places Gal. 6.6 Phil. 4.15 of which we pertake by eating this bread and drinking this Cup in remembrance of his death for the remission of sin And so we beseech our merciful Father in the Prayer of Consecration which our Church prescribes that we receiving these his Creatures of bread and wine according to his Son our Saviours holy institution in remembrance of his death and Passion may be pertakers of his most blessed body and blood For after the bread and wine are deputed by holy prayer to God to be used for a Commemoration of Christs death though they do not cease to be what they were before yet they begin to be something which they were not before this Consecration That is they become now to us visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace and do not merely figure to us the breaking of Christs body and the shedding of his blood but are a pledg of that inward and spiritual grace which they represent What that grace is we are taught in our Catechism when it tells us that it is the body and blood of Christ which are verily and indeed received of the faithful in the Lords Supper That is they have a real part and portion given them in the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus whose body was broken and blood shed for remission of sins They truly and indeed pertake of the vertue of his bloody Sacrifice whereby he hath obtained an eternal redemption for us This is the meaning sure of pertaking of his body and blood which are here communicated Because this bread and wine do not become his body and blood by ceasing to be bread and wine but by tendring them to us as a spiritual grace Their efficacy therefore and vertue by the divine favour is made ours All the effects and benefits of his passion are imparted to us In short there is nothing which the body and blood of Christ can be to the spirits of men but by these tokens he exhibits it to us and gives us an interest in it This is spiritually to eat his flesh and drink his blood as both our Church and the ancient speak Our souls intertain and feast themselves upon his Sacrifice being really made pertakers of whatsoever his body and blood can do for them Which S. Gregory Nazianzen meant I should think when he saith that these oblations are the Communication of the Incarnation of God and of the sufferings of God * in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 2. Jamb 15. How doth he communicate to us his Incarnation but by giving us the fruits and benefits of it and so he communicates to us his broken body and his blood that was shed We pertake of both in the same manner We are admitted to participate of the secret of the sufferings of Christ as he speaks in another place ‡ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 40. and by means of this Sacrament are vested in the merit of them And thus indeed the bread and wine are changed not by abolishing their substance but by turning them to this divine use to which they are deputed by prayer according to Christs institution to tender to us the spiritual grace of the body and blood of our Saviour The principal part of which grace is remission of sin For sin being done away death the fruit of sin is abolished he graciously restores us to the priviledg of immortality which we had lost and in order to it assures us he will not fail to communicate the grace of his holy spirit to assist and further us in our way to everlasting bliss We may be satisfied that he will send a living vertue into our spirits to quicken excite and strengthen us to do according to our Vows and ingagements that so we may continue in his love as he continued in his Fathers love by keeping his Commandments For this is the nature and office of all Sacramental pledges to assure us of the good will of God and of his truth in fulfilling his gracious promises He ingages to be faithful to us by giving them as we ingage our selves to be faithful to him by receiving them God bids us believe that we shall be accepted in his beloved nay he puts us in possession of all that which the Gospel promises and the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross obtained to us mercy grace and peace remission of sin the power of the Holy Ghost and eternal life Thus the prayer of Consecration runs in the ancient Liturgies into which though many things are foisted sutable to the conceits of later times yet they contain sundry expressions of Christian devotion worthy of those who are called the Authors of them Bless this Bread and this wine saith that ascribed to S. Chrysostom make it to be the body and blood of thy Son c. that it may be to all that pertake of it for the washing of the Soul the forgiveness of sin the communication of the Holy Spirit c. And a little after Make us worthy to pertake of thy heavenly and dreadful mysteries of this holy and spiritual Table with a pure Conscience for the remission of sin the pardon of our offences the communication of the Holy Spirit the inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven and confidence before thee not for judgment or condemnation In that also which goes under the name of S. James to mention no more we find these words Be merciful to us O God according to thy great mercy and send upon us and upon these gifts thy Holy Spirit that it may sanctifie and make this bread the holy body of thy Christ and this Cup the pretious blood of thy Christ that they may be to all those who receive them for the remission of sin and for eternal life the sanctification of body and soul the bringing forth the fruit of good works and the establishing of thy holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which thou hast founded upon the ROCK OF FAITH that the gates of hell may not prevail against it c. The meaning of which words make this Bread the Body of thy Christ c. are so well expounded in the Service of the Roman Church by the addition only of these two words TO VS as if their forefathers had studied to prevent that gross conceit which now they have entertained * Our Writers have shewn often enough that the fancy of transubstantiation is not countenanced by the service of that Church which teaches it For the Prayer there concerning the Bread and wine is that they may become to us the body and blood of thy wel-beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ God doth not make them so in themselves by changing their substance but unto us by their change from the common to this Spiritual use Nor doth the prayer now mentioned for the Holy Spirit to come and sanctifie them and make them his body to us c. suggest any such thing as a change of their substance For the ancient writers
frequently say as much concerning the sanctifying of the Water in Baptism by the holy Spirit and yet it remains Water still though it serve to the mystical washing away of sin So do the bread and wine remain bread and wine after the sanctifying of them and their becoming the body and blood of Christ to us They are both bread and wine in their substance and the body and blood of Christ the Spiritual use to which they are appointed To that use when once they are consecrated we have no regard at all to the substance of bread and wine but only to the body and blood of Christ which by doing this are communicated to our souls in the remission of sin the sanctification of the Spirit and eternal life To conclude what Gregory Nyssen saith concerning Baptism * Tom. 2. in Bapt. Christi p. 802. Do not contemn the divine washing nor undervalue it as a common thing because of the Vse of the Water for that which it works is great and there are wonderful effects of it we may say concerning the Supper of the Lord Bread and Wine are but small things but in this holy use of them they are great and produce admirable effects Nay he himself immediately mentions this very thing among others for an example of the great benefit that may be received from common matters when they are applied to a divine use This Altar saith he at which we stand is in its Nature but ordinary stone nothing different from those you tread upon but being dedicated to God â—ervice it is an holy Table c. And this bread also is in the beginning but common bread but when the mystery hath offered it then it is called and it is the body of Christ So the mystical oyl and so the Wine which are little worth before the blessing after the sanctification of the Spirit have another kind of operation And thus a Priest who the other day was a vulgar person being separated by blessing becomes a guide a Governour a teacher of piety c. And these things he doth without any change at all in his body or form By these examples any man may see that he thought the bread and wine in the Sacrament become the body and blood of Christ with no more change in their substance than there is in the water with which we baptize or in the Priest who ministers there or at the Eucharist But that they are called the body and blood of Christ in regard of the Use to which they are sanctified and are his body and blood in regard of the wonderful effects which are communicated to the faithful in the use of them viz. remission of sin and all other benefits of his passion Now what greater favour can we desire at Gods hands than to be admitted to such fellowship with him and with his son Jesus Christ what is there of equal power with this to possess our hearts with the love of God was there ever any so treated by him as we are did the friends of God in ancient time receive such pledges of his grace and favour were they ever made thus one with him and joyned to him by pertaking of his Sons body and blood who would not give up himself soul and body eternally to him that thinks of these things who can think he makes a dear purchase if he give his life in exchange for such invaluable blessings we should go to the Table of the Lord and say How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! How pretious are thy thoughts towards us how great is the sum of them who would not fear thee who would not love thee and glorifie thy name For thou hast given us exceeding great and pretious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 that by them we might be pertakers of a divine Nature Thou hast sealed them with the blood of thy Son and hast made a new Covenant with us in that blood Heb. 10.16 17. to put thy laws in our hearts and write them in our minds and our sins and iniquities to remember no more Thou hast made him an high Priest for ever to make intercession for us and given him power and glory at thy right hand 1 Thess 5.24 that he may be able to perform all his promises Faithful is he that calleth us who also will do it For ever O Lord thy word is setled in Heaven Psal 119.89 90. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations But thou hast given likewise farther assurances of thy merâ—y and thy Truth by entertaining us at thy Table and making us pertake of that body and blood which was offered for our sins Enough Enough O most merciful Father We see the love thou bearest to us We cannot desire greater tokens and testimonies of it than these thou hast given us 2 Cor. 1.20 All thy promises in Christ we believe are Amen certain faithful and true We know and are sure 1 John 2.1 2. that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins I will never doubt any more of thy good will towards us for I taste and feel that the Lord is gracious Psal 111.4 5 9. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion he will ever be mindful of his Covenant He hath sent redemption unto his people he hath commanded his covenant for ever Holy and reverend is his Name Psal 103.17 18. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him To such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them I wait therefore for thee O Lord Ps 130.5 my soul doth wait and in thy word do I hope Mine eyes shall be ever towards the Lord Jude 2. that Mercy and peace and love may be multiplied unto me that I may walk in the light as thou Lord art in the light for so shall we still have fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.7 and the blood of Jesus Christ thy son shall cleanse me from all sin Amen The natural consequence of what hath been said concerning the love of God towards us in sending his only begotten Son that we might live through him and he might be the propitiation for our sins is drawn to our hand by S. John 1 Epist 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another This is so certain a fruit of an hearty sense of Gods merciful kindness to us that no man ought to think he loves him or hath any fellowship with him or with his son Jesus who doth not feel in himself an unfeigned affection and readiness to do good to all his Christian Brethren By this we know that we dwell in him and he in us which we pray for at the Lords Table because he hath given us of his spirit v. 13. That is indued us with his own kind and gracious Nature and disposition Of which that
man Purifie me from all remaining filthiness either of the flesh or of the Spirit Bring in all thy heavenly graces along with thee into my soul And be my perpetual defence by giving me a fuller communication of thy holy Spirit and more mighty aids to do my duty towards thee and towards all men And for that end compose mine unsetled thoughts before I approach to receive the holy Mysteries That I may attend thee with a full and clear conception of their meaning with an actual belief of thy whole Gospel with most sensible love to thee and desire to be more like thee with thy high praises in my mouth and joy unspeakable in mine heart May I presume most gracious Father to ask such tastes and rellishes of thy wondrous love that I may never be able to delight in any thing so much as in the remembrance of it But mine eyes may be ever towards the Lord and I may hunger and thirst perpetually after thy righteousness till I am perfectly made pertaker of thy divine nature and rendred meet to be translated to that high and holy place where I shall see thee not as now in mysterious representations but openly and face to face Amen Lord Jesus who art able to save to the uttermost all them that come to God by thee In thy most blessed name and words I continue my humble prayers Our Father c. A Meditation after the Sacrament WHen you come home or some time after ask your soul what wentest thou out to see where hast thou been and what hast thou been doing Bid it never forget that thou hast been with the Lord of life and that before God Angels and Men thou hast acknowledged him and devoted thy self to his obedience That he hath vouchsafed to represent unto thee his marvellous love the pains he hath taken for thy salvation and the great desire he hath to see thee with him in immortal glory Of which he hath given thee such earnests and pledges by making thee pertaker of his body and blood that thou mayst say of that place where he was pleased to meet thee This is no other than the gate of Heaven I have been in the porch of his dwelling place and begun to enter into the joy of my Lord Here you may read over again that which I said our Lord might be conceived to speak unto you there and then go on and say How shall I escape if I should neglect such great salvation God forbid that I should receive this grace in vain As I have received Christ Jesus the Lord Col. 2.6 so will I walk in him I will endeavour to keep my self holy and unblameable before him in love and to have my conversation as becomes the Gospel There are no joys like to the joys of God No pleasures comparable to those of Christian piety All his Commandments are sweeter than the hony and the hony-comb and in keeping of them there is great reward Shall I cease then to delight my self in the Lord and to do good Shall I leave off to do the rest of his will now that I have done this in remembrance of my Saviour Shall I go away from him now that I am gone from the place where his honour dwelleth Alas whither shall I go thou Joh. 6.68 Lord hast the words of eternal life Thou art the author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey thee Heb. 5.9 I will go in the strength of the Lord God Ps 71.16 I will make mention of thy goodness even of thine only 1 Thess 4.1 As I have received how I ought to walk and please God so I will abound more and more Ephes 4.15 24. I will grow up into him in all things who is the head till I perfectly resemble him in righteousness and holiness of truth Here you may meditate upon all the parts of his holy life and the compleat example he hath set us of all divine vertues more especially those which shone at his death And as I have known some do you may single out one or two for your daily meditation all this month that you may bring your self to an habitual imitation of him suppose in his great HUMILITY and tread in his steps who did no sin 1 Pet. 2.22 neither was guile found in his mouth And as you have begun the New year well so resolve you will continue it and become a new man by leading a more exactly holy course of life Mat. 26.41 Watch therefore and pray that you fall not into temptation And often represent to your self the great love of Christ that it may constrain you because you thus judg that if one died for all then were all dead 2 Cor. 5.14 15. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again The Prayer O Most Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Heaven and Earth are full of the glory of thy Majesty I most heartily joyn with all the Saints on earth with the Angels in Heaven and the holy ones that are above in giving blessing honour and praise unto thee Glory be unto thee O God most high thou great Creator and possessor of Heaven and Earth thou preserver of all things thou spring of an eternal Mercy who hast made Angels and men to know thee and acknowledg thee and praise thee and love thee and be beloved of thee for ever who hast so loved mankind that thou hast opened thy bosom and sent thy dear Son to convey thy charity to us All laud and praise and thanksgiving be to thee O Father of Mercies who hast now made me taste how gracious and good thou art And glory be to the Son of God who took on him the form of a servant who died for us upon the Cross who purged away our sins by his blood who hath left us so many remembrances of his love and given us his body and blood to preserve our souls and bodies to eternal life who lives for ever to make intercession for us and hath promised to come again and take us up unto himself And blessed be the holy Spirit the mighty power of God the Author of all good thoughts the inspirer of all heavenly desires the light and comfort of our minds the purifier of our hearts the guide and strength of our life who hath given us the earnest of the eternal inheritance Thus will I praise thee whilst I live Psal 63.4 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever Psalm 86.12.89.1.71.23.86.5 My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee and my soul which thou hast redeemed For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee I have now tasted of the abundance of thy grace and dearest love the savour of which O that it may remain fresh for ever in my heart
attended withal are not worthy to be named with the joys of those that sing continually and say Blessed be the Lord our God for ever Neh. 9.4 5 c. blessed be thy glorious Name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the Seas and all that is in them and thou preservest all and the host of Heaven worshippeth thee Eph. 1.4 1 Pet. 1.21 Thou art the Lord the God and Father of Jesus Christ who hast chosen us in him before the foundation of the world and redeemed us by his blood raised him from the dead and given him glory that our faith and hope might be in thee our God Thine 2 Chron. 29.11 O blessed Jesus is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the Majesty for all that is in the Heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all In thy hand is power and might and in thy hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious Name Psal 115. ult We will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore Yea bless the Lord ye his Angels that excell in strength that do his Commandments hearkning to the voice of his word Bless ye the Lord all ye his hosts ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion bless the Lord O my Soul Thus if we did converse with him and such holy communication did heartily pass between us it would be so pleasant and delightful that we should cry out with the Jews in another case Joh. 6.34 Lord evermore give us this bread We should long for such another repast and be desirous every day to wait on him at his Table At least we should greedily embrace the next invitation that he gives us to come unto it And because we cannot every day do this in remembrance of him we should secretly retire unto him in our own heart as into his holy Temple and there call to mind what he hath done unto us commemorate his love maintain our acquaintance preserve our friendship and renew to him our vows that by all these ways we may prepare our selves for his fellowship and society in the eternal world It may happen indeed that there may be but a few communicants at the Table of the Lord and so you may not have time there to do all this In which case you may use only some part of it or thus in brief open your heart to him when you see how he declares his love to you Adored be thy condescending love O merciful Saviour to thine unworthy servant who blushes to lift up his eyes towards thee even when thou invitest me unto thee For besides my other guiltiness this most gracious representation which now thou makest of thy self to me doth but little move my dull and heavy affections to love and rejoyce in thee I am heartily ashamed of my self only I desire and resolve to become better And here I prostrate my self before thee as a humble worshipper of thee presenting thee with a poor oblation of my soul and body which I dedicate again with the most dutiful affection I am able to excite unto thee Do thou O Lord excite a greater that when I shall appear before thee again I may present thee with a soul more pure humble meek merciful and improved in all other fruits of thy holy Spirit In thy mercies alone are all my hopes For as the Heaven is high above the earth so great is thy mercy toward them that fear thee As far as the East is from th West Psal 103.11 12. so far hast thou removed our transgressions from us O be merciful unto me be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee 57.1 Looks thou upon me and be merciful to me as thou usest to do to those that love thy name 119.132 Thou art my portion O Lord I have said 57.173 that I would keep thy word Let thine hand help me Ephes 3.16 for I have chosen thy precepts Strengthen me with might by thy spirit in the inner man that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 I may live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and thee our Saviour Jesus Christ Now unto him that is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty Jude 24 25. dominion and power both now and ever Amen But when there is time to do the whole you will not spend it I hope in any thing else but such Meditations as these Which that they may be disposed in such order as every one of them may come in its season you may make use of in this manner Think you hear our Saviour speaking to you by the Bread and the Wine when you see the one broken and the other poured out Then you may immediately imploy your thoughts in the four first together with the second Meditation set down in the second part while the Minister is Communicating himself and others with him The V. and the VI. will be seasonable after you have received the Bread and the VII and VIII after the Cup together with those mentioned before in the same place And the two last in like manner after you have withdrawn your self from the holy Table or before according as you can find room for them And if your spirit be not able to hold out in so many thoughts and expressions of the inward sense and affection of your heart you may single out those which you find to give you the most lively touch and lift up your heart highest toward the Lord. And at some opportunity the rest perhaps may be as acceptable or more welcome meditations nay you may feel your soul inlarged and run out in more pious thoughts and affections than I can suggest or excite by all that I am able to say on this subject But I desire you never to omit one meditation when you behold the rest of the company receiving which is that all those and the whole Church who pertake of this holy Communion are your Brethren To whom you must stir up as I directed you before the most fervent charity and the readiest disposition to relieve counsel assist comfort or admonish them as there shall be occasion And with whom you must resolve to live in the strictest Unity and peace as those who are Members of the very same body When you think therefore that our Lord tells you there is nothing he desires of you
my heart O Lord continually towards thee that I may know I love thee by thinking often of thee and delighting to be with thee and studying in all things to conform my self to thy blessed nature and will That having thee always before mine eyes thy holiness and righteousness may move me to purifie my heart thoroughly from all worldly and fleshly lusts thy greatness may breed in me much reverence fear and humility and thy tender mercies incline me to pitifulness bowels of mercies and readiness to do all good Give me such apprehensions of thy truth and faithfulness that I may intirely trust thee and rely upon thy promises of thine unerring wisdom that I may resign my understanding to thee and be perfectly contented with whatsoever thou appointest Dispose my soul so that a serious sense of thine omniscience may on all occasions over-awe every thought of my mind and motion of my will into order and obedience and thy patient goodness suppress all angry affections in me and make me gentle long-suffering and forbearing others in love Represent thine infinite fulness O Lord continually unto me that it may ingage me in eternal thoughts of thee and make me rejoyce in the happiness of being one of thy children and an heir of thy glory There is nothing more my heart can desire but only that I may still receive more pledges of thy fatherly love and have grace to keep my soul so pure and undefiled that our Lord may delight to manifest himself to me and make his abode with me Reign in me O blessed Lord and in all the world Subdue all the enemies of thy Cross Advance it above all the crowns of the Kings of the earth that they may become thy obedient subjects O that those of them who call upon thy name may be nursing Fathers to thy Church and promote Christian piety by their high authority and great examples Illuminate all the Bishops and Pastors of thy flock that they may feed thy people with wisdom and understanding and lead them in the ways of righteousness Bless all my Friends pardon and change all my Enemies Comfort and relieve all sorts of miserable people And grant us seasonable weather that the earth may bring forth her increase Accept of my hearty thanks which I tender thee again for all thy mercies both to my soul and body which are more than thought can number Accept of the oblation of my whole self which I have devoutly consecrated unto thee desiring to render all praise thanksgiving love and hearty service to thee eternally Now the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus 1 Pet. 5.10 11. make us all perfect stablish strengthen settle us To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen April The Meditation before the Sacrament AMong the innumerable swarms of people that are upon the face of the earth how few are there that know the great love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord And among those few that know it alas how small a number are there that remember it and celebrate it constantly with those praises and thankful acknowledgments which it eternally deserves O what a grace is this which I am pertaker of Eph. 2.19 that I should be made a fellow-Citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God! Coloss 1.27 That I should know what is the riches of the glory of this Mystery which is Christ among us the hope of glory I am infinitely indebted to the divine goodness which inclines my heart also to go and commemorate this love in the assembly of his Saints who all like a spiritual building fitly framed together Eph. 2.21 grow into an holy Temple in the Lord. There the Lords name is continually praised There he delights to dwell and hath chosen them for his habitation There is the voice of joy and gladness and there he showrs down the blessings of his goodness Psal 95.6 O come my soul let us worship and bow down Let us go and kneel before the Lord our Maker 66.8 Let us exalt the Lord our God 96.8 and make the voice of his praise to be heard Let us give him the honour due unto his name 100.5 and worship the Lord with holy worship For the Lord is gracious and his mercy is everlasting and his truth indureth from generation to generation Thy reverence thy faith thy love thy holy resolutions thy hunger and thirst are all I hope still alive wherewith we ought to approach into his presence Thou hast not forgot sure the meaning of this holy Feast the sweetness of which may well preserve a memory of the ends for which our Lord invites thee to it Let us go then with an humble confidence to admire and proclaim once more the infinite love of God our Saviour Let us openly declare that we are his friends and followers and bid defiance to all his enemies Yea let us bind our heart to his Altar with the cords of his love and make an oblation of all we have unto him It is but just and reasonable since we have received so much from him It is but right meet and our bounden duty to praise him continually to glorifie and serve him with body and soul which he hath redeemed Let us go and thank him therefore that he would come down from heaven to us that he will accept us for his servants and set any esteem upon our poor obedience and that he will still from heaven visit us and not leave us comfortless without his holy presence with us So may we rejoyce in his salvation and represent with gladsome hearts his sacrifice to God for our expâ—ation and fix our eyes upon that glory where he is inthroned hoping we shall one day sit down with him in the kingdom of the Father and keep a perpetual feast with him in heaven What should hinder us O my soul from going to begin to be so happy Search and try examine and prove thy self Hast thou not a mind to know and do the whole will of God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength Dost thou not chuse to be poor in spirit meek merciful pure in heart a peace-maker a patient sufferer for righteousness sake and art thou not desirous to make an increase of all these by going to his holy Table Be not discouraged then Psal 4.3 5 6. but know that the Lord hath chosen him that is godly for himself The Lord will hear when I call upon him Go and offer the Sacrifices of righteousness and put thy trust in the Lord. There be many that say who will shew us any good But let thy voice be Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Open thou mine eyes Psal 119.18 that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Gospel Make me able to comprehend with all Saints Eph. 3.18 19. what is the breadth
him too But with what blushing should we look there upon that love which we have sometime slighted With what hatred upon those sins which murdered the Lord of life With what joy should we think of the hope there is that they may be pardoned And how should we stand admiring at that wise goodness which made that blood which sinners shed to be the expiation for their sins Sure we do not believe these things or else we shall begin already to feel our heart burn with love to him and ready to offer it self in Sacrifice before we come to his Altar Excite thy Faith that it may stir up thy Love and that may carry all the passions of thy heart along with it to him Shew him that the desire of thy heart is to the remembrance of his Name that thy care is to please him thy fear to offend him thy joy to do his will and thy sorrow that thou canst do no more for him Let it be a great comfort to thee that he knows thy sincerity and sees into the very secrets of thy heart how affectionately thou studiest to be like him what a pleasure it is when thou canst stedfastly think of him how it grieves thee when thy thoughts are broken thy affections heavy and dull and thy power falls so short of thy will and desires And be assured that he pitties thee that notwithstanding this he will kindly entertain thee and receive the poorest oblation thou art able to make him at his Table Eat and be satisfied and bless the name of the Lord. He hath invited thee he expects thee he loves to see thee there and will make thee know that he loves thee and delights to do thee good Let us go my soul and declare before Angels and men that we are Christians and mean to live and die in his holy Religion And let us now take shame to our selves that we have at any time contradicted our belief Let us acknowledg the breach of that Faith into which we were baptized and declare before we go how great a trouble it is to us that we love him no more and how desirous we are and fully resolved to love him better and better The Prayer before O Eternal God the Lord of life of grace peace and all our comforts It is of thy great mercies alone that I am not consumed or that I lie not now groaning on a bed of sickness but am invited to feast at thy holy Table I might have distasted and loathed even the ordinary food of my body and thou continuest an opportunity and some appetite to receive the pretious food of my soul The grave might have been my dwelling the worms my companions and I been turned into rottenness and corruption but now I am going to thy house to be the companion of thy people and to communicate with thee and my blessed Saviour that I may be nourished to a blessed immortality This is nothing else but thy marvellous Mercy and because thy compassions fail not For I have too many ways violated thy holy Laws broken thy covenant resisted thy grace and unvalued thy eternal life Thou hast adopted me early for thy child sown the immortal seed of thy word in my heart sent thy holy Spirit to further its growth and increase to that never dying happiness and bliss But how little have I recovered of thy image in wisdom righteousness and holiness which hath been miserably defaced How coldly have I sometimes entertained the motions of thy holy Spirit And been barren and unfruitful in the knowledg of Jesus Christ How often have I heard of that great and dreadful day of reckoning and been prone to follow the little pleasures of this life as if I lookt neither for joy nor misery in the other world That Faith which should save me might justly condemn me and Jesus my most compassionate Redeemer without infinite mercy become only a severe Judge towards me Adored be thy patience and long-suffering to sinners For ever magnified be that Grace which gives me the least hope in thee and presents me with another opportunity of humbling my self before thee of intreating thy favour of deprecating thy displeasure and vowing my self again to thy service which I have covenanted to pay thee O merciful God have mercy upon me have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies in Christ Jesus blot out all my iniquities I have not offended thee beyond the heighth and depth and length and breadth of thine incomprehensible love in him declared to us And there is still remaining in my heart some esteem of that love and an inclination to love thee above all things with an hearty desire to be purified and sanctified throughout both in body and in soul and spirit Though not by works of righteousness which I have done yet by thy mercy I hope to be saved through the washing of regeneration and more perfect renewing of the holy-Ghost That renewing vertue from above I most humbly wait for and earnestly desire to be more abundantly poured on me Deal with me according to my unfeigned resolutions to study to purifie my self even as thou art pure to walk before thee hereafter in all sobriety righteousness humility meekness peaceableness charity indeavouring to perfect holiness in thy fear Vouchsafe me some earnests of this grace when I present my self before thee to commemorate the death of thy Son Jesus who was wounded for our iniquities and bruised for our transgressions That my heart may be deeply wounded with a sense of sin and hate the very thought of every evil way and chuse to endure any misery rather than offend thy dearest love again O that I might then feel my thoughts carried away from this world that I could think then of nothing but thee and the dying love of my sweetest Saviour and the greatness of that love which I owe to him that died for me Replenish my soul with holy thoughts lift me up in heavenly meditations and fill me with a multitude of devout affections that I may be able hereafter to do and suffer all things for his sake and never forget how good he is and how good I have resolved to be Without thee I cannot ascend up unto thee and therefore I look for thy holy inspirations to accompany me in all my Meditations and prayers and praises and thanksgivings and resolutions That attending upon this sacred service with love and zeal and delight and devotion of spirit there may be an happy meeting between me and my Saviour and such an inseparable Union contracted as may be at last consummated in eternal Love and Joy in his heavenly Kingdom To which I humbly hope to be brought by thy infinite Mercies in him who hath taught me to call thee Father and to say when I pray Our Father which art in c. The Meditation afterward SEeing it hath pleased my Lord to tye me to himself by one bond more and I have added a new
inlarge them or that he would fill them to the heighth with his love Since he is content if he may but lodg and dwell in our breasts and have the government of us in his hands let us go and vow that he shall possess us solely to himself that no affection no desire shall dwell in us without his leave and all be ordered by him just as he pleases And let us shew him now that we have prepared no less gift than our whole selves to be bestowed on him that we are very desirous of the honour to be commanded by him and to do him service and that if he will make us more desirous more resolved and stedfast in these holy purposes we will never cease to thank him in this manner as long as we live And approaching thus with all humility to him may we not hope that he will accept us and receive us as his friends and embrace us with real love and inclose us as we desire unto himself Nay he will hold us fast tied in the bonds and cords of his love not to fetter and imprison us but to unlock and open our narrow hearts by the power of it that they be inlarged into the true liberty of love to him and to all the world We may hope at last that it will become as unnatural to offend him as it is to kill our selves or kick against the bowels of a most indulgent parent that obedience shall be our delight that all good things on earth which have been our hindrance shall prove our incouragement and provocation to an holy life and that our watchfulness over our selves shall be so strict and severe that we shall not be easily surprised but continually worship him by presenting him with a spirit like his own innocent harmless and delighting to do all good The Prayer before O Most mighty Lord the high and holy one who possessest eternity who dwellest in the purest light and whose Majesty is enthroned in the midst of all the heavenly host who are continually celebrating the praises of thy name which is most excellent throughout the world The light of thy countenance I believe is better than life and one day in thy courts better than a thousand If thou wilt graciously shine upon me when I enter into thy gates to go unto thy Table if thou wilt fill me with the joys of Faith and love and holy hope I shall account that day the beginning of the eternal life and remember as long as I live how gracious thou art But I have little reason to expect to be so highly favoured by thee who have forgotten oft-times that reverence and fear that I owe to thee my Creator and that love and dutiful affection which I owe to my Redeemer and been too disobedient to many good motions of the holy Spirit of grace I have thought so much how to please my self and so little of pleasing thee spent so much time in the affairs of my body and so little in those of my immortal soul that I may rather sink into dejection of spirit toward the place of darkness than hope to be lifted up toward heaven to behold the light of life I am apt to think that if I knew thee as the Angels do I should be filled with their love and readily disposed to thy obedience and spend my self in thy endless praises whereas now that thou hast revealed those things to us which the thoughts of Angels entred not into and hast sent thy dear Son in our nature and not iâ— the nature of Angels and given him to die for us and to open the kingdom of heaven to us I have not loved thee with the love of men I have felt sometime so little love to thee that I have been apt to doubt whether I love thee It hath been but a little spark in my heart scarce to be discerned and hath not shone as it ought to do in my life before men But thy gracious pardon O Lord of love I hope will make me admire thee and love thee exceedingly Some small tast and savour of thine extraordinary kindness will inkindle in me the most ardent affection towards thee And it is already the hearty desire and study of my soul thou knowest that I may love thee above all things and that all my love may run into ingenuous free and chearful obedience to every one of thy Commands They are all holy just and good they are most lovely and gracious in mine eyes I esteem thy precepts about all things to be most equal beneficial and highly conducing to the perfection and happiness of our natures and chuse most joyfully to submit my self to the Soveraign Authority of such tender love and good-will towards us O pitty and pardon an humble suitor to thee that his heart may ever be under the power of thy holy Commands and being captivated from all things here below may become a subject of thy love I wait on thee for the power of thy holy Spirit now to come upon me to fill me with thoughts desires and affections sutable to the duty which I am about to render to thee That when I think of those sins which killed the Lord of life I may vehemently abhor and utterly renounce them And when I think of thy love it may wonderfully raise and exalt my heart to love thee delight in thee and gratefully acknowledg thee And when I think of thy holy Commands my heart may humbly bow and gladly resign it self to be governed by them And the dying of the Lord Jesus set before my eyes may make me an offering holy and acceptable to thee for ever I am sensible how oft I fall short of my own desires and resolutions and therefore again look up unto thee with a humble Faith for thy powerful presence with me To inlighten my mind more clearly to settle my wandring and unstable thoughts to awaken the conscience of my duty toward thee and toward all men to compose and quiet all my turbulent passions and affections and to confirm and strengthen all the holy purposes which thou workest in me Vouchsafe most gracious Lord to accept and assist the faintest but honest indeavours of my soul to please thee to incourage and further every good inclination to possess and fortifie me against the most importunate temptations and to enable me to quell and bring under the strongest oppositions to thy divine will I deliver up my self absolutely with all my heart unto it desiring and purposing to live instedfast union and conformity with it to maintain an humble and reverend sense of thy greatness and goodness soberly to use all the good things thou indulgest to me to exercise righteousness charity meekness and gentleness to all men to possess my soul in patience to be contented with my portion to pray without ceasing and in every thing to give thanks which is thy will in Christ Jesus concerning me Sanctifie I beseech thee the greatest worldly blessings
this clear and lively sight which I have of thee And yet as heavy as it is I will not cease to be often looking after my Saviour What though I cannot always see him so as I have now seen him in the sanctuary yet I will never forget him And the darkest apprehensions of his love and favour shall ever be dearer to me than any object in this world Blessed be his goodness which hath given me such pledges of it as engage me to remember him I will he ever mindful to keep the Covenant I have made with him and remember his Commandments to do them Psal 103.18 And as long as I do his will though I cannot always lift up my thoughts and affections as I would unto him I hope I am his friend O sweet words which I have heard from the mouth of my Saviour whosoever shall do the will of God Mark â— 35 the same is my Brother and my Sister and my Mother I have no other will O Lord but thine And I will prove continually what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of thine that we may be eternal friends by the constant union of our wills in one Let my Lord command what he pleases it shall be obeyed Let him do what he thinks good my will shall be done as well as his Psal 16.2 3. O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord but my goodness extendeth not unto him but to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight They are his friends and what thou dost to them he accounts it as done unto himself Think thy self happy that thou wilt never want him whilst thou enjoyest them Thou feedest him when thou feedest them Thou goest to see him when thou visitest them in their need and misery Verily I say unto you they are the words of thy Lord in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren Matth. 25.40 ye have done it unto me Resolve therefore all this Month to endeavour to excite BROTHERLY KINDNESS which is the fountain of Charity And look on it as a great part of the riches of the divine grace that he is not only content to love us himself but hath contrived wayes and means that all men else may love us and commands them so to do as they hope to be saved Begin this Brotherly kindness then thy self that so thou mayst be able to say every day O how great is thy mercy O Lord that thou lovest me thy self and wouldst have all the world to love me O how great is thy goodness that thou not only chargest them so to do but ingagest them to love me by thy love Yea to love me so as thou hast loved me and them and so as they love themselves How full how incomprehensible is the love of my God who would have me hated by none but every man to be my friend if I am in need every man to do me good How can I want who have such a Father who hath made all men to be my Brethren How happy would he make me who labours to set all hearts open to me that as many men as I see so many lovers I may behold Thou dwellest O God in love and wouldst have me to do so too by loving and being beloved of all What returns shall I make to the Lord for his love He tells me that it is love Love thy Brethren love them with a pure heart fervently This is the thing which I would have thee do And this will make thee blessed for ever by loving me and all others and by being beloved of me and of all men else that love me The Thanksgiving and Prayer afterward O Lord God Almighty which is which was and is to come Who art the happiness of men and Angels and hast an innumerable company of beautiful Creatures always beholding thy glories satisfied with thy love delighting themselves in thy praises and to eternity can desire no higher pleasure than to be thy Friends and Servants I cast down my self before thee to joyn as well as I am able together with all that Heavenly Host in lauding and magnifying thy great and holy Name and rejoycing in thee with thanksgiving Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Thou hast redeemed mankind by the Bloud of thy Son and raised us out of the dust that we might sit with him in Heavenly places Thou hast sent the Holy Ghost the Comforter in signs and wonders and divers Miracles in gifts of knowledge wisdom and prophecie and in abundance of thy grace to renew and sanctifie the hearts of thy faithful people The Apostles and Ministers of reconciliation were thy gift by whom thou hast brought the glad tidings of Salvation into these parts of the world The Sun of righteousness praised be thy goodness hath inlightened our eyes who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death I have been thy constant care from my first conception and entrance into the world until this moment Innumerable blessings thou hast bestowed on me and still I hear the voice of joy and gladness I behold my guides and instructors and have the liberty to go into thy house and I see my Saviour himself in the remembrances and pledges he hath left me of his dying love I will never cease to adore and extol thy mercy who hast kept me from going down into the pit and saved my Soul from the nethermost Hell Blessed be thy goodness for the constant provision of thy House the comforts of thy Holy Spirit the society of thy children the hopes of Heaven and the tastes thou hast given me of immortal joys in this holy Feast with my Saviour As thou hast begun good Lord out of thine own undeserved love to make me happy so continue thy loving kindness to me till it be finished in perfect friendship with thee Preserve in me though never so weak yet a constant and prevailing sense of thy goodness that I may most willingly obey thee and chearfully do thy will in all things That the very same mind may be in me which was also in Christ Jesus Whose meat it was to do thy will Joh. 4.34 and finish the work of thee that sent him O that God would count me worthy of this calling 2 Thess 3.11 12. and fulfil in me all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with power Coloss 4.12 That I may stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God and the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in me and I in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ I have given my self now again unto thee and professed the strictest friendship with thee Lord help me to keep it without spot and unrebukeable until the appearing of the Jesus That both body and Soul being
refusing this to withdraw his blessing from other means of our spiritual growth and nourishment The very names as you shall hear whereby it is called suppose it to be Food And since for the Body it is not intended it must be Christian Food part of the plentiful provision which Christ hath left in his House for the Souls of his Faithful Servants that they may be well maintain'd and able to do their work And truly as long as we have any need to grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to increase in strength and power to master all temptations and do our several duties to renew the sense of our obligations to God and bind our selves faster to him to heighten our Love and Gratitude and to stir up delight and joy in God our Saviour so long will there be a necessity of Doing this which serves for all these ends and purposes And did we but seriously consider this one thing that a principal end for which both this and the other Sacrament was instituted is that by these outward signs we might express our hearty consent to the new Covenant made by Christ in his Blood and ingage our selves to stand to the terms and conditions of it we should be extremely afraid to refuse to come to this holy Communion because that is the same with refusing to be of his Religion For he that made the New Covenant with us and is the Author of the Christian Religion hath made these outward Rites and Solemnities to be Instruments of stipulation whereby they who are willing to enter into that Covenant and be of that Religion should express their agreement and submission to it and openly declare that they own Jesus to be the Lord and will perform due obedience to every one of his Commands Which when they have once done they are to signifie their continuance and stedfastness in that Religion to which by these means they have addicted themselves by the repeated use of the same things Otherways they live as if they repented of the contract which they have made and renounced our Blessed Saviour who hath made the doing this to be a special testification of our Devotion to him and his Service This is a thing to be sadly ponder'd and might prevail much were it laid to heart as it ought To which if you add all the other purposes and ends for which it was ordained they would still make it appear more necessary if either the will of Christ his special Command the practice of all Christians our own wants our respect to the Christian Religion or the great Benefits we may receive by doing this in remembrance of him can make us judg any thing so And that is the second part of my Discourse to which I now proceed PART II. Concerning the Ends and Purposes of this Holy Action IF the Reader be convinced by what hath been writ that he is as much bound to do this as he is to be a Christian I hope it will have a double effect upon him First that he will endeavour to quicken and stir up himself to a serious and constant performance of this duty by often pressing these considerations hard upon his heart Secondly that he will be very desirous to understand the full meaning end and use of this holy Action that so he may reap the profit which is therein designed to him He must stifle his Conscience or else it will move him to the Former and the more resolved he is in that the more solicitous he will be about the other Leaving him therefore to attend to the voice of his own awakned mind I shall give him no further encitements to this duty than will arise from what I am now going to say about the Nature of it From whence he may draw a great many Arguments to perswade him to be ready prepared to this as well as every other good Work First then the very words of the Institution of this Sacrament and the whole discourse of S. Paul about it prove that it is to be considered as a Divine Feast which our Lord hath appointed in commemoration of himself That it is to be lookt upon as a Feast or repast provided for us the Bread and Wine the eating and drinking sufficiently declare But it is more fully expressed in the names of Breaking bread and of the Supper of the Lord which are given to this Action And as it is expresly ordained to be in remembrance of our Blessed Lord so I think it not amiss to add it was no unusual thing in the world to institute Feasts and entertainments to preserve the memory of famous Persons It is recorded by Athenaeus * L. 5. Deipnosoph cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that there were such set meetings of several sects of Philosophers in Athens to commemorate their Founder Some on a certain day celebrated the memory of Diogenes others of Antipater others of Panaetius And the great Philosopher Theophrastus left a sum of money at his death for such a meeting not that they might there debauch themselves as his words are but manage their discourses soberly and learnedly in that Compotation So the Greeks called their Feasts which took their denomination from the Wine as among the Hebrews they took their name from the Bread * Gen. 43.25 They heard they should eat bread i. e. dine with Joseph and v. 31. he said set on Bread And so Constantine I remember calls the Christian Feasts in Memory of the Martyrs ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. ad Sanct. coetum cap. 12. where the Poor were comforted and those that had lost their estates mercifully relieved At these most sober Tables they discoursed of their memorable sayings their worthy actions their patient sufferings and rehearsing the History of their life and death excited themselves to tread in their steps For this as Germanicus said excellently on his death-bed * Quae voluerit Meminisse quae maâ—daveâ—â—t exequâ— Tac. l. 2. Annal is the principal part of Friendship not to follow the dead with tears but to remember his Will and to execute his Commands Which is the general design I make no doubt of this most holy Feast where we meet to preserve an eternal Memory of our glorious Redeemer and to fix more deeply in our minds all that he did and suffered for us that thereby we may be disposed with the greater chearfulness to perform his Will and obey his Precepts For this end I find ‖ Caâ—â—â—â— ex Mosaraâ— â—aturâ— Exerc. 16. n. 38. that the Gothick Churches which long continued in Spain having comprehended the History of our Saviour under these nine words Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Appearance Passion Death Resurrection Glory Kingdom were wont to divide the holy Bread in the Sacrament into just so many parts on which they imposed those nine names Whereby they have let us know what their conceptions were of this Action and that they thought the
Breaking giving and receiving of that Bread was to commemorate and more strongly imprint on their minds the whole History of our Lord Jesus Which we are not to reflect upon in an idle and ineffectual manner but with such passions as we feel when we think of the sweet conversation the good offices and the solemn departure of the dearest Friend that we ever had Whom no good natur'd man can seriously call to mind without Love Delight Gratitude and a great forwardness to fulfil his Will and Testament and to follow his admired example Now that we may be made able to do so in respect to our Lord Christ he is pleased to set before us this Holy Food which the Christian Church hath always lookt upon as a Spiritual nourishment to strengthen and encrease in us all goodness And for that purpose we are to address our selves to the Table of our Lord that by affectionate meditation on his condiscending kindness in becoming a Man for our sakes and by laying to heart the whole story of his wonderful Love from his Birth to his Grave and fixing our eyes on the glorious hopes he hath given us by rising again from the dead and ascending to the Throne of God we may feel a greater strength derived to us from him enabling us to our several duties and be enlivened to a greater freedom and chearfulness in denying all our own appetites and desires and submitting them to the Will of Christ Say therefore to your selves before you come thither some such words as these We are invited to a Feast our most Gracious Lord is the Master of it yea He himself is the cheer that is provided for us With what Humility with what thankfulness ought we to accept of his invitation Let us fit up our selves and make our souls ready to appear before him in as holy and becoming a manner as we are able Let us go with such joy as if we were called to the richest entertainment in the world Let our Meditation of him be sweet and let us be glad in the Lord * Psal 104.4 Isa 63.7 Psa 45.17 Let us mention the loving kindness of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us And let us make his name to be remembred in all generations Let us resolve to feed on him in our hearts by Faith with Thanksgiving as his Minister exhorts us to ruminate so long upon his love till we feel our hearts burn with love to him Let us meditate on his holy life his bitter passion his bloody and shameful death his glorious Resurrection and Ascention his Power and Authority at Gods right hand the great benefits we justly expect from thence and the pretious promises he hath by these means sealed to us till we feel all the powers of our souls quickned and stirred up with a mighty heat and zeal to do the will of our ever blessed Redeemer even a new life and spirit coming into us and making us Strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Which vertue we shall certainly find flowing into us and spreading it self through our hearts if we believe and enter into a serious consideration of the more particular intention and design of this holy Feast whose general meaning I have briefly described Having surveyed therefore in your thoughts the whole Gospel of our Saviour Christ I shall proceed to shew you on what you are more principally to fasten them You must not consider this holy Action only as a Feast in remembrance of him but as a Feast upon a Sacrifice wherein you are more particularly to commemorate his Death Our blessed Lord the High-Priest of our profession was pleased himself to be offered upon the cross where he gave himself for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 A kindness that as it ought never to be forgotten so it ought to be mentioned with the highest and devoutest praises And therefore after the manner of those Feasts among the Jews and Gentiles too in which the people had some portion of the Sacrifice to entertain themselves and their friends withal he makes us pertakers of the Sacrifice which he made to God by admitting us in these representations of his body and blood to feast upon it Which Action is a grateful commemoration of his death to his everlasting praise and glory Therein we set forth that Sacrifice of his for us and signifie the thankful sense we have of his love and our high esteem of those benefits which his bloody Death hath purchased to us This we learn first from those words of our Lord and his Apostle S. Paul which teach us to do this in remembrance of him Which phrase doth not signifie our calling him to mind but our making mention of his dying love with due praises and acknowledgments which is best expressed by the word Commemorate We declare by doing this that we indeed bear that remarkable testimony of his kindness in the remembrance of a thankful heart and will endeavour to make it be remembred in the succeeding generation That this is the meaning appears more fully from a second expression of S. Paul's 1 Cor. 11.26 where he saith as often as they did this they shewed forth the Lords death till he came We declare and publish by this Action his bloody Death We proclaim and abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness which he would have made known to all by this solemn Feast till his second appearing This is the import of that word shew forth only it carries this further notion in it as appears by the use of it in the Psalms * Ps 106. â— Ps 145.4 5 6 7. That we hereby publish his mighty Acts with praise extol and magnifie his marvellous love and celebrate the Memory of those divine benefits he hath obtained for us with a desire that they may be acknowledged in the same manner to the Worlds end And here now we may consider that this Commemoration and shewing forth looks two ways towards men and towards God First We shew it forth and tell it to the world We openly declare to all those that see or know what we do that the Son of God dyed for the Children of men that he freely gave his body to be broken and his blood to be shed for our redemption We proclaim Jesus to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World and shew how God hath commended his love to us in that while we were sinners he gave his only begotten Son for us that we might live through him In this riches of his grace we make our boast and glory a great deal more than if we possessed the Treasures of the whole Earth Secondly And then we Commemorate also and shew forth his Death unto God the Father We set before him this free-will Offering of Jesus as a sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world We magnifie his
grateful mention of all the benefits he hath bestowed on us and intends unto us and to all our Christian Brethren whose concernments should be very dear unto us as well as our own And truly the ancient Church were so much in love with this duty that they gave thanks to God for all good things the benefits we enjoy by all his creatures as well as for our redemption by his Son Jesus Because this feast accompanied that of Charity in which their bodies were fed as in this their Souls and because of the offerings they then made of some of the fruits of the Earth as we do now of money in lieu of them for an acknowledgment to God that he was the Author of all the blessings which they enjoyed But this alwayes made the principal part of their acknowledgments that God had sent his Son into the world to save sinners And therefore as our Church teaches us in the exhortation just before the Communion above all things we must give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for the redemption of the world by the death and Passion of our Saviour Christ both God and man who did humble himself even to the death upon the Cross for us miserable sinners who lay in darkness and the shadow of death that he might make us the children of God and exalt us to everlasting life Without which thanksgiving to speak the truth we do not do that which Christ commanded and so cannot hope for the blessing he hath promised Hear S. Chrysostom in stead of all that treat of this matter who excellently declares the manner and reason of this Thanksgiving Homil. 25. in Matth. p. 178. Edit sav in a Sermon of his upon Eighth chapter of S. Matthew A perpetual memory saith he and thanksgiving for a good turn is the best way that can be found to secure and preserve it to us And therefore the dreadful mysteries and full of Salvation which we celebrate in every assembly are called the Eucharist because they are a commemoration of many benefits and shew forth the principal piece of divine Providence and dispose us always to give him thanks For if to be born of a virgin was a great wonder what was it to be crucified to shed his blood for us and to give himself to us for a Feast and a Spiritual banquet what shall we call this where shall we place it we can do no less than give him thanks perpetually Let this precede both our words and works and let us give him thanks not only for our own good things but for those of others For by this means we shall destroy envy and bind charity faster and make it more genuine and of a kindly nature For a man will not be able to envy them any more for whom he gives thanks unto his Master And therefore the Priest when this Sacrifice is in hand bids us thank God for the whole world for what is past and what is present and for those things that are to come This sets us free from the Earth and translates us to Heaven and of men makes us Angels For they making a Quire gave thanks to God for the good things he bestowed on us saying Glory be to God in the highest on earth peace good will towards men Thou wilt say perhaps what are they to us they live not upon the earth nor are men like unto our selves It is all one for that this signifies very much to us For we are taught hereby to love our fellow servants so as to account their happiness to be our own Let us do so then giving thanks perpetually for our own blessings for others for little for great or rather there are none little that come from God And that I may pass by other things which are more than the sand for multitude what is there comparable to this dispensation For that only begotten son of his who was more pretious to him than all things besides hath he given for us enemies And not only given him but after that gift set him before us for our Table doing all things himself for us both to give and then to make us thankful for his gifts For mankind being generally ungrateful he undertakes throughout and doth all things for us himself And what he did for the Jews putting them in mind of his benefits from PLACES and TIMES and FEASTS that he hath done here from a kind of Sacrifice casting us into a perpetual remembrance of the good he hath wrought for us None labours so much that we should be approved and great and ingenuous as God who made us And therefore he doth us good oftimes even against our will and gives us many good things which we know not of It is but reason then that whatsoever we do in word or deed we should do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him Coloss 3.17 which Theodoret refers to this business There being those saith he that required them to worship Angels the Apostle enjoyns the contrary that they should adorn their words and deeds with the memory of our Master Christ and send up thanksgivings to God the Father by him and not by Angels To him we should address all our Services in a grateful remembrance of his love in Jesus and as our Communion Book excellently expresses it we should give him as we are most bounden continual thanks submitting our selves wholly to his holy will and pleasure and studying to serve him in true holiness and righteousness all the days of our life But especially when we go to this holy Communion we should enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise we should be thankful unto him and bless his name Saying Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised Psal 145.3 his greatness is unsearchable Great and marvellous are thy works Rev. 15.3 O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou king of Saints Psal 106.2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord who can shew forth all his praise 100.3 He made us and not we our selves 116.8 we are his people and the sheep of his pasture He holdeth our souls in life and keepeth our eyes from tears and our feet from falling 66.9 36.6 Thou Lord preservest man and beast 145.15 16 Thou givest food to all flesh The eyes of all wait on thee and thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing 34.3 O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good and his mercy endureth for ever Psa 136.1 2 23 24. O give thanks unto the God of Gods for his mercy endureth for ever 138.1.149.6 Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for
ever And hath redeemed us from our enemies for his mercy endureth for ever I will praise thee with my whole heart the high praises of God shall be in my mouth Who hath raised up a mighty Salvation for us Rom 8.32 and hath not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all Heb. 9.12 Who hath obtained for us an eternal redemption 2 Pet. 1.3 and given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledg of him that hath called us by a glorious power Bless the Lord O my soul Psal 103.1 c. and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thy iniquities and healeth all thy diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psa 111.1 I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the Congregation While I live will I praise the Lord 146.2 I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being 145.21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever Thus I am come to a conclusion of the second part of my Discourse concerning the Nature End and Use of this Holy Sacrament The sum of what hath been said is this It is an holy Feast in commemoration of our Lord Christ especially of his Death In which we for our part make a solemn profession of his Religion and tie our selves in the strictest Covenant to follow him unto the death and to live in love and charity with all our Christian Brethren And he for his part makes a representation of his dying love to us and confirms the continuance of it giving us pledges that he will make us heirs of all the blessings which were the purchase of his body broken and blood shed for us So that when the Minister gives the Bread and the Cup to us we should think that Christ by him gives us tokens and assurances of his continued and everlasting love and kindness And when we take eat and drink that which he gives us we should look upon it as expressing our consent to continue his faithful Disciples in hope of that eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised to us In short the whole Action is the renewing of a Covenant between Christ and us He by giving we by receiving ingage our selves to perform our mutual promises He his promises of giving us pardon power to do well and immortal bliss And we our promises of loving God with all our heart and soul and strength and our neighbor as our selves All which we are to reflect upon with the greatest love to God and our Saviour with thanksgiving blessing and praise and with an humble confidence that it shall be to us according to his word To promote which ends I have concluded every particular Head of this discourse with a brief Meditation which may be used in this manner The First of them may serve to excite our devout affections before we go to Church or when we have placed our selves conveniently just before the Communion begin or while the company are making their oblations to God The Second will be proper immediately after the Consecration while the Minister is receiving himself and giving the Communion to the other Ministers that may be there present with him The other Six half of them may be used after we have received the Bread and the other half after we have received the Cup. Or if any desire a more compendious form of Devotion wherein to lift up their Souls to God immediately after their receiving they may reserve those till they retire from the Holy Table to their seats again and in this manner address themselves to him just after the receiving of the Bread 2 Cor. 1.3 Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.3 the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead Col. 1.22.13 14. Who hath reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Blessed be God who hath delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of our sins I love thee O Lord I love thee I devote my self most unfeignedly unto thee I will ever cleave unto thee and unto all my Brethren with setled purpose of heart Search me O God and know my heart Psal 139.23 24. try me and know my thoughts See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Yea Psal 23 4 6. though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Thy power and thy care of thy flock they comfort me Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life 34â— and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. 67.3 And let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men 107.21 22. Let them Sacrifice the Sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoycing 117.2 For his merciful kindness is ever more and more towards us and his truth endureth for ever Praise ye the Lord. Or thus Lord Psal 8.3 4. what is man that thou art so mindful of him or the son of man that thou thus visitest him Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and crowned him with glory and with honour Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands and hast put all things under his feet Many O Lord my God Psal 40.5 are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not Heb. 10.5 But a body hast thou prepared for thy Son Jesus Who hath done thy will O God and made himself an offering for sin and made us one body with himself Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto thee O Lord God Almighty and unto thy Son for ever and ever I offer up my self intirely both Soul and body unto thee I consecrate my self here most faithfully to thy Service Psal
man to an heap of gold yet still we must remember that we are but beggers and those desires must be temper'd with much modesty lowliness and humility of Spirit Though our Lord say to us as David to Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 9.7 thou shalt eat bread at my Table continually thou shalt alwayes feast with me yet it becomes us to bow down our selves and say as he there did what is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am It is too high a favour to sup with thee since I am not worthy to pick up the crums that fall from thy Table The least offal of thy common mercies is too good for me how shall I dare to approach to this fulness of heavenly blessings to which thou invitest me I have sinned I have sinned and am not worthy to be called thy son or to bear thee company In my very best attire I am so ragged that I am ashamed to see my self and therefore how shall I appear before thee O my Lord I come merely in obedience to thy call I should not have presumed to appear in thy presence but that thou hast hidden me And been affraid to be seen in this condition but that I was more afraid not to be seen here at all My comfort is that you will not be angry with us when we obey thee nor be offended that we shew our selves ready to execute thy commands And here You may call to remembrance those sins which are the cause of your fear and brought our Saviour to his Cross Excite in your heart an unfeigned sorrow and grief that he hath been so affronted and wrong'd by you and all the world Declare freely the sense of your heart to him and let him know by an humble and ingenuous confession how the case stands with you Say to him O my Lord thou dost but call to mind by this remembrance of thy dying for us the foulness and polution of all mankind All our iniquities stare me in the face as the people gazed and stared on thee I see our deformities by seeing thee thus vilely and despitefully used It was our covetousness that stript thee naked Our pride that crown'd thee with thorns Our intemperance that gave thee gall and vinegar to drink Our contempt of Religion that put upon thee all those scoffs and taunts Our coldness in devotion which put thee into that agony and sweat Our want of love to God that made thee hated and rejected of men I see as in a glass now that I look upon thy blood the abominable state of sinful men which never seemed so foul as now How shall one of that wicked race be bold to look up unto thee especially since that I have known thy love I have so little valued it and sinned even against thy pretious blood * Here you may remember your particular offences Canst thou indure to enter into familiarity with such a soul as this that here presents it self unto thee may I hope to be admitted into thy holy fellowship and to dwell with thee I abhor I loath I am weary of my self desiring nothing more than to be made like to thee in purity and holiness in truth and justice in love and charity in lowliness and humility in meekness and patience in compassion and forgiveness in intire resignation to the will of God From hence Proceed to stir up in your selves the greatest hatred against your sins and all the wickedness that hath overspread the world Which nothing can so effectually demonstrate to be odious and intollerable as this that it hath made the nature of man capable to act such a villany as to put to death after a most shameful manner the most innocent and harmless nay the most loving and kind the most obliging and charitable person that ever was Continue your addresses to him and represent your extreamest detestation of that covetousness and worldly mindedness that pride and vain glory that ambition and love of the praise of men that envy and ill will that wrath and bitterness of spirit that hippocrisy and partiality which betrayed and killed him the Prince of life Shew him how much you abhor these and all that is evil resolving to cleave to that which is good Destroy O Lord may you say all these thine enemies and root them perfectly out of my heart Pierce through all these evil affections by a stroke from thy cross and passion I have brought them to be slain by thine hand for they are too strong for mine If there be any life remaining in them O that they may be quite mortified and never able to stir any more They are offensive to me as well as unto thee Would I might never see them more but crucified and dead Would I might never behold them unless it be drowned in thy blood And then Excite in your heart the mightiest sense of his love which as it is never to be forgotten so here it is more particularly to be pondered and affectionately commemorated You may say to him O my Lord was manner of love is this wherewith thou hast loved us that we should be called the sons of God! How great was thy goodness which brought thee down from Heaven and made thee one of us And was it not enough that thou shouldest come to dwell among us in the likeness of sinful flesh but thou wouldest also lay down thy life for us Would nothing serve to testifie the height of thy affection to us unless thou sufferedst the death of the Cross to redeem us O Love O the infinite riches of thy grace For a Friend one might be content to die but what should make thee so in love with enemies with the very worst of enemies with Idolaters with us Gentiles who were without God in the world Yea with us who now that we know the greatness of thy love have so little or no love to thee What am I O Lord that thou shouldest command me to love thee Nay shouldest take such a course to deserve my love What am I to thee that thou shouldest so much desire me And now thus graciously visit me and come to entertain me What made thee being in Heaven with them who know so well how to love and serve thee descend to us who know so ill how to do either couldst thou not be satisfied unless we enjoy thee nor be contented to be without us who have such low thoughts of thee and of thy love Is it possible that thou shouldst still continue it to such ill-natur'd and insensible wretches Art thou still desirous of our friendship and come to give us new assurances of thy grace by making us pertakers of thy body and blood O how pretious are thy thoughts to us how great is the sum of them I can do no less most blessed Saviour than set my soul wide open to thee and accept thy kindness with the most inlarged affection of my heart How glad should I be
if it were a thousand times larger to correspond with such a love How happy should I think my self if I could think of nothing and delight in nothing but only thee O that a perfect image of thee in all divine vertues may be formed in me and be ever dearer to me than life it self that I may live no longer but thou O blessed Jesus mayest live in me And the life which I now live in the flesh Cal. 2. â—â— I may live by the faith of thee the son of God who lovedst me and gavest thy self for me And then Feeling the flames of his love in your heart it will be a fit time to offer up your self intirely in the greatest devotion to his Service Pray him to accept of a poor Sacrifice now at your hand Though it be worth nothing at all yet intreat him to receive it since it is the oblation of the heartiest affection to him Say to him O sweet Saviour 1 Joh. 4.16 I have known and believed the love that thou hast to us I see here the excessive greatness of thy dying love No heart is able to hide it self from the heat thereof One cannot come near it and not be made like the whole burnt-offerings to the Lord. Never was any thing bought so dearly as this sinful soul Never was so great a price paid for any creature as thou hast laid down for my sake If I was as big as the highest Angel I should be an oblation too little for thee The flames of those heavenly fires are not strong enough wherewith to offer to thee But that I may be just for it is no more I humbly lay my self here at thy Altar and present thee with all I have I Sacrifice soul and body without any reserve to thy holy will and pleasure though I must be beholden to thy great love and not my own to procure acceptance for me I know how vile and unworthy I am that thou shouldst have any respect to my oblation All that I can say is that I offer my self for this end that I may be made better and so have every day more and more to return unto thee For that purpose ingage your selves in a covenant to him that you will never rob him any more of that which you have so solemnly offered to him I look O Lord may you say upon my self as an holy and devoted thing I have consecrated my self to thy service and so I will ever remain Never will I be so sacrilegious as to employ my self to any other uses but only thine Thou hast been pleased to make me thy Temple and therefore I will not willingly suffer thy holy place to be defiled I am sealed to thy self and have thy mark upon me I will never consent my soul should be broken up by any temptation and stoln away from thee I promise thee my faithful obedience I bind my self by these presents in a firm and everlasting tye of duty to thee I am not my own but bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 Therefore will I glorifie God in my body and in my Spirit which are Gods I will love the Lord my God with all my mind and with all my heart and with all my soul and all my strength And my Neighbour as my self And then Humbly beg leave of him that you may believe in his Name for the remission of sin Continue to say to him since thou hast so graciously dyed for me since thou hast invited me hither to represent thy death and sufferings to me and assure me of thy love since thou hast bidden me to commemorate it at this holy Feast be not angry if I call thee my Lord and my God Suffer me to claim an interest in the Merits of thy pretious blood which was shed to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Look on me O thou that sittest at the right hand of God with the favour thou bearest to thy people Joyn thy powerful intercession with my humble suits to the Father of mercies that for thy sake I may be accepted with him I believe thou appearest in the presence of God for us and as we shew forth thy Sacrifice of thy self here on earth presentest it in the most high and holy place before the mercy seat Bless me O Lord from that throne of thy glory and raise up such a holy hope in thee as if I heard that voice founding from thence I am thy Salvation And here Beg of him his mighty grace to confirm you in your resolution that so you may alway maintain in your soul this hope of his pardoning love Since thou O Lord may you say to him art so forward to do us good to bestow thy blessings unasked to die for us when we desired it not to institute this feast which we never expected to send thy Ministers to call us to it let me take the boldness now to ask something of thee O do not deny me the continuance of thine almighty grace Take not thy holy Spirit from me but let it be my constant companion my guide my helper my comforter for ever Is it not the purchase of thy blood Is it not thy own promise hast thou not received it of the Father and art thou not possessed of it and of glory and power to bestow it on us Thou thy self hast told us that it shall be given to those that ask it and that because thou livest we shall live also O do not lose what thou hast done already for want of doing something more Psa 138.8 Perfect that which concerneth me and forsake not the work of thy own hands Hold me up and I shall be safe 119.117 133.58 and I will have respect to thy statutes continually Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquitie have dominion over me I intreat thy favour with my whole heart be merciful unto me according to thy word Now because there must alway be some mirth and joy at a feast conclude all in praises to our Lord and rejoyce in his holy Name As he said to his Disciples when he washed their feet Joh. 13.12 so think you hear him speaking to you now Know ye what I have done to you Are you sensible what grace it is that I have bestowed on you Do you know what I did for you upon the cross and what I have done unto you at my Table O dear Lord that a man could but understand and conceive what thou hast done for us It would melt and dissolve our hearts and make them burst out into the highest expressions of joy and gladness All that is within us would be roused up to bless thy holy Name We should be fill'd with triumph and exaltation of Spirit in thy love and the very furthermost parts of our soul would feel that it is a most blessed thing to be thy servants All the Musick and Songs and Melody that the feasts of sensual men are
and work They do with this as S. James saith many do with the Gospel who like a man that beholds his natural face in a glass and taking but a short glance of himself goes away and straightway forgets what manner of man he was Whereas if he would not only look into the perfect Law of liberty but continue to look therein being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work he would be blessed in his deed Jam. 1.23 c. It is the design therefore of this last part of my discourse to furnish you with some apt matter for your Meditation and with sutable Prayers whereby you may both quicken your selves in your private closets when you are preparing to go to the Table of the Lord and likewise preserve alive those godly affections and resolutions which are excited there after you are come home again That so by continuing to look upon what you have done and what your Saviour hath done unto you and beholding as in a clear Mirror the great love of God in Christ Jesus and your great obligations to him you may never forget him nor the duty you owe him but be blessed in a faithful observance of both And that no man may have the excuse which the wanton Israelites pretended who were cloyed with the same thing repeated over and over again I have taken the pains to compose variety of Meditations and Prayers some longer some shorter for every Month in the year and the principal Festivals in remembrance of our Saviour Which you may either make use of if your infirmity require it or else stick constantly to such as you like best and find most apt to move your hearts No mans thoughts are alwayes alike neither his that writes nor his that reads and therefore sometimes one may be most agreeable to you sometimes another but there will be no time I hope wherein you may not be able among them all to fit your self with a Meditation and a Prayer that may stir up and further your Devotion towards God And he that will be at so much pains with himself as to follow some such method as this will never be able to say hereafter as too many wretched souls have done that they have frequented this holy Sacrament but were never the better for it January Meditation before the Sacrament COnsider with your self some time before you intend to Communicate that you are invited to come not only into the presence but unto the Table of God to be one of the guests of the Lord of the whole world What a grace what an honour is this Shall any business any pleasure on earth put by the thoughts of it It is impossible if you remember what the great God is who calls you to him and that he sets the body of his Son before you upon your Table and that your Cup is filled with his Blood That the Angels think it not below them to waite on you and minister to you and the divine Spirit will be ready to breath upon you and fill you with such holy love that you shall send up your soul in joyful hymns of Praise and Thanks to God our Saviour With what admiration should you receive the news of this invitation With what reverence ought you to approach him With what forwardness of love with what gladness of heart should you go to meet our blessed Lord Was there ever any kindness should you think with your selves like unto that of his Did there ever such a furnace of Love if I may so represent it burn in any heart could he do more than die the bloody and shameful death of the Cross for to save sinners How is it possible that the remembrance of this tender love and compassion should ever die or that any heart should freeze over such a fire unless we be willfully careless I see that he will have our love he will not suffer any thing to rob him of the purchase of his blood For lest we should prove so ungrateful as to let him slip out of our mind he hath left himself still among us in sensible signs and representations By these he shews us his bloody death and passion he makes himself present to our faith and we may see that he is desirous to do more than die for us having contrived a way to live for ever in us and be firmly united to us What manner of love is this that Heaven hath manifested unto us who can refrain from tears of grief and sorrow to think of his own ingratitude and from tears of joy to think of the wonderful kindness of the Lord can you look on him who was pierced for our sins and not lament and mourn can you see his bleeding wounds and not be troubled no pious heart can be so hard And yet when you consider that by those stripes you are healed that he hath washed us from our sins in this blood that faithful souls may take sanctuary in his wounds and be secure and safe you cannot chuse but rejoyce in the Lord and be glad in his Salvation Call to your Soul then and bid it awaken in it self the liveliest thoughts of him and the devoutest affections to him Call to it to put it self in tune to string as I may so speak the instruments of joy and praise and to stir up all the graces of the holy Spirit That so you may go with a deep humility a godly sorrow a perfect hatred of all sin both of the flesh and of the spirit a strong resolution against them with a lowly faith and in the heights of love with enlarged desires and great longings to this holy Feast Ask your Soul what dost thou think of what dost thou love what dost thou long for with what intentions art thou going to the Lords Table are the Treasures of Christian wisdom and knowledg more in thine account than thousands of gold and silver Dost thou heartily believe the holy Gospel of Christ Jesus and love him and his Religion in sincerity Is all sin already bleeding to death in thee and hadst thou rather die than willingly offend thy Saviour that died for thee Art thou going to hang all remaining affection to them upon his Cross that there they may be perfectly crucified and never taken down till by continued Meditation on it they be quite dead Resolve then to go and tell him as much to declare and shew to him that this is the sense of thine heart Only ask thy self again what appetite dost thou feel in thee Art thou going as a thirsty man to his drink or a hungry man to his food or a Bride to the marriage of a chosen soul dearer than all the world beside or dost thou feel something like these things in thine heart what is it that thou hungrest and thirstest after Is it the tasts of the love of God Is it his Divine Grace and holy Spirit Dost thou long to be more like him and made pertaker of his
that I may live for ever in thy love and be ready to die for thy love that I may delight to do thy will O God and be content to suffer it as the blessed Jesus did And O that I may never forget to feed on him daily by faith and love till he indeed live in me and I in him and all the powers of my soul and body be imployed by his counsels and not my own O that my life may be an exact imitation of him and express his perfections and shew forth his vertues and declare to all how much I love him Especially endue me with great humility and modesty of Spirit that I may live in a constant remembrance of thee my Creator and considering that thou art the author of every good gift may never be puffed up nor do any thing through strife and vain-glory Phil. 2.3 4 5. but in lowliness of mind esteem others better than my self O that the same mind may be in me which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and humbling himself became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross That so thou mayst exalt me in due time to glory and honour as thou hast highly exalted him and when thou shalt call me from this delightful imployment of worshipping praising and serving thee here on earth I may pass into the company of Angels and Saints whose work it is with eternal joy to glorifie thee our Creator and Redeemer Let thy way be known upon earth Psal 67.2 3. and thy saving health unto all nations Let the people praise thee O God Let all the people praise thee Let the earth rejoyce and the multitude of Isles be glad because the Lord Jesus reigneth and governs the world in righteousness and truth O that all the kingdoms of the earth may become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ That Turks Jews and all Infidels may be converted unto thee and that all who name the name of Christ in every place may depart from all iniquity Communicate especially to all Christian Kings Princes and Governors a large measure of wisdom justice and goodness That they may think it their greatest Crown and glory to be thy faithful Ministers and imitate the charity of our Lord Jesus by imploying their power in doing good to all that are under their charge O that thy Priests may be clothed with righteousness and thy Saints shout aloud for joy That the poor may be satisfied with bread the fatherless find mercy with thee the widdows be comforted and protected the disconsolate refreshed the sick eased and restored the prisoners delivered the captives redeemed the oppressed supported and relieved and all men in every estate and condition of life contented bettered and amended Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think Ephes 3.20 21. according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen February The Meditation before the Sacrament THink with your self it is now a month since our Lord did me the honour to entertain me at his Table Where have I been ever since that happy time What have I been doing Have I never gone to return him thanks for that grace bestowed on me Have I been a perfect stranger to him who loves me so much who spake so kindly then unto me and gave me such assurances of his everlasting kindness O shameless ingratitude How shall I be able ever to look him in the face any more I shall sink and die under the load of such a fearful guilt But I hope the case is not altogether so bad with me Have I not sometimes reflected on his incomparable love Have I not endeavoured to preserve some memory of the benefits he hath done unto me Is there not still a little sense of them remaining in my heart I would fain incourage my self to wait again upon my Lord. Pardon me O God if I presume again to enter into thy gates with thanksgiving and into thy Courts with praise to eat of the bread which came down from Heaven to shew forth the Lords death to represent to my God the Sacrifice he made for the atonement of our sins and by vertue of it humbly to expect the continuance of his pardon to renew my Covenant with him and to receive new confirmations of the truth of his promises to me Awake Awake O my soul all thy holy thoughts thy Faith thy Love and every other grace till thou canst say with David My heart is fixed Psal 57.7 O God my heart is prepared I will sing and give praise Go and shew him how thy heart hath been wounded with the thoughts of his love how all thy sins have been bleeding to death how ready thou art to offer up thy self again in Sacrifice to him Shew him how resolved thou art to walk on still more steadily in his holy wayes to employ all the renewed strength thou shalt receive in his hearty service and to go forth in the joy of the Lord to do his will with greater freedom and cheerfulness of Spirit Then thou mayest think thou hearest that voice of wisdom which saith Prov. 9.5 Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled Or that of the divine Lover Eat O Friends drink yea Cam. 5.1 drink abundantly O beloved Let your soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal 63.5 and your mouth praise him with joyful lips For Christ himself saith Blessed are the poor in Spirit Matth. 5. for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Blessed are they which do hanger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven As he will one day say to such Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world So now he authorizes his ministers to say come ye blessed souls receive the tokens of his love some earnests of future bliss and rejoyce in hopes of his heavenly kingdom He hath not only prepared for you a kingdom but as the Psalmist speaks in another case he hath prepared a Table for you and anoints your head wish oyl that gladness where with our royal high-Priest is crowned and makes your Cup his coelestial blessings poured on us to run over Let us go then and humbly receive that Cup of blessing to which he invites us Let us bless the Lord and
the flesh and the Devil and serve thee without fear in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of my life Hear my words O Lord consider my meditation Psal 5.1.17.1 Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips And make me to know and feel that Jesus who dyed for me Rev. 1.18 is alive from the dead and liveth for evermore and that he is an eternal fountain of life and strength of comfort and refreshment to all those that by him believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 who raised him from the dead and gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God In his most powerful name I sue unto thee for all that is comprehended in his own holy words saying Our Father c. Meditation afterward SOmetime that day and as often as you can after reflect upon your own thoughts resolutions and vows and consider that there may be but a few dayes perhaps hours remaining before you must appear at the Tribunal of him who hath now entertained you at his Table The next sight you have of him may be upon his throne 1 Pet. 5.5 as one that is ready to judge the quick and the dead Put your soul in mind of the great account you must then give of all that you have done in the body and of your sacred actions no question as well as of the rest And therefore ask your self in the most serious manner and bid your soul tell you with what affection hath the death of the Lord been now remembred Hast thou as sincerely renounced all thy evil wayes and consecrated thy self to the life of Christ as thou hopest to be saved As God shall judge the world in righteousness art thou resolved and determined to become a new Creature and to pass the time of thy sojourning here in fear O how dreadful will he then appear to those who return with the dog to his vomit after they have eaten of this holy bread and drunk of this holy Cup who can stand before him that hath known and remembred his transcendent love and yet loved his ease his pleasure his money or any other thing better than him and his eternal life It concerns me nearly O my soul to keep him ever in my thoughts and to express him in my life That when he comes he may see himself in me and behold his own image in righteousness and true holiness fairly ingraven on my heart For many will say unto him at that day Lord Luke 13.26 27. We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets But he will say I tell you I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity Most dismal changeâ— now he invites now he saith come but then he will say depart if we come not to his Table with hearts to entertain him to suffer him to dwell in us and to be the sole disposer of all our actions God forbid that ever that terrible voice should sound in mine ears This one word DEPART from me how confounding will it be It must needs strike the stoutest soul into eternal sorrow The searcher of my heart knows that I went unfeignedly thither to give him possession of it and here again I confirm the gift Let him command what he pleases and I will obey it Let him bring his Cross along with him I will submit unto it Come poverty come reproaches come imprisonment come pains and torments come death it self rather than be so miserable as to depart from the living God Depart from me Psal 119.115 rather ye evil doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God Psal 101.2 3. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart No wicked thing will I set before mine eyes I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me All my delight shall be upon the Saints that are in the earth Psal 16.3 and upon such as excel in vertue And that you may preserve these good purposes let your heart be often there where they were conceived and made though your body cannot Look often back upon the Table of the Lord and say with the same holy Psalmist O when shall I come and appear again before thee 42.2 Early will I seek thee O my God Psal 63.1 2 c. my soul thirsteth for thee that I may see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I live I will lift up my hands in thy name My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and with fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips And to furnish your soul with greater plenty of good thoughts you may often reflect upon the example which Christ hath set you in his death as well as in his life And perticularly resolve to spend this month in meditating every day upon his great CHARITY 2 Cor. 8.9 who though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that by his poverty we might be rich In this God commended his love to us Rom. 5.8 that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 But we when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 and therefore shall much more be saved by his life Excite in your self hereby a great and compassionate love to all mankind especially to your Brethren with whom you are knit in one body That you may be strongly inclined to do good as occasion is offered to refresh the bowels of the poor and needy to comfort and support the feeble minded to live with all in unity and peace till your Christian friendship be perfected in endless love in the other world Remember that God is the God of peace and Christ is the Lord of peace Often meditate on the words of our Lord that it is better to give than to receive and upon these words of a good man that He is the best Merchant who layes out his time upon God and his money upon the poor The Thanksgiving and Prayer I Cast my self down before thee O Lord in the deepest humility of soul to worship and praise thee together with all the heavenly Host saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Heaven and Earth are full of thy glorious goodness Thou art the joy of all those happy creatures above who continually behold the brightness of thy glory and thy presence and the light of thy countenance makes Heaven upon earth to us thy servants whom thou admittest thus near unto thee Glory be to God in the highest who to all other blessings hath added the gift of his dear Son and delivered him up for us all Glory be to the Son of God
recommend my self unto thy merciful kindness saying Our Father c. The Meditation afterward WHen you have leisure to retire alone by your self you may say to your self as the people did when they beheld the sick man at our Saviours word take up his bed and walk Luke 5.26 I have seen strange things to day I have seen the marvellous love of Heaven to us sinful dust and ashes I have seen how the Son of God dyed for the love of us how the blessed Jesus was hanged and bled upon a Cross for our Salvation I have beheld him presenting himself unto me and offering to make me pertaker of all his benefits With what affections did I meet and receive his strange love Did not my heart burn within me when he opened the Counsels of his heart to me Did it not melt and dissolve into love when he shewed me how passionately he loved me Did I not offer my self both soul and body to him and promise to be his faithful servant Did I not remember that I was his already and renew my vows to cleave unto him in loyal obedience O what a transforming sight was it to behold Jesus who was made a little lower than Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour and promising by patient continuance in well doing to lift me up also at last unto glory Lord what is man that thou takest knowledg of him Psal 144. â— or the Son of man that thou makest account of him How is it possible to forget this love or my own ingagements For what pleasures shall I leave these of Communion with God and my gracious Master Christ Jesus You offer too little all ye flattering temptations upon earth that would draw my affections from so great an happiness There can be nothing comparable to being beloved of the undoubted Lord of Heaven and earth One thing have I desired of the Lord Psal 27.4 that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple This is sufficient to indear an holy life unto me that I may be always fit to be one of his guests to feast with him at his Table to be filled with his comforts and live in hope to live with him in endless joys And could 〈◊〉 but see what things he hath prepared for those that love him the height of his glory the attendance of his Ministers the pleasures that are at his right hand there would be more spirit in me This little that I have seen makes me say 1 King 10.8 Happy are those thy servants that stand continually before thee Psal 65.4.84.3 Blessed are they whom thou hast chosen and caused to approach unto thee that they may dwell in thy heavenly courts they will still be praising thee I will never foregoe the beginnings of this bliss For a day in thy Courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness For the Lord God is a Sun and shield Psal 84.10 11 1â— the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of Hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee And here it will be fit to remember how every deliberate sin after such fresh experiences of Gods goodness new obligations from him and new resolutions and vows to him will be of a more crimson die and a bloodier nature And therefore you must be sober and watch unto prayer And remember withal on the other side that every good action will be the more acceptable when it proceeds out of mere love to our Master Jesus who hath loved us so much And therefore always indeavor to quicken the one by reflecting upon the other More particularly you may resolve to meditate all the Month following upon the great MEEKNESS of the Lord Jesus Who was dumb as a sheep before the sheerers Isa 53.7 and as a Lamb that is brought to the slaughter He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth When he was reviled â— Pet. 2.23 he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously And so labour to tread in his steps and to imitate him in this lovely grace To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness unto all men For we our selves also were sometimes foolish Tit. 3.3 2. and disobedient and deceived c. This vertue the Apostles there and in other places * 1 Pet. â— 15. require us to exercise especially toward Rulers and Governours And S. Peter recommends this to Wives as the most handsome and becoming attire even the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit 1 Pet. 3.4 which is in the sight of God of great price The Thanksgiving and Prayeâ— PRaised be God Let all â—â—â—â—tures in Heaven and Earth praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is excellent his glory is above earth and heaven Glory be to thee O God most high the Creator of all the Father of mercies who openest thy hand and fillest every living thing with good Blessed be thy name O Son of the Father the ever blessed Jesus to whom I humbly bow my self as the Image of God the brightness of his glory the redeemer of our souls the Mediator of our peace and our intercessor at the right hand of the Majesty on high O thou holy Spirit of grace the Almighty power of God inspire my heart that I may know that I may acknowledg that I may love delight in obey and praise the Lord our God from henceforth and for ever Thanks be to the eternal goodness for the everlasting Gospel for the constant services of thy Ministers for the happy Communion of Saints for all the comforts of food and health and peace and friends above all for the death resurrection ascention and exaltation of our Lord Jesus for all the fruits of them and for the earnests and pledges I have received of forgiveness of sins and immortal life One day is too short to recount thy Mercies While I live I shall never be able to find out how much thou hast already loved me how many blessings thou hast loaded me withal since I came into this world And yet in the careful improvement of these thou intendest to bring me to higher and endless felicity O that the remembrance of what I have seen and felt of thy love may always cleave unto my mind and that I may every day see and be made sensible of more That the powerful operation of it in my heart may defend me against all the allurements of the world and the flesh and nothing may be able to intice me from my duty nor be hard and difficult to do for thy mighty love Incline
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg This shall put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their corn and wine encreased For thine are riches and power and honour and pleasure and they whom thou lovest can want nothing that is good Psal 5.12 Thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield 22.26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek him your heart shall live for ever The Prayer O Lord who fillest all things and delightest to pour out thy blessings upon all thy works especially into humble spirits who empty themselves of all their own desires that they may be filled with thy holy truth Behold a poor soul that opens it self to thy bounteous goodness though with much shame and confusion of face when I remember how much of thy grace I have refused or in vain received Thou hast sent me I acknowledg unasked innumerable benefits and I have found thee in my very heart when I sought not after thee Often have I felt holy thoughts springing up in my mind and pious affections carrying my heart away from all these earthly vanities Many godly purposes hast thou wrought in me and made me to taste how happy a thing it is to love thee and be beloved of thee O God thou hast taught me from my youth Psa 71.17 and early instructed me in the knowledg of thy truth Thou hast prevented all my desires and secretly disposed my will to chuse the ways of vertue and piety Hitherto I have declared thy wondrous works and every day brings along with it new testimonies of thy most fatherly care and providence But all this only reproaches me for my shameful negligence ingratitude and unfruitfulness in the knowledg of the Lord Jesus and makes me despair of receiving any more of thy grace unless thou wilt magnifie the riches of it in thy patient and long-suffering charity towards me Thou hast required us to put on bowels of mercy kindness condescention Coloss 3. forbearing and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any And hast taught us such charity as is kind and suffereth long â— Cor. 13. and beareth all things And therefore I am incouraged to fly unto thee and to hope in thee who hast made thy self the pattern of tenderness and compassion to us in Christ Jesus There is something of thy self likewise still remaining in me I feel my heart inclining towards thee desiring to have a more lively knowledg of thee and to be made thoroughly good and perfectly like thee Which emboldens me the more to wait upon thee and to open my heart for new communications of thy holy spirit to me O thou who givest food to all flesh who satisfyest the cravings of every living thing deny not the desires of an immortal soul which hungers and thirsts to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit Ephes 5.9 in all goodness and righteousness and truth It is not thy pardon only which I crave and humbly hope for through thy mercy in Christ Jesus But a power from above continually to assist the holy resolutions thou hast wrought in me to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 I have chosen O Lord the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me Psal 119.30.10 â—â— 38 Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee I have gone astray but now I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy statutes Psal 17.5 I will not forget thy word With my whole heart do I seek thee O let me not wander from thy Commandments But stablish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foosteps slip not And give me leave good Lord to approach to thy Table and there to dedicate my self again unto thee and receive fresh tokens of thy grace and favour towards me I am not worthy I confess to be seen in thy sacred presence But since thou hast wrought in me a will to please thee in all things I desire that I may humbly appear and profess it before thee and wait upon thee for a power to do according to the purposes of my heart O thou who searchest the hearts and knowest what is in man deal with me according to the sincerity of my soul And open mine eyes that I may see it if there be any evil way in me any pride any covetousness any impurity any hatred or uncharitableness For I renounce them all and unseignedly resolve to do justly and to love mercy Mic. 6.8 and to walk humbly with my God Ps 19.14 Let these words of my mouth and meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer And when I come to thy holy Table may I feel that thou hast accepted them by inspiring me with stronger purposes to continue in thy obedience and lifting me up to an higher degree of love to thee and my blessed Saviour Raise me O Lord so high that I may be out of the reach of the temptations of the world and the Devil or at least they may never be able to draw me down to follow any sinful lusts and desires Dan 9.19 O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do according to thy infinite mercies declared in Christ Jesus and the most comprehensive meaning of his own holy words in which he hath taught us to pray saying Our Father c. A Meditation afterward THE next time thou visitest thy soul ask it if it observed well that glorious person who feasted thee at his Table and marked the kind and gracious words which he spake unto thee by the representation of his broken body and blood that was shed for thy sake Alas wilt thou say I should not have been here if I had had a clear view of his glories He would have carried me to heaven with him if my heart had been possessed with the fulness of his love My eyes are too weak to behold his perfections my thoughts too narrow to comprehend the unsearchable riches of his grace But hast thou not seen something of him Did not many of his beauteous graces shine fairly in thine eyes Did he not even force upon thee some sense of his wondrous goodness and charity And hath he not put himself by sensible tokens into thy very hands nay entred into thine heart and told thee that he hath desired it for his habitation Where is he then what hast thou done with him are the thoughts of him vanished already out of thy mind Doth the love of him languish and die thus soon in thy breast Art thou content to let him go and see him
no more till the same solemnity come about again How wilt thou be able then to appear before him at that time with what face wilt thou look upon him whom thou slightest so much as to love any company better than his Will it not confound thee to think that thou art but a stranger to him though thou hast been so often with him and that he can find nothing of himself in thee no not after so many professions of the greatest love and friendship to him O let him see that he hath not bestowed himself on one that knows not how to value so divine a guest Preserve an everlasting memory of his dying love Never fail to thank him for it every day with the greatest passion thou art able to excite Look on him seriously and study to be like him Never take off thine eyes from his beauties till all his lovely qualities be imprinted on thy heart Imitate his humility and great condescention to us of low estate Learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart â—atch 11.20 〈◊〉 5.2 â— Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Purifie thy self 1 Joh. 3.3 even as he is pure Heb. 13.5 Let thy conversation be without covetousness Psal 37.3 and be content with such things as thou hast Trust in the Lord and do good make him thy hope and thy portion That as long as thou livest Christ Jesus may be seen among men O what a goodly sight would it be to behold our Lord still walking up and down in the world To see the loving the peaceable the meek the merciful the holy Jesus again upon the earth Do thou resolve to be that blessed man in whom he shall appear Let not his Image and likeness be lost whilst thou art in being and labour to leave it upon others when thou art dead and gone Particularly thou mayst resolve all this month to meditate often on the PATIENCE of our Lord under ah the rude affronts and cruel pains he endured from his enemies and the great dulness untowardness and slowness to believe which he found in his Disciples That so Patience may have its perfect work in thee to the end thou mayst be perfect and entire Jam. 1.4 wanting nothing For we have need of Patience Heb. 10.36 that after we have done the will of God we may receive the promise Rest in the Lord therefore and wait patiently for him Psal 37.7 fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass Resolve not to be discouraged in thy Christian course whatsoever it be that thou art to do or suffer Warn them that are unruly â— Tâ—â—ss 5.14 comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient toward all men Remembring that this is the character of those who received the heavenly seed with honest and good hearts Luke 8.15 that they brought forth fruit with patience And we know that the fruit of patience is experience Rom. 5.3 4. and experience worketh hope and hope maketh not ashamed The Thanksgiving and Prayer ALL thy works praise thee O Lord they proclaim thy greatness thy wisdom thy power and goodness throughout the world There is no place in heaven or earth where their voice is not heard But the mouths of rational creatures ought most to be filled with thy praises whom thou hast made to understand the wisdome and majesty of all thy works We our selves O Lord are fearfully and wonderfully made Thou hast adorned mankind with most noble perfections and given us dominion over the works of thy hands And after we had despised this honour which thou didst us chusing to become like the beasts that perish thou wast pleased to do us a greater and to demonstrate an infinite wisdom power and charity in our recovery by Christ Jesus I bless thee O God for that abundant grace and for that part and portion which thou hast given me in it That thou wast pleased to come so lovingly and dwell among us and appear in the likeness of sinful flesh to what can I ascribe it but thine incomprehensible love and readiness to do us good I most heartily thank thee that thou wouldt so mercifully comfort us by thy divine presence among us and incourage us to hope in thee that wouldst not destroy us And that thou hast proclaimed as much by thine eternal Word and bidden us to hope in thy mercy Above all that thou hast assured us by his Death and Passion that thou wilt pardon our sins and by his Resurrection that thou wilt bestow on us eternal life There is no end O Lord of thy loving kindness For thou continuest to give us new assurances and tokens of thy good will towards us and hast now entertained me at thine own Table with his most pretious body and blood It is too little O God of all grace to give thee my self if I had any more to give All that I can do is again and again to give my self to thee And as I have at thine Altar offered my whole soul and body to be employed according to thy holy will and pleasure so I continue here to renew my devotion to thee and to oblige my self by repeated vows to be thy servant I hope I shall never suffer thy love to slip out of my mind nor forget the promises wherein I stand ingaged to thee Yea that thou in thine abundant goodness wilt always accompany me by thy holy spirit which our Lord hath bid me expect from thee to preserve alive his memory in my heart that I may ever be a follower of him in poverty of Spirit in meekness in mercifulness in purity of heart in peaceableness and studying to be quiet 2 Thess 3.5 And the Lord direct my heart to the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ That I may endure all the troubles of this life with a composed constant spirit and never repine at any thing that befalls me That I may chearfully suffer for righteousness sake and taking up my Cross Heb. 12.1 2. run with patience the race that is set before me looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of thy throne of glory Rom. 15.5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolatiâ—â— grant us all to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That aâ—â— Christian people may with one mind aâ—â— one mouth glorifie thee our God and receivâ—â— one another as Christ also received us unâ—â— thy glory Unite our hearts in love and charity and give us grace to follow afteâ— those things which make for peace Rom. 14. â—â— and thing wherewith one may edifie another O that the power of all
wilt sooner part with it than not perform his holy will in every thing Vow to him again that thou wilt be true and faithful to him Embrace all thy Brethren there assembled with a kind affection because they are his friends and followers Desire that all the world should know him and be acquainted with him and that a perpetual memory of him may be preserved by doing this as long as the Sun and Moon endure And canst thou do it without those passions which the thoughts of a Friend are wont to raise up in thy heart None of them sure will be absent upon this occasion They will all attend thee in this holy action and thou wilt feel the greatest gratitude to thy Saviour who hath done so much to deserve thy love which is so little worth to him Then thou wilt hear him as good as say unto thee Son be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee All that I have is thine I will be an everlasting friend to thee and make thee inherit all things It is my Fathers good pleasure to give thee a kingdom and here I give thee the earnest of that purchased possession What reason hast thou to doubt of the injoyment if thou art my friend by doing whatsoever I command thee Do not friends partake in each others goods My power which I have over all things in Heaven and earth shall assist thee My Angels shall be thy guardians My spirit shall be thy guide and director My comforts shall incourage and support thee Because I live Joh. 14.19.10.10 thou shalt live also For I came that my sheep might have life and that they might have it more abundantly The Prayer before O Most holy and eternal God who art good and dost good the whole earth is full of thy goodness Thy mercy reacheth unto the Heavens and thy faithfulness unto the Clouds Thou art great in power wisdom and all other perfections and therefore greatly to be feared honoured and loved by all understanding creatures When I consider how much thou hast done for me or how much I have often promised to do for thee I am on both hands confounded and ashamed in my own thoughts Thou art my Creator my Father my Saviour deliverer and constant Benefactor the God of my life of my health of all my present comforts and future hopes I have promised often to be thy faithful servant and thy dutiful child to honour and glorifie thee both with body and soul and all the good things thou hast bestowed on me In my Baptism I was dedicated unto thee and have many times confirmed that gift and renewed my engagements to continue in thy obedience In my promises protestations and vows I have been very liberal but how sparing in performance thou who art acquainted with all my ways knowest And I my self know so much of my negligence that I may justly wonder thou still retainest me in thy family and lettest me enjoy the priviledg of thy children Adored be thy great long suffering and patience towards me and all mankind Thanks be to the name of the Lord who after our abuse of so many blessings hath added the gift of his dear Son and sent him to pay a ransome for us O the unconceivable greatness of that love which hath so much befriended the most ungrateful enemies I humbly mention the blood of his Cross as a sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction not only for my sins but the sins of the whole world I lift up my hands unto thee in his name to receive that gracious pardon which he hath purchased for me hopeing thorough him that thou wilt still continue thy love unto me who am stedfastly resolved to love thee above all things Far be it from me to think that the love of our Lord should maintain me in any rebellion against thee or countenance my contempt of thy holy Laws No love me so much good Lord as to change my will and renew my nature into thy own likeness that I may be truly a friend of God I wish for no greater happiness than to feel my soul at peace and friendship with thee by an intire and unchangeable love to all righteousness goodness and truth And I am going to remember his dying love that with the heartiest affection I may devote my self wholly to thy love and service I do as unfeignedly desire that all my sins may die as I am glad that Christ died to be a propitiation for them And I as sincerely offer up my self my understanding my will my desires and passions and all that I have unto thee as I really believe that he offered up himself for me O that the power of the holy Ghost may accompany me and unite my thoughts and affections to make a most thankful commemoration of his loving kindness Represent unto my mind most feelingly all that Jesus hath done and endured for our sake Fix my mind and heart upon the inestimable benefits he hath obtained to me That I may not only behold the outward figures of him but receive those pledges of his love with the humblest reverence with such a lively faith and vehement love and ready submission of my will to him that Christ Jesus may be inwardly formed in me I long for the happiness of knowing assuredly that I am a friend of his by my delighting greatly in his Commandments and trusting my self and all my concerns intirely in his hands and contenting my self in his love and good will toward me and rejoycing in the Soveraign Dominion power and glory which thou hast given him with most earnest desires that all the world may love and obey him Amen Our Father which art c. The Meditation afterward WIth what unwillingness are we wont to leave the company of a Friend in whom we delight How doth the remembrance of him stick unto our mind How often do we think of the kind words we heard from his mouth and view the tokens he hath left with us of his love Do we not use to cast our eyes behind us when we go from him and look after him as long as he is in sight Are we not glad to see but his back when we cannot behold his face O sweet Jesus then shouldst thou say to thy self who can be content to part with the thoughts of thee when he sees the love thou bearest to us and all the blessings thou impartest to thy friends and followers What heart can endure to lose the sight of such happiness or suffer thy remembrance to die out of its mind I should look as far as heaven rather than suffer thee to go out of my thoughts and always be casting mine eyes to thy dwelling place that I may behold at this distance though never so little of thy most excellent glory So one would think in reason But this dull flesh begins to complain that it is tired and cannot thus follow thee any further It makes me sigh to think that I must lose
preserved pure and undefiled as the Temples of the Holy Ghost it may be my constant guide strength and comfort and lead me safely through all the difficulties and dangers of this world the enticements of the flesh and the crafts and subtilties of the Devil to a place of peace and safety in the regions above where I may for ever dwell in thy love and sing thy praise O that all the people did praise thee O God that all the people did praise thee That the whole Earth were filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea and all those that know thee did walk worthy of thee as children of the light and of the day having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Bless thy Church planted in these Islands that we may not receive in vain that grace bringing Salvation 2 Cor. 6.1 Tit. 2.11 12. which hath appeared to us teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world But from the highest to the lowest have grace Heb. 12.28 whereby we may serve thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear Comfort all my Friends forgive all my Enemies relieve those that are in any misery draw all sinners to repentance and help all good men to perfect holiness in thy fear that at last with one consent we may all unite our hearts and tongues in thy everlasting praises Now the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God 2 Cor. 13. ult and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with us all Amen November The Meditation before WIth what wonder and admiration do we entertain those things which are strange and unusual The very news of them carries great numbers to see them and the sight of them fixes their eyes on them as if they could never have enough of them Behold here the wonder of wonders which thou art called to see and seed thine eyes and heart withal God is come to dwell in Flesh This flesh is made a sacrifice for the sins of the world And he invites thee now to a Feast upon that Sacrifice that thou mayest dwell in him and he in thee O marvellous love what eyes ever saw such a sight as the Son of God dying on a Cross The only begotten of the Father bleeding as a malefactor The glorious King of Heaven laying down his life freely for his own subjects Rebels I should have called them and enemies to him Where are all my thoughts Where is my admiration What is become of my love Whither are all my desires gone It will be a new wonder if they do not all assemble themselves together at the commemoration of such love which doth me the grace to make me partaker of that Body and Bloud which was so offered up to God Strange that my thoughts should be so heavy and my affections so cold that my hunger and thirst should be no more excited at the very motion to go to the house of God to make a thankful remembrance of his death We think the Angels lead an happy life in their blessed employment of giving continual Praises to God why do I not go then with a more forward joy into the Courts of the Lord to do this in remembrance of Christ which those Heavenly creatures do not do For he hath not taken hold of the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but of the seed of Abraham for whom he hath prepared also this Sacred food of which they never tasted Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 13 this day have I begotten thee or sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot-stool Art thou not desirous of honour and greedy of gainful preferment Art thou not prone to seek great things for thy self What greater honour or dignity can there be than to be so nearly related to the Lord of all to be members of him that is Head of all Principalities and Powers Behold the treasures of grace and glory which he offers thee and by these signs of his Body and Bloud would make over to thee Is not Love the very life and Soul of the World Is it not the â—oy and satisfaction of hearts Behold here the worthiest object of it that ever was See how he would fill and possess thy whole Soul with perfect contentment And lest thou shouldest be so unhappy as not to dwell in love see how he would engage thee by these bonds in which thou â—rt going to tye thy self to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul and strength and thy neighbour as thy self How doth he comply with thy most natural inclinations How doth he study to gratifie thee in thy most noble desires Call up thy best and purest thoughts Strain thy self to the heighth of admiration Endeavour to forget all other things and only to look at present upon Jesus If any thing can make thee love God it must be his love If any thing can make thee hate sin it must be this Sacrifice for it If any thing can make thee willing and obedient â—it must be his obedience to the death Think then when thou comest into his presence that thou seest him hanging on his Cross Think thou seest him spreading out his arms and resigning himself to the will of God That thou beholdest hiâ— gaping wounds and the Bloud trickâ—ling down his Sacred body That thou hearest him cry unto thee Did I not love thee when I bled to death for thee Did I not love thee when I endured this painâ— and sorrow to redeem thee Could I do more than give my self to deliver thee from death and open the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal life And then what heart iâ— there that need be taught what it should say and what it should do on this occasion Who can refrain himself from giving blessing and praise and glory in the highest to him Who can want thanks to render him for such invaluable benefits Oâ— find in his heart to deny him his serviceâ— Nay who would not rejoyce to think oâ— serving one that hath merited thus of him and intends to reward his duty with that very glory which the Father hath given him Our Lord cannot but expect to see thy mind fraught with Heavenly thoughts and a most high esteem of him thy hearâ— mighty full of love and vows and resolutions ready to be presented to him thy will bowing and submitting it self wholly to his disposal And to all such he saith by his Ministers Come to my Supper for all things are ready Come and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort Rejoyce with me and be exceeding glad for I love you and will love you to the end The Prayer before O Most holy Lord of Heaven and earth the greatest and most desirable good the only rest and satisfaction of our souls Whom to know is the beginning of life whom
keep my body inâ—eâ—perance soberness and chastity Not to coâ—â— nor desire other mens goods but to learn aâ—â— labour truly to get mine own living and to 〈◊〉 my duty in that state of life unto which it shâ—â— please God to call me I desire also the good of all mankind that they may partake of the knowledge of the Lord and enjoy the fruits of his Death and Resurrection especially that all Christian people may walk worthy of the Lord who hath called them to his Heavenly Kingdom And particularly all Kings Princes and Governours may be as careful to observe his Laws as they are desirous others should observe theirs That they may remember the honour thou cast done them in exalting them so â—igh to the end they may imitate thee 〈◊〉 doing good to all below them Purge out of thy Church every thing â—hat dishonours the Religion of our Lord and endangers Souls Unite â—ll the members of it in the profession of the true Faith and in sincere Charity that the poor may be relieved the sick comforted the fatherless and widows visited in their affliction sinners â—eclaimed the obstinate softned and all that are in unbelief brought into the â—â—ock of Jesus Christ And grant unto us all that havâ— Communicated together this day thaâ— peace which passeth all understanding humility meekness obedience fortâ—tude contentedness patience longinâ— desires after Heaven and willingneâ—â— to die that we may rest in an hoâ—â— Hope and have a blessed Resurrectioâ— with the just Amen December The Meditation before the Sacrament NEed I be told after a whole years service at least of my blessed Master Jesus what that duty is I am now going to perform unto him Am I not preparing my self according to his command to make a solemn commemoration before God Angels and Men of his unheard of love in dying for us To make a profession of my sincere love and affection to him To engage to him my fidelity To renew the Covenant that is between us To open my heart to him and to confirm to him the most absolute possession of my Soul and Body To wait on him for his continued grace and that I may feel the â—ower of his Death and Resurrection To â—â—ow him my willingness even to take up â—is Cross and to be his Disciple and follower to the very death To testifie the â—ove I bear unto and the Communion I desire to hold with all the Christians that â—re throughout the world To exalt the â—ame of the Lord and to speak his praises who would give his Son for us and who hath condescended to a treaty of peace with us and upon such easie terms to become friends with us yea reward us and do great things for us O how sweet is the remembrance of these blessings How happy am I that he will not let me forget them But with a continued kindness invites me again to this delightful employment I will go and give him thanks for all his benefits and for this among the rest that he hath made me so often partaker of his blessed Body and Bloud and now gives me a new opportunity to celebrate in this manner the memory of his love And O that my heart were lifted higher than ever after so long acquaintance with him in admiration of his grace in faith in love in joy in praise and thanksgiving in strong and vehement desires and in cordial resolutions to be his devout and faithful Disciple O that the hearts of all men else who shall approach his Table may be disposed to the like zeal and fervent affection to his service and so many Souls as there are then present so many living Sacrifices there may be to God so many wills resigned into his hands with ardent love That so those holy Spirits which the Apostle tells us were present in their Christian assemblies may be invited to come into ours And beholding nothing but what is reverend serious pure and full of true devotion they may be excited to rejoyce and praise God together with us for our sincere affection to his Religion And they may make report among their Heavenly company above that Christian piety is still remaining in the world and that we have made a great increase in growth in it this year by our frequent remembrance of the Lord Jesus which may stir them up all to bless the great and glorious name of our God which is exalted above all blessing and praise The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all Psal 103. Bless the Lord ye Angels of his Bless him all his hosts Bless him all ye works of his in all places of his dominion Bless the Lord O my Soul Stir up thy self to bless the name of God our Saviour who hath not cast us out of his sight when we threw off our obedience to him but sent his Son to gather us again to him to invite us by precious promises to endear himself to us by shedding his heart bloud for us to open the gate of Paradise again and restore us to immortality to make us equal with the Angels and rank us among the eldest sons of glory Let us go and if it be possible excite a greater love in our heart toward him than ever we felt before Let us offer up our selves to him with a stronger flame of devotion which may always burn and rise up higher and higher till it touch heaven and lift us up thither where our Saviour is in the high and holy place God blessed for ever Amen The Prayer before ETernal God whose omnipotent word brought me and this whole world of creatures into being Out of the fulness of whose goodness we are all fed and maintained and by whose rich and abundant grace it is that our souls are not in a desperate and forsaken condition but may approach with some confidence to thee our Maker who in thy Son hast revealed thy self unto us a most merciful Father I fall down before thee in an humble reverence to perform that Religious duty which I owe thee as thy creature and much more as thy redeemed one through the purchase thou hast made of us by the blood of Jesus I admire adore and love all that I know of thee I extol and praise thy wisdom thy bounty thy holiness and truth which endureth for ever I acknowledg my self beholden to thee beyond all my words or conceptions either I reproach my self for my base ingratitude and all the wrongs I have done thee I confess the justice of thy proceedings shouldst thou strip me of all those good things thou hast bestowed on me I give thee the glory of thy ineffable and never enough to be valued love in thy Son Christ I disclaim all opposition to thy will as base unjust and unaccountable I vow to thee my intire service and obedience and approve all thy Commandments as righteous wise and good I lay new bonds upon my self to keep and
do but to shew forth the glorious perfections of righteousness mercy and truth which I behold in him and to declare the esteem I have of him and my satisfaction in my portion by modesty contentedness thankfulness faith patience hope joyful resignation of all my concernments with an equal mind to his wise disposal This is my will this is my resolution And I will declare from year to year that this I take to be my happiness And here it may be very fit to resolve often all this Month to reflect upon our Saviours CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD when he had chosen to come and do the will of God Riches honour glory and pleasure were nothing in his account in compare with the satisfaction of doing the pleasure of God though it were by sufferings He did not regard the esteem of men nor what they said of him Though he dyed an ignominious and disgraceful death as well as lived a poor and despicable life he was not ashamed nor dejected but rather gloried in both Because his business was not to please himself but as it is written Rom. 15.3 the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me Let the same mind be in us that was in him Ib. v. 2. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to his edification But overlook the censures and vain opinion of this world with all the honours and preferments of it so we may but approve our selves to God and his will be fulfilled by us For it is a faithful saying 2 Tim. 2.11 12. if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him The Thanksgiving and Prayer afterward O Most high and holy Lord of Heaven and Earth the Author of every good and perfect gift Who art for ever to be humbly acknowledged worshipped loved and obeyed by me and by all that know thee I have often made thee my acknowledgments for my being and all the comforts of it for the hopes I have both in this life and hereafter And now I come to renew them that I may be more firmly united to thee in hearty love and entire affection I cast down my self before thee being even oppressed with the great load of thy mercies and benefits which will not suffer me to dispose of my heart other-ways than to thy obedience As I owe my very being to thee so all those good things which have made it not to be a burden and uneasie to me I have enjoyed a long measure of health and cannot tell that ever I wanted my daily bread yea plentiful provision both for my necessity and my pleasure The days of pain and sorrow which I have endured have been but few in compare with the many years of ease and joy which thou hast vouchsafed me I find now all my senses entire and perfect and I have a great many Friends and kind Neighbours and also a great deal of time to think of all this and to prepare my self for thy eternal favour How much am I indebted to thee for the continued use of my understanding reason and memory that I can take notice of all thy goodness whereby my heart may be excited to love thee which is the greatest happiness and pleasure of all * You may acknowledge what you may owe him also for good education civil breeding and that he hath perhaps enclined your heart early to be Religious whereby your Conscience hath been kept from many wounds and both Soul and Body from much dishonour c. This this O Lord is the greatest of thy mercies that thou hast given me the knowledge of thy love in Jesus Christ which cannot but constrain me to the greatest love of thee And that thy holy Spirit hath shone so often into my mind and breathed so often on my will and affections that thou hast pardoned so many faults and waited so long for my amendment and so earnestly importuned my return and afforded me so many helps and such a long time to perfect my repentance Thou hast added also now new pledges of thy love and earnest of that immortal life wherein I may compleat my praises and thanksgivings to thee in the company of the blessed O how precious are thy thoughts towards me how great is the summe of them If I would go about to number them they are moe than the sand I cannot count the least part of them nor ever see any end of thy goodness for even whilst I am thinking of it I receive new favours from thee Every moment is big with abundance of thy mercies both to my Soul and my Body for this life and that which is to come But I know enough to make me admire and love thy goodness and to make me ashamed of my forgetfulness and ingratitude enough to oblige me eternally to thee enough to make me fully contented and to rejoyce in thee as my portion Behold O Lord I here again sincerely devote my self to observe thy commands and keep thy holy word I have chosen it as the rule and the comfort of my life and I will ever cleave unto thy testimonies with my whole heart I would not abuse thy mercies nor grow careless wanton and secure under the abundance of thy goodness but look upon them as engagements and mighty arguments to love acknowledge and obey thee for ever Blessed be thy goodness that I have such thoughts and am so inclined Accept of my good desires purposes and vows which I have made and accompany me alway by thy gracious assistance that I may accomplish what I have begun and perfect holiness in thy fear To thee I recommend all mankind especially thy Church and chosen People all the Rulers and Governours of them that they may remember thou art higher than the highest the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who wilt judge all men without respect of persons Give pure zeal and knowledge to thy Ministers the grace of contentedness to the poor of the flock and of an open heart to the rich wisdom and discretion to those that are in their younger years and an holy hope to comfort the aged And endue them all with an humble meekness that laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil-speakings 1 Pet. 2.1 2 5. as new born Babes they may desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby and offer up continually spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to thee by Christ Jesus Amen On the Feast of the Nativity OR Christmas-Day The Meditation before WHat amazing News is this What an astonishing piece of love That the King of Kings who needed nothing and is able by his Omnipotent word to command more Creatures into being if he wanted any subjects than we can think of while we live should send a kind Embassage of peace to us vile worms sinful dust and ashes To us who were unworthy of a gracious look from him
should we have besought his favour to us that had highly affronted his Sovereign Authority and Sacred Laws he hath dispatched a glorious Message as if we were the greatest persons and so many little Gods And had it not been too great an honour for us to think of if he had sent one of his meanest servants in the Heavenly Court to visit us Or if he had bidden an illustrious Seraphim to come and comfort and chear us by his bright appearance or one of the Cherubims to flye all over the Earth and make proclamation in their ears that the King of Heaven would be reconciled to his rebellious subjects Would it not have filled the whole world with wonder and made all mankind stand at a gaze to see themselves so highly favoured O what a grace then was it that God should send his Son his only begotten Son the Prince and Sovereign Lord of all that Heavenly host upon this business of reconciliation See my Soul that which astonishes not men only but Angels themselves who proclamed the birth of this Prince of life with the loudest shouts of joy saying Glory be to God on high Luke 2.14 and on Earth peace good will towards men Towards men do they say Lord what are they that thou shouldest put this honour on them What are the greatest and noblest men on Earth What is their excellency and worth that such addresses should be made unto them O joyn thy self my Soul as well as thou art able with those bright morning-Stars that sang for joy when the foundation of the new world was laid and say Glory be to the eternal majesty of Heaven and Earth who possesses all things and can suffer nothing that he would deign to send to us his poor subjects Glory be to his Almighty love who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish Joh. 3.17 but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved O blessed Jesus how ardent how powerful was that love which brought thee down from the Heavenly company above to us here on Earth yea Ephes 4.9 Psal 139 15. to the lower-most parts of the Earth To be cloathed with our rags to dwell in our mortal flesh in the likeness of sinful flesh Mightest thou not at least have been apparelled like the best of men and been found in the habit and fashion of the noblest of us but thou wouldest also condescend to the form of a servant that the most despicable of all mankind might never suspect they should be despised by the King of glory O what an humble love was this to us most wretched sinners What heart can conceive the infinite force of it How infinitely is it above all words We do but declare that we know little of it if we are able to talk much about it It is fit for our wonder and silent admiration for adoring thoughts and devout exstasies of love Only I will go and declare in the assemblies of his people these wonderful works of the Lord and publish his goodness with the voice of thanksgiving and praise Lord what new wonder is that which there I behold This glorious person murdered by his subjects The new born Prince of the world the Heir of all things caught Matth. 21.39 and cast out and slain by those to whom he was sent to demand their obedience O the miraculous wisdom of this love That he should be born and come among us to die for us and take our flesh that he might offer it on the Cross and make peace and reconciliation by being slain and shedding his bloud Go my Soul and shew forth his death to Angels and Men. For this is the up-shot of his love that while we were yet sinners Christ would die for us By this he hath made an atonement for us by this he hath obtained an Eternal Redemption with this offering God is well satisfied and by this he hath exalted our Nature to the right hand of God that he may always appear in his presence for us With what love and joy and zeal should we commemorate this never to be forgotten love With what hearty affection should we offer our selves to him How glad should we be of this new opportunity to vow to him our obedience With what tender love should we embrace all our Brethren who are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone as he is And how comfortably may we hope that God will be gracious to us who hath not only sent his Son to make his abode among us but also to lay down his life for us Let us go and bless his name that to us a Son is born to us a Child is given even Christ the Lord that he hath â—aised up a mighty Salvation for us and hath redeemed us out of the hands of all our enemies that we might serve him without fear all the days of our life And let us receive these earnests and pledges of his good will as hopeful assurances that he will never end his love till he hath conveyed us thither where Jesus is But how shall we come there unless it be in those steps whereby he ascended from Earth to Heaven Go therefore and offer to him an heart of flesh to be moulded and framed into what figure he pleases Desire him to form his own image in thee to subdue thee perfectly to his will that it may be thy meat and drink to do it and to finish the work he hath for thee in the world Think thou hearest him say as Abimelech to the men of Schechem to move them to elect him for their King Remember that I am your bone and your flesh Judg. 9.2 Behold my body which I took for your sake See here how dear you were to me and how nearly related I stand to every Soul of you Will you not suffer me to rule over you Such a Lord as is so much concerned for you Will you not be governed by me that am your Brother as well as your Lord And then me-thinks we should all answer with one accord other Lords have reigned over us but now none but thou O Christ none but thou O Christ Rule and reign over us for ever for we are thy Servants The Prayer before O Eternal God the Soveraign Lord of all creatures both in heaven and earth who art before all things and on whom they all depend To whom we owe all honour and homage all love and dutiful affection all praise and thanks service and obedience throughout our whole life I acknowledg O Lord that I am never more unjust than when I do not render all this most freely and chearfully unto thee I cannot deny the debt wherein I stand engaged though I have too often denyed to pay it For thou hast raised me out of the dust and preserved me from
returning thither again Thou hast richly loaden me with thy benefits endued me with principles of wisdom righteousness and goodness made a world of good things to wait upon me and minister to me and expectest only reasonable service and an easy obedience from me which thou hast sent thy Son to demand and to entreat and to give me an example of This is the surpassing heighth of thy love that thou wast pleased not to despise and reject us when we had despised all thy former favours but even to assume our Nature into an inconceivable nearness to thy own and send thy Son Jesus to seek and save us when we were lost I adore thine infinite condiscention O blessed Jesus Heb. 2.11 14. who art not ashamed to call us Brethren And for as much as we are partakers of flesh and blood hast also thy self likewise taken part of the same that through death thou mightest destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil Blessed be thy goodness that in all things thou wast made like unto us that thou mightest be a merciful and faithful high-Priest v. 17. to make reconciliation for our sins Let all the Angels in heaven still praise him for as high as the heaven is above the earth so great is his mercy above our thoughts We were not worthy that thou shouldst so much as look upon us or speak unto us and then in thine unbounded love thou wast pleased to dwell in our nature and to send thy Son in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 that by a Sacrifice for sin he might condemn sin in the flesh I see O Lord in that Sacrifice how hateful sin was to thee when thou wast so full of love to us and am going to thy Table to renounce utterly every evil way and devote my self to an holy and god-like life to acknowledg thy wise goodness who wouldst dwell in our flesh to sanctifie and cleanse it and give thy Son Jesus to die for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Accompany me O God by that mighty spirit through which he was conceived and offered himself without spot unto thee that I may have a lively conception of him and his holy Gospel in my mind and be made conformable to him in every thing and offered up intirely soul and body to be ordered and disposed of as pleaseth him It is but just and reasonable that his will not mine should be done And it is no less my happiness than my duty to be governed by him who is the wisdom of thee our God I deliver up therefore my understanding my will my affections and passions to be guided directed and ruled by his supream and immutable counsels Work in me a stedfast admiration and love of his purity lowliness meekness patience contentedness and charity that nothing may be so desirable to me as to have Christ Jesus in all his divine virtues formed in me Hold O Lord this image of him alway before mine eyes that my life may be nothing else but a constant imitation of him and both body and soul become the Temple of the holy Ghost wherein thou mayst be truly honoured heartily loved highly praised and exalted and purely worshipped and served O that my mind may be ever employed in pious or honest thoughts that my will may chuse the better part which can never be taken away from me that I may set my affections on heavenly things and not on things upon the earth that I may use the world as one that seeks a better countrey being chearful and yet composed diligent in my calling and yet working out my salvation doing good to my self with all the comforts of this life and likewise unto others Give me the grace good Lord never to be weary of well-doing to be just in all my dealings faithful in my promises mindful of my vows upright in the discharge of my trust inoffensive in word and deed and an useful and peaceable Member of Church and state Dispose me to be good in all my relations obedient to those who are over me kind to all my equals compassionate and pittiful to those that are in misery meek and lowly towards all men O that riches may never make me forget my self nor poverty tempt me to forget thee that health may not make me confident and secure nor sickness make me dejected and discontented But I may be patient and constant in all adversities Religious and thankful in prosperity and go through fulness and emptiness honour and disgrace good report and bad with the same evenness of mind till I come to receive praise and commendation as a good servant of Jesus Christ at the great day of his appearing In whose most powerful Name I continue to make my suits unto thee saying as he hath taught me Our Father c. The Meditation afterward IS not our heavenly Father very desirous that we should love him Would he else have appeared among us Would he have manifested himself to us Yea manifested himself in our flesh And more than that purchased us to himself by his own blood O how dear hath he paid for our love Love him love him exceedingly that he may not lose the great price wherewith we are bought But what love do we bear him if we be not like him What are we the better that a Saviour is born to us if he be not formed in us and dwell not in our heart by faith Was not this the end of his taking our Nature that he might purifie it and make us reverence our selves more than to defile that which is so near of kin to the Son of God O most wise goodness which by becoming like to us designed to make us like thy self I see the humility of the blessed Jesus who was born of a poor Virgin I see his sweetness in accommodating himself to the vilest of us and taking on him the form of a servant I see how little he valued the riches and the dignities and the pleasures of this world How contented he was in a mean condition how obedient to his parents how courteous to the meanest clients who came to receive not to give I see how liberal he was of his favours how unwearied in doing good how patient in suffering any evil how he loved righteousness and hated iniquity how dear the honest heart was to him and how odious hypocrisie I see how meek he was when he was affronted how loth his enemies should perish how little concern'd either in the calumnies or applauses of the world How absolutely resigned to the will of God and how desirous to do him honour O how often did he thank his heavenly Father How many hours did he spend in prayer and private converse with him How joyfully did he suffer great pains to do great good And at last laid down his life full of hope in God to see a glorious
resurrection These are the beauties of Jesus which I admire This is the Image of him which I have vowed to carry always in my heart This is the glory of humane nature the honour and dignity to which I would be preferred I desire to be great in nothing but his humility to be rich only in contentedness patience and good works to be glorified in meekness and sweet condiscention to have the pleasure only of pleasing God and my Brethren to their edification to rejoyce that Gods will is done though mine be crossed And it is no small joy to see the beginnings of this beauteous image drawn upon my heart He that did not despise the Virgins womb will not despise the humble oblation I have made of my self to him nor that little likeness he sees in me of himself Dost thou not see my soul what great things come from mean beginnings How a poor Babe that lay in a manger came to be the King of glory Hope in God then that thou shalt grow to a greater stature and more exactly resemble thy dearest Saviour He hath given thee assurance that he will not over-look thee now that he sits on the Throne of his glory It is a Throne of grace too unto which thou mayst address thy self and find grace to help in time of need Do but let him see how much thou honourest him how pretious his memory is unto thee how thou art in love with his purity and he that was manifested in our flesh will manifest himself in thee He will adorn thee with all his graces and make thee shine as a light in the world in humble charity in meekness of wisdom in chearful patience and devout obedience Blessed be God for this hope I have no cause to envy the greatest persons No not her that carried him in her womb and then in her arms if there had been nothing more For though we are apt to say as the woman among the multitude did Blessed is the womb that bare thee Luke 11.27 28. and the paps that thou hast sucked yet Jesus saith yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it They that hear or believe his word conceive him in their heart and they that do it bring him forth in their life Blessed be Jesus for the least share I have in this blessedness I will spend this holy day in praising him for the hope I have to partake of more of it What can there be more delightful to those who know what it is to believe in him and obey him And in what shall we spend the rest of this time wherein we commemorate his coming into the world Shall we be so uncivil to our Lord as to go more willingly to feast with our neighbours than to feast again with him Shall we go to their houses with more chear than unto his I will never so dishonour him God forbid that I should feast my body more than my Soul I will rather imitate the ancient Christians who could find in their heart to meet every day before the morning light to sing Hymns to our Saviour I will at least be able to say with David O that all others may bear me company in it I have gone with the multitude Psal 42.4 I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept Holy-day The Thanksgiving and Prayer afterward O Eternal Majesty of Heaven and Earth the Father of mercies by whom all things were made out of nothing whose Almighty hand supports them from falling back into nothing again and whose good providence keeps them from being miserable Thy Wisdom is past finding out thy Power is irresistable thy Love and Goodness is unmeasurable and thy tender mercies over all thy Works O how great are thy tender mercies to us O Lord How large a portion hast thou given us in thy love Thou hast not dealt so with any Creature as thou hast done with Man on whom thou didst instamp thine own image and cloathed him with immortality and made him Lord over the works of thy hands And so great is thy goodness that when he had lost himself by departing from his obedience to thee thou wouldest not so lose thy sinful Creature but chose rather to do wonders that he might not perish Thou hast sent thy Son to seek after him and restore him to thy self Thou hast not abhorred our Nature but loved us so much as to manifest thy self in our flesh and honour us with the glorious title of thy Sons the Brethren of the Son of thy love Christ Jesus I have remembred with all thankfulness this day his humble and loving descent from Heaven that he might be born and dwell among us to comfort us in this sinful and troublesome world with his Divine presence to assure us of thy good will to us and invite us friendly to return to thee to instruct and encourage us in our duty to put us in hope of endless felicity and at last to die and give himself a ransom for us that he might be touched with a sense of our infirmities being in all points tempted like as we are without sin I again adore O Lord thy most glorious Majesty I reverence thy Power and greatness I wonder at thy wisdom and am astonished at thy goodness I have neither words nor thoughts befitting the inestimable benefits thou hast bestowed on us O that the Holy Spirit which was in our Saviour would inspire my heart with devout affections towards thee O God of all grace that I may love thee more than I can express more than now my heart can think and I may joyn chearfully with all the Heavenly Host above that are still giving honour blessing glory power and dominion to thee for ever and ever For unto us a Child is born Isa 9.6 7. unto us a Son is given the mighty God the Prince of peace of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily And we are members of his body Coloss 2.9 10. of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5.30 In him we are compleat which is the head of all Principality and Power and hath redeemed us by his bloud Rev. 5.9 and made us Kings and Priests unto God to offer unto him Spiritual Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.5 and we shall reign with him for ever Amen I confess O Lord that I am less than the least of all thy mercies And though I have been ungrateful even for the greatest yet thou continuest the course of thy goodness and hast now newly admitted me to the Communion of Christs precious Body and Bloud Thou pitiest also my weak and childish thoughts my heavy and dull affections and all the wandrings of my foolish imagination and dost not estrange thy self from me though I am so little moved by thy miraculous love O thou who
hast done such great things for me bear still mercifully with me exercise more of thy patience and show thy self exceeding great in forbearance and long suffering towards me Thou who hast given thy Son unto me vouchsafe to send thy Holy Spirit to over-shadow my Soul and form Christ Jesus within me That conceiving him in my heart by a lively faith and belief of his Gospel I may be made partaker of a Divine nature and express him in his holiness meekness humility patience charity contentedness and simplicity in perfect innocence in doing good and entire satisfaction in thy fatherly love O that the new life to which I am born by the incorruptible seed of thy Word which liveth and abideth for ever 1 P t. 1.23 and for the nourishment of which thou hast provided this holy Feast of which I have now partaked may encrease unto a perfect age to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that so at last I may be begotten again from the dead and be a child of the resurrection to live for ever with the Lord. And for that end dispose my heart as a new born babe to desire the sincere milk of thy Word that I may grow thereby That since thou hast caused thy Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning I may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that I may obey from the heart that form of Doctrine Rom. 6.17 whereunto I have been delivered and by patience and comfort of thy Word embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ Vouchsafe good Lord so to direct and govern me that I may never profane this Body which thou hast so sanctified honoured and exalted by intemperance or any impurity nor this Soul which is so dear to thee by pride or envy hatred or malice wrath or revenge covetousness or discontent But I may repose a perfect trust and confidence in thee for what I want seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son thine only Son from us and be thankful for what I enjoy and live in the love of thee my God and of all my Brethren and possess my body in sanctification and in honour that I may humbly wait for thy mercy in Christ Jesus to eternal life Help me this very day to begin to use all bodily good things with holy fear with thanksgiving with pity to the poor and needy with a sense of spiritual delights and hungerings after righteousness and with most earnest longings after that feast of joy and gladness which we hope to keep with thee in the Heavens O that all the world may hear the glad tidings of a Saviour that there may be great joy among all people Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee Let them lift up their hands unto thee in his name and bow their knees unto him and let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father And O that all they who do confess him may have their conversation as becomes the Gospel and be continually offering up the Sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and be communicating and doing good Kings of the Earth and all People Psal 148.11 12 13. Princes and all Judges of the Earth Both young men and maidens old men and children Let them praise the Name of the Lord that God in all things may be glorified through Christ Jesus to whom be praise and dominion 1 Pâ—t 4.11 for ever and ever Amen On Newyears-day if there be a Communion may be added this short Meditation LEt us consider my Soul before we go to the Holy Table for what ends we go thither and with what hearts we ought to go Is it not to admire the greatness of Gods love in giving his Son to us and the greatness of Christs love in giving himself for us Is it not to render our highest thanks and praise to the Father and the Son for this inestimable love in giving his bloud a ransom for us and then to offer up our selves wholly to his love Is it not to renew our Baptismal Covenant wherein we promised to forsake all his enemies and to lead a mortified life in all obedience to his will To represent to God what his Son hath done for us and humbly to hope in him for all the benefits of his passion To receive encrease of power to overcome the world and further testimonies of his love and stronger desires after the consummation of it in Heavenly bliss To unite our heart in Brotherly affection to all the faithful servants of Jesus and to rejoyce in the holy Communion of Christ and his Saints O blessed Jesus who can have hearts disposed to do all this without thee I come to thee therefore that thou wilt represent thy self most lively to me If I could have seen thee hanging on the Cross or if thou wouldest appear to me as thou didst to Saul if the Heavens were opened and I could behold thee as did St. Steven what strange passions what holy affections would it raise up in my heart Open thine eyes my Soul heartily and strongly believe and thy joy shall be full He will be in the midst of us when we are assembled together in his Name according as he promised He presents himself before us in these Signs of his Body and Bloud Behold how the Word was made flesh how he was Circumcised and fulfilled the Law under which he was born that he might be a pure and unspotted offering to God See how he was whipt and scourged for thy sake See how he suffered upon the Cross how his Body was broken and his heart-Bloud poured out to reconcile us unto God And then thou canst not but come with a thankful heart and with an humble reverent and devout affection present thy self unto him bitterly bewailing thy offences chearfully resigning thy self to his will and joyfully hoping for his mercy When he saith by his Minister Take eat drink this what is the meaning but as if he should say I am thy Salvation And when thou stretchest out thy hand and dost this what is it but to say My Lord and my God Joh. 20.28 And happy are they who not only call him Lord but do the things that he saith Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life Rev. 22.14.12.20 and enter into the City of God Behold he cometh and his reward is with him and he will give to every man according as his work shall be Rev. 21 7. And he that overcometh saith he shall inherit all things I will be his God and he shall be my Son Amen Even so come Lord Jesus And this short Prayer O Lord of heaven and earth who knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising Psal 139.2 3. c. and understandest my thoughts a far
of them I hope to give thee eternal praises O Father of mercies and God of all comfort who hast made us after thy own image and in the fulness of time sent thy Son born of a woman made under the Law to redeem us from the curse and hast adopted us to be thy children promised to make us heirs with thy only begotten and for that end to give us a new birth from the Grave into an immortal Life Have patience with me O Lord till that time when I shall more fully comprehend and better acknowledge the greatness of thy love for which I will endeavour to prepare my self by an innocent harmless and unblamable life as becomes the Gospel of Christ To him I have now dedicated my self again in all holy obedience I have professed my self his servant that admires him and loves him and glories in being his faithful Disciple O that the good thoughts and pious inclinations which I have now felt in my heart may remain and abide there for ever that as I grow in years so I may grow as my Saviour did in grace and favour with thee my God and with all good men Endue me with a more solid knowledge of thy will with a stronger love and affection to it and with power to do my duty towards thee and towards all men That I may behave my self in an humble and godly fear before thee in all justice mercy and charity to my Neighbours and possess my Body and Soul in sobriety chastity and patience Make me loving to my inferiours respectful to my betters friendly to my equals kind to all mine enemies thankful for thy mercies contented with my own state and condition of life fearful of my self in prosperity and confident in thee in adversity that all temptations may only present me with something to overcome and give me new occasions of victory over the world and produce for me at last a greater crown of glory For thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youth Psal 7â— 5 6 8 9. By thee have I been holden up from the womb thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels my praise shall be continually of thee Cast me not off in the time of old age 73.24 forsake me not when my strength faileth But let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy hâ—nour all the day Guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory through Christ Jesus to whom with thy self in the unity of the Holy Ghost be all honour thanksgiving love and obedience rendred by me and all Angels and Men both now and eternally Amen Easter-day The Meditation before O Blessed day which brought glad tidings of great joy Our Saviours second birth-day to a more glorious life The day of the first fruits of those that slept The day that brought life and immortality to light and gave us assured hope in God that it shall be to us according to Jesus his Word Why do we dream thus my Soul about these things Awake awake and stir up in thy self the most piercing belief and sense of them Thy Saviour is risen and calls unto thee with a mighty voice saying Rev. 1 1â— I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keys of Hell and of Death Need there any more words to perswade thee to go and rejoyce in his love which made him give himself to die for thee And in the love of God which accepted of his oblation and rewarded his sufferings with a glorious Resurrection to an endless Life And in that power might and majesty wherewith he is crown'd So that at the Name of Jesus all things in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth do bow and obey It is too little to say that I will go and thank him at this holy Feast for what he hath done for me and for what I hope he will still do I will go and offer my self absolutely to him I will make a vow of love to him and charity to all the world I will triumph in his praise and glory in the service of the Prince of life I will dedicate my self to be an everlasting monument both of his Death and of his Resurrection from the dead I will so remember his death as to die my self to sin And so remember his Resurrection as to rise again to walk before him in newness of life And his dying no more so that sin shall have no more dominion over me Rom. 6.12 14. nor reign in my mortal body that I should obey it in the lusts thereof His Humility shall be remembred so as to kill my Pride and his Charity so as to kill my Covetousness I will remember his pains so as to mortifie all inordinate desires of pleasure and his patience so as to subdue my anger passion and peevishness His love to his Enemies shall make me forgive others and do good to those who do evil to me And his absolute obedience make me take up my Cross and be obedient to the very death Dost thou not begin already to feel the remembrance of his free giving himself for thee animate thee to a chearfulness and forwardness in well doing Doth not his full trust in God when he laid down his life that he should receive it again raise in thee a strong confidence in his Almighty word Is not the power he hath over Hell and Death of mighty force to encourage thy hopes and make thee victorious over all thy enemies How doth thy heart beat within thy breast What thoughts and passions doth it travel withal Doth it not begin to send up admiring thoughts towards Heaven where Jesus is Doth it not burn with strong desires Is it not ready to burst forth into the highest expressions of love and joy Art thou not enraged against all those sins which murdered the Lord of life Are they not all condemned to be crucified and slain Dost thou not resolve to live like one that believes in Jesus and professes himself to be his faithful follower Then think when thou goest to celebrate the memory of his Death that Jesus stands in the midst of you as he did among his Disciples when he was newly risen from the Grave saying Peace be unto you Joh. 20.19 Eat O my Friends rejoyce and be exceeding glad As my Father hath loved me so I have loved you Joh. 15.9 continue ye in my love Behold here the sensible Signs and Seals of my love By these I give my self to you as once I gave my self for you By these tokens I convey to you all that I have I make over to you that inheritance which I have purchased by my Bloud and that is eternal life in the Heavenly places For I am alive again and behold I live for evermore Amen Lord Jesus 14.19 live live for ever Because thâ—â— livest I shall live also Thou knowest how to
inspiration of the holy Ghost I may have the comfort of knowing that I am still led and moved by it and living and walking in the Spirit may go on joyfully to the possession of that immortal inheritance which it hath sealed to us Now the God of hope fill us all with joy and peace in believing Rom. 15.13 14. Col. 1.28 that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost being full of all goodness and knowledg and able also to admonish one another till we come to be presented perfect in Christ Jesus By whom I am incouraged to make these addresses unto the throne of grace and to recommend my suits unto thee in his holy words saying as he hath bidden us Our Father which art c. The Meditation afterward THou hast now seen the completion of all the mystery of our redemption how that Jesus who learned obedience by the things which he suffered H b. 5.8 9. being made perfect became the author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him Canst thou doubt of it when thou remembrest the princely gifts which he hath already bestowed on his Church Did not the spirit poured out as on this day bear witness that all those who obediently believed on Jesus were the children of God Rom. 8.16 17 18. And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ How couldst thou refrain my soul from rejoycing in these thoughts shouldst thou be in the midst of their tribulations For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Be not so dull then now that he giveth thee also a number of other good things so richly to enjoy But stir up thy self and be exceeding glad in the comfort of that light which shines from heaven upon us shewing us those things which in other ages were not made known to the sons of men 〈◊〉 2.5 as they are now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit And is it possible to know Jesus and not to learn obedience of him What was it that he designed from first to last but to form to himself an obedient holy people zealous of good works Dost thou not see how early he went himself about his Fathers business Luke 2.49.51 How dutiful and obedient he was to his earthly parents How humbly he condiscended to be baptized by a meaner person than himself because he would fulfil all righteousness Mat. 3.15 And what did he do immediately after he was baptized Mark 1.12 but enter into a combate with the Devil and vanquish those very temptations which foiled our first parents O how gloriously did he then triumph over pride ambition Matth. 4.1 2 c. eager appetite of meat and drink and all perswasions to presumption or distrust of God! Consider my soul what was the first thing he preached after this but that men should repent and believe the Gospel Mat. 4.17 Mar. 1 15. And his Sermon that presently followed on the Mountain what lessons doth it teach but poverty of spirit mourning meekness mercifulness purity peaceableness Matth. 5.3 4 c. and such like heavenly vertues without which he tells us in the conclusion of his discourse 7 26 27. we may as discreetly build an house upon the sand as hope to go to heaven And was not his whole life a continual comment upon this text Whither tended all his promises his exceeding great and pretious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 but that by these we might be made partakers of a divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust O God! that we should be no more moved by such promises to purifie our selvs what miracle will work upon those hearts whom these will not prevail withal to be obedient And yet his miracles I see also had the same design to win men to a better life I hear him admonishing the impotent man whom he had cured Joh. 5.14 Behold mark what I say thou art made whole Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee So had his death also for he gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father that he might sanctifie and cleanse his Church with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself glorious Eph. 5.26 27. not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish For this cause likewise he rose again as well as died that we should not henceforth live unto our selves but unto him 2 Cor. 5.15 Act. 3.26 and that he might bless us in turning us from our iniquities For which end he ascended into heaven and was exalted with Gods right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5.31 for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins This is the intent of his eternal Priesthood that we should be incouraged to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10.21 22. having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water And for this purpose he sent the Holy Ghost to make the Gentiles obedient Rom. 15 18 19. by word and deed through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God With this commission he sent his Apostles that they should go to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26.18 that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ And this they preached with the greatest fervency and testified in the Lord that they who believed in him should not henceforth walk as other Gentiles did in the vanity of their minds Eph. 4.17.5.6 c. for they pronounced the wrath of God would come upon the children of disobedience but to them Rom. 2.7 who by patient continuance in well-doing sought for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Of this the Holy Ghost was the Earnest the Advocate of Christ Jesus here as He is ours with the Father the Witness of his resurrection and glory the Proof and Demonstration of his Religion the Comforter of all those that live according to it It bids them hope that he who hath so advanced humane nature as was most apparent on this day in wisdom power and charity can and will change us into his glorious image and make us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Light It bids us ask what we will in his name Joh. 16.23 Rom. 8.32 and it shall be given us for he that hath given us his Son and sent his holy Spirit how shall he not then give us all things What shall we ask O
my soul I only bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3.14 15 c. of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that I being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that I may be filled with all the fulness of God Amen The Thanksgiving and Prayer afterward O Lord the fullest and most bountiful good who art rich in mercy to all that call upon thee never weary of our importunities nor weary of importuning us to dispose our selves to receive thy blessings Eccluâ— 2. ult Thy power is the beginning of righteousness and is guided by the greatest wisdom and the greatest love As is thy Majesty Wisd 12.16 so is thy mercy and because thou art the Lord of all it maketh thee to be gracious unto all Thou lovest all things that are 11.24 25 26. and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made for never wouldest thou have made any thing if thou hadst hated it And how could any thing have endured if it had not been thy will or been preserved if not called by thee But thou sparest all for they are thine O Lord thou lover of Souls It is of thy mere goodness that I am not consumed Lam. 3.22 and because thy compassions fail not That I have so much liberty as to recount thy mercies which keep me in life and let it not be as wretched and miserable base and vile sickly and uneasie troublesome and tedious as it might have been according to my deservings is for ever to be remembred with most humble thankfulness I cannot forget unless I cast away all care and consideration of my self from how many dangers thou hast delivered me in what extremities thou hast succoured and relieved me and what friends lovers and kind acquaintances thou hast bestowed on me But the greatest of thy mercies are those which thou hast expressed to us in the Lord Jesus without which all the rest might have made our life in the next world to have proved more miserable and intolerable to us Thou hast sent him in the tenderest and most endearing manner in our own flesh with the most moving and compassionate entreaties and the strongest and most obliging arguments to surrender our selves to thy obedience to whom of right we belong And he hath laid down his life so great was his love the just for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 that he might bring us to thee our God And thou hast rewarded his obedience to the death with a glorious Resurrection and set him at thine own right hand and given him the promise of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.33 which he hath shed abundantly on his Apostles to guide them into all truth Joh. 16.13 that they might go and Teach all Nations and Baptize them into his Religion Matth. 28.19 20. and teach them to observe all things that he hath commanded I remember with most grateful acknowledgments the manifold gifts which thou bestowedst on thy Church to confirm the faith of Christ and propagate it in the world till it came to these Regions where I live Blessed be thy goodness that I was born of Christian Parents and without my knowledge very early by their care dedicated unto thee Blessed be thy goodness that ever since I have been thy care and that thou hast brought me up to the knowledge of thy holy Gospel wherein I read this story of thy marvellous love and am instructed in my duty towards thee and towards men and encouraged by exceeding great and precious promises being put in hope of immortal life the pledges of which thou hast ordered and appointed thy Ministers to provide for me and give unto me I have now by thy goodness received them and tasted that the Lord is gracious full of compassion and of great pity not desiring the death of a sinner but that he should return and live This raises thy mercy to the greatest height that thou hast done all this for those who are so dull and insensible cold and careless inconstant and uncertain apt too soon to forget these benefits and great obligations which thou layest on them But thou hast done all this and continuest thy kindness to make us better Which is the thing O Lord that I most heartily desire and labour after and shall ever account it the greatest blessing when I am overcome by thy merciful kindness and am willing to part with my self and all my own desires to gain thee and thy love by being led and ruled in all things according to thy will To that I unfeignedly again submit my self and humbly vow all the powers of Soul and Body to thy obedience I own thy blessed Gospel for the rule and direction of my life and thy Son Christ Jesus for my pattern and example and thy good Spirit for my guide and governour in whose holy comforts I rejoyce more than in any thing in this world For ever magnified be thy love that thou hast exalted one mighty to save and hast sent him not only with a pardon but with the power of the Holy Ghost to renew sanctifie and advance our Nature by changing it into the likeness of thine own I hope in thee O Lord for the continued influences thereof to quicken my Faith and render it more and more effectual in all the actions of an holy life That I may have high and adoring thoughts of thee and humble thoughts of my self overlook the little things here below and labour for those above do good with what I have and lay up treasures in Heaven be contented with my portion and sober and discreet in the use of it live peaceably with all men but not be partaker in their sins and that it may alway be part of my employment in this World thus to worship thee and reflect upon thy goodness and the rest may be to live according to my prayers and acknowledgments Amen and Amen O that all Nations whom thou hast made would come and worship before thee Psal 86.9 10. in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.23 O that they would glorifie thy Name for thou art great and dost wondrous things thou art God alone But let all Christians especially 1 Cor. 12.13 who by one Spirit are all baptized into one Body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit glorifie the Name of their Lord Ephes 4.3 by keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and agreeing together in Godly love And do thou O Lord the God of Peace direct their hearts into the more excellent way that though tongues and prophecies and miracles are ceased yet that humble kind meek and long-suffering Charity may remain and abound more and more which will bring us all to live in endless love and peace and joy together in the Heavens The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 13. ult and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with me and with all my Friends and all thy Servants every where Amen THus by the help of God I have brought this Treatise to a Conclusion which I hope will not be unwelcome to those that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Ephes 6. ult And I most humbly beseech the Divine Majesty graciously to accept my weak endeavours therein to serve this Church and stir up every Member of it with hearty love to offer up themselves to him in its Publick Service Which so gravely and pathetically expresses the sense of pious hearts at the Holy Communion that these Private Prayers which I have composed to wait upon it can only serve to excite those who will make use of them to joyn with more fervour in the Common Devotions and to continue those holy dispositions which they declare to be in their hearts if they sincerely unite them with these words * In the Prayer after the Communion And here we offer and present unto thee O Lord our Selves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto thee Which that we may ever be we cannot in a few words better implore the Divine assistance than in those of that incomparable Prayer at the end of our Communion-Service PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen THE END ERRATA PAge 53. line 19. read went away p. 179. l. 1. r. heart l. 2. r. mouth p. 320. l. 27. 1. have received p. 357 l. 12. r. Lord Jesus p. 362. l. ult r. a member p. 383. l. 10. r. and growth p. 396. l. 13. r. earnests