together as those that be well agreed God and the Soul holding a most delightful converse with each other whereas there was a shiness before now there is access with the greatest freedom and boldness Hereby Death and he that had the power of Death that is the Devil with all Principalities and Powers are subdued the Kingdom and Interest of Sin and Satan overthrown in the Soul and freedom from spiritual thrauldom is obtained The Son having made us free we are become free indeed These are great priviledges and O that our esteem of them were some way answerable to the greatness of them Tho' we come easily by them yet they cost Christ dear to purchase He was at a greater expense to Redeem one Soul than he was to create a whole World the one was done by the word of his Power he spake and it was done but the other is done by the blood of his heart and he must dye before it be done His life must be laid down a life more worth than all the lives of Men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven They came freely unto us but he must dye and suffer to purchase and procure them O that our Souls may with Mary magnifie the Lord who hath regarded the low estate of his servants for he that is mighty hath done great things for us 3. Another way by which we are to express our Thankfulness is by rendering again according to the Benefits we have received But when F speak of rendering back again according to the benefit received I do not mean in a way of recompense but in token of our Thankfulness Alas we are in no capacity of recompensing or making him amends for his kindness to us his love in doing and dying for us infinitely exceeds all our returns There is more proportion betwixt the light and heat of a Spark to the light and heat of the Sun than there is between his kindness and our returns When we have done all we can and suffered all we can for him it is nothing to what he hath done and suffered for us But tho' we cannot make proportionable returns yet we are to make suteable and becoming returns for the Mercys and Benefits we have received from him It is said in 2 Chron. 32.25 That Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit he had received That is he did not make suteable and becoming returns for the great benefits he had received viz. that wonderful Victory he obtained over the Assirian Army mentioned in the 25. vers And that miraculous restoration and recovery from a very dangerous illness and the confirmation of that work by a strange and supernatural motion of the Sun All which instead of keeping him low and humble probably raised him up to an high conceit and opinion of himself as if these great things had been done if not by his own power yet at least for his Piety and goodness And instead of walking humbly with his God and giving the glory of all intirely and wholly to God he took the honour to himself and vainly shewed his Riches and precious Treasures to the Babylonish Ambassadors Now this was not a return any way suteable or becoming the great benefits he had so lately received So that I say tho' we cannot make proportionable returns yet we must look to it that we make suteable returns to our loving Jesus for the great and wonderful benefits we are made partakers of in and thro' him That as his heart was enlarged in love and pity and conpassion towards us so our hearts should be enlarged in returns to him We should be putting that question to our own Souls which holy David did to his Psal 116.12 What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us But here it may be asked what is it that we ought to render unto the Lord Jesus for those expressions of his love in doing and suffering for us and for all the great and blessed benefits that do flow and proceed from hence To this I Answer We must and ought to render our whole selves to him Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercys of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Here is an Exhortation and the motive or argument by which he doth urge it The Exhortation and that is to present our Bodies a living Sacrifice Holy acceptable to God or to give dedicate devote or offer up our whole selves Souls and Bodies unto God It is true the Body is only mentioned but the Soul must not be excluded it is a Synechdochical expression where a part is put for the whole That then which we are to render unto Christ in token of our Thankfulness and gratitude is our whole selves Souls and Bodies all that we are and have to live to him to suffer for him when ever he shall call us out thereto to be saved by him and not only so but to be ruled and governed by him Submitting our selves to the conduct of his wife Providence and to the laws and rules of his most Spiritual Government That is to say when no Lust or Corruption bears Rule or Sway in our hearts but when every thing within us and every thing without us is captivated and brought over to the obedience to the Lord Jesus When Christ by his Spirit makes entrance into our hearts and takes full possession of all the powers and faculties of our Souls and of all the members of our Bodies that whereas they have once been strongly and deeply engaged in the ways and service of Sin they become now as deeply and strongly engaged for Christ and in his ways and Service As when we see a Person in the full height and carreer of sin prosecuting with all his might his carnal corrupted desires and designes at the beck and command of that corrupt Principle that is within him employing that Reason and Understauding and Parts which God hath endowed him with in the contrivance of any sinful thing or action his power and strength for the perfecting and accomplishing and obtaining what he had so contrived and plotted why such a Person may be said to be given up to his Lusts and Corruptions but not to Christ So on the other hand where we see a Person at the beck and command of Christ employing his Reason and Understanding his Strength and Parts for the Honour and Glory of Christ obedient to and complying with every call and command of Christ industriously prosecuting the Glory of Christ as the great end of Life heartily submitting to his Laws and Commands as the great and only Rule of Life why such a Person may truly be said to be given up to Christ The Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 8.5 speaks there of Persons that had given up themselves to Christ and speaks it in praise of the Macedonians This they did says he Why what did they do why they did liberally
it than this a becoming walk or a suitable walk but let your Conversation be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So in the 1 Thes 2.12 That you would walk worthy of God who ha h called you into his Kingdom and Glory It is the same word in the original in all these places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the forquoted place rendered becoming Let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel Let your Conversation be worthy of the Gospel or becoming the Gospel of Christ So here walking worthy of God is no more than walking suitably to the Nature of that God who is the true and living God That ye may walk like a People that are taken into Covenant with God and express the Virtues and Praises of him who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvelous Light in your Lives and Conversations according to that which we have in the 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Or that ye should walk suitably to this great Mercy and glorious Priviledges and Benefits ye have received from him So that to walk worthy of the Lord is to live and behave our selves as becometh those to whom God hath vouchsafed so great a Mercy that passing by many Thousands of a nobler extraction of a sweeter disposition and in many outward respects better than we That he should out of his meer Grace and Love in Christ chuse and call us out of the World to be partakers of Eternal Life with him That he should take us and leave others chuse us and pass by others as it is wonderful and astonishing so it ought to influence us into a walking some way suitable and becoming these great Mercies bestowed upon us And if we would know what this suitable walking is why the next words explain it It is a walking unto all pleasing so that the observation is this viz. Observ That where a Person or a People receive great Mercys Benefits or Priviledges from God there ought to be a suitable answerable and becoming walking thereunto or thus It ought to be our study and endeavour to live and act suitably and becoming the Mercies and Favours we receive from God God hath dealt Bountifully and Graciously with us remembered us not only with Common and Temporal but with Special and Spiritual Mercys too Do we enjoy Peace and Quietness when many other are involved in great Troubles and Perplexities Is Plenty and Fulness our Inheritance when Scarcity and Want is the lot of many others Do we enjoy such a competency of Health and Strength when many others are Sick and weak Languishing and Dying Hath God set any of us at Liberty from our Confinements wrought out a Recovery for any of us from any tedious and dangerous Distemper which detained us from waiting and attending upon God in the Publick and Solemn Dutys of his Worship when many others are still confined to their Chambers and many to their Beds How doth it concern such to walk answerably and suitably to the Mercies they have received Let such remember that advice of our Saviour to the man upon whom he had wrought a great cure John 5.14 And he said unto him go thy way behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing befal thee God hath done great things for us and in some respects for all of us In bearing so long with our renewed and repeated Provocations insomuch that we are under a necessity of acknowledging and confessing that it is of the Lords Mercys we were not consumed that our Bodies are not in the silent Grave and our Souls roaring in Hell That notwithstanding all our Barrenness and Unfruitfulness under the means and Seasons of Grace that yet the day and season of Grace should be lengthned out to us that after so many denyals and refusals Christ should still continue to knock at the door of our Hearts That when we have so frequently turned a deaf Ear to the calls and invitations of Christ in the Gospel that he should still continue to call and invite and promiseth a kind Reception and hearty Welcome to all those that will come unto him That he should still continue wooing and beseeching us by his Ministers and Ambassadors to be reconciled unto God after our so long continuance in ways of Enmity and Rebellion against him O the Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of God! that ever he should so long put up the affronts and indignitys that are every day offered to his Blessed Majesty by such crawling Worms of the Earth bear so long with the Rebellions and Ingratitudes of his Creatures Lord how good art thou to the worst of Men and the vilest of Sinners in sparing and forbearing them in protecting and providing for them in calling and inviting them in waiting to be gracious to them in offering Mercy and Pardon and Grace and Christ to them in affording them time and space and opportunity for Repentance and turning unto God in vouchsafeing to them many Temporal Blessings and Favours in the midst and face of such dayly Provocations and abuse of his Bounties Thus I say in some respects God is good to us all and hath done great things for us all even for the worst and vilest Sinner now in his Presence And to some of us he hath been more peculiarly and specially and distinguishingly good In chusing and calling us not only by the outward call of his Word but by an inward and effectual call of his Spirit out of darkness unto light and from the power of Sin and Self and Satan and the World to Himself out of a state of Nature unto his Kingdom and Glory unto his Kingdom of Grace here and in a little time longer will call us to his Kingdom of Glory In Justifying us freely by his Grace and Sanctifying us by his Holy Spirit throughout and adopting us into his Family In remembering us in our low and lost estate and condition when we were blind and naked and wretched and miserable cast out into the open field to the loathing of our Persons in the gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity held in the snare of the Devil and led captive by him at his pleasure under the power and dominion of many vile Lusts and Corruptions in bondage and slavery to Sin and Satan subjected and enthrawl'd to Death under the Wrath and Curse of God liable to all the miseries of this Life and to the pains of Hell for ever ignorant of God and Christ and Spiritual things nay enemies to God and Christ nay enmity it self When we were in such a forlorn helpless and miserable state and condition as this he pittyed us and helped us when none other eye pittyed us nay when we had no pitty for our selves he pittyed us and helped us when none other could help
us Others passed by us and took no notice of us but he looked upon us and behold it was a time of Love with us He threw his Skirt over us and covered our Nakedness and poured Water upon us to wash away our filthiness He Swear unto us and entred into Covenant with us to be ours and we to be his he to be our God and we to be his Peculiar People He hath given Himself his Son his spirit to us Himself to be our God and Portion Jer. 31.31 32 33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts and will be their God and they shall be my People And what Tongue can express What Pen can describe the happiness of that People who have God to be their God David in the 144 Psalm v. 15. says Happy are the People whose God is the Lord. He doth not say how happy for it is beyond express But this we may truly say that all our happiness and felicity and comfort lies in this in having God to be our God If there be no want to them that fear God I am sure there can be none to them that enjoy God who is a Soul-comforting Soul-refreshing Soul-satisfying Object It matters not what our Circumstances and Conditions are here in this World be they never so low and inconsiderable if we have but God for our God we are happy Happy is that People whose God is the Lord. He hath given us not only himself but his Son too John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Given him for us To obey and suffer to bleed and dye and suffer and satisfy for us to rescue and redeem us from those evils and miseries under which we lay viz. the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law by laying down his life for us a life more precious than the lives of all the Angels in Heaven or Men upon Earth Not only given him for us but given him to us to be believed in and rested upon for Life and Salvation to dwell in us and be united to us to be made of God Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption to be to us and do for us all that God hath appointed and designed him to be Again he hath not only given us himself and Son but his Spirit also to us To open our Eyes to enlighten our Minds to incline our Wills to change our Hearts to Turn and Convert us to himself To convince of Sin to lead to Christ to be the guid of our ways to be the death of our sins to quicken and enliven and strengthen our Graces To witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God To comfort us in all our Troubles to succour us in all our Temptations to resolve us in all our Doubts to help us against all our Infirmities To conduct us safe through this evil World and to seal us up to the day of Redemption But yet farther he gives us liberty to wait upon him in the solemn Dutys of his Worship He gives us Praying seasons and Hearing seasons and Communicating seasons for the carrying on begun Grace in our Souls Thus richly doth he furnish our Table in this howling Desart and bountifully provides for us in a strange Land We have not only Food for our Bodies but Food for our Souls not only the Bread that perisheth but that which endures to Everlasting Life The Lamb is slain and behold all things are ready The Marriage Supper is prepared and a welcome ready for all that come to it This is Christ's language to all his guests O friends drink ye eat â—e drink and eat abundantly O beloved And what do you think is the matter of this Feast Why it is Christ with all his saving Benefits even Peace and Pardon and Comfort This is the Gospel Feast unto which poor Sinners are invited The Lord Jesus Christ is both the master and the matter of this Feast This is that Bread which came down from Heaven which is othergates Food than that Manna was which fell in the Wilderness of which it is said Our Fathers did eat and they are dead but whosoever eateth of this Bread lives for ever John 6.48 49 50. This is the Lamb that was slain from the Foundations of the World whose Flesh is Meat indeed and whose Blood is Drink indeed Thus bountifully hath God provided for our Souls we have not only the sincere Milk of the Word that we may grow thereby but more substantial Food even that sealing strengthening confirming Ordinance of the Lords Supper where Christ and all his Benefits are represented sealed and applied to Belivers who was not only offered up upon the Cross for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice and the expiation of our Sins but offered upon the Table for the satisfying our guilty minds and for the Food and Nourishment of our Souls Here it is that we may take a view of Christ's dying love Here we see him Bruised and Broken and Bleeding for our sakes and for our Sins Here we may see him broken and bruised by his Father in the day of his great Wrath when his Body was torn his Soul in a dreadful Agony his side pierced his Blood shed these are in a most lively manner represented by the breakof the Bread and pouring out of the Wine Here is a Wounded Broken Bleeding Jesus represented to us The Elements in this Sacrament signifie and set forth the unconceivable Sufferings of our blessed Lord both in his â—ody and in his Soul The Bread signifies the Sufferings of his Body And the Wine which is a representation of his Blood the Agonvs of his Soul because the Spirits whereby the Soul acts are in the Blood All the Sacraments that ever were instituted since Adams fall to this very day both ordinary and extraordinary both Old Testament and New Testament Sacraments they all of them principally represent and point at Jesus and him Crucified Adams Sacrifices were Types of Christ the true Sacrifice Circumcision a pledge of our Hearts Circumcision thro' Christs Blood Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ The Passover was a token and Type of Christ our Passover Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Baptism this doth point at the Death of Christ we are said by Baptism to be Baptised into Christ and into his Death Rom. 6.3 4 5. And the Lords Supper is a most lively representation of the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew the Lords death till he come This is a standing memorial and a lasting monument of our blessed Lords love in bleeding
and dying for us and is to continue to the end of the World even till the coming of our Lord to Judgment So that Christ and his Death Christ as Crucified is that which is represented and pointed at in this Sacrament Here it is that Christ Jesus is as it were afresh Crucified before our eyes bruised by his Father pierced by the Souldiers bleeding for our sins Here is a sweet love-token indeed betwixt Christ and his Church betwixt Christ and Believers What greater love can be imagined than to dye for us Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend Ay but here was greater love than this here was Blood shed and a Life laid down for very Enemies This Ordinance may truly be stiled a Love Feast Every thing in it speaks love The Mysteries in it speak love Here is Christ's Body not whole but broken Christ's Blood not in his veins but shed and freely poured out for poor sinners The benefits intended to us by it speak great love Here is compleat Provision and full Nourishment for our Souls for our Faith and all the graces of the inward man intended by it A fresh seal of the Pardon of our Sins in the Blood of Christ Fuller and clearer discoverys of God's reconciled face in and thro the Attoning Blood of the Lord Jesus that Blood of the Everlasting Covenant A more full confirmation and a more close application of the New Covenant and all the Promises Comforts Benefits and Priviledges thereof to our Souls and a more full Communion with Christ in his Grace and fullness in his Death and Sufferings in his great Undertakings and glorious Transactions in his high Dignitys and Relations in his great Victorys and Atchievements and in those necessary offices of Prophet Priest and King to his Church these are some of the great benefits that are intended to us by this Ordinance Now we that have been so lately entertained at this Table of the Lord that have or might have been feasting and satiateing our Souls upon this Banquet of Christs love it behooves and concerns every one of us to walk worthy of the Lord unto all-pleasing to walk worthy of this love of Christ in doing and suffering in bleeding and dying for us That is to walk suitably and some way becoming those expressions of love that have been exhibited and represented to us in this Ordinance I say it highly concerns every one of us who have been feasting at this Banquet of Christs love it concerns us to keep up and maintain a suitable and becoming walk after it Remembring that it is not enough to Eat and Drink worthily at this Supper but we must also walk worthily after this Supper we have oftentimes bills put up for a prepared heart and a suitable frame that persons may come prepared to this Ordinance of the Lords Supper that they may not eat and drink unworthily But I do not remember that ever I saw a bill for a suitable walk and behaviour afterward It is not enough that we duely prepare before act worthily in but we must also walk suitably after Communicating And there is as much need to put up a Prayer and to dispatch a cry to Heaven that we may walk worthily after as well as come preparedly to this Supper By walking worthily I mean no more than walking suitably and becomingly But here it may be asked what is this suitable walking or wherein doth it consist or how is it that we are to walk after this Supper Ordinance To this we shall answer I. More Generally II. More Particularly I. The general answer to this is more Holily after this Supper of the Lord we are to walk more Holily Now to this holy walking there must be a Principle of Grace wrought in the heart I say before there can be any holiness in the life we must first suppose that there be Grace in the heart A person must be holy before his actions can be holy For till a Man be Regenerated and act from a Principle of Grace in his heart all he doth is but the shadow and imperfect imiation of a good action as an Ape would imitate a Man or as an artificial motion doth resemble that which is natural Grace must first be infused to beget life and then we are visibly to express it in a course of godly walking And then there must not be only a Principle from which we must walk but there must be a Rule by which we must walk and that is the Law or Word of God which meets and sets out the bounds of Sin and Duty which tells us what evil we are to decline and shun and what good we are to prosecute and persue Now there is a twofold Holiness Internal and External Internal which lies in the hatred of sin and a love of that which is good External and that is expressed in avoiding of the one and persuing after the other Now this Holy Walk doth consist in a careful avoiding that which is evil and sinful and in an eager persuite after that which is good It hath two parts The one Privative The other Possitive The Privative part which is called Mortification or a dying to sin The Possitive part which is called Vivification or a living unto Righteousness The one is the purging out of Sin the other is the spiritual refining of the Soul The one is a ceasing to do evil the other is a learning to do well The one is a strenuous opposition of Sin the other is a vigorous exercise of all Grace Now after this Supper Ordinance we are to walk more Holily To hate sin more than ever and to love God and Christ and the things that are spiritually good more than ever To dye more unto Sin and to live more unto Righteousness It is true we cannot be more Elected we cannot be more justified after Communicating than we were before But we may and ought to be more sanctified than before Sanctification is a progressive thing it is compared to seed that grows first the blade springs up then the ear then the ripe Corn. We are not so much sanctified but we may be more sanctified We do not walk so holily but we may walk more holily still there is none so good but he may be better 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. So I may say having these love Banquets these Sacrament seasons and Supper Ordinances dearly beloved time after time returning upon us let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Tho' Justification doth not admit of Degrees yet Sanctification doth that is still encreasing like the shining light or Morning Sun that shines more and more and brighter and brighter unto the perfect Day Prov. 4.18 and should be daily growing more
soveraign Grace and Almighty Power owning and acknowledging whatever Grace there is already in our hearts we had it from his fulness in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell And what farther supplys of Grace we shall stand in need of we must still have it from him who is not only the head of Government to his Church but the head of Influence too in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily A fulness of wisdom as the Prophet of the Church A fulness of Merit as the Priest of the Church A fulness of Power and Efficacy as the King of the Church A fulness of all habitual created Grace not for himself only but in a way of Communication and Derivation to others the Godhead continually emptying it self into the Manhood by vertue of that near close intimous union of the Humane with the Divine Nature in the Person of Christ from this fulness it is that we are still expecting fresh supplies of Grace and Comfort Distrusting our own strength as well as renouncing our own Righteousness submitting to all the commands and ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ A proud heart shakes off the Yoke of Christ and will not be subject to the Lord the Redeemer and will be under the government of none but his own will and his own lusts like those proud Citizens we read of in Luke who said We will not have this man to reign over us We walk humbly when we lie at Christ's foot desiring to know his pleasure claiming no power over our selves or any thing that we have but intirely submit our selves to be commanded and governed by him submiting our selves wholly to his command and conduct This is to walk humbly and thus we are to walk after this Supper 3. More Thankfully What Christ hath done and suffered for us calls for the highest and most raised Thanksgivings from us We are to screw our Praises to the highest note Let us say to our Souls as holy David did to his Bless the Lord O our souls and let all that is within us bless his holy Name for his redeeming love who loved us and gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice O how should we be singing that new song of the heavenly Jerusalem above saying Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thine own Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the earth c. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing The work that Christ came to do and finish for us had in it all the expressions of love and calls for the greatest expressions of thankfulness and praise This is a just debt that we owe to Christ All the evil and misery we are freed and delivered from and the good we are possessed and made partakers of is owing to the Obedience and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Now that our hearts may be the more affected with this love of Christ and drawn out in thankfulness to him let us consider the evils we are delivered from and the good we are possessed and made partakers of by the Lord Jesus Christ First The evils and miseries we are delivered from and they are very great indeed But what are they you will ask why the guilt of sin the curse of the Law the wrath of God and the flames of Hell Man's state was once an holy state and whilst such an holy state But it was not long that he continued in this state being left to the freedom of his own will he quickly fell from that state in which he was created by sinning against God which sin was the Inlet of all misery It wofully corrupted depraved and debased our Natures robbed us of the Image of God which once was the greatest ornament and perfection of our Nature deprived us of all comfortable Fellowship and Communion with God laid us open and obnoxious to his wrath and curse to all the miseries of this Life and to the pains of Hell for ever O the depth of misery that all Mankind is plunged into O the innumerable evils that do encompass and surround us Temporal Spititual and if not found in Christ Eternal evils too will befall us but in and through Christ Believers are delivered from all that evil and misery that the Fall and Apostacy of our First Parents involved all Mankind into Through him the Guilt of Sin is removed the Wrath and Anger of God appeased the Thundering Law silenced the Image of God restored many Powerful and Potent Enemies Conquered and Subdued Secondly The good which we are possessed and made partakers of this also is owing to Christ to what he hath done and suffered for us even the good of present Grace and future Glory the good of Justification Sanctification Reconciliation for all these great benefits and good things we are beholden to Christ We are Justified by his Righteousness Sanctified by his Spirit Reconciled by his Attoning Blood Adopted by virtue of our Union with him and relation to Christ's Person as he is God's Natural Son All these blessed Benefits and Priviledges that we are made partakers of are owing unto Christ As the evils we lay under were too great for any meer creature to remove so the good things we stand in need of are too great for any mere creature to procure None beside that Person who was God as well as Man could either remove the one or procure the other Had not Christ himself undertaken the work nothing could have been done had not this Samaritain taken pitty and compassion on us in our miserable and forlorn condition we must for ever have dispaired of mercy or relief The Lord looked and there was none to help at length his own arm brought Salvation As for us we lay under an eternal incapacity and impossibility of helping or relieving our selves as for Angels they could not help us could any creature have done the work God would have employed that creature and spared his own Son But God very well knew that Redemption work was no work for an Angel no not for the whole Body of Angels If the whole order of them had come from Heaven and united all their force and strength together they could not have redeemed so much as one Soul How far God by his Almighty power could have enabled an Angel to have born up under the greatest sufferings we will not dispute but suppose an Angel might have been furnished with so much strength as to have been able to undergo and suffer all that Christ did yet under the highest communications of grace and strength to him he being still but a meer finite Creature could never satisfie for what was past nor Merit for what was
and bountifully Communicate to the Necessities of the Poor Saints at Jerusalem they did to their Power nay they did beyond their Power their Charity was larger than their Ability thus open-handed and open-hearted were these Macedonians Where shall we find such Charitable Professours in our days Well then this they did And was this all that they did No they did not only give the greatest parts of their Estates towards the Relief of the poor distressed Saints but they gave their own selves unto the Lord. This they did not as we hoped that is * Erasm Multo amplius quam sper are audebamus much more than we could hope they exceeded our hopes and expectations But wherein why Quia non suas tantum facultates habuerunt expositas sed seipsos impendere parati fuerunt †Calvin sayes one Because they were ready not only to bestow their Goods but to offer also themselves They gave themselves sayes he first to the Lord and then to us by the will of God The giving of their Estates towards the relief of the Saints was highly commendable in them Their relieving others was very well especially when they were so low themselves But this was not all there was still some thing higher than this they gave themselves to the Lord. To give their Estates was vety much but to give themselves was much more and this was that which was given by these Believers Non solum res suas sed semetipsos dederunt domino quasi sacrificium immaculatum * Anselm They did not only give their Substance but Themselves unto the Lord as an unspotted undefiled Sacrifice Now to this great work and business of giving up our selves to the Lord I would hope there be none of us strangers to it who have this day been sitting down at our Lord's Table I would hope that this hath been in some measure done by every one of us before we did first venture to sit down at this Table Else from the time we first ventured upon this Ordinance we have been eating and drinking Damnation to our selves All that draw nigh to this Table who have not first given themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ are unfit and unworthy Guests indeed We find that these Macedonians first gave themselves unto the Lord before they sat down in Church-fellowship and Communion They first gave themselves unto the Lord and then to us by the will of God They first joyned themselves to the Lord before they joyned in this great Ordinance of Communion And this I have reason to hope concerning every one of you that before you did venture upon this Solemn Ordinance of the Lord's Supper that you were such as had solemnly and seriously given up your selves to the Lord Jesus Christ But yet there are none of us so much given up to Christ but we may be still more given up to him Alas there is a great deal of Carnality and Corruption and Unhelief in the best and holyest on this side Heaven which is the occasion of frequent backslidings and Apostacys from God And often times puts us upon doing those things that are very much unbecoming the Dedication of our selves to the Lord too much harkening to the whisperings of the Old Man Too much complyance with the Solicitations of the Flesh Top great an Adherence to the World and Conformity to the Vanities and Pleasures to the Fooleries and Fopperies and Fashions and Customs thereof Too much Self-seeking Self-love and Self-pleasing all which are wonderful unbecoming this Serious and Solemn Dedication of our selves to the Lord Jesus Christ Therefore there is great need that this work be often and frequently renewed It is not enough that it be done once but it must be done often and daily It ought not to suffice us that we be in some measure given up to Christ but we must still be more and more given up to him Daily Backslidings call for frequent and daily Renewals of our Dedication David renewed the Dedication of his House after Absalom's Sins and also renewed the Dedication of his Person after his own Foul and Personal Miscarriages Times of great Affliction call for the Renewal of our Dedication Thus when Jacob was reduced to great straits and knew not what to do then he sets upon the Renewing the Dedication of himself to God If God says he will be with me in the way that I shall go and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on c. then shall the Lord be my God Gen. 28.20 21. Again renewed Mercys call for renewed dedication of our selves to God And lastly great dutys call for this renewal of our dedication Every time we Pray we are to renew our dedication But in Sacramental work we must do it in a more solemn and explicit manner not only before and at but after that Ordinance as coming under new and fresh Obligations and Engagements to be the Lords Thus much for the Exhortation Present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God that is give up your whole selves Souls and Bodies to the Lord. Now the Argument or motive by which he presseth it is the Mercies of God in that Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the Mercys of God that ye present your Bodies c. The Mercys of God are a great Argument or Motive to press us to this very thing of giving up our selves to God The Temporal but especially the Spiritual Mercys of God he doth not say Mercy but Mercies in the Plural number because they are many viz. Election of Grace Calling to Christ Justification by Faith Sanctification by the Spirit By all these Mercies which are every one of them more worth than a thousand Worlds he beseecheth them to give up or present themselves to God As if an indulgent compassionate Mother should beseech her child to do something by the womb that bare him by the paps that gave him suck by the knees that dandled him by the hands that fed him by all her tender compassions and indulgence towards him Certainly the heart of this child must be harder than any Flint not to yeild to her it would argue a temper very ungrateful not to comply with her So it would argue our hearts very hard and our tempers very ungrateful not to yeild to God when he that might condemn us doth intreat and beseech even by those tender Mercies whereby he begat us pardoned us called us renewed and saved us If Love and Kindness and Mercy will not win us and prevail upon us pray what will So the love of the Lord Jesus Christ his love in coming into the World in assuming our Nature his love in doing for us and dying for us and suffering for us is a great Motive and Argument to perswade us to give up our selves and all that we are and have fully and seriously and solemnly to him in token of our gratitude and thankfulness And O that the sense and feeling and
to have a recourse to this blood of Christ for the removal of it and under the daily sense and feeling of the working of innate inbred Corruption we are to have a daily recourse unto this blood of Christ that it may be subdued we are to eye the Death of Christ for sanctification as well as for Justification for Mortification and killing of Lust as well as for the taking away and removal of Guilt Alas we are no more able to subdue our own Lusts than we are to remove our own Guilt but are as much beholden to Christ for the one as for the other In a word throughout the whole of our Christian Race and Course our eye must be unto Christ Looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith Every day by fresh acts of Faith casting and committing all the concernments of our Souls into the hands of our dear Redeemer This is to walk fiducially and thus we are to walk after this Supper One end of which Supper was for the strengthening of Grace in our Souls not only for the inflaming our Love but for the strengthning our Faith Not only that our love to him might wax hotter and hotter but that our Faith in him and Relyance upon him might be stronger and stronger 5. VVe must walk with a greater hatred of and indignation against sin VVe have been Commemorating a Crucifyed Bleeding Dying Jesus And pray what was the occasion of this shameful ignominious and Reproachful Death Why it was sin But not any sin of his own that he was brought to this Death and Sufferings but for the sins of his People The Lord laid upon him the Iniquity of his People Isa 53. And there was not only an act of God the Father in laying these sins upon Christ but there was also Christ's own voluntary consent to take them upon him So that it was sin the sins of his Elect People that he took upon him which was the occasion of his bitter Sufferings He was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities Ay and these were far more wounding and painful to him than was the piercing of his natural Side with the Souldier's Spear This was that which occasion'd that Agony of Body and Anguish of soul even the Wrath and Displeasure of God manifested against the sins which he bare And who of us is able to conceive of that which he felt of that Torment he felt in his Body and of that Anguish he felt in his soul. My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely fin must be an exceeding great evil which was the occasion of so great Sufferings And indeed there is no Glass doth so fully and clearly discover to us the evil and heinous nature of sin as the Glass of Christs Death and Sufferings Now in this Supper Ordinance we have a lively Representation of a broken Crucifyed Christ broken and Crucified for our sins his Body broken and his Blood shed for our sins this is that which our Faith is to eye in our participation of this Ordinance Have we seen Christ in this Ordinance Broken and Crucifyed and bruised for our sins and shall we dare to live in sin Is this a walk suteable and becoming those that have been at the Table of the Lord Suteable to those expressions of Love that are manifested or suteable to those Mysteries that are tendered there or to those great Benefits that are represented there Surely no After we have been at this Table we come under deeper Obligations of abandoning and hating sin than before Have we received the Lord's Supper as a Seal of the Remission of our sins And shall we dare after this Supper to fall a-fresh into the Commission of the same sins What is this but to prophane the Blood of the Covenant and to trample under foot the Blood of the son of God And is this our kindness to our Friend who so freely parted with his Life and Hearts-blood Surely they greatly mistake the nature and end of this Supper that go from it with a purpose to return to their Vice and Wickedness and use it only for a Protection and Tolleration for their sins It is a sure and certain sign that our hearts were never rightly and truly humbled and broken for sin before we came to this supper if there be any secret purposes and resolutions kept up and maintained in our Souls of returning to our sins afterwards If it was necessary to bring bleeding hearts to this Ordinance then certainly it is as necessary to carry away broken and bleeding hearts for sin from it especially when we have had such an affecting sight presented to us viz. a Christ bruised and broken for our sins Methinks every time we partake of this Ordinance it should stir up in us a greater abhorrency and hatred of sin than ever O consider what wrath our sins did derive upon Christ in order to the kindling our hatred and indignation against them What shall we make light of that which Christ found so heavy and heinous which fetched from him such great drops of Blood and extorted from him so bitter and dreadful a Lamentation My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Did Christ shed all his Hearts-blood for thy sins and dost thou think much to shed a few Penitential Tears for them Or wilt thou hug such a Viper in thy bosom which was such a sting in the heart of thy Saviour Wilt thou pretend to have had Fellowship with Christ in this Ordinance and afterward hold fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness What a contradiction is this 6. We must walk with a greater weanedness of affection from the World God forbid says the Apostle that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by which the world is crucifyed to me and I unto the world Gal. 6.14 He was arrived to such an holy indifferency as to care no more for the World than the World cared for him and this he did through the Cross of Christ Remembring how the World dealt with Christ and how little he regarded the World Now shall we who have been so lately Celebrating and Commemorating the Death and Crucifixion of Christ love that and cleave to that which dealt so unkindly by him or esteem that which was so little esteemed by him Is this a walk worthy of his Dying-Love no this is no way becoming those that have been entertained at this Table Therefore where we see Persons after they have been at this Table conforming to the World to the Fashions and Vanities thereof their Hearts and Affections glued to the World and the Things of the World persuing after it with the greatest vehemency and eagerness why this is such a kind of walking as is no way suteable and becoming the Guests of Christ