation of Ministery Sabboaths and ordinances declining from the power of godlinesse chusing to serve God for forme secretly looking towards Popish trash as being weary of sound doctrine Secondly rejoycing to consider that the Lord hath yet reserved to himselfe many whose hearts are upright with God holding their first love entire and their zeale unspotted with the filth and dregges of the age and time serving their generations as David did Act. 13.38 Thirdly sorrowing to see the distresses of the Church abroad Esay 63.15 Zeph. 3.18 Micah 2 7. to heare of the sad disasters that are the darke wayes of providence the disappointing of our hopes the mourning of Assemblies the unfruitfulnesse of ordinances the streightning of the Spirit the dissipation of sheepe into the remote corners of the world Lastly by faith holding the promises that concerne the Churches victory as that shee shall possesse the gates of her enemies The gates of Hell shall not prevaile against her Matth. 18. Micha 7.8 â— shee shall arise even in her falling and shall see light in darkenesse untill at last the Lord plead her cause execute vengeance against her enemies head and tayle branch and rush and bring forth her light as the morning This for the fifth point The sixth and last is the end why love doth thus act it selfe The 6. Thâ— end All these passages of love although they convey in them some good to the body and members yet looke at a further thing that is the edifying it selfe in love and the finall welbeeing thereof in this vale of misery Concerning which and the encrease of grace in the body and members the Reader may looke into my Catechisme in the Article of Communion and there helpe himhelfe And this be sayd of these six grounds by which this grace may be the better understood and according thereto try himselfe if hee be wise Which worke though I might have spared yet knowing that weake ones as well as strong may meete with my Booke I will after I have grounded the point come to application and among other uses to examination Fow the point then this it is 2. Generall the proofes Exod. 12.3 Num. 9.12 Love thus described is a necessary grace for the Sacrament And it appeares first by proofes thus The Analogy of the Passeover which the Lord commanded to bee eaten in one house Not onely least the Lambe should bee broken and divided but rather to typifie this Sacramentall love and union betweene those that received it Againe whence was that Exod. 12.8 3. That no bone of it should bee broken Surely not onely to typifie the Lord Christ that hee that enjoyeth him enjoyeth him whole But to shew also That those who will bee bone of his bone and make him their nourishment must be whole unbroken and unshattered in their Communion as wee know his seamelesse coate was another type of this want of rupture and division Psal 133.1 in the Church In Psal 133. David is ravished with love and amity of the Church in the use of the ordinances of which this was one And what saith he Oh how comely and good a thing it is for brethren to dwell even together Even to come together as one man And hee resembleth it to the fragrant oyle of Aarons consecration and the fruitfull dew upon Hermon and Zion Yea even those love feasts as badly as they were used yet intimate that Ancient Churches desire to nourish Sacramentall love And that text of Paul 1 Cor. 10 18. Who by this Sacrament and the elements thereof presseth Christian love as in Eph. 4 5. he urgeth it by the Oneship of God Christ baptisme and faith doth cleerely proove it The bread wee breake made of many graines the wine wee drinke consisting of many grapes what is it but our love and fellowship in the body And one speciall proofe must not be forgotten Reade Iohn 12 and 13 and 14. Where Christ exhorted his Disciples about sundry things immediately before the Supper This is one of the many and oftest urged that they would obey his new commandement and love one another Have peace in your selves and each with other Five or sixe of such passages there And the Evangelist doth not so expresse that consent and love of the Church in this Sacrament of breaking bread But hee inferreth strongly thereby that it was a peculiar grace to be brought thither Reason 1 For why first whereby shall the soule more comfortably satisfie it selfe about the truth of her faith than by this love for faith worketh by love The workeman and his tooles goe alway together Reason 2 Secondly by what shall wee testifie our soundnesse of judgement touching the way of Gods communicating himselfe unto each member by and through the body than by comming to receive in love as well as in faith And how can they better declare their humilitie than by this That they acknowledge The rooote beareth them up not they it Reason 3 But the third reason is chiefest The Sacrament conteyning the very instruments bands and cordes by which the Lord Iesus reconciled his Church to himselfe to make it one viz. his body and blood who should dare to defile it with enimity Even Heathens themselves loathed ceremonies in their worship repugning to their institution As to admit of dwarfes to Hercules his sacrifice To suffer such to come to Bacchus his feasts as were too sad to Venus who affected virginity to Saturnes who were not sad and solemne What comelines then shall the Lord looke for at his Sacrament That all who come to a Sacrifice grounded in love should not dare to come in bitternesse and so defile it Reason 4 Fourthly if all other ordinances doe so absolutely urge it that else they are marred how much more this Looke two texts one in 1 Tim. 2.8 1 Tim. 2.8 Lifting up pure hands without wrath And 1 Pet. 2. 1.2 Where all such as covet the Word are bidden to cast of all superfluitie of malice and wrath and envies c. Now if this be so necessary for all how much more for this Reason 5 Lastly the conscience excusing us in this that wee bring love doth also leave us well appayd in sundry things of farre greater consequence As that we love him who begat That we are borne of God that we are verily Christs disciples 1 Ioh. 3.14 1 Ioh. 4.7 that we are passed from death
grace of faith to unite Christ Sacramentall unto thy soule Say thus Are water bread wine inseparable from Christ why so Doth God care for oxen as Paul saith or careth he to be one with bread and wine 1 Cor. 9.9 Are these the subjects of his delight poore base corruptible Elements 1 Cor. 6.19 Heb. 12.23 No no those lively Temples of our soules and spirits of just beleeving ones are the places of his delight Oh! then say so Lord this union serves for a better that thou and my soule be one by the convey of the Sacrament that I might eate drinke Psal 24.7 enjoy thee Oh lift up thy head my dore be thou lifted up in me oh eternall gate of my soule that the King of glory may come in Let faith unbolt set you wide open that Christ may enter and take you up for his habitation be your head as the husband is the wives to procure her all good as a Prince in his governement as a Master in his family nay as the soule is in the body Ioh. 17. Ioh. 17.26 ult to act rule frame purge them to encrease the power of faith in adoption reconciliatiō to enlarge the graces of his spirit love meekenesse patience thankfulnesse to fill the conscience with joy hope peace to cause these to flow out of the belly of the soule as waters of life unto eternall life yea not onely better hearers worshippers of God but more wise to rule more faithfull to obey righteous in buying selling exemplary in our Christian practise harmles upright sober to purge us of our wrath uncharitablenes unmercifulnes unprofitablenes that the Lord Iesus Sacramētall in the spirit of him may become more lively powerfull and fruitfull in us Oh! pray and give the Lord no rest till he have bred faith in thee to these ends Vse 6 And to conclude if the poore creatures thus hold their union with Christ and thou by unbeleefe remainest destitute of him know these dumbe Elements shall one day rise up in judgment against thee condemne thee for they have kept their union which is but subordinate and serving to a better end But thou hast rejected thy union spirituall with Christ in the increase of his graces Oh wretch In naturall things and in vicious things thou art ripe and quicke enough to apprehend yea more than thou oughtest No sooner doth the name of that which thou takest pleasure in as the Taverne or Alehouse in which thou hast often disguised thy selfe come to mind no sooner the name of thy Farme which affords thee such a Rent Revenue offer it selfe to thee no sooner doth the name of the harlot whom thou hast consorted with the glasse in which thou canst reflect thy owne face upon thine eyes stand before thee but instantly thou feelest an union with those lusts which those names and notions present to thee thy spirit savors drunkennesse covetousnesse uncleanenesse and pride Onely the Sacraments are offred to thine eye by the Lord in which Christ is nominated nay actually exhibited and united and here the union is so strange a thing from thee that any other base object will sooner offer it selfe alone without any other occasion than the least apprehension of Sacramentall Christ come into thy thoughts or affections eyther to beleeve in love joy in or much lesse to be knit unto and made one with that all his excellency and grace might be thine that fatnesse and sweetnesse of his might be conveyed by faith into thy soule How shalt thou be able to answer this sensuality estrangement of spirit from the Lord Iesus Iustly may that curse light upon thee 1 Cor. 16.22 The 4. is the end twofold primary or secondary which Paul pronounceth upon al such as love not the Lord Iesus Thus much for the forme of a Sacrament be also spoken I proceede to the last generall in the definition which is the end of a Sacrament And that is double eyther concerning us from God or God from us Both as I noted are the scope of a Sacrament The reason whereof is because the Sacrament intends full as much and neither more not lesse than the covenant doth I meane the covenant of grace But the covenant of grace is reciprocall That God be our God Both essentiall Gen. 17.1 and wee be his people that God be our God al-sufficient and we walke uprightly before him I doe not meane by reciprocalnesse any equality in working as if our obeying or uprightnesse could worke God to be ours as his being ours workes us to be upright But that indifferently the one as well as the other part and condition is interchangably requisite on our parts as well as the Lords As then the seale of the covenant assures the one so must it the other it must secure the Lord of our upright walking as well as us of his beeing our God both must needs goe together Yet I meane not that the Sacraments doe equally seale up both for Gods sealing grace to us is strong our sealing backe to him of duty is weake the Sacrament is the Lords and therefore principally aymes at our good yet I say God lookes for it that the same messenger of his unchangable love to us revived at the Sacrament should carry backe to him our revived covenant of upright walking The Lord so comes to his oath and seale for our security that hee lookes we also come to the oath of Covenant with him hee will not be tyed and wee be loose First then of the former of these two ends Gods end concerning us What God covenanteth Touching which let us conceive what God covenanteth and so we shall see what the Sacraments doe assure Touching this point of the offer and Covenant of God I having elsewhere largely spoken Practic Catech. Part 2. Artic. 3. therefore I doe here referre my reader to that discourse to spare a labour Onely thus much in a word when Adam had lost his integrity by disanulling the covenant of creation the Lord had it in his bosome what he would doe with all his posterity if hee had quite destroyed them all it had beene but just In this demurre grace cast the skole and brought him out of his meere good pleasure to purpose to recover a Remnant out of their ruine And as hee meant this within himselfe so he thought it meete to expresse so much to us not by including some and excluding others but by a free unconditionall offer of grace in respect of any thing in man to covenant with him to be his God and to become propitious and favorable againe unto him as if hee never had beene offended This covenant he establishes with us in the Blood of his Sonnes satisfaction requiring of us to beleeve that thereby his Majesty is reconciled with us and that therefore we be reconciled to him This he urges us to beleeve nakedly upon his bare word and covenant and that we seeke no
the purenesse of God whose deputie hee is Much lesse to adventure with a mouth defiled with oathes rayling contention ribaldry with hands defiled with uncleane covetous acts with a body members guilty of incontinent intemperate lusts of drunkennesse lasciviousnesse ill companionship or the like scandales to approach the prâ—â—ence of God and his people Let holy outward acts be celebrated with sutablenesse of outward members For certaine it is as the honour is great which the Lord puts upon his Ministers in this kinde to seale the grace of his Covenant by his Sacrament to the people so the sacriledge of unholy and audacious dealers with these Ordinances is doubly dangerous If the people in their unworthy receivings be damnable how much more the Minister who defiles not himselfe onely in corrupt receiving but the Lord himselfe as farre as hee can by profane administration The second person is the Congregation who also are bound to answerable acts in accepting and embracing the offer of God in the Minister Of which also in speciall wee shall treate in the two next Chapters there it shall be sufficient to signifie that as all acts Sacramentall are as essentiall to Sacraments as the materials themselves so the want of Sacramentall receiving disannuls the Sacrament as well as the want of offering So that the people also have their parts to act herein Theirs are these legacies to them they belong They are therefore with all holy preparation of themselves and theirs Exod. 12.4 by prayer to offer themselves to the Lord in the Congregation presenting themselves soules bodies with such comely chaste reverend and holy thoughts affections and behavior as may testifie them to be meete guests of such actions before in and after the actions demeaning themselves so as they may sanctifie the Lord thereby and not pollute his name who draweth so neere them in these mysteries yet this I adde as in the former that although such carriage is that which the Lord commands and will severely be râ—venged of the contrary yet if through the sinne of man and decay of Gods Order such shall be admitted as doe contradict this rule that we doe not thinke this eye-sore and defect to disanull the Sacrament But with mourning and heavie hearts both for the sinne and sacriledge of such receivers and givers of the Sacraments to looke up above both and with so much the more serious preparing and sanctifying of our selves to come to the Lord beleeving that the prophanesse of the vile shall not hinder the faith of the well prepared sithence we come into the presence of that God of piercing eyes who can pierce betweene the joints and marrow and both behold the humblenesse of beleeving soules Heb. 4 12. to reward them and discerne the impudencie of the contrary to accurse them and yet not thereby to prejudice the comfort and hope of them that are truly prepared and abhorre to come in their sinnes And of this Chapter also thus much which I have divided from thâ—â—ormer though concerning the same description because I saw that Chapter to grow somewhat larger than the rest CHAP. V. Of Baptisme the Description of it opened and the use thereof annexed HAving thus treated of a Sacrament in generall wee come to the particular Sacraments of the Gospell and first of Baptisme For although our chiefe scope be the Supper yet because the other is much unknowne and therefore neglected we will take it in our way to some consideration Three things on it First by shewing what â—ue performance is required to it Secondly what the grace of it is Thirdly what the use of the Doctrine and all these in one Description whose parts all be examined Baptisme then is the first Sacrament of the Gospell What it is consisting of Water which is Sacramentally Christ or wherein by water duely applied not only the presented partie is made a member of the visible Church but also sealed up to an Invisible union with Christ and thereby interessed in all those benefits of his which concerne the being of regeneration By calling it the first Sacrament I point at the precedencie and order of Baptisme The which al those names of Baptisme The first branch both in Scripture and elsewhere doe approove It s the seede of the Church as the other is of food It issued first out of the side of our Lord Iesus upon the Crosse It s the creating instrument of God to produce and forme the Lord Iesus to a new creature and to regeneration in the soule Tit. 3 5. It s called our Vnion with Christ our marriage Ring our militarie Presse-money our Matriculation Cognizance and Character of Christ our emplanting or engrafting into him and his Body Rom. 6 3. 1 Cor. 10.2 our Ship our Arke our red Sea our putting on of Christ For as all those goe before our Nourishment Communion Cohabitation Service fruit Manna or foode from Heaven so this Sacrament must goe before the other Breeding begetting and bringing out of the wombe doth not more naturally goe before the feeding of the Infant by the mothers breasts than this wombe of the youth of the Church Psal 100.3 goes before the breasts and milke thereof the Church being no drie Nurse but a Mother of her owne the sonnes and daughters of her owne wombe Vse 1 Which convinceth thousands of their preposterous sacriledge in that they prâ—sse in upon the Church for her pappes and nourishment when yet they are bastards and no youth of her body no sonnes of her love or desires And therefore she abhorres them and hath drie breasts for them whom she never bare The Lord Iesus abhorres to be food where he hath not beene seede flesh and bloud indeede to feede whom he was never seed to beget Let all who desire to taste of the sealing power of the second Sacrament to nourish them as Saints first proove the sealing power of the former Sacrament to beget and make you Saints Doe not impute such folly to the Lord Iesus as to give the milke of his breasts to still-borne ones or to set them into his stocke who are rotten and dead twigges 1 Pet. 3.21 as if the bare outward washing of the flesh were sufficient to regenerate and give title to nourishment This is to dissemble with God the Church and our soules and to turne both Sacraments to our perdition Beware al such mockers least the Lord be froward with them that fight against the God of Order least in stead of finding nourishment before breeding as they rob God of his Order so they meete with wrath and judgement before mercie and salvation yea least God accurse their single emptinesse of Christ with such a double barrennesse as will admit no conception or birth Vse 2 And Secondly it taxes the confused devotion of such as would not be baptized till death having yet enjoyed the Supper usually all their life As if the Lord were not able to grant and
which I gave a touch before in the point of fruitfulnesse Secondly walking with God daily as being under his eye awfully purely Gen. 5.22 and soberly approving our selves to him in the way of our life making his Word our delight in both the promises commands and threats of it and so holding the Lord in our sight as loth to forgoe him Thirdly Ascending in our thoughts from our owne welfare in private and forcing our awcke hearts to the service of our time as David Act. 13.36 Acts 13 36. as well as looking that it goe well with our selves of which self-selfe-love our spirit is full stuffed except this grace scoure it out Remember we that the gaine wee get by Christ in his Assemblies should presse upon us the bewailing of the losse thereof Zeph 3.18 Zeph. 3.18 the beseeching God to establish the Lord Iesus and to set up his King upon his Zion in the power of his Ordinances to demolish the Throane of Satan and Antichrist that the Scepter of Christ may prevaile every where against Popery Atheisme Ignorance Blinde devotion profanenesse and forme of godlinesse Lastly in an heavenly heart as Phil. 3 18. Phil. 3.18 knocking us off from below moderating our liberties for us enlarging us to desire his glorious presence to have communion with him as he is concluding that if these treaties with him at distance as in the Supper be so sweete then much more to eate and drinke it in his kingdome Luke 22 16. Luke 22.16 Oh! if our treasure be there let our hearts be so also and send we them before us in token wee looke to remove thither as our abiding place Phil. 2 1 2. 2 Cor. 5.1 Phil 2 1 2. 2 Cor. 5.1 Thus doing wee shall use the Supper for the end which it was given for to supply the absence of the Lord Iesus from us Luke 22 35 16 17. Luke 22.16 till wee may enjoy it Thirdly let that good we have got out of the Sacrament The third imparting our selves to others so plentifully abide in us that wee impart it to others The nature of these graces is such not to feede on them alone When those Leapers 1 King 7 12. 1 King 7 12. had filled themselves in the Aramites tents with store of all things their hearts smote them for staying there so long and they resolved to hasten and tell the King and people of it that were sterven in the citie So shouldst thou The Sacrament is called a communion in this respect as well as the former Poore birds if they light upon scattered corne call their fellowes to the heape When Sampson had found honey Iude 14 9. though hee kept the riddle yet he imparted his honey to his Father and Mother The benefits of Christ are not of a secret and private but diffusive nature Let us bee ashamed to consider that other things in the world are so perfected by communion that neither Trades Artes Customes and fashions nor any other thing have cause to complaine but the matters of Christ are now at the barest and lowest Why save that those that should excell in them conceale their skill and experience The Communion day should be our exceeding day and as in feasts so in this we should send or carrie portions and acquaint others wisely and seasonably with our lot and receive from them like intelligence And thus much for the second generall head viz. The grace of the Supper I conclude with the last And that is the particular end of the Sacrament viz. The sealing unto a beleeving soule The third generall The end of it an assurance of that grace which it exhibiteth I have spoke before of this sealing power I will adde but a little for the applying of the genâ—rall to this particular Desiring the wise Reader to looke backe and make use of what I have spoken of this sealing worke in generall and to apply it here in speciall to the sealing of the growth as already I have spoken in Baptisme of the sealing of our Birth or Regeneration A needfull digression to shew the order of the Spirits working And that my Reader may retaine the ordinary view of the two sealing workes this briefely let mee say first that the Spirit of Grace is given by God to attend each Ordinance both the Word of Promise and the Seale of Promise and that to this end to worke perswasion in the soule and to cause it to beleeve the things that are given her of God Then secondly note The object of this perswasion by the Promise is double and therefore the object of perswasion by the Seale is double First perswasion of the soule that shee is truly the Lords truly called regenerated and borne of God That is to say reconciled to him and renewed in him Secondly perswasion that shee growes in the grace of the new birth and shall grow as a lively member of her head till she receive the fulnesse of that part That God is the Author of both perswasions appeares by the two maine heads of unbeleefe which formerly I noted to reside in the soule First that shee dare not beleeve at all that the promise of mercy reacheth to her Secondly that she dare not beleeve that she shall ever reach to any further degree of sanctification than she presently feeles Both these the Lord in his double perswasion confutes The third thing is the Spirit therefore applies it selfe to both these yet not alway in one and the same measure of perswading but according to the neede or proportion of each part By the Promise of the Word sometimes it workes more sometimes lesse perswasion as seemes best to himselfe and so by the Seale of the Sacrament hee doth likewise worke weaker or stronger assurance For though there be a perswading power in an high degree in both yet the Spirit is no servant to his Ordinances but his Ordinances to him they shall perswade more or lesse according as that power of Christ which the Spirit dispenceth is more or lesse conveied into the soule by his perswasion He is never separated from promise or Seale according to the measure of his working by both But that is as he listeth for he bloweth where and how farre hee pleaseth Fourthly note the chiefe and maine perswasion of the Spirit in the Word is the Spirit of the sealing Promise and the chiefe work of the Spirit of perswasion in the Sacrament is the Spirit of the sealing Sacrament And therefore as the Seale with the Promise is above a promise alone So the Spirit of the Seale with the Sacrament is above the Sacrament alone and consequently the sealing power of the Sacrament is above the Sealing power of a Promise the Sacrament being ordinarily the instrument of working the soule to the highest assurance which it can enjoy in this world whether of the truth of her regeneration which Baptisme or the growth therein which the Supper sealeth and perswadeth Sealing
God see what wandrings deadnesse in our communion what coldnesse and uncheerfulnesse in our callings what commonnes and earthinesse in our companies what unprofitablenesse there is And it will be hard but if we fetch from every part we shall make our wants an heape 2. Iudging our selves Secondly after inquisition of our wants wee should judge our selves for our wants count them our eyesores and matter of deepe offence and sorrow to us Oh! that there should bee such a falling sickenesse in mee of anger and techinesse to blemish my grace As Bethsheba takes up Salomon with indignation so should we our soules What O the sonne of my wombe and of my desires should Kings drinke wine c So say thou What oh my poore soule shalt thou who fearest God bee so waspish so conceited so cold so loose in duty so carnall so wandring Oh! Should so many vowes prayers experiences and reproaches by my infirmities prevaile so little Oh! me thinkes if I had strengh to hold my heart close to God one day together with delight and savor how joyfull should I be at night how many sad cheekes meete I in the day for my unsavory barren wandring and wearinesse of good thoughts and affections How lye I open as a through-fare to Satan in base thoughts and desires till I am snared What many opportunities have I of doing and taking good when I meete with better and holier ones then my selfe such as stand with their moulders ready to catch any good speech And for lacke of wisedome love and grace I vanish and am as saplesse as the white of an egge without salt Oh! How uncomely a thing is this and how it disguizeth me Oh Lord thou art privy how wearisome I am to my selfe by meanes hereof As ground of an ill temper mends not with cost but upbraides the owner with barrennesse so doth my heart cast in my teeth all Gods cost I am as one in chaines by my wants as if I of all others were forestalled from grace and welfare others I see with my eyes daily out-grow their ignorance their weake gifts in prayer and conference their impatience under crosses Oh! how wise they grow how skilfull how wary how fit to be examples to others how above the world so that it scarse appeares that ever they were of such weaknesses before Oh! doubtlesse they have got the start of me for I fare as one once behind and ever behind once techie foolish and ever so How shall Gods grace ever get honour by my thrift and forwardnesse Could I attaine to fill up my wants and breaches with the graces of such and such Christians how might I beseeme my calling and place Thus should our wants be as pricks in our eyes as thornes on our seate to cause us to sit uneasily wheresoever we become This indignation at our wants upon our continuall eying and observing them would purge us of self-selfe-love and conceite of our owne worth and forwardnesse and provoke us to an earnest seeking out for supply by any meanes whatsoever And that is the third and last rule That we have these our wants ready summed up and at hand when the Lord is making toward us with his Sacrament 3. In a present view of them at the Sacrament If Naaman presently upon conversion had his hand upon his owne sore 2 King 5.20 viz. his likelinesse to correspond with idolatry which yet he loathed how should we have our wants alway before us How should wee pray Herein the Lord be mercyfull to me not when I go to Rimmon but when I go to his Temple and Sacrament Iohn 1.17 where the Lord Iesus his fulnesse of grace for grace and according to all his members wants is present that as I feele my wants of grace to gag me my unfitnesse for marriage for family duties my abusing of liberties c. So the Lord Iesus would there meete mee with his speciall supplies Oh! if it were thus how should our hearts be on wing at the Sacrament and how should the fulnesse of him who filleth all in all both shame us for our unsutablenesse to such an head ravish us with his grace and provision and transforme us from wanting to abounding through faith in his premise Herein LORD be mercifull to mee in that I loath pride but it will not away Thou bidst mee shine to others in Holy Conuersation but for lack of purenesse I reflect my beames upon my selfe Thou bidst mee converse in heaven and loe my base affections are so glued to my gaine and my thoughts to the earth that I seeme to bee as a bird whose wings are broken What shall I doe then Shall I cease to shine Shall I cease to bee heavenly bycause of my wants No LORD but heerein bee gracious that I may shine with humility and be above the world Thou hast promised that thou our God shal supply al our wants and doe for us above al we can thinke or aske Lord thy Sacrament is thy seale Seales include al Promises or covenants I see thee not with mine ey but in thy promises Lord seale them up to my weak faith in this supply of my wāt above al other Lord shalt thou binde mee to thee for ever Let others that want knowledge finde a supply of it but I want lowlinesse thankfulnesse ruling of my toung and Passions oh let mee have my supply each member her owne fulfilling for every soule best knowes her owne sorrow and a stranger shal not enter into her joye Thus come to the Sacrament in the trial of wants and there wayt and give not the Lord over til he have answered thee or given thee some handfel of supply til more come and so shal this Direction make thee blesse God for the fruit of this Sacrament More I might have added but I consider I shal meet with a fuller ground of enlarging my selfe when I come to the 5. Sacramentall Grace of desire To which I refer the careful Reader because the grounds of this and that Chapter doe wel helpe to the understanding and practice of ech other And thus much of the trial of our wants CHAP. IIII. Of Sacramentall Graces and first of Knowledg meet for the Sacrament The 3. triall of Graces THe third thing requisite to be tryed by euery communicant ere he come to the Table of the Lord is Whether he have al those Sacramental Graces of the Spirit meet for him that is invited to the Supper or no. Which Graces are these Five First Knowledge 2. Fayth 3. Repentance 4. Love 5. Desire or hunger after the Sacrament Which I mention first that the Reader may understand those Questions which follow about them in generall Which when I have cleered I shal come to the first Grace of Knowledg and these 2. shal confine this Chapter Some Q Q cleered The 1. Why graces tried The 1. Quest Why must our Graces be also tryed Answ Answ Bycause its the surest way
as a marke of the wisedome of God plying thee with the Supper as hee knowes thy dayly spirituall ebbings and decayes require And doth the hearesay of each sacrament turne the spirit of thy mind towards it as a solemne object which may not be wanted Doth it possesse thy thoughts and memory more than common objects and passages of this life Doe thy thoughts so minde it heede it doth thy memory so reteine it as that it survives other occasionall matters thy selfe longing while they be over tha this may possesse thy spirit and doth thy preparation unto it cause all other things to lye by It is a good signe of reviving Secondly proceed to thy Affections I noted in the former Treatise in the chapter of the Supper that the good things offered in the Supper are manifold Looke backe and reade them I spake also there of those ends which the Lord gives them for viz. That the soule may bee healthy growing setled and fruitefull Try thy selfe also by this ground Tryalls by this Doth thy heart by the considering of all those good things revive and summon up all thy affections of love joy thankes zeale desire after them Doth not thy minde rest in a bare view of them till all the affections are up in Armes to covet them And is it with thee as with a crazie diseased man comming into a Physitians closet and there is shewed a boxe wherein his medicine lyes which being applyed will heale him Doth not such a man fasten his eyes upon that boxe Will he looke off Is not that boxe pretious to him for the medicines sake Doth he not stand upon thornes till it bee taken out and put into his hand Doth hee not thinke each minute an houre and doth hee take thought for the parting with his money to buy it Even so here Math. 13 44 Dost thou digest the good things of the supper till thou have caused thy heart to conceive an heate of appetite and love of them Dost thou ponder them so as to leape for joy to thinke that thou shalt bee healed there of pride selfe wrath and filled with meekenesse an heavenly minde and gifts for thy place It is a good signe thou hast revived thy faith for the Sacrament Steppe 3 Thirdly the Lord offers the good things of the Supper in the like manner and with the same heart wherewith hee offered whole Christ in the first promise and covenant of grace Hee offers Christ thy food and restorative with as free beteaming honest and full an heart of love as ever he did the other There is no oddes except for the better for heere in this ordinance above all other the Lord seales up his gift to the soule that is conveies it with the best strength he can Try thy selfe then by this rule Tryall by it Dost thou revive and quicken the blunt edge of thy weake faith by this consideration Dost thou beate out deadnesse benummednesse of faith by this ground Feelest thou as free and naked an assent of heart to this offer Take eate drinke as thou didst to the first promise Be eased Luke 22 19 20. Mat. 11 29. Take my yoake and my refreshing to thy soule Dost thou charge upon thy selfe strongly to resist thy unbeleefe in the Sacrament heereby Dost thou urge it thus my soule except the Lord should meane as he speakes he should doubly falsifie himselfe His Sacrament is a double strength there is both a covenant and a seale in it therefore it is a double confirmation or else a double deceit Oh! darest thou thinke the Lord can lye in that wherein he seekes thy double assistance If thou dare not Heb. 6.18 then let faith heere double her strength and edge If the strength of man be but weakenesse to Gods then what must this weakenesse be how should weakenesse it selfe gather life and spirit from it 1 Cor. 1.25 If thou canst thus revive thy dead faith at the Supper it s a good signe Steppe 4 Fourthly and especially I told thee before that each ordinance hath his speciall promises annexed to it as prayer and fasting Mat. 17 21. thankesgiving c. As that one of these shall cast out Divells which else will not goe out And that he who prayseth God Psal 50. ult glorifies him So the Supper hath speciall promises Take eate this is my body Drinke this is my blood of the new Testament Both are given and shed for you My flesh is meate indeede Luke 22.18 Iohn 6.55 my blood drinke indeed He that eateth my flesh hath eternall life shall not dye shall be satisfied shall not hunger nor thirst any more with many others Triall by it Try thy selfe above all by this ground Doth this promise really present the truth of God in speciall to thy soule There are thousands of receivers in the Church of God But doth this promise speake in speciall to thee as if there were no more receivers save thy selfe Is the promise of thy soule such a securitie as a specialty is from an able debtor for the paying of a great debt So that doe thou but sue the bond and the law will restore thy debt Is it so here Thy name is not written in the Scripture yet the promise assisted by the Spirit of Christ layes the grace of the Sacrament as it were in thy lap as Baez did the barley into the lappe of Ruth so that the Lord speakes by it in thy eare thus Ruth 3 15. This flesh is meate indeed and this blood is drinke indeed for thee Take it drinke it 2 Cor. 2 5. It is a sweete signe Againe doth the power yea the omnipotency of God shine in the promise to thee so that whereas thou doubtest how Christ can be in heaven bodily and yet in the Supper Spiritually thou wondrest how he should bee in thousands of communicants at once and how poore alements should bee one with him to convey him to thee yet the power of a promise can effect this Dost thou see that all the attributes of God attend his love least thy soule should be frustrate It is a good signe Againe doth the promise settle and beare downe the feare and bondage of thy heart arising from thy present sence of unworthinesse darkenesse and deadnesse Doth it worke thy spirit to a holding fast of Christ although unbeleefe would stave him off And whereas that would give God the lye ten times during the space of one Sacrament yet doth he promise still hold thee close to him till he answere thee so that as that poore dogge Math. 15. Mat. 15 27. rather than the Lord Iesus shall send thee away empty scraps and crummes shall serve thy turne Canst thou feele such succour from a promise notwithstanding thy formality and flatnes were great before thy experience of fruit by former Sacraments be small Dost thou thus strive in hope against hope and fight for life against thy base Spirit These are
none can live by us unfit for a Church or a Commonwealth yet the Lord onely knowes what secret rootes and rindes there abide still Oh! we should not top out the cheefe of the sheafe onely but thresh cleane and fanne our selves throughly of this scurfe Having escaped a gulfe wee should be afraid of a shallow Oh how should wee breake our hearts to thinke what pettishnesse and waspishnesse we walke with in our familie among wife children and servants What pride vaineglory unkindnesse unforbearance doe wee utter therein What crossenesse and heartburning among neighbours if it be but for their fences and cattell What buying and selling of each other for trifles Oh Lord if others of thy people did not more good than I in releeving poore Christians and upholding good causes all must needes goe to ruine I feele what a weake proppe I am I live as if at my death I should dye undesired A clod of the earth and bundle of self-selfe-love borne for my owne use Wit I have enough to bite in all fruits of love but none to utter them with bounty and beteaming And some of us are so grosse as to thinke that good workes are but boastings of our goodnesse as for us we will renounce them and be saved by faith God keepe mee from thy salvation Learne poore wretch That faith alone justifieth but is not alone in her fruits Others of us if wee be of any use at all by our love yet are puffed up in conceit of our worth and service and how much other hang upon us and how little we upon them whereas we should serve them in love and feele no vertue to have come from us How many of us are farre from ripping up the seames of our soules from distasting of such as cannot brooke us How soone are wee weary and by one act of love thinke our selves exempted from many how many partiall have wee how rare and odd ones are they whom we can affect and humor Oh cast up these morsells deare friends and let all our receivings be with the unleavened bread of sincerity Vse 3 Thirdly let it be exhortation and examination both to get and receive this grace at the Sacrament First get it Exhortation and examination goe over those six branches before and by Prayer importune the Lord to blesse the meditation of them for the breeding of love unfeigned in thee Thinke not the Sacrament to be a breeder of it That onely by faith is there improoved and nourished And secondly revive it at thy comming to the Supper as thou wouldst come from it with cheerefulnesse Some few rules I have heere set downe for thy tryall herein Tryall 1 First If thy right hand flatter thee not and know not what thy left hand doth Matth. 6.3 that thou hadst rather do many kind offices of love though none should know of it than neglect one of them when thou seest God calls thee to it Tryall 2 Secondly If thou canst truly say Thy soule hath not what it would neyther doth any blood runne aright in thy veines so long as thou knowest the Church or any cheefe members of it to lye under distresse although thy selfe dost swimme in prosperity Thinke of Nehemiah and Vriah Nehem. 2.3 Tryall 3 Thirdly If thy heart will not suffer thee to rest content with thy plodding about thy affaires and businesse except thou can in the midst and sweetest thereof breake off and say Now doe I neglect the service of my time and so returne unto it As Ioseph full of affections to Beniamin sought occasion and cryed Gen. 45.1 Have every man from me and so fell upon his necke Tryall 4 Fourthly If the love of God shed into thy heart bee so sweete and make thee so well apayd in thy selfe that thou feelest a pretty ease in dispensing with the base affronts and wonges of ill affected ones or persons who discourage thee That by this peace passing understanding Phil. 4 7. thy heart is so loathed that thy froward sullen qualities and those darts of hatefull thoughts are even quenched in this blood of thy satisfier Also when thou findest thy enemies so displeased that thou canst not reach or win them by all thy love yet even then thou art so farre from wearinesse in weldoing that thou desirest to hooke them in by thy prayers begging their conversion rather for their owne good than to be quit of their injuries Tryall 5 5. If in the desire of the subversion of the implacable and impenitent enemies of the Church thou dare not forestall the Lord or teach him when to send fire to consume but submit thy judgement and will to the secrets of Gods judgement who onely knowes the measure of their malice and the incorrigiblenesse of their hearts Tryall 6 6. If we dare not rest in a propensenesse of our constitution to be curteous loving and usefull which may come from nature and selfe-love or onely loath currishnesse harshnesse out of a morrall distast and cannot rest till we can proove that our love is not from the will of man or from flesh but from God Tryall 7 7. If when wee feele our base hearts streightned in the Communion of Saints then we can even be revenged of our selves for it and can with defiance cast off our owne ends and shreds rather which keepe our hearts in bondage than shrinke in any loving affection or service to which God calls us Tryall 8 8. That our loves channell runne as freely and beteamingly to the Ministers of God or others Gal. 4.14 when they are disabled by age or other infirmities from their former abilities and employments as when they improved themselves to the uttermost and wee rejoyced in their light Tryall 9 Act. 20.35 9. That wee count it a farre greater mercy that wee give than if wee receive Being a kin to that excellent Church of Macedonia whose grace was this 2 Cor. 8.1 to esteeme the Lord farre kinder in lending them an heart to give to Ierusalem than Ierusalem it selfe had cause to bee thankefull for her releefe Tryall 10 10. That in the presence of God we can finde that the very approach of the Supper summons our hearts to cast off all such opposition to love as hath crope into our bosomes blessing God that it is a correction day to us finding in our selves upon and after the Sacrament our love and communion to be as a spring-tide in us Tryall 11 11. If the Lord hath given us an heart to beare downe all discouragements of love from without and all carnall objections from within which might weaken it As that wee doe but flesh our enemies against us and make them more bold to insult over us by our lenitie and forbearance than if wee did deale with them as they have done with us That they are of a dogged base nature and will not bee wonne with any love that no flesh and bloud could containe it selfe in so personall so bitter
A TREATISE OF THE TWO SACRAMENTS OF THE GOSPELL BAPTISME AND THE SVPPER OF THE LORD Divided into two Parts The first treating of the Doctrine and Nature of the Sacraments in generall and of these two in speciall together with the Circumstances attending them The second containing the manner of our due preparation to the Receiving of the Supper of the Lord As also of our behaviour in and after the same Whereunto is Annexed an Appendix shewing First how a Christian may finde his Preparation to the Supper sweete and easie Secondly the causes why the Sacrament is so unworthily Received by the worst and so fruitlesly by the better sort with the Remedies to avoyd them both By D. R. B. of Divin Minister of the Gospell Math. 3.11 I indeed baptize you with water but he that commeth after me who is worthier than I he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost c. Esay 25.6 And in this mountaine shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things c. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes for Iohn Bellamie dwelling at the three Golden Lyons in Corne-hill neere the Royall Exchange 1633. TO THE HONOVRABLE AND MY GOOD Lady the old Lady Barington Grace and Peace MADAM FOR sundry causes this Treatise of mine seekes your patronage One is That interest of love and respect which a long time not my selfe alone but sundry of our name and Tribe have received from your Ladiship Another is your loving acceptance of such former service of mine to God and his Church in this kinde as hath privately come to your hands wherein you have ingenuously professed your selfe to be a daily travailer with some fruit Likewise that honourable esteeme which I have ever borne and beare to the memory of that noble and worthy Knight your deceased husband was not a little moment in my thoughts Not to speake of my acquaintance with some of your religious Race of whom I say the lesse as perswaded that they seeke the praise of God not of man Besides all these I adde this That my hope is that from your patronage and protection some of your owne ranke and more of your inferiours who looke after bookes as much for the grace and allowance of their betters as for the worth of their matter might by reading thereof be drawne to love them for the true good which they have gained thereby Yet I must not deny but there is a greater motive than all these Seldome have I seriously conversed with your Ladiship at any time but I have observed some carefulnesse in you to be setled upon some good evidences which might secure you of pardon and favour with God A solemne object I confesse the very thought whereof as you may blesse God for so much more you shal have cause to prayse him in vouchsafing you Which shall come to passe if as alway so especially in this last act of your life you shall give all diligence by reading meditation and prayer to make it sure to your owne soule My desire therefore being that I might conferre somewhat hereto and sithence God hath cast your eye and affection upon my labours which doe cheefely ayme at this marke I beseech the Lord so to guide your spirit in your perusall thereof That whatsoever you passe over besides you may take speciall marke of those grounds of Humiliation selfe-denyall and faith which most concerne the maine point of assurance Neglecting no occasion if by any meanes you may atteine to the resurrection of the dead and the whilst may be satisfied with peace and joy through beleeving That so your heart daily growing more tender and confident upon the bare word of the promise you neede no other support your whole heart and conversation may be moulded into a new creature according to the measure of mercy I will not delay you with discourse about the contents of the ensuing treatise that were but to prevent both the Epistle following and the Booke it selfe As touching helpes for your comfortable receiving which I have noted you to speake seriously of I cannot doubt but your Ladiship hath many though I know not any who have travailed in this kind with me to unite the full doctrine and practise of the supper in one But for as much as it is behoovefull upon such occasions not onely to heare in publique but also to have some reall subject at hand which may present the Truth to a desirous heart and releeve memory therefore I doubt not but this Treatise may ad a furtherance thereto If as the Lord hath with much labour 6. or 7. yeares thoughts at times now brought this poore fruite to the light so he please to adde a sutable successe unto it in his peoples practise I shall have no cause to repent me It is the Lord who as hee is tyed to none of our tongues or pens so yet hath bound himselfe to our faith prayers and diligence To whom therefore commending the issue of your Ladiships endeavours herein together with the prosperity of your selfe and yours an happy end of your long pilgrimage and peace to Israel I rest Your Ladiships bounden D. R. To the Iudicious and vvell affected Reader GOOD Reader I have ever esteemed the Lord Iesus the newbirth and nourishment of his Church to be of all other Arguments and Treatises of Divinity the most eminent and essentiall either for such as preach and write to insist upon or for those that heare and reade to improove to themselves by knowing and beleeving And sithence our good God hath not contented himselfe to vouchsafe to his Church this great gift of Christ onely by the word of promise which yet being grounded upon such unshaken Foundations as his owne decree the death of his Son and the faithfulnesse of his dispensers might well claime the obedience and consent of faith at our hands But also hath added the Sacraments as seales of this his covenant and as the utmost assurance of his good meaning moreouer annexing the Spirit of promise and of seale to them both for the better applying to each soule in particular his part in these good things which he hath beteamed her I have thought it fittest having now leasure more than enough to chuse my argument to light upon this of Christ Sacramentall as giving mee hope of doing the most comprehenâ—â—â—e good and becomming most advantagious to the â—â—â—â—ch of God both for the understanding and use of that â—â—â—trine Every man desires to have that which he buyeth or enjoyeth when the commodity is at the best When men would either shew or buy wares or cattle in the Market they desire to set them forth at the best and when they are in best case to attract buyers we love to behold the faces of them we love when they are at the best for health of body and spirit and if we were as wise to improove every thing to the best as
a fruit of darkenesse is this that people now in this midday of light are so bafled that it fares with them as if it were twylight Is it not fearefull that when there is so great odds in the season there should be so little in the persons living in them because blindnes makes all seasons alike both of darknes and light How fearefull is it that our eye should be so evill to our selves when Gods is so good that we should be such Almners of Gods bounty to our selves as if we still served an hard Master what is this but to betray God to the blasphemy of Hypocrites profane ones and ignorants This little understanding of these mysteries among men in this age of ours wherein mens frequency of receiving seemes to strive with their unfruitfulnesse hath beene one occasion of my publishing this treatise That if possible that excessive exalting of the Sacraments in Popery above the word or any other peece of worship through their Superstition might bee equalled among us Protestants in the Church of God with as truely honourable an esteeme thereof and that from knowledge and experience of their worth Considering partly the little care of teaching their doctrine in Congregations and partly the cold preparation of such as receive and partly the resting of men in their performances onely without power or fruit I could not see wherein I should doe greater honour to God than to enhanse the knowledg of Christ Sacramentall to incite others to do it whose learned and habituous abilities can farre better performe it And surely it stands us all in hand least signes of contradiction deface to our uttermost to vindicate the excellency of our Sacraments That those rich legacies which the sin of man or that man of sin with his Complices have so long kept hid from the true heires and owners thereof may be cleared unto them to be their just portion and claime Beseeching the Lord that as he shall vouchsafe us clearer light of knowledge so as our Church Liturgy commands us to pray that ancient Discipline of Gods house might prevaile among us I meane That whereas the number of ignorant scandalous and unprepared ones as much exceeds the number of prepared penitent and worthy Communicants as the army of the Aramites exceeded the Israelites two flockes of Kiddes by this meanes it might please God the number of the latter might as much exceede the former For my owne part to returne to my matter I blesse God that while it was my lot to have a nayle in the Priests Sanctuary next to the preaching of Christ in the promise it was my poore care and course both by Catechisme and Sermons to discover him in his Sacraments Which labour as weake as it was I have so little cause to repent of that now I am encouraged in my selfe to recollect and compile those scattered meditations into some method and view for the benefit of others that heard them not A great motive whereto was also this that as while they were preached they found full as much approbation as any part else of my labours so since they have provoked the desires of many more than I can mention that they might not with my selfe lye by and be buried in forgetfulnesse Adde heereto that now in this vacancy of better service I could not easily quit my selfe of that idle unfruitfulnesse which too soone as rust is ready to grow upon us without some service done in this kinde To you then I addresse my speech in the conclusion deare friends who have beene taught by and now are made partakers of my labours Beseeching you and the Lord for you that by the lively resemblance of these things which you have bin long moulded in and shall be heere presented withall you would give Testimony to this Truth as the Truth is in Iesus That is that by your spirituall prospering in the grace of the Lord Iesus Sacramentall yee would commend this Doctrine of the Sacraments especially of the Supper So shall I have cause to say That you are my Epistle written in your hearts knowne and read of all men and manifâ—sted to be the Epistle of Christ not written with Inke in paper but with the Spirit of obedience and love in the fleshy Tables of your heart Oh how shall you then safeguard me not from the evill tongues of men which I feare not but the contradiction of hypocrites and the foule aspersion of an unprofitable Minister of Christ In which happy wish I cease troubling you and commend your reading hereof to the blessing of God Farewell The Contents of this first part which hath eight Chapters CHAPTER I. Shewing the generall Circumstances belonging to Sacraments P. 1 CHAP. II. Shewing the agreement and disagreement of Sacraments old and new with each other and then of the two new with themselves that of Baptisme with the Supper P. 11. CHAP. III. Treateth of the substance of a Sacrament and here the description and parts thereof are examined P. 28 CHAP. IIII. Of the publike exercise or Celebration of Sacraments and the acts therein of the Minister and people P. 64 CHAP. V. Of Baptisme in speciall The Description of it the severall parts thereof handled and the true use of Baptisme annexed P. 70 CHAP. VI. Of the Supper of the Lord The Description of it of the first branch thereof viz. the Sacramentall Acts thereof P. 105 CHAP. VII Of the second part of the Description viz. the Grace of the Sacrament of the Supper P. 146 CHAP. VIII Touching the Sacramentall Acts of the people referred to this place and so the third and last generall part of the description The end of the Supper P. 172 The severall branches of each Chapter the Reader shall finde set downe in their order in the Margin of each Chapter The Contents of this second part containing 12. Chapters CHAP. I. Treateth of Sacramentall Triall in generall the duty of it with the Necessity Reasons and Vses of this Triall pag. 1 CHAP. II. Of the severall objects of this our Triall and first of the Triall of our estates toward God pag. 32 CHAP. III. Of the triall of our selves about our wants pag. 49 CHAP. IIII. Of the triall of our selves about our Sacramentall graces What graces these are And of the first of them viz. Sacramentall Knowledge pag. 62 CHAP. V. Touching the triall of faith for the Sacrament pag. 81 CHAP. VI. The triall of our Repentance for the Sacrament pag. 108 CHAP. VII The triall of our Sacramentall Love pag. 140 CHAP. VIII The triall of Sacramentall Desire pag. 193 CHAP. IX Treateth of the necessity of Communicating and of the due carriage of a Communicant in the act of receiving Where of the remembring of the Lords death till he come pag. 209 CHAP. X. Of the carriage of a communicant after his receiving pag. 214 Appendix CHAP. XI Sixe Rules of direction how a good Receiver may without difficulty from time to time prepare himselfe to the
the doctrine use of Sacraments effectually in the Church A thing very much neglected for the most part The which needfulnesse may appeare by this that it serves to prevent a threefold inconvenience The first is woefull ignorance Three causes of teaching the doctrine First Ignorance Scarse any one point of Doctrine there is in all Religion in which people are blinder than in the true nature and use of the Sacraments They thinke that because Sacraments are given as glasses to behold Christ in therefore they are cleare enough of themselves But as the clearest Crystall glasse can shew no face while it is locked up in a cofer or the backside onely looked upon So till the Sacraments are brought forth and opened their light is smoothred Parables were used by our Saviour to cleere doctrine Meth. 13.44 howbeit they were riddles to the Disciples themselves till expounded And sure its a question whether the want of Instruction about the Sacraments make the people so ignorant of them or their ignorance causeth the Ministers labours so unprofitable by the confirmed custome thereof in the people Secondly to prevent superstition in some Pope-holy persons Secondly Superstition who are so leavened with superstition that they thinke the Sacraments are holy things even by the work wrought without any relation to the Covenant not knowing them to be the New Testament of Châ—ist in his blood Luke 22 19. Also they thinke that the Easter Sacrament is holier than others That its too presumptuous for them to come to them often because they are so holy Such matters must bee seldome used least they waxe common and many such Popish dreggs abide in their hearts Thirdly and especially to prevent unpreparednesse 3. Vnpreparednesse Generally our nature is awck to this worke even the better sort need a helpe and manuduction to it and as for others though well disposed yet for lacke of helpe in this kinde they do necessitate unto themselves a great rashnesse unreverence unfitnesse to this duty growing to a custome in doubtfull and unfruitfull receiving Of the use hereof more in the second Treatise in the point of knowledge Sacramentall Circumst 4 The fourth Circumstance is their Number Number There were never more than two in the Church of the old Testament neither hath the New any further liberty So many and no more the Lord hath bequeathed to his Church Onely 2. Sacraments And those two are not Sacraments of some speciall graces but of whole Christ our wisedome 1 Cor. 1.30 righteousnes sanctification and redemption in one word of the grace of God either for the sealing of the reall being of it and the begetting of it in us or the nourishing of it One Christ is still the body of the Sacraments God hath not clogged his Church with multitude of Sacraments least hee should divert his people too much by outward objects from holy things Scarse one of many is fit to profit by Sacraments but to cleave to the barke of them leaving the substance Here therefore that is verified God neither is wanting in necessaries nor exceeds in superfluities So much and no more as may serve for our good he hath thought good to bestow choosing rather to supply number by power efficacy and extension than to clogge us with too many It was that which the Lord shunned even while that world of Ceremonies lasted much more now in these dayes wherein he calles for spirituall worship Why so few hee yeelds two for releefe of our infidelity but no more for prevention of our curiosity wil-worship and sensuality Against Popish Sacraments It came not from the Lord to ordaine one Sacrament for the Clergie as Orders a second for the Lâ—â—y alone as Marriage a third for Catechised ones as Confirmation a fourth for sicke ones as Vnction a fift for lapsed ones as Penance these are no Scripture but tradition Sacraments and by like reason if once we transgresse Gods bounds wee might devise one Sacrament for the King and his Nobles a second for learned ones a third for ancient ones a fourth for yonger ones for strong or for weake c. But the Lord hath allowed in these two all Christ eyther to breed grace in the soule or to nourish it He hath not given us Sacraments of humility of patience of selfe deniall of mercy and the like but in Baptisme and the Supper he hath ordained one Christ to breed faith and to nourish it to beget sanctification patience love and to confirme them to seale up the covenant of Grace in both to all sorts Prince people rich poore old young learned idiots weake and strong so that as few as there are yet the Lord inlarging them to so manifold supplies and uses we have more cause to blesse him for not oppressing us with a burden than to accuse him for defectivenesse towards us To teach us seeeing wee have so few The Vse to emproove them well and cleave fast to the fruit and the power thereof and by faith to draw out the strength thereof in both those regards for which God gave them But to praise God especially for ridding of us from that Popish yoke of Sacraments before named as most repugnant to Gods ends and to Christian liberty yea as bringing in a yoke upon the necke of the Church most intollerable to beare Many things breed distraction few things cause more union If a man have but one or two children his love is more united If a citie have but one or two Bulwarkes they will apply them throughly So let us Circumst 5 The fifth Circumstance concernes the publiquenesse Publiknesse of Sacraments Sacraments are Legacies of Christ to his Church and Pledges of Communion of Saints therefore to be the acts of an Assembly lawfully met As Paul speakes of the censures Sacraments must be publique When yee are therefore met together 1 Cor. 5.4 1 Cor. 5.4 with my Spirit Let such a one be given to Satan even so he speakes of the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11.20 1 Cor. 11.20 When ye are therfore come together c. Noting the solemne publiquenesse of them when they may be so enjoyed Christ hath appointed them as markes of Communion therfore the Church Acts 2. 4. Acts 2 and 4. is said To abide together in mutuall fellowship of breaking bread and prayer So that each member must fetch his or her speciall portion of Christs Sacraments from the communion of Saints Therefore let us abhor Popish Masse-Priests who with their boyes or Clerkes offer up three or foure private Masses in three or foure corners of the Church at once as we deny them the name of this Sacrament so wee say like Sacrament like Celebration both are abhominable Vse 2 Also let this keepe us in humility and love both towards our selves and the Church For not we hold the roote but the roote us If the eye be bold and say I neede not the
Scriptures and Fathers expressing Sacramentall union As when our Saviour saith This is my body and Paul The bread we breake is it not the communion of the body of Christ from which and like places they presently cry out Loe yee the bread is his body So when the Fathers especially those who were the greatest orators doe hyperbolize in the prayse of the Sacrament calling it the bread of life and an ineffable union and that after consecration the bread by the omnipotency of the Word is made flesh c. they abuse the scope of the Fathers which to themselves was good because although they meant no other but to magnifie Sacramentall union yet the excesse of their speech occasions the errour of corporall union to prevaile Let us loath their Idolatry and superstition Vse 4 Fourthly it should teach Gods people never to cease magnifying the love of God who hath refused no course neglected no meane which possibly might make for the communicating of himselfe to lost man both in union fellowship and seeing his word through our infidelity could not sufficiently satisfie your scrupulous and doubtfull mindes touching the realnesse of his faithfull meaning towards us hath not onely stooped to be in our flesh as a man but to tye himselfe to base creatures that so he might familiarize with our soules more nearely and make us one with himselfe so that the meate drink we receive is not made our substance of flesh more really than the Lord Iesus is made the substance of our spirituall nourishment Oh! I say how should his love shewed upon so hard conditions not onely ravish us but also prevaile with us for those ends which it serves for how should our soules study for union with him influence from him to become like him How should wee strive to attaine the perfection of that happinesse which Adam lost recover it in a farre fuller and nearer union with Christ and by him with the Lord Oh! this is the scope which all unions and especially this Sacramentall have to unrivet us from base unions and fellowships with things below that so we might settle our hearts upon him whom to know and beleeve to be our God reconciled is happinesse and to be united to his natures in one mysticall being of holinesse is above all earthly fading comforts Oh! hath the Lord joyned himselfe to the creatures that we not resting in them might by them be carryed to him in whom true rest and peace is to be had How should we despise to be one with money with pleasure with mans acceptance with other carnall objects and say since I came to see the excellent union of the soule with God in Christ I see nothing below but seemes base to me and such as I am loth to unite and give over my selfe to it to be servant to it to be possessed by it or to possesse it I will use all other things and enjoy the Lord. None of his good things can be made mine without union therefore as I seeke them and the increase of them in the Sacrament so I will especially seeke union and make much of the Sacrament for the purchasing of it Vse 5 Fiftly and especially how doth this point presse the necessity of faith upon us in the use of that Sacrament Onely faith is able to discerne the Lords body in this Sacramentall union and as by the former point to make us partakers of the divine nature so by this to strengthen the soule in the increase of communion by the Sacrament Let it be double exhortation then to all beleevers both to discerne to apply the Lord Iesus sacramentall 1. To discerne it For the first Turne wee all our cavilling and carnall reasoning which is endlesse for carnality comprehends not mysteries into a quietnesse and stillnesse of beleeving forsake the swift rolling torrent of never satisfied sence and embrace the softly and still streame of Siloam cut all knots in two by the ordinance thereby determine all endlesse reasonings of Popish curiosity spend that time in admiring this mystery and in longing to be partaker of that which is by it resembled I meane union of thy soule with Christ If this be so mystical how excellent is that to enjoy by faith Oh! Till union be made nothing is thine Behold not with a carnall eye say not with those Iewes Ioh. 8.22 how will he give us his flesh will he kill himselfe If reason may prevaile the Sacrament setting aside a little blinde devotion will discover no more Christ to the soule than bread and wine in a Cellar It s the power of God uniting Christ regeneration and nourishment to the soule not a few qualities of Christ but whole Christ to the whole man And the Sacraments obey him herein representing whatsoever he hath united to them No divell no instrument of his no Pope can sever these two each from other The Sacrament they may quite destroy but this union they cannot take from the Sacrament The spirit of the ordinance it is which makes it abide so irrepealable Do not then sever those things by unbeleefe which the Ordinance hath put so close together wander not descant not goe not into heaven nor downe to hell with a papist to consult and aske Rom. 10.15.16 How should this be But know the word is neare thee in thy eare yea hand eye taste the vertue of the ordinance makes whole Christ as neare the Elements as the quality of clensing feeding are neare them Destroy the one destroy the other If the one be naturall the other is spirituall and from an higher union if it be against sense to divide the one its sacriledge to sever the other True it is the things thus united are farre distant in place but yet the power of the eternall ordinance can easily unite them And shall not the gift of faith unite the soule to the Lord Iesus by these Elements as well as the ordinance for ever unites the Lord Iesus and the Elements Beware then least we sever what God hath united It is not the farrenesse off of a thing in place which can hinder union The Lord Iesus his body in the grave lost not union with the divinity by the distance of the soule in paradise because the relation was indissoluble the vertue of Christ crucified is united to the soule if it beleeve although his body keepe his place in heaven Faith in this kind is not unlike to the hand of the Marriner in sounding the depth of the sea His hand cannot touch or fadome it but by vertue of the line and plummet which he lets downe and holds in his hand he feeles the bottome and gages the depth be it never so remote So the hand of faith holding the cord and plummet of the word and promise feeles a bottome of Truth and unites it selfe to Christ For the second 2. To apply it from this discerning power goe to the applying get this
there is by vertue of which the generall equity and provision of the Land and the securitie of every men thou maiest buy and sell upon it that thine is thine owne Gods security best And is not there a greater and stronger spirit to secure thee in the matter of thy salvation offered in the Sacrament Is there not here the Spirit and seale of the Lord Iesus to secure thee Will not this Spirit deliver thee into as firme a Tenor and Possession of Christ thy pardon and life as the other of a peece of land Shall a clod of a field and the ringle of a doore the seazin and delivery of a house and land thereby leave thee better satisfied for the temporall right than the Spirit of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Iesus for thy spirituall Looke to thy selfe and beware Weakenesse of unbeleefe the Lord will pardon But if thou despise his mercifull releefs of this weakenesse and turne it to wilfulnesse beware least thy wilfull falling proove not a falling sicknesse and thy weakenesse become not such a disease in thee as the Lord will have no regard to cure thee of but leave thee to thy contempt to thine heart of infidelity that cannot beleeve Rather be exhorted to seeke the Lord in his gracious way of assurance bewaile thy impotencie and say Oh! Lord except thou adde thy Spirit to thy Seale as well as thy Seale to the Covenant my cursed spirit is as prone to breake all bands in sunder as any mans With thee Lord weake meanes of beleeving shall be strong without thee the strongest are weake how much more then canst thou made the strongest to become strong I deny my selfe I set my boate upon thy streame to be carried by thee Lord sanctifie thy Sacraments to become unto my soule the utmost assurances of thy Grace and carry me so into this assurance as that being rid of my feares I may ever blesse thee for the fruit of thy Sacraments Thus much for the first end Touching the second to adde a little to that I said formerly I call this â—n occasionall or subordinate end of the Sacrament Secondary end The secure God of our Covenant viz. That we might renew our Covenant with God Wonder not that the ends of the same Ordinance differ in weight for as in Sacramentall graces faith and love we say all are essential to a good receiver yet not equally necessary to the act of receiving so here both these ends are intended more or lesse although Gods sealing of Covenant to us be chiefe Briefely then the Lord expects that the soule being made partaker of his Christ in the feast of the hills as Esay 25. Esay 25 12. I meane with the fat things and refined wines of his Supper and feeling his love sealed to her there in reconciliation and renewed holinesse do occasion her selfe thereby even while the benefit is fresh to revive her love reassure the Lord of her fuller purpose of heart to cleave to him And how Surely in better living by faith better affections zeale fruitfulnesse courage better mortification of lusts and deniall of self better and closer watching of the heart Act. 11.23 and walking with him in uprightnes as our God alsufficient For why If there be mercy with him that he may be feared much more is there renewed mercy with him that he may be doubly and renewedly feared Psal 130.4 And how can we without hypocrisie long for the Sacrament ere it come upon pretence that our spirituall darke dead hearts will be revived and our appallings in grace cured and new strength added and yet having our turne served leave God to himself to go seek the fruit of our being satisfied with the pleasures apples and flagons of his House How doe many complaine between whiles of their damping coldnes and desertion what should then such do 1 Chron. 4 9 Iudg. 1 8. but with that holy Iabez or Othniel vow professe to the Lord that if he wil make the Sacrament a day of feasting joy send us from him welraised up then wil we be the Lords not suffer his oath Sacrament of sealing to passe away from us without a restipulation and reciprocation of double affection duty and thankes But returne him the strength of his cost in his owne service Vse 1 The use herof is first to taxe the most for their extreame base requitall of God for the grace they pretend to reape at and by the Sacrament Surely either they deceive them selves with a shaddow for substance or they faile God marvellously in this end of his Either they make no vowes at the Sacrament or breake them as fast Oh! the formalitie of most Professers in their receiving As appeares by this that in stead of making this Ordinance an hint and opportunitie to provoke themselves to a closer and narrower survey of their hearts and wayes Lo they turne this grace into commons and into a bare frequency of oft and monethly receiving which I doe not dislike in it selfe but alas grow to an habited falling-sicknesse and numbe Palsie of practise and walking uprightly no sooner hath the raine fallen upon their rockie and stony spirits but the next puffe of wind hath dried it up and so they live in a most mortall and wofull contempt of the end of Sacraments whereas they are ordained for the speciall advancing of the soule to God and the furthering of the bent and streame of the conversation to him Lo they are never more dead hearted dull secure saples than after their Receivings Oh wofull Surely beware least ye be of that sort of whom Iob speakes That they shall never enjoy the flouds of honey and butter Iob 20.17 never come to that welfare and encrease of God which he bestowes upon his carefull servants who keepe touch with him and come to him as well for Gods glory as their owne good Except thou keepe those things close together which God hath united his Seale to thee for comfort and thy oath and vow to him for better service thy Sacraments are liker to proove thy bane than thy gaine Vse 2 Secondly let it be speciall exhortation to all Gods people to unite both these ends in one as they desire comfort froÌ„ either Let no Sacrament passe thee by thy good will but the sad remembrance of thy dead barren and formall Religion may so sting thee that with all thy might and endeavour thou strive to obtaine of the Lord a more lively resolved and bent heart to returne to thy Christian course with closenesse and keeping of Covenant Borrow from the present experience of mercy in the Sacrament an hearty purpose to shake off the usuall enchantments of Satan and the errour of the wicked 2 Pet. 3. ult which have pluckt thee from thy stedfastnesse formerly beseech the Lord to ratifie thy covenant which thou hast so oft broken and pray him that by this if by any occasion
the water And the essence of Baptisme in the very symbolicalnesse of it urgeth no lesse For what resemblance of ingrafting putting on of Christ is there in sprinkling what typicalnesse is there of our descending into and ascending out of the water both which are expresly spoken of Christ in his baptisme of Iordan What resemblance of our buriall or resurrection with Christ is there in it So that I doubt not but contrary to our Churches intention this errour having once crept in is maintained still by the carnall ease and tendernesse of such as looking more at themselves than at God stretch the liberty of the Church in this case deeper and further than eyther the Church her selfe would or the solemnenesse of this Sacrament may well and safely admit I doe not speake this as a thing meete to disturbe a Churches peace but as desiring such as it concernes in their places to looke to their liberty and duty in this behalfe The fourth person the infant The fourth and cheefe person yea equall object of Baptisme is the party baptised For not onely the Church may and doth baptise her infants but also adultos growne ones also if any such being bred Pagans and brought within the pale of the Church shall testifie their competent understanding of the new covenant and professe their desire to bee seazed with Baptisme for the strengthning of their soule in the faith thereof professe it I say not basely and slightly but with earnestnesse and entirenesse cutting off their haire and nailes and abhorring their Paganisme A short touch of the baptisme of infants But the truth is the exercise of the Churches baptisme is upon infants Here the Anabaptists rise up pleading the corruption of such baptisme and urging the first baptisme of catechised ones and confessors of sinne and cravers of the seale upon the worke of the Ministry foregoing in knowledge and faith which can be incident onely to Adulti or growne ones They alledge that we seale to a blank to no covenant and therefore it s a nullity Sundry learned men have undertaken to stop their scismaticall mouths to answer their peevish Arguments my scope tends another way in this Treaty so farre as my digression may be veniall I say this for the setling of such as are not willfull that I take the baptisme of infants to be one of the most reverend generall and uncontroled traditions which the Church hath and which I would no lesse doubt of than the Creede to bee Apostolicall And although I confesse my selfe yet unconvinced by demonstration of Scripture for it yet Reasons for it first Sithence Circumcision was applyed to the infant the eighth day in the Old Testament Secondly there is no word in the New Testament to infringe the liberty of the Church in it nor speciall reason why wee should bereave her of it Thirdly sundry Scriptures afford some friendly proofes by consequence of it Fourthly the holinesse of the child externall and visible is from their parents who are or ought to be catechised confessors penitent and Protestants in truth which privelidge onely open revolt disables them from therefore I say The seede being holy and belonging to the Covenant the Lord graciously admits them also to the seale of it in Baptisme 1 Cor. 7 14 Quest Howbeit here a further quaere arises And How it is capable 1 Pet. 3 21. because the Sacrament of Baptisme is here handled by us not as halfe a Sacrament onely including a washing of the flesh but an entire Sacrament holding out and giving an invisible grace by outward meanes By what authority shall we say an infant may be presented to that whereof it is not capable To that I answer Answere First it s not meete that Baptisme being the Sacrament of new birth which can be but once should destroy her owne Analogy by frequent administring therefore if but once the most comprehensive way is to doe it in the infancy when the outward admission of a member is allowed to it Secondly although the child be not capable of the grace of the Sacrament by that way whereby the growne are by hearing conceiving and beleeving yet this followes not that infants are not capable of Sacramentall grace in and by another way Pittifull are the shifts of them that have no other way to stop an Anabaptists mouth save by an errour that an infant may have faith It s easy to distinguish betweene the gift conveyed and the manner of conveying it For if the former be the latter in such case will poore needlesse But if the infant be truly susceptive of the substance of Christ none can deny it the Sacrament Now to understand this marke that infants borne of beleeving parents are of the number of those that shall be saved though dying in their infancy none of our reformed Churches will deny It is enough therefore that such before death doe partake the benefit of Election in Christ together with the benefits of Christ in regeneration adoption redemption and glory Now that the Spirit can apply these unto such infants is not doubted of though the manner thereof to us bee as hidden and mysticall thing yet so it is the Spirit of Christ can as really unite the soule of an infant to God imprint upon it the true title of a sonne and daughter by adoption and the image of God by sanctification without faith as with it Now if the thing of baptisme be thus given it why not baptisme Nay I adde further I see no cause to deny that even in and at and by the act of baptisme as the necessity of the weake infant may admit the Spirit may imprint these upon the soule of the infant Vse Let the use of the point bee to all such as are growne to yeares of discretion to looke backe to their Baptisme Let such blesse the Lord for his bounteous prevention of them with the Sacrament even before they had any strength to conceive it Why should the Lord so doe except to heape hot coales upon thy head oh poore wretch and to teach thee to conclude Esay 65.1 Iam. 4 8. Psal 119.10 that he who was found of thee when thou soughtest him not will much more draw neare to thee when thou art fayne upon him and seekest him with thy whole heart What a mercy is it to know the Lord to be a provoker of the soule to imbrace that covenant the seale whereof hee is content to bestow before hand for the hope of time to come Who should so play the Traytor in coole blood having found the Lord so faithfull in his love and to cavill thus I was baptized and made my covenant when I knew nothing nay I did make none my selfe but others for me Let them looke to their stipulation and promise I made none Can any Trecherous wretch so requite the Lord Rather if any sparke of love be in thee wilt thou not breake thy heart by this early mercy before
it within or without No do What was all grace laid in one houre in your bosome Have ye no steppings in of Sathan flesh infidelity revolt had world to unsettle ye I will not judge you but judge your selves and enquire whether that sudden peace of yours be not rather such a one as savors of presumption or of a desire to be troubled no longer about the matter than solid and profound Feare the worst the best will save it selfe Tremble to thinke God should have an Ordinance in store which you stand in no neede of If it be so then such as neede it shall have it but you may misse it well enough Branch 3 To these I may adde another though better object of mourning whose hearts are afflicted enough for lacke of assurance but what with their selfe-loving rest in their complements and not going to the golden Scepter with Ester and what with their deapth of melancholy Ester 4.16 and 5 2. hardnesse to be perswaded as also their deepe bondage by unbeleefe they will not heare of such a possibilitie of sealing assurance but either thinke it a fable or farre from their reach and therefore set downe their staffe that if unbeleefe and staggering can doe it all their dayes must be miserable The Lord hath removed them farre from prosperitie and put out their light Oh Lam. 3.13 Deut. 32.6 unthankfull ones Doe ye thus requite the Lord for his Sacrament Is this your meditation application of the sealing power of it Is it too good for ye with Ahaz to receive a signe from God! Doe ye not neede it or Esay 7.12.13 are ye so saped in bondage and anguish that ye heed it not Why then yeeld ye purposely to it Why strive ye not to lay in for any grace which God hath for ye What service shall God have from ye without it If ye slight this comfort must ye not needs slight obedience If God should streighten ye in seeking it and hold ye off yet is there any such employment so precious as this Oh! poore soules if lamenting would doe you good what neede have ye of it Oh! consider and come out of your dungeon Tell me when our Adversaries the Papists laugh and scorne the Doctrine of assurance say its impossible doe you favour them Sure I am in your conscience and conversation ye are of another stampe and do ye not tremble that you should dwell next doore to such and fall into the same streame of their error 2 Pet. 3. ult Vse 2 Secondly let all humble ones that would follow the Lord in his Ordinance if by any meanes they might comprehend that for which they are comprehended of Christ admire and adore this bounty of God in his Sacrament Phil. 3 11 who so long since thy Baptisme when thou thoughtst no other but thou hadst beene forgotten yet hath remembred or offers to remember thee with the fruit of thy Baptisme who could have dreamt it Once Ioh. 13 7.8 9. when Peter heard Christ offer to wash him he told him he should never doe so meane an office to him But when our Saviour replied What I now doe thou knowest not but hereafter thou shalt know then hee changed his minde When the Lord gave thee Baptisme in thine infancie which was a pledge of further favor he shewed thee mercy But lo he had a deeper reach and in due time thou shouldst know it and now he offers it thee No Sacrament passeth thee but if thy heart and mind be matches he revives the print of thy Baptisme unto thee Oh! Why is not thy heart broken at it Lord I have lived loosely and basely this twenty thirty fortie yeares since thy baptizing me Shewing that I was not much the better for it And now shouldest thou at last send a showre to fetch up the seed of regeneration Iud. 14 14. from under this drie clod Out of the eater bring sweetnesse and create thy selfe in a wombe so old barren and past all hope of new birth Gen. 18.12 Sarah laughed the text saith when she heard of such newes But truly Lord my heart hath cause to rend in pieces to see such mercy Oh Lord I see with thee a thousand yeares are as one day 2 Pet. 3 8. Rom. 4 17. Thou callest things that are as if they were not Thirtie yeares of ignorance saped in the world carnall civill saples under the doâ—trine of thy Grace and Covenant it may be also a swearing drunken uncleane wretch to be sure a son of old Adam still an hypocrite and unbeleever Oh! shouldst thou now ere I die prevent hell for me and cause that word of Regeneration which never afforded any favor to me now to shew me that thy Sacrament fortie yeares since cast upon me hath not lost her strength and efficacy Oh Lord methinks now I see plainely why thou wert aforehand with me Even that I might be ashamed I should be so behind with thee That being on the surer hand I might ply thy Covenant the more earnestly Oh Lord if thou hadst not prevented me wth the grace of the Spirit I had slept in death and in thy livery lived and died a Traitor But now since thy Covenant hath entred into mee behold I see well thy Sacrament hath added some strength unto my unbeleeving heart and laying all thy dealing together I perceive thou meanest to heape hot coales of fire upon me that I might at leasure ere I goe to the pit and be no more seene know and feele that blessed use of Baptisme which I never saw Oh Lord I know there is a sealing power in it It s an annex to thy Covenant No sooner did that allure me to beleeve but thy Spirit joyned it selfe to me to second it to strengthen my fainting heart and then I saw If thou hadst meant to destroy me thou wouldst never have spent one cord upon me Iud. 13 23. But seeing thou meanest to save me all shall do me good promise Seale and so I have found it Lord and blesse thee in the view of such experience How many hundreds of my age education and fashion have quite given thee over in the covenant they made in Baptisme But now I doe adore and wonder at this unspeakable love of thine towards me Oh let it never be forgotten Vse 3 Thirdly let it teach thee to examine thy selfe about the truth of the sealing grace of the Spirit in thy Baptisme If the Seale be as large as the Patent to all uses and ends of it the way to trie thy selfe herein will bee this to examine thy self about the work of the word of Regeneration in thee If that have brought thee neere to thy birth lo here is the Spirit for thee to give strength for bringing thee forth to the light For Baptisme truly understood seales up all which the word hath bred in thee Deceive not thy selfe in thinking that the water alone will beget the to God No it
s the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. ult which must doe it 1 Pet 1 22 as Iam. 1.16 Of his free will hee begat us by the Word of truth Iam 1 16 Trie thy selfe then by the usuall acts of the word of Regeneration and so thou maist gather that this Spirit belongs to thee This is no place for mee to digresse I will cull out onely two or three things which may serve for this use Deceive not thy selfe and God will not deceive the Didst thou ever then feele in thy selfe that this immortall seed cast into thy eare did so descend into thy heart as to worke any immortall hope in thee 2 Tim. 1 11. The Gospell reveales immortality and glory to the soule Did it ever bring to light any such thing to thee Did it ever conceive in thee a sensible distaste of all hopes below and raise thy affections above Did it ever cause the things of the earth long life health successe welth money pleasure to be despised in comparison of the hope which is set before thee Camest thou ever from the word another man in thy aime appetite savor and love than thou wentst Did thy heart ever burne within thee there And when thou camest with earthly base thoughts did the Lord so dash them by heavenly doctrine and the hope of Christ that thou returnedst to thy house with a distaste of thy selfe for them Wert thou ever so touched and taken with the promise of the word that thou wert loath to forgo it for any delight In particular try thy self thus Instances of the words working 1. Hath the word of the Law cast a destroying seede of death into thee taken a way that life of old Adam jollity in sin Hath it defaced thy old Image discovered thee to thy selfe to be an Alien from the Life of God and common-wealth of Israel the son of an Hittite and Amorite as odious as one of thirtie old would be to thee who never was baptized Secondly hath the Gospell cast a better seed of hope in Christ by the Covenant of reconciliation into thee In thy hearing of this glad tidings hath the Lord bored an eare in thee by which this seede might conceive and kindle in thy heart Hath it wrought the preparation of heart in thee by brokennesse tendernesse humilitie unweariednesse of paines selfe de-deniall c. Hath it setled and digested in thee as a thing of such beauty as in comparison of which all the glory of the earth is drosse Hath it abode in thee and brought an undecaying sweetnesse into thee Hast thou felt in thy wombe the paines of true life and the new birth viz. How corruption of nature selfe and infidelity have rebelled against the work both of the Law and Gospell Gen. 25 22. Hast thou with Rebecca in this combat gone to God with thy complaint of the infinite lets that have held thee from beleâ—ving And hath the Lord by his Promise and perswasions fastened thy anchor of soule upon his bottome of free grace and truth renouncing thy owne hopes feares performances So that now thou hast him close bound to thee in his word from ever forsaking thee Then I say to thee thou art he whom the word hath breed Christ in and formed life in thee by faith What wanteth then Oh! thy heart is fickle and too weake to buy and sell upon the bare word without wavering yea thou hast much adoe to get victory over thy uncertain heart Well no wonder Thou seest nothing and to resist sence is a great worke yet be faithfull with God and give not over his promise and by due cleaving to the bare truth of the Lord begge further light and rest not in thy measure much lesse yeeld to any love of sinne to darken and defile thee And so doing I assure thee that to thee and to none but such the seale of baptisme belongs thou shalt find the Lord will by his Spirit convince thee deeplier the Spirit of Baptisme shall bring forth Gods pledges shew thee them Ioh. 16 9.10 convey into thy faint heart strength confidence and courage of faith and set thee above thy distempers as if they had never annoied thee If I say hee have purposed such a decree of grace unto thee he will effect it in time else know that howsoever yet thy service is blessed and thy faith hath brâ—â—d the life of regeneration in thee Branch 1 Forthly let this be exhortation to urge us to apply our selves to Baptisme for the sealing work of the Spirit therin To young Novices And first I direct my speech to yong novices under the means Slight not off the first incklings of this sealing Spirit The 1. layes heates of the holy Ghost and fire doe usually breake forth in youth Consider it s not a dayes worke nor a thing easie to settle the Spirit of sealing upon thy soule there be many steps to it Oh! looke to it yee young beginners One cause why old Christians walke so heavily is because they never heeded or hatched the first motions of the Spirit in their beginnings If then the Spirit of God doe call and stirre in thee by early affections love zeale enquiry answer Speake Lord for thy servant heares put him not off by ease or bondage 1 Sam. 3 9. If such a thought come as this What a dramme of Grace and Life of Christ is worth or what vow thou madest in Baptisme and how retchlesse thou hast beene to keepe it dally not with such items shake not off either pangs of terrour by lusts of youth or pangs of hope and love with ease and sloth for so the Spirit of sealing is fore-stalled and the faire forwardnesse thereto will hardly be recovered Put in thy foote presently upon the Angells stirring the poole Ioh. 5 4. if thou have an heart none shall prevent thee heere as there If these seeds were not choked and these buds cropt they would proove the assuring sealing Spirit of grace in due time Through contempt of it the Lord leaves youth to that hideousnesse and ripenesse in sinne yea a spirit of desperate debauchednesse in drinking oathes Rev. 22.11 and villany as would not bee beleeved of such youth Branch 2 Secondly I speake to all other apply your selves to the Sacrament of Baptisme for this last evidence and seale of the Spirit To elder oneâ— to let yee know that yee are the Lords Lin not till the Lord hath seal'd yee for his owne set his marke upon you not to be blotted out Looke up at each Sacrament each Baptizing ye see to the Lord that which in the former point I speake as hee hath applied the grace of Baptisme by the promise unto you so now hee would apply is Seale of assurance unto you by his Baptisme Let not such a mercie be there to be had and you not aware of it Thinke it not too good to receive if God will grant it What is
for the present enlarges it selfe further and gives the soule a taste of that eternall joy which it shall possesse hereafter when it shall put off this corruption and earthly tabernacle for one not made with hands Secondly the Spirit of sealing hath fulnesse of faith in it It s therefore compared to full sayles of wind Heb. 10 22 which carrie the ship an end Is it so with thee Art thou free in good measure from a life of sence from judging things of God by the outsides Canst thou rest in this that although thou neither hearest voyce from heaven nor seeest shape yet there is a Sun within the clouds There is a God and all the fidelity truth and love is still in the promises which ever was without shaddow of turning Art thou by this faith carried above those feares doubts distempers Rom. 5 2 3 4. which when the coast was mistie thou wert annoyed with Walkest thou now with cleerer comfort joy and perswasion of Gods love providence promises Is thy heart as the Arke above the rockes Gen. 7.10 Is it farre otherwise with thee in the frequencie the dismalnesse of thy unbeleefe than formerly Are thy buffetings temptations lusts well blowne over Then hold and nourish this fruit in thee knowing it is no common thing But Oh Lord where is the man to whom I speake this Thirdly nourish thy liberty Was it wont to be an usuall thing to thee to be clogged with the weight of sinne Heb. 12.1 Heb. 12.1 vexed with the fiery darts of Satan and his noysome buffetings tossed with strong lusts Was the worke of God irkesome painefull to thee hardly drawn to it soone unsetled How is it now 2 Cor. 3.17 The Spirit of sealing is a free Spirit 2 Cor. 3.17 The Lord is a Spirit where he is there is libertie Dost thou now walke in and out with the Lord as a sonne in the house Luke 1 6. well provided for Rid off thy old chaines enlarged to runne the Commandements of God with chearefulnesse Hast thou freedome from thy old feare Psal 119.32 Hath the Lord both overthrowne the court of sinne and bad conscience and all the officers of it Canst thou meete the Bayliffe securely Canst thou as a free man Gal. 5.1 looke upon Satan hell death without horror Nourish it and be thankefull for it Fourthly Hast thou the boldnesse of the Spirit of adoption Canst thou come to the Lord in prayer with holy confidence Is thy slavish heart gone Rom. 8 15. Verse 26. Zach. 12.10 Darest thou call God Father by good proofe and triall Doth the Spirit of God teach thee to pray Doth it purge out thine owne spirit of selfe of gifts of forme and teach thee to pray wisely with feeling and groaning under thy corruptions seeking more mortification of heart and spirit Art thou so fervent and frequent as one that knowes his welcome Canst thou lay in daily for thy selfe and others Blesse God for thy portion and prise it So fifthly Hast thou the spirit of holines purenes If thou be sealed by the assuring Spirit thou are sealed by the holy Spirit of God How doth it appeare Is there love of purenes and holines a loathing of all falsehood and profanes in thee Hast thou gotten a pure title unto Deut. 33.16 Tit. 1.15 and use of all ordinances blessings and administrations of God towards thee Art thou able to say To the pure all things are pure Dost thou grow more fruitful and plentifull in holines all holy means meditation fasting conference holy duties compassiâ—n mercy love pietie sobernes holy graces 2 Pet. 1.5 8. 2 Pet. 3 ult 1 Cor. 15 ult as faith hope patience Dost thou adde grace to grace so as thou maist not be unprofitable but grow be rooted and setled still then I say nourish these I assure thee this world is not for such matters blesse him that hath called thee out of it in the strength of this seale of Baptisme walke on as Elia did to the mount of God 1 King 19 8. Ephes 4 30. Grieve not this sweet Spirit by any lusts or roote of bitternesse keepe the world under the girdle of this Spirit provoke him not to forsake thee but having felt his sweetnesse let him not depart from thee till hee have conducted thee into the land of righteousnes And know if this Spirit be given thee thou keepest a costly thing which not all they have who yet beleeve in this measure deceave not thy selfe about it and if thou have it nourish it carefully For as the traveller who hath nothing to lose is carelesse of theeves so know thou that hast such a charge hadst need be jealous least Satan the world and thy evill selfe rob thee of thy treasure Ephe. 6.18 And this be said of this 3. generall also of the end of Baptisme and so of the whole doctrine and use of Baptisme the more largely because I shall touch it no more as I purpose to doe the other Oh! how is it to be lamented that the knowledge and use of it is no more understood by our Ministers and people CHAP. VI Of the Supper of the Lord. The description and parts of it And first of the Sacramentall Acts of it I Come now to the Doctrine and discourse of the Supper of the Lord wherein as I foresee that those things which do peculiarly concerne the handling of it will take up much more roome than the former of Baptisme as being the Sacrament of growen ones and therefore having in it more life for present administration and use than the other of Infants So also I see much labour is spared me in this latter because of those generals which unavoydably have been handled in the former I say so far as those things do agree to the Supper subjects only being changed So far then as ought hath beene toucht before of the Order the Constitution the Acts Grace or Sealing of Baptisme which may sute and agree with this of the Supper let none looke for the Repetition of it onely in such grounds I will content my selfe to point to the speciall application in few words and dwell the longer upon things peculiarly proper to the Supper And those are these three The Acts to be performed The distinct grace offred in it The speciall end of it which stands in the sealing power and the object wherabout it s occupied Description of it The Supper of the Lord then to describe it first is the second Sacrament of the Gospell consisting of Iesus Christ exhibited in the Bread and Wine wherein by certeine Acts duly perfourmed about the Elements whole Christ-body and Blood is conveyed to the Soule for the sealing up of her Growth and encrease in the Grace of the Covenant 1 Branch of the order Vse First I point in a word at the order In the first Sacrament I noted the impudency of such as will invert Gods order Now in
this I taxe the Distrust of such as profit not by the connexion of this to the othet Who so then have truely tasted of the Grace of Baptisme and have lyen in the wombe thereof Let them come in and humbly yet confidently plead for the succor of this second For the Lord who hath no superfluous nourishment for Bastards yet wants no necessary releefe for sonnes and daughters The Lord is not as that worke-man who having built the bouse leaves it at Randon to whose will to mend it may droppe downe to the ground for him it s none of his But the Lords buildings are all his owne and hee compts it no lesse perteining to himselfe to keepe it in Reparations than first of free grace to make it an Habitation of his owne by his Spirit 1 Pet. 2 2 Yea the new borne Babe whimpering for the breast pleads not more effectually with the tender mothers heart to give it than that Soule which is really bredd the Lords hath liberty to cry Psal 119 97. Abba father susteine mee preserve mee I am thine Lord save me mainteine thy lot and portion in me as by al holy Ordinances of support so by this thy Sacrament as most peculiar to that end Lord of thee I am 1 Cor. 1.30 Blood Flesh Bone all I am I am from thee mainteine the Creation of thy hands by all meanes against all enemies in all spirituall welfare and prosperity meet for thy glory and the good of thine so farre as all thy Promises and Priviledges belonging to the members of thy Body can effect it Remember it will be as great a dishonor for thee to leave the workmanship of thy hands as if thou hadst begun to build and given over thy worke at the first Secondly I say it consists of Iesus-Bread and Wine 2 Branch The coÌ„pound Sacramentall union hath beene toucht already Heere I adde that the Lord Iesus who unites himselfe to his Word of Promise to his Beleeving ones bidding them Eate good things and dâ—light themselves in fatnesse Thereby Esay 55.2 putting into his Word the spirit of nourishment refreshing and support to the Soule doth also unite himselfe to Bread and Wine both Vnions are Spirituall both Verball and Sacramentall yet Sacramentall including the Verball is above it to convey Spirituall refreshing more fully more immediately more lively into the Soule than by the former alone As if hee should say Oh! poore Soule I am content to unite my power and fulnesse of strenght and comfort not onely to my Word and Promises but even to my Creatures also and yet thinke it no abasement neither for thy good I know thou hast as great need of a signe of my good will and love to uphold thee as ever thou hadst of my Creating power to forme mine Image at the first in thee If there were use of both Word and Water to become a seed of Regeneration to create thee there is as great use of the same word and Bread and Wine to cherish thee Ephe. 5 29. No man ever hated but preserved his owne flesh To shew then how deare thou art to me even as the wife to the husband loe nothing shall ever part thee and me which I can doe for thee I that was with the former to breed thee will bee with the latter to feed and nourish thee no necessary aid shall be wanting Psal 84 1â— for all ends meet as well to keepe thee fat and wel-liking in goodnes as to make thee good I who created thee of nothing Esay 57 1â— yea of worse then nothing to bee mine Image will not faile of good to make thee better therefore acknowledge my love and faithfulnes in both Vse The Vse may bee to convince all such as have a sinister and unequall conceit of the worth of Sacraments Against two sorts as if the necessity and Sacramentall union of one were not as essentiall and thankworthy as the other Papists first although they magnifie both Sacraments too farre yet debase the Sacrament of the new birth under the other which they call of the Altar Here they put all their confidence and lay all their treasure Christ shall not onely bee united Sacramentally to it but even Transubstantiated into it it s their Pandora to which they have brought all their base additions to adorne and set it foorth whereas the union with both these is one and the same for their severall use and if not equall then none at all Contrary to whom is another conceite of such as thinke there is lesse use of this union than the other seeing the Church may farre worse want the Sacrament of ingrafting than the other To which I answer that although in some respect it s not to bee denyed that the Sacrament of a Christian being hath in it selfe a preheminence above the other of well-being yet in the wisedome of the ordeyner and for the continualnesse of use which the Supper hath to repaire the daily wanzings and decayes of the soule it s most certaine there ought to be made no comparison betweene their necessiâ—y no unequalnesse to bee imagined But as the child being asked whether it love father or mother best is taught to say I love them both best I love neither better than other so ought a Christian to say of these Whereas the administration of God in the old Church is alledged That their circumcision was long without a Passeover I answer What God can doe by one when he denies another is not here debated but rather what esteeme he requires of both so long as both equally may be enjoyed Nay further we know God bare with his Church for the long intermission both of Circumcision and Passeover after the ordeyning of both how much more shall hee not tollerate onely but supply aboundantly the necessary want of the one if persecution compell it But otherwise in the liberty of both who should dare to dreame of an inequality The materials of it Now I come to the materialls and first of the Elements to wit bread and wine whereof because I have spoken somewhat before therefore here I will content my selfe onely to treate a little of these foure particulars Foure things First the sensiblenesse Secondly the aptnesse Thirdly the simplicity Fourthly the fulnesse of these two Elements The first sensiblenesse Touching the first seeing the Lord would have these Elements so plaine and sensible resemblers of heavenly nourishment how sensibly should our soules bee lifted up by them to the things resembled Vse It comes to my minde what Moyses Deut. 8.2.3 c. tells the Israelits that the Lord had so palpably discovered himselfe to them in the Wildernesse that for shame they could not but know beleeve and obey him The Lord saith he hath revealed himselfe to all your sences yee have heard his terrible voyce in the mount yee have seene the rocke gush forth water a Table spread in the Wildernesse all other
power of them and that not in doing onely but in suffering also Christ will be a Bulwarke unto them to fence them with courage and armour against assaults enemies Satan and the errors of the wicked that they may not be pulled from their stedfastnesse Lastly 2 Pet. 3. ult the Lord Iesus will nourish them so fully and so roote them in himselfe and set their pipes so in his well-spring so dwell in them that out of their bellies shall flow rivers of waters able to water all their practise Ioh. 7.38 and to make each part of their life fruitfull I say hee shall heale their barrennesse extend their grace so that it shall suffice them for many uses of lif as formerly for few Conclusion of the use Briefely then trie your selves by these markes Sure it is they catch many in their snare convincing them either to be none of the Lords or else to dishonour his Diet and to call the Lord a hard Master who reapes where he sowes not and keepes a bare house Mat. 25.25 whereas the very hired servants of his house fare better than the jolliest and bravest that live out of it Oh! if ye be these children that have their daily portion from Christs trencher as Ierem. 52.54 it is said of poore Iehojakin that prisoner happie is it for you these trials shall not hurt you Ier. 32 54. but if ye be not such certes to try may doe you good and prevent that danger which all bad Receivers are liable unto Which grace the Lord grant you Vse 3 And nextly as in due place whom should I turne my speech unto save unto these Iehojakins of the Lord be not offended at the name seeing its probable God at last shewed him mercy for his obedience I meane such as by this daily portion of his Christ farewell and prosper in goodnesse In two Branches These I must diversely speake to first the stronger sort then the weaker 1. The strong To the 1. in a word this I say That if the Lord in mercy have granted you this portion and these blessed fruits of prosperitie whereby ye are eased and cured of that Epidemiall disease of the age a declining hide-bound unsetled and barren course with God I say unto you blesse God in secret who hath given you morsells and draughts which the world knowes not count your portion to be fallen into a good ground Psal 16.6 and desire not to change it for the huskes of Swine no nor the feasts of Princes To you I shall say more after in the point of enjoying Christ 2 The weake But unto you weake ones let me speake otherwise and take your sad words out of your mouths you cannot deny but the Lord hath both bred you and fed you by his Sonne and by his Sacrament yours they are and as Christ is Gods so you are Christs but yet that nourishment of Christ which I have here described in the parts and degrees of it which dogges do catch at bouldly perhaps you dare not apply to your selves you are affraid that this my discourse will condemne you Dub. for you are farre from the tyth thereof you say farre from improoving the Sacrament to all those ends or in such degrees as the last use presseth your faith notwithstanding all your Sacraments is weake your comfort peace freedome of heart small your grace little stirred up in you to your feelings your inner bent of spirit still faint and your streame weake your conversation full of disorder and the staves of your wheele which should support the race of it pittifully broken your errors many in ruling your tongues families liberties and selves aright and you say if this be the fruit of the Sacrament to make Christians prospering in health growth staiednesse and fruitfulnesse oh what shall then become of you Sol. I answer Hold the Evidences of your Baptisme and regeneration proove your calling to be sound and keepe that you have gotten mourne that you have not improved Christ in his foode and welfare since you knew your selves to bee the Lords perhaps there hath beene a fault this way that you have rested too much in that and too little stirred up the grace of Baptisme by the Supper Let that humble you and covenant for heereafter to make better use of the promises and Sacrament of nourishment than you have done and then for your comfort this I say The Lord hath taken away your sinne you shall not dye the Supper is the nourishment of the weake as well as of the strong All measures are not alike By those which I have heere noted I doe not desire to snare any but to shew Gods bounty and what Christs fulnesse can beteame not what each receiver carries away Therefore bee not discouraged God is like a tender mother who hath both strong children and weake shee hath meate for them all But if any one be poorer and weaker than another that shall have the deintiest not that it may ever looke to lye upon her hand But that being cherisht by her cordialls it may grow stronger and be free from such maladies Therefore in Gods feare if there be truth and a mourning heart for faylings and hunger after the best measures of grace which Christ hath for thee let not this view of doctrine dismay thee Encourage thy selfe to wayte for pardon of old defects and the Lord shall by that I have sayd rouze up thy spirit to an earnest coveting and a true enjoying of such welfare in Christ as thy heart longeth after Desist not thy diligent receivings and holy humble preparing of thy selfe for if thou leave Christ as Peter sayd when those carnall followers departed whither shalt thou go He onely hath both words and foode of eternall life But heere some may step in and say yea wee should have hope of this if onely we had some defects and decayes in grace and goodnesse But its worse with us for we have harboured our corrupt qualities of sloath ease deadnesse yea perhaps a proud uncleane covetous heart yea rebellious against many knowne truths of God sinned against his mercy by much presumption against his threats by security against his charges by contempt and disobedience our hearts accuse us of coldnesse self-selfe-love unthankfulnesse forgetting of Gods administrations wearinesse of the yoake of a strict walking with God and counted it precisenesse taken the uttermost of our liberties counting them our enemies who have reprooved us And now loe the Lord arraigning us at the Barre of justice we are confounded in our selves and almost driven to despaire when our consciences doe rise up against us and the Lord seemes to leave us to our selves wee seeme to be in hell Is there any hope for such as wee I answer first I wish such to try their Baptisme and the truth of their first calling to be sound of which after in the triall of our estate and if they can proove that they
have ever beleeved the promise and found favour with God then I say the grace of God within you shall stirre up your soules to an unfaigned humiliation and brokennesse and shall recover you to a sight of his promise The Spirit of God shall not suffer you to runne from God with such full bent of heart but your checks and cumbats working with the experience of mercy and former pardons shall revive the seede of God within you So that yee shall not wholly shake off the spirit of regeneration The grace of your Baptisme shall be as a second boord after shipwracke to recover you and shall send you to the Supper with hope of regayning that light and comfort which your revolts have darkened and eclipsed else should the Sacrament be of no power to succour distressed consciences in their relapses But this I adde such shall finde it hard to binde up their breaches and wish they had never revolted Vse 4 Fourthly let this be an rise of Instruction about that one particular of Christ our nourishment in redemption a doctrine seldome pressed in the Sacrament and therefore I will take some paines to presse it The Supper of the Lord offers to all beleevers a portion of Communion with Christ in his Afflictions And as baptisme is our prest-mony to bind us to Christ in all estates to bee his souldiers as well as servants to our end so the Supper confirmeth us in the grace of our Baptisme Therefore know that its not for nothing that we receive Christ crucified both body and blood under bread and wine to put us in minde of taking up our crosse dayly making it our dayly bread That we drinke at this Supper as its wine of refreshing so it is a Cup of blood and the wine of the indignation of the Lord upon his Sonne Esay 63.2.3 Esay 63.2 3. And although Christ dranâ—e the dregges and trod the wine-presse threof to free us from the guilt and curse of it yet not from suffering for Christ The Sacrament is a badge of our conâ—ormity with Christ or at least of our renued courage in his afflictions Phi. 3. Christs cup was so bitter that he praied oft Father take it away So must thou looke for the like that if God should compasse thee about and hedge in thy way Phil. 3 12. adde sorrow to sorrow and make thee a Marah of a Nahomi remooving thee on the suddaine farre from prosperity Oh! Ruth 1 20. thou mayest say The Lord Iesus hath dranke of this cup unto me The extreame bitternesse and anguish of it he hath taken off if thou be his thou mayest say Blessed be God this Sacrament offers me a discharge from sinne curse Satan hell and Death I know the hardest have shot the gulfe of these yet still there remaines a relique of bitternes for thee to drinke to frame thee to the love selfe-deniall patience and victory of thy Master 2 Cor. 5 ult Esay 53.12 and much more to bee content to beare as hee did He bare for no sinne of his owne but thine onely and he bare that he might helpe thee to beare and in all thy afflictions be troubled that he might take the sting and venome of them away and make them tollerable Do not then greet the Lord unkindly and treacherously when the crosse comes as if the Lord had sent it in wrath to cut thee off to take away thy right Lam. 3. and to cast downe thy soule out of her place No although the Crosse may seeme darke uncouth Lam. 3 35. and to have such sad circumstances in it as for the present thou seest not how to winde out of But remember thou receivest the Sacrament no ofter than the Lord Iesus offers himselfe to thee in the heaviest bitterest and most unspeakeable crosse that ever was borne What gall was not mingled with his drinke Mat. 36.46 48. Wherein was he afflicted save in that which was most precious even the love of his Father and for what save for sinne that was more irkesome to him than death If the Lord then crosse thee so not in some petty filip of a finger but in a tedious sort even in what is most pretious consider the Lord hath done it that hee might make thee partaker of his holinesse Heb. 12. conformed to him in his meeke yeelding to his Fathers will to the contempt of the world nay of thy vile and proud heart to selfe-deniall in all blessings to mortification of thy ranke lusts yea hee doth it that thou mightest put thy mouth in the dust and be low when he will have thee so that rottennesse might enter into thy bones and thou mightest have peace in the day of trouble Be then under it as he was whose cup thou dost drinke of and shew what strength thy oft drinking of it hath put into thee Be sensible of Gods stroke in a moderation neither too much nor too litttle Labour to suffer the will of God let it clense thy soule and purge that scurfe which it was sent for and trust God and pray that he would deliver thee from that thou fearest Heb. 5.5 waite for the good of it the whilest and for release of it in due time not consulting with flesh how or how farre or when but trusting him with it who hath infinite wayes above thy reach to effect it If the Martyres could endure their bodies to bee burnt to ashes gladly upon this ground how much more thou who never enduredst the firy triall nor yet the anger of God in thy smaller trouble If he have removed that by his agony bloody sweat and desertion what else save sweat conformity to thy head remaines for thee Let it then be instruction to thee to draw more and more strength from the Sacrament to enable and susteine thee in thy bearing of it Alas we come for the staffe of bread and the wine of rejoycing to fit us to obey But not for the helping us to eate the bread of affliction and to beare the cup of indignation aright as Micah 7 9. Mica 7 9. Oh! what a stranger it is But of this so much CHAP. VIII Touching the Sacramentall Acts of the People and so the third Generall of the Description viz. The End of the Supper NOw my promise made at the end of the 6 Chapter requires that I come to the Sacramentall Acts of the People The which I will handle as the use of Exhortation from the doctrine of the former Chaper falling fitly inâ—o the streame thereof Fiftly then is Christ Sacramental our nourishment Then let all his People obey his charge first to take this body and blood of his to them secondly to eate and drinke them Touching the former I meane this receive and beleeve that this flesh and blood of his is given thee for thy particular nourishment All the former uses presuppose this obey in this and all the rest shall follow duely For the better conceaving of this
not for the fruit Vse all these in their kindes but enjoy these and in so doing ye have the perfection which nothing else can and these doe affoord to the soule But heere yee will say is the difficulty I answer I will point briefely at two or three branches of direction and so conclude Directions for it three The first delight in God Psal 37. The first is this Delight in the Lord for this perfection of soule-content which he offers in his Christ The perfection of love is joy let him have perfect delight of thy heart for his perfect nourishment If David said well Delight in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire how much more then set thy heart upon him when he hath already done it that hee may doe it more Vse the Ordinances of Word of Prayer yea of this Sacramentall Christ our nourishment as a stirrop to get up into this full safe pure and durable object of delight in the Lord his Christ and Spirit who when all these poore helpes which serve to proppe up a Pilgrims travell as so many baiting-places till he get home shall faile yet shall be the eternall delight of the soule in glory Beginne this complacence and well apaiednesse of heart heere and if it be hard pray to God to give thee a judicious heart to understand the weight and worth of the things and to delight groundedly in those things which are best approved of God to deserve it As if a Iueller assure thee of the value of a pearle he neede say no more And pray also that all thy affections may follow love joy feare to forgoe it sorrow if weakened and all the rest as in a Gentlemans house let the Master welcome a stranger and all the servants will striue to doe the like Beseech him that his Spirit of comfort by faith may not only shew thee the good things he hath given thee 1 Cor. 2 12. 1 Cor. 2 12. but shed a lively sweetnesse and joy in them into thee so that as the Vine said Iudg. 9 11 13. Thou wilt not forsake this thy fatnesse and sweetnesse for any thing Beseech him to purge thy conscience from all creeping defilements of thy selfe world Satan or crosses which might dampe it and so raise up thy soule by them above all this earth which might eclipse it If it be an heaven upon earth now and then to beleeve a promise to savor a Truth to receive a Sacrament to be in good company to resist a lust to revive a grace what should he be who is all these and whereby should the heart be sooner raised up to him than by that which makes all this good cheere the Sacrament of the body and bloud of the Lord Iesus Oh! maintaine no melancholy distrust against this But as Hanna 1 Sam. 1. 1 Sam. 1 1â— when she had heard Eli was quite another and wept no more so be thou Peninna still was a chokepeare and so shall there never cease some thing or other to correct thy content but yet Peninna now was no more thought of Remember if food and gladnesse alway go together as Act. 14.17 Act. 14 17. How shalt thou hold up thy face before the Lord of this feast if thy sad heart poison it Secondly 2 Maintaine communion with him adde thiâ—â—s maintaine this Communion with God daily As the influente of Christ in the Sacrament is a speciall peece of our communion with God so when wee are gone it should make us fond to hold it that wee might bee as it were drunk with the wine of his cellars and the pleasures of his house That so wee may keepe a communion with him daily from Sabbath to Sabbath and be alway breaking bread and receaving as those disciples at Ierusalem who attended the comming of the Holy-Ghost David was so ravisht with that hee felt in the house of God that he saith had I but one thing of God this it should be Psal 27. That I might behold his face in the beauty of his Temple and holinesse and yet he might never come into the Priests Sanctuary much lesse rhe Holy of Holies to see the merciseat and the Arke under it covered with glorious Cherubins which wee may doe daily This is to spend our whole life in Gods House Psal 23. ult Psal 23 6. Not to be never out of it which old Anna her selfe could not but to retaine that savor of immortalitie and hope of eternall life which the communion of Saints in the world and Sacraments doth breed in the soule Oh the smell of these spices in the garden which the North-winde of the Spirit doth afford to our nostriles Cant. 4 16. Cant. 4 16. should so perfume us as all other fellowship should stinke unto us as no douht Peter his nets did and all the world when he was with Christ and Moses and Elias upon the Mount and would have built three Tabernacles Math. 17 4. and said It is good to be there As those brutish ones longed When will the Sabbaths be gone and the new Moones be past meaning those feasts of continuance for weekes so shouldst thou long for them When will they come And with David Psal 84. Psal 84.3 Oh my heart fainteth and my feete long for to goe to thy Temple How rare are such in these dayes in which though our cups and vessels be of silver and gold yet our receivers are wood and stone for the most part and such as savor not this bread of life and food of Angels How should we be afraid lest this Idoll of forme eate up all as those leane Kine in Gen. 41 18. Gen. 41.18.16 20. and lanke eares devoured the fat and full ones Where is hee who so comes to the Sacrament as loth to leave it and to goe into the aire of the world againe I â—â—mmend not the excesse of these old Monkes who forsooke the course of the world for to live alway in holy services But this I say few such there are who doe so much as hold any savor of this communion of Christ Sacramentall a few dayes after Oh! then such as have found this hoord of grace in the Supper keepe it daily also that it may attend ye fortie dayes till the Mount of God Directions for it Therefore let our daily course hold this communion But how may some say I will adde one or two words of direction First in the due exercise and quickning of the graces of the Spirit within us both the life of faith in all estates blessings and crosses in all meanes ordinary and extraordinary in their season as well as the Supper all having their particular use also in all duties of both Tables and the fruits of this faith I meane the graces of hope love to the Saints the partners with us in this communion Psal 16 2. Psal 16 2. and patience humilitie courage thankfulnesse and the rest of
balke the Sacrament and lye downe in the could Couch of the Law and water it with teares conntinually till this fulnesse bee attayned For to say truth These are the effects rather of faith when judgment breaks forth for her unto victory Mat. 12.20 than the Act of beleeving 1 By concession One thing I must freely confesse That there was never more cause than now in this forlorne Age full of formalitye and dissembling in which the Divell and the error of the wicked wold deceave the very elect if possible to presse upon the soule the necessity of faith with power For weake faith hardly will beare out the strong fiery darts of Sathan which now in this subtill world are on foot to try our effectualnesse of beleeving Men heare preachers say Faith is as true in the least sparkle of it as in the whole fire and faith may as much excell in infirmity to hold the promise upon former experience as in the greatest strength c. Now as I said before what use doth Satan make hereof in hyopcrites save this They need not bee so earnest for faith for the kind of it must save them not the measure and the weakest may bee saved as well as the strongest I could in this respect wish that so oft as Gods Ministers fall upon these Arguments they tooke as good paynes to stave off the dogges as to encourage the faithfull-weak ones For when error hath once defiled a man in the root and truth of faith then he growes presumptuous to thinke that each wanzing motion and Pang after faith is as good as that which is attended with selfedenial and cleaving to the Promise Whereas faith of the true stamp although it come short of some feelings stirrings and much more that overpowring of spirit that quashes unbeleefe yet the Spirit of grace putts forth it selfe in combat against their infidelity setts it in the forefront of Gods battery as Vriah was sett by Ioab maynteins no ease or sloth in them but rather mourning for their standing so at a stay with continuall care to proove themselves to be in the faith and their calling to it to bee effectuall And in this warfare they looke for no discharge till God have answered them in some measure But to answere the objection and so to conclude 2 By Solution I affirme that not only the weak in faith simply but even the decayed in faith yea the fallen into sinne if recover'd by faith are not to be debarred from the Sacrament till they become partakers of overpowring grace of the Spirit It were exceeding absurd for a Physition to say to one tormented with a burning ague want of sleepe or like payne That hee must forbeare Physick and lie under his disease untill he get more strength and recovery What shall Physick availe him after if hee die before Or what needs it if he be recovered the Sacrament I say still is rather the portion of the weake childe than of the strong man so that a loose dallying heart bee abhorred and to such this ordinance serveth And to say truth such poore soules need not bee urged to more sorrow than they feele for what sorrow is like theirs who mourne under unbeleefe and yet even such as experience prooves have found the Sacrament effectuall to send them away much settled and confirmed And so for answer of these doubts and also the triall of our estate in grace ere we come to the Supper thus much bee sayd CHAP. III. Of the Tryall of our wants NExt to the triall of our estate fittly offers it selfe to our view the Triall of our wants Tryall 2. Of our wants The method whereof God willing shal be this First to lay downe the grounds of this Triall Secondly to shew the Nature of a Christians wants and what sorts they are of Lastly in the use to teach us in what duties the Triall of our wants standeth 2 thing 1 The ground of this triall 2. Al have their wants The ground of this triall is manifold First the necessity of Sacramentall trying of our wants appeares in this that as the Lord enjoynes al that receave to proove themselues to have grace so he suppozes al such to have many wants therin So lōg as this body of death and back-byas of Corruption cleaues to the regenerate soule to retarde and weaken it to defile to disable to dismay to quench it a poore soule shall never want matter to cry out even when grosse evills are farr off Miserable man who shall deliver mee Rom 7.24 How shall I doe to get out of this my dead luskish lazy and unsavory course Who shall supply my wants Now then if these wants be unknowne how shall the soule bee thankefull for the releefe of them How then should a Christian search them out and marke them In the duties of both Tables in the use of the ordinances in graces of the Spirit in the order of whole conversation For the Search 1 1. The circumstances of all duty what wants have they In the ground of our Actions how ignorant are wee of GODS particular will how erroneous in discerning the colors of good and evill and easily mistaken how unwise in weighing the fitnesse or inconvenience season or vnseasonablenesse safety or scandale of our Actions Why is it so save for want of wisedome and Iudgement Search 2 2. In the manner of doing how impure unsavory inconstant irresolute why save for want of holines heavenlynesse of minde courage Search 3 3. For the measure how remisse lazy cold backward and content with any thing Why save for want of soundnesse integrity and fulnesse Search 4 4. In the end how corrupt selfeseeking forgetting both Gods honour our owne peace and the good of others Why but through want of love uprightnesse and selfedeniall And so I may say of duties in speciall How hard doe men find it to keep a mediocrity and avoyd extremities In worldly busines to goe betweene loose carelessenes or else extreame carking either wholly improvident or buried in the earth In the duty of Charity and mercy who understands himselfe bound to giue according to his estate but rather under it In our words who keeps a meane betweene silence or jangling In judging of others who shuns partiality credulity prejudice censoriousnes Search 5 The like may bee sayd of vsing the Ordinances In hearing what want of waking attendance reverence mixing the word with faith In the Sacraments what sildomenesse unpreparednesse rashnesse and profanation In prayer what formality commonnesse and distrust It were endlesse to insist in all Search 6 In the exercise of graces what carnality and sensuality is there to weaken the life of faith What one grace of the spirit Patience Love Communion of Saints mercy to the afflicted Thankfulnesse Humblenesse or the like which hath not her langour and infimity Search 7 As for the order of our Conversation what weaknesse appeares not Who observes GODS Administration towards
say They hope to doe as well as the most precise of them all Tremble Oh yee woefull men The LORD hath a feast of all good things but you are incapable of them yea bid him take them to himselfe they want none of his dishes Psal 4.6 7. They aske who shall shew us any good good bargaines marriages fellowship at the Alehouse Psal 17.14 gold and silver or if they bee full of GODS hidden treasure it is from the earth they are full and want nothing therefore all that GOD powres into them runs over Oh! doth it not scare yee that yee are bereft of any right to the Supper and that whether yee come or come not the LORD hath sworne yee shall not taste of his Supper Luk. 14.16 That hee will turne yee backe at death and bid yee satiate your selves with the things yee have gotten Oh! bee sensible and pray or rather desire others to pray for you that if possible the wickednesse and cursed barrennesse of your heart may be forgiven Vse 2 Secondly here is admonition to all who would receave aright Admonition that they beware of such evills in this kinde both on the right hand and left which might hinder them On the right hand let them be warned of two things Branch 1 First that they rest not too much upon their quicksightednesse into their wants their espiall of their usuall infirmities no nor yet their compleynings mournings and teares for them except due Tryall of wants doe attend these There is a white Divell which will tell them Oh! there be few Christians who marke themselves so narrowly as you you are happy None he puffes you up Triall of wants stands not in these onely Their wants may perish with them if there be no more but fight and complaint of them and yet I say also that many come not so farre Branch 2 Secondly when the Lord hath truly humbled yee for your wants seene and mourned for doe not so overloade your selves with them as on the other side to bee swallowed up with excesse of sorrow as if the fight thereof must needs drive yee from the Sacrament and as if none were such as you Extremities are easily runne into but the Lord will have your sorrow moderated and alayd with thankes and faith that yee may come to the Sacrament for supply Others are sensible of the same with you and no wants have yet met you save such as are incident to the godly The Lord would not shew yee your wantes to question your estate but to supply them at the Sacrament Therefore be not discouraged but argue thus If the Lord would have cast mee off hee would have left mee voyd of grace and suffered mee to runne into grosse offences rather than humbled mee in the sence of those wants which his owne may be guilty of that so hee might make mee better and according to his owne heart If I could see these wants shall turne rather to my good than drive mee away from God altogether Branch 3 Other terrours there are also on the left hand which this Doctrine meets with The one is carelesnesse the other foolishnesse For the former beware least we grow through a degenerate ease sloath of heart surfetted with the love of some lust or other to shake off the sence of our wants in a good course and so fall to delight in a spirituall decay commonnes of carriage to thinke that if wee can make a shift to rubbe through the day weeke or moneth in a smooth manner without the taint of foule sinnes it skills not although they bee passed without any closenesse fruitfull spending the time meditation watching to heart tongue and actions If this errour once take hold of thee it will turne thy wants quickly into secure contempt and loose profanenesse Abhorre it therefore Branch 4 Secondly take heede of the error of thy conceit mooving thee to thinke that the Spirit of of Regeneration which is in thee will act and provoke thee to improve the grace of God whether thou stirre or sit still sleepe or wake It is a pestilent dotage True it is the Spirit of grace is an active principle in the soule of the regenerate it is a full eternall working Spirit of it selfe able to supply all wants Phil. 4 19. as Paul speakes Howbeit not whether we will or no it s a willing not necessary or compelling principle and is given us not to let it lye by but by the daily use of meanes without and within especially by the hand of faith to be continually jogged and set on worke The sharpest saw may lye upon the timber long and neere enough but it will cut never the sooner except the lively hand of the workeman stirre and move it duly How shall the Spirit of grace worke upon thee outgrow and repell thy errors amend and supply thy wants while thou sufferest it to lye rusting and unprofitable in thee both at other times and also at the Sacrament Vse 3 Thirdly this point affords comfort and encouragement to all those who have tryed themselves about their wants Comfort Branch 1 First hereby they may know themselves by this marke to belong to God because they are daily occupied in the marking and laying to heart their wants Poore soule even that which most dejects thee should most encourage thee Objection Alas thou sayst if I had the perfections of such or such an holy Minister or Christian such tendernesse and zeale and heavenlinesse of minde as I see such doe walke with it were somewhat Answer 1 I answer thee That these holy men and women whom thou honourest so much came to their measure no other way than by feeling their wants and if they doe not still feele them as they have cause thy estate with all thy wants is better than theirs in all their perfection Sence of wants is our best degree in this life Which I speeke not to hinder thy desire of greater grace but to comfort thee against them Answer 2 Againe I tell thee thy wants argue thou hast a stocke of grace already and therefore mayst bee comforted Objection 2 Object But it is but a poore stocke Answ I answer The Lord is the maker of the poore and rich and according to his admeasurement so is thy stocke lesse or more and if thou have a stocke from the Lord thou shalt not beare the blame of the smallnesse of it so thou seeke to encrease and occupy till thy Master come All cannot have great stockes It is in the spirituall stocke as in the temporall A stocke of twenty or forty pound for a poore man is as good as hundreds to a greater man So here Those talents of knowledge and faith nay though it be but one so it be not buried in a napkin which a poore soule hath are sufficient for his estate Perhaps such a poore tradesman may by sundry occasions want heere twenty shillings there forty and so borrow and
that which he hath built and undoe his owne worke Psal 119.94 As David saith I am thine Lord save me I meane not that beleeving one promise should save us a labour in beleeving the rest But become a good pledge of performing the rest 2 Cor. 1.20 As all the promises of God in Christ are yea and Amen so all speciall ones are yea and Amen in the generall He that hath given his Sonne Rom. 8.32 how shall he not with him give us all things Vse of the second ground The use of which briefely is to instruct and convince us of that horrible treason to Gods Alsufficient promise which every one is guilty of who will not cleave to God in his first and maine promise of mercy and redemption Alas what man is there who oft descries not to find God good to him in the Sacrament there to fill him with good things seale vp his pardon purge out his corruption and the like But because hee seekes not to know God in his Covenant how should his Seale doe him good What is a Seale save a relation to a former bargaine If thou never strakest hand with God for his Christ thy righteousnesse how camest thou in for his wisedome sanctification and redemption They belong not unto thee either thou must have all Christ to set thee out of feare or thou hast never a whit of his benefits And to apply this to the present point how shouldst thou come to God by speciall faith in the Sacrament when thou wantest him in the chiefe faith of the first promise Oh! then cuttest off thy selfe thou knowest not from what liberties and mercies when as thou art carelesse to be made sure of the maine Thou shouldst dispute thus The time will come when I shall crouch to God for strength to beare the Crosse to be afflicted in all my afflictions to die willingly c. But then why doe not I the whilest make sure in the maine with the Lord that he might finish his owne worke and save me because I am his Doubtlesse if I dally with this or goe upon false grounds deceiving my selfe the Lord will be guiltlesse in not regarding mee because the time was when hee cried out to my soule Beleeve robbe mee not of my glory distrust mee not in my offer But because thou wert deafe to my cry Prov. 1.24 so its just that I stoppe mine eares at thine goe therefore and seeke releefe of thy idols of ease self-selfe-love and the world which thou preferredst before mee It is with thee as it was with Israel Iudges Chapter 1. verse 21. Iudg. 1.21 The Lord had given them one promise for all to drive out the Cannanites now because they beleeved not the maine therefore here one Cananitish city there another prevailed and became goades and prickes to them And so hence it is that neither promise of Sacrament or of other Ordinances doe prevaile to purge out their lusts but they remaine as thornes unto them because they never tooke paines to joyne issue with God in the truth of his Covenant to pardon them and make them his beloved Thus much for the second ground teaching that the triall of ones speciall faith rests in the triall of the maine The third ground issues from this second Ground 3. viz. That the triall of our first beleeving may and must make the other easie and familiar It s our great sinne if it bee otherwise For why The Lord gives us assurance of the one in the other yea teaches us to argue from one to another without wavering so far as our weakenesse will permit Excellent is that of Paul Rom. 5.10 Rom. 5.10 If when we were enemies we were reconciled by his death how much more being friends shall wee be saved by his life Marke his manner of speech How much more If God made that easie to us which seem'd impossible how much more easie is that which is under a direct promise if God had cast us quite off being enemies we had the mends In out owne hands and could not complaine But having his word to make good our owne desires wee have the Lord tied to us and at a kinde of advantage be it spoken with reverence so that wee cannot be defeated Great is the oddes betweene being an enemy formerly and being now reconciled He that will release a stranger from prison and pay an hundred pound for him will in reason lend a friend twentie shillings Such an argument is this heere Vse of the third ground The use of the point is first to condemne the practise of all such as having found the Lord above their expectation in the promise of reconciliation 1. Conviction yet dare not trust him for some shreds in comparison of blessings of lesser nature as to overcome their passions revenge worldlinesse c. Oh! Thou art like Ahaz and his subjects Esay 7.12 who would not tempt God in asking a signe when as yet they beleeved not without it The Prophet tels them Verse 13. Is it not enough that yee weary men but ye must weary my God also Thou tyrest the Lord when he seeth that none of his wayes will prevaile against thy infidelity But still thou art ever out and in with him as Ioabs sword that could not hold in his scabbard and putst him to crie out Oh! Ephraim Hos 6.4 oh Iudah What shall I doe or how shall I intreate thee Is the worke of faith as farre off now as when thou first beleevedst Oh! weake if not froward wretch how long shall I suffer thee As they in the wildernesse whom no miracles no providence could perswade but were as farre to seeke at the end of fortie yeares as the first day Oh! the Lord loves when his Schollers are apt to learne especially this lesson of faith by many warnings and when our experience teacheth us to buy and sell upon his word 1 King 20.23 But to seeme to trust God with the foiling the enemies of the hils and yet to distrust him with those in the vallies to pretend that they doubt him not for heaven but distrust him for earthly blessings surely it either justly calls thy first beleeving into suspicion or else argues a carelesse heart not able to improve thy Talent of reconciliation to warrant thy faith for a poore supply of this life Vse 2 Secondly it should very much presse upon those in speciall who are to receive the Supper in which the Lord offers the encrease of first graces received in Baptisme to trie their Sacramentall faith with all readinesse of minde Is it easier to doe by many degrees than to beleeve the promise of mercy at first And doth the Lord with farre greater ease as I may say beteame to the soule growing in faith than breeding of it Why then doe they who beleeve come to this triall with so much adoe and bury the Talent of God unthankefully in the earth As those
of this tryall both in Scripture and reasons For the former whereof First the Analogy of the old Passeover will proove it wherein sundry charges were given which typifie repentance and that in each part of it As wee know the sorrow and yrking of heart and mourning bitterly for sinne committed was urged under the ceremony of sowre hearbes Exod. 12.8 not onely to shew what it cost the Lord Iesus ere he could satisfy But to shew what they are who come to this Sacrament even such as peirced him by their sinnes Zach. 12.10 and therefore ought to come in bitternesse to the signes of his body and blood and eate this sweete meate with sowre sawce So also the Lord required a separation from the filthinesse of the heathen when they came to eate the Pascall Lambe Ezra 6.21 Ezra 6.21 yea from all legall pollution Numb 9.6 Num. 9.6 which as it concerned the Iewes alway in any offering or worship so especially at the Passeover And the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.7 1 Cor. 5.7 urgeth one other solemne ceremony of casting out leaven He that kept in his house any leaven at that time more or lesse was to be cut off Now least wee should thinke this to have lost his force under the Gospel he saith Purge out therefore all sowre leaven meaning their Communion with that incestuous man which sowred their holy assemblyes that yee may be a cleane lumpe even as yee are unleavened And why For Christ is our Passeover sacrificed for us therefore let us eate him with sincerity and repentance And the weaning and abstinence of the poore Lambe from the damme foure dayes before Exod. 12. â— typified no lesse than separation of such as worship God thus from the love of their sweet lusts and liberties that they might bee free for the Lord And when the Apostle urges the Corinthians to examine themselves 1 Cor. 11.28 what entends hee save that having defiled themselves by their love feasts they would search and cast out that sinne ere they came to the Sacrament Secondly from Reasons Now for Reasons First every ordinance requires repentance least the ordinance be defiled 1 Tit. 1.15 To the pure all things not onely meates are pure But to the impure all things both blessings crosses and ordinances are defiled The sinne of man can put no defilement into the things themselves but it makes them so to the sinners that use them It is a rule concerning both Minister people Esay 52.11 Psal 26 6. Prov. 28 9. 1 Tim. 2 8. Be ye holy that beare the vessells of the Lord. And I will compasse the Altar with washen hands And the prayers of them that turne their eares from the Word are abominable S. Paul requires us to lift up pure hands 1 Pet. 2 1. without wrath and doubting And S. Peter bids them that would heare to grow thereby to clense all superfluities away Epist 1. Cap. 2.1.2 Reason 2 Secondly no man can comfort his owne heart that hee hath saving faith except he have repentance Act. 3.26 Act. 15.15 But true repentance argues faith because it onely purifies the heart True faith workes by love 1 Tim. 1 5. and the end of the commandement is love from whence from a pure heart and whence is that from faith unfaigned Levit. 10 3. See Gal. 5.6 Act 24.16 2 Cor. 5.17 Reason 3 Thirdly the Lord will be honoured in all that draw neare to him None can honour the Lord in their worship save the holy and repentant Those that presume otherwise the Lord will be honoured in their destruction Reason 4 Lastly holinesse affords sweete confidence to the soule that it shall be welcome to God None shall ever see his glory without it Heb. 12 14. 1 Pet. 1 16. therefore none should behold him in his beauty of holinesse or in his ordinances without it Bee yee holy because I am holy These few may serve Tryalls of repentance But I hasten to the triall of it And first very breefely of the substance of it wrought in the soule 1 By the substance Tit. 3.5 This may bee tryed by the roote of it No repentance can subsist without an inward principle That is the spirit of renovation wrought by the word and Baptisme putting into the soule a seede of God and the image of God as farre as in these suburbes of heaven I meane in the militant Church may be obteyned Now for the opening of this to the Reader let him in a few points conceave and try himselfe about it First in the mother and nurse of it In sundry particulers 1. The mother of it That is faith shedding the love of God Rom. 5.5 into the soule being of it selfe destitute of all such list ability life or savour The Lord in reconciliation by faith becomes our sanctification God having freed us from our old yoake will put upon us a new most willingly which eases our heavy hearts and pacifies the conscience sets the minde in frame and shewes us Christ in his true and lively colours not a Christ of loosenesse but as the truth is in Iesus Ephe. 3 18. 2 Cor. 5.9 That having the roote of his love set in our hearts we may conteine his sweetnesse and it may let us on worke yea constreine us to doe the like to him Oh! How should this try us What is our repentance Is it a cutting off some shreds of evill or a pang of goâ—d devotion now and then in tempest thunder and lightning in our passion of feare or when God pleases us Or is it an inward workeman at the roote of our hearts and doth it engraft and inoculate us into his stocke Pro. 6 27. Doth it as a corner stone hold in and encompasse us that wee can more forbid fire in our bosome to burne us than the love of God to compell us to love him and turne our heart to him It is a good signe Secondly try it in tne materiall of repentance 2. By the matter Act. 26.18 It s a conversion or turning home to God from our Idols a setting of our face backward from evill and our backes forward to goodnesse and that in a contrariety As if a foole going on pilgrimage to Rome and her Idols should there be smitten and turned home with Naaman to the true worship of the living God This tryall will search also for the repentance of most is no such turne Men have rectified thoughts sometime of a good course and their sinnes yrke them and tyre them and cause them to ease themseâ—ves by complaints and turne aside from them in their accusing moode But it is with them as it is with Sea-men who can hold their course as well when they coast about as when the winde is on their backes So doe these their lusts keepe still in their spirit though they keepe them out of sight as David did Absolon 2 Sam. 14.24 forbidding him his presence
that can finde them or admonish such as are decayed or scare such from the Sscrament as never had them But I hasten to that which more nearely concernes Sacramentall repentance which is the practise of repentance 2. By the practise of it In two thing 1. Ordinary course Concerning which I will devide my selfe into these two maine heads First The practise of it in an usuall course of Christianity Secondly in our revolts And my method shall bee this First to lay downe the will of God about them both and in what particulars they stand Secondly in the use of the doctrine to presse the tryall of them at the Sacrament with a revived affection For the former then the usuall practise of repentance may bee thus divided eyther to the first understanding part secondly the willing or affecting part thirdly the acting part in the life The Iudiciall part stands in the inquiry and search of those speciall errors abuses and corruptions of heart tongue or life which have passed us from Sacrament to Sacrament or before Eyther in the understanding Lam. 3.40 beginning as hee Genesis 44. Verse 12. at the eldest and ending at the yongest Both spirituall as hardnesse deadnesse and defilednesse of heart of the tongue rash idle uncharitable false vaine offensive or superfluous words morrall of the heart and life hollownesse earthlinesse unprofitablenesse selfe-love pride rancor and bitternesse of stomacke passions of rage As search base feares hopes joyes sorrowes unrighteous unmercifull censorious deedes and passages or the like These although like Saul and Gehazi's booty they lye hidden must be watched as they utter themselves and breake out notice being taken and a Register of them kept by us that they may ever be before us when wee come to the Lord. And if the conscience play booty in concealing or excusing them the soule must goe to the candle of the Lord which searches the bowels of man and begge light to discerne Prov. 20.27 and strength to convince it selfe of them and the curse due to them till the soule bee even caused to stoppe her owne mouth and give up her weapons of defence standing as mute and guilty before God of them Concerning which worke of search because I spake of it in generall in the first Chapter of this Treatise I remit the Reader to that place Heere onely this It were good for us to make use both of our best friends and worst enemies if we would know our selves and not wholly be our owne judges Helpes to search Our friends perhaps see us better than we our selves spy out our secret haunts loose liberties declining in our zeale and falling to our pleasures loving them and such base companions as become us not for our pleasures sake more than Gods secret company or his servants So also our enemies sometimes might tell us our secret corruptions As hee once who fought with his enemy searcht out that impostume which his friends could not Yea Gods crosses as great enemies as wee thinke them if wee would hearken to their voyce would tell our hearts presently what the sinne is which God aymes at perhaps unfruitfull deadnesse under blessed meanes of grace dallying with the ordinances neglect of our family earthlinesse and walking loosely with God And although wee should not neede to seeke out to spy thefaults of others for lacke of our owne yet it were a good way to search our owne in the glasse of the sinnes of these times the desperate formalnesse of men and abhorring of any more religion than will runne in the streame of our ease and wills Idolatry contempt of the best examples To end if some of us would but aske our consciences for what sinnes wee are faint on the sudden to forsake and turne backe upon the Sacrament for feare of shame when yet perhaps we came into Church with purpose to receive it were not amisse And so much for this judiciall part Our Soule part The next is the soule part or the affecting And heere in the first place is required a broken mourning heart for sinne being thus searched out 1. Brokennes and that with uprightnesse and tendernesse as Zachary describeth it Zach. 12 10.11 They shall see him whom they have peirced and mourne as one mourneth for his sonne and heire yea they shall be in bitternes note the phrase that is godly sorrow shall soke and sape them they shall be in the power of it so that it shall over-rule them they shall not easily shake it off yea it shall be exceeding sorrow as that of Hadrimmon for the sadde losse of Iosia and further it shall be fervent and sincere both signified by the secrecy of it husband apart wife apart and family apart as we say He mournes truly that mournes without witnesse Such a sorrow such teares hearty and unfaigned not in a mood comming from a full heart impotent and powring it selfe out before God plentifully because it hath greeved the Spirit of so good a God so patient and longsuffering I say such a one is the true badge of repentance which issues from faith Wherein eyther teares are abundant as at Bochim or Mizpeh when the people drew buckets before the Lord Iudge 2.4 or else in the want thereof the heart sheds teares of blood 1 Sam. 7 6. and the soule sighes under a burden which shee cannot well utter This sorrow usually beares the name of repentance as being a maine companion inseparable from it and that true eating of sowre hearbes required of him that ate the Passeover which hearbes grow no where save in the garden of grace Onely the love of that God whom the soule hath dishonored even in the middest of mercy and when she peirced the Lord of life then was that Lord willingly peirced to death by her that shee might live Act. 2.37 I say this love onely can melt a heart of stone and breake it in peeces so that it cannot but repent whereas before by the hardnesse of heart Rom. 2.4 despising the patience of God it could not repent True search of heart will worke true brokennesse and cause the belly to tremble Habac. 3.16 and rottennesse to enter into the bones that it may finde peace in the day of trouble Yea as the Lord turned the captivity of Iob Iob 42.10 when he prayed for his friends So in this through mourning of heart tne Lord turnes the captivity of the soule and converts it to himselfe No terrours of conscience can soften an hard heart but rather they will harden it and bind it up to greater hardnesse As we see an hammer may breake a bell to gobbets fit to be melted but the fire onely can melt them that so they may be moulded a new So the love of God can onely effect this mourning after God and broken heart a most welcome sacrifice to God till which the soule cannot beteame the Lord herselfe to be offered up unto him Rom.
and intercept this fuell of thy lust even by revenging thy selfe upon thy selfe and giving that to the poore 2 Cor. 7 9. or a good use which hath been the instrument of fulfilling thy lust It is a good signe Triall 9 Ninthly if God call thee to suffer for a truth of his about which thou feelest a strife on the one side it is suggested to thee that there be greater truths to suffer for in which thou shouldest finde more comfort than in that truth thou art called to suffer for on the other side thou canst not denie the lesser truth to bee a truth in such a case to be willing to suffer for any truth commending thy selfe to God and craving that thou maist not bee afraid to suffer for greater if called to it yea to count the price of any truth to exceede thy best contentments it s a good signe Triall 10 Tenthly if not onely thy knowledge doe sway thee to duty but thy conscience also And if there be wrought in thee not onely some generall awe of God but also a quickning power acting and putting thee forth to the lively delight in good and hatred of evill whereas an hypocrite hath onely a dead hearted knowledge without power its a good signe Likewise when the experience thou hast of sinne and of grace is no dead but a stirring experience quickning thee to goodnesse and mortifying of corruption it is a sweet signe I might be larger but I leave the Reader to collect others from former grounds By the paw judge of the Lion Thus much for the triall of revived repentance at the Sacrament Vse 6 Consolation Lastly this Doctrine affords us use of Consolation which belongs to all the poore servants of God that cannot as they would comfort thmselves in their triall of repentance Oh! say they our life is a continuall revolting from God but rare repenting If say they repentance be such a thing as stands in the renewing of the soule the ordinary practise of the life and recovery out of our falls wee cannot say much for our repentance Well but I demande of thee Are these wrought in thee for the kinde Is there a sound heart in all though much weakenesse Then thy weakenesse shall not sunder thee and the Lord at the Sacrament But why then will you say doe you presse repentance so strictly I answer Not to urge repentance in perfection here for that is for heaven but to provoke all beleevers to the greatest measure that they can here attaine unto And let such be comforted that the Sacrament belongs to them for their further encrease It is as if a poore Lazer should have said Hee was not worthy to step into the poole when the Angell had roared the water Oh! But if the poole served to heale such an one it had beene a wrong to have deprived himselfe of the poole by that argument which rather served to encourage him God sees not the unavoidable defects of his owne nor imputes them he lookes at that which is good and his owne in them and passes by the bad which is theirs In this case thy faith must fulfill the righteousnesse of the Law Rom. 10.4 when thine owne is too weake That must be thy chiefe Robe to cover thee though thine under-garment be worne and thinne Oh! but they cannot mourne they say their hearts are dead and senselesse no sooner doe they resolve upon a forsaking of sinne but it salutes them againe presently They keepe no Covenant almost which they renew at the Sacrament Well I praise you not for this yet I hope you mourne that you are so mournelesse and you are not dead so farre forth as you feele it Strengthen the feeble hands Heb. 12.12 and make straight that which is crooked Revive the edge and furbish the blade of your repentance But to refuse the meanes of your growth and encrease because you are weake were to conclude That because you are but poore therefore you must starve your selves Nay rather you have the more neede of strength Goe to the Sacrament that your complaints may be fewer abstaine not because you feele cause of complaining For so you may adde oyle to the flame and the divell will rejoyce but to be sure your selves shall be the greatest lozers And touching the triall of repentance so much CHAP. VII Of Sacramentall Love and the triall thereof The 4. grace Love I Come now to the fourth grace required of all true partakers of the Lords Table which is love A most maine grace for the Sacrament and of speciall familiarity with it Entry Three things And for the better conceiving hereof I purpose God willing to handle these three things First I will shew what this love is secondly I will prove the truth of the Point by Scripture and Reasons thirdly I will make use of the Doctrine and therein I will propound the trials of this grace Premising still this caution that as needefull a grace as this is yet I make it not of that essentiall nature for the very act of receiving as faith though otherwise most necessary for the Supper because its that grace which improves and beautifies the whole Commumunion of Saints and much more the Communion for so we call it of the Supper 1 What it is For the 1. of these three Sacramentall love differing no otherwise from the grace of love than as reviving of it differs from the thing it selfe is a grace of the Spirit in the soule of man and the daughter of faith renewed by occasion of the Sacrament in all true receivers whereby they are so united unto all that are their fellow members that they enlarge themselves to all occasions of their good for the ends of Communion Sixe things in the descript In this description are sixe distinct things 1. The author of it 2. The begetting cause 3. The circumstance of reviving 4. The forme or being of it 5. The act of it 6. The end it propounds For the first I call it a sanctifying grace of the holy Ghost in the soule 1 A grace of the Spirit Vsually wee plant love in the affections and concupiscible part But here I plant it in the will of the soule ascribing to it an higher seate than an appetite or passion as being grounded in the choise and purpose of the soule planted by a far stronger agent than affections are and to an higher end But of this I say the lesse That the spirit is the workeman of it appeares by direct Scripture Gal. 5 22. Paul gives it the birthright of all fruits of the Spirit The fruites of the Spirit are love joy peace c. And the like he saith in sundry places Rom. 5 5. For the Spirit shedding the love of God into the barren and hatefull heart of man causeth it to conceive like love to them who are begotten as that was in him that begat Hence that of our Saviour Thou evill
Whereas love is supporting and tender Gal. 6 1. 1 Cor. 8 10. chusing rather never to eate flesh than to offend the weake But some if their conceit bee crossed though never so mildly and with reason given yet with a prejudicate heart forestall their intentions suspect and shunne their persons and judge them instantly for refractary and opinionate Not remembring that so it hath ever beene and will bee in the Church that in some particulars which some allow others will streine and scruple and therefore such should be forborne and tendred so farre as may stand with the common peace Lastly and especially dissimulation 9. Dissimulation Rom. 12 9. 1 Iohn 3.18 Other vices seeme to teare the coate but this to stabbe the heart of communion Therefore Paul chargeth that love be without dissimulation let there bee no false brother who under colour of love should undermine his brother Paul also saith All have not faith hee meanes there fidelity to bee trusted sound to God and his brother 2 Thes 3 2. Such as can say to their brethren I am as thou art and my horses as thy horses I am weake in my love but sure and true 2 King 3 4. Whereas it is with many as it was with Ioabs sword It s sometime in and sometime out They are not true and constant in their love yea many their tongues are ready to jangle and their feete to carry tales against those whom they will seeme to love and honour belike hypocrites they speake faire words and their words are as smooth as oyle but their tongues are as swords and coales of Iuniper yea themselves as Ioab taking Abner and Amasa by the beard in great love and with the other hand shed their bowells to the earth 2 Sam. 20 10 These are some few of those many distempers which faith purgeth love from or rather them who professe to love By the which judge of the rest The third point is 3. Point reviving of love at Sacrament that this love is to bee revived at the Sacrament Hence it s called Sacramentall No winde of an Ordinance but bloweth good to love for all are more or lesse sanctified to this purpose Sweetely sayd the Psalmist Oh Psal 133 1. how good and comely a thing it is for brethren to dwell together Meaning that as cohabitation is a great improover of civill love so the house of God in which Gods weatherbeaten servants in this world doe meete together is a singular band and provoker of love When they consider one God Christ Spirit truth Eph. 4 5 6. one baptisme one Supper one hope one faith all which the Ordinances of word prayer and Sacraments doe exhibite oh how doe they conceive heate of love before these rods But above all the Sacrament of the Supper is ordeined for love So faith Paul The bread which wee breake 1 Cor. 10.16.17 and the wine which we drinke are not they our Communion with the body and blood of Christ And what of this Marke how hee inferres For wee being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of one bread Many wheate Cornes and grapes doe not more partake of one loafe and cup of wine than the Receivers doe of one Christ So that next our partaking of him wee partake of each other and that under the most reall Symboles of Communion The Papists may in this teach us who when they have any villany which they would most combine and secret themselves in come to the Sacrament In this I grant basely that they stretch it to strengthen hellish communion But well if by it they did provoke themselves more to serve in love to bee faithfull and painefull for each other Psal 122.5 Therefore the Psalmist speaking of the union of the Church addes There are the thrones of discipline and assemblies of Religion as if they were the sinewes of it And who is hee that is not utterly debaucht whose heart hath not this instinct that the Supper is for love Vse having prevailed to call it The Communion Witnesse the Conscience of the worst though rotten who then count it a mayne thing to be at amity though it bee but while the day lasteth The 4. The forme Psal 122 4. The fourth point is the forme and essence of love That is Vnion Ierusalem is as a Citty compacted that is dwelling close noting that love takes all joynts and compacts them together Not onely them whom other bands of nature civilnesse or family hath linked but such as are otherwise strangers and farre off Hence the Prophet saith that under the Ghospell Esay 11 6. the lambe and the Lyon should seede together that is put off their contrariety and the little childe shall then put his finger into the hole of the Cockatrice So Paul Hee hath reduced or contracted all into one by his death Eph. 2.15 making peace and destroying enmity All both in heaven earth and under it being brought to a league either to love or not to feare each other Either so findes or makes one As the soule makes the body one by the band of the spirits so doth love make the members of this spirituall body one One soule one mind Act. 2.46 one heart one fellowshippe was in the Primitive Church yea even one wealth as then occasion required Note this then The being of love is union be there never such disproportion of particulars for yeeres gifts birth wealth place or mâ—nners yet this grace makes all unequalls equall and one There could not else bee such a sensiblenesse betweene the members such sympathy likenesse of minde of heart of course if this were not One spirit causes them though so farre off as England and America to be one Wee know a member cut off feeles no more the welfare or paine of the body But union causes each toe to be afflicted with the affliction of the legge thigh backe or head All are knit by the mediation of fit joints sinewes and bandes into one Ephe. 4.16 and therefore greeve or joy in each others greefe or welfare yea doe but cut off these Pipes of union and sensiblenesse and what becomes of that instinct which sends every member about the others businesse The foote to goe and the hand to worke for the good of the whole The fift point is the Act or exercise of love The fifth The Act. Col. 3.8 This stands partly in the negation of all opposite vicious dispositions as wrath crying bitternesse sullennesse envie rejoycing in the evill of others heartburning contention quarrels jealosies uncharitablenesse unmercifulnesse and the like of which I spake in the act of faith purging and partly in negative acts as occasion is offered For instance 1. Negative Iam. 5. ult hiding of a multitude of sinnes when they may bee hidden passing by offences both in word and deed concerning our name or goods so farre as may bee if necessity require that wee
by law seeke defence of both then that still the heart looke at her owne honest cleering rather than at any personall revenge not interpreting things lefthandedly an heathenish quality but as fairely as possibly they may bee construed So also forbearing the seelinesse weakenesse and lesser measures of other mens graces their techines errours and follies Waiting to see the end of a thing not so rejudging persons Eccles 7.10 Ephe. 4.32 intents events rashly Forgiving such as have offended us whether in their heate or coole bloud especially if we finde them ready to seeke it by making amends abhorring implacablenesse yea and this often not to seaven times but seaventy times seaven Matth. 18.22 Matth. 6. Matth. 18.35 even as wee our selves would bee heard in the like from God So also moderating of justice in case of strife vantage of Law Extreame right may proove extreame wrong When a poore man then is fallen into our hand we may not deale in the hardest manner cause all creditors to come about his eares and to undoe him or take for pledges his Bible his garment bed milstones bread c. Add to these others of like nature â— Position Secondly love extends her selfe to all such Acts of communion as she is occasioned unto and that first both in maintaining of those inward graces of the spirit which should put forth the soule unto them Col. 3.12 as tendernes painefulnes Col. 3.12 long-suffering amiablenes mildnes curtesie thankfulnesse kindnesse in mutuall offices plainnesse largenesse humblenes whatsoever of such quality 2. As also practise and exercise of loving actions 1. Either to all as to hold peace with them so as is possible with good conscience and to helpe pitty and releeve their bodies or soules though they deserve the contrary for there is an holy overflow of love in the godly even extended to such as are without that their hearts may be broken Ephe. 6.10 of this sort are these Vsefulnesse in common life for a righteous man and a good man should goe together readinesse to assist Iob 5.7 advise and protect the shiftlesse and wronged against their encroachers Iob 31.16 as Iob was the poore mans sanctuary especially of Orfans and widdowes whose low hedge is soone trod downe And that by free counsell riding writing in their defence if need bee So neighborly offices 2. Or else and that especially to that houshould of faith our fellow brethren and those either neere hand or remote For the love of the faithfull bends it selfe to God himselfe But as David speakes Psal 16 2. because it extends not to him therefore it returnes upon those whom hee hath made his Attornies to receive it First for Particulars we must know nothing can act beyond it owne spheare and so the love of the Saints shines most beautifully within her owne praecinct I meane to them whom she is neerest unto in place and also in compasse 1. To the person of Gods Minister his name estate To the Minister and welfare to maintaine countenance and assist to their uttermost especially in streights sicknesse and other necessities and to expresse our selves towards him See Heb. 13 1 as under the greatest prosperitie 2. To the persons of such faithfull ones as offer themselves unto us by occasion of travell or businesse 2. 2 People Heb. 13 2. Rom. 12 13. Iudges 19.15 that we be harberours unto them and make much of such esteeming their fellowship farre above our welcome But it is now growne to this that as that Levite at Gibea so a goodman if he lye not at an Alehouse may lye in the streetes An ill signe 3. 3 To Christian neere dwellers To those Christians among our selves who are decayed not by their sinne but the hand of God as fire sicknesse or the like losses best knowne to such as are neerest and therefore more concerning such than strangers who may easily bee deluded And this to be done in season before the breach be too farre gone at which time a shilling may doe as much good as ten after 4. 4 To the bodies of Saints Iohn 12 8. To the bodies in generall of all poore Saints whom wee must alwayes have among us in steede of Christ himselfe to discover what spirit of love is in us Towards whom we must shew love frankely and freely beteamingly and cheerefully Rom. 12 8. in all simplicity with bowels that is abundance of compassion to sixe and seaven dispersing not grudgingly upbraidingly Rom. 12 13. or niggardly To these true poore not onely rates for collection are due as to all by the Law but severall and privie mercie Now heere as the bodily distresse lyes in speciall so doth mercy draw lines from the Center of Gods Commandement Heb. 13 16. Eccles 11 1. To doe good and to distribute and forget not Cast thy bread upon their waters c. to each necessity one love extending it selfe to many operations according to judgement If she beholds the tattered or naked shee earnes to cloathe them if the hungry to feede them if penylesse Mat. 25 33 34. to money them if sicke to visit them if imprisoned to comfort and releeve them or howsoever their sorrowes are in their credite state posterity or the like 5 To the soules to succour and stand by them So againe and most of all to the soules of the faithfull to extend our charity according to their needes Not each one tending himselfe and looking to his owne private welfare of soule but to see that the commonwealth of Soules prosper And heere love is full of eyes towards the weake in knowledge Act. 18 26. Gal. 2 â—â— to enlighten them as Aquila did Apollos Toward the offensive to resist and reproove them sharpely as Paul did Peter Tit. 11 13. towards the fallen either by weakenesse to restore them and joynt them Gal. 6 1. or by revolt to gaster and recover them Iude 23. 1 Thes 5.14 to comfort the sad to warne the unruly and to exhort and quicken the weake and staggering Generally by good example to walke so unblameably toward all 1 Pet. 2.12 that the bad may be daunted and the good hartened built up and furthered in their most holy course â— Generall Secondly as a fountaine narrow at the spring diffuseth it selfe in her passages Diffusion of love So love she alway begins at home yet enlargeth her selfe to them that are a farre off even the whole Church in the corner in the country in the kingdome in which she liveth yea further even to other lands and the Churches thereof 2 Thes 3. 3 Iohn 2. One spirit possesseth the whole body for each members good and each member for the good of the whole and that both for outward and spirituall good For outward that all promises of prosperity belong to the Church So if it seeme good to providence shee may enjoy them Thus David Psal 144.12
to life with an 100. more Now he who hath evidence of all these within himselfe how sweetly may he sit at the Sacrament not onely with Saints rejoycing in their mutuall welfare but even with Angels So much for Reasons 3. Generall The Vses Now I conclude with the uses of the Doctrine Vse 1 First let it be terrour to all that dare abuse the Supper by comming to it without this Sacramentall grace of love Branch 1. Of Terrour And to terrefie them by degrees they come in the fore-ranke that cloke their treachery and villany both in their owne hearts and against others under this ordinance Iesuites establish their trayterousnesse against Princes States and Common-wâ—alths by this meanes and digge deepe to hide their counsells from God and man As Iacobs sonnes used the pretent of circumcision Gen. 34.19 1 King â—1 9. Matth. 26.26 and Iudas covered his treason by the Passâ—over Iezabel hers with fasting with impudent faces being yet full of murther and Treason but in stead of secrecy he exposed himselfe to a desperate conscience that could not repent that so hee might goe to his worke without checke or feeling and so his eating the sop was costly So shall the Sacrament be to all such as under their receiving it do hide their griping usury unmercifulnesse For who thinke they will judge us such in the second Table seeing us to be so devout in the Sacrament Doe yee not see say they how folke balke the Sacrament when they are come to it But alas wee goe through stitch with it It is true so yee doe if that were the worst if yee were as ready to be purged of your rancor and malice Then I would say yee had put on a breastplate indeede of proofe But now yee are armed with a paper defence which conscience and the wrath of God will shoot through one day â—am 4.8 Clense your hearts yee sinners and purge your hands yee hollowly minded Lay away your colours and plucke off these mufflers of uncharitablenesse Psal 26.6 and so yee are allowed to compasse the Altar of God with washen hands and in innocency of love Agree with your Adversary not onely man but the Lord quickly soder not nor equivocate but deale sincerely Empty out all filth and turne the bottome upward that yee may bee the children of him who as an innocent Lambe shed his blood for enemies that you might not know any save his This feast of the Lambe will bee a costly feast to you that want nay cast off this lappe of the wedding garment from you Branch 2 Secondly terrour againe to all who basely blanch over their owne conscience by seeking a kind of peace and good will betweene themselves and their enemies just before the Sacrament Not for true reconciliation as if they desired that but to keepe in the Sacrament from comming out at their nostrills Oh yee wretches yee defile your selves wilfully in the things yee know Not much unlike that Iew who being under feare of breaking the Sabboth in taking ship and yet willing to goe hired a Turke to thrust him into the ship mocking his conscience Who hath taught you thus to paint the outside of your rotteâ— Tombes of hollow love with such varnish knowing the inside to bee as it is For no sooner is the Sacrament over but yee returne to your vomit to your former jarres and quarells and so weare your sinne as a marke upon your faces for all to see and for the Lord in wrath to curse you saying Never grow love from such rootes or trees of bitternesse any more such as proclaime their sinne as Sodome Branch 3 Thirdly terrour to all such who although their lives swarme with the sinnes of selfe-love rage envy talebearing and unpeaceablenesse yea grinding the face of the poore c. yet they dare wipe off all crummes from their mouth and come to the Sacrament Nay some are so empty of this heart of love that with him in S. Iames they dare dally with love Iam. 2 16. and say to the needy Be warmed cloathed and fedde yet themselves give them nothing Others there are of a currish and Naballish disposition that their oyle of love is not sufficient for their owne Lampes but most chorlishly deprive even such of their due who are of their owne flesh as drunkards c. Oh monsters how dare yee lift up your head before the master of this feast and crucifie againe him that dyed for such traytors as your selves How dwelleth Sacramentall love in such Oh be scared from thus adventuring any further Come no more O yee fearefull spotts of assemblies Iude 12 into the holy place in which Châ—ists body and blood are offered least as dogges yee catch at them and bane your selves Act. 8.22 Pray if possible that these wickednesses may bee forgiven you Branch 4 Fourthly all such ungodly youths men or maydes whose practise is in Citties and great townes to turne the day of the Sacrament into a Sacrifice to Bacchus and spend five or six houres of the Sabboth in junketting Chambering and wantonnesse tossing of pots eating of deinty belly cheere playing at stooleball barley breake dancing and such base behaviours If yee aske them why Oh say they we have receaved too day this is a merry day with us But if a Turke saw yee in this your holy day worke what manner of God would they thinke yee serve And this is a more woefull blindnesse because sometime both Minister and cheefe of their parish not to speake of their governours encourage them to it and have no sence of any sinne but thinke it a very fine way to make youth love well together Oh yee profane creatures Doe yee despise Gods holy bands to bring in your owne rotten packthred and doe yee turne his sacred ordinances into such scurfe If ignorance and base custome be the cause Gal. 6.7 be informed if profanenesse bee also terrified God will not be mocked To conclude the whole use seeke the remedy of all this There is hope if yee bee not hardned seeke to know your enmity with the Lord himselfe and get his love to be shed into your soules which may constreyne you to love his people and so come to the Supper and welcome Despise not this my counsell Vse 2 Reproofe Secondly let it be reproofe even to Gods owne Servants and likewise admonition to search their hearts and lives for all this sowre leaven of false love and venom which many of them dare suffer to clogge them from Sacrament to Sacrament Though perhaps they keepe the sore sweet and so that it festereth not yet they are very carelesse in casting out that bitter roote which daily springeth up and defiles them through their pronenesse to fall to it Oh! true love is a jewell indeede not every Merchants portion nor easily preserved when it is gotten Loth I grant we are to be noted for so unsociable and lovelesse ones that
and hatefull provokings and wrongs c. The like cavils wee have against all other actions of love as giving lending c. So in Law cases if we be led by the rules of necessitie quitting of our selves from injuries which else we could not also love of peace serving providence for the manifestation of right and although we be losers yet resting in Gods will and learning to deny our selves to be more patient and content to offer and waite upon him who will pleade our cause abhorring all covetous or reuenging ends of our owne Many more trials might have beene added but I referre the Reader to the former grounds to helpe himselfe Vse 4 The last use is consolation encouragement to Gods people of two sorts Branch 1 First to all such as walke in love Consolation and make it their path and way Many a good Christian will say I cannot boast of many evidences but this I thank God I can say that my heart goes with the cause of God to his religion covenant Ordinances I love the Saints c. My affections and endeavours go that way yea when I cannot goe yet I can creepe and methinkes the dogge of a good man is welcome for his masters sake I abhorre that selfe-seeking and self-selfe-love which reignes in the world I practise compassion and love to all both meane and great knowne and unknowne neere and farre off and my prayers are cast in as a lot among the prayers and petitions of the Church I desire no welfare save in hers and as she fares so doe I desire to doe Oh! rich soule be comforted The Lord hath set his marke upon thee and called thee Hephziba Esay 62.4 one in whom his soule delights his Love his Dove his Vndefiled one Thy name is as a precious ointment therefore the daughters follow and love thee By thine example many have lost their brutish and savage qualities and bene taught to feede with Lambes They say of the Panther that she hath so sweet a breath that she allures all the beasts to her thereby So that hereby she hath her name So is it with thee the savor of thy amiablenesse shall honour thee wheresoever thou becommest till at thy death thy workes shall follow thee Marke 14.9 Act 9.9.36 10.2 Though the Scripture be witten yet as the name of Mary that annointed Christ and Dorcas and Cornelius are in the word so shall thine be in the Church Oh! enjoy thy selfe and come to the Sacrament with comfort for the Lord Iesus stands there ready with open breast to welcome thee Branch 2 Lastly it may also affoord encouragement to such as feare themselves in this triall of their love And I confesse as the manner of the world now is there is so little practise of this grace to be seene that it were enough to quench the love of the first Therefore I wonder not to heare so many to complaine of crackes and flawes in their love and to see that men learne to halt of them that are lame to be froward with the foward sullen testy unkind and unthankefull with such as are so Thy complaining therefore of thy selfe is just yet beware lest hereby thou debarre thy selfe of the Sacrament Tell me then Art thou heavy to feele such scurffe in thee That thou carest not how others fare so thou canst sleepe in a whole skinne And that the practise of gentlenesse and mercy Iames 3.13 doth so hardly fasten upon thee Dost thou combat within thy selfe against all naughtinesse in this kinde and nourish the motions of that spirit which is pure peaceable gentle and full of goodnesse and beare downe the other as much as is possible Deceive not thy selfe and I dare not barre thee from the Lords Table Although thou hadst poore fruits to boast of yet sith our Lord Iesus hath not forgotten a promise of reward to a cup of cold water to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet Math. 10.42 I cannot exclude thee from the benefite of the Supper Onely take heede least thou catch at such an encouragement to any evill end that still thou maist keep thy conscience defiled with the like pangs yet venture to receive But let the Sacrament bring a speciall reviving of love unto thee the very sight of thy brethren at the house of God let it renue that poore sparckle that is in thee Heb. 12.25 Thinke that thou art come to the soules of merifull and holy men and art as in a corner of heaven while thou maist sit among them And if this encouragement belong to thee it shall worke kindely and not by contraries And for this use and the whole triall of love thus much CHAP. VIII Of the desire after the Sacrament and the triall theof WEe are now come to the last The 5. grace Desire Entry but not to the least of those five graces preparing for the Sacrament which is desire or longing after those good things contained in it Concerning the handling whereof I shall not hold the Reader long in the grounds of this grace as I have done in the former Because those points which serve to the opening of desire either concerning Christ himselfe our alsufficient nourishment or else the triall of our owne wants of both which I have both in the former and in this latter Treatise spoken shall not here neede any repeated discourse Onely my method shall be this 1 I will briefely speake a word of the object of this desire 2. I will prove the Doctrine 3. I will make use of it sundry wayes and therein if any thing may be added either for the procuring of or the triall of the soundnesse of this desire I shall mention it and so conclude Affections are strong and vehement things in their pursuite and not stirred up or provoked in us save by objects of great allurement and perswasion especially spirituall affections require eminent objects to raise up to improve them Natural affections of joy love hope sorrow feare or desire must have sutable objects to quicken them up otherwise they lie flat upon the earth How much more must it needs be so here in holy and divine affections whereunto our nature is lesse enclined and the flame for lacke of daily supply of oile and matter to nourish them doth easily decay and vanish Sacramentall desire and longing therefore must needs presuppose some more than ordinary object to excite and maintaine it else neither would a carnall heart easily rise to it nor it a good heart hold appetite and desire to it long together The object of desire is Christ Sundry wayes therfore it pleases the holy Ghost in Scripture to expresse this object to the eye of the soule The thing it selfe being in substance one the Lord Iesus the nourishment of the living soule in grace and goodnesse yet the eloquence of the Spirit appeares in no argument so great as in this one to wit the due laying him
out in his colors that the dead spirit of man might behold and esteeme him as an object well deserving her best affections Hence it is that in the Song of Salomon so many allusions taken from carnall objects of desire Much described in Scripture Cant. 6.5 are used to provoke the soule to the like spiritualnesse of desire As when he is brought in like an amorous bridegroome of choise personage beautie and proportion and that from head to foot as if some curious Absolon were to be seene in whom from top to toe there was no blemish His head lockes eyes lips body and all his liniments are painted out to us that it may appeare he is the chiefe of ten thousand The like course takes our Saviour himselfe Math. 13. ver 44 45. in the Sermons and Parables which passed from him wherein his chiefe drift is to magnifie grace under the name of the kingdome of heaven meaning nothing else save the power and efficacie of the Gospell offring to the soule his satisfaction and sanctification for pardon and life eternall And sometimes he compares himself to a pearle of great price which he who found sold all to buy it Also to a Treasure hidden in a field which so affected him that saw it that he bought the field it selfe to purchase it Hence also it is that both in old and new Testament the Lord expresses the grace of Christ by the similitudes of all kinds of creatures which either by their preciousnesse or by their usefulnesse doe draw mens affections Rev. 3.18 Psal 45. Luke 15. Esay 55.12 Of the first ranke are gold silver precious stones wrought gold robes apparrell and white linnen treasure ointments of the latter sort are bread corne wine oyle milke hony waters c. Not as if these were as good as grace but that hereby the carnall soule of man of it selfe easily snared with the love of such things yea meaner might understand that look what excellency is in al these together for the content of our outward appetite that infinitly much more is in this for satisfying of the soule sith all these are used but as shadowes to discover this And to say the truth let us marke well Illustration of it and we shall perceive one principall scope of Paul that chiefe of Apostles in all his Epistles is this to set forth the priviledge of Beleevers to be such as doth not consist in some shreeds but in admirable glory He would have us to know Christianity is not making a shift to rub through or some covering of our infirmities supply of some wants or clensing out the staine of some odious sins But an estate of excellencie choise welfare and curious contentation to the soule such as Adam at his best never enjoyed Reade these Texts Col. 1.9 10 11.12 Col. 1.9 where he speakes of a beleever thus as That he may be filled with all spirituall understanding That he may walke worthy of the Lord unto all welpleasing That he may be fruitfull and encreasing in the knowledge of God That hee may be strengthened with all might unto all long-suffering and joyfulnes So Eph. 1.17.18 Ephe 1.17 he desires that They might know the hope of their calling the rich inheritance of the Saints and the glorious power of Christ mortifying them and quickning them by the power whereby he raised himself So Eph. 3.17 Ephe. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that being rooted in love ye may comprehend the bredth and depth c. and know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fulnesse of God See also Philip. 3.3.10 Phil. 3.10 I count all things but dung in respect of the excellencie of Christ The power of his resurrection the fellowship of his suffrings and conformity to his death Nay in one place he saith Col. 2.9 10. Col. 2.9 2 Pet. 2.1 2 3. That in him we are compleate Saint â—eter also witnesseth that Christ is no bare gift but that The Divine power hath given us all things pertaining to life and godlinesse through him To what end do I heape up these Surely that the Lord Iesus his excellencie rests not in himselfe but is derived to all his members and that to the end that he may be all in all with them and winne the honour and love of their affections Sacramentall desire must have her object To come a little neerer then to our matter in hand it must be some eminent object in the Sacrament which must draw the soule to it in this Sacramentall desire It must be more than the eye can see for that 's no object of any affection at all scarce so much as a naturall appetite But what is that Surely that spiritually which the Elements resemble naturally I meane full and compleate nourishment If the soule can see this it will draw desire without question Now we know that Bread and Wine united containe in them perfect food and cheerishing to the whole man that is to the body and spirits of nature Even so Christ our nourishment in the Sacrament is comepleately so to the soule both for renewed peace and holinesse And to open this wee may see when the holy Ghost lights upon Christ Sacramentall he forgets his ordinary stile and rises into an unusuall one Pro. 7.1.2 for then it makes the Father an extraordinarie great housekeeper brings him in as a man that builds himselfe a sumptuous house upon seven hewne Pillers prepares his fatlings and dainties Esay 25. his wines and spices Nay then it tels us that in those dayes the Lord wil make a feast in the mountaines Luke 14. a feast of all choise delicate things fat meats and wines throughly stale and refined Nay then it brings him in as a King who is disposed to magnifie himselfe in the making a feast to his Subjects at the marriage of his Son So that looke what is in a feast either for quantitie fulnesse of dishes variety of choise dainties or for qualitie as rarenesse pretiousnesse exquisite dressing musique company safetie of things eaten without feare either that they make surfeit the guest or breed ill bloud All that is to be applied to the feast of the Lord Iesus our nourishment which God the Father makes to his Church at the Sacrament of the Supper And yet that is not all for whereas that may be easily thought to come frow the magnificence of the master of it but as for poore wretches and hunger sterven soules how should they come neere it The answer is That onely for such it is prepared even for beggers and such as are found among the hedges and by the high-way sides for lost and forlorne ones It is the office of Gods hand-maides and Ministers to invite to bring in yea by all arguments of perswasion to force even such not the fat lusty and fed ones to this feast of the King Now if
all his feast and lay it unto thee And this also shall serve for this fifth and last grace of desire and the tryall of it and so in generall concerning the whole doctrine of Sacramentall preparation Which the Lord so blesse that all his servants to whose hands this poore treatise may come may meete with some morsells which may cause them not to repent them of their Travaile CHAP. IX Of the due behaviour of a communicant in the act of receiving NOw according to our order prefined we proceede to adde somewhat concerning the worke it selfe of receiving Of the carriage at the Sacrament The communicant then having taken due paines for the making himselfe fit for the Supper is not there to rest but to goe to the Sacrament to eate of that bread and drinke of that cup as Paul speaketh Now to give the Reader a taste beforehand of the subject matter of this Chapter let him know it is twofold The one concerneth the comming unto the other the due receiving of the Sacrament For the former I will by this occasion speake a little of the necessity of comming to the Sacrament both in generall as it concernes all that are worshippers and in speciall those that are prepared for it For the latter I shall handle it eyther in that due carriage of the receiver towards the whole ordinance or towards some passages thereof For the whole ordinance it selfe the receiver owes a double carriage Entry and division eyther of commemoration or of perpetuation The former being a thankefull raysing of heart to God the father 1. Point Necessity of comming in praise for the Lord Iesus The latter being a preservation of the integrity of this ordinance by the incorrupt use thereof from all corruption of humane devises The carriage of the receiver concerning some occasionall passages in the Sacrament is a spirituall accommodation of the soule attending so to the outward Sacramentall acts there performed that hee finde himselfe much quickned in the grace he brought with him and edified in respect of that fruit which he lookes to carry away For the first of these The words of the Apostle are plaine So let him come and eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. Proofes 1 Cor. 11.28 Which words are not permissive let him if he will but imperative let him See Treatise 1. Cap. 1. I command him upon paine of my wrath and displeasure But many reasons there are to proove it also First who can deny but the Church and ordinances under the Gospel are more excellent than those under the Law Reade these Texts Heb. 9.11.23 Heb. 5.1.2 c. Heb. 3.5.6 with many more Now in the old Testament we see how sollemne a penalty is threatned against him that in coole blood having no plea by sicknesse or jorney and businesse to alledge should forbeare to keepe the passeover Numbers 9. Verse 13. even such a one saith the Lord shall be cut off from his people Nay it seemes that although legall pollutions might hinder ordinary services and sacrifices yet the necessi y of the Passeover Verse 7. tooke away the barre of such pollutions so that the touching a dead man or being in a jorney and about common businesse might not infringe it The Lord by this meane providing for the honor and necessity of the Sacrament How much more necessary then are the Sacraments of the Gospel to frequent And how severe a censure of excommunication lyes upon the violaters of them Reason 1 If now the Lord so severely plagues a receiver for want of worthy receiving 1 Cor. 11.29 how much more will he plague a non-receiving dispiser If a Prince send for some of his Subjects to appeare before him whereof some appeare but bow not the knee to doe homage others refuze to waite upon him at all whether of these two thinke we incurre greatest dispeasure Reason 2 Secondly to what issue comes all wee have sayd hitherto concerning Supper preparation Can wee conclude such a thing to be needelesse as requires such a costly entrance It might then bee sayd Why is this great waste No surely So necessary a preparation cannot argue a slight duty If all the land had summons by a day to waite upon the King in their colours for a warlike expedition were any so fond as to deeme that enterprise idle which cost such a tedious addressements Reason 3 Thirdly the substance it selfe of the Sacrament is a thing of necessity and that absolute If a man were in a ship like to bee cast away he would say it s not necessary I keepe my corne or provision but its necessary I keepe my life So heere It s not necessary that we thrive or live long or live at all for we may be happy without any such but it is necessary wee have the life of grace in our soules Now the Sacrament is Christ our life and nourishment Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood yee have no life in you Ioh. 6.53 What case are such miscreants in then for sole life as abhorre Sacraments Reason 4 Fourthly the industry and paines taken by those famous worthies and restorers of the collapsed Passeover 2 Cron. 30.3.21 both in their commissions sent about their munificence in providing lambes for such as wanted their charge given personally to the people to keepe the same to the Lord 2 Cron. 35.7.18 doe sufficiently argue that these holy Princes were fooles if the thing they undertooke were a needelesse trifle How much lesse then is the use of the Passeover of the Gospel a needelesse thing Fiftly if the Lord presse oftennesse of comming to the Supper as a necessary duty how much more is a coming and tendring of our persons to God needefull If scanty comming be a sinne what a fearefull premunire then runne they into that refuze at all to come Reason 5 Lastly if the scope of the Supper be peculiar honour and thankes to God for Christ and a solemne holding out his death till he come Luk. 22.21 what a sinne is that which cuts off both the generall end of the worship and the peculiar scope of this But I dwell no longer upon a point so cleare To brutish swine reason is lost And to the good it is needelesse Vses Before I leave the point I must adde a few uses 1 Terrour First terrour to all profane Esau's who being out of love with the Sacrament through loathing of examination of their woefull profane lives which indeede are so intricate and overwhelmed in sinne that they admit none make it their constant practise to abandon all Sacraments And when they are cut off by mens censures for this their contempt they are content so to live and are no whit troubled a man knowes not whether the disease or the remedy doe worse with them I might compare them to Caine save that I should wrong him by so unjust a comparison
and convince thee how unworthy a vessell thou art to have it powred into thee 2 Cor. 12. â— and he had neede buffet thee and bring thee low before he dare trust thee with it and seeing all this is not from hatred but in love set thine heart at rest make no haste nor limit the Lord but patiently waite and be well doing and in time the Lord shall breake the pride of thine heart and let in his promise by faith sweetly into thee so that thou shalt not repent thee that thou wert for a time deferred that thou mightest be after rewarded with more comfort and learne to boast of the Lord. Thirdly and lastly The 3 Act in case of satisfaction If thou finde that the Lord hath sweetly satisfied thee with that fruite of the Sacrament which thou wentest for to his feast of the Lord Iesus so that now thou art as one set at liberty cheerefull in heart meete for thy calling and purposely bent to obey Then thou art to apply thy selfe a third way And thou art to doe somewhat for the present and somewhat for time to come For the present What to doe â— 1. For present to renue againe thy thankefull heart to God who at last hath heard thy desire and quitt thee of thine adversary which alway upbrayded thee with thy unfruitfull Sacraments and now with poore Hanna to receive this comfort as one that means no more to look with a sad heart but to honour the Lord in the strength of his own gracious faithfulnes and to knit thine heart to him by the band of so undeserved mercy Secondly for the present also thou must ground thy selfe in experience of Gods love that it may bee a pledge in thy bosome of like yea if thy sinne let not of greater mercy 2. For time to come that thou mayst not bee to seeke of it For the time to come thou art to practise two things 1. To use some meanes 2. To exercise some Graces For the first 1. Exercise some meanes thou art to set thy selfe on worke to pray and seeke the Lord to nourish this fruite of the Sacrament in thee and by all meanes to blow it up as with bellowes yea to hatch this mercy in thee that it perish not As Paul bids Timothy to preserve that Trust commited unto him 1 Tim. 4.14 by the laying on of hands And so shouldest thou take heede least thou loose 3 Iohn verse 8. the good things thou hast laboured for till thou get a full reward 2. Some Graces Likewise there are two graces of the Spirit which all such have cause to practise The first is feare The second is care By feare I meane as Heb. 2.1 Taking heede least these good things leake out through the secret chinkes and crackes of our false hearts 1. Feare Iealosie of loosing grace is like the tender eye-lidde which keepes any offence from the eye And watcheth narrowly to all occasions against all temptations of the world and Satan whereby this pearle might bee endangered and imbezzeld The mother whose the living childe was would not give any way to the cutting it in sunder But the false mother would 1 King 2 28. and by that Salomon bewrayed her So is it heere An hypocrite who wants this Treasure as the proverbe saith will sing before the theefe having nothing to loose although he goe in the midst of a thousand dangers hee is not troubled But the traveller who carries a round charge about him or behind him cannot bee so merry He comes not to a place of robbing or hazard but hee will bee sure to have his company heere him and to have his hand upon his hilts Oh! he is sensible of his money So is a true Christian The grace which hee receives from Gods hand brings with it a jealous heart least by some meanes or other hee forgoe it Psal 128. Blessed is he who thus feareth alway and standeth upon his watch 2. Care Secondly care That is hee is very studious and painefull to improove that Talent which hee hath received from the bounty of the Sacrament Math. 25 16 17 If he finde that faith and her fruits he planted truely he playes the occupier of these Talents We know a bare man having gotten a stocke together and borrowing upon use dayly had neede to looke to himselfe as knowing all his hope is in his credite that hee can hold quarter and keepe dayes of payment So ought it to be with a Christian he goes every Sacrament deeper and deeper into Gods bookes That faith peace and grace which he meets with at the Sacrament is as a new borrowed summe of the Vsurer If he come not to the Sacrament for the better he knowes he comes for the worse 1 Cor. 11 17. Therefore all his care is how he may improove this treasure and be daily able by his occupying to keepe credit with God and to finde favour with him for new receits as his needes require The grace of the Sacrament is costly and requires good improovement And except a man walke in the exercise thereof more faithfully and fruitfully the Lord will withdraw his gifts and come upon his as a hard master who will exact the uttermost penny of encrease And wee know that commonly if the Vsurer fall sore upon a debter he breakes his backe To avoyd this misery learne this The more God betrusts thee with Matth. 25.27 the more care doe thou nourish in thy selfe that thou grow That so the Lord may receive his owne with encrease And by this meanes of reviving thy selfe after the Sacrament thou shalt finde the fruit of it to abide in thee constantly and to be a meane of thriving in a good course Which grace the Lord grant And for this third duty after the Sacrament and so of the whole doctrine of the preparation and this second Treatise thus much be sayd An Appendix added to this second Treatise consisting of two Chapters CHAP. XI Shewing some directions how a communicant may finde his preparation to the Supper sweet and familiar How to make our preparation sweete IT is the will of God that all his people doe finde his yoake easie and his burden light both in those duties which ought ever at each instant to be done as to beleeve repent to live wel and to be ready to dye as also those which are for ever due but not at every instant to do But at such seasons as are meete appointed for them as to preach heare pray receive the Sacraments To insist in the Supper onely in this place Gods will is it should be so The Loâ—d loves not that it should be a toyle to his people eyther to try themselves before or to communicate at the Table or to survey their worke after Yet impossible it is but so it must be and will bee to such as please themselves in nothing save in their ease and
Oh! thou shalt have thy belly full of it one day with aking and sorrow when conscience shall present thee with thy sinne and shew thee how many Sacraments and the fruit of them this gulfe of the world hath devoured without recovery And what a narrow entrance into heaven it hath caused to thee who if thou hadst beene enlarged to Gods opportunities as they to thee mightst have found a large doore opened unto thee Then shalt thou bee weary of those cauils which thy covetous heart hath cast upon the Sacrament as these Where finde ye that so much cost is required to the Sacrament that men must lay aside their businesse and looke after that Nay where findest thou that the matters of so divine a Nature must stoope to thy base trash And so ingrosse thy hurt that when holy things are in hard thy soule is no where lesse than where thy body is So that that hadst as good doe never a whit as never the better The Remedy is Resigne up thy selfe and ends to God make him the Moderator Remedy and hee will not defraude thee of thy worldly due if thou wilt be ruled But if thy selfe be judge the Lord must needes prove the loozer More causes added To these I might adde more As that men make a dead worke of the Sacrament they live not by faith in it they walke not humbly and tenderly but suffer smaller evils to lurke in them and defile them till they feele conscience crazed they make not up their breaches by speedy repenting but soder and crust them over they ply not Sacraments with other private and personall helpes meete to preserve the grace thereof but in the midst of their slightnesse vanities and pleasures which they mixe with holy things they looke to fare as well as those that watch closely to those succors wherein as they are foulely deceived so let them know that the Lord is righteous and will not conceale the labour of love in his better servants to equall the slight and carelesse with them in blessing Remedy For remedy whereof let them looke backe to the Chapter of Repentance Conclusion of the whole And thus at last I have also finished these few advices added to the Doctrine of preparation Conclusion of the whole Craving therefore of him who is Alpha and Omega and hath now brought us to an end of our purpose that be would set home this doctrine of the Sacrament to the hearts of the Readers I finish the whole Booke FINIS An Alphabeticall Table containing the chiefe points handled in the second Part. A. ASsisting grace of God one marke of our effectuall calling Page 38 And how ibid. The Act of faith one speciall triall of our faith 96 and wherein it stands ib. The stirring of the Affections up by the good things of Christ Sacramentall a speciall meane of reviving faith Page 101 Application of the promise of the Sacrament ib. Act of love is negative or positive 179. 180. In what particulars both consist Abandoners of Sacraments terrified Page 213 Admiration of God Christ and the Spirit necessary to raysing the heart in the Sacrament Page 218 Severall Acts and Passages of the Sacraments require due carriage called Accommodation of the soule Page 222 In six particulars Page 223 Affections cannot be sacred except they have a due object Page 193 Trusting to former Affections an ill quality in Receivers an enemy to desire Page 202 B. BRokennesse of heart and mourning is one signe of hearty repenting Page 116 God recovers the soules of his being fallen to new Brokennesse and mourning Page 126 Behaviour of a Communicant at the Sacrament must be holy Page 209 Behaviour there must be sutable in body and soule Page 215 Behaviour of Communicants must be due both in respect of the whole Sacramont and the particular passages thereof Page 216 Better sort very unfruitfull in Receiving with the causes Page 242 C. COnfusednesse and indiscretion in the worship of God sinfull Page 3 Cavilling about Gods Commands under colours an ill marke Page 19 God may justly punish those who obey his Commands in an andue manner aswell as the disobeyers ib. Markes of effectuall Calling necessary for our tryall of estate Page 37 The fruits of Calliog a speciall marke of our estate in grace and what they are Page 41 42 33 Curiosity in prying into other mens wants makes men blind in seeing their owne Page 54 Excesse of Care and sorrow overloding Gods people for their wants sinfull Page 55 Carelesnesse of our wants comes from grosse sin and is dangerous ib. Each ordinance includes Christ in it as their sappe Page 82 Cleaving to the promise against bondage and Carnall reason a marke of faith renewed Page 103 Testimony of good Conscience at the Sacrament a signe of faith renewed ib. The Christian Combate one sound marke of repentance Page 114 Confession a great tryall of hearty repentance Page 117 Carnall and hypocriticall receivers of the Sacrament are in a dangerous case Page 130 Crossing of our selfes in our sweet lusts a triall of repentance Page 137 Censoriousnesse purged from love by faith Page 148 Comming to Sacrament necessary and commanded proofes reasons of it Page 209 210 211 Commemoration of Christs benefits necessary behaviour in receiving Page 216 Due Carriage of a Receiver after the Sacrament necessary Page 224 Contentation and well apaiednesse in God ought to be practised by such as have beene satisfied at the Sacrament Page 229 Care a speciall grace to bee practised after our Receiving Page 230 A pure Conscience daily preserved so a sweete meane to make preparation to Sacraments sweet Page 235 Conceit of a civill condition without being in Covenant a meane of bad Receiving with the Remedy Page 241 Sundry Causes together of the ill Receiving of the better sort with their Remedies Page 244 D. NOt to discerne the body of Christ in the Sacrament dangerous Page 60 Dalliers with God in point of future repentance dangerous Page 131 Little hope of Delayed repentance to prove sound Page 132 Dissimulation purged from love by faith Page 147 Diffusivenesse of love Page 182 Dissemblers of love at the Sacrament are bad Receivers Page 186 Desire of the Sacrament a necessary grace for a Receiver Page 193. 197. 198 Object of Desire is Christ Sacramâ—ntall described Page 194 How Desire of the Sacrament may bee attained Page 198 Such as come without Desire to the Sacrament terrified Page 199 Want of renewing of Desire a great sin in Gods people at the Sacra Page 220 Ab helpes and motives to be used to stirre up Desire Sacramentall Page 204 The triall of true Desire Page 205 E. TRiall of our Estate in grace the first Object of Sacramentall triall What it is and the branches thereof 32. Objection answered ib. How farre a Christian may be doubtfull and solicitous about his Estate Page 43 Our Estate in grace is to be tried by our calling and how 35. In three things ib.
grace of the Spirit one part of our calling and how Page 40 Prejudice against the ordinances and Ministers a great meane of ignorance Page 77 God offers all his good things by and through a promise Page 82 Few men seeke a promise to conveigh Gods good things unto them Page 84 All particular promises are planted in the generall promise and how Page 85 Warping from the first Promise most deadly and dangerous Page 86 Tryall of faith by her properties a good signe of faith 98 Pretiousnesse of faith is one 99. how to try that ead When Props of faith faile oft time faith is at best Page 107 108 The Parts of Repâ—ntance are a marke of tryall whether it be sound Page 112 Practise of Repentance is a speciall marke of the soundnes of it 114. And that both in the understanding will and life Page 115 The Lord affords his promise to his revolted servants to restore them Page 128 The Lord preserves his owne in a good estate when once recovered out of their revolts Page 128 Partiality of love purged by faith Page 143 Pride purged by faith from love Page 145 Such as have prepared for the Sacrament must also come and not be letted by any occasion whatsoever Page 215 Patternes of holy receivers Page 217 Perpetuall memory of Christ how to be continued at the Sacrament Page 219 Preparation to the Sacrament may become sweet and familiar to a Communicant 232. and how Page 233 Profanenesse a cause of ill receiving Page 140 No Pondering of the worth of Christ a lot of good receiving Page 243 R. FAith in the cheefe promse must be tryed by the Roote of it selfe deniall vid selfedeniall Reviving of faith at the Sacrament how to be performed Page 100 101 102 Repentance in what dâ—gree necessary for the Sacrament Page 108 Tryal of Repentance at the Sacrament necessary Reasons why 109. And proofes ib. Repentance a marke of faith 110. and welcome to God Ibid. Substance of Repentance a good Triall of the soundnesse of it 100. That is the spirit of regeneration ibid. Repentance is tryed by the mother of it which is faith Page 111 Revenge a marke of hearty repentance Page 119 Renouncing of sinne a signe of true lively Repentance Page 121 Returning to Gad another signe of it Page 122 Repentance upon our Revolts necessary for Sacraments Page 123 Gods owne people to be blamed for their venturing to receive without renued Repentane 133. Especially for foule falls Page 133 Exhortation to bring renued repentance to Sacraments Page 134 Raysing up of heart to God in all thankes must attend Meditation at the Lords Table Page 119 Restlessnesse of the soule till it bee satisfied a good Tryall of Desire Page 205 Renuing of Repentance dayly a speciall helpe of preparation sweetely Page 237 Causes of bad Receiving inward and outward Page 239 S. STeddinesse of spirit a meete posture of the Soule for worship of God contrary to giddinesse Page 4 The Supper is Christ in a mistery Page 65 The Supper is the Churches marke to judge of her Childrens growth Page 66 Sacramentall Christ a Provision for all wants of his body Page 51 Spirit of God not alway tyed to act his grace in us while we sleepe Page 56 Search of our wants aswell as our prayses necessary Page 50. and 59. Sensiblenesse of the shame of our wants needefull Page 62. To trust God for Salvation and for Christ and distrust him for particulars is sinfull Page 88 Faith in the maine promise must be tâ—yed by our selfe deniall Page 94 True search of our selves a signe of judicieus Repentance and how Page 115 Helpes of true Search of it Ibid. The Soule part of Repentance in the will and affections a good Tryall of the Practise of Repentance Page 116 Sentencing of our selves a marke of hearty repentance Page 118 Spirit of God and seede of God cannot be shaken wholly out of the elect Page 120 Laying to heart the sinnes and sorrowes of the time of others as our owne a Tryall of repentance Page 237 Straightnesse of love purged by faith Page 144 Selfe love purged by faith Ibid. Seldome commers to the Supper reprooved Page 213 Survey of our receiving a speciall part of carriage after the Sacrament Page 227 Survey of our selves in case of our disappointment upon receiving how to be perfomed Ibid. Page 228 Survey in point of want of feeling after receiving how performed Page 228 Survey in case of satisfaction upon the Sacrament what it is Page 229 Vpon Satisfaction at the Sacrament we must doe somewhat presently somewhat after Page 229 Superstition a cause of bad receiving with the Remedy Page 239 Scandall a great meanes of bad receiving with the Remedy Page 242 T. SAcramentall Tryall necessary for a Communicant what it is Page 1. 2 Tryall and preparation differ vid. preparation Tryall at the Sacrament is a duty required of all sorts Page 6 Each communicant is to Try himselfe Page 16 Tryall of others not excluded 7. The Reasons 8. Yet not to be trusted 9. The oddes betweene them Page 10 Sacramentall Tryall wherein it differs from other religious Tryalls legall penitentiall or morrall Page 11 12 Sacramentall Tryall hath her issue eyther to encourage or discourage the soule from receiving Page 13 What course both the good and the bad must take after due Tryall had Sundry counsels and Caveats about it Page 14 15 16 Sacramentall Tryall not arbitrary but needefull and divine Page 16 17 18 Reasons of Sacramentall Tryall Page 21. 22 Its difficult to Try aright and why ib. Properties of Tryall are five 1. wise ingenuous close faithfull direct Page 25 26 Exhortation to Try our selves Page 31 V. VNion the forme or essentiall cause of love Page 148 Vnsavorinesse and inappetency of desire hath nothing to doe with the Sacrament Page 199 Vnbeleefe a maine enemy of Sacramentall appetite Page 202 Most receive unprofitably and why Page 239 W. VVOrship of God must bee set purposed and a separation of the person from other services for the time Page 4 Objections of the weake in the matter of their estate answered Page 48 Weake in knowledge comforted and admonished Page 80 Tryall of our wants the second preparation to the Sacrament Page 49 All Gods people have their Wants and in how many kinds viz. in the grounds manner measure and ends of their actions in duties graces ordinances Page 50 Wants of Gods people are eyther Defects in grace or decayes Page 53 Wicked men have no wants onely they have one maine one Page 54 Christians may be comforted in their Wants because they have a stocke of Grace Page 57. 58 One want hinders all sence of many wants and how Page 57 God upbayds not his people for their Wants but supplies them Page 58 Le ts of Tryall of our wants to be avoyded Page 59 Wherein tryall of wants consists Page 59 We must have our wants summed up in a readinesse for the Sacrament Page 63 To rest upon a bare Word and from one word to goe to another a sure signe of faith Page 96 97 Comfort to Weake beleevers in the poore reviving of their faith at the Sacrament Page 106 Objections of the Weake against their revived and strong faith answered Page 107 God causeth the sence of Wrath and his judgements to seaze upon the consciences of his people being revolted to recover them Page 127 Willingnesse to be informed of sinne and reprooved a good signe of repentancc Page 135 Weake penitents comforted Page 139 Weakenesse of love purged by faith Page 144 Comfort to all Weakâ— in love if hearts be sound Page 192 Watching daily against the enemies of a good course a speciall helpe to make the preparation to the Sacrament sweete Page 236 Worldlinesse a shrewd enemy of a good mans well receiving Page 243 With the Remedy Ibid FINIS
them up shufflingly in the bagge of their devotion being unable to give a reason why themselves were baptized when they were infants or why being elder they receive the Supper Vse 2 Secondly to confute the practise of all those who Popishly ascribe to the Supper the conferring of Grace of all sorts and when they receive they thinke that although they never reaped the fruit of their baptisme before neither had faith yet one Sacrament may supply all wants which is to destroy the distinct end of each Sacrament and to plucke up good Land-markes confounding the agreement and disagreement of both for as all Christ is in both so yet for two severall purposes A Divines life we know is to study and Preach he doth both these wholly himselfe wholly is required to doe either howbeit the things he doth are divided acts he preacheth not while he is in his Study nor studieth while hee is Preaching Let us abhorre such profanesse and know all Christ is in both the Sacraments yet orderly and so that who so hath not enjoyed him in the first to beleeve cannot enjoy him in the second to grow Vse 3 Thirdly to teach us how to apply the benefit of these two Sacraments according to our speciall temptations The former thus If Satan tempt us concerning the truth of our Conversion to God telling us wee are in the state of enemies cut off from God aliants and excommunicates from him and Christ whither shall wee recourse To the Supper and our oft receiving No in no wise for Satan can speake Divinitie when hee list and tell us that the Supper is no Sacrament of Regeneration But in this case flie to thy calling and to the seale of it Baptisme if indeede thou canst proove thy calling by the worke of the Law and Gospell else thy seale is to a blanke and presse thy Adversary with the weapon of thy Baptisme sealing it up to thy conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Pet. 3 21. which shall quench the fierie dart of his temptation and scare him from thee better than all Popish Holy water Againe doth the Divell tempt thee to beleeve thou art an hypocrite because thou hast a dead heart thou growest not in Grace thou art sunke from thy first love fallen to the world pleasures vanities lusts of thy uncleanenesse waxen unprofitable and revolted from God What shall now helpe thee That thou art baptized No hold that close also that thou maist pleade the other rightly But in this case flie especially to the Supper and alledge thus I am sunke too farre into a formall course and the custome of the world but yet Lord to thee I appeale that in truth I have coveted thy Sacrament of Restorative and Nourishment I haue come with hunger to it for the repairing of my losses and decaies and departed in good hope and comfort of recovering life and vigor againe and therefore in despite of Satan I will hold to the end of this Sacrament which is to seale up comfort to the afflicted and strength to the weake and recovery to the decaied and raising to the fallen therefore from hence I will fetch it by vertue of the promise Vse 4 Lastly it teacheth us the excellency of the Sacraments because they have such a gift in them as to represent all Christ at once to the soule Christ wholy and in each part of his merit and efficacie It were an odde and strange Picture which could describe the same man living dying dead raised up and ascending to heaven and all in one person That which no Art of man can doe the Lord can doe by the Sacrament that is above all Images or Crucifixes and can tender to the soule in on view all these the Lord Iesus dead risen ascended the Grace imputed of reconciliation the Grace inherent of holinesse all the particular graces of the Spirit the promises of God made all Yea and Amen in Christ for this life and for a better for all conditions and times and occasions are offred at once in each Sacrament the one to give us right and title to Christ when we wanted him the other to rivet us more into him to enlarge us in faith and the fruits till wee shall neede no more Sacraments or Ordinances And therefore let us much esteeme and honour Sacraments as most divine comprehensions of all Christ and channels of his Fulnesse from whom as our Head We receive grace for grace Iohn 1.17 Iohn 1 17. And this for the second Chapter CHAP. III. Of the substance of a Sacrament in generall The Description of it propounded and examined Substance of it HAving spoken of the Circumstances the agreement and disagreement of Sacraments Next wee come to the substance and nature of a Sacrament Which will be understood the better by the description and particular handling the parts thereof Description of a Sacrament in generall A Sacrament then is an Ordinance of God wherein by some materialls duly appropriated and united and by some acts duly administred the Lord signes and seales up to the soules of the Elect the truth of his Covenant and receives a reciprocall seale from them of their covenant with himselfe For the clearing hereof I would have the Reader conceave that in this place I take the word Sacrament in the greatest latitude not onely for the substance of it in it selfe but also as it is administred and performed in a solemne manner betweene God and his Church So that hereby two things arise to be considered Two Generals First Substance Secondly Administration In the Substance foure things 1. The Substance of a Sacrament in all her constituting câ—uses 2. The due administration and performing thereof in the Ordinance Touching the first we are to consider these foure causes 1. The efficient and supreme cause of a Sacrament 2. The mâ—â—erials of it 3. The true formall cause 4. The finall Where first the generall end Sealing Secondly The branches two First Gods sealing of the truth of his Covenant to us Secondly returning backe againe our owne covenant sealed to him In the latter member also viz. The Administration wee consider the acts of Ministers and people and the spirituall dispensation of God in these externals attending thereon for the ends mentioned Of the first of these in the first place 1. The Author of the Sacraments all and each Old and New is one unchangeable Eternall and onely Wise and Gracious God And no wonder for first First the Author God Proofes of it In his bosome of eternity lay hidden that purpose of entring Covenant with man fallen from the grace of Creation Reason 1 It was free to him to relinquish him finally in that revolt of his in that he did not it was free mercy doubly greater than the love of Creation If the devise then of a gracious Covenant with man was onely in the power of the Creator who shall be supposed to be the Author of seales to this Covenant save the same
God Reason 2 Secondly If the Lord onely found out his Sonne to be the foundation of this Covenant meant him sent him made him enabled him to ratifie it by the bloud of the Covenant accepted all this offers it seconds and assists it by his owne Spirit to make it effectuall Who can doubt that he onely is the Author of these Seales whereby this effectualnesse is convei'd Reason 3 Thirdly If he onely be the Author of blessing the word of promise to breede faith in the Covenant which is the lesser Who but hee shall breed the assurance of faith and the reflexion thereof upon the soule that it may know it selfe to beleeve Now how is this done ordinarily save by the seales If hee then be the Author of the lesser efficacie who but hee is the Author of the greater by the sealing Ordinance Reason 4 Fourthly If no externall blessing accompanying the Covenant for so the Lord was wont to perswade obedience Deut. 7. and Chap. 32. Deut. 7 32. Hos 2. Ezek. 33 c. can come from any other Author save the Lord as the blessings of raine dew plenty health long life successe Deut. 5.29 Deut. 5 29. and the like who shall dare usurpe the authority of Seales and Sacraments which are the most eminent annexes to the Covenant of all other Reason 5 Fifthly If the Lord Iesus himselfe was the onely stablisher of the Testament and Covenant by his death and bloud for without death no Legacy is of valour then who but himselfe shall make Sacraments which are in effect nothing else save the power of his life and death Reason 6 Sixthly If the Lord onely can authorise divers signes for the Sacraments as supr Chap. 2. if he onely can abrogate old ones if he one day shall abolish all old and new their nature and use as past use who but himselfe shall frame Sacraments It resting in one and the same power to make Lawes and to abolish them I conclude then that God alone is the Author of a Sacrament Conclus As indeed the Scripture doth witnesse The Lord only Gen. 17. Gen. 17. appointed Circumcision The same Lord Exod. 12. Exod. 12. ordained his Passeover the Lord extraordinarily gave commission from heaven to Iohn to appoint Baptisme Luke 3 1 2 3. Luke 22 18. and the Lord Iesus with his owne sacred presence and hands ordained the Supper before his death Seeing after his Resurrection he could not being partly an act of humiliation and so all Sacraments were given by the Lord in their severall kindes for their severall uses as in the next points shall appeare And to say the truth if it be once granted that the Lord is not the sole ordainer of Sacraments what a wide doore must of necessitie be set open for both usurping Ordainers and counterfeit Sacraments Where should the period be or why should not hundreths as well as three or five be admitted to the heape Vse 1 For use therefore hereof this teacheth us to abhorre all Sacraments which have not God and Christ for their ordainer If they cannot shew their pedigree in the Lords Genealogy Nehem. 7 63. nor be bookt in his Records nor have his stampe set upon them Math. 22 21. we say of them as our Saviour of the Penny Give unto Caesar that which is his So give to the Pope his Vnction throw him backe his Sacramentall Orders and Penance wee abhorre whatsoever savors not of God as copper coine Yea and we loath whatsoever of Gods first ordaining they by their abuse have corrupted namely as corrupted and seeing God and Christ never gave us a Sacrifice for a Sacrament wee abhorre to meddle with it as a Sacrifice propitiatory for the quicke and the dead and for their Baptisme we loath it also as administred by them as an horrrible defiling of Gods Ordinance professing to depart from their Sacraments both for their new inventions and for their adulteratings of the old and bidde them take them as their owne for now they have used them thus they are no longer Gods As for their distinction of Apostolicall and Divine we take what they grant if they be not Divine although an Angell from heaven did ordaine them wee should abhorre them How much more when their Pope or their Clergy or the body of their defiled Church For were their Church a chaste Spouse shee durst as well forsweare her husband as cast off subjection in embracing his Sacraments and usurping power to appoint other which is so farre beside her commission that she may as safely devise a new Covenant Scripture and Doctrine as doe it Vse 2 Secondly this teacheth us to esteeme so much the better of Gods Coyne as wee scorne the base stuffe of Popery Gods stampe upon the Sacrament should make it honourable and precious in our eyes If some civill ordinance hath honour in it because God hath put it upon it if marriage be so solemne if the Crowne of an earthly King be so sacred how holy is his Sacrament He who profanes it by sacrilegious adding detracting or profaning either by superstition or unprepared use shall finde God will not hold him guiltesse for taking his Name in vaine Wee delight when wee have any curious thing of a choise workeman to say It is a Picture of such a ones drawing It is a Musicall Lesson of such a ones setting a Watch of such a ones making How should Gods Master-peeces than affect us Not to over-prize them to keepe them in Pixes and under Canopies of gold but to preserve them in their spirituall integrity Vse 3 Thirdly it should teach us to behold them not in their outside but as they are in Gods ordination not the outside of a man which we see but the soule which is not seene is the man so not the outward thing but Gods Ordinance in it is the Sacrament Of which more in due place Vse 4 But Fourthly and especially seeing God is the Author of Sacraments let us be â—uled by him in the right manner of receiving them Looke what Iosia 2 King 21 23. 2 King 21 23. said to the people Keepe the Passeover to the Lord your God according to all that is in the Booke of the Covenant so heere I say Receive to the Lord be ruled by him in Preparation in action and the fruite of both It s onely in him that ordaines to order also and prescribe the due manner of using them Take we this item with us before wee come to the Doctrine of right receiving that it may set a spurre in our sides to quicken us to due preparation and using of them for he who gave them to his Church will most severely punish all ignoraâ—â— rash unbeleeving unrepentant uncharitable indifferent commers to his Sacraments and every such one stands to Gods Tribunal as we shall heare in due place Vse 5 Lastly let this point teach us to whom to goe for the spirituall life of faith
encrease in every true Receiver especially being assisted with other helpes inward and outward the mercies and blessings of God which as Talents are put to advantage for Gods glory The third degree Stablenesse in grace The third is stablenesse in grace Wee see that mens bodies in time by continuance of health and groth come to a pitch to a measure of groth This is a third prospering It is not with the soule as with the body which ceaseth to grow when it is at her pitch or declines rather when it is growne to her full point What it is But herein a pitch of bodily groth resembles spirituall that as the man growne to his full period enjoyes as it were himselfe and all his former yeares which he hath lived becomes now of a growing a growne man is come now to his best to his full strength ability and sufficiencie for service so is it with a Christian He growes in Christ to the measure and fulnesse of him Ephe. 4.13 Eph. 4.13 So that whereas before in his beginnings and proceedings hee found much ignorance in minde much error in judgement much infirmity in spirit much to seeke of direction and wisdome in his course Also much unsetled wearisome off and on up and downe in holy practise many combats and conflicts with his bubbling rebellious inconstant treacherous withdrawing spirit lo now it s otherwise now he is growne to some stay setling ripenesse and experience in Gods matters Heb. 5. Heb. 5. ult more exercised in his spirituall senses to put a difference betweene good and evill persons and things not so blinde as formerly but light in the Lord judicious observative sober in affections staide in minde and resolution Ephe. 5 16. 1 Iohn 2.13 Act. 11.27 1 Cor. 7.35 Ephes 4.12 having his heart at better bay and more awe for teachable subjection to God more firme in purpose of heart to cleave to God without disstraction 1 Cor. 7.35 not easily carried away by each Doctrine and dice-play of men not mistaking truths not slighting them not partially affecting them but moulded in them fashioned by them and keeping his fashion as a man would doe of his apparell against each noveltie So also constant setled rooted and stable 1 Cor. 15. last reade it not ungrounded in the foundation not to seeke when Satan buffets but knowing his devices 2 Cor. 2.11 2 Cor. 2.11 and also strong to resist couragious in the use of the Armour and so persevering in his course This is that which Paul Ephe. 3. cals Christ dwelling in the soule by faith as the Inhabitant who keepes in his owne Christ Sacramentall doth this Epes 3.17 is not as a Stranger or a Sojorner who comes and goes but a Ledger one that holds his abode and delights in his dwelling Oh! this is a great degree of Christs infusion and influence into the soule when he pitches there settles and dwels there for what else is the stablenesse of the soule in grace save Christs dwelling in it by his grace and is no flittet thence And this third degrâ—e of nourishment the Lord workes in all his who have attained the former two They come to be as the Scholler riveted into his Rules or the tradesman in the myrie of his occupation not to seeke of it It is the promise of Christ to all his that they shall grow up thus in the body not by any vertue of their owne but by the Spirit of the Lord Iesus their nourishment And to this end especially they cleave to this Sacrament and improve the promise of it This is my body This is my bloud even to settle the soule by the frequent receiving of it upon the Lord Iesus for stablenesse strength courage that they may enjoy the Lord Iesus in all the Sacraments they have received and retaine the power of all the Ordinances they have used all the graces they have growne in all the duties they have done afflictions they have endured examples they have seene workes and governement of God which they have marked I say that from all these the Lord would bring such an holy experience of heart resolution of purpose setling of spirit upon the Lord his threats commands and promises as not doubting but they are firme and sure Matth. 7 ult and therefore a rocke and foundation sufficient to rely upon in all windes stormes and weathers whatsoever This I say is that third degree of Christ our nourishment which each communicant lookes for at the Supper The fourth degree Fruitfulnesse in grace 1 Cor. 15. ult What it is The fourth and last is fruitfulnesse in grace See 1 Cor. 15 ult where the Apostle joynes these two last branches Be yee unmooveable and setled alway abounding in the worke of the Lord. Wee see it in plants and men The plants must be well spread and rooted in the earth before they can grow fruitfull at least in plenty A little roote will not nourish large branches and boughes Sometime the root is so bare and fleet that it will scarce furnish the tree with leaves but a large deepe root hath many strings and little suckers which worke for the tree and feede her with nourishment so that the roote abiding deepe aod fast in the earth the fruit is plentifull Wee know nature is never more fruitfull in the active principle of generation than when the strength of the body is well confirmed So then this is the last step of spirituall prosperitie when this fourth is added to the three former to wit fruitfulnesse in a good course And it is the perfection of that influence and communion which we here enjoy in the Lord Iesus our nourishment That meate indeede and drinke indeede is this abundance and fruitfulnesse When out of the abundance of the heart the tongue is fruitfull in uttering the hands in working the feete in walking the members in service the whole tree in bringing forth fruits of righteousnesse Esay 61 3. calles such accepted and beloved of the Lord as we esteeme exceedingly of bearing trees especially if yearely and plentifully It is from the roote of the Lord Iesus that the soule doth grow thus fruitfull The indwelling of Christ is the abundance of influence the lesse of Christ the soule hath the lesse sap and fruit the nearer the communion the greater the influence The greater the treasure is from which a man draweth the richer the supply We say It s sweet to take from a great heape An heape wil serve for all uses a poore unstockt man is easily perceived in his wares the small store and choise therof hee that hath little mony to lay out is bare in his household attire family diet scarse hath for necessitie but nothing for delight and plenty So is it with a man that is no prosperer in grace hath only froÌ„ hand to mouth he cannot verifie our Saviour his specch That out of the abundance of the heart he bringeth good things abundantly but