from proceeding in judgement against his people Pillers to support the ruinous fabrick of the tottering societies of men to keep the world from ruine and destruction according to that saying I take it of the Jews Sine stationibus non consisteret mundus The world is held up by the Congregations of Gods people and if there be any charms to be had that may raise up our dry bones of this confused and distracted and demolished Church and Nation they must be had not from Councels or Armies but from the devout performances of the congregations of Gods people which may shew you the reason why I have been so earnest with you for your presence and assistance in these assemblies in these times of our calamity of non conformity Sure I am if the Devill trembles at any thing that can be done upon earth it is at the gatherings of holy Congregation and at the work that they have in hand And of all the holy actions of a Congregation the most heavenly excellent the most perfect glorious and comfortable is the Holy Solemnity of the Supper of the Lord which is as it were the summe and recapitulation of all other duties There the Covenant of Baptisme is renued and confirmed There the Word is administred and sealed There the Laws of God are owned and subscribed as the articles on our part in that treaty of Peace between God and us which is there presented and managed There the promises the articles on Gods part are made sure established particularly unto every faithful receiver which are promised in general in the Holy Book and the Gospel is brought home unto every devout soul with all the blessings thereof for look what the Gospel promiseth that the Sacrament sealeth and delivereth unto every faithfull receiver in particular Their solemn praise and thanksgiving is offered unto God in the thankfull memorial of the death and passion of Christ which is there presented unto us for that great redemption that he hath wrought for us There the sweet incense of most earnest prayers and holy desires are exhaled unto God And there we have our petitions granted subscribed and sealed with the blood of Christ There we offer up our selves in homage unto God and Christ that gave his Son and that offered up himself for us There we present our Almes and Oblations to the Lord that we may answer his Mercy and Compassion unto us in mercy unto others and devotion unto him There we binde up our selves afresh and more and more in the holy Communion of Saints with the Church triumphant in Heaven and militant upon Earth There we are confirmed in our Union and Communion with Christ and receive his body and blood inseparably united to his Divinity with all the benefits of his Death and Passion really and truly applied unto our soules that by the merrit of his death and sufferings our sins may be pardoned that by the merrit of his Righteousnesse our persons may be justified that we may be enlightened by the beams of his heavenly Wisdome sanctified by the holinesse of his heavenly Graces refreshed with the cordials of his heavenly Comforts that we may be strengthened by the might of his heavenly Virtue that we may be enriched with the riches of his heavenly Blessings that we may be crowned at length and saved by his heavenly Glory and Salvation And receiving Christ we have power in him to become the Sonnes of God John 1.12 And if Sons then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Rom. 8.17 Yea we have God in him For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily Col. 2.9 We have the Father in him For he that acknowledgeth the Sonne hath the Father also and truly our fellowship is with his Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 2.23 1 Joh. 1.3 And if we have the Father and the Sonne we have the Holy Ghost For hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath giveu us 1 Joh. 3.24 So that the whole blessing of the Apostle is upon us in the use of this holy Sacrament The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen What shall I say it is visibile Evangelium a visible Gospel and if you use it as you ought to do it will be to you vivum Evangelium a living Gospel a working Gospell a Gospel in possession not in your ears but in your hearts Here all mercies are conveyed and sealed all graces are confirmed and exercised Here repentance is imployed quickened faith is actuated strengthned hope encouraged devotion enflamed charity kindled peace concord established if there be a heaven upon earth it is in the holy opperation of a congregation devoutly celebrating the holy Supper of the Lord. This is the Holy plaister or love-charm to make us in love with God and one another and to make God also in love with us The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or soveraign antidote against sin The food of life the viaticum of eternity The universal medicine for all our diseases and an Ark of safety against all our dangers And now by this you may know the reason why I have been so earnest with you of my Congregation not to neglect the blessed opportunities that God offers you for your addresses unto him in the use of this holy mistery and to prepare your selves thereunto and why I have offered you this help which is presented unto you in this ensuing Treatise The truth is that I finde my self under very great obligations unto you I have received much of the comfort of my life from you and the great tenderness love and care that you have shew'd unto me in my late sickness the recovery from which Low under God in a great measure unto some of you addeth unto the endearments that are upon my soul toward you and it lies upon me to do my endeavour to answer your love which God in his mercy inable me and direct me to do in such a way as may be most for your good and spirituall advantage and truly I think I am in the way for I cannot pitch upon any thing that can be done more summarily or effectually in order to all your good and happinesse than to assist you in that great and excellent performance of the use of the Lords Supper for since it is a duty of so great perfection and so comprehensive of the whole businesse of a Christian and so entitling us to the whole treasure comfort of the Gospel if I shall prevaile with you to be good Communicants I am sure I shal have then prevailed with you to be good Christians and then you must needs be both a holy and a happy people Now there are three things that I finde necessary to be done that
establisht in my union and Communion with Christ and his Church And enable me to discerne the body of the Lord Jesus put me into an holy extasy of heavenly longing after Christ And whilst he descendeth unto me in that holy reflection let me ascend unto him in heavenly devotion Let not my soul be satisfied with any thing but my Jesus Give me thy Christ O God take what thou wilt from me give me my Jesus and do what thou wilt unto me for in him I shall be sure of thy tender love let that love do what it will Thou bidst me love thee do what I will I say unto thee love me and do what thou wilt wound me chasten me kill me so that thou love me I aske nothing of thee but thy Christ and thy Love Oh my God I am undone I am lost for ever I am a fire-brand of hel it had been better for me that I had been a Toad a Serpent a Worm a dead clod of clay that I had never lived that I had never been conceived or born if thou shouldst with-hold my Jesus from me But if I have him I have thee and heaven and Angells and the world and life and all Oh my God give me my Jesus and give thy self unto me in him make me to give my self unto thee in him And oh make room for thy Christ in my Soule turn out the world and the flesh sin turn me out of my self that there may be room for my Jesus that my heart may be as a large upper-room furnished for my heavenly Saviour to keep his Passeover in my Soul Let it be a large room for my great Jesus let my heart contain him for whom the whole world is too little extend the grasp of my affections O God make me unsatiable in an holy covetousnesse after Christ and the more I taste of him the more I enjoy him the more make meto desire him And let my heart be an upper-room not an Earthly but an Heavenly minde For the entertainment of my heavenly Jesus for he can dwell no where but in an heavenly place Yea let his presence in my heart turn my heart into heaven for it is his presence that maketh heaven and this is the heaven of heavens it self Oh let all earthly things be vile unto me now that I look for my heavenly Jesus Give me an holy pride an holy ambition greatness of spirit that I may look upon all the things of this world as unworthy of my thoughts since my Jesus is pleased to think upon me to call for my heart and to come unto me Oh let my soul be a well furnisht room furnisht with all the furniture of heavenly love and of all thy heavenly Graces for the entertainment of my Glorious Jesus Yet withall give me an humble heart that I may put no trust at all in my self or in any thing that is in me or that can be or hath been perform'd by me But cast me down into an holy despair of my self and of all righteousnesse Wisdome Strength or Worthinesse or comfort in my self that I may trample my self as filthy sinfull dung under my feet before thee and cast my self down at the feet of thy mercy relying only upon thy goodness thy Christ for my acceptance and for my salvation Help me O God in the examination and in the reformation of my sinns Help me in the triall and in the exercise of thy graces that knowledg may be saving faith found and repentance true and love unfained and thankfullnesse sincere and reverence awfull and desire enflamed my soul truly humbled That thou mayest exalt me in the greatness of thy mercy and feed my soul with the riches of thy goodness and the delicates of thy heavenly joyes that I may returne refreshed with thy favour and enlightened beutified with thy truth holiness like Moses out of the Mount and strengthened with the might of thy strength from the holy table of thy Son Through the same thy dear Son and our blessed Saviour our Jesus Christ Amen A Prayer when the Bread and Wine is brought to the Table OH most Glorious God we praise thee we blesse thee we glorify thy sacred name here prostrate in our souls and bodys before thee we desire to present unto thee the homage of our thankfull hearts for thy great and wonderfull mercy that thou hast been pleased to shew unto us miserable sinners that lay in the Jaws of hell under the sentence of condemnation to eternal death for our sins in sending thy dearly beloved and only begotten Son Christ Jesus to become man for us and to offer up his precious Body and Blood upon the Crosse to be a Sacrifice unto thee for our sins where by he hath made an eternal 〈…〉 to practise it diligently to the benefit of my Soul and to the glory and honour of thy holy Name Prepare my heart for all holy approaches unto thy holy Table for the time to come Make me frequent and humble sincere and fervent in prayer Help we to follow and imitate all good patterns and holy examples which thou settest before me in thy Son and in thy Saints and preserve me from the contagion of all evill society Make me an ensample of all vertue unto others make me daily and hourely to grow in grace and forgetting those things that are behinde to presse toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus making it my great and onely businesse to serve thee my God and to set forward my self and others unto salvation Help me to give all diligence to make my Calling and Election sure and to pass my so journing here in feare Keep me within the bounds of that Calling to which thou hast called me that I may walk quietly obediently industriously chearefully and conscionably therein and as much as in me lieth live peaceably with all men Suffer me not to give offence or scandal unto any by the uncharitable or imprudent use of that liberty thou hast given me but grant unto me and all that have now received with me and to all that name the name of the Lord Jesus that we may depart from iniquity and walke in love and meeknesse in all humility and righteousness and holinesse before thee That we may be blamelesse and harmlesse as the children of God without rebuke in the midst of this untoward and perverse generation Help me and all of us to profit under all thy dispensations to be patient and confident in adversity to be humble and temperate and thankful and merciful in prosperity and in whatsoever state we are therewith to be content Make us holy to thee obedient to Magistrates all those whom thou hast set over us regardfull of thy Ministers esteeming them very highly for their workes sake conscionably respectfull to all our relations Make us just and loving and peaceable and comfortable towards one another
and all thy people sober and chast and undefiled in our selves Make us alwayes mindefull of thy presence with us wheresoever we are or whatsoever we do and to walk before thee as it becometh us in thy sight and as having to do with thee our God in all things Keep us alwayes in the sense of our frailty and of our uncertaine condition and continuance in this world that we may live every day as if it were to be our last and to labour to make our accounts even with thee daily Make us to be often thinking upon the houre of death the day of judgment the paines of Hell and the joyes of Heaven let the dread and aw of eternity be ever upon our Souls Teach us how to carry our selves prudently and innocently in these dangerous times that we may be wise as serpents and harmlesse as Doves and direct us in all the changes that are or shall be upon us in this world to walk inoffensively in thy presence and herein to exercise our selves to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Suffer us neither through sinfull fears to desert our duties or to comply with wickednes or to forsake thy righteousnes or yet imprudently rashly or unadvisedly to cast our selves into any unnecessary dingers and whensoever through our frailty we shall fall into any sinne as what man is he that sins not Oh our God let us not rest in sin nor perish in our iniquities but be thou alwayes ready with thy mercy and grace to raise us up again and to give us repentance unto Salvation Grant all these blessings to me and all thy people And make us all the better for ever for this our approach unto thee this day Through that thy blessed Son whom thou hast given us to be our Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord Amen A Prayer of Intercession for the sick to be used by those that are with him or that come to visit him OH Eternal God and our most Gracious Father in Christ Jesus That art the God of health and the God of life and the God of all mercy compassion in thy hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind thou woundest and thou healest thou bringest to the grave and bringest back again thou turnest man to destruction and again thou sayest Come again yo children of men thou doest whatsoever pleaseth thee in Heaven and Earth and in things under the Earth And as for us O Lord we are all the workes of thy hand and we are in thy hands at the clay in the hands of the Potter that thou mayest do with us whatsoever pleaseth thee Whilst thou preservest us we live when thou takest away our breath we dy and turn again unto our dust and then all our thoughts perish and after death commeth Judgement wherein we must render an account unto thee our God for the whole course of our lives and conversation and receive from thee according to that which we have done in the body whether it be good or whether it be evill Have mercy O Lord have mercy we beseech thee upon us all thy poore weake fraile sinfull and mortall creatures give us not up unto utter ruin and destruction but grant us thy grace that we may so walke before thee both in sicknesse and in health that we may have comfort in our deaths and look downe wee humbly beseech thee with the eyes of thy tender pitty and compassion upon this thy servant that is here before thee under the visitation of thy heavenly hand it is thou that hast wounded him and it is thou onely that canst heal him it is thou that hast brought him down it is thou onely that canst raise him up and we know Oh Lord that thou art able to do all things all means will be helplesse without thee and thy blessing But thou art able to make the weakest meanes to become beneficiall unto thy people and to help them by thine own power and goodnesse in all they want and in all the failings of outward help Thy word O God is an al sufficient remedy There is no disease so desperate but thou canst Cure it there is no wound so deadly but thou canst heal it thou wert able to raise the Rulers Daughter from the bed when she was in the gripes of death The Widdowes sonne from the beer when he was upon his journey to the grave thou wert able to raise Lazarus out of the Grave when he had bin foure dayes dead and buried And thou art the same God still the same in power and the same in mercy thou hast as open an Eare and as compassionate a heart and as able a hand to hear pitty and help thy poor people as ever thou hadst When Physicians can do nothing and when medicines can do nothing and when Angels can do nothing and when all the creatures are at a stand and when the strength of nature faileth yet there is help and comfort in thee and thou makest the extremities of thy people the opportunities of thy power and goodness To thee therefore O Lord we come beseeching thee to glorify the power of thy mercy in restoring this thy servant to his former health and strength if it be thy blessed will that he may live to praise and glorifie thy name To amend his life to increase in knowledge and grace to do good amongst thy people to make his calling and election more and more sure unto himself against his departure out of this world and that he may have strength of Body and vigorous soundness of his faculties powers to come before thee in the holy Assemblies of thy people and to enjoy the benefit of thy heavenly and publique ordinance Do it Lord if it be thy blessed will speak but the word and thy servant shall be whole Direct him unto the use of those means which thou knowest to be most expedient and let thy blessing be above all means unto him Or if thou hast otherwise determined in thy wisdome and if it be thy heavenly pleasure by this sicknesse to put a period unto the dayes of this his earthly pilgrimage O Lord thy heavenly will be done but let it be done in great mercy and compassion Do nothing in wrath nothing in indignation for Christ Jesus his sake Sanctify this thy visitation unto thy servant that it may be a meanes to prepare him for thy kingdom let the sicknesse of his Body be unto the health of his soul that whether he live he may live unto the Lord and whether he dye he may dye unto the Lord and whether he live or dye he may be the Lords Help him to improve that time that is yet remaining unto him in this world in the best manner to thy glory and to his eternal good make him seriously to minde the things that belong unto his everlasting peace and so to make up his accounts with thee
that he may stand with joy and comfort before the Tribunal of thy Sonne Christ Jesus and receive the blessed sentence of everlasting life and salvation give him a saving sight and sense of his sinns that he may mourn for them from the bottom of his heart and offer unto thee the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit which thou O God wilt not despise grant him that godly sorrow that worketh Repentance unto salvation not to be repented of let nothing be so grievous unto him as that he hath sin'd against thee his mercifull and gracious God the God of his life and of his being and of all the blessings and comforts that ever he hath enjoyed The God that didest not spare thine own Sonne but gavest him up to dye for him enable him to confesse his sins unto thee that he may mouth for his sinns and finde pardon from thee affect him with a perfect hatred against sin that he may hate it above death hell it self Help him to loath himself for all those offences that he hath committed against thee make him vile in his own eyes that he may be dear precious in thy sight and give him a true love unto thy Lawes and Commandements that it may be the joy of his heart to do thy heavenly will in all things and let the sense and horrour of the corruptions of his nature and the wickednesse of his life not drive him from thee but let it drive him unto thee that he may fly for refuge into the bosome of that rich mercy that thou hast opened unto him in the Lord Jesus Christ Help him to reforme every thing that is amisse and to give himself up wholly unto thee to seek thy glory and to do thy heavenly will in all things purge and cleanse his soul from all evill thoughts ungodly affections distempered passions from all sinfull inclinations whatsoever and fill him full of holy thoughts of heavenly meditations devour affections and good inclinations toward thee his God wean him from the world and from all the vanities thereof and from all the sinfull pleasures of the flesh that he may set his affections wholly upon thee and upon things that are above where Christ Jesus sitteth at thy right hand seal unto him his pardon in the blood of thy Sonn by the inward testimony and grace of thy spirit let thy spirit of adoption cry Abba father in his heart strengthen his faith unto an holy and comfortable assurance of his interest in Christ crucified and in all thy mercies towards thy people in him make him to know that though he is a miserable sinner in himself yet the Death and Passion of thy Son hath satisfied thy Justice for all his iniquities and that though he hath no righteousnesse of his own to plead unto thee yet the righteousnesse of thy Son is his Justification in thy sight Oh Transcribe the promises of thy holy Gospel upon the Table of his heart that they may be unto him the sure evidence of his eternal inheritance in heaven Oh let the Mediation and Intercession of thy Sonne Christ Jesus at thy right hand prevaile with thee for all those mercies and graces and heavenly blessings that are needfull for him And let the sense of thy great mercies toward him and of thy great love unto him in the Lord Jesus his Saviour enflame his soul with an holy and fervent love unto thee that he may love thee with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his minde and with all his strength that he may love thee above his life and above his soul and that he may be willing to part with all that is dear unto him for thee that nothing may be dear unto him in respect of thee That he may love thee in all thy perfections in all thy mercies and all thy works in all thy dispensations in all thy corrections that thou art pleased to lay upon him Help him to discover thy tender mercy and Fatherly loving kindnesse unto his Soul shining forth unto him through all the clouds of that sickness and affliction that is or shall be upon him from thy hand and to taste thy sweetnesse in all the bitternesse of his trouble give him some comfortable relishes of those incomprehensible joyes and delights that are in thee that as the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so his soul may long and thirst and faint and languish after thee make him sick of love toward thee which is the only true health of his Soul Blessed God furnish thy servant with true Christian love charity to all thy people for thy sake Help him to forgive al that have wronged him to love his enemies to blesse them that curse him to do good to them that hate him to pray for them that despightfully use him and persecute him Give him reconciled affections to all with whom he hath had any difference make him desirous to do good unto all and as much as in him lyeth to live peaceably with all men Direct him and incline him readily willingly to seek reconciliation and to make satisfaction in case he hath done wrong or given any just cause of offence unto any Help him to settle his estate according to the rules of prudence righteousnes and charity to shew mercy to the poor as thou enablest him and to order all his affairs with discretion Bind him up in the Communion of thy Church and in the fellowship of a spiritual love and of a heavenly life with thy people give him tender affections towards thy Church and to those that are thine in faith and holinesse that he may be known to be thy disciple by his love unto thy people Give him patience to submit unto thy chastisements that he may bear them with a christian minde make him with a child like affection to accept of thy correction and to kiss every rod wherewith thou smitest him for his good give him an heart wholy resigned up unto to thy heavenly pleasure that he may refer himself entirely unto thee to choose for him and to deal with him as thou knowest to be most expedient that he may entrust thee as his merciful father reconciled to him in Christ and as the alwise and all sufficient God with his life and soul and all his happiness and with all his relations and concernments And deal with him in all things tenderly and graciously according to those bowells of compassion that thou bearest to thy people Be thou health unto him in all his sicknesse strength unto him in all his weaknesse comfort unto him in all his distresse life unto him in death it self stand by him in all temptations and trials to keep him from fainting and to give him the victory in Christ Jesus that he may obtain the Crown of thy heavenly glory Binde up Satan and all his spiritual enemies that they may not be able to hurt him make thou all his bed in his sicknesse and