Blessed Saviour But our remembrance of it must be 1. Affectionate and vigorous as we remember the death of a dear friend that died and died in our quarrel and defence who at once shed his blood for us and for the truth How passionately can we rehearse the praises and preserve the memory of such an one as this 'T was thus with our dearest Lord he fell a Sacrifice at once for the testimony of the truth and for the sake of our precious Souls He died that he might rescue us from eternal misery and death And this we must remember when we do remember the death of our Blessed Lord. 2. With all thankfulness to God for so unspeakable a mercy Let us awaken our Psaltery and Harp all our powers and faculties and all that is within us to praise his holy name Let us have our hymn of praise Matth. 26.30 'T is an heavenly feast we are going to and who goes to a feast with a sad countenance or heart Let us be filled with the spirit Speaking to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and making melody in our hearts to the Lord Ephes 5.18 19. We are Gods guests at this time and God loves we should be chearful and rejoyce He would have the Jews so in their Festivals Deut. 16.11 14. And certainly we have more reason to be so than they God having provided some better thing for us Heb. 11.40 This Sacrament is an Eucharist or service of praise and as such was observed by the first Christians Who breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favour with all the people Act. 2.46 47. 3. It must be such a remembrance as works in us a detestation against our sins which put our Blessed Saviour to death Coâ—â—â—â—ve you saw him hang upon the Cross and saw the nails pierce his hands and feet that you heard him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And that you saw the blood he sweat and the thorns he wore That you saw the Sun darkened the Dead arise and the rocky Earth rend in pieces certainly if your hearts were not more hard than the rocks you would relent especially when you consider that all this was for your sins and that he died that you might live 'T was thy Covetousness that betrayed him Thy Iust that made him bleed Thy unbelief and wickedness that loaded Him with the Cross that crowned Him with thorns that nailed his hands and pierced his side and filled his Soul with horror and amazement This should work in us a great indignation against our Sins as that which crucified our dearest Lord. Should a tender Mother lose a Child by a knife or some other instrument that is but the occasion of its death Surely she would not endure to see that instrument in her sight If we loved our Saviour we should hate our sins which made him bleed and bow his head Since 't is a most certain truth that he that commits sin does more displease i. e. does that which is more against the mind and will of Christ than Judas that betrayed him and those that hanged him upon his Cross And therefore as you pity your Saviour add not to his sorrows as you have any compassion to Him add not to the bitterness of his Soul Bring not with you instruments of crâ—â—lty when you pretend to remember his love â—e shewed in his death But think thâ—◠〈◊〉 that if God did not spare his Son that 〈◊〉 might not go unpunished that he will mucâ— less spare you who go on in your sins and love them III. Another great end of this Sacrament is that Christians might by it be united together in the strictest bond of love and charity It is indeed a feast of love and that which does not only joyn us to God but firmly cements us also to one another This indeed is the great Commandement of our Blessed Saviour that we should love one another as He hath loved us John 15.12 Nay he hath made this the mark by which his followers shall be known from the rest of the World By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Joh. 13.35 And in the early days of Christianity the Heathen World took notice how the Christians loved one another Nay the Holy Scriptures tell us that in the beginning of Christianity The multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul Act. 4.32 And they shewed their love to one another by making all things common that there might be no lack and wants among them Acts 2.44 45. But then 't is added when it was that they loved one another thus greatly viz. While they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart verse 46. Whiles there were frequent Communions in the Church of God there did remain a fervent Charity among Christians But when they were but seldome celebrated Charity also grew cold For indeed this Sacrament was appointed for the keeping up a fervent charity among the followers of Jesus And very plain methinks are the words of the Apostle to this purpose We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread 1 Cor. 10.17 i. e. We that partake of this Heavenly feast are by that made one we are of one kind and 〈◊〉 just as Bread and Wine though they be made up of several grains and grapes yet are made up together into one similar body all whose parts are homogeneous and of the same sort or kind so we that are Christians tho as men we differ from one another and have our several affections and designs distinct from each other yet for all this by the death of our Saviour and by the participation of the Sacrament of our Lords Supper we are made one we are reconciled to the same designs and interests acted by the same Spirit and by this Sacrament united into one Spiritual body However we are other wise divided it is the intention of this Sacrament to make us One. And therefore the Ancients called the Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a Collection or gathering together into one those who were otherwise divided The partaking of this Feast makes the partakers of one mind and heart where they do receive it worthily What is said of Pilate and Herod when our Saviour was about to suffer That they were the same day made friends together who before had been at enmity between themselves Luke 23.12 The same is true of all true Christians that do aright partake of this Sacrament of the death of Christ they are now united and reconciled and made of one heart and mind And this seems to be the great design of the Eucharist to unite Christians together in the closest bond of unity and
glory that he might shew us the way to it And by his sufferings and death hath become the Author of Eternal salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 5.9 Indeed God wrought many deliverances for his people the Jews by the hands of his servants Moses and Joshuah and the Judges and Kings of Israel but all these together did not work so great a deliverance as our Blessed Saviour did when he made his soul an offering for sin when he despised the Cross and the shame of it and wrought an Eternal Redemption for us They delivered Gods People from their ill Neighbours our Saviour hath delivered us from our sins and from the evil men our selves They delivered them from Tyrants he hath delivered us from the power of the devil and from an eternal slavery They saved their bodies from slavery and bondage Our Saviour saves our souls from sin and death They fought for their people our Saviour suffered and dyed They delivered them for a time our Saviour for ever They saved the Jews but our Lord is the Saviour of mankind Jacob in his last words to his sons tells them what shall befal them in the last dayes and when he comes to Dan he tells him â—e shall be a serpent by the way an Adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward Gen. 49.17 This the Jews understand to be foretold of that great deliverance which Sampson of this Tribe of Dan should be an instrument of who wrought a great deliverance of his people from the Philistines V. Targ. Hierosol Jonath in locum But then Jacob presently adds in the next words I have waited for thy salvation O Lord v. 18. The meaning of which words according to the same Jews is this as if Jacob when he had foreseen the deliverances which should be wrought by Gideon and Sampson had said thus I do not expect the deliverance of Gideon and Sampson which will be but a temporal deliverance but thy salvation O Lord is that which I expect for thine is an eternal salvation They were indeed deliverers of Gods people but none of them could do that which our Saviour does who saves his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 And blâ—sseth us in turning away every one of us from our iniquities Acts 3.26 So great a salvation hath our Saviour wrought for us so great a love hath he shewed in laying down his life for us that it ought never to be forgotten as long as the World endures And that it might never be forgotten our Saviour hath appointed the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be a standing memorial of his great love in dying for us Do this says he in remembrance of me We are indeed ready to receive mercies and also very ready to forget that they are bestowed upon us And therefore God hath taken this care that we might never forget them He did so with the Jews who were a very unthankful people and very prone to forget him that had done so many kindnesses for them Lest that people should forget their Creator God appointed the Sabbath-day to be observed in memory of the Creation of the World Exod. 20.11 When he brought the Israelites out of Egypt he ordains the Passe-over in memory of that deliverance Exod. 12. And besides that he obliges them severely to observe that feast and frequently by his servants puts them in mind of that deliverance and over and above appoints the Sabbath-day also which was at first commanded upon another score as a weekly remembrancer of that great deliverance Deut. 5.15 But he that delivered them out of Egypt did also carry them through the Wilderness and in memory of that mercy in redeeming them from the travels and pilgrimage of the desert he appoints an Anniversary feast viz. the feast of Tabernacles Lev. 23.43 Other Festivals there were and divers memorials of the mercies of God shewed to that people and to their fathers They who were so apt to forget Gods mercies were provided with such services as should put them fairly in mind of them God hath done thus mercifully with us also He hath not only given his Son to die for us than which there cannot be a greater mercy but he hath ordained this Sacrament as a perpetual memorial of so great a love And as among the Jews those services which God required were very proper remembrancers and monitors of the mercies they had received so it is in the case that is before us Their Sabbath which did succeed their six days labour put them in mind of Gods creating the World and ceasing from those works Their Pass-over brought to their mind the mercies of God in their Redemption from Egypt Their feast of Tabernacles plainly shewed them the estate of their Fathers in the Wilderness And so the Sacrament of the Lords Supper does after a lively manner represent unto us the Death of our Blessed Saviour He died indeed a great while since and at a place far remote from us there could be but few that were eye-witnesses of what was then and there done but few in proportion with those that would be concerned in his death And therefore God out of his great mercy to us hath ordained this service that what we could not see done at first we might see repeated in the Sacrament afterwards Here we have Christ crucifyed represented to us The Bread and Wine put us in mind of his Body and Blood And when we see the Bread broken and the Wine poured forth we are taught to remember the Passion of our Lord how his body was broken and bruised and his blood was shed for us God would have us lift up our hearts from these symbols and signs to that which is signified and represented by them And if we do so we may by our Faith see Christ crucified before our eyes And that which was done so long ago and so far off will be anew represented unto us The Apostle tells his Galatians that before their eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth and crucified among them Gal. 3.1 Yet certain it is that Jesus Christ was crucifyed at Jerusalem a place very far remote from the Country of the Galatians But yet he that was crucified at Jerusalem may well be said to have been evidently set forth before the eyes of the Galatians Vers Syriac and crucified among them also i. e. Jesus Christ crucified was as it were painted and most lively represented unto them They did not see him indeed hanging on the Cross at Jerusalem but yet by the preaching of the Gospel and celebration of this Sacrament they might behold Christ crucified and that which was done at so great a distance would by these means become as if it had been done before their eyes But it is not a bare historical remembrance that will serve our turn neither It is no hard thing to be able to remember the history of the passion of our
the true Penitent forbears his sin because he finds in his Soul an antipathy against it and not only because it is forbidden Such a Repentance as this must we find in our Souls before we can be fit to partake of these holy Mysteries And well it will become us to be greatly humbled for our sins and to abhor them when we do commemorate the death of our Lord and Saviour For he died for sin and endured the shame and sorrow of the Cross that he might no longer abide in us And if we come with our sins to this holy Table we do crucifie our Lord afresh we do trample upon his precious blood and count it a common and unholy thing 5. To what hath been said this must be added that when by our sin we have not only offended God but also injured and wronged our neighbour we are strictly and indispensably obliged to make him restitution as well as to beg the forgiveness of God We can expect no pardon from God if we do not make amends to our neighbour whom we have wronged If the wicked restore the pledge and give again that he had robbed c he shall surely live and not die Ezek. 33.15 But then if he do not this or sincerely resolve to do it assoon as he is able to do it he shall surely die and not live And his partaking of this holy Table shall be so far from saving him from the anger of God that it will encrease his guilt and add to his sin Let no man think that God will hear him if he do not make his brother amends for the wrong he hath done him Herodot Clio. We have a story in our Books of one Halyattes that his Soldiers did set on fire the Corn of the Milesians and that the fire by the violence of the wind caught hold of the Temple of Minerva and burnt it down It happened sometime after this that Halyattes falls sick and sends to the Oracle to know what would be the success of his disease but the Messengers were told by the Oracle that they must not expect any answer till the Temple which they had burnt were first repaired Most certain it is that we shall have no return of our prayers from Heaven when we confess and beg the pardon of our sin unless we do first make restitution where we have wronged our brother It cannot be thought we have repented if we do not restore There is no sacrifice will expiate our crime if we do not also make restitution Under the Law of Moses he that had wronged his brother was obliged indeed to bring a sacrifice for his atonement but then at the same time he was obliged to make a full restitution to his neighbour whom he had wrong'd and to add also a fifth part to the principal before he could be forgiven Levit. 6. He that wronged his neighbour was by that Law sometimes liable to restore double v. Maimon Hal. Shevuoth c. 8. Exod. 22.4.9 Sometimes times four and five fold ver 1. where the Trespasser was convicted But then where the offender became penitent and confessed his sin v. L' empereur in Bava Kam C. 7. S. 1. yet in this case he was obliged to make restitution to add a fifth part v. Jomd c. 8. Mishn 9. Shulchan Aruch H. Jom Kippu and to bring his offering Numb 5.7 His Repentance nor his offering would not serve his turn unless he also made amends to his neighbour whom he had wronged Nay the day of expiation as the Jews teach us would not avail to take away the guilt which we contracted by doing wrong to our brother And we must remember that we are obliged to make restitution not only where we have done an open and forcible injury As the robber and thief and violent oppressor are bound to restore what they have wrong'd their brother of by their violent injustice But we are also obliged to restore what we have by any means unjustly got the possession of And there are more ways than one by which we may become guilty of injustice He that overreaches and out-wits his brother in a bargain he that in his trading deals fraudulently and insincerely he that hides and conceals from his neighbour his just rights and dues such men as these are obliged to make restitution as well as open the robber and the thief There are indeed very many things which the Laws of the Land do not take notice of which yet we are obliged to in the Court of Conscience And we are before we do receive this Sacrament very severely to examine our own Consciences Whether in our dealings with men we have done as we would be done by and have not detained and with-held our neighbours due from him Indeed we are come to that pass that we are not afraid of doing an unjust action if we can but do it cautelously and slily Nay we are ready to rejoyce when we have cunningly circumvented our brother and men look upon it as but a little fault if any at all when they do craftily circumvent even him that attends upon holy things But certain it is whoever does wrong his brother and him that Ministers at Gods Altar he deceives himself most and must never look for pardon from God till he have repented of his sin and made restitution for the wrong he hath done And what hath been said hitherto of the necessity of making restitution must not only be understood of the wrong we have done to our neighbour as to his goods and estate but of all other wrongs whatsoever And particularly of that wrong we have done to his name and credit We ought to judge the best of all men and to make the most charitable construction of all the actions of our neighbour And therefore if we have done otherwise we are obliged to Repentance and to restitution for the wrong which we have done If we have openly slandered our brother or more closely and slily undermined his credit and good name we are obliged in this case to make as far as we are able a reparation That is we are obliged to unsay what we have said and by our words do him honour as we have endeavoured before to do him a discredit In a word we are bound to make him such an amends as we are able or such as may satisfie him to whom we have done the wrong And when we have done this we must humble our selves greatly in the sight of God for this sin and be very careful that we sin no more Thus must we cleanse and purge our Souls before we dare to come to this holy Table We must purge out our old leaven that we may be a new lump Otherwise we shall meet with death there where we might else have found Life And we ought therefore to be very careful and solicitous lest we should by our remisness and hypocrisie expose our selves to the greatest curse As we love our
pilgrimage towards Heaven This repast will give us new strength and vigor And we greatly need that our strength should be renewed This is a blessed opportunity of renewing our Covenant with God and reconciling our selves to one another and dressing up our disordered Souls for another World This puts us upon exciting all our Graces and strengthening all our good purposes and intentions This awakens our repentance inflames our charity augments our hope confirms our faith and puts us into a condition that makes us more fit to live and more prepared to dye We are like Clocks and Watches that frequently stand in need of winding up and setting right Or else like trees that are apt to be pulled back by suckers and burdened with luxuriant branches This blessed Sacrament puts us upon amending all our amisses it puts us upon cutting off and paring away our excrescencies and superfluities How glad should we be then of such an excellent opportunity that does oblige us upon pain of death to become new creatures and we are offered strength and grace to be so Who need perswade the hungry man to eat or the thirsty to drink If we understand our needs they will put us forward When our Souls grow disordered we should be glad of an opportunity of setting them right When our sins grow upon us and our Charity grows cold we should be glad of an occasion to renew our Repentance and enflame our Charity Here 's a blessed occasion that puts us upon all this This calls upon us to break off our wont of sin to kindle our dying charity to forget our quarrels and contentions and to put our selves in a posture for a better life than this Here is a great grace offered and conferred to them that come prepared So that we see what great necessity lies upon us to do this We have a plain and peremptory command to do it a great reason also to enforce the Precept and after all this our own interest and advantage does loudly require it of us So plain a Precept we may not neglect without open rebellion against our Lord. Nor can we resist the reason of it without being guilty of great ingratitude And after this if we are not perswaded to it by our own interest we are false to our own souls Methinks any of these are strong enough And it will be very strange if all of them together should not draw us If the command of Christ and the sense of his dear love and our own interest besides will not draw us certainly our hearts are very hard 4. To what hath been said I add this that the Jew was most strictly obliged to keep the Passover and he that did neglect it was liable to the severest penalty And we have therefore great reason to think the neglecter of this Precept of our Lords makes himself obnoxious to the wrath of God by reason of this neglect For the Passover we know that every Israelite was obliged to keep it Exod. 12.47 And because it might happen that some of them might be by reason of their legal defilement unfit or else by reason of some journey from home unable to keep it in that place where it was commanded to be kept therefore it was provided in the Law that the second Moneth should be observed and in it the second Passover kept for the sake of such men as these that were unavoidably hindred from keeping it in the first moneth But this Passover was only substituted in the case above-named For every Israelite was obliged to keep the first Passover if he were clean and not in a journey and made himself greatly obnoxious if he did not Thus we read the man that is clean and is not in a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passover even the same Soul shall be cut off from his people because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season That man shall bear his sin Numb 9.13 And in case he were in a journey or unclean yet did not this excuse him he was however obliged to keep the Passover unto the Lord v. 10. And that he might do so the second Passover was instituted Numb 9. The Israelites were severely obliged to keep the Passover and to keep it aright He that did not keep that Feast was to be cut off from Gods people and he that eat leavened bread during that Feast was likewise liable to the same penalty Exod. 12.15 So that it was commanded to be kept and to be kept as was appointed upon pain of the greatest curse The Israelite was tyed up very strait he must keep this Feast and he must keep it without leaven and according to all its ordinances and constitutions There was danger if he did not keep it as he should and danger if he did not keep it at all If he either keep it not or kept it amiss he rendred himself liable to the curse of the Law and that none of the smaller neither but he was liable to be cut off from among his people for it And though I shall not now examine the different opinions about what is meant by that expression of being cut off from their people yet I shall tell you that it does import a very great severity And therefore we find it annexed to such sins as the Law of Moses allowed no expiation for There was no Sacrifice admitted to make atonement for that offence to which this excision did belong The sin of ignorance might be expiated by a Sacrifice but there was no atoning such a sin as hath this penalty annexed to it The Soul that sinned presumptuously was to be cut off from among his people Numb 15. 28 30. Such a man was reserved to the punishment of God though he were exempt from the sword of the Magistrate It is said of him that would not obey the Messiah that God will require it of him Deut. 18.17 But when St. Peter cites this passage he expresseth it in other words viz. that such a man shall be destroyed from among the people Act. 3.23 Or cut off from the people for he uses the same Greek word by which this cutting off is expressed by the Septuagint Numb 15.30 By which it appears to be a very hainous offence which is thus denounced against and an offence of that nature that God reserves the punishment of it to himself and which he allowed no expiation for under the Law of Moses Thus it was with the Passover Every Jew was bound to keep it or else must be liable for his neglect to the greatest curse And this curse was unavoidable too for God took upon himself the execution of it who would not let him escape that might otherwise have avoided the severity of the Magistrate Can we then imagine that we shall escape if we neglect to eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup Let us not deceive ourselves we shall not escape God will require it of us Certainly the Passover
bestow upon all those who perform the conditions of the new Covenant God is not only pleased to make a Covenant with us and plainly to declare his readiness to perform his part but also gives us his seal and so does abundantly assure us of his own stedfastness and constancy For such is our weakness so great our unbelief that we need very great supports and an abundant assurance to buoy up our sinking and incredulous hearts And on the other hand so great is the meroy and condescension of our gracious God that he is ready to consider our frame and to give us the greater security assurance He does not only promise us the pardon of our sins in his New Covenant but he also gives us his seal to it besides That so by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 2.18 Thus gratiously does God deal with Mankind He gives them his Covenant and his Seal too He not only gives out his decree in the expresses of his will but he signes and seals it also that we may be assured that it is unalterable as it is said the Law of the Medes and Persians in that case was Dan. 6.8 God makes a Covenant with Noah and his sons that he will no more destroy the earth by a flood but to give them still a greater assurance he sets his bow in the cloud as a token of this Covenant between himself and them Gen. 9. And when God makes a Covenant with Abraham and with his seed he does command Circumcision as a token of this Covenant between himself and them Gen. 17.11 God does not only give us his Word but his Sacrament the token of his truth This God does because he is gracious and because our wretched unbelief is so great that we need the utmost assurance And this certainly is one great end of the Sacrament that we might have alwayes with us a sure pledge of the favour and grace of God that we might not miscarry through our unbelief that we might have a full assurance that God would pardon our sins if we do on our part perform the condition of the New Covenant Our Saviours words are plain to this purpose This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. 28.26 This Sacrament is the instrument of conveyance the Seal that gives us right and title to this great grace and mercy of God We receive in this Sacrament the Body and Blood of Christ and the benefits of his Death The pardon of our sin is here made over to us God hath given us visible pledges of his readiness to forgive our sins And because we are very jealous and suspicious very unapt to believe that such wretches as we are should be received into Gods favour he hath given us this abundant assurance He receives us to his own Table gives us under the symbols of Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of his Son who died for our sins and entertains us with this food of heaven In that God hath given us his Son and given him up to death and this death he underwent for our sins we have a great assurance that with him he will give us all things and that he is ready to pardon those sins for which our Lord hath shed his blood But then this blessed Sacrament is greatly efficacious towards the obtaining of this pardon because it is the ministery of the Death of Christ by which our pardon was procured But then we must be careful that we do not think that our pardon is procured by any inherent vertue of the outward elements of Bread and Wine or that our partaking of these alone will procure this remission of sins For the pardon of sin is procured by the blood of our Saviour and we attain not to it without a lively faith and a performing the conditions of the Gospel But if we do this we have good assurance of pardon when we partake of this Sacrament which is the Ministery of the Death of Christ But then we must have a faith in Christ that is as we eat the outward Element of Bread and drink the Wine so must our Souls receive our Lord Jesus Christ They must entertain him with all his precepts and in all his offices Our hearts must receive him as our Prophet to instruct and teach us as our Lord to rule and govern us as well as our Priest to make a satisfaction for us to the Divine Justice And as we hunger and thirst for our bodily food so we must hunger after the Spiritual provisions that Christ hath made for our Souls We must earnestly breathe after righteousness and purity of heart There must be in our Souls an hunger and a thirst they must receive and feed and not our bodies only It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing John 6.63 As our mouth eats the outward element so faith must eat too And it is not a notion not an empty nothing that will feed a lively faith It conveys as real a supply to the Soul as the outward Elements do nourishment to the body The body receives the outward symbol the Soul the inward grace We eat and drink the Element but 't is the Soul that feeds on the thing signified and represented And therefore let not the sinner who lives in his sin and loves it think to obtain his pardon by partaking of this Sacrament This Sacrament will not avail such a man as this is for the death of Christ will profit him nothing if he lives in his sins and loves them and therefore this Sacrament can avail him nothing it being but the Annunciation of the Death of Christ and therefore it cannot save that sinner whom the death of his Lord does not avail It is a vain thing for such a sinner to take sanctuary here If there be not in our souls a principle of new Life it is not the outward Elements of Bread and Wine that will help us God is ready to forgive our sins and we may see it clearly in this Sacrament but while we love our sins we are uncapable of this grace of God 'T is the burdened and the ladened sinner that shall find this favour 'T is he that hates his sin and strives against it These are those whom Christ came to seek and save 'T is not the outward work will save us if there be not in us the grace of God There is no pardon in the Gospel for the obdurate and impenitent sinner and therefore we may not look for it in any of the exterior offices of Religion And therefore let no man deceive himself in this matter He that comes in his sins out of hopes of a pardon will be so far deceived that instead of obtaining a pardon for his former guilt he will contract
thanks to God that he is pleased to make that our duty which is so much our interest and for our advantage He obliges us to renew our Covenant with himself which it is our greatest interest to do He obliges us to that which tends to our own happiness and welfare and without which we could not but be miserable He will have us remember the death of our Saviour and his love he shewed us He will have us partake of a Sacrament that does not only bring us nearer to himself but also unites us faster in the bond of love to one another He would that we should partake of these Mysteries which are the seal of his Covenant and give us great assurance of his readiness to pardon our sins That is in one word God would have us be happy and he does oblige us to be so 'T is our advantage that he designs in all this His love is without any interest but that of ours Who would not enter into Covenant with so good a God who would not remember the love of so dear a Lord Who would not be knit fast to his brother in closest bond of love Who would not have assurance of the pardon of his sins These are the greatest blessings that we are capable of receiving the greatest that Heaven can bestow upon us What can be more desireable than to be at peace with God and at unity among our selves What more reasonable or more to be wished for than that we should remember the love of our Saviour and receive a good assurance of the pardon of our sins And this is the design as you have heard of this blessed Sacrament It is appointed for such blessed purposes as these How suspicious or shy soever we be of it this is the errand it comes about It hath a design to make us more holy and more happy than we were This is all the plot which it hath upon us God hath not only been pleased to give us his Son to die for our ransom but he gives him again in this Sacrament for our food and nourishment O the unspeakableness of Gods kindness to us Methinks every man should break forth into his praises methinks he should say Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfieth thy mouth with good things Psal 103.2 3 4 5. Methinks our mouth should be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God for these his kindnesses to our Souls 4. Hence we may learn what great reason we have to embrace so blessed an opportunity of becoming better Great are the benefits which would redound to us from â— frequent and a devout Communion And certainly this service must needs be welcome to that Soul that is weary of his sins and heartily and earnestly desires to be rid of them For it lays a most severe obligation upon us to search our hearts and amend our ways and set things straight between God and our own Souls This service obligeth us to that which every pious Soul would chuse of it self It binds us to be faithful servants of God to be hearty lovers of our brother to be grateful acknowledgers of the love of Christ and diligent seekers after the pardon of our sins Who would not welcome such a blessed opportunity that loves his God and is weary of his sins Who is it that desires to lead a new life that would not be glad of so excellent a service 'T is to be feared we are too much wedded to our sins when we refuse this service which would divorce them from us 'T is much to be feared we have no great sense of the love of our dying Saviour when we will not upon his command Do this in remembrance of him Or that our sins are no burden to us when we despise the evidence of our pardon If we did but worthily partake of this Sacrament we should be more fit to live and more prepar'd to die We should be more fervent in our services to God and more sincere in our love to our brother the love of Christ would constrain us to obedience and his Commandements would not be grievous to us This would put an end to our unnatural differences and quarrels it would restore love and charity it would deliver us from our slavish and dreadful fear of death In a word it would change this Earth into a kind of Heaven and him that is now a cold professor of Religion it would make this Sinner become a Saint and a zealous doer of the will of God Such a mighty change would a frequent and a worthy participation of these mysteries introduce into the world It would bring back the primitive spirit into the hearts of Christians when Communions were frequent and devout then did every holy and good thing obtain And were they again restored the Devils Kingdom which hath now gotten ground would not only shake but fall to the ground This would overturn his strong-holds as the barly-cake of Gideon did the Tents of the men of Midian And therefore no wonder that he labours so greatly by his instruments to prevent this which would subvert his Kingdom And this is so effectually done that now the professors of Christianity either partake amiss or not at all This is the case of many I wish I could not say of the most of Christians Nay and those that do not receive at all are grown witty too they think they can defend themselves from being guilty of a default I shall not here examine what they have to say for themselves but yet this I shall say that the command of our Saviour for our Communicating is so plain and the reason of it so great that nothing can discharge us from it but either the impossibility of doing it for want of opportunity which we cannot plead or a countermand from him that gave us the law which we must never expect Nothing else can discharge us not our common excuses not our mistaken and scrupulous Consciences which cannot evacuate the Law of God for hereafter we shall be judged not according to what we ween or are of opinion in the case but by a more sure and unerring rule the VVord of God I conclude this particular only adding that if we diminish or take from the Word of God and deny that to be our duty which the Word of God requires we have too much reason to fear that God will take away our part out of the book of life Rev. 22.19 CHAP. III. I Shall now proceed to shew how we may become worthy partakers of this Sacrament of our Lords Supper which was ordained for such great ends and conveys so great a blessing to all those that partake of it as they ought For there is something to be done by us before we can be prepared for so great a
his Corinthians of the danger of unworthy receiving 1 Cor. 11.27 presently puts them upon examining themselves and then upon eating this Bread and drinking this cup ver 28. We may die by a famine as well as by a surfet by not partaking at all as well as by partaking amiss He in the parable that came to the Marriage-feast without the Wedding-garment was cast into outer darkness Matth. 22.13 But then for those that were invited and would not come at all the Lord said that none of those men should taste of his Supper Luke 14.24 He that comes unworthily runs into a great danger and so does he that does not come at all There is but one way of escaping the danger and that is by calling in Gods help and a diligent preparing and fitting our selves Which we have great reason to do now 3. Because we do at this time make a very solemn approach to God We are going to his Table to be his guests to eat and drink with him And certainly we had need prepare our selves most diligently did we but rightly consider this When we go to the Table of a great man we do trim and spruce up our selves It will well become us to come hither with clean hearts when we consider that God hath an all-seeing eye and that he cannot endure to behold iniquity God will be sanctified by us or upon us It is no trifling and small matter that we are now about We make a very near approach unto God and had need therefore purge our hearts of our uncleanness lest God make a breach upon us We had need prepare to meet the Lord and sanctifie him in our hearts Let us not dare to trifle in a matter of so great weight nor to go about to mock God and impose upon him before whom all things are naked and open Nor let us by any means dare to serve God at all adventures and do such a work as this is negligently and deceitfully If we do God will be very far from accepting us or our service Wherefore draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded Jam. 4.8 Here is before us life and death let us quit our selves like men girding up the Joyns of our mind and imploring the aid of Heaven that our Souls may live No less than the life of our precious Souls is concerned in this matter As we do order this affair we may either live or die Now certainly these things that have been named above will be sufficient to awaken us and provoke us to diligence if they be but believed and considered throughly Having shewed the necessity of preparing our selves I come now to shew how this must be done And first I shall shew what preparations we are to make before we do partake Secondly what behaviour will become us when we do receive Thirdly what we must do after we have received CHAP. IV. I Shall now shew what preparations we are to make in order to our worthy receiving of this Sacrament And here I might premise that in general and holy life is a very good preparative to this service Were our whole life a life of Religion we should be always in a good readiness for this service That which fits us to die fits us to receive this Sacrament of the Lords Supper And certainly and holy life is the best preparative for death and therefore it must needs be very useful and necessary to our worthy partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ He that is fit to receive the Sacrament is fit to die and he that is fit to die is fit to receive the Sacrament one and the same preparation serves for both And if an holy life be a good preparative to death it must be so for the blessed Sacrament also But then though an holy life make a man habitually prepared for death yet there are for all that several things advisable to the dying man upon his sick-bed in order to his actual preparation for his departure hence And so it is in this Sacrament though an holy life be a good preparative yet it is but an habitual one and it is requisite that he that leads an holy life should notwithstanding that make an actual preparation before he make his approach to this holy Table And what we are to do in order to that I shall now shew 1. It is very requisite we should set some time apart for this work that we should sequester selves from our worldly affairs and business and be at leisure to attend upon the great concernment of our Souls But when we are alone we must be greatly careful that our worldly thoughts do not thrust in upon us and divert or distract us We must do as Abraham did when he sacrificed and the fowls came down upon his Sacrifice he drove them away Gen. 15.11 We must send away our worldly thoughts and cares at this time that they may not disturb and hinder us but that we may altogether attend upon that more weighty concern which we are about If we do not this we may when we are alone be as much in the World as we are at any other time And therefore we shall do well not only to set some time apart from our worldly occasions but when we have done that we must obstinately resolve that no worldly thought shall get entrance into our hearts at that time We shall be sure to be sollicited by our vain thoughts then but we must call in the aid of God and use our utmost diligence to keep them out We must empty our selves of these buyers and sellers we must overturn their Tables of exchange and with a great zeal whip these thieves out of Gods Temple This perhaps we may think a matter of some difficulty but there is nothing greatly difficult to him that is resolved nothing can be so to him that humbly and fervently implores the grace and aid of God Besides it is for the life of our Souls that we do this And if we loved our Souls as well as we do our Estates or Bodies and I might say our sins we should not find any difficulty in this matter For for the sake of these things we can spend many days and not complain and therefore have no reason to think much of spending now and then a day in consulting the interest of our immortal Souls And sure I am there are no portions of our time better spent than those we spend in the diligent service of God and about the securing the eternal interest of our Souls We shall one day wish that some of those hours which now we carelesly spend in doing nothing or in doing amiss which we spend in impertinent visits or in riot and drunkenness had been spent in our Closets in fervent prayer to Almighty God and in caring for our pretious Souls If ever we would have our Souls do well we must
sometimes be alone and set apart some portion of our time for our service of our God We have our Saviours example for this though he were much called upon and greatly employed and that always in doing good to Mankind yet he finds time to be alone And rather than neglect it he will defraud himself of his Rest Thus we are told that he rises a great while before day and departs into a solitary place and there prays Mark 1.35 He continues in prayer all night Luk. 6.12 And when his Disciples were asleep we find him praying upon his knees Luk. 22.41 and praying more earnestly ver 44. So that no man may now think himself excused through the multiplicity of his affairs from his holy solitudes and retirements Our Blessed Lord found time for these things though he were so much called upon to heal the sick and help the needy We must then separate our selves from the world and from all its cares and pleasures and devote our selves and our time to the service of God And as it is adviseable that we should do this often so is it more especially that we should do it before we approach to the Table of our Lord that we may be at leisure to fit our selves for so great and so excellent a service 2. It is very necessary that we should examine and try our selves Let a manexamine himself and so let him eat c. 1 Cor. 11.28 We must descend into our own souls and try what we are This is the duty of every man lest he bring destruction upon himself No man is to be too confident of himself he must bring himself to the rule and measure himself by that We are very apt to think too well of our selves For we are too forward to judge of our selves by an imperfect rule and measure to think our selves good because we are not so bad as the worst or to judge well of our selves because other men judge well of us or to acquit our selves because our Conscience does not condemn us or perhaps we judge our selves in a safe condition because we are innocent as to some things and give an hearty obedience to some of the Laws of God Or else it may be that we think our selves in a safe condition because we mean well though we do not always do as we should do We are ready to call our great sins little ones and our little ones none at all Or else we think our selves safe because we are as we think of an orthodox belief or of a more refined sect or party of men A great many ways there are by which we may deceive our selves and miscarry eternally And therefore we had need use a most severe scrutiny and search For our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked and do easily impose upon us 'T was a wise speech of one of the Jews That a man should not put any trust in himself as long as he lives Hillel Avoth c. 2. S. 4. And King Solomon tells us that all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the Spirits Prov. 16.2 We do easily absolve our selves for we are partial and greatly favourable to our own side We are often heard to say that indeed we are great Sinners but then we add that we repent That we do not keep the Law we do confess but then we profess to believe the Gospel We have done amiss we say but then we do declare that we will be more heedful for the time to come We have quarrell'd with our Neighbours indeed but yet we do give out that we forgive them We have not done as we should but yet we affirm that we desire to be better But all this while it is a great question whether our Repentance and Faith our Charity and purposes of amendment and desires of becoming better be sincere or not For all this while we are supposed not to have examined our selves for when we come to do that by the unalterable Law of God we may perhaps find our sins great and Repentance less than now we conceive it to be If we try our purposes of amendment our Charity and Faith and desires of becoming better we may not find them to be that which we would have them be thought to be It will be well for us therefore that we examine and prove our selves as the Apostle requires we should lest we deceive our selves for ever when we take up with that which is counterfeit and insincere We are easily perswaded to do this when our Estates or Lives are concerned In that case we love to take a sure course and to search into the bottom of the thing 'T were well for us we were as curious where our Souls are so nearly concerned We shall find it worth our while to examine and try our selves And I shall shew what things they are which we are to examine in order to the fitting our selves for the Supper of the Lord and the right understanding what will become us in so weighty an affair CHAP. V. THE first thing that we are to examine is what we have done amiss and what we have omitted We are obliged to consider our ways and to look back upon our lives and conversations and observe wherein we have transgressed the holy laws of God We must make a diligent search into our hearts and most carefully reflect upon our lives past And for the better success of this work we may take these following rules 1. We must be greatly careful that we be not remiss and careless in this search That we do not search for our sins as some negligent officers search for offenders whom they have no mind to find out But as the Jews were very curious in searching for leaven and as the Priest was obliged to be very exact in searching after the Leprosie that did arise in a man or house so must we be We must search narrowly as the faithful Physician does by his Patient whose health he does consult He does curiously observe the nature of his disease all the moments of its rise and growth its symptoms and its types that he may know how to help nature and counterwork the disease Or as a faithful and skilful workman that would uphold a decaying house he searches diligently into its several parts examines the foundation considers its sides and superstructures that he may obviate and prevent its fall So must we do we must descend into every corner of our hearts look very diligently over our lives and well consider our wayes that we may find out what is amiss in us The interest of our Souls is greatly concerned if we leave any sin which we might have found out our condition is full of danger A little leaven leavens the whole lump and therefore it concerns us highly to be very exact in our search 2. We must be careful that we make this search by the light of Gods Law The Jews require when men
whatever the sinner may plead for himself Certain it is a man may as easily bless God as take his name in vain To speak well of our neighbour is as soon done as to speak amiss A good word costs us no more pains than a bad one And what wretched sinners are we who chuse to do amiss when it is as easie for us to do well and certainly so it is in many cases 9. Another aggravation of our sin is when we have not only sinned our selves but caused others to sin too This brand was upon Jeroboam that he did not only sin himself but also caused Israel to sin Certainly our own scores will be great enough we shall not need have the sins of others to account for besides It will well become us to consider of this when we search into our hearts and lives whether we have not by our counsel or example by our neglect and unfaithfulness caused others to go astray who might have been preserved from the errour of their way had we been faithful to them in our reproofs and exhortations 10. Lastly another degree of our sin is when it is come to an habit or custom And this does still make our sin the greater for now our sin is grown up to a full measure and to the highest stature and pitch and then we may well reckon our selves to be not only sinners but workers of iniquity It is very advisable that we should consider of these Agrravations of our sins in order to the more full humiliation of our Souls before God It is very needful that those things which do greatly encrease our guilt should be particularly confessed and lamented in the sight of God Now it is very evident that the particular above-named do very much heighten and increase our guilt Indeed every sinner does transgress the Law of God that Law which is holy just and good for sin is the Transgression of the Law But then he that sins against the clear dictates of his own Conscience also contracts a double guilt he that sins after his solemn vows of obedience adds treachery to his other guilt and he that sins after many mercies adds ingratitude to his other sins every sin makes us obnoxious to Gods displeasure but yet are there many degrees in our sins which do greatly aggravate our fault and introduce a new and greater guilt upon us And certainly to abound in sin under the greatest means of grace to continue in our folly when the rod of God lies heavy upon us to commit the sin which it is so very easie to avoid to repeat our sin when we have confessed and bewailed it to sin and to cause others to sin also to contract habits and customs of evil doing these are things which are by no means to be forgotten in our search because they do import so much of guilt and so great a degree of wickedness But all that hath been said is but relative to something else we are not fit to receive the Sacrament as soon as we have found out our sins The Jews were not only obliged to search for their Leaven at the Passover but also to purge it out And their search was in order to their putting it away They might not leave it where they found it but were obliged to put it from them we must do so by our sins too and therefore we must now consider what we are obliged to do in the next place CHAP. VI. WHen we are gone thus far and have found out our sins we must then put them away by a true and hearty Repentance Unless we do this we shall eat and drink Damnation to our selves Now because though Repentance be very commonly pretended to yet we do often mistake our selves in it and take that for it which comes far short of it therefore it is very necessary we should examine our Repentance and very carefully try whether it be such as is never to be repented of For as it is very common with men to think they have not sinned when they have so it is very common with men to think they have not sinned when they have so it is also as usual a thing with them to conceit that they have repented when indeed they have not For we are too apt to think Repentance no more but a calling to God for mercy or a general confession that we are sinners or some sudden purposes of amendment of Life or at most the actual abstaining from our sin Therefore it will be worth our while that we examine our Repentance and that we may do by the following Rules 1. He that Repents is greatly sorrowful for his sin He is inwardly grieved that he should offend God by his sins and would rather chuse any loss or trouble than commit his sin again His sorrow is very hearty and unfained he is grieved in earnest and his grief is great according to the measure and proportion of his sin and folly He is vile and base in his own eyes and is greatly afflicted for his wickedness Indeed the sincerity of his sorrow is not altogether to be measured by his tears which he sheds For though tears be reputed the expression of our grief yet are they but the expression of it Grief does many times break out this way But yet a man may be greatly forrowful when the greatness of his grief cannot be gathered from the multitude of his tears Some there are who do easily weep a very trifling matter will draw forth plenty of tears But there are others who grieve more and yet weep less But then it is still an ill sign if when we have tears for every little trouble we have none for ouâ— sins We read of one Alexander Pheraeus that he was ready to weep at the acting a Tragedy Plutarch Pelopidas and that he left the Stage that the Spectators might not behold his tears But then we also read of the same man that he shed the blood of many Thessalian Nobles with dry cheeks Such false tears had that Tyrant at his command Certainly we may well suspect our selves when we can find none at all for our hainous offences against God For it may be reasonably thought that if our grief were hearty and pungent which we have for our sins it would break out at the same vent which it is wont to find upon all other occasions Certain it is however that the true Penitent is a very sorrowful man and though his temper may not give way to plenty of tears yet his real grief is not the less Though he do not weep so plentifully yet he grieves as heartily as he that doth He does afflict himself for his sin he judges and condemns himself and feels as much pain in his Soul and as cordial a sorrow as he that weeps bitterly 2. He that truly repents does confess his sins unto God And this he must do in order to his pardon If we confess our sins he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins c 1 Joh. 1.9 But then this confession alone does not bring us nearer our pardon we must confess them with shame and sorrow we must judge and condemn our selves and after the most humble manner debase our selves and beg pardon from God Our confession must be very humble and very full We must be particular in it and not content our selves that we confess our selves to be sinners in general but we must confess our particular sins unto God We must confess all the sins we can find all that we can remember And then for those which we cannot find or do not remember it will be needful that we should pray also for the pardon of them as the Psalmist does Cleanse thou me from secret faults Psal 19.12 And as we must confess our sins so we must also confess the degrees and the aggravations of them for these do greatly inhance our guilt and swell our sins into a very great measure But all this while we must be very greatly careful that our confession be the result of our real sorrow and trouble of heart God will not be put off with a parcel of good words If we do not abhor our sins it will not avail us that we do confess them God knows our sins already nor is he pleased to hear us repeat them to him unless we hate them and be really pressed with the burden of them 'T is the burdened sinner whom God hath a respect unto He that is full of his sorrow for his sin 't is he that confesses his sin as he ought such a man finds the advantage of an humble confession of his sin unto God For this gives a great ease to his Soul which would have been overcharged if he should have kept silence This the Psalmist tells us When I kept silence says he my bones waxed old and my mosture is turned into the drought of summer But then he adds I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And then we find him greatly at ease and quiet Psal 32.3 4 5 6 7. 3. He that truly repents does forsake his sins and lead a new life He does not only purpose but he really does that good which he did intend to do He does not lead such a life as he did before He abstains from the sin which he formerly loved and followed Nor does he only abstain from it but he does abhor it and so he does every sin whatever and gives up himself to an universal obedience to all the Laws of God We have no reason to think we have repented till we lead a new and an holy Life 'T is this which compleats our Repentance and nothing short of this can give us any assurance that we have Repented and that we are in the state of Grace It is a vain thing to think that we are the better for purposes of amendment when we do not amend If we purpose never so much to do well and yet continue in our evil doing we shall be reputed amongst the workers of iniquity Repentance imports a change both of heart and life It requires a new life and conversation and where there is this grace there is this change to be found The Holy Scriptures annex our pardon to our Repentance but then they require such a Repentance as does import no less than a new life and conversation Thus we find in the Prophet how the Repentance of a Sinner is expressed If he turn from his sin and do that which is lawful and right if the wicked restore the pledg give again that he had robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die Ezek. 33.14 15. Again If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and not die Chap. 18. ver 21. And when the sinner is called upon to repent we find it thus expressed Seek the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord Isa 55.6 7. By which it is evident that Repentance implies a change of Life and so indeed it does That man that resolves to do well and does not do it does at once mock God and cheat his own Soul 4. He that truly repents his Repentance does arise from his love to God and an hatred to his sins because they are an offence to God This is the root from whence Repentance does spring The love of God constrains the Sinner to Repentance and his love to God it is that makes his Repentance of the right kind and stamp It is very possible that a man may be greatly sorrowful upon the account of his sins and that he may make a particular confession of them to God and when he hath done that he may forsake his sins too and yet not have the grace of true Repentance all this while And that because this change does not arise from a love to God and an hatred of his sin as it is an offence against God A man may be very sorrowful for his sins because they have brought a great misery upon him and do besides expose him to the justice of God Such a man is sorrowful for the ill consequence of his sin rather than for its obliquity and immorality And perhaps he forsakes his sin too and yet is no true Penitent For he may leave his sin for many reasons and yet not repent of it A bare abstaining from sin is no sufficient argument that he hath repented of it A man may forbear his sin and abstain from it because he cannot follow it or hath not the liberty to enjoy it any longer and yet his mind remains unchanged still or else perhaps he exchanges one sin for another and chuses a sin which he judges most expedient But the true Penitent abtains from his sin because he loves his God Nay he does not only abstain from his sin but he hates it also The reason why he leaves his sin is because he is himself changed in his mind and affections He now hates what he loved before and flies from that which before he did pursue He sees his folly as well as his misery and leaves his sin not only because God is just and will severely punish the wicked but because he is good and holy and cannot endure to behold iniquity He abstains from his sin not only because it is forbidden fruit but because it is contrary to his nature He that is not in the state of Grace may abstain from his sin as a sick man does from salt meats which yet he greatly loves because his Physician and his interest severely forbid him But
Souls then we must not only find out our sin but we must put it away also and before we presume to eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup we must find in our Souls such a repentance as is never to be repented of CHAP. VII BUT as we must come to this Sacrament with a sincere and hearty Repentance for our past sins so we must also come with full purposes and resolutions of Amendment of Life for the time to come Now because our Resolution like our Repentance is many times weak and insignificant it will therefore well become us to examine these purposes and resolutions of newness of life which we so frequently pretend when we make our approaches to this holy Table For it is very evident that there are very many men that give good words and make fair promises of Amendment of Life upon the bed of sickness or at the approach of this Sacrament who yet are so far from making their words good that they do sometimes run into a greater excess of folly and wickedness than they were guilty of before We shall therefore do well to try our purposes and resolutions and narrowly to examine them whether they be such as are like to hold or not and to that purpose we may consider the following Severals 1. We have little reason to give credit to rash and sudden purposes of Amendment of Life The sinner does now and then resolve vehemently against his sin but it is when he hath newly surfeited upon his folly and defiled himself with his sin then indeed he is sick of it for a while and resolves to lay it aside Or perhaps some great and amazing affliction falls upon him and this brings his sin to remembrance and he suddenly resolves he will put away his sin and lead a new life but when this tempest of sorrow is over and his appetite returns anew upon him he does easily embrace his folly again and is as much the child of Satan as he was before Such a man is troubled at the mischief which his folly hath betray'd him to and is sick of his sin for a while because he hath tasted of the bitterness which did attend it But when he hath forgotten the trouble and the pain his sin hath put him to then he returns to it again There are those in the world that do frequently resolve against their sins and yet do as constantly commit those very sins which they so passionately resolve against and that because it was not their sins which gave them so much trouble but the evil effects and consequents which did follow upon them For when their sin courts them and smiles upon them when it follows them officiously and pleads for a reconcilement they readily yield themselves up to their slavery again 2. We have little reason to trust to that resolution which we have formerly found so very ineffectual If we find that we have often resolved as much as now we do against our sins and yet that for all that when the solemnity hath been over we have forfeited our good promises we have very little reason to trust our selves That man who hath been often a partaker of this Sacrament and hath as often made his resolves to become better and as often broken them hath no reason to believe himself nor to communicate again till he find a change in himself For it is to be suspected that such a man's resolutions of Amendment are but formal and of course and that he is only over-awed with the greatness of the approaching Solemnity and not truly out of love with his sins which he pretends at this time a defiance to The best evidence of the sincerity of our Resolutions is this that we do as we have resolved Unless we do this there can be nothing more insignificant than our Resolutions are And sure it is in every thing else we judge thus Not he that resolves but he that fights couragiously gets the victory Our resolving does not alone set forward any work 't is the putting our Resolutions into practice which does avail us 3. He that resolves as he ought to do must resolve not only upon the end but also upon the means which lead to it We are forward to resolve for Heaven at large but consider not of the way and means which will bring us thither We are generally willing to be happy but yet we do readily excuse our selves from the difficulties and severities of an holy life He that resolves to be temperate must also resolve to avoid his evil Company that drew him to that excess to pass by the door where he is wont to be drawn in He that resolves to be chast must also resolve to decline the house of a whorish Woman and to set a watch upon himself that he be not ensnared with her enticements He that resolves against his sin must resolve also against every thing which leads him to it and he will shew himself sincere in his Resolutions by his use of such means as would gain his end There is nothing more ridiculous than our Resolution if we resolve upon the end and not upon the means also which lead unto it We think so in other things we do not think we shall ever be rich by a resolving only to be so We must be provident and frugal as well as resolute before we can attain our end 'T is not Resolution makes a man learned unless he add endeavours to his Resolution We may resolve what we will but we shall be never the nearer to our end unless we use the means as well as resolve upon the end We never heard of any man that gained his end by resolving upon it unless he used means for the accomplishing his intention Resolution does us no good when it is alone It sets us forward greatly when we use proper means but unless we do that we are not at all advanced by it 4. He that resolves as he should do places before his eyes the difficulties and inconveniences which he is like to meet with in his way Like a wise builder he does forecast his charge before he begin his work or like a prudent Commander he does well consider his number and strength before he fall upon the army of his adversaries Luk. 14.28 He that resolves to part with his sin must resolve to be for ever deaf to its allurements for the time to come to subdue all his affections to it to bid it an eternal farewell And he may do well to think before-hand what difficulties and labours this will expose him to He will do well to think that he cannot do it unless he be always upon his watch and denying the cravings of the sensual life He must be content to cross his own impetuous desires to displease his companions and familiars to be houted and laughed at as fool and coward He must resolve to persevere in an holy life although he displease his greatest friends although
profess that Jesus is risen from the dead and that he is the Christ without any molestation And therefore this profession is no argument now that we have a saving Faith But were it now with us as it was with the first Christians it would be indeed an argument of our sincerity If it would cost us our lives or estates to confess the Faith of Christ then we might hope well of our selves if we retained our confidence unto the end This would argue us to be the faithful and genuine followers of our Lord. It is an easie thing to profess the Faith when we lose nothing by this profession But we cannot be his Disciples till we do prefer him before our Houses and Lands and our Life it self This was that which the first Martyrs or Witnesses of the Resurrection did They durst own Jesus to be the Christ though they paid their blood and sacrificed their lives for him No terrors or torments could make them deny the Lord that bought them The Faith of the Gospel was dearer to them than all the best things of this present life They that did this were indeed born of God And their patient sufferings for Christ were an evident argument of the sincerity of their Faith Secondly it is very certain and this follows from what was said before that the confessing of Christ the saying that he is the Lord the believing that Jesus is the Christ and confessing that he is come in the flesh do imply a life agreeable to such a profession 1 John 5 4 5. If the belief of these things have an influence upon our lives if it regulate and form them to a due and proportionable obedience then indeed we are born of God and shall be saved If we believe that Christ is risen and do which such a belief should teach us to do also rise with him to newness of life If we believe Jesus to be the Christ and accordingly submit to him in all his offices if we call him Lord and then do whatsoever he commands then indeed we are Gods Children and shall be saved It is very evident that no less than this can be meant by those expressions which are before named we cannot imagine that it is enough to call him Lord though we obey him not To believe that he rose from the dead when we lie in the grave of our sin and filthiness Certainly these expressions import the belief and profession of these truths and a life answerable to such a belief Were it not so it would be a most easie thing to be a Christian and our Faith were very reconcileable with our evil lives And therefore I add 4. A true and saving Faith is productive of a good life We must not only believe that what God hath revealed is true but we must consent to it and yield our selves obedient The Gospel may be looked upon either as an History of things that were done and said or as a tendry and offer of mercy upon terms and conditions which are therein specified and propounded And accordingly he that believes to Salvation does not only assent to what is therein revealed and made known but also consent to embrace the mercy that is there offered upon those terms upon which it is propounded For a man may believe what is revealed to be true and to have come from God and yet refuse to give up himself to the obedience of those precepts and rules which are there injoyned him in order to his eternal Salvation The holy Scriptures require of us such a belief as is accompanied with obedience And when it commands us the belief of the Gospel it requires that we should shew by our actions that we do believe it That is that we should so behave our selves as we do in other things which we do believe and how we do in other things it is easie to observe If men do upon rational grounds believe that they may attain their ends be it riches or honour c. by using such or such a method and course they do diligently set themselves to work that they may accomplish their designs Nay a very small assurance will set men to work in these cases The Merchant out of the uncertain hope of wealth will venture himself and what he hath upon a rough and a doubtful Sea The Ambitious man of Wars for the hope of a victory and a triumph will adventure his life upon the chance of battel The Husbandman that believes he shall fill his Barns and Coffers by his labour and pains will rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness He will spare nor cost nor pains he will not be dismayed with the burden of the Summers heat nor the keenness of the Winters cold he will do and he will suffer no pains or care are thought too much that he may obtain his end Men do this when they have no assurance of success and when the thing which they aim at is not worth their while Yet these pains they take because they beleive their success is possible and that their labour may not be lost If men did believe the Gospel at this rate what would they not do that they might lay hold of eternal life Here 's a sure word of promise and here 's a great promise too here 's all the encouragement that can be imagined here 's eternal life before us that unspeakable gift and the greatest assurance of it upon the terms offered God himself who cannot lie or repent hath promised if we did believe this as much as we do other things which we have not such reason to believe we should not be idle and lazy but we should give all diligence we should always abound in the work of the Lord knowing that our labour would not be in vain in the Lord. Certainly thus it would be with us if our Faith were as it should be if it were genuine and of the right stamp But if we sit still and be unconcerned in the great affair of our Souls if we be lazy and without devotion we may indeed boast of a Faith but it is a dead Faith and we may please our selves with a good opinion of our estate but sure it is we are not risen with Christ but we are dead in our trespasses and sins Then we do indeed savingly believe the Gospel when this belief of it begets in us a good life Unless it have this effect upon us we are infidels and unbelievers For we cannot think our selves better then the Heathens for our Faith if our works be not better than theirs If we know these things and do not do them we are worse than they who know them not He believes as he should do that lives as he does believe The Gospel tells us that without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 Who can imagine that the man believes this who does confidently expect to go to Heaven and yet takes no care to pâ—â—ge and
All-sufficiency and Veracity when he is in straits and difficulties He that believes as he should when trouble comes is not dismaid for his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. He well knows that God is faithful and therefore he quiets himself when the greatest storms arise 2. Abraham did yield himself obedient to Gods commands also how cross soever they were to flesh and blood And his doing that was an act of that Faith which he is celebrated for in the Holy Scriptures When God commands him to leave his Country his kindred and his Fathers house Gen. 12.1 He readily departs ver 4. And obeys God who had commanded him though the thing it self were so very difficult For 't is no easie thing at such an age to leave ones Country our kindred and fathers house and go to a land which we know not of But this Abraham did and it was an act of his Faith also By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went Heb. 11.8 Again when God had given him a Son a Son of all his hopes and of his old age a Son whom he loved and his only Son too a Son of the promise and of the free Woman yet when God who gave him requires him of him he is not only willing to part with him but with his own hands to sacrifice him where God appoints him Gen. 22. And this was an act of his Faith also for so we read By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten Son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called Heb. 11.17 18. Such a Faith had this Father of the Faithful and such a Faith as this must we have also if we would be the Children of Abraham He hath the Faith of Abraham and he only that doth his works If our Faith be saving we shall yield our selves obedient to all the Laws of God Nothing will be so dear to us as the words of Gods mouth We shall part with every thing quietly which God commands away from us We shall obey his Precepts as well as believe his promises if our Faith be of the right stamp We shall be at Gods dispose if we be such Believers as we ought to be And our great care will be this that we resign up our will to the will of God We do but pretend to Faith if we be void of good works And then we may only be thought to be the Children of Abraham when we do his works Abraham shewed his faith by his works and so must we do also For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Jam. 2.26 3. It will farther appear that a saving Faith is productive of a good life if we do but diligently consider what great things the Holy Scriptures speak of Faith For it is greatly magnified in the holy writ and such things are said of it as do greatly advance it above that lazy and ineffectual faith which we please our selves with Very many and very excellent things are said to have been done by Faith Heb. 11. This made the Sacrifice of Abel more excellent in Gods sight than that of Cain 'T was by Faith that Enoch pleased God and was translated This puts Noah upon making the Ark in which a remnant of of the World were saved By Faith Moses contemns the riches and pleasures of the Egyptian Court and rather chuses to suffer affliction with Gods people This carried the Israclites through the Red Sea this threw down the Walls of Jericho and saved Rahab from that common destruction Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the mouths of Lions overcame fire and sword made weakness strong turned armies to flight This put courage and resolution into the weak and prevailed against that which did oppose it Great are the works which a true and saving Faith hath done It enables both to do and suffer for the name of Christ It enables us to perform the hardest tasks of Religion It will enable us to forgive our offending brother Luk. 17.5 And to cleanse our hearts of our filthines Act. 15.9 Aye and beside all this the Apostle tells us that this is the vistory that overcometh the World even our faith 1 Joh. 5.4 And when the Apostle exhorts us to put on the whole armour of God he bids us above all to take the sheild of faith wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Ephes 6.16 So that it is the great engine against the Devil the World and the Flesh It vanquishes our Spiritual enemies and triumphs over them It works miraculously where it is It subdues our lusts and enables us to conquer our greatest enemies And certainly then the Faith which the Scriptures speak thus greatly of is not a sluggish and lazy Faith but it does produce in us a great change of Heart and Life Our Saviour tells his Disciples that if they had faith as a grain of mustard-seed they might say to a mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing should be impossible unto them Mat. 17.20 It is true indeed the first Preachers of the Gospel had the power of doing Miracles bestowed upon them such a faith had they but we have it not But yet we have a Faith still if we be the genuine followers of Christ that does enable us to do works that are miraculous also though not in the same kind with theirs Indeed they had power to do great Miracles and wonderful works in the World for the confirming that Gospel which was but newly planted among men This power is now ceased with the reason of it vid. Chrysost vol. 5. p. 274. Edit Savil. But yet a true Faith does very mighty works and such as are as pleasing to God and of themselves more advantagious to us than that power of working Miracles would have been They cast out Devils and could easily dispossess them from the bodies of men but then our Faith enables us to cast him out of our hearts They cured diseases that were bodily our Faith cleanses our Souls They could raise the dead our Faith raises us from the death of sin to the life of Righteousness They could heal Lepers give sight to the Blind restore the Lame and destroy the obstinate offenders Our saving Faith cures our leprosie of Sin opens our blind eyes enables us to walk in Gods ways and throws down the obstacles that lie in our way What was done by the first Preachers of the Gospel is done daily by every sincere Christian If they destroyed the Devil so does he They turn'd him out of his Temples he out of his heart The works of Faith now are as momentous as that of Miracles He that overcomes the world and vanquishes
one says well that they who never repent till they dye If we love our Lord greatly and have upon our minds a great sense of his kindness we shall be glad to pay him our acknowledgments of Praise and Thanksgiving But if we do this as seldom as we can it is a sign that we do it rather out of fear than love that we do it rather because 't is the custom of the Country than because it was the command of our dearest Lord. For it is most certain that if we loved our Saviour much we should delight to remember him frequently It is so I am sure in all things else which we love We take a pleasure in remembring our dearest Friends and Relatives we frequently mention those things which have given us a pleasure or profit But doubtless we might be perswaded to do this frequently if we were once wrought upon to do it an all and as we should For the very same reason that moves the devout Soul to do it once will also move him to do it frequently And that we who profess Christianity should not do it at all that we should dare to omit so plain a precept is to me one of the strangest and most unaccountable things Indeed where men have no mind to do their duty they are apt to cavil and dispute and make excuses Thus do those men do who had rather dispute wittily than live well We please our selves with little arguments and great prejudices and are not only content to neglect our duty but which is much worse we go about to justifie our neglect Thus do we slide from one error to another But all this while we do but deceive our selves and others God is not mocked We shall be judged hereafter by the unerring Law of God It is not our mistaken Conscience that shall absolve us if Gods Law condemn us We shall be judged by what is written and not by what we ween and think in the case This consideration if it had but its due weight with us would be of great moment to move us to the most diligent and impartial search after truth And then certainly we should not be so easily prevailed upon by weak arguments and by the carnal and sensual delights of this world to neglect so plain and excellent a duty Whereas now we have some little Objections against our duty or else we have our Farms and Merchandize or Yokes of Oxen that hinder us from doing it I shall end all with the words of a late pious and learned Writer upon this occasion By this time I hope you see that it is good for you to draw near to God at his Holy Table if you have any desire to be good Christians or any savour of spiritual pleasures You must wholâ—â— cast away all remembrance of your duty and be lost to all sence of rational satisfaction or else be strongly inclined considering what hath been said to take the pains to prepare your selves or rather to keep your selves in a constant Preparation for frequent Communion there with our Blessed Saviour An innocent holy and useful life cannot but commend it self to you if it be but on this score that you may be entertained with such a comfort as to know the love of God in Christ to you and be fit to be feasted continually with such delightful pledges of it How is it possible for any considerate persons to despise or neglect such means of their contentment The Table of the Lord methinks should be more acceptable to them than a Stage and they should run more greedily to this Divine Feast than they do to the Theatres He should have more guests and a greater croud to attend upon him than those so much frequented places For what do they see represented there but some of the follies of Mankind the passions and misfortunes of a miserable Lover the wiles and subtle contrivances of some ingenious person or such like things some of which never were But here is represented the great wisdom of Almighty God the manifold wisdom of our Creator into which the Angels desired to look and of which they are gladsom Spectators The incomparable kindness of our Blessed Saviour that ardent love which offered him up to God upon the Cross and which he still continues now that he is in the Heavens as we see by these remembrances which he hath left us of it The rare method of our Salvation The wonderful way which Heaven hath contrived to bring lost Souls again thither the glorious conquest which the Saviour of the World hath made over Sin the Grave and Hell all which we here behold his Captives and our selves the prize which he desires to win by all his labours Do not men then extreamly betray their infidelity is it not plain that Christian piety lies languishing and dying when such numbers will spend a great deal of time to prepare and dress themselves to be seen in the Theater and we cannot prevail in some places with any considerable company to meet us at this glorious representation which we make at the Table of the Lord They that will be at the pains to go to the former every day content themselves nay think it a great trouble to put their Souls into a posture to come to this holy place once in a whole year And God knows how many there are that will not put themselves to that pains neither who rarely appear before God at this Holy Solemnity and whose faces are scarce ever seen in the presence of our Saviour O shameful ingratitude which you that read these things if you are believers can never endure I think to be guilty of If you give any credit to this History of the love of God in Christ Jesus recorded in the Gospel you will spend some time sure to dispose your selves to make frequent acknowledgments to him by receiving these holy Mysteries You will be ashamed that so much time should be consumed in triming up your selves to see and to be seen in other places and little or none that you may come before God and behold the great things that he hath done for your Souls For the love of God consider at what charge he hath furnished this Table for you how often he hath invited you to it how desirous he is that you would shew him so much love as not to refuse him your company there Think how ill he must needs take it if you will not accept of his singular kindness nay that you your selves will not be pleased when you reflect and consider of how much joy you have deprived your Souls by denying him so much of your duty For there is no compare between all the jollities in the world and this one single pleasure of giving hearty thanks to God for his unspeakable mercy to us in Christ Jesus Do but come and see Satisfie your selves by waiting on him at his Table with such thoughts as become his presence If you have the
Majesty and us thy Creatures the work of thy hands Between thy infinite power and our weakness thy Wisdom and our Folly thy Eternal Being and our Mortal Frame But Lord we have set our selves at a greater distance from thee by our sin and wickedness We do humbly acknowledge the corruption of our nature and the many rebellions of our lives We have sinned against Heaven and before thee in thought word and deed We have been prophane Contemners of thy Majesty and of thy Holy Laws We have also sinned against our Brother and our own Souls by omitting what we ought to have done and committing what we ought not We have rebelled against light despised thy Mercies and thy Judgments broken our own vows and promises neglected thy means of grace and opportunities of becoming better Our iniquities are multiplyed and our sins are very great We confess them O Lord with shame and with sorrow with detestation and loathing We are vile in our own eyes as we have rendred our selves vile in thine We pray thee to be merciful unto us in the free pardon of our sins for the sake of thy Dear Son and our alone Saviour Jesus Christ who came not to call the righteous but sinners to Repentance And we pray thee to renew our natures and to write thy Laws upon our hearts Help us to live righteously soberly and Godly in this present World Make us humble and meek patient and contented and work in us all the graces of thy Holy Spirit Preserve in us a sense of our dependance upon thee and of our great Obligations to thee Help us that we may love thee with all our heart and that we may universally obey and cheerfully submit to thy holy will Save and defend us from all sin and danger from malice and ill will from covetousness and sensuality from pride and vanity and from all the deceits of the world the crafts of the Devil and lusts of the Flesh Direct us O Lord in all our difficulties supply our wants support us under our troubles enable us against our temptations prosper our honest endeavours and above all things purifie and cleanse our thoughts Prepare us for death and judgment and let the thoughts thereof awaken us to a great care and study to approve our selves unto thee in well doing Bless thy whole Church these Kingdoms to which we belong And bless with thy choicest Blessings our Sovereign Lord the King Defend him against all his enemies Let his dayes be many and his Reign prosperous Bless him in his Royal Relations in his Counsellors and his Counsels Bless all the Governours and Teachers of thy Church grant them such a measure of thy Grace and Divine Wisdom that they may by their Doctrine and by their examples gain many souls unto thee Help all that are in trouble sorrow need sickness or any other adversity Give them patience under their troubles a sanctified use of them and in thy good time a deliverance from them Be merciful to our Friends and forgive our Enemies and accept or our humble acknowledgment for thy preservations of us this last night and for all thy mercies to us And we pray thee to take us into thy protection this day and to keep us in perfect peace and all we beg for the sake of Jesus Christ who hath taught us to say Our Father c. An Evening Prayer for a Family MOst gratious and merciful Lord God from whom descendeth every good and perfect gift and our most merciful Father in Jesus Christ we offer up to thy Divine Majesty our unfeigned Praise and Thanksgiving for all thy mercies towards us Thou didst make us at first and hast ever since sustained the work of thine own hands Thou hast given us thy Son to dye for us and hast admitted us into thy Church and given us assurance of pardon upon our Repentance and sincere obedience of thy holy precepts Thou art pleased to lengthen out to us the time of Repentance and to move us to it by thy word and by thy Spirit by thy mercies and thy judgments Out of a deep sense of thy mercies and our own unworthiness we appear before thee at this time We are ashamed of our vile ingratitude We have sinned O Lord and done very wickedly Be merciful unto us O Lord and pardon us for Jesus Christ his sake Instruct us O Lord in all the particulars of our duty and give us true wisdom who hast promised to give wisdom and upbraidest not Be with us under every Tryal and temptation and suffer us not to be tempted above what we shall be able Take care we pray thee of our affairs and more and more direct us into thy truth Defend us against all our Enemies but especially against our spiritual ones Suffer us not to be drawn away from thee by the blandishments of the world by carnal desires the cunning of the Devil or the deceitfulness of sin Work in us thy good will and pleasure and discharge our minds of all things that are displeasing to thee of all ill will and discontent wrath and bitterness pride and vain conceits of our selves and render us charitable holy pure in heart patient and Heavenly minded Be with us at the hour of death dispose us for it and deliver us from the slavish fear of it and make us all willing and fit to dye when ever thou shalt call us hence Bless O Lord all the race of Mankind let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy Son Christ as the waters cover the Sea Be gracious to thy whole Church and especially to that part of it planted in these Kingdoms Bless the Kings Majesty and let his Crown flourish upon his Head and let no weapon formed against him prosper Bless all his Relations and teach his Senators wisdom And bless all that are to govern and teach thy Church make them successful in their labours and grant they may consider the account they must one day give Pity the sick and weak the poor and needy the Widowes and Fatherless and all that mourn or are broken in heart Be merciful unto them according to their several necessities Bless our Friends and grant us Grace to forgive our enemies as heartily as we do desire forgiveness of thee our Heavenly Father We pray thee to defend us this night from every thing that is evil and do more for us than we can ask or think for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words we continue to Pray Our Father c. FINIS