which we are to express our Thankfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ for what he hath done and suffered for us by often thinking of it our selves or speaking of it to others to the eternal praise and renown of our dear Redeemer 2. Another way by which we are to express our Thankfulness is by magnifying and setting an high esteem and value upon what he hath done for us Estimation of Benefits received is one way of expressing our Thankfulness for them Unthankfulness always lessens and vilifyes and makes light of a kindness or benefit received as Israel did the Manna Numb 21.5 And the People spake against God and against Moses Wherefore have you brought us up out of Aegypt to dye in the wilderness for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread Numb 11.5.6 We remember the fish we did freely eat in Aegypt the Cucumbers and the Melons and the Leeks c. but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all besides this Mannah before our eyes Oh what unthankful ungrateful People were these to make light of such excellent Food which yeilded such excellent nourishment and in the strength of which they were able to go so many and such tedious Journeys Their entertaining such base low mean thoughts of it argued their great unthankfulness for it Thus unthankful wretches do by Christ even as these Israelites did by the Mannah they make but light of Christ the greatest Gift that God could have bestowed upon the Sons of Men. But yet at the same time they despise both Giver and Gift it self by despising the Gift they affront the Giver They see no lovelyness no beauty no excellency in Christ that they should desire him What is thy beloved more than another beloved was the Answer to the Spouse when she was so earnestly enquiring after her Beloved Cant. 5.10 A Lust a Pleasure is by many preferred before Christ A Lust that will Damn them before a Saviour that will Save them A Carnal Pleasure shall be embraced when Christ and his Benefits shall be despised this argues great Ingratitude and Unthankfulness vilifies and lessens both the Person that shews the kindness and the kindness it self when as true Thankfulness esteems and values both Person and Benefit both he that hath done and what he hath done for us Now this way we are to express our Thanfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ by our esteem of him and the Benefits we receive by him Now what esteem have we for Christ Do we esteem him as the Apostle did who desired and determined to know nothing else but Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 He looked upon all other knowledge as vain and unprofitable in comparison of Christ and him Crucifyed this shewed his value and esteem for Christ And such an esteem had he for Christ that he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ yea all things but dung that he might win Christ and be sound in him Phil. 3.8 9. He could despise and trample upon the pleasures and profits and preferments of this present World that he might but win Christ and be found in him Endure and undergo the greatest hardships and sufferings for the Name and sake of Christ The greatest of his glorying and boasting was in a Crucifyed Jesus God forbid says he that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Jesus Christ by which the world is crucifyed unto me and I unto the world Nothing had that place in his esteem as Christ's had And then is our esteem of Christ right indeed when we esteem him above all and before all above Estate above Relations above all other outward comforts and conveniencies when we are willing to let go all for Christ I am sure there is that worth and excellency in Christ both Personal and Relative whether we consider him as he is in himself or in those comfortable relations he stands in to his People I say consider him which way we will in his Offices in his Grace and Fullness in his Honours and Glorious Titles and there is that in Christ which truly deserves our greatest and highest esteem Thus we are to express our Thankfulness by our high Esteem of Christ of his Person and as of his Person so of his Deeds and Actions of what he hath done and suffered for us and the great Benefits that issue and proceed from thence Is it not wonderful that a Person so high and honourable so excellent and glorious that the Son of God and God by Nature who was equal with God in Glory Wisdom and Power and in all other Divine Excellencies and Perfections that he should suffer this Glory of his to lie obscure for a time under the Vail of his Humane Nature That a Person so far above and beyond us should come and joyn himself to us Marry into such a poor broken beggarly Family as ours That he who was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law under the Observation of the Law to fulfil the Righteousness thereof and under the Malediction of the Law to undergo the Penalty and Curse of it That the Judge of Quick and Dead should become Undertaker for Guilty Condemned Wretches That he who knew no sin should be made sin and submit to be dealt with as if he had been the Chiefe of Sinners bruised and broken upon the Wheel of Divine Wrath Reproached and Vilifyed by Men forsaken of his Father vir dolorum a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief O the pains of Body and the anguish of Spirit that he underwent the wearysome Life and at last the Painful and Accursed Death that he endured and all this to save an handful that were not worth the looking after or taking notice of who neither desired it nor deserved it Well might it be said That he had mercy upon whom he will have mercy and that he loved us because he loved us Alas Who are we or what are we that Christ should fix his heart's Love upon us Would we know what we were why lost undone miserable Sinners Enemies nay Enmity it self dead in Trespasses and Sin in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity Many of them for whom Christ hath done and suffer'd such things were it may be Blasphemers Persecutors and Injurious to Christ and his Followers Such an one was that eminent Servant of Christ the Apostle Paul as he himself acknowledges 1 Tim. 1.12.13 And I thank Jesus Christ who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious but I obtained mercy c. Some of them it may be have been guilty of the foulest and grossest Sins as some of the Corinthians were Fornicators Idolaters Adulterérs Thieves Drunkards c. yet these obtained Mercy were Washed were Sanctifyed were Justifyed in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God as we
7. We must walk with a more inflamed Love and endeared Affection to the blessed Lord Jesus This Supper-Ordinance is a Love-token betwixt Christ and his Church where they mutually seal up their Affections to each other In it we have had the highest and the fullest demonstrations of his Love to us Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends VVhy such love there was in the heart of Christ to poor finners as to lay down his life for them Hereby perceive we the love of God says the Apostle John because he Laid down his life for us 1 John 3.16 Ay here was a full demonstration of it indeed This was a demonstration of that love which was in the heart of Christ from Eternity to poor sinners O wonderful Love that he should open his Breast to receive into his own heart the sharp point of that sword which was directed against us VVhere shall we find love to match this love Rather than we should be Sacrifices to Divine Justice he himself would become the Sacrifice Have we had such demonstrations of his love represented to us in this Ordinance O then with what an inflamed love and endeared affections to the Lord Jesus Christ ought we to walk after this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper As we are to hate sin more so we are to love Christ more Let us therefore as the Apostle exhorts us walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 The most intense love and purest affections are due from us to Christ who loved us and dyed for us and rose again for our Justifycation and is gone before to prepare Mansions of Glory for the seeing God's Face and enjoying God's Presence to all Eternity These are endearing considerations and should mightily endear Christ to our Souls And O that we could find and feel more of the constraining power and efficacy of this Love of Christ every day drawing out our hearts and affections more after himself 8. We are to walk more inquisitively that is to say more upon the search and enquiry not so much into the affairs and concerns of others as into the frames and conditions and affairs of our own Souls Many are busy in making their reflexions and observations upon others and in the mean time overlook themselves The Mind hath many turnings but the best is when it turns in and reflects upon it self This was holy David's way and practice Psal 77.6 I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search Ay this is a commendable walk indeed when we are much in communing with our own hearts enquiring how matters go there As the wise and prudent and careful Tradesman is often looking into his Accounts that he may know how it is with him whether he goes backward or forward in the World So should we be often looking into our hearts that we may know how it is with us whether we go backward or forwards in our Souls That we may know what our losses have been and what our gains have been This is a walking that is pleasing to God as is evident from the many Injunctions of his Word and Will to this purpose Lament 3.40 Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord Hag. 1.5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves prove your own selves c. In order to the preparing our hearts to approach the Lord's Table the Apostle recommends to us this excellent duty of Self-examination 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat c. The Apostle is here laying before them the sin and danger of unworthy participation of this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper and gives them to understand that such as eat and drink unworthily are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Here he lays before them the sin And in the 29th Verse he lays before them the danger and tells them plainly that such as eat and drink unworthily eat and drink Damnation to themselves Now to prevent such a mischief as this he recommends to them this excellent duty of Self-examination It is as much as if he had said If ye would not eat and drink unworthily and thereby eat and drink damnation to your selves then set upon this business of Self-examination Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. Truly as this is necessary before we venture upon this Ordinance so it is as necessary after we have partaken of it Let a man examine himself and so let him eat c. So also let a Man eat and drink and so let him examine himself An after reflection is as necessary as a previous examination We examine our selves before in order to receive good And we must examine our selves after to see what good we have received After our performance of any duty we should be upon the enquiry what good we have got This Question we should put to our selves after every Prayer we make after every Sermon we hear after every time we Communicate at the end of every Duty and at the end of every day We have been lately partaking of this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper and as we are frequently exhorted to examine our selves before we sit down at this Ordinance So the Exhortation now is to examine our selves after we are risen from it What Warmth of Affection had we in it and not only so But what Warmth of Affection do we now find remaining and abiding upon us Is not that Heat and Warmth in a great measure abated and lost already This is that which we should look to that we do not easily or quickly after Duties are over lose that Heat and Warmth which we got in the Duty at the end of every Duty and at the end of every day we are seriously and faithfully to examine and consider what of God and what of Christ hath been discovered to me this day or in this or that Duty VVhat discoveries have been made of our selves to our selves of the baseness and vileness and corruptions of our own hearts VVhat expressions of love to God and Christ VVhat expressions of Sorrow for sin VVhat delight in Christ and desires after Christ have been working in my Soul this day VVhat lively vigorous acts and exercises of Grace hath been put forth not only in the Duty performed but since the Duty was performed VVhat Power hath been exerted this day in a way of opposition and resistance against Temptations and against Corruptions VVhat Backfildings and Apostacys and defections from God have I been guilty of since the last time I renewed my Covenant And what Sorrow and Contrition of heart hath been expressed for it VVhat guilt and defilement have I a-fresh contracted and what application in a way of Faith of
and more in Knowledge in Faith in Patience in Love in all Grace and Consolation until all be perfected and swallowed up in Glory II. More particularly And we may take the Answer in these following things which indeed are but branches of the other but for Method and Memory sake I chuse to put them into so many Particulars As 1. More Watchfully and Circumspectly After Communicating there must be a watchful circumspect walking As a Man that hath a Treasure in his house is very watchful and careful least he be robbed of it Now it is to be supposed and hoped that we have received that in the participation of that Ordinance which the Devil would be glad to deprive us of Whatever comfort and refreshment we have had whatever Assurances and Evidences of Gods Love we have had a-new and a-fresh whatever lights of Christ and resolutions against sin we have had he stands ready to undoe all that hath been done and to deprive us of all that we got Upon this account we have need to walk watchfully and circumspectly We had need to have our eyes upward and our eyes inward and our eyes round about us Did we find through Grace our hearts wrought up to any gracious frames Did we find that our Souls were refreshed that our hearts were inlarged that our affections were inflamed to Christ that we received any virtue from and had communion with Christ Did we make fresh vows and resolutions that through the Grace of Christ enabling us we would walk before him in holyness and newness of life all our days Why then we may depend upon it and look for it that the Devil will be very busy to undoe all this We must expect that he will have a fling at us for he is never more busy in tempting then when we have been Worshipping He is never more busy in Tempting us to sin then after we have been making new and fresh resolutions against sin When we have been at the Lord's Table renewing our Covenants with God and establishing our resolutions of better Obedience After these things the Devil will come with all his forces and endeavours to make us break our Vows and neglect our Covenants He will be courting us to return to our old sins and our old frames to our coldness and deadness and lukewarmness and worldly-mindedness to our fears and doubtings to our old manner and course of living Therefore we had need to walk watchfully and circumspectly watching our words thoughts actions lives and conversations that we do not return to our old vain light frothy conversations that better becomes the Prophane than the Professor The liberty that some do allow themselves this way Communicants I mean in frothy I had almost said in filthy Discourses and unseemly Actions is a thing that is much to be lamented and bewailed in our day It is a hard matter to distinguish the professing from the carnal part of the World who are very near as airy in their Dresses as light and frothy in their Discourses and as vain in their conversations as the Carnal Crew And is this a walk becoming those who sit down at their Lord's Table O no such ought to walk very watchfully and circumspectly that they may not occasion the ways of God and Religion to be reproached and blasphemed We had need walk watchfully that we do not lose those sights of Christ those comforts and refreshments those enlargements and enjoyments that we had in the Ordinance That the fellowship and communion we had with Christ be not quickly interrupted and disturbed It is a great mistake in Persons to think that when the Supper is ended their Work is ended that they have nothing more to do nor nothing farther to mind as if now they might return to their former courses again and be as vain and worldly and wicked as before It is to be feared this is the practice of too many Communicants in our day that no sooner or soon after the action is over they return to their old course of sinning Receive the Sacrament one day and may be be Drunk before the next nay it may be have their Oaths and Curses in their Mouths before the Bread and Wine is well out of their Mouths It were well if that which was laid unto Israel's Charge might not be laid to the charge of too many Communicants in our day Exod. 32.6 The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play O how many sit down at the Lord's Table to eat and drink of the Sacramental Elements and rise up to play return again to their old courses playing and sporting and fooling with sin to their Cursing and Swearing and Sabbath-breaking to their Adultery Uncleanness Injustice Drunkenness c. Like the Dog to his vomit and the Sow when she is washed to her wallowing in the mire Thus do many return again to their former lusts and sins with as great nay greater strength than ever so making themselves twofold more the Children of hell than before There ought to he a mighty careful heedful circumspect watchful walking after we have been at the Table of the Lord remembring that the Sacramental efficacy and bond doth not oblige us for a day only or a week only but it binds us for our whole lives But to conclude what I intend to say upon this head was it the sincere and earnest desire of our Souls before we came to this Ordinance that we might bring suitable frames and affection to it and did the Lord answer our crys herein why now we ought to be as careful and as much concerned that those gracious frames of heart may be maintained and kept up in our Souls Did we beg to come with bleeding and broken hearts to this Ordinance why now it is our duty to beg that they may be kept bleeding and broken Did we beg for a stronger Faith for more glowing burning affections to this loving lovely Jesus why now we are to watch and pray against unbelief against coldness and luke-warmness of love and affection Did we purpose to forsake our Sins why now we are to watch more narrowly against it and to beg of God strength and Grace that those purposes and intentions may be forthwith put into execution 2. More Humbly entertaining low and mean thoughts and opinions of our selves acknowledging our own baseness and vileness and sinfulness and unworthiness loathing and abhorring our selves under a sense of our daily weaknesses and sinful Infirmities renouncing and rejecting all Righteousness of our own as being altogether insufficient any ways to recommend us to the Divine Love and Favour looking upon our selves as loathsome and odious and no way lovely and amiable in the fight of God accusing judging and condemning our selves owning and admiring and adoring free Love and free Grace in all that Christ hath done for us and in us Having done all for us in a way of Purchase and Merit and all in us in a way of
to come he could neither expiate Sin nor procure Eternal Life No these are things which could only be accomplished and brought about by him who was more than a meer finite or Created Being even by the Lord Jesus Christ who was not only Man but God too you see then we are beholden to Christ for all He it is that fetcheth sinners from the lowest Hell and lodgeth them in the highest Heavens that snatcheth them from the deepest Misery and advanceth them to the highest Glory that poor finite beings are capable of O the great obligations that are upon us to walk thankfully all our days Every time we partake of this Supper-Ordinance we come under new and fresh obligations of thankfulness We that have been so lately feasting upon his love so lately put in mind of the great things he hath been doing for us before whose eyes Jesus Christ in the greatest expressions of his love hath been evidently set forth and Crucified amongst us and the blessed benefits of his Death and Crucifixion represented sealed and applied to us Our Blessed Lord would not have his love in doing and Suffering for us be forgotten by us and therefore hath appointed this Supper as a standing monument and memorial thereof to his Church When we eat the Sacramental Bread and drink the Sacramental Cup we are to do it in remembrance of him of what he hath done and suffered for us This was a kindness never to be forgotten at the Institution of which Supper we find he himself gave thanks * Rob. Communicant page 178. 1 Cor. 11.23.24 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he break it c. after the same manner also he took the cup. Now what was the matter or form of this thanksgiving is not expressed but it is most likely it was in reference to the work or action then in hand and not only for the bare outward Elements but more cheifly and especially for the inward Mysterys and excellent benefits to be represented and sealed by them For the Grace and love of God which he came to discover to Mankind and was now about to seal with his own Blood The Baptism he was to be baptised with was now approaching viz. his death wherein his Body was to be broken and his Blood shed for the life of the World and for the nourishment of the Elect which he delighted to accomplish or as he himself expresseth it was straitned till it was accomplished These were the things that were chiefly and specially the matter of his thanksgiving Now did Christ give thanks at the first Institution why then proportionably we are still to give thanks in all after Administrations of this Supper And not only just in the participation of it but after we have partaken we are to walk thankfully all the days of our lives considering ◠1. 〈◊〉 The inward moving cause of all which was the great love and mercy of God to us John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins Now this first inward moving cause of all viz. the love of God must not be overlooked because it is commended to us Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his love to us in that white we were yet sinners Christ died for us Some things are barely related to us but this is commended to us that we may be sure never to forget it and to be continual matter of praise and thanksgiving to us considering 2. The outward occasion or procuring cause which is Mans misery by reason of sin This was the outward occasion of Christ's coming into the World and doing what he did and suffering what he suffered He came to reconcile and propitiate God offended by Mans sin To remove that enmity that was betwixt God and us to appease the anger and wrath of God towards us now before this can be brought about and effected the Son of God must become Man obey and suffer bleed and dye to expiate our offences And doth not this afford us continual matter of thanksgiving Once more considering the effect and fruit and benefit of all that he hath done and suffered for us and that is life that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him This was the white that Christ aimed at in all that he did next to his Fathers glory was the salvation and life of poor sinners that we might live how why a life of pardon and acceptance in Justification a life of grace and holiness in Sanctification a life of joy and peace in Consolation and a life of bliss and happiness in Glorification These are things that our thoughts should be much employed about and affected with at the Table and shall we not henceforward look upon our selves as laid under the highest obligations of thankfulness of walking thankfully all our days We never have been so much beholden to any person but we are infinitely more beholden to the Lord Jesus Christ therefore the whole of our lives should be nothing else but continual expressions of thankfulness to Christ But here it may be asked how should we express our thankfulness To this I Answer 1. By often thinking of it our selves and speaking of it to others to his glory We are to express our Thankfulness to Christ for what he hath done by giving and ascribing all the Glory to him attributing and ascribing nothing to our selves but all to the riches of his Grace and freeness of his Love To look upon our selves as any ways deserving what he hath done for us doth greatly detract from his Glory and argues a base disingenuous ungrateful temper to be in us Alas Who are we or what are we poor worthless worms not worthy that he should spend a thought upon us and much less that he should lay down his Life and shed his Blood for us Pray let us a little reflect and consider what we were not long ago Dead in Trespasses and Sins wallowing in the filth and mire of Sin and Lust alienated from nay enemies to God and Christ poor and miserable and blind and naked cast out into the open Field to the loathing of our persons polluted and defiled in our Blood not worth the taking notice of Now than ever we should be the Objects of his Love who deserved to be the Objects of his eternal disdain and the everlasting Monuments of his Displeasure How ought this to be continually acknowledged by us to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace This is one way by which we express our Thankfulness for any kindness or favour receiv'd when we think of it or speak of it to the Praise and Renown of him that shewed it So this is one way by
to have a recourse to this blood of Christ for the removal of it and under the daily sense and feeling of the working of innate inbred Corruption we are to have a daily recourse unto this blood of Christ that it may be subdued we are to eye the Death of Christ for sanctification as well as for Justification for Mortification and killing of Lust as well as for the taking away and removal of Guilt Alas we are no more able to subdue our own Lusts than we are to remove our own Guilt but are as much beholden to Christ for the one as for the other In a word throughout the whole of our Christian Race and Course our eye must be unto Christ Looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith Every day by fresh acts of Faith casting and committing all the concernments of our Souls into the hands of our dear Redeemer This is to walk fiducially and thus we are to walk after this Supper One end of which Supper was for the strengthening of Grace in our Souls not only for the inflaming our Love but for the strengthning our Faith Not only that our love to him might wax hotter and hotter but that our Faith in him and Relyance upon him might be stronger and stronger 5. VVe must walk with a greater hatred of and indignation against sin VVe have been Commemorating a Crucifyed Bleeding Dying Jesus And pray what was the occasion of this shameful ignominious and Reproachful Death Why it was sin But not any sin of his own that he was brought to this Death and Sufferings but for the sins of his People The Lord laid upon him the Iniquity of his People Isa 53. And there was not only an act of God the Father in laying these sins upon Christ but there was also Christ's own voluntary consent to take them upon him So that it was sin the sins of his Elect People that he took upon him which was the occasion of his bitter Sufferings He was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities Ay and these were far more wounding and painful to him than was the piercing of his natural Side with the Souldier's Spear This was that which occasion'd that Agony of Body and Anguish of soul even the Wrath and Displeasure of God manifested against the sins which he bare And who of us is able to conceive of that which he felt of that Torment he felt in his Body and of that Anguish he felt in his soul. My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely fin must be an exceeding great evil which was the occasion of so great Sufferings And indeed there is no Glass doth so fully and clearly discover to us the evil and heinous nature of sin as the Glass of Christs Death and Sufferings Now in this Supper Ordinance we have a lively Representation of a broken Crucifyed Christ broken and Crucified for our sins his Body broken and his Blood shed for our sins this is that which our Faith is to eye in our participation of this Ordinance Have we seen Christ in this Ordinance Broken and Crucifyed and bruised for our sins and shall we dare to live in sin Is this a walk suteable and becoming those that have been at the Table of the Lord Suteable to those expressions of Love that are manifested or suteable to those Mysteries that are tendered there or to those great Benefits that are represented there Surely no After we have been at this Table we come under deeper Obligations of abandoning and hating sin than before Have we received the Lord's Supper as a Seal of the Remission of our sins And shall we dare after this Supper to fall a-fresh into the Commission of the same sins What is this but to prophane the Blood of the Covenant and to trample under foot the Blood of the son of God And is this our kindness to our Friend who so freely parted with his Life and Hearts-blood Surely they greatly mistake the nature and end of this Supper that go from it with a purpose to return to their Vice and Wickedness and use it only for a Protection and Tolleration for their sins It is a sure and certain sign that our hearts were never rightly and truly humbled and broken for sin before we came to this supper if there be any secret purposes and resolutions kept up and maintained in our Souls of returning to our sins afterwards If it was necessary to bring bleeding hearts to this Ordinance then certainly it is as necessary to carry away broken and bleeding hearts for sin from it especially when we have had such an affecting sight presented to us viz. a Christ bruised and broken for our sins Methinks every time we partake of this Ordinance it should stir up in us a greater abhorrency and hatred of sin than ever O consider what wrath our sins did derive upon Christ in order to the kindling our hatred and indignation against them What shall we make light of that which Christ found so heavy and heinous which fetched from him such great drops of Blood and extorted from him so bitter and dreadful a Lamentation My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Did Christ shed all his Hearts-blood for thy sins and dost thou think much to shed a few Penitential Tears for them Or wilt thou hug such a Viper in thy bosom which was such a sting in the heart of thy Saviour Wilt thou pretend to have had Fellowship with Christ in this Ordinance and afterward hold fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness What a contradiction is this 6. We must walk with a greater weanedness of affection from the World God forbid says the Apostle that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by which the world is crucifyed to me and I unto the world Gal. 6.14 He was arrived to such an holy indifferency as to care no more for the World than the World cared for him and this he did through the Cross of Christ Remembring how the World dealt with Christ and how little he regarded the World Now shall we who have been so lately Celebrating and Commemorating the Death and Crucifixion of Christ love that and cleave to that which dealt so unkindly by him or esteem that which was so little esteemed by him Is this a walk worthy of his Dying-Love no this is no way becoming those that have been entertained at this Table Therefore where we see Persons after they have been at this Table conforming to the World to the Fashions and Vanities thereof their Hearts and Affections glued to the World and the Things of the World persuing after it with the greatest vehemency and eagerness why this is such a kind of walking as is no way suteable and becoming the Guests of Christ
the Blood of Christ hath been made for pardon and cleansing VVhat growth and encrease of comfort and refreshment and joy do I find in my Soul VVhat encrease of strength do I find to perform Dutys To bear Afflictions To resist Temptations To mortify Corruptions To walk with God Thus we should be upon the enquiry every day and after every Duty and especially after this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper Is my Soul more knit to Christ my heart more ravished with his Beauty and Excellency Doth Christ appear more Fair and Sin more foul to me than before Christ more sweet and Sin more bitter Sure I am it ought to be so with every one of us who have been Guests at our Lord's Table where we might see Two affecting heart-melting heart-breaking sights The one was Christ broken for us The other was Christ broken by us A Christ broken for us and there was an heart over flowing with love pitty and compassion to us which should beget in us hearts glowing and burning and flaming with love to him And then we have seen a Christ broken by us wounded and bruised and pierced and broken by our sins which were the occasion of his bitter Agonies and Sufferings Now as in the first we saw the fulness of Christs love so in this we see the foulness of our sins that nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse us from it There is nothing that represents to us the bitterness of sin like the Suâ—â—erings of Christ These things have been lately in a most lively manner represented to us and set before the eye and view of our Faith in this Supper-ordinance But how have our Hearts and Souls been affected with these lights Doth Christ appear more fair and Sin more foul than before Christ more sweet and Sin more bitter thus it ought to be with us who have been at this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper And our work and business now is to look to it that indeed it be so 9. More Couragiously and with greater resolution for Christ VVe that have had such Tokens of Christs love and such Instances of his zeal and courage for our good as to encounter the greatest difficulties that lay in the way of our Salvation and Happiness not only the rage of Men and Devils but the VVrath of his Father too How should the consideration of this arm and fill our Minds and Souls with an holy zeal and courage for him 1 Pet. 4.1 For as much then as Christ suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind At this Table of the Lord we have seen what Christ hath done and suffered for us It therefore concerns us to give a proof of our zeal and courage for him by owning his ways and defending his truths by withstanding Temptations and turning a deaf ear to all the Sollicitations of the Flesh not betraying the Interest of Christ into the hands of Enemies standing our ground as long as we have ground to stand upon suffering the loss of all things rather than part with Christ Honours Pleasures Preferments Liberties Livelyhoods nay Life it self rather than part with Christ VVith such a zeal for Christ was the Apostle Paul filled Acts 21.13 What mean ye to weep and break my heart For I am ready not only to be bound but to suffer at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Where shall we find such a bold Lyon-like spirited Man for the Lord Jesus Christ again as this blessed Apostle was He feared neither Bonds nor Death I am ready says he not only to be bound but to suffer and dye at Jerusalem for the sake of the Lord Jesus rather than deny or disown Christ Neither the flatteries of the World on the one hand should entice him away nor the frowns of the World on the other hand fright him away from Christ Such a zeal and courage for Christ should our Minds be armed with as to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering in the view aud face of the greatest opposition and difficulty that may be in our way to Heaven A Christian of all Men should be armed with the greatest Courage and Resolution because he is like to meet with the soarest and sharpest Assaults In the world ye shall have Tribulation John 16. ult Whilst we are in this World we must not expect much ease or quiet Storms and Tempests we must expect in our Voyage or Journey to Heaven The Christian's Life is a continual warfare From our Spiritual birth to our Natural death from the hour and moment we did first set our face Heavenward till we come to set our foot in Heaven we shall have trouble and molestation on one kind or another There is no place which the Christian can call Priviledged Ground O then what need have we of Courage to hold on and hold out to the end The Devil will never leave Tempting nor the World Alluring nor the Flesh Solliciting whilst we are upon our March The Israelites you know had no Peace till they lodged their Colours in Canaan Fresh Troubles and Difficulties did arise in their March from Aegypt to Canaan so it will be with us in our March to Heaven We must bear the Cross before we wear the Crown through much tribulation must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14.22 10. With a more endeared love and affection one to another Ephes 5.2 And walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour This is the Apostles Exhortation to the Ephesians viz. To walk in love And the Argument by which he presseth this is taken from the love of Christ to us in laying down his Life and offering up himself a Sacrifice to God for us Now this Love we have been lately Celebrating and Commemorating in this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper where we have seen Christ broken and Crucifyed for us And can we have a greater Motive to love one another than this who have been Celebrating the love of Christ together It highly concerns every one of us to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us But here it may be asked what is it to walk in love Why to walk in love Non est simpliciter diligere sed totam vitam in Charitate transigere Zanch. inloâ— Not simply to love but to pass our whole life in love Ita ut omnia a Charitate sluant in Charitate fiant in Charitatem desinant So that all may flow from love and may be done in love and may end in love This is to walk in love and so ought we to walk in love one towards another Performing all Offices of love and kindness and respect one towards another pittying and praying one for another Admonishing and reproving one another in love and meekness Bearing one anothers burdens assisting and helping one another kind and tender-hearted one to
us Others passed by us and took no notice of us but he looked upon us and behold it was a time of Love with us He threw his Skirt over us and covered our Nakedness and poured Water upon us to wash away our filthiness He Swear unto us and entred into Covenant with us to be ours and we to be his he to be our God and we to be his Peculiar People He hath given Himself his Son his spirit to us Himself to be our God and Portion Jer. 31.31 32 33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts and will be their God and they shall be my People And what Tongue can express What Pen can describe the happiness of that People who have God to be their God David in the 144 Psalm v. 15. says Happy are the People whose God is the Lord. He doth not say how happy for it is beyond express But this we may truly say that all our happiness and felicity and comfort lies in this in having God to be our God If there be no want to them that fear God I am sure there can be none to them that enjoy God who is a Soul-comforting Soul-refreshing Soul-satisfying Object It matters not what our Circumstances and Conditions are here in this World be they never so low and inconsiderable if we have but God for our God we are happy Happy is that People whose God is the Lord. He hath given us not only himself but his Son too John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Given him for us To obey and suffer to bleed and dye and suffer and satisfy for us to rescue and redeem us from those evils and miseries under which we lay viz. the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law by laying down his life for us a life more precious than the lives of all the Angels in Heaven or Men upon Earth Not only given him for us but given him to us to be believed in and rested upon for Life and Salvation to dwell in us and be united to us to be made of God Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption to be to us and do for us all that God hath appointed and designed him to be Again he hath not only given us himself and Son but his Spirit also to us To open our Eyes to enlighten our Minds to incline our Wills to change our Hearts to Turn and Convert us to himself To convince of Sin to lead to Christ to be the guid of our ways to be the death of our sins to quicken and enliven and strengthen our Graces To witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God To comfort us in all our Troubles to succour us in all our Temptations to resolve us in all our Doubts to help us against all our Infirmities To conduct us safe through this evil World and to seal us up to the day of Redemption But yet farther he gives us liberty to wait upon him in the solemn Dutys of his Worship He gives us Praying seasons and Hearing seasons and Communicating seasons for the carrying on begun Grace in our Souls Thus richly doth he furnish our Table in this howling Desart and bountifully provides for us in a strange Land We have not only Food for our Bodies but Food for our Souls not only the Bread that perisheth but that which endures to Everlasting Life The Lamb is slain and behold all things are ready The Marriage Supper is prepared and a welcome ready for all that come to it This is Christ's language to all his guests O friends drink ye eat â—e drink and eat abundantly O beloved And what do you think is the matter of this Feast Why it is Christ with all his saving Benefits even Peace and Pardon and Comfort This is the Gospel Feast unto which poor Sinners are invited The Lord Jesus Christ is both the master and the matter of this Feast This is that Bread which came down from Heaven which is othergates Food than that Manna was which fell in the Wilderness of which it is said Our Fathers did eat and they are dead but whosoever eateth of this Bread lives for ever John 6.48 49 50. This is the Lamb that was slain from the Foundations of the World whose Flesh is Meat indeed and whose Blood is Drink indeed Thus bountifully hath God provided for our Souls we have not only the sincere Milk of the Word that we may grow thereby but more substantial Food even that sealing strengthening confirming Ordinance of the Lords Supper where Christ and all his Benefits are represented sealed and applied to Belivers who was not only offered up upon the Cross for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice and the expiation of our Sins but offered upon the Table for the satisfying our guilty minds and for the Food and Nourishment of our Souls Here it is that we may take a view of Christ's dying love Here we see him Bruised and Broken and Bleeding for our sakes and for our Sins Here we may see him broken and bruised by his Father in the day of his great Wrath when his Body was torn his Soul in a dreadful Agony his side pierced his Blood shed these are in a most lively manner represented by the breakof the Bread and pouring out of the Wine Here is a Wounded Broken Bleeding Jesus represented to us The Elements in this Sacrament signifie and set forth the unconceivable Sufferings of our blessed Lord both in his â—ody and in his Soul The Bread signifies the Sufferings of his Body And the Wine which is a representation of his Blood the Agonvs of his Soul because the Spirits whereby the Soul acts are in the Blood All the Sacraments that ever were instituted since Adams fall to this very day both ordinary and extraordinary both Old Testament and New Testament Sacraments they all of them principally represent and point at Jesus and him Crucified Adams Sacrifices were Types of Christ the true Sacrifice Circumcision a pledge of our Hearts Circumcision thro' Christs Blood Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ The Passover was a token and Type of Christ our Passover Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Baptism this doth point at the Death of Christ we are said by Baptism to be Baptised into Christ and into his Death Rom. 6.3 4 5. And the Lords Supper is a most lively representation of the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew the Lords death till he come This is a standing memorial and a lasting monument of our blessed Lords love in bleeding
and dying for us and is to continue to the end of the World even till the coming of our Lord to Judgment So that Christ and his Death Christ as Crucified is that which is represented and pointed at in this Sacrament Here it is that Christ Jesus is as it were afresh Crucified before our eyes bruised by his Father pierced by the Souldiers bleeding for our sins Here is a sweet love-token indeed betwixt Christ and his Church betwixt Christ and Believers What greater love can be imagined than to dye for us Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend Ay but here was greater love than this here was Blood shed and a Life laid down for very Enemies This Ordinance may truly be stiled a Love Feast Every thing in it speaks love The Mysteries in it speak love Here is Christ's Body not whole but broken Christ's Blood not in his veins but shed and freely poured out for poor sinners The benefits intended to us by it speak great love Here is compleat Provision and full Nourishment for our Souls for our Faith and all the graces of the inward man intended by it A fresh seal of the Pardon of our Sins in the Blood of Christ Fuller and clearer discoverys of God's reconciled face in and thro the Attoning Blood of the Lord Jesus that Blood of the Everlasting Covenant A more full confirmation and a more close application of the New Covenant and all the Promises Comforts Benefits and Priviledges thereof to our Souls and a more full Communion with Christ in his Grace and fullness in his Death and Sufferings in his great Undertakings and glorious Transactions in his high Dignitys and Relations in his great Victorys and Atchievements and in those necessary offices of Prophet Priest and King to his Church these are some of the great benefits that are intended to us by this Ordinance Now we that have been so lately entertained at this Table of the Lord that have or might have been feasting and satiateing our Souls upon this Banquet of Christs love it behooves and concerns every one of us to walk worthy of the Lord unto all-pleasing to walk worthy of this love of Christ in doing and suffering in bleeding and dying for us That is to walk suitably and some way becoming those expressions of love that have been exhibited and represented to us in this Ordinance I say it highly concerns every one of us who have been feasting at this Banquet of Christs love it concerns us to keep up and maintain a suitable and becoming walk after it Remembring that it is not enough to Eat and Drink worthily at this Supper but we must also walk worthily after this Supper we have oftentimes bills put up for a prepared heart and a suitable frame that persons may come prepared to this Ordinance of the Lords Supper that they may not eat and drink unworthily But I do not remember that ever I saw a bill for a suitable walk and behaviour afterward It is not enough that we duely prepare before act worthily in but we must also walk suitably after Communicating And there is as much need to put up a Prayer and to dispatch a cry to Heaven that we may walk worthily after as well as come preparedly to this Supper By walking worthily I mean no more than walking suitably and becomingly But here it may be asked what is this suitable walking or wherein doth it consist or how is it that we are to walk after this Supper Ordinance To this we shall answer I. More Generally II. More Particularly I. The general answer to this is more Holily after this Supper of the Lord we are to walk more Holily Now to this holy walking there must be a Principle of Grace wrought in the heart I say before there can be any holiness in the life we must first suppose that there be Grace in the heart A person must be holy before his actions can be holy For till a Man be Regenerated and act from a Principle of Grace in his heart all he doth is but the shadow and imperfect imiation of a good action as an Ape would imitate a Man or as an artificial motion doth resemble that which is natural Grace must first be infused to beget life and then we are visibly to express it in a course of godly walking And then there must not be only a Principle from which we must walk but there must be a Rule by which we must walk and that is the Law or Word of God which meets and sets out the bounds of Sin and Duty which tells us what evil we are to decline and shun and what good we are to prosecute and persue Now there is a twofold Holiness Internal and External Internal which lies in the hatred of sin and a love of that which is good External and that is expressed in avoiding of the one and persuing after the other Now this Holy Walk doth consist in a careful avoiding that which is evil and sinful and in an eager persuite after that which is good It hath two parts The one Privative The other Possitive The Privative part which is called Mortification or a dying to sin The Possitive part which is called Vivification or a living unto Righteousness The one is the purging out of Sin the other is the spiritual refining of the Soul The one is a ceasing to do evil the other is a learning to do well The one is a strenuous opposition of Sin the other is a vigorous exercise of all Grace Now after this Supper Ordinance we are to walk more Holily To hate sin more than ever and to love God and Christ and the things that are spiritually good more than ever To dye more unto Sin and to live more unto Righteousness It is true we cannot be more Elected we cannot be more justified after Communicating than we were before But we may and ought to be more sanctified than before Sanctification is a progressive thing it is compared to seed that grows first the blade springs up then the ear then the ripe Corn. We are not so much sanctified but we may be more sanctified We do not walk so holily but we may walk more holily still there is none so good but he may be better 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. So I may say having these love Banquets these Sacrament seasons and Supper Ordinances dearly beloved time after time returning upon us let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Tho' Justification doth not admit of Degrees yet Sanctification doth that is still encreasing like the shining light or Morning Sun that shines more and more and brighter and brighter unto the perfect Day Prov. 4.18 and should be daily growing more
soveraign Grace and Almighty Power owning and acknowledging whatever Grace there is already in our hearts we had it from his fulness in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell And what farther supplys of Grace we shall stand in need of we must still have it from him who is not only the head of Government to his Church but the head of Influence too in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily A fulness of wisdom as the Prophet of the Church A fulness of Merit as the Priest of the Church A fulness of Power and Efficacy as the King of the Church A fulness of all habitual created Grace not for himself only but in a way of Communication and Derivation to others the Godhead continually emptying it self into the Manhood by vertue of that near close intimous union of the Humane with the Divine Nature in the Person of Christ from this fulness it is that we are still expecting fresh supplies of Grace and Comfort Distrusting our own strength as well as renouncing our own Righteousness submitting to all the commands and ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ A proud heart shakes off the Yoke of Christ and will not be subject to the Lord the Redeemer and will be under the government of none but his own will and his own lusts like those proud Citizens we read of in Luke who said We will not have this man to reign over us We walk humbly when we lie at Christ's foot desiring to know his pleasure claiming no power over our selves or any thing that we have but intirely submit our selves to be commanded and governed by him submiting our selves wholly to his command and conduct This is to walk humbly and thus we are to walk after this Supper 3. More Thankfully What Christ hath done and suffered for us calls for the highest and most raised Thanksgivings from us We are to screw our Praises to the highest note Let us say to our Souls as holy David did to his Bless the Lord O our souls and let all that is within us bless his holy Name for his redeeming love who loved us and gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice O how should we be singing that new song of the heavenly Jerusalem above saying Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thine own Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the earth c. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing The work that Christ came to do and finish for us had in it all the expressions of love and calls for the greatest expressions of thankfulness and praise This is a just debt that we owe to Christ All the evil and misery we are freed and delivered from and the good we are possessed and made partakers of is owing to the Obedience and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Now that our hearts may be the more affected with this love of Christ and drawn out in thankfulness to him let us consider the evils we are delivered from and the good we are possessed and made partakers of by the Lord Jesus Christ First The evils and miseries we are delivered from and they are very great indeed But what are they you will ask why the guilt of sin the curse of the Law the wrath of God and the flames of Hell Man's state was once an holy state and whilst such an holy state But it was not long that he continued in this state being left to the freedom of his own will he quickly fell from that state in which he was created by sinning against God which sin was the Inlet of all misery It wofully corrupted depraved and debased our Natures robbed us of the Image of God which once was the greatest ornament and perfection of our Nature deprived us of all comfortable Fellowship and Communion with God laid us open and obnoxious to his wrath and curse to all the miseries of this Life and to the pains of Hell for ever O the depth of misery that all Mankind is plunged into O the innumerable evils that do encompass and surround us Temporal Spititual and if not found in Christ Eternal evils too will befall us but in and through Christ Believers are delivered from all that evil and misery that the Fall and Apostacy of our First Parents involved all Mankind into Through him the Guilt of Sin is removed the Wrath and Anger of God appeased the Thundering Law silenced the Image of God restored many Powerful and Potent Enemies Conquered and Subdued Secondly The good which we are possessed and made partakers of this also is owing to Christ to what he hath done and suffered for us even the good of present Grace and future Glory the good of Justification Sanctification Reconciliation for all these great benefits and good things we are beholden to Christ We are Justified by his Righteousness Sanctified by his Spirit Reconciled by his Attoning Blood Adopted by virtue of our Union with him and relation to Christ's Person as he is God's Natural Son All these blessed Benefits and Priviledges that we are made partakers of are owing unto Christ As the evils we lay under were too great for any meer creature to remove so the good things we stand in need of are too great for any mere creature to procure None beside that Person who was God as well as Man could either remove the one or procure the other Had not Christ himself undertaken the work nothing could have been done had not this Samaritain taken pitty and compassion on us in our miserable and forlorn condition we must for ever have dispaired of mercy or relief The Lord looked and there was none to help at length his own arm brought Salvation As for us we lay under an eternal incapacity and impossibility of helping or relieving our selves as for Angels they could not help us could any creature have done the work God would have employed that creature and spared his own Son But God very well knew that Redemption work was no work for an Angel no not for the whole Body of Angels If the whole order of them had come from Heaven and united all their force and strength together they could not have redeemed so much as one Soul How far God by his Almighty power could have enabled an Angel to have born up under the greatest sufferings we will not dispute but suppose an Angel might have been furnished with so much strength as to have been able to undergo and suffer all that Christ did yet under the highest communications of grace and strength to him he being still but a meer finite Creature could never satisfie for what was past nor Merit for what was
together as those that be well agreed God and the Soul holding a most delightful converse with each other whereas there was a shiness before now there is access with the greatest freedom and boldness Hereby Death and he that had the power of Death that is the Devil with all Principalities and Powers are subdued the Kingdom and Interest of Sin and Satan overthrown in the Soul and freedom from spiritual thrauldom is obtained The Son having made us free we are become free indeed These are great priviledges and O that our esteem of them were some way answerable to the greatness of them Tho' we come easily by them yet they cost Christ dear to purchase He was at a greater expense to Redeem one Soul than he was to create a whole World the one was done by the word of his Power he spake and it was done but the other is done by the blood of his heart and he must dye before it be done His life must be laid down a life more worth than all the lives of Men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven They came freely unto us but he must dye and suffer to purchase and procure them O that our Souls may with Mary magnifie the Lord who hath regarded the low estate of his servants for he that is mighty hath done great things for us 3. Another way by which we are to express our Thankfulness is by rendering again according to the Benefits we have received But when F speak of rendering back again according to the benefit received I do not mean in a way of recompense but in token of our Thankfulness Alas we are in no capacity of recompensing or making him amends for his kindness to us his love in doing and dying for us infinitely exceeds all our returns There is more proportion betwixt the light and heat of a Spark to the light and heat of the Sun than there is between his kindness and our returns When we have done all we can and suffered all we can for him it is nothing to what he hath done and suffered for us But tho' we cannot make proportionable returns yet we are to make suteable and becoming returns for the Mercys and Benefits we have received from him It is said in 2 Chron. 32.25 That Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit he had received That is he did not make suteable and becoming returns for the great benefits he had received viz. that wonderful Victory he obtained over the Assirian Army mentioned in the 25. vers And that miraculous restoration and recovery from a very dangerous illness and the confirmation of that work by a strange and supernatural motion of the Sun All which instead of keeping him low and humble probably raised him up to an high conceit and opinion of himself as if these great things had been done if not by his own power yet at least for his Piety and goodness And instead of walking humbly with his God and giving the glory of all intirely and wholly to God he took the honour to himself and vainly shewed his Riches and precious Treasures to the Babylonish Ambassadors Now this was not a return any way suteable or becoming the great benefits he had so lately received So that I say tho' we cannot make proportionable returns yet we must look to it that we make suteable returns to our loving Jesus for the great and wonderful benefits we are made partakers of in and thro' him That as his heart was enlarged in love and pity and conpassion towards us so our hearts should be enlarged in returns to him We should be putting that question to our own Souls which holy David did to his Psal 116.12 What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us But here it may be asked what is it that we ought to render unto the Lord Jesus for those expressions of his love in doing and suffering for us and for all the great and blessed benefits that do flow and proceed from hence To this I Answer We must and ought to render our whole selves to him Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercys of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Here is an Exhortation and the motive or argument by which he doth urge it The Exhortation and that is to present our Bodies a living Sacrifice Holy acceptable to God or to give dedicate devote or offer up our whole selves Souls and Bodies unto God It is true the Body is only mentioned but the Soul must not be excluded it is a Synechdochical expression where a part is put for the whole That then which we are to render unto Christ in token of our Thankfulness and gratitude is our whole selves Souls and Bodies all that we are and have to live to him to suffer for him when ever he shall call us out thereto to be saved by him and not only so but to be ruled and governed by him Submitting our selves to the conduct of his wife Providence and to the laws and rules of his most Spiritual Government That is to say when no Lust or Corruption bears Rule or Sway in our hearts but when every thing within us and every thing without us is captivated and brought over to the obedience to the Lord Jesus When Christ by his Spirit makes entrance into our hearts and takes full possession of all the powers and faculties of our Souls and of all the members of our Bodies that whereas they have once been strongly and deeply engaged in the ways and service of Sin they become now as deeply and strongly engaged for Christ and in his ways and Service As when we see a Person in the full height and carreer of sin prosecuting with all his might his carnal corrupted desires and designes at the beck and command of that corrupt Principle that is within him employing that Reason and Understauding and Parts which God hath endowed him with in the contrivance of any sinful thing or action his power and strength for the perfecting and accomplishing and obtaining what he had so contrived and plotted why such a Person may be said to be given up to his Lusts and Corruptions but not to Christ So on the other hand where we see a Person at the beck and command of Christ employing his Reason and Understanding his Strength and Parts for the Honour and Glory of Christ obedient to and complying with every call and command of Christ industriously prosecuting the Glory of Christ as the great end of Life heartily submitting to his Laws and Commands as the great and only Rule of Life why such a Person may truly be said to be given up to Christ The Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 8.5 speaks there of Persons that had given up themselves to Christ and speaks it in praise of the Macedonians This they did says he Why what did they do why they did liberally
and bountifully Communicate to the Necessities of the Poor Saints at Jerusalem they did to their Power nay they did beyond their Power their Charity was larger than their Ability thus open-handed and open-hearted were these Macedonians Where shall we find such Charitable Professours in our days Well then this they did And was this all that they did No they did not only give the greatest parts of their Estates towards the Relief of the poor distressed Saints but they gave their own selves unto the Lord. This they did not as we hoped that is * Erasm Multo amplius quam sper are audebamus much more than we could hope they exceeded our hopes and expectations But wherein why Quia non suas tantum facultates habuerunt expositas sed seipsos impendere parati fuerunt †Calvin sayes one Because they were ready not only to bestow their Goods but to offer also themselves They gave themselves sayes he first to the Lord and then to us by the will of God The giving of their Estates towards the relief of the Saints was highly commendable in them Their relieving others was very well especially when they were so low themselves But this was not all there was still some thing higher than this they gave themselves to the Lord. To give their Estates was vety much but to give themselves was much more and this was that which was given by these Believers Non solum res suas sed semetipsos dederunt domino quasi sacrificium immaculatum * Anselm They did not only give their Substance but Themselves unto the Lord as an unspotted undefiled Sacrifice Now to this great work and business of giving up our selves to the Lord I would hope there be none of us strangers to it who have this day been sitting down at our Lord's Table I would hope that this hath been in some measure done by every one of us before we did first venture to sit down at this Table Else from the time we first ventured upon this Ordinance we have been eating and drinking Damnation to our selves All that draw nigh to this Table who have not first given themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ are unfit and unworthy Guests indeed We find that these Macedonians first gave themselves unto the Lord before they sat down in Church-fellowship and Communion They first gave themselves unto the Lord and then to us by the will of God They first joyned themselves to the Lord before they joyned in this great Ordinance of Communion And this I have reason to hope concerning every one of you that before you did venture upon this Solemn Ordinance of the Lord's Supper that you were such as had solemnly and seriously given up your selves to the Lord Jesus Christ But yet there are none of us so much given up to Christ but we may be still more given up to him Alas there is a great deal of Carnality and Corruption and Unhelief in the best and holyest on this side Heaven which is the occasion of frequent backslidings and Apostacys from God And often times puts us upon doing those things that are very much unbecoming the Dedication of our selves to the Lord too much harkening to the whisperings of the Old Man Too much complyance with the Solicitations of the Flesh Top great an Adherence to the World and Conformity to the Vanities and Pleasures to the Fooleries and Fopperies and Fashions and Customs thereof Too much Self-seeking Self-love and Self-pleasing all which are wonderful unbecoming this Serious and Solemn Dedication of our selves to the Lord Jesus Christ Therefore there is great need that this work be often and frequently renewed It is not enough that it be done once but it must be done often and daily It ought not to suffice us that we be in some measure given up to Christ but we must still be more and more given up to him Daily Backslidings call for frequent and daily Renewals of our Dedication David renewed the Dedication of his House after Absalom's Sins and also renewed the Dedication of his Person after his own Foul and Personal Miscarriages Times of great Affliction call for the Renewal of our Dedication Thus when Jacob was reduced to great straits and knew not what to do then he sets upon the Renewing the Dedication of himself to God If God says he will be with me in the way that I shall go and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on c. then shall the Lord be my God Gen. 28.20 21. Again renewed Mercys call for renewed dedication of our selves to God And lastly great dutys call for this renewal of our dedication Every time we Pray we are to renew our dedication But in Sacramental work we must do it in a more solemn and explicit manner not only before and at but after that Ordinance as coming under new and fresh Obligations and Engagements to be the Lords Thus much for the Exhortation Present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God that is give up your whole selves Souls and Bodies to the Lord. Now the Argument or motive by which he presseth it is the Mercies of God in that Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the Mercys of God that ye present your Bodies c. The Mercys of God are a great Argument or Motive to press us to this very thing of giving up our selves to God The Temporal but especially the Spiritual Mercys of God he doth not say Mercy but Mercies in the Plural number because they are many viz. Election of Grace Calling to Christ Justification by Faith Sanctification by the Spirit By all these Mercies which are every one of them more worth than a thousand Worlds he beseecheth them to give up or present themselves to God As if an indulgent compassionate Mother should beseech her child to do something by the womb that bare him by the paps that gave him suck by the knees that dandled him by the hands that fed him by all her tender compassions and indulgence towards him Certainly the heart of this child must be harder than any Flint not to yeild to her it would argue a temper very ungrateful not to comply with her So it would argue our hearts very hard and our tempers very ungrateful not to yeild to God when he that might condemn us doth intreat and beseech even by those tender Mercies whereby he begat us pardoned us called us renewed and saved us If Love and Kindness and Mercy will not win us and prevail upon us pray what will So the love of the Lord Jesus Christ his love in coming into the World in assuming our Nature his love in doing for us and dying for us and suffering for us is a great Motive and Argument to perswade us to give up our selves and all that we are and have fully and seriously and solemnly to him in token of our gratitude and thankfulness And O that the sense and feeling and
another forbearing and forgiving one another even as God for Christ's-sake hath forgiven us All bitterness and anger and wrath and clamour and evil speaking being put away from us with all malice Indeed it is much to be lamented and bewailed that there should be such heats and divisions and animosities such anger and clamour and evil-speaking and I wish I could not say malice too amongst Professors and Church-members Is this a walk any way suteable or becoming the expressions of Christ's love in dying and bleeding for us Surely no. O how contrary is this to a Gospel spirit which is a Spirit of Love and meekness What members of the same Body and mutual Members members one of another and shall we not own one another embrace one another be cordially affected Zanch. inlo◠each to other What Members one of another and yet carry it with that strangeness and distance and disaffection as if we stood in no relation at all one to another What never agree but just when we are under the lash just under the Rod How just is it with God to bring us into our former straits and difficulties again that we may learn to love one another better that there may be a greater harmony and agreement amongst us There never was more need of such a Prayer as the Apostle put up for the Thesalonians than now The Lord make you to abound in love one towards another 1 Thes 3.12 I say a Prayer never more needful since Christ had a Church upon Earth than it is in this day amongst us in this Nation where love amongst Brethren was never at a lower Ebb. Divided heads have made divided hearts Division in Judgment hath made division in love and Affection so that the love of many is waxed cold Now the good Lord who only can make dry bones to live revive this Affection where it is dead or dying and confirm it where it yet continues that being thus Members of Christ and Members one of another we may fulfil that great and everlasting Commandment that as it hath been taught from the beginning of the World so it is to be practised to the end of the same yea even to Eternity that we love one another 1 John 3.11 This is that we are most frequently exhorted to Heb. 13.1 Let brotherly love continue Rom. 12.9 10. Let love be without dissimulation be kindly affectioned one towards another with brotherly love 1 Pet. 3.8 Finaly brethren be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another c. 1 John 3.23 And in many other places This is that which as it is the bond of all Christian Virtues so it is the bond of all Christian Societys in both which respects it is called the bond of Perfectness Col. 3.14 A most perfect bond knitting and uniteing hearts together which no other bond can do and being so it is in the first place to be put on by all those who would joyne themselves to the Mystical Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all things says the Apostle put on Charity which is the bond of perfectness This also is laid down for a mark and character of Christ's Sheep and Disciples and laid down by Christ himself By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another John 13.35 This is that which is so highly applauded and commended in Scripture Psal 133.1 Behold how good aud pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity And where this is kept up and maintained even there the Lord commands the Blessing even life for evermore Now by all this it appears that to walk in love is a very suteable and becoming walk especially after this Supper of the Lord which indeed is a Sacramental seal and token not only of our communion with Christ but also of our communion with his Members of our fellowship with the Saints and of our communion and fellowship one with another This the Apostle clearly intimates 1 Cor. 10.16 17. For we says he being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread This Supper as it is a bond of our union and communion with Christ so it is a bond of our union and communion one with another as his Members Therefore every time we partake of it we should be more and more faster and faster knit in love and affection one to another This is a confirming Ordinance and as it is to confirm and inflame our love to Christ so it is to confirm and inflame our love one to another 11. After this Ordinance we are to walk more chearfully and comfortably Of all persons Believers have most reason to be chearful and joyful at all times and in all conditions in times of Adversity as well as in times of Prosperity tho' he feeds upon Bread and Water yet he hath greater reason to rejoyce than the greatest Monarch in the World I do not say a Believer always walks joyfully and chearfully no sometimes he walks dejectedly Tho a child of light yet sometimes he walks in darkness but yet I say a Believer hath most reason to walk joyfully and chearfully and it is his duty so to do and hath frequent calls and exhortations to it Phil. 3.1 Finally my brethren rejoyce in the Lord c. Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce 1 Thes 5.16 Rejoyce evermore Now a Believer hath evermore matter of rejoyceing and reason to rejoyce inasmuch as all that which is really matter of dejection is removed and taken away viz. the guilt of Sin and the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of God now these are all removed and taken away by Christ who came to procure peace by the Blood of his Cross and in whom we have Redemption thro his Blood A Believer hath evermore matter of rejoyceing upon the account of that fulness that is treasured up in Christ in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell Col. 1.19 Now what is there that a poor creature can desire or stand in need of in order to the making him compleatly happy and blessed but what may be found in this All-fulness of Christ Here is wisdom for his Direction and Instruction included in it Here is a compleat Righteousness for his Justification Here is Grace and Holiness for his Sanctification Righteousness to give him a Right and Title to Heaven Grace and Holiness to give him a meetness and fitness for Heaven and power and ability to bring him safe thether upon these considerations amongst others a Believer hath always ground and matter of rejoyceing And by this they are described as by their vital act Phil. 3.3 We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the Flesh A Believer should rejoyce always walk joyfully and chearfully at all times and especially after Sacrament seasons when he hath been renewing his Covenant
with God God a fresh making over himself and his all to the Believer giving him a fresh sense and seal of his love and the pardon of his Sins when Christ with all his Benefits and Purchases and Merit Christ in all his Offices Christ in all his Grace and fulness hath been afresh made over to him His Blood in all the virtue and efficacy of it sealed and applyed to the Believers The new Testament with all its Promises and Priviledges and Benefits thereof this is all ratified and confirmed in the Blood of Christ to the Believer and assured to him in this Supper-Ordinance They who have been entertained at this Gospel Feast who have been feeding upon the Provision of God's Grace and have received fresh Tokens and Pledges of his Love for such to walk dejectedly and Mournfully reflects great dishonour and highly affronts the Master of the Feast and greatly disparageth the Matter of it too it is a great undervaluing of Christ and his Blood as if the guilt or filth of thy sin did exceed the Merit of his Blood or was too great for his Blood to remove and cleanse After this Ordinance we are to walk more joyfully and chearfully rejoycing in the Lord and joying in the God of our Salvation We should go home to our Houses and Habitations Rejoycing and go on our way through this Pilgrimage with Joy as the Eunuch when Baptised did it is said He went on his way rejoycing Acts 8.39 So should we after we have been at this Supper go on our way through this World Rejoycing saying to our Souls as David did to his Return to thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee 12. With more earnest Breathings and Longings of Soul after fresh Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ It is not a little of the World that will satisfy a Covetous Man nor a little Pleasure that will satisfy a Carnal Voluptuous Mind Nor a little Honour and Preferment that will satisfy an Ambitious Aspiring Mind Nor is it a little of Christ that will satisfy a Gracious Renewed Heart See how David thirsted after God Psal 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary David had tasted of the Sweet of Enjoyment and Communion with God and this sets his Soul a longing and thirsting and breathing after more of God Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after God my Soul thirsteth for the living God when shall I come and appear before thee The like breathings of soul we find after Communion with God in Psal 84.1 10. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God For a day in thy Courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a door-keeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness Such breathings and longings of Soul after Communion with Christ should be kept up and maintained in our Souls after every time we partake of this blessed Ordinance Have we this day sat down under the shadow of Christ and hath his fruit been sweet and pleasant to our taste Have we had any taste of the Grace and Fullness of Christ at his Table Have our Souls been filled as with marrow and fatness delighted and solaced with Communion with Christ Have we met this day with any fresh assurances of the love of God in Christ to our Souls of the pardon of our sins in the precious blood of Christ Hath there been any fresh life and vigour and grace communicated from Christ our everlasting head to our Souls this day Have we been fed with hidden Manna with the Bread and Water of Life Have we seen any thing of the Power and Glory of Christ at his own Table O then how should we be breathing and longing after the returns of such seasons and opportunities as these are O when will this Supper return When shall I come and appear before thee O that I might still be feasting my Soul upon these dainties Thus we should be walking with more earnest breathings of Soul after fresh Communion with Christ not only in this Ordinance but in all other Ordinances of Divine Worship and not only so but long to be for ever with him after compleat enjoyment of him in Heaven above If it be so sweet to enjoy him in Ordinances here O what will it be nay How far sweeter will it be to enjoy him in Heaven where we shall enjoy him freely fully familiarly and eternally without any interruption or intermission Thus we have seen how we are to walk after this Supper Ordinance and that we may thus walk it is necessary that we be strengthned with all might according to the glorious power of God The Devil to be sure will be opposing with all his might such a walk as this and our own wicked base deceitful treacherous hearts will be too ready to side and comply with him Therefore that such a walk may be kept up and maintained that we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing it is necessary that we be strengthned with all might according to his glorious power 1 Col. 11. Let us therefore be often dispatching a cry to Heaven for that strength and assistance whereby we may be enabled to maintain such a walk and daily depend upon Christ for strength in whom we have not only Righteousness but strength too That through daily Communications of Grace and Strength from him we may be enabled so to live and act and walk whilst we are here that we may finish our Course with joy and at last an entrance yea an abundant entrance an entrance with joy and triumph may be administred to us into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that from his Kingdom of Grace we may be received into his Kingdom of Glory and from the provisions of Grace we may be taken to the provisions of Glory and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob at an Eternal Feast eat and drink at Christ's Table in Christ's Kingdom Now whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the Loving-kindness of the Lord They shall go from strength to strength their Souls shall be fat and flourishing and made to encrease with the encreases of God FINIS