apprehension of this love of Christ might constrain every soul of us to give up our selves to him Are we bought with a Price Are we Redeemed from the greatest slavery and tyranny that ever poor creatures were under from the Wrath and Vengeance of God who is a consuming fire From the Curse and condemnation of the Law from the dominion of Sin and Satan and the World Why this is a great and unspeakable Priviledge and happiness indeed Ay but how came we to be thus Redeemed Why it was by a great price that was laid down and deposited ye are bought with a price says the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.20 But what price was this Was it Silver or Gold no it was by the price of Blood But what Blood was it The Blood of Bulls and Goats no it was the Blood of the Son of God 1 Pet. 1.18 19. It was the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God that redeemed us with his own Blood What can we do less then glorifie him with our Bodies and Spirits O how Thankfully ought we to walk all our days and we cannot better express our Thankfulness than by dedicating and devoting our selves to his service and glory This is the greatest return that we can make and the highest gratitude You know the first fruits were in former times dedicated unto God partly to show God's right to the whole crop and partly in token of thankfulness from the people for all the rest Now this giving up our selves to the Lord Jesus is the best expression of our thankfulness that we can make This exceeds the most melting acknowledgments and the highest verbal resentments of all his love and kindness to us When a poor creature is deeply affected with a sense of the love of Christ to him falls down at the foot of Christ and says Lord Jesus I am one of thy Redeemed ones whom thou hast redeemed unto God by thine own most precious Blood from the slavery and tyranny under which I lay thou didst freely lay down thy life to save mine thou didst shed thine own Blood and offeredst thy self upon the Cross a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice and make Attonement for my sins and to bring me nigh unto God who once was alienated from and an enemy to Father Son and Holy Ghost in my mind by wicked Works And thou wast not only offered upon the Cross for me but thou hast been lately in the Supper Ordinance exhibited and offered to me with all the virtues and benefits and victories and purchases and priviledges of thy death for the strengthning and nourishing of my Faith for the enlivening and quickening and raising my hope for the filling up my joy and encreasing my comfort for the carrying on the Spiritual life with greater vigour and power in my Soul for all this dear Jesus how shall I express and testifie my Thankfulness Why I will do it thus I do here solemnly and seriously and fully give up my self to thee to be thine and only thine both now and to Eternity that is to say everlastingly thine This is the best way of expressing our Thankfulness and this we are every one afresh obliged to who have been sitting down this day at our Lords Table For one end of this Ordinance is to be a seal of the Covenant all the Blessings and Benefits and Priviledges and Promises and Grace of the New Covenant are confirmed to Believers by it Now the Covenant binds mutually God bindeth himself to give Grace to us and we bind our selves to live to him In all Covenants there is not only something to be done for us but there is something to be performed by us God seals the Benefits of the Covenant on his part and we seal to the Durys of the Covenant on our part The exhibiting the signes is the seal on God's part the receiving the signes is the seal on our part Every time we receive we bind our selves to new and better Obedience to live more to God and to dy more to sin I have Read that Pliny should say he learned it of some Christians That at their Meeting they did Sacramento se obstringere ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent c. Bind themselves by the Sacrament that they would not commit these sins of Theft and Robbery and Adultery And so should every one that have been eating the Sacramental Bread and Wine look upon our selves as bound to live more to God and Jesus Christ and to cleave to the Lord with fuller purposes of heart and more stedfast Resolutions of Soul Our Blessed Saviour never Instituted this Holy Ordinance to qualify Persons for some advantagious Post and to sit Men for Publick Places and Offices or to be a Stepping-stone to Worldly Preferment as it is now adays only used by many to the great shame of a Protestant Nation may it be spoken that so Sacred an Ordinance should be thus Abused and Prophaned But he designed it to be a stronger Tye and Obligation upon us to a more Holy Life and Circumspect Walk and indeed if we do not answer this end we do but Prophane this Ordinance every time we partake of it And instead of eating and drinking to our own Salvation we shall but eat and drink Damnation to our selves 4. We are to Walk after this Ordinance more Believingly and Fiducially that is with a stronger Faith and Trust in Christ and Relyance upon him 2 Col. 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablisht in the Faith as you have been taught abounding therein with Thanksgiving None are so stablished but they may grow still in Faith None have taken so much root but they may take yet more root Faith is such a Grace as is capable of farther improvement A weak Faith may become strong and a strong Faith may become yet stronger The Apostles prayer was this Lord increase our Faith Luke 17.9 Many are crying out for more Riches for more Honour for more Wealth for more Pleasure But let this be the desire of our Souls for a stronger Faith This is a Petition very proper and suteable to be put up by us after we have been at this Supper Lord increase our Faith What the Apostle said of the Thessalonians concerning Brotherly Love You need not that I write unto you for you your selves are taught of God to love one another and indeed you do it towards all the Brethren which are in all Macedonia But yet he saw it necessary to press after a farther growth and encrease of it But we beseech brethren that ye encrease more and more The same I trust may be said of many here concerning Faith Ye are taught of God to believe and indeed ye do believe but however this Exhortation or desire is not needless viz. That ye encrease more and more Those that have any measure of Faith already are to be endeavouring after a growth and
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
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
which is laid up for you in heaven c. And then shews himself greatly concerned for their good and welfare in praying always for them For this cause we also since we heard of it do not cease to pray for you v. 9. See what concernedness he manifests and expresses for his Brethren his Kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9.1 2 3. I say the truth I lie not my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish my self accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the flesh It is a very strange expression but it notes his zeal and affection and concernedness for their good and welfare Rom. 10.1 Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved It is a great sign that Grace hath taken hold of our hearts when we are really concerned for the good of others that the same Grace that hath taken hold of us may take hold of others too By this says the Apostle John we know that we are passd from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 And truly our love to others cannot be more fully expressed and truly demonstrated than by an affectionate concernment for their spiritual good and welfare If they be wholly ignorant of God and Christ that they may be brought to a saving knowledge of God and Christ Or if they be such as have been in any measure brought to a saving knowledge of God then that there may be a dayly increase of it And this was the Apostles Prayer for these Colossians having heard of their Faith in Christ and their Love to the Saints and their Knowledge of God he prays that they may be filled with it in a dayly encrease of it for a stronger Faith in Christ and for a farther increase in the Knowledge of God He is not you see of a little narrow private spirit swallowed up in his own private concernments but of a brave noble generous spirit imploying his desires and endeavours not only to his own good but to the good of others too And this is one character and property of a gracious Soul of a sanctifyed person that he is full of constant and ardent desires after the good and welfare of others The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Member to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 Religious love seeketh not her own things 1 Cor. 13.5 We should not seek our own things as many do but the things which are Jesus Christ's viz. that which tends to his Glory and the Good of his Members Christians should serve one another by Love Certainly what a Man is in Religion he is relatively so If not fit to serve the Body than not fit to be of the Body He is no Saint that seeks not the Communion of Saints Having taken notice of this by the way I come now to the words themselves In which words we have not only the Apostle's Desire and Prayer for them but we may also read our own Duty in them and that is to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing This is the end of all our Knowledge of God and his will which in the 9th verse he desired they might be filled with Why filled with the Knowledge of God's Will Why That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing To this end we should be filled with the Knowledge of God's Will that our Conversations may be rightly ordered to the Glory of God that our Lives may answer the Profession we make and the Knowledge we have obtain'd and the Mercies we receive and the Means we enjoy The Papists would find Merit of Works in this Verse Both because holiness of Life is so much urged by it And also because here is the word Worthy used as if the Apostle should grant that they might be worthy of or Merit the Blessings of God Now to this might be returned a Two-fold Answer 1. That Merit cannot be founded upon Scripture 2. That it cannot be founded upon this Scripture First It cannot be founded upon Scripture The Scripture doth abundantly and in many places declare against it It cuts off and excludes all glorying and boasting in our selves as if by our worthiness we could procure any thing of favour at the hands of God or by our goodness any way recommend our selves to the favour and acceptance of God You see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise c. And all this that no flesh should glory in his presence But he that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28. Alas we are so indebted to the Divine Bounty and Goodness that gave us our beings both in Nature and Grace that when we have done all we can we are forced to acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants Luk. 17.10 Whatever good we do it is from God and therefore cannot Merit any thing at the hands of God 2 Cor. 3.5 So says the Apostle Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency it is of God 1 Cor. 4.10 For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou hast not received Now if thou didst receive it Why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Were there no other Scriptures these were sufficient to overthrow the Notion ef Merit 2. Nor can it be founded upon this Scripture This expression of walking worthy of the Lord cannot be applied to Merit by any means in as much as the Lord had bestowed many of his Blessings and Favours and Benefits already They cannot by any good Works afterward be said any ways to Merit what is past now it is very absurd to think that we can by any after good Works Merit what was given us before But we will pass by this and come to the true meaning of this expression To walk worthy of the Lord is no more than to walk suitably and agreeably and some way answerably and becomingly to the many-fold Favours of God vouchsafed to us which will be better understood by comparing it with the parallel places Eph. 4.1 I therefore the Prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Walk worthy of your vocation that is answerably and suitably and becoming your Calling as appears by the following words which fully explain it viz. With all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love c. This is such a kind of Walking as is becoming and agreeable to our High and Holy Calling Phil. 1.27 only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ This is the true meaning and explication of this Expression of walking worthy He means no more 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-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
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
A Plain Discourse Shewing how we are to WALK After the Lord's Supper Necessary for every Communicant From 1 Col. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Being the Substance of Several Sermons Preached to a Congregation in Hatton-Garden By John Horsman an unworthy Servant of Jesus Christ Vivimus non loquimur magna London Printed for E. Richardson at the Naked Boy in Blowbladder-Street over aâ—gainst St. Martins le Grand 1698. TO THE Serious Reader IT was not without great conflict and strugling within my self that this comes forth into Publick View being very sensible of my great unfitness for such an appearance for tho' as one says the plain thread bare suit may do well enough at home yet when persons go abroad a better habit is required and expected But such as have not this change of Apparel must be content with what they have If it be the bravery and gaudery of Language that thou expectest in the following Discourse thy expectations will be frustrated for however such a garb might suit the airy humour of the Age yet it would no ways be agreeable or suteable to the weightyness and gravity of the Subject treated on which is not to show how we may please Men but how we may please God how we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing I am not unsensible that this Piece will fall into divers and different hands and according to the hands it falls into such will be the Treatment it must expect By the Prophane it is probable it will be Derided For to such as have no sense nor relish nor savour of Spiritual Things and Serious Matters such things as these are will be the Object of their Scorn and Derision with whom the deep things of God are counted no better than Mysterious Nonsense And whatever hath but the Face and Shew of Seriousness with such it is accounted Canting and Affected Singularity By the Curious and Captious it is most probable it will be despised because such will not meet with that exactness and accuracy of Method and Stile with those flights and strains of Rhetorick which is most pleasing and grateful to this sort By the Learned it also may be but little set by because they will not find a Margin filled with Quotations of Fathers and Schoolmen nor with the Sayings of Poets and Philosophers It may possibly pass for a Plain Honest Well-meaning-Discourse And indeed were it otherwise it would not Answer its Title nor would it be so suited to that sort of Reader for which it was chiefly and principally designed viz. The Serious Reader For such it was chiefly design'd and to such it is humbly Dedicated Whatever relish it may have with others yet I hope it may be as Manna sweet to the Tast of all serious Christians How weak soever the manner of handling this Subject is yet the Subject it self is very weighty and seasonable The Duty press'd to is very necessary but too much neglected We are ready to take up with the Theory of Religion and the Speculative part of Piety but are too great Strangers to the Practical part thereof We may know many things and believe many things but yet if we do not put into Practice the things that we know and believe we only have a name to live but yet are dead We have only a form of Godliness but are strangers to the Life and Power of it We are for Reading and Studying and Hearing of Notions but the Apostle James his Advice is Not to be Hearers of the Word only but Doers of the Word also 1 Jam. 22. The Beauty and Power and Life of Religion lies in the Practice of it It is not enough that we make a Profession that we are taken into Church-Fellowship and Partake of the Ordinances of the Gospel unless we do adorn this Profession with a suteable and agreeable Walk and Conversation according to that advice of the Apostle Paul 1 Phil. 27. Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ The neglect of this among the Professars of this Age is very much to be lamented and bewailed Now to quicken and direct us herein is the main drift and tendency of the following Discourse And particularly how we are to Walk after that Great Ordinance of the Lord's Supper I hope it will not be judged to be altogether needless nor prove altogether useless And that it may not be altogether fruitless and successless I commend both thee and it to the Divine Benediction which crowns all our Labours and gives Success to all our Lawful Endeavours Paul may plant and Apollos water but it is God that giveth the increase for neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth any thing but God that giveth the increase I am Thine in our Blessed Lord J. Horsman A PLAIN DISCOURSE SHEWING How we are to WALK after the Lord's Supper From 1 Col. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing THESE words are the Matter of the Apostles Prayer for these Collossians In two things among others the Apostle did express and demonstrate his great love to them The first was in giving Thanks for them The Second was in Praying for them He gave Thanks for them and he Prayed for them v. 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you Now the matter of his Thankfulness for them he refers to Two Heads 1. Their Graces 2. The Means by which they are wrought Their Graces which were chiefly Three viz. Faith Hope and Love Their Faith by the Object Their Love by the Extent Their Hope by the Place v. 4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus there is the Object of their Faith and of the love which ye have to all the Saints there is the Extent of their Love and for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven there is the place of their Hope The Means by which these Graces were wrought which was the Word from vers 5. to vers 9. Thus much for the Matter of his Thanksgiving The Matter of his Prayer for them was this viz. That they might be filled with the knowledge of Gods will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God From whence we may take notice of this by the way that next to our own good and welfare we ought to rejoyce at and be concerned for the good and welfare of others Thus it was with this blessed Apostle He was not only thankful to God for his goodness to himself in particular 1 Tim 1.12 13. But he is thankful for Gods for goodness unto others We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for your faith in Christ and for your love which ye have to all the Saints and for the hope
it than this a becoming walk or a suitable walk but let your Conversation be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So in the 1 Thes 2.12 That you would walk worthy of God who ha h called you into his Kingdom and Glory It is the same word in the original in all these places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the forquoted place rendered becoming Let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel Let your Conversation be worthy of the Gospel or becoming the Gospel of Christ So here walking worthy of God is no more than walking suitably to the Nature of that God who is the true and living God That ye may walk like a People that are taken into Covenant with God and express the Virtues and Praises of him who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvelous Light in your Lives and Conversations according to that which we have in the 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Or that ye should walk suitably to this great Mercy and glorious Priviledges and Benefits ye have received from him So that to walk worthy of the Lord is to live and behave our selves as becometh those to whom God hath vouchsafed so great a Mercy that passing by many Thousands of a nobler extraction of a sweeter disposition and in many outward respects better than we That he should out of his meer Grace and Love in Christ chuse and call us out of the World to be partakers of Eternal Life with him That he should take us and leave others chuse us and pass by others as it is wonderful and astonishing so it ought to influence us into a walking some way suitable and becoming these great Mercies bestowed upon us And if we would know what this suitable walking is why the next words explain it It is a walking unto all pleasing so that the observation is this viz. Observ That where a Person or a People receive great Mercys Benefits or Priviledges from God there ought to be a suitable answerable and becoming walking thereunto or thus It ought to be our study and endeavour to live and act suitably and becoming the Mercies and Favours we receive from God God hath dealt Bountifully and Graciously with us remembered us not only with Common and Temporal but with Special and Spiritual Mercys too Do we enjoy Peace and Quietness when many other are involved in great Troubles and Perplexities Is Plenty and Fulness our Inheritance when Scarcity and Want is the lot of many others Do we enjoy such a competency of Health and Strength when many others are Sick and weak Languishing and Dying Hath God set any of us at Liberty from our Confinements wrought out a Recovery for any of us from any tedious and dangerous Distemper which detained us from waiting and attending upon God in the Publick and Solemn Dutys of his Worship when many others are still confined to their Chambers and many to their Beds How doth it concern such to walk answerably and suitably to the Mercies they have received Let such remember that advice of our Saviour to the man upon whom he had wrought a great cure John 5.14 And he said unto him go thy way behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing befal thee God hath done great things for us and in some respects for all of us In bearing so long with our renewed and repeated Provocations insomuch that we are under a necessity of acknowledging and confessing that it is of the Lords Mercys we were not consumed that our Bodies are not in the silent Grave and our Souls roaring in Hell That notwithstanding all our Barrenness and Unfruitfulness under the means and Seasons of Grace that yet the day and season of Grace should be lengthned out to us that after so many denyals and refusals Christ should still continue to knock at the door of our Hearts That when we have so frequently turned a deaf Ear to the calls and invitations of Christ in the Gospel that he should still continue to call and invite and promiseth a kind Reception and hearty Welcome to all those that will come unto him That he should still continue wooing and beseeching us by his Ministers and Ambassadors to be reconciled unto God after our so long continuance in ways of Enmity and Rebellion against him O the Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of God! that ever he should so long put up the affronts and indignitys that are every day offered to his Blessed Majesty by such crawling Worms of the Earth bear so long with the Rebellions and Ingratitudes of his Creatures Lord how good art thou to the worst of Men and the vilest of Sinners in sparing and forbearing them in protecting and providing for them in calling and inviting them in waiting to be gracious to them in offering Mercy and Pardon and Grace and Christ to them in affording them time and space and opportunity for Repentance and turning unto God in vouchsafeing to them many Temporal Blessings and Favours in the midst and face of such dayly Provocations and abuse of his Bounties Thus I say in some respects God is good to us all and hath done great things for us all even for the worst and vilest Sinner now in his Presence And to some of us he hath been more peculiarly and specially and distinguishingly good In chusing and calling us not only by the outward call of his Word but by an inward and effectual call of his Spirit out of darkness unto light and from the power of Sin and Self and Satan and the World to Himself out of a state of Nature unto his Kingdom and Glory unto his Kingdom of Grace here and in a little time longer will call us to his Kingdom of Glory In Justifying us freely by his Grace and Sanctifying us by his Holy Spirit throughout and adopting us into his Family In remembering us in our low and lost estate and condition when we were blind and naked and wretched and miserable cast out into the open field to the loathing of our Persons in the gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity held in the snare of the Devil and led captive by him at his pleasure under the power and dominion of many vile Lusts and Corruptions in bondage and slavery to Sin and Satan subjected and enthrawl'd to Death under the Wrath and Curse of God liable to all the miseries of this Life and to the pains of Hell for ever ignorant of God and Christ and Spiritual things nay enemies to God and Christ nay enmity it self When we were in such a forlorn helpless and miserable state and condition as this he pittyed us and helped us when none other eye pittyed us nay when we had no pitty for our selves he pittyed us and helped us when none other could help
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
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
read 1 Cor. 6.9 11. Even then when there was nothing but unworthyness and abominableness in us did Christ-dye for us Now is this a thing to be made light of or to be lightly esteemed of by us this argues us to be the most ungrateful unthankful wretches living upon the Face of the Earth The very Angels stand and wonder and vent their astonishment at what Christ hath done for us And shall not we admire at it our selves Never was there such love manifested before nor since Greater love than this hath no Man than that a Man lay down his life for his friends John 15.13 But Christ hath evidenced greater than this in doing and dying and laying down his Life for his Enemies Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his Life for us What for us Friends no but for us Enemies Rom. 5.10 nay for us Enmity it self Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God Was ever love like this love The Apostle Prays for the Ephesians That they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.18 19. Here are Four Dimensions that the Apostle measures this love of Christ by Phylosophy knows but Three viz. Longitudo Latitudo Profunditas Length Breadth and Depth But Divinity adds a Fourth viz. Altitudo Height To intimate that Christ's Love is beyond all ordinary Measure and Dimensions There is Depth in it says †Roberts Communicant p. 186. one without bottom There is Height in it without top Breadth in it without side and Length in it without end Yea it infinitely surpasseth the capacity and grasp of a finite limited understanding to comprehend and take in And O that every one of us who have been so lately Celebrating and Commemorating the Death and Sufferings of our Loving Lord that have had such Lively Representations of what he hath been doing and suffering for us may find our esteem in some measure and degree answerable and proportionable to the love that was manifested and evidenced in it But yet farther there is another consideration in what Christ hath done and suffered which if rightly and duely weighed might be a means of raising and heightning our esteem of it and that is the sufficiency efficacy acceptableness and merit of his Obedience and Sufferings This was an odour of a sweet smell most acceptable to God The Law was fully answered and Divine Justice was fully satisfied in their fullest and highest demands Tho' his Sufferings were but short yet what was wanting in the duration of them was infinitely and abundantly made up in the dignity and excellency of the Person that suffered for it was infinitely more that the Son of God should suffer one moment than if all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth had suffered to Eternity Such a sufficiency there is in what Christ hath done and suffered that there needs nothing more to be done nothing more to be suffered in a way of satisfaction to the Justice of God for he by once offering up of himself hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 There needs no more sacrifice for sin There is sufficiency enough in the Death and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to procure pardon for the greatest of sins and the chiefest of sinners to redeem and save the whole World nay ten thousand Worlds And if it should be asked why are not then all redeemed and saved To this I answer it is not upon the account of any insufficiency of the Blood of Christ for it is sufficient to have redeemed as many Worlds as there be Stars in the Firmament it was sufficient to have redeemed all but it was not shed for all but only those that the Father from all Eternity gave to him For these and these only it was shed to these and these only it becomes effectual unto redemption and Salvation It pleased the Father from all Eternity to elect some to everlasting life these in the Covenant of Redemption he gave to Christ to redeem and save these Christ undertook and engaged for in that same Covenant transaction for these he dyed and suffered and shed his hearts Blood which was a sufficient price for their redemption it being the blood of that Person who was God as well as Man The dignity of the Person was that which highly dignified his Passion This was that which put such an All-sufficiency into the Death and Blood of Christ that made it sufficient for all the ends for which it was designed O that poor trembling souls and misgiving hearts would consider of this and take hold of it and plead it against all the accusations of the Law against all the accusations of Conscience against all the subtile charges of the Devil Poor Soul it may be thou art terrified and amazed at the sight and sense of thy sinfulness and guiltiness it may be many doubts and fears and scruples are ready to arise in thy mind whether ever God will look upon or accept of or receive into favour such an one as thou art but know this for thy comfort whoever thou art that there cannot be so much Unrighteousness in thee to render thee loathsome but there is more Righteousness in Christ to render thee lovely in the sight of God There is sufficiency enough in what Christ hath done and suffered to procure God's favour and acceptance only do thou stedfastly rely upon it and put thy whole trust in it never did any miscarry who ventured their all upon this bottom There is sufficiency enough in the Blood of Christ to procure pardon for as many sins as there are moments in thy Life or thoughts in thy heart Be thy sins never so many for multitude or never so great for aggravation yet the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Unrighteousness Not only from lesser but from greater Transgressions not only from some but from all Unrighteousness Tho it is true there is one sin which is called a sin unto Death or the unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven neither in this Life nor that which is to come and that is the sin against the Holy Ghost But it is not upon the account of any insufficiency in the Blood of Christ that this sin is Unpardonable but he that sins this sin is rendered altogether uncapable of laying hold of or applying the Remedy viz. the Blood of Christ which in it self is sufficient to cleanse from all Unrighteousness The last consideration is the blessed Benefits that do issue and proceed from hence and so we are to express our Thankfulness by an high esteem of them Hereby sinners are Justified and sin purged away the guilt of sin that was so wounding to the Conscience is removed Hereby enemies to God are reconciled and peace with God procured the distance nay the enmity is removed and God and the Soul walk
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-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