in a case little different from this I say to you cast not away your Obedience for it hath great recompence of reward Heb. 10.35 It is a harvest for its abundance and riches It is a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will give to them that finish their course 2 Tim. 4.7 8. It is a Crown of Glory which fadeth not away as the Apostle St. Peter hath it 1 Pet. 5.4 A Kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 Let us then have grace let us be so ingenuous and thankful to our Lord as to serve him to all well pleasing the Apostle argueth from the expectation of such a reward to the reasonableness of our serving the Lord with fear and trembling the renewed thoughts of this ample glorious eternal recompence of our sincere Obedience will surely renew our purposes and endeavours of bettering our Obedience what then should you and I do at the Lord's Supper but meditate on the greatness of the Legacies he hath given and with David demand of our selves What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits Psal 116.12 Wherein shall we express our thankfulness Shall it be in Sacrifices and Offerings No God doth not require these but to do justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with God Micah 6. To love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love our neighbour as our selves is more than all whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices Mark 12.33 A Discerning Obedience is a most acceptable Sacrifice to the Lord. In one word we are called to the Gospel and to the Knowledge of Christ in the Gospel and we must walk worthy of our Calling Ephes 4.1 worthy of the Lord Col. 1.10 worthy of the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Now as every one who believeth is bound by his first Call to walk in New Obedience so is every Believer bound by every renewal of his Call by every renewed remembrance of his Call to Christ to revive his Resolutions of renewing his Obedience to the Gospel of Christ 2. Thy Renewed Obedience to Christ must be the evidence of thy Right and Title to the Rich and Glorious Legacies which he hath bequeathed to his kindred Thou hast no more to shew for thy Right then thou hast of Renewed Obedience Christ thy Lord hath bequeathed a Kingdom and a Crown but it is on condition thou wait for both in a constant course of New Obedience It is a Kingdom which cannot be shaken the Apostle saith and it is true it is a Kingdom that can neither be shaken by a Plea against your Title nor by force against your Possession But observe those who have this Right and who shall have the Possession of this Kingdom are such who should 1. Have Grace which is of a growing nature And 2. They serve God they worship they obey him And 3. They do this acceptably with reverence and godly fear The Apostle useth a Verb of that Mood which expresseth matter of Duty or Exhortation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habeamus or habere oportet and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serviamus sive servire debemus the Syriack reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apprehending which speaks a voluntary and active seeking Grace and accipiamus which speaks a ready closing with Grace offered and retineamus which speaks a holding fast what we sought and acccepted thus furnisht with Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministremus ceu Sacerdotes spirituales qui Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.5 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 placeamus They ought to be such persons and to employ themselves in such exercises Do we then hear the Apostle's Exhortation Do we see a Kingdom offered Do we read the Will which investeth us with it Do we see the Will sealed in the Sacrament And will not all this stir us up to renew our Obedience Will we be so foolish to hazard our Title to it through backwardness and disobedience When he cast the Law of Grace and Mercy into the mould and form of a Testament or last Will he framed it so that he might strongly bind all to obedience who expected benefit by it Hence it is that we read He became Mediator of the New Testament to the end he might purge our consciences from dead works to serve the Living God Heb. 9.14 15. The Covenant of Promise which offereth grace Heb. 10.16 17. and engageth the Almighty to write his Law in our hearts was confirmed to us and is made good to every believing soul through Christ our Testator so that obedience to Christ is as much incorporated in the Testament as is Glory and Blessedness He is the Author of Eternal Salvation to those that obey him Heb. 5.9 Obedience is required of us as Salvation is promised to us How canst thou then renew thy Faith and Hope in expecting of the promised Salvation and not renew thy resolutions to perform required obedience How shall we look Christ in the face when we so separate what he hath joined How will you plead his Promise who have not obeyed his Precept or how should your expectations be answered by Christ when his expectations have not been answered by you It is the unreasonableness of ignorance and prophaness to boast of rich gifts made over to them by the Will of Christ and yet at the same time to sleight neglect and refuse the duty observance and obedience which Christ requireth of all his Legatees When thou comest to a Sacrament to renew thy assurance of interess in the last Will of Christ be sure thou observe what he expresly requireth as condition of this interess and consider He will be Author of Eternal Salvation to thee on no other terms than thy obedience to him 3. Christ dying once to conrfim the New Testament and to make a firm Will for our good did not as other Testators do continue under the power of Death but he rose again from the Dead according to the Scriptures and now observeth how thou and every one else do acquit themselves in this New Obedience required of thee and of them Let it be well weighed Christ doth now exactly know and particularly observe all thy works and what obedience thou givest him His countenance is as the Sun when it shineth in its strength Rev. 1.16 both for the luster of it and for the power of making manifest whatsoever is done both in the world and also in the Churches amidst which he walketh Rev. 2.1 Knowing the works the labour and the patience of each Church of each member of the Church He seeth who it is that laboureth and fainteth not Rev. 2.3 and who would not take courage from such an eye-witness to abound in the blessed works of obedience For whom will you labour if you will not labour for him who seeth you and will as certainly reward as he seeth exactly When
live on them muddy and shallow scarce worth the tasting and which is worse yet they prove bitterer than gall and wormwood and of shorter continuance than a morning dew But our Joy in blessed peace with God in sweet hopes of glory in sure foundations of faith in endless happiness to crown our faith to satisfie our hopes and to be the manner of enjoying our God which are the pleasant fruits of Christ thus dying do increase upon us as our insight into them increaseth and are purest when nearest are deepest in the spring or rather ocean of true Delight and Joy are sweetest when most lived upon and are most lasting when we enter at last into them The Joys of others are never so great as their hopes nor so lasting as their desires But the Joy of a Believer in his Dying Lord is at last greater than his hopes and as long liv'd as his desires And in this he may exalt his Joy above the greatest that ever the world boasted of If ever mortal man satiated and glutted himself with worldly Joy it was with a sudden gush which left him so soon that he had the more time to lament himself and wofully wrack himself with the loss of it I believe Caesar never met his expected content and joy in obtaining Rome's Empire I know it lasted not with him so long as he desired in one or both of these it proved less to him when he knew most of it This made a good Emperour once say That if men knew what thorns and cares a Crown was lined with they would not take it up if they found it in the street Now oh blessed soul whose Joy lives upon the Death of thy Lord tell me did ever any experienced knowing and expert Christian abase the worth of those Joys with such a report of them Can thy own jealous fears suggest a rational probable likely ground of suspicion that these Joys are greater in hope than they will be in hand dost thou think that there is any disappointment in Heaven Are there any complaints that less is possessed than was looked for Hast thou ever had any cause to wish thou hadst known less of Christ and his Death or couldst thou ever say that the Joy had been greater if thy knowledge and experience had been less I know thou darest not say so nor debase the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus thy Lord. Turn therefore thy serious thoughts upon this meditate more that thou mayest know more for the more thou knowest of this the more wilt thou rejoice in Christ Thus renew thy Meditations on the Cause of thy Joys and they will renew thy Joys Others will see and thou wilt find in thy own soul that the more thy Cause of Joy aboundeth the more thy Joy will abound Now that Christ hath thus died thy soul oh happy Believer shall not be left in Hell nor shalt thou see an eternal corruption This is ensured to thee by the Lord whose Death thou commemoratest Say then and speak it with enlarged heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoiceth moreover my flesh shall rest in hope for God will not leave my soul in hell And now oh my soul set thy self to hear what may be spoken to thee By these who will have to do with thee in thy most weighty matters And so 1. First what would a judicious and affectionate Believer say What news would such a one tell thee from Mount Calvary from the Cross of Christ Suppose thou heardest such an one improving this Doctrine why should I fear when the iniquity of my heels compasseth me about hath not my Lord taken away all the Curse I feared Do I not see him evidently set forth crucified before mine eyes he drank off the bitter cup of astonishment I will therefore take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will rejoice in him yea and I will tell my Brethren the good news that they may rejoice with me Come all ye that fear the Lord hear and rejoice for I have found at the Cross of Christ the blessing which I lost in Paradise and which is more I found yours there too and if you will go with me quickly you shall find it too Come oh come and see Christ laying down a Blessing for thee when he took up thy Curse would not such a friend's voice sounding in thine ear ravish thy heart or at lest revive thy drooping spirits and turn thy grief into joy Could'st thou do less than smile to see thy lost Heaven found thy dying Soul recovered to life thy God reconciled and delighting in thee Hear next 2. What language the Embassadour of thy Soveraign and Gracious Lord useth to thee when he offereth a Dying Christ unto thee a Christ bearing thy Curse for thee Behold thou drooping Believer That Blood which I offer thee in this Cup is the purchase of that happiness which thou desirest the atonement of that wrath thou fearest Lo here is that Blood which can abate the scorching heat of a self-accusing condemning and tormenting soul Oh taste drink of it this never failed of curing easing comforting so many Saints in Heaven In one word Christ's Minister doth in Christ's Name offer thee that Blood which was shed for the remission of the sins of many and in which thou mayest find forgiveness of thine also and thou findest little if thou findest not Joy in the forgiveness of sins Thou art very slow of understanding if a Publick Officer proclaiming thee acquitted and cleared doth not raise thy joy But yet oh fainting soul hearken Lastly What will be the language of Christ himself to thee when he unfolds thy blessedness and declareth before Men and Angels that he took upon him thy sin thy guilt thy punishment was made a Curse for thee and so presents thee to God and makes good all thy claim to Blessedness What heart is large enough to conceive the thousandth par of that Joy Oh! a single sight of this one unrepeated once pronounced sentence of Christ's own mouth Soul thou art blessed for I was made a Curse for thee would swallow up all other Joys and would fill the heart of the believing soul with Joy unspeakable Now I must tell thee oh thou doubting sollicitous and trembling Believer that Christ will so bespeak thee ere long and so give thee an entrance into thy Master's Joy that thou mayest rejoice for ever in this Blessedness which I tell thee is the fruit of Christ's Death as it was an accursed Death And if after all this thou wilt weep and not be comforted I must also tell thee thy tears are not wiped away because thou wilt not suffer us to do it thou art a stranger to thy desired joy because thou art so much a stranger to the Death of thy Lord. Oh that our eys were opened to see that fountain whence most refreshing streams do flow continually
to excite our languishing graces and to strengthen our infirm graces which ought to be more especially found in us and acted by us in our approaches to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as shall particularly be be shewed in these that follow Sect. 1. Repentance is unquestionably a Sacramental Grace None is fit to commemorate the Death of Christ who repenteth not of the sin which occasioned his Dying The weeping eye and mourning heart are exceeding lovely to the Lord at his Table A Repenting soul is a welcome guest there Now let me trace Repentance through these paths and see as we go how it may be suitably fitted with improveing arguments from Christ our Sacrifice 1. Repentance beginneth ordinarily in a conviction of sin not in general only but particularly in the convictions of our owne sin The righteous need no repentance Mat. 9.13 it is the Sinner which is called to repent so long as a proud Pharisaical opinion of our own Righteousness is maintained by us we shall never embrace the practice of Repentance 2. Apprehension of danger either attends or flows from this conviction of the sinner and this forwardeth his repentance the shameful cursed death sin deserveth and the sinner feareth in the midst of his sorrows hath strong influence upon the soul to grieve for self-undoing sin Although a secure unconvinced sinner blesseth himself and feareth no danger the awakened convinced Penitent apprehends greatest danger from his sin 3. Consternation of mind or Amazement at the sight of sin and danger unavoidable for ought the man can do of himself for his own help this I might call if none will be offended at it a seasonable and profitable despair of our selves while we consider our selves and observe what we have done what we deserve what God hath threatned and what millions do and must for ever suffer for sin 4. A mixture of Hope that there may be and of Desires that there should be and of enquiry whether there be not some effectutal help remedy to be obtained The awakned soul doth as it were look about to see what or whence it's help may come Enquireth what shall I do to be saved How shall I escape c. Now when it descryeth mercy to be had upon it's Humbling of it self before God upon condition of sorrow for what is past and of hatred of sin for time to come the Penitent soul set's it self to exert all these and in a vigorous constant uniform exerting these consisteth the whole life and Practice of Repentance And I hope I shall cleare it Christ considered Dying our Sacrifice will be an awakening consideration preparatory to and promoting of this Repentance in its farther Exercise and Growth Sect. 2. Christ Dying a Sacrifice well considered will conduce much to the Convincing us of a state of sin and that we were in particular involved in it we were sinners and the righteous Law of God imputed the sin to us and the righteous Judge whose it was to execute the Law accounted thee and me and every one of the children of Adam as we are transgressours of the Law if thou seest not this look to the Lord Christ a Sacrifice for sin and ruminate what answer thou canst make to these few Questions 1. What need had there been of a Sacrifice for sin if there had been no sin to expiate by Sacrifice There is certainly sin committed where 't is necessary to take away wrath by a Sacrifice There is sin of the soul wheresoever an offering for sin is appointed Tell me then seeing Christ was made an offering for sin what was thy state and mine and what was the state of all men for whom he became a Sacrifice 2. Couldest thou escape the imputation of sin when Christ a Sacrifice for sin could not escape it Could he not be a sacrifice for sin by a voluntary susception of our cause but he must bear our guilt and shall we judge it likely reasonable or indeed morally possible that our wilful transgressings of the Law should be passed over not imputed If thy sins were imputed to thy sacrifice doubtless they had been imputed unto thy self if thou hadst not had a sacrifice Stand then a while and view this No need of Sacrifice to expiate where no sin is but alas I needed such a Sacrifice No need of Sacrifice where no guilt is imputed but I see my sin I see 't is imputed I must not delay or trifle in this matter my sin is evident its imputation is certain it will be laid on my own head or on my Sacrifice and oh how impossible is it I should escape the imputation of it if I carelesly neglect this great Sacrifice For 3. Whose is the guilt is it his or is it mine who deepest in the guilt he who did no guile or I who am full of guile who nearest the crime he who never did it or I who very wickedly committed it Did God impute it to him and can an unhumbled sinner think God will not impute it unto the committer of the sin 4. With whom was God angry who was it against whom offended justice was most incensed was it against him that was the Sacrifice or against him that needed the Sacrifice and brought it undoubtedly the Sacrifice can bear no other displeasure than what it bears for him whose Sacrifice it is and for whom it is offered And canst thou hope guilty offenders may escape when guiltless victims are charged with another's guilt and suffer another's punishment 5. Who hath greater share in the Love of God had Christ thy Sacrifice for sin or hadst thou for whom he became a Sacrifice I know thou wilt not pretend a comparison with Christ the only begotten of the Father thou darest not think but his share was greater in his Fathers love as his love obedience and likeness to his Father was greater infinitely more excellent than thine was or could be Tell me then if God imputed sin to the Son of his Love when his Son had undertaken to bear the fault and punishment of offenders will he thinkest thou spare those who hate him and might justly be hated of him 6. Would God admit his Son his eternal Delight to be thy Saviour on no other terms than that he should as a Sacrifice take upon him and bear the sins of his people imputed to him that they might not be imputed unto them and dost thou not believe canst thou perswade thy self to imagine that thou mayest though a sinner yet not be charged with thy sin Dost thou not clearly discern that God will charge sin either on the sinner or on his Sacrifice In a word or two whoever knows that Christ was made a Sacrifice for sin knows also that they were under a state of sin for whom he was made a Sacrifice and if thou art a Christian and professest that Christ was thy Sacrifice thou dost thereby confess that thou wert under a state of sin that unless mercy toward
appointment he provided it when we were at a loss and could not find wherewith we should come before the Lord and bow our selves before the most High God when the fruit of our body could not expiate the sin of our soul when finite wisdom was non-plus'd then the Lord discover'd his Grace and Mercy and chose out a sacrifice for us he prepared this sacrifice We may as Abraham said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 varying the tense say God hath provided himself a Sacrifice This he shadowed out to us by prescribing all his Sacrifices This he telleth us when he saith He prepared a body for Christ when he saith He sent him and gave him to be a propitiation for us and sealed him c. and such like expressions He the Lamb of God because ordained of God was our Sacrifice These two things considered let the guilty convinced fearing and almost desponding soul debate the case against his own fears and distrusts Put such Questions to an issue 1. Shall I despair when I have a ground to hope Let him embrace his despondencies who cannot see a ground for hope my heart breaks not while my hope is whole and unbroken 2. Are not those hopes well bottom'd which are built on the assurance that sins my only dangers and fears are pardonable Cain perhaps would have hoped if he had apprehended his sin pardonable And I am bound to hope because God assureth me by this sacrifice that my sins are expiable and may be pardoned 3. Why is there an Expiatory Sacrifice admitted nay provided by God himself who is the supreme vindex culpae and who alone had jus poenae the power of executing punishment on the offenders Hath he appointed a Sacrifice to expiate my sin and can it be that my sin remaineth inexpiable unpardonable Is not that sacrifice sufficient which God himself sindeth out Away with unreasonable fears banish forever sinful distrust Here 's a Sacrifice to atone my offended Lord of his own providing and will he not accept it I will tender it I will mention it he will not refuse his own choice 4. Can any one be found who missed the benefit of a pardon that sought it in the blood of this Sacrifice Oh that I could believe and hope until I heard of one so disappointed then should I never be ashamed Hath he not put away sin by once offering of himself and hath he not by one sacrifice forever perfected those that believe that are sanctified 5. Am I not one who may betake my self to this sacrifice What should more hinder me than others Am I excepted out of the Act of Oblivion Why may not my sins be laid on this Sacrifice Do I not read that he liveth for ever to make intercession for those that come to God by him Oh glorious hope Intercession for all that come to God by him Then cheer up doubting heart here is a sacrifice for all that come to God by him for this Intercession is an act or exercise of Christ's Sacerdotal Office subsequent to and dependent upon his foregoing Sacrifice He sacrificeth for as many as he intercedeth if then the Intercession of Christ can impetrate and obtain favour it is because the Sacrifice of Christ hath expiated thy sin and crime Sect. 5. 5. Thus far Guilt Danger and Feares may by eyeing the Sacrifice convince the sinner how seasonable a good hope would be and this Sacrifice sheweth how good the believer's hope is Now would it well become the soul to humble it self and if thou find thy heart remain still proud and unhumbled ask it these Questions over thy Sacrifice 1. Canst thou be proud and yet be found worthy to die in thy Sacrifice can this be born wilt thou confess death is thy desert and yet bear up as if thou wert innocent and in no deserved danger 2. Canst thou be proud of any thing so long as thy life is the fruit of an Expiatory Sacrifice Thou livest by the death of another and wilt thou pride thy self as if thou neededst not any ones help 3. Canst thou confess guilt and yet profess a thought of worth in thy self How shameless is that pride which at the bar confesseth it's Guilt against the Law and advanceth it self against the Law-giver It is a most unseemly thing to behold a heart rising with pride and falling in a Sacrifice Let thy humility then sute thy state as it appeareth in thy Sacrifice and I dare say it will sute the state of thy soul in it's repentance and mourning for sin Sect. 6. 6. Fountains and Springs lye deep where the soul is laid thus low if it doth not freely and spontaneously weep bring it's Sacrifice into sight let that be viewed see it standing before an offended and displeased God who was provoked by thy sin look on it loaded with imputed guilt Alas my sin lyeth upon it observe thy Sacrifice falling before the Altar and say alas was not this for my sake should not I have fallen thus if he had not He bled and out of excess of love to me poured out his life for me he groaned sighed breath'd out his soul for my sake and could he do more alas have I brought my Sacrifice to this was ever man more unhappy to his friend to his Brother how hard are those stony Rocks how dry that flinty heart which gusheth not out with tears in Remembrance of these things My dearest Lord pity unrelenting soules and oh give a mourning heart that may be more equal in it's griefes and sorowes in it's teares and sympathies how many eyes weep at newes of an endangered troubled imprisoned and wrackt friend How many hearts are softned melted and broken with the sweats burning fits and Agonies of a dying man yea how many melting hearts and weeping eyes how many compassionate discourses on the death of some one deserving more than Law inflicts for his breach of the Law But how few over a suffering bleeding dying Saviour and Sacrifice whither are the compassions of men and women fled where may they be found where shall we seek or how shall we wooe and prevail with them Lo their friend and Lord charged with their guilt sweating under its weight groaning under its penalty sighing with sobs that drew blood out of his veins bleeding dying a Sacrifice loaded with our deserved punishment And few alas very few grieving hearts weeping eyes or mourners for their want of tears Lord give more that I may give some tears to wash thy bleeding wounds A second grace requisite to a Christian in the commemoration of the Lord's Death at the Lord's Supper 2d Grace Faith exercised and improved and improveable on consideration of Christ dying a Sacrifice is Faith a grace indisputably necessary to him that will come duly to that Ordinance and therefore I lay not out any time or pains on the proving thereof a grace well improveable by consideration of Christ dying our Sacrifice on which I intend to insist next
enriching us it doth exceedingly enhance our worth honour we therefore are highly obliged to contend for his honour we rightly judge the son bound to plead the honour of his dying Father and we do as rightly judge the Christian much more bound to plead the honour of his dying Lord whose Testament hath made him a Son and gave him a share both in the honour and wealth of the family 2. In the last Will of our Dying Lord we read his Zeal and strength of affection for our peace our comfort our safety and our happiness all which falleth to the ground and vanisheth if the Legacies of our Lord fail us we had need therefore with Zeal contend for his honour not as though our plea would in any thing ratify or confirm for as we cannot give so neither needs he to derive ought of his authority from us he hath received all power from his Father But yet after the manner of men be it spoken we are bound to assert and defend the glory of his authority and power of disposing and bequeathing to us and to others whatsoever he hath by Will and Testamentary disposition left to us and to them If he had given what was not his to give we must either soon have parted with it or for ever have missed of it but herein lieth our advantage and comfort that the large Legacies of our Lord to us are as the fruit of so much Zealous love for us so they are the Acts of Soveraign power delegated to Christ by the Father as our Lord himself intimateth to us Luk. 22.29 As the Father hath appointed unto me so I appoint a Kingdom unto you Our Zeal then for the honour of Christ doth as well maintain our hope comfort and interess as it doth maintain his authority and what man would suffer the power to be nulled which gave him a rich and inestimable Legacy 3. The least degree of good bequeathed to us by the Will of our Testator in his will remembred by us in the Lords supper doth greatly surpass all the Zeal we can bear to his glory and honour read over his will and see there is justification in his blood shed for remission of sin assurance of peace with God secured by the frequent remembrance of the blood of sprinkling Sanctification consolation and future glory all these promised by him who being Mediator of the Covenant hath reduced the whole to the form of a Testamentary disposition and confirmed it by his death Now when thou art going to a Sacrament consider and judge with thy self should I not be very Zealous for his honour who hath given many inestimable gifts to me am I not less than the least of grace bequeathed is not remission of my sin greater love than my love can requite is not Hope of glory greater than mine obedience can ever equall shall I then ever think I have affection enough or have done enough for his honour by whom I have received what I have already by whom I shall receive what I hereafter expect No! No! I must be ever blowing my love into a greater flame of Zeal for his honour and yet his love and Zeal for me will outshine and overpower all mine for him 4. View the Will of thy Testator be perswaded to remember that he is now living in glory and beholdeth all that Love and Zeal which thou carriest in thy breast which thou expressest in thy life toward him he is not like other men who dying know no more of the deportment and behaviour of befriended survivours thou canst not bury the knowledge for dust hath not blinded the eye of the Lord he lives for ever and he knows how thou receivest improvest and resentest his Love and Zeal for thy good and with what face wilt thou appear before him one day if thou hast not been hired shall I say or bought with so great price into the love of and into a Zeal for thy beneficent liberal and incomparable Friend and Lord I observe Jacob dying recommended the care of his burial to Joseph above all his sons it was likely because cause Joseph more than any of his sons was debtor to the love and care of his Father for a double portion bestowed on him of all men we who have a double portion by Christ a portion of blessings on earth and in Heaven should zealously perform his will we must account it sacredly inviolable and shew it in shewing forth his praises 1 Pet. 2.9 CAP. V. Sect. 6. Joy Improved on Christ Dying a Testator A Sixth grace well suiting the Lord's supper 6th Sacramental grace Improvable Joy and Improveable on account of the Lord 's Dying a Testator is joy and gladness in the Lord and in his goodness It is confessed by all that it well suiteth with feasts of love that the guests should joy together and rejoice in their Friend who is equally Friend unto them all The soul which cometh burthened with sins and sorrows confesseth he should rejoice in the Lord and is well pleased that others do it whilst he cannot it is a spiritual joy which well becometh this spiriritual feast I do not say the heart is unfit for it who doth not rejoice I know the spiritual hunger and thirst of the soul speaketh the soul fit and such may such indeed ought to come yet when hunger and thirst after the Lord are accompanied with joy in the Lord the soul is better is more throughly prepared for this feast this commemoration of their Dying Lord. Now the Christian's joy beside the general motives of joy arising from the general nature of the object of delight and joy as goodness in the thing enjoyd propriety whereby it becomes ours and possession or presence of it with us according to our present capacity and exigency whether refreshing repairing or filling us or in what other manner of operation it affecteth in which the Christian joy and the delight of other men do agree The spiritual joy of the Christian hath great advantages from the last Will and Testament of his Lord As 1. First the transcendency of them If there were any blessings better than others in the possession and at the disposal of their Lord surely these should be given among the beloved Friends Servants attenders complemental visiters and such like common Friends possibly may be put off with common gifts but the best shall be distributed unto the best Friends A Kingdom in glory the spirit of Adoption remision of sins increase of all grace and consolations through faith c. are the choice blessings bequeathed to believers in Christ's Will and represented ensured and in praelibations or foretast conveyed to believers in the right reception of the Lord's Supper let it be therefore throughly considered and when either of those forecited mercies appear contained in his Will ask your selves whether the least of these do not deserve the highest pitch of your joy are they not better worth your delight than
3. 3. The third and last concern of Faith is its present actings or fruit which it doth in some measure sustain the soul by whilst it waiteth for those great things to come for Faith is not all taken up with expectation it doth now possess much though it expect more all is not in reversion though the most though the best be Faith looks unto things hoped for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt igitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat aliquando sisto sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significare potest actum habitumve fiducialem habentem vim non tantum statuminandi sperantem sed sistendi rem speratum Capellus in Heb. 11.1 yet in some sort gives them subsistence not only confirmeth the person who hopeth but sets before him as a thing present that good he hopeth for as the learned and judicious Divine Jacobus Capellus observeth on the word the Apostle useth Heb. 11.1 Indeed it seeth what is far off yet brings that which it seeth so near that it embraceth what it seeth Heb. 11.14 Faith is of very great and present advantage to the soul and exerts its power and vertue on the soul in these four particulars 1. Faith doth by the improvement of the Promises ratified in the blood of Christ our Sacrifice quiet and settle the soul in some good measure of peace and assurance This is one of the sweet and first-fruits of Faith that it quieteth the heart and pacifieth it whereas unbelief doth fill the heart with fears And a convinced soul under doubts is as restless as fears can make it for it is full of them Where there is little Faith there are usually on every awakening alarm as in Peter's case great fears Let not your hearts be troubled saith Christ cast out disquieting thoughts for saith he Ye believe in God Joh. 14.1 And indeed the Believer may well be quiet for he believeth on Christ of whom the God of Truth hath said That whoso believeth on him shall not be confounded 1 Pet. 2.6 Now this greatly pacifieth the soul it knows it shall not be confounded it hath received the earnest of a glorious inheritance and is sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise upon its believing Ephes 1.13 14. Amidst the many and great troubles the Apostle met with for the Gospel his Faith kept his heart in a very quiet and pacate frame I know saith he whom I have trusted 2 Tim. 1.12 He speaketh of himself as of one whom no troubles could much disquiet for he did both know that he believed and he knew whom he believed Hence it is that when he prayed for Peace and Joy to fill the believing Romans cap. 15.13 He makes express mention of their Faith as the means of their Peace Pax acquiritur fide Vatablus in loc Now the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace in believing c. Peace and sedateness of mind is one of the first-born of Faith as on the contrary disquietude of mind is the first-born of despondency and unbelief So David's experience assureth us who found his quiet of mind decrease and the disquiet thereof to increase as his trust in God did decrease therefore he rowseth up himself to trust in God that he might recover the calm of his spirit Why art thou cast down oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Psal 42.11 This then is one of the present great businesses of Faith to quiet the heart and bring it into a peaceable state Now what can give the heart rest if such glorious things expected and secured to us do not The Believer may see all his hopes most inviolably and under the most sacred seals confirmed to him in the Death of Christ by Sacrifice and certainly if greatness of hopes accompanied with immutable assurance of a future enjoying them do not satisfie and quiet for present nothing ever will be able in this world to compose the spirit of any man How quietly doth an expectant about Court wait for his preferment and advance upon the promise of his Friend and Patron who possibly may fail How well will it become us to wait quietly for our great advancement on the Promise Covenant and Oath of our God in which it is impossible he should fail us 2. Faith doth at present revive and refresh the soul it administreth cordials to it I had fainted if I had not believed saith David Psal 27.13 And he prescribeth waiting or believing as an excellent preservative against such faintness and despondence of spirit v. 14. on which he resolveth at what time he is afraid he will trust in God Psal 56.3 No support no reviving comparable to that Faith doth aford That Peace and that Joy which the Apostle Rom. 5.2 hath annexed unto Faith is a Peace with God and a Rejoycing in hope of the glory of God viz. That God will make us glorious in that glory which he hath prepared for all that believe Now they that expect on unfailing promises such Glory may justifiably say that their inward man is renewed not in strength only but in comfort also day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 We faint not ver 16. though our outward man perish why what kept up their spirit did any thing but Faith The Apostle mentioneth nothing else For our inward man is renewed day by day while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen v. 18. While we look i. e. with an eye of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Grotius paralleleth it with Heb. c. 11. v. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. Laetari c. if from Arab. it is either amicum se praebuit or else quievit quietavit So Grotius paralleleth the place with Heb. 11.1 And the Syriack whether it use a native or a forein word in its translation doth use a word which implieth an eminent act of Faith When the heavy burthen of guilt overloadeth the heart when the violence strangeness and frequency of temptations sadneth the soul when fierce long and wasting persecutions make havock of the Church when spiritual dulness and deadness of soul afflicteth a Believer what but his Faith can or doth comfort and revive him Faith carrieth him to his Sacrifice in the blood whereof he seeth his God atoned and reconciled who then shall condemn A Covenant of grace and mercy what grace then can he want In this Sacrifice he seeth Christ hath perfected all that are sanctified and done all that which Legal Sacrifices shadowed out but could not work out viz. Perfect Reconciliation to God and full pacification of Conscience This revives the heart God speaks peace and Conscience speaks peace and Faith doth at present employ it self in ensuring and improving both these for the comfort of the Believer And
for future and doth for present sufficiently influence our Faith to quiet revive quicken and support the soul under fears languishings dulnesses and sufferings Go then aside and take a view of the particulars and meditate on them in the certainty which Christ suffering and dying our Sacrifice hath given to us concerning them and when thou hast so done observe well whether thou art not perswaded to believe in hope against hope and whether thou art not enabled to believe the Promises without staggering and to say thou faintest not because thy afflictions are light and yet do work out for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while thou art able to look to and see both him that is and the things that are invisible such a Faith will be our victory by it we shall more than conquer Having discoursed somewhat on the Improvement of our Divine sorrow and our Faith in the Commemoration of Christ Dying our Sacrifice I have made way for the Improvement of our Peace and Quiet of soul likewise 3d. Grace improved viz. Peace of Soul for this is a sweet fruit of our sound Repentance and sincere faith and carry's a proportioned dimension with the increase of those Graces But I purpose to attempt a more particular discovery of the influence Christ's Death our Sacrifice hath upon the Tranquillity and Peace of the soul of a Communicant who discerneth this Death as it was a Sacrifice and under that notion improveth his Redeemer's love to him Now if I can shew my Reader that there is in this Sacrifice somwhat sufficient to remove all that disquieteth the soul I need take no further care to perswade an opinion that Peace will follow Let the storm cease and a calm will follow if the Earthquake end the old Foundations will stand firm and well setled Let that be removed which alarmed the soul and all will be in Peace Amongst other lesser which I pass over there are four grand disquietudes of the soul 1. Danger of divine displeasure and wrath in condemnation for our sin The drawn sword of Divine vengeance hanging over the head is enough to affright all peace out of the heart and to fill it with amazing horrour and overwhelming terrours How did Adam's fears seize him when his sin had laid him open to that threat Thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 then his guilty conscience did chase Ea conscientia est quae filgat terret accusat damnat Parentes nostros Certissimum testimonium Deum tandem ultorem futurum omnis mali Fagius in cap. 3. Gen. 8. affright accuse condem him forebode a severer Judge and Avenger whom he could not escape or shun whom he could not stand before whom he feareth and flieth The Apostle elegantly expresseth the disquietude of a self-condemning heart by the trouble of bondage Heb. 2.15 The fear of death kept them in bondage all their life the expectation of death was death to them or ere they died and they scarce lived because they continually tortured themselves with the preapprehensions of a hastening death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot which to secure nature is the greatest of terrours though ignorance of what is consequent to death did hide the most dreadful part of death from the eyes of nature Psal 55.4 Psal 116.3 yet in David's phrase terrours of death will make the heart sigh under pain and fill it with trouble and sorrow too unless the heart be assured of the the removal of guilt the freedom from condemnation Joh. 8.21 24. Rev. 2.11 that the man dieth not in his sins nor shall be hurt of the second death No man's heart was strong under the apprehensions of the wrath of an Almighty and Eternal God nor can the greatest cheats of the world I mean hypocrites who can counterfeit almost every thing put on the counterfeit of boldness Isa 33.15 when they see the everlasting burnings and the devouring fire they are then surprized with fearfulness 2. Loss of the wonted sweetness of Divine favour and the refreshing expresses which God by his spirit did formerly give to the soul When once the soul hath been favoured with an acquaintance and knowledg of a Heaven upon earth it cannot without disquietude live on earth without it's Heaven Darkness cannot but greatly afflict the soul which enlightned once did rejoice in the light of God's Countenance shining on it What is said of the great darkness which fell on Abraham in his sleep Gen. 15.12 may be verified of all the desertions which fall upon the children of Abraham they are attended with horrour and trouble When God hid his face from David he was troubled Psal 30.5 and his soul refused to be comforted Psal 77.2 his spirit was overwhelmed ver 3. so troubled he could not speak ver 4. All which proceeded from the spiritual desertion he then lay under God hath cast off and he feared it was for ever ver 7. that he would be favourable no more c. verse 8 and 9. So that when David had lost the sense of God's love he could find peace or joy in nothing about him An Idolater once expostulated with a great deal of trouble you have taken away my Gods and do you ask what aileth me But whilst we deride or pity his blindness we should resent the real troubles of the soul which hath lost the sense of the Love of his God and Father and indulge him in a more than usual trouble for the suspence or intermission of his desired rest and peace wherein he found though imperfect yet a growing happiness and in David's words expressed his felicity He heard the joyful sound and walked in the light of God's countenance Psal 89.15 but now feareth his misery will recall his former happiness only to prove him as much sunk in woes as he was exalted in joys above other men Miserrimum est fuisse felicem this disquieteth the soul that it hath been what now it is not blessed 3. Sense of sinful weakness and suspition of worse insincerity and want of uprightness in its duties and the exercises of its Devotion towards God are a trouble to the soul in its reflections on its services and examination of it self it seeth sin adhere to every one of its best workes and it seeth imperfection still dwelling in its perfectest graces so that when he findeth to will yet how to perform he findeth not as Rom. 7.18 On which observation of his defects he judgeth himself in a miserable perplexity and under apprehensions hereof crieth out wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. ver 24. This worthlesness of persons and performances is the subject of the Church's complaints Isa 64.6 We are all as an unclean thing And our iniquities as the wind have taken us away iniquities saith David in his complaint prevail against me Psal 65.3 And elsewhere prayeth God would search him and try him and see whether there be any
way of wickedness in him Psal 139.23 24. It is that which giveth a trouble to God's Children that they are not perfect that their heart retaineth too much of its native guile and is deceitfull above all things Jer. 17.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 6.5 In brief with the Prophet they cry on t each one in sight of his Pollution wo is me I am of Polluted heart and lips When David saw the Divine jealousie breaking out on Vzza 2 Sam. 6.9 He was afraid and durst not bring up the Ark of the Lord whither he first intended He was afraid of the Lord that day and said how shall the Arke of the Lord come to me he feared and fears are troubles and questionless disquiet the mind his fears and the trouble of them arose from his foreseen unmeetness to entertain the Arke of so holy a God he was not as he desired a meet and prepared Receiver and lodger of that glorious guest This David's trouble this the disquieting thought of every good heart it cannot offer a Sacrifice pure enough immaculate and perfect as becometh the purity perfection and Majesty of his God 4. A Fourth and the last I shall now mention is a succession of doubts and jealousies lest guilt and unworthiness should hinder his acceptance with God and at last cut off his hope of every desireable blessing from God For although the believer is delivered from danger of condemnation and hath had often experiences of the favour of his God and is made upright and without prevailing guile in all his services which might in very reason be sufficient ground of a constant peaceful hope confidence and assurance that God will ever accept him and delight to bless him and at last reward him yet for all this many doubts and the same frequently returning do disquiet the soul putting it to suspect the worst and what shall never befall it Oh saith one my sins make me doubt lest that be my sad state which was Israel's complaint or should have been in Jeremiah's words Sins have hidden good things from me Jer. 5.25 And another is ready to suspect though I might be establisht yet my unbelief suggesteth apprehensions that I shall not for I have not been obedient I have been guilty of much unbelief A third complains of back-slidings and what doubts arise thence And almost every one hath his peculiar doubts or a peculiar ground for those which disquiet others as himself Now it is I judge needless to exemplifie the troublous nature of doubts and endless to enumerate the particular doubts of Christians or the easie returns they make on the souls who have frequently removed them and have thought sure now they should no more be disquieted with them I shall rather address my thoughts to the second thing I suggested viz. that there is in the Sacrifice of Christ for us somewhat which may remove these disquietudes of the soul And so Sect. 1. 1. In the first place for removal of the danger of condemnation the first disquietude mentioned there is sufficient in Christ dying our Sacrifice to effect this as will appear on these Considerations 1. Christ dying our Sacrifice was pleased to stand in our stead he was substituted in our room for us in this he became what is necessary in every Sacrifice a representative of us for whom he made himself a Sacrifice so the Sacrifice doth vices ejus qui reus agitur subire take the place or turn of the guilty of which substitution I have already spoken somewhat cap. 3. sect 1. This Substitution of the Sacrifice was so generally received an Opinion and an inseparate appendage to every Sacrifice expiatory that thou shall easily discerne it both in the writing of Heathens mentioning their Sacrifices as also in the writings of Moses relating the particularities of Jewish Sacrifices if an ordinary care be used in reading But I do not farther insist on that come we rather to see what quiet this substitution may afford to the soul how full of peace may the soul be which can carry all that is laid to it's charge to Christ which can say Christ stand's for me is substituted in my stead and if there be ought of danger it first falleth on him in whose hand never did any one miscarry who had Christ undertaking for him Christ now substitute for us stands between us and danger who are thus in Christ to allude to that of the Apostle Rom. 8.1 Are exempt from condemnation For in this substitution of our Sacrifice there is 2. A due sufficient and full transferring our guilt on our Sacrifice so that the guilty soul may now say mercy hath transmitted my guilt from me upon my substitute and he hath voluntarily taken that upon himself to answer it before my Judge against all accusers and how then can condemnation be justly feared when no guilt is found lying upon the person what servant or child needeth fear a chiding for that fault which the Master or Father hath on the interposing of a Mediatour transferred from the servant or child solicitous fears may de facto disquiet the soul for whom Christ made himself a Sacrifice but were such fears arrested examined and discovered they would be checkt discarded and cast out as groundless for it would then appear that they come intruders on innocent acquitted and imputatively guiltless soules Doth any such feare of future condemnation perplexe look to thy Sacrifice consider guilt which onely can condemne is by thy Judge in a valid sufficient form transferred from thee to thy Sacrifice and certainly thy Judge will as justly acquit the from thy guilt as he did mercifully transferre it he whose mercy so contrived to make thee innocent that thou mightest not be condemned His Justice will find thee what mercy made thee and thou shalt not be condemned Read that text 2 Cor. 5.2 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Certainly then the danger of Condemnation is over when we are made Righteous in Christ and he our Sacrifice made sin for us The Righteous Judge of Heaven and earth will do so justly that he will not codemn one whom grace hath made Righteous Though all we like lost-sheep have gone astray yet there is hope for the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.16 3. Christ our Sacrifice standing in our stead admitting the transferring of our guilt from us upon himself by his dying our sacrifice did undergo that punishment and did bear that wrath which our sin deserv'd that we might be absolved and acquitted so that now either we must doubt an after-punishment will be inflicted on us for the sin Christ hath born and suffered and we shall be condemned though he died to the end we might not be condemned which how little consistant with either the justice of God or his mercy any one may easily discern who will consider It
is a matter of justice not to condemn a person for whom satisfaction hath been made and it is matter of mercy to acquit him through another's sufferings who stood condemned for his own offences or if we judge as fit we should that neither the justice or mercy of God will permit he should be condemned for whom Christ died a Sacrifice we can conclude no less from such a death than the absolution future acquittance of a Believer whose Sacrifice Christ died who hereby hath as Isa 43.4 born our griefs and carried our sorrows i. e. the punishment due to our sins for the which he hath suffered and made satisfaction Say the Generva Notes in loc yet what follows ver 5. is fuller Vt integrae essent res nostrae nobis bene esset c. placuit c. verbera plagas quas nos commeriti eramus filius susciperet c. Castigatione verberibus filii reconciliati sumus Patri efferbuit ira Patris Fozerius in loc He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed The strokes and blows which we deserved the Son took upon him to the end that our affairs being restor'd it might be well with us c. by the chastisement and stripes of the Son we are reconciled to the Father and the anger of the Father hath asswayed and ceas'd towards us Whoso can look with the eye of faith on Christ thus dying Chrîstus Dominus pro peccatis nostris dolore affectus est ergo peccata nostra deleta ergo ira Dei remisit conseditque ergo reconciliatus enim nobis ergo pax integritas salus omne bonum in nos dimanavit Fozerius may in the words of the late mentioned Commentatour triumph Christ the Lord was grieved for our sins therefore our sins are blotted out the wrath of God is appeased and ceaseth God is reconciled to us therefore peace restitution salvation and every good thing hath flowed in to us But one thing possibly may be suspected viz. Albeit such an atonement and reconciliation be made now yet may not wrath at last break forth in fury to the utter condemnation of the soul which now hath its pardon To this I shall answer by subjoyning 4. That Christ Died a Sacrifice which he himself offered through the Eternal Spirit to the end that he might purge our conscience from dead works that we might serve the Living God as Heb. 9.14 By which one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Which great Truth the Apostle confirmeth by an Argument drawn from the very letter of that Covenant which is confirmed in this Sacrifice according to which Covenant God promiseth remission of sins so ver 17. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin ver 18. The ground whereof is the perfect Reconciliation wrought for those to whom God doth grant remission of sin so that hence I may justifiably argue from the real expiation made at first to the perpetual continuation of it by the blood of this most perfect Sacrifice Let our Faith therefore be directed to fetch our absolution from guilt and condemnation let us ensure this to our selves through Christ dying our Sacrifice and take that comfort to our selves he hath by one offering for ever perfected them that are sanctified And he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Sect. 2. 2. The second Disquiet of the soul I mentioned was a fear lest it should lose the refreshing apprehensions and sweet enjoyments of the Divine Favour how much this would disturb the peace of the soul I am not here to discourse having said all I intended already on it But now it is my business to shew that Christ's Death as our Sacrifice is sufficient to prevent this fear or to secure unto the soul an enjoyment of the Divine Favour which I now attempt to shew 1. In that this Sacrifice duly apprehended by us doth very much abate of the ground of our fears of the withdrawing the Divine Favour from us Now the apprehension of the dread and terrour of spiritual desertions ariseth from our doubts that they are but precursory to a final and eternal displeasure that they are but the Primordia dolorum the beginnings of sorrows that the full measures will be at last for everlasting poured out upon the soul Oh this afflicts This Will God be gracious no more is the sword which wounds to the heart and whilst this fear abides on the soul it can take no rest Now see Christ our Sacrifice hath atoned vindictive displeasure reconciled us to God delivered us from wrath to come so that undoubtedly these present seasons of darkness are but seasons These sorrows may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Christ in the merit of his blood doth ever appear for me with God though God appear not to me now as of old yet I shall enjoy him 2. Christ Dying a Sacrifice for us hath now changed the nature of all our afflictions and turned them into wholsom corrections and into necessary exercises of our graces not onely our outward afflictions are so changed that there remaineth not any deadly poyson in them but our spiritual troubles among which this I speak of is to be accounted chief these are much more altered in their nature as indeed it was expedient they should for as they sink deeper into the soul and do more speedily seize the spirit and have an immediate influence on the soul so they would be of more dangerous consequence if they retained an unrebated poyson in them These would undo the soul whereas outward afflictions can approach to the soul but intermediately and being kept still about the outworks can only disquiet alarm cannot kill the soul nor its comforts Now we are beholden to the excellency of this Sacrifice for this By this sacrifice our afflictions are rendered only corrections whatever is vindictive and which the soul cannot beare is derived upon our Sacrifice being hereby secured from wrath For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 The Apostle argueth from our reconciliation once effected unto our salvation in due time to be accomplisht And happy they who have Christ once dying a Sacrifice to make their peace but ever living a merciful and a faithful High Priest to maintain their peace with God Such he is to all for whom he is a Sacrifice 3. In midst of spiritual desertions Christ our Sacrifice preserveth inviolate the state of our peace though we have not the sense and sweetness of that peace The Covenant of peace between God and the soul standeth unaltered still and this in the vertue of this blood of Christ our
a perpetual thanksgiveing to Christ but a Sacrament is the solemne day of Thanksgiving which Christ hath appointed He did find the Jews keeping the Passeover so he hath ordained the Christian Feast of his supper in the stead thereof and so to be kept the Apostle tells us that he received of the Lord what he delivered to his Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.16 and he delivered unto them this cup of Blessing this minds you of the greatest gift God could give and must not be lookt on without your heart in your eye Go too then think as you can of him who hath made you heirs by his will speak of it as you can Inusitatâ incognitâ quadam felicitate I mistake if you do not think say this came to pass by an unusual and wonderful happiness as the Historian said of that will which made the people of Rome heir to a Kingdome Be you as just to the Remembrance of your Lord and shew it in your thankfulness 4. Fourthly Another great End of the Sacrament and which Christ intended in appointing Coena in eum finem comparata est ut sit communioris charitatis Christianonum vinculum inter ipsos Th. Thalm. de usu coen Dom. dis 1. sect 42. it was that union and communion might be preserved and continued among Believers It doth therefore bear the name of a Communion and Christ hath prepared this Spiritual Feast to keep up spiritual friendship Christ would have but one Table for Believers that Believers might have but one heart for each other Christ hath put them all together at his table that they might keep all together in love and be but one Mark well with what text the Apostle urgeth this Union and Communion among Saints 1 Cor. 10.17 We being many are one body for we all partake of one bread But now alas that is made a cause of contention and separation which was appointed a means of union and Christian friendship of which I might justly complain were this fit time and place But I conclude this in the words of the Learned Professours Sacra Synaxis est dilectionis fidelium inter se contesseratio quaedam P P. Salmur de usu neces coen Dom. Disp 1. Sect. 42. The holy Communion is a certain signal mark of the love of the faithful one to another Now I say the last Will of Christ dying a Testator conduceth unto this and therefore the meditations of Christ dying a Testator will suit with the Sacrament and do well become a Communicant View but a while oh ye quarrelling Believers how you have all one common great friend ought you not be one in him Have you not all one title and may you overthrow your Brother's hope without overthrowing your own are all men careful to preserve unity whose welfare is endangered by discord and will you be less than men In one word Christ hath put you all into his own Will and made you Legatees Joint-heirs how well doth one Will become them who are thus one in the Will of Christ oh divide not in your wills and affections you are undivided in the Will of Christ suit your considerate thoughts to the blessed ends your Dear and Dying Lord intended to promote enlarge your thoughts on the particular considerations and respects in which he died draw down these respects unto the several graces and duties which they will awaken and strengthen and I hope in a Sacrament you shall find your Profession and Faith confirmed your Affections enlivened your Thankfulness enlarged your Union and Communion with Saints strengthened and secured by a due application of your meditations to the Death of Christ dying a Testator and so will find by experience what I have said that these thoughts well suit a Sacrament because they well suit the ends of the Sacrament CAP. III. Christ's Testament Influenceth our Graces I Am now to treat my Reader with the entertainment of his thoughts on the third proposal which pretends to make it appear that due considerations of Christ's dying a Testator making his will and comprising all his friends in it may improve the growth of grace such reflections on this kind of death do well comport to the communion they do also well advance the graces of the communicant they do befit the solemnity they benefit the solemnizer which I shall attempt to illustrate and prove in the genetal by these following arguments Sect. 1. 1. First 1 Argument That which awakens the soul to a diligent search and enquiry into the word and into its own state will advance the growth of grace Grace is of such a nature it growes best when most searcht as health by medicines which penetrate the secretest places of the disease and expel the most hidden hurtful humours our spiritual Balm healeth best when self-examination openeth our wounds and maketh way that the Balm may sink and soak to the bottom Now the consideration of Christ dying a Testator and making his Will or Testament will awaken us to such a search enquiry It is almost natural to us when our rich friends dye to enquire what Will they made and who are remembred and what they are remembred in especialy when they hear that all the kindred and all the friends are remembered in the Will and have somewhat given them upon this the considerate Christian begins his search of these two things at least 1. The last Will of Christ which is contained in and to be gathered out of his word And next He 2. Searcheth his own Pretences to the Friendship and Kindred of Christ for the word assures him that the Lord Christ hath bequeath'd all to his Brethern and Friends Hence 3. A Third thing is concluded by the considerate Christian viz. The strengthning his alliance to Christ and making it more firm and sure which is most effectually and only done by adding grace to grace and bringing forth fruits of grace thus will this search occasioned by this Death of Christ improve grace Sect. 2. 2. That which answers the doubts and which removes the disquieting fears of the gracious soul doth improve grace in the soul Doubts are the souls earth-quakes which shake the foundations and weaken the superstructure these doubts once well removed and these fears once well blown over the soul resteth on a good strong solid foundation and all that is laid upon it standeth the faster and steadier These disquieting fears are Languores animae The consumptive decaies of weak grace let these be taken away and grace recovers to a healthful vigorous and strong habit they are part of that spirit of bondage which attends a weaker and less grown grace and as these fears are dispelled and the prevalence of the spirit of bondage abateth so the Pharrhesia that boldness and child-like confidence of grown grace increaseth with an increasing measure of the spirit of Adoption from which springeth an universal increase of grace Atque
adoptionis illius vim senserunt in Spiritu Sanctificante PP Salmur de Sp. Adop Sect. 12. so they who are sealed with the spirit of Adoption have still found the power of that Adoption by the spirit of Sanctification Now I say Christ Dying a Testator and leaving us his last Will or Testament to meditate upon hath left us a good answer to our doubts and the due meditations of the soul on the last Will of Christ will much dispel our fears and quiet the soul For whereas there are two sorts of fears which afflict a gracious soul 1. A fear it shall miss of Glory And 2. A fear it doth want truth of grace Christ by his last Will hath secured the believing soul against both these fears against the first by giving a Kingdom and Glory to such by Will he appointed them unto a Kingdom to a Glorious Crown Against the second by bequeathing the spirit of Truth and Grace unto them to lead them in holiness unto the end and this Will of our best Friend who Died to confirm it is a very sure Title on the sacred reverence authority of last Wills and Testaments Legum servanda fides suprema voluntas Quod mandat fierique subet parere necesse est Aug. Imper. de vol. Virg. which must be sacred and inviolate when the man is dead Command of Laws must duly be fulfill'd And so must that our dying friend last will'd how much more when he who died once hath for ever conquered death and lives for ever to see his own Legacies both bestowed and enjoyed which peculiar to Christ our dying friend gives greatest encouragement against such doubts and might very well ease us of all such fears and so be an excellent defence and prop to weak grace whence will soon follow a considerable growth in grace Sect. 3. 3. That which confirms the truth certainty and immutability of the promises improveth Grace I need not give long Proofs of so known a Truth Praecipuum maximè proprium objectum Fidei situm est in promissionibus PP Salm. de Fide sect 7. the promisies are the objects of our faith the good things contained in the promises are the object of our hope the grace and mercy making the promises is the Load-stone of our love In one word we are made partakers of the Divine Nature we do purify our selves and perfect holiness through these promises Grace is as the vine the promises are the frame which beareth up and carrieth the vine which thriveth best when it resteth on the surest and stedfastest frame Grace is a spiritual building which needeth a sure Foundation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is the promise which as the word of God is in it self sure and stedfast for it is impossible that God should lie Tit. 1.2 Heb. 6.18 Yet to this the Lord hath superadded the confirmation and certainty of a Testamentary disposition or last Will making all the promises in Christ and making them all sure and unchangeable by the death of Christ whereby they become to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 that we might have such assurance as should render it next to a moral impossibility for us soberly and deliberately to doubt them Now all this is excellently effected by resolving and moulding the promises into a last Will or Testamentary disposition which is of such a nature that it becomes unalterable on the Death of the Testator Heb. 9.17 for a Testament is of force after men are dead and so the law maxim ensureth us In publicis Lex in privatis Testamentum firmissimum habetur that what the law is in publick concerns that a last Will in private concerns is for ensurance and firmness In brief therefore the last Will of Christ Dying confirms the Promises to us what confirms the promises confirms our faith and hope with other graces faith and hope confirmed do greatly tend to purifying and sanctifying our hearts and making our life fruitful in these things lieth the growth and improvement of grace so that due reflections and right manage of our thoughts on Christ dying a Testator do as is said improve the communicants Graces Sect. 4. 4. That improves grace which doth soften the heart and as it were ripen it unto a mellow temper as the showers which soak into the earth in the spring time which soften the earth do both prepare the way that tender roots of trees and plants may spread abroad and root deeper and also do afford nourishing moisture and sap whence the verdure blossom and the fruit it self so it is here a hard and rocky heart is as unkind a soil for grace as stony ground is for Corn neither can take root to any good purpose Trees of righteousness are planted by the rivers of waters which is a tender soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the water courses divide themselves and run out into many branches gently and kindly softening the ground And though some vines of the Lord are planted in high Mountaines naturally hard and barren in proud and hard hearts yet these hearts are like plowed ground laid a fallowing and mellowing and so prepared for the seed time every high Mountain is laid low before Christ In one word the pleasant Lillies do grow in the Valleys low and softned grounds so grace thrives best in the humble and tender soul Now there are in the last Will of Christ many both common and ordinary as also Singular and extraordinary motives and inducements to tenderest affections towards Christ Whatsoever cause any true friend any kind Brother any dutiful Child can see in the care love and bounty of his Dying Friend Brother or Father expressed and contained in the porvision made by such one for him that all that and more may the meditating and considerate soul see in the last Will of Christ to melt him into affections for Christ in whose Death he may see love living and growing strong when life fainted and grew weak And as his veines and heart grew empty of blood both grew full of love to you and me So he loved his own to the end What in particular these common and speciall motives are I shall not now specify but reserve them to another more fit place thus you have the sum of this fourth argument before you in the next place Sect. 5. 5. That improves our graces which endeareth the Lord Jesus to us what increaseth our love to Christ doth increase our holiness and addeth to our graces love will long for a more close union love will study the most intire complyance it will ambitiously strive to advance and honour it will without ceasing endeavour to please That soul is most endeared to holiness and most studious of holiness which is most endeared to Christ and most in love with him such a soul keeps his Commandments Now the view and consideration of Christ s last Will and Testament will surely endear
Christ yet a little Friendship would kindle much Zeal for such love and bounty as is expressed by Christ in his Will and last Testament to us Sect. 6. 6. Joy and Gladness in the Lord the heart will rejoice in its own interess in Christ and glory in Christ when the great and good things done for it by Christ and setled upon it by the last Will of Christ are known and duely considered It is a vanity yet common among men to glory and rejoice in their rich Relations and in their ample estates given to them by the will of such Friends but it is no vanity in a believer to rejoice and glory in his large Legacyes bequeathed to him by Christ for the greatness and goodness of these things with the unbeleif and vilifyings which others cast upon believers their hopes and their Lord do warrant yea call for it Sect. 7. 7. Thankfulness and gratefull return of praise unto him who hath so remembred us is another grace improveable upon the considerate observance of Christ making his last Will and upon our meditating on his will it is so apparently due that every one doth usher in the mention of a Legacy or great gift by will with thanks to the Giver I thank him he remembred me c. Sect. 8. 8. Humility and a lowly temper of soul a sober esteem of our selves who have what we have and do hope for all that we can expect of free gift is another grace or Christian habit improvable by due and serious considering Christ's last Will and Testament made by himself before his Death and confirmed by his Death We had been all poor sheaks and pitifull beggars if it had not been for this rich and great Friend of ours I have heard men blow down the pride of some who were set up as we are by anothers bounty with one blast such had not been worth one groat if his Friend had not put him into his Will so do thou Christian consider and so say Sect. 9. 9. Patience in suffering for Christ's sake nay Patient bearing all the afflictions of our whole life is another grace which may be much increased by our due observing and applying our thoughts unto Christ's last Will or Testament He can never suffer too much for Christ who hath so much given to him by Christ nor may he be at any time weary of the labour he undergoeth for Christ who understandeth what is his legacy in the Testament or Will of Christ Sect. 10. 10. Sorrow for doing so little for him and grief for doing any thing at any time against Christ is another effect of our meditations and due observations of the love of Christ manifested to us in his last Will. This part of repentance is improveable by these like reflections on Christ Dying a Testator and putting us into his last Will. If there be any ingenuity lest among the Friends of a Dying person who giveth largely to them all though they all did slight reproach oppose and wrong him this gift will draw out tears for their former carriage toward him Sect. 11. 11. Setled purpose to live in future dayes more worthy of at least with endeavours after a carriage and deportment which may be more answerable to the love of Christ Dying for us and so carefully and bountifully remembring us before he died Renewed obedience is another effect which will be promoted and advanced by such thoughts Sect. 12. 12. A loving and peaceable disposition towards believers our joint Legatees who were in the heart of Christ as well as we and who are by the Will of Christ made joint-heirs with us Charity and Brotherly-kindness is a grace improvable by these sweet influences of Christ's love equally providing for them and us by his Will we shall be constrained to love those whom we know Christ so loved And thus you have in this Chapter the brief Summary of what graces may be increased Now the special influence which the last Will of Christ dying hath on the soul for the increase of each of these graces will occasion the resuming of them in the order I have here laid down and so will be our employment and your farther entertainment in the next Chapter CAP. V. Faith Improved by the last Will of Christ IN this Chap. I foresee I shall be much longer than in all the former and its length will necessitate me to cast it into more branches for I must discourse particularly and distinctly on those twelve Graces mentioned in the fourth Chapter I shall allot therefore a particular Section to each particular Grace in which Sections I hope to clear it That the last VVill of Christ hath a special Influence on the considerate meditating soul to improve its Grace Sect. 1. 1. The believing meditating and considerate Communicant may improve his Faith by the consideration of Christ's last VVill there lye hidden many inducements unto Faith and very strong supports of Faith all which consideration will draw forth and likely enough in some such order as this some of them may be drawn out Now the Scripture tells me that Faith is the substance of things hoped for a perswasion of the certain future accomplishment of those things which are promised to the Believer Credere est persuasum esse de veritate alicujus rei PP Salmur de Fide sect 15. To believe is to be perswaded of the truth of any thing proposed to be believed So that the more the clearer the surer our perswasives and arguments are to believe the stronger will be our Faith and Assent to the Truths which are proposed and argued the stedfaster and more unmoved will our perswasion be Persuasio non fit aliterquam admittendo aut introducendo in intellectum eas rationes caque argumenta quibus unaquaeque res sese veram esse demonstrat PP Salmur de Fide Disp 1. sect 15. Which is wrought in no other manner than by admitting or letting into the understanding those Reasons and Arguments whereby each thing demonstrateth it self to be true VVhich passage of the Learned Professours is a very fit Exposition of the Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things which are not seen it is the conclusion of the soul arguing with it self from the evidence of truth and from the certainty of those reasons which are discussed and throughly pondered as then there is more or less evidence and certainty in the promise or word on which our faith and perswasion is built so there is more or less strength in our faith or perswasion Confirmat fidem quod magis ac magis persuadet vera esse promissionem c. P.P. Sal. de Sacram. in gen sect 54 and a certainty which grows greater and greater will produce a saith which grows greater and greater like wise Let us then see what increase of our perswasion and faith may be made by the last Will and Testament of our Lord. In which thou
were it all to be done over again Now this doth add new evidence of the certainty of the Promise and ought to add new degrees of strength to our Faith How sure must those Promises be which are the Promises of one unchangable and who repenteth nothing which he hath spoken Away then with unbelief and doubts banish them all from thy soul If thou wouldst but love thy Lord in truth of heart if thou grievest for thy deadness and non-proficiency if thou strivest to walk more worthy of thy relation unto Christ and of his love to thee be not too much dejected Thy Lord foresaw this and hath provided a pardon for and help against it and notwithstanding all the baseness thou confessest and bewailest in thy self Christ would make the same VVill if he were to make it anew and give thee as much as he hath done Raise up thy Faith therefore and at the Sacrament be think thy self Here are the Promises reduced to the form of a last VVill that they might be sure and they are so disposed by my Lord who foresaw all that can discourage me and who would not change any thing were all to be new done Surely he intends as he speaketh is in very good earnest he will perform that at last which he would not change or alter in the least Oh then I must perswade my self it is all truth which is in these Promises and I should believe them more stedfastly if I did understand them more clearly None can have such equal ground of believing his friend none shall equal me in believing Christ my friend and Lord. 6. Lastly let it be considered for ensuring the promises they are the legacies of one who is sole and supreme judge of all pleas and causes which can arise concerning our Right and Title to them Symbol Nicen. John 5.25 We believe that he shall come to be our Judge is an article of our faith and the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son having appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 who was adjudged by man unto death died and was buried but rose again and shall come to judge Quick and Dead whose sentence shall stand for ever good so he hath a Prerogative Royall peculiar to himself for others last wills are by other men decided if any thing of controversy arise concerning them No man is judge in the case and plea of right between those he hath made joint Legatees but one is the Testator and dieth another is the Judge and interpreter of the Testament whence it doth not seldom fall out that the Legatees are defeated of their right and lose the gift of their Friend and the mind of the Testator is not fulfilled because it is either not understood by the judge or because it must not be understood although indeed it is well enough known this therefore leaves some uncertainty in a man's claim and the event upon trial is sometime a disappointment But here is no such uncertainty in the event for he is Judge who is Testator and he is to declare his own mind of whom we expect the gift and who certainly doth well understand his own mind Besides in expecting and claiming the Legatee shall assuredly have all the favour shewed him that hee needeth It is a rule in law that wills should be interpreted in the more favourable sense That love which was so great to give the Legacy will be great enough to adjudge it to the Legatee Moreover it is not possible that a case should arise between the Legatees of Christ wherein the one should gain and the other lose for such are the gifts of Christ that they are intire and whole to each one none hath the less for any ones having much so the controversy shall never be but between the soul and its unbeleif fears and doubts between the soul and Satan accusing and impleading it And in this case Christ being Judge of his own Will you may soon say what favourable gracious and merciful judgement he will give and how surely he will adjudge their title good whose faith love and desires sue for it to him Awaken thy self then and look on what sure ground thou standest who hast Promises so full of certainty and unchangeable truth Let thy soul admit no more unbelief than the Promises confirmed by Christ framing them into his last VVill and Testament do admit uncertainty Let not unbelief enter until thou seest uncertainty attend thine expectation from the Will of Christ Reason with thy soul propose the case to thy serious thoughts At a Sacrament I do remember the Death of my Lord Dying and making his VVill wherein is given to me all that which the Sacrament representeth to me remission of sin peace in believing strength to walk with God and after my drinking this wine with his people at his Table Luke 22. The drinking it new with him in his Father's Kingdom This Ordinance is as all other Ordinances of Christ are exceeding full of grace for every one that heartily willeth it and this fulness of grace is bequeathed by VVill this VVill valid and to be judged if any case arise by him who made it Come then Will Christ think you enervate his own Will Can it be imagined that he will not see it performed who lives to be his own Executor who would make no other if he were now to die and make his VVill again Fear not oh believing soul thy claim will be adjudged good doubt not thy Plea of right he is Judge who gave thee the right stagger not through unbeleef He did designedly give thee all assurance possible not to prevent any unfaithfulness in himself but to prevent all infidelity in thee Not to confirm his own word by any new arguments or new bonds which might be sure to hold if others did break for his word and promise is faithfullness and truth but to confirm thy faith and that if unbeleef broke through some yet it might not break through others if it did prevail with the soul against any one it might not prevail against every one of the encouragements and perswasives to believe Weigh well the certainty of those promises which are confirmed by the last will of such I say of such a Testator who changeth not who cannot be overruled by any superiour Judge and then say how great your perswasion of the truth of them should be It should be great faith that hath such great assurance and strong perswasion which hath such perswasives Oh that our faith were porportioned to the ground of faith laid down before us in this very matter there can be no colour of doubt where these grounds and perwasives of our belief are rationally considered Bring therefore to the Sacrament an extract of the promises set them in order before your eyes see them all summarily contained in that one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 22.20 This is
goods which assimilate and render our persons like unto God in holiness goods which render our state like to his in happiness in both which we are not straitned by the narrowness of the gift but by the narrowness of our natures we might have more given could we receive it we are straitned in our own selves as the Apostle said in another case What the goodness of the gift is to allure and wooe us to desire it I shall not here repeat but refer you to the foregoing sect sect 2. pag. 67. and seq Hoping you are able to apply goodness the object of your Hope unto your desires that it may be the object of them He can do but litle that cannot desire that were his possession which is the Hope of every Christian I never knew any Hope which could not easily run out into desires especially if attended with this Sect. 2. 2. A fair possibility of grasping our desired good I know a naked possibility makes Good the object of my desire I may desire what I may obtain but a fair possibility or promising probability commands my desire Desire and a supine negligence is as culpable as a desponding backwardness when such an invitation awakeneth our diligence and encouragerh our Hope It was the possibility of the attempt which made blind Bartimaeus to cry Mat. 10.47 this gave life to his desire and his desire groweth as the possibility grew to a probability his mind was quicker than his body and he rose the sooner when he heard he was called for the like motive prevail'd with the woman who had a bloody issue it were no hard task to illustrate this farther but I must descend to veiw what particular possibility there is of interessing the longing desiring heart What fair promising liklyhood of satisfaction to our desires after a portion and share in the Legacies of Christ Now there are four things which clear up the possibility of thy success 4 Evidences of a possible success whoever thou art that dost desire and long after a share in these great and good things 1. 1. Others have succeeded The success of others who once were as unlikely as thou art there is not one among the heires and Legatees but at first was as far off and as unlikely to speed as thou They were at as great distance from Christ cared as little for him saw as little of their need of him were as secure in their poverty as thou art and yet many such have been admitted to a share in the riches and goodness of these Legacies And why shouldest thou bar thy self why shouldest thou not try with Hope what others have tried and effected with success the desire of persons as bad as thou art have been granted when they have wished desired prayed for the sanctifying beautifying pardoning saving gifts of this great Testator O then wish heartily desire unfeignedly pray fervently and thou shalt certainly speed for such desires have the promise 2. Desires such as we speak of 2. Such Desire are heirs of the Promises are the heirs of the promises Christ hath engaged himself by promise to be their riches their righteousness their happiness who thus desire him this the seeking which shall find this the knocking which will at last prevail for admission Christ who seldom or indeed never I think humoured the curiosity of any man's desire yet did graciously lay his journey by the Sycamore Tree that Zacheur might have what he desired a sight of the Messiah and that he might meet with salvation too which I doubt not was part of his desire mixt with a small portion of curiosity He would see the person of that wonder-worker whose works bespake a beleif that he was the Messiah and this Messiah gave all that Zacheus desired and as much as he could Hope 3. 3 Christ is very willing they should succeed The willingness of Christ to satisfy such desires evinceth the possibility of thine attaining an interess in his last Will. Never was any soul so willing to receive the Legacy as Christ is to give it Christ gives the desires after the Legacy and then gives the Legacy to those desires wert thou to treat with one who were hard to be intreated thou couldst have but a faint possibility Now thou treatest with one that is easy to be intreated thou hast fair probability to encourage thy desires Christ willingly came to seek thy good when thou didst not desire it and surely he willingly and readily will shew it and cause thee to find it when thou desirest to seek it He will be found of them that seek him since he was so gracious as to be found of them that sought him not 4. 4. Christ delighteth to distribute his riches to Desires The delight which Christ taketh in dividing his riches among such as thus desire them proves thou art within a possibility of getting a share in them he delights to give more than thou canst delight to receive The giving them pleaseth him as much as the gifts can please thee A Dying Friend never made his last Will nor disposed rich Legacies to his best beloved and highest prized Friend with that delight which was in the heart of Christ towards such as thou art if thou desirest him and it will now highly please him to give thee investiture and possession of all that which he designed for the Desiring soul Now if Christ do delight to give what thou desirest to receive mayest thou not rather triumph and glory in a certainty of receiving than languish under the fears of impossibility to obtain them what can restrain thee from doing what thou delightest in and hast power to do or dost thou think more hardly of Christ than thou wouldest have thy Friend think of thee dost thou who art but a cistern delight to satisfy the desires and to sedate the thirst of thy Friend and will not the fountain the ocean of goodness delight to satisfy thy desires and to cool allay and remove the heat of those desires which are the torture of the soul until they are satisfied Whilest Christ is what he is thy desires have a possibility to animate them and to draw thy soul into rational expectations of finding admission with the rest of those who seek their treasures in him These two grand primary and choicest ingredients of what is desireable goodness to satisfy our expectations and possibility to encourage our endeavour are we find in this project Now there is a third external requisite in that which is desirable and that is Sect. 3. The Object of the Desires qua tale is apprehended as absent and distant Dr. Reynolds of Passions c. 16. 3. A partial absence or distance of that possible good from the soul desiring and pursuing it What we desire must not be too far distant lest it seem impossibile desires are the wings of the soul by which it travels toward its rest if the journey seem too
the Death of Christ the Testatour so that thou and I are beholding to Christ a Testator for all the riches of grace consolation and glory Well worthy of thine and my praise thanks and hearty acknowledgments is Christ therefore for that he by his Death hath procured and by will hath entitled us unto such great and glorious advantages and benefits 2. Christ a Testator hath deserved thy most grateful resentments of his love for that he hath by this means removed all thy fears and prevented all thy doubts least at any time thou shouldst by reason of thy weak faith and defective love fall short of the goodness and blessings thou expectest for this as other Testaments is of force now that the Testator is dead and since he is dead none may either null it or alter it but it must continue for ever in strength And on this consideration of certainty and validity doth the Apostle Gal. 3.15 advance the excellency of the promises made to Abraham and to Abraham's seed Now what ever doth advance the excellency of the promises made to us doth likewise advance our debt of thankfulness for the promises 3. Christ a Testator is worthy of our highest Gratitude for so much as he hath by his last Will and Testament disposed of his rich inheritance amongst us so as we may duly expect and constantly fetch in as much as we will of grace for our present help and comfort reserving the fullness of all unto the final consummation of the elect redeemed Many a man loseth all or else much of his thankes by an unseasonable caution in his will that the Legatees shall have nothing of the gift until such a time to which it is uncertain whether he live but Christ deserveth our admiration as well as our thanks for the present benefit use and advantages we have from his Testament He hath so given that wee may now enjoy we so enjoy now that hereafter we shall receive present enjoyments were not to be compared with future the present improvement is sufficient to keep us handsomely the future is far above mine and your thoughts 4. Christ a Testator worthy of thy thanks for so much as he was thus mindful of thee at the last when enemies insulted and vaunted against him when sorrows and pains did seise him when his Friends stood aloof off and some of them denied him when many were content not to be known of his acquaintance when he foresaw what Friends we in our several generations would be to him for what these persons were under Christ's Eye was both an index or discovery of them and also a symptome or prognostick what we after them would prove And yet for all this his love continued firm to us and made them and us Heirs both of his own and of his Father's love also 5. And lastly consider this Christ a Testator is Christ Voluntarily Dying that he might make all sure to us He was not by nature under an unchangeable law of Death as we are if he had not loved us so much he needed not to have Died here then is his plea and Title unto our Gratitude he did Voluntarily and of choice put himself into a condition that he might dye to procure and confirm the promises to us And yet the kind and manner of Dying and pains he did foresee in his Death are the circumstances which as they set off and advance his love to us so do they increase and augment our debt of a loving hearty resentment of his kindness Sirs Christ must dye a curse under the vindictive justice of God ere he could convey by will the Heavenly blessed and everlasting Legacies which we now expect from him as a Testator Whoso shall cast an Eye upon these particulars if others more quickning do not occur yet these will either perswade to thankfulness or render unthankfulness inexcusable We do usually pick out such circumstances as these to commend the worthiness of our Friends love towards us at his Death he remembred me in what I most needed provided for me as much as I need or can receive he I thank him setled it by will that I might be sure of it And herein I am greatliest beholden to him that as I was unfit to be trusted with all at once and unable to subsist without any of it for present he did in wise kindness to me provide that the main part should be reserved for me and that the lesser be now given unto me So Christ that I might live and rejoice in the present grace of my Lord to me that I might be rich and happy in the possession of the whole when I was fit for and capable of it did wisely bequeath me a portion of peace in him grace from him comfort through him all which I needed but hath reserved fulness of Glory the immarcescible Crown the unchangeable Kingdom the inconceivable and unspeakable blessedness until I should be prepared to enjoy them all herein the love of Christ excelleth insomuch as he did all this for us when sorrows and troubles greater than can be equalled were besetting him nay he put himself into a state subject to all those sorrows and troubles from which by nature he was free that he might be liable to dye and make all this mercy sure to thee and me and such like us by Testament and thou and I must thank him that he did it for us who by our folly and wickedness were the causes of all this sorrow and trouble to him Here is love to be owned with highest rensentments and most enlarged affections Christ is the greatest conquerour of hearts and therefore to be crowned with a triumphant wreath of enflamed hearts oh live and dye in the grateful acknowledgments of his love If as some men will have it his Table where thou suppest with him be an Altar let not this Altar ever want a flaming Sacrifice Let thine heart be offered to him he deserveth more thou canst not tender less it were too little if thou had'st ought more it will be sufficient if thou dost not think it too much Oh my soul thy present income is worth thy thanks thy future full possession is fittest for an estimate and thanks in the highest Heavens CAP. V. Sect. 8. Humility Improved on Christ's Dying a Testator 8. THE eight Sacramental grace I did mention was Humility The proud and lofty heart bearing it self high upon its own deceived opinion is not fit for the Lords Table and Supper the Lord stands not as an endeared Friend to entertain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 4.6 Psal 22.26 but as an armed man to oppose the proud 'T is the meek shall eat and be satisfied as the Psalmist in anocase said who come to the Lords Table richly provided with their self-confidences are sent empty away Luk. 1.53 1 Pet. 5.5 whilst he filleth the hungry with good things In this clothing must we appear for however plain it may seem to be
continuing of me in my free noble and honourable condition If I depart from Christ through unbelief I shall go from honour to dishonour from excellency to baseness from the noble state of a Son to the ignoblestate of a servant of a slave And I know the considerate soul will not easily return to the baseness and ignominy of such a state No! no! Faith in my dying Lord did set me free from such baseness and advanced me to the dignity I now enjoy and my persevering confirmed faith will and must preserve and confirm me in that dignity This prerogative my Dying Lord purchased for me whenever I would believe this prerogative he gave me so soon as ever I did believe and there is none can take it from me so long as I do believe oh let me believe for ever that I may have it for ever I would never lose this honour I will never leave my Lord. Whilst thou art able to make the best of this Death of thy Lord commemorated in the Sacrament and presented to thy faith which is done on purpose that thou mayest make the best of it thou canst resolve or conclude nothing less than that thou wilt adhere now faster than ever In this manner may the Humiliation the Desires the Purposes of the Soul be wrought drawn forth and confirmed upon the consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us The sight of our cursed state will lay us low and convince us the sight of a deliverance by Christ will make us desire that deliverance may be ours and then knowledge of its being ours upon first believing and that it shall be ours so long as we believe will perswade us to look that our faith continue lest unbelief should reduce us into the misery of a Curse whence we almost escaped And let it be next observed 4. That Love to God and unto Christ 4th Sacramental grace Love to God and Christ is another Sacramental grace which I am sure will be well improved by a due consideration of Christ dying a Curse for us I do verily suppose it needless to attempt the proving of this every one knows that Love to Christ is a necessary and suitable grace for a Communicant God requires that every one of his servants should love him and serve him with all the heart in every duty much more in this which is a more solemn and more than ordinary one If thou wilt come to the Table of the Lord thou must come with love to the Lord of the Table thou must not come with enmity in thy heart nor with a sword in thy hand They are friends who are invited to eat and drink with Christ at his Table and it is a monstrous incongruity to sit down as though you would friendly feast Cant. 5.1 and yet watch a season to muther the guests or him that invites you God will not have an Absolon ' s feast in which one of the guests was murthered nor will he have a feast like the unhappy Phocus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose guests slew him It is the express will of our Lord that we come to his Table in love and charity with our Brethren and in love and with sincere affections to our Lord. We must here feast without the sowre leven of malice against our Brethren and without the swelling leven of hypocrisie toward God Now let me a little point out what inducements are in this Death of Christ to draw forth our love to our Lord and so let it be considered 1. Did my Lord die an accursed Death for me do I now celebrate the memorial hereof Would he have done this if he had not loved me as his own life It was a love that is ever to be blessed by me which made my Lord take on him a Curse for me Greater love than this could not be shewn to me and less than love to him for it cannot not be tendred by me Is Love the loadstone of Love and doth not thy heart stir toward Christ when he draws it with this attractive When he calls Look upon my Living Love in my cursed Death and give me what you judge a reasonable acknowledgment for my Love and when the considerate soul looks on this it is ready with David to say What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness What shall I render to God the Father who laid my Guilt Punishment and Curse on my Blessed Redeemer What shall I render to the Lord Jesus Christ unto God the Son who took this heavy load upon him What shall I render to God the Holy Ghost who supported the humane nature of my Blessed Redeemer that he should not fail nor be discouraged in this great work under this weighty burthen Oh Blessed Love of the Glorious Trinity worthy of an infinite Love though a finite creature is not able to give it Lord my Love shall be endless though it cannot be boundless though it is narrow it shall not be short I will make up its defect of intenseness with an addition of endless date let thy Love to me which caused thee to die once for me an accursed Death be a spring and source of Love in my soul to thee of such a Love as shall never die Lord thou deservest more than I can give but I would not be unwilling to give as much as thou deservest It was matchless Love that the Prince of Life would die for condemned subjects But 't is methinks more that the Lord of glory over all God Blessed for evermore should take upon him Death with a Curse 2. Do I celebrate the Death of my Lord dying a Curse for me why then oh my soul thou dost this day in this duty call to mind Christ's taking on him all faults and bearing all thy blame being content that thy faults should be accounted to him and that if there be as certainly there wlil be anger for it he will bear it Oh what endeared Love do servants in a family bear to that Son who is willing to excuse the servants fauls and to bear their blame to make up their peace and to continue them in or restore them to their offices again Reader whoever thou art that readest these lines it is thy case Thou oâ—est unto Christ the Eternal Son of God all thy innocence all thy safety all thy peace all thy continuance in the family of God unto Christ I say thou owest it for thou hadst sinned and provoked God thy Master and Lord he had cursed thee and would have damned thee he had declared thine office in his house void and would have turned thee out and then thou must have said with the unjust Steward what shall I do when God thus deals with me how shall I live Dig I cannot beg I am ashamed I shall be accursed on Earth and accursed iâ— Hell for ever oh thus had it been with me if my Lord Jesus had not stept in and took my faults upon him Blessed
be that Love which hath so loved me Let him carry away all my affection who thus hath carried all my transgressions He shall have my love whilst I live by whose love it is that I live Oh let my love at the Sacrament revive where there is the revived memory of my Lord his love to me None but those foolish and mad creatures who are in love with their faults and with their misery will withhold their love from Christ who delivered us from both 3. Did Christ die such a death in thy stead let this then awaken thee to consider how thou wouldst resent another mans suffering for thee and speak what interess thy friend should purchase in thy affections by his undergoing afflictions for thee Wouldst thou love thy rich friend that took thy debts on him wouldst thou do less than dearly love thy skilful friend that cured thee of thy disease thy powerful friend at Court who rescued thee from a prison thy watchful friend who kept strict and careful watch lest thou shouldst be surprised and ruin'd whilst thou wert sleeping secure in greatest danger and in greatest ignorance and security But what wouldst thou say if thy friend should deliver thee from thine by making it his own disease or should go into a prison that thou mightest go out of it or expose himself to ruine that thou mightest be indemnified Just so did Christ for thee he did bear thy disease and took thy sickness upon him he became a prisoner first to unjust hands seizing on him and then to the grave which could not hold him yet a while he was a prisoner there for thy sake in thy stead and what acknowledgment wilt thou make of all this How wilt thou certifie the Christian world that thou dost well resent what Christ hath done if thou wilt not love him for doing it Thou lovest those that speak well of thee that bless thee that wish well to thee and endeavour to do thee good and what law reason or equity wilt thou pretend why thou dost not love Christ who speaks best of thee to his Father and who wished best to thee and hath done most for thee and all this by his dying a Curse for thee Let thy own heart ponder this and draw to a conclusion what ought to be done in this case say Had any man whom I know done this for me which Christ hath done I could not but love him and why do I not love Christ if I did see my friend loaded with curses and reproaches and bearing them patiently for me that I might not be reproached that I might not be cursed it would endear such a friend to me why now in the Sacrament the visible memorial of Christ's dying a Curse for me I do see such a friend so loaded for my sake that I might not be loaded with my deserved Curse I may not I will not be less to him than I would be to another I will love him more than any else for he hath done more for me than all could and I see it in the Sacrament the blessed memorial of his cursed Death Fourthly and lastly Is the Sacrament of the bloody Death of Christ a memorial of his dying an accursed death for me oh then I see the evidence of a love to me which surpasseth the love of best friends which indeed exceeds the thoughts and belief of most considerate men For who will believe beside a Christian who is taught by the revealed word of the God of truth that Christ would become a Curse for us Some men will hardly believe that the Apostle spake his very thoughts when he wished that he himself were accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen after the flesh Some judge it so inconsistent with reason that they think the Apostle could not soberly sedately and rationally desire it but that he did use the liberty and freedom of an Orator to commend his greatest affection to his kindred by a greater expression But behold Reader Paul's wish for his kindred is Christ's own act for his what Paul wisht but could not do for his brethren Christ hath undertook and undergone for his brethren What some do think was too great for a rational and sober desire in the one hath been found not too great for the choice and performance of the other Now let Christ have but a serious view of this he hath done for thee and answer thy self this or such like questions Is that too little to engage my love which was too great for any to undertake but Christ Do I see Christ doing that which few men will believe a man could wish he mght do and do I still withhold my heart my affection from Christ Do I know that his love was stronger than death he was content to be accursed for the sake good life and salvation of Believers I see him for a while separated from God that he might bring me to God and now he shall have that love which is too great for any one since he hath done what is so great for me In the fifth place 5. Joy in believing a Sacramental grace The Believer's Joy is or at least might be considerably improved in the commemoration of Christ dying as a Curse for us It is not to be questioned whether joy and rejoycing through faith in the Lord be seasonable in our feasting with the Lord. Joy is the souls rest with delight in the Lord and such a disposition of mind doth the Lord require and accept at this seast Now let us observe how that his dying a Curse for us may increase our joy and this may appear 1. From the Nature of Joy which is the triumph of the mind in its freedom and deliverance from its fears or in its attaining and possessing of its hopes It is a rational security of our best hopes and a due removal of our worst fears singing a rest and happiness to the soul Joy is the rapture of our soul hearing and observing desired events sweetly keeping tune with our desires and hopes It is the Tripudium Animae the soul's dance to the Musick which the God of Heaven makes for it If there be any exstasies of joy it can be from no other harmony than which is heard not from Pythagoras his melodious spheres but from the Cross of our Blessed Lord seting Heaven and Earth in a blessed concent by his accursed Death The Philosopher will tell us Dilatatio cordis ob bonum praesens that Joy is the dilatation of the soul the enlarging of the heart to entertain a present desired good Good wished for is the Sun the heart is the Heliotrope the flower of the Sun Joy is the opening and turning of this flower towards the Sun This or somewhat like this is Joy Now in what can the soul triumph if not in its freedom from a dreadful Curse What may possibly be imagined will secure the rational hopes and wishes of a Christian better than Christ's
bearing his sin its curse and punishment that Justice may not lay any sentence of condemnation upon it but absolve and acquit justifie and save it Where can the soul better rest and congratulate its happiness in its rest than in a pacified propitious God Tell me who ere thou art reading or hearing these lines canst thou desire more than happiness Is any thing greater and better in thy wishes Certainly either thou knowest not what thou answerest or else dost answer it is thy greatest dailyest hourly desire and that the man or woman who would assure thee of this would fill thy heart with raptures of joy Now behold these desires answered in the Lord Jesus dying to remove that Curse which kept thee from thy happiness If Joy be the enlarging of the heart to entertain a desired good lo here a good worth the entertaining Christ bearing thy Curse lo here a good so great that no heart but an enlarged heart can rightly entertain it Oh be perswaded to receive it and tell me then what affection it raiseth in thy soul Certainly he never feared because he never knew the danger of Hell who doth not greatly rejoyce in his deliverance and escape from it Open but thy heart to receive and thy Joy will as surely break out as the streams do when the springs and fountains are opened Secondly Christ dying a Curse for thee will heighten thy Joy For whatever thou canst approve a ground of Joy in other mens rejoycing without this thou mayest much more approve in thine own rejoycing in this without any other There is very much Joy in the world which is unseemly and there is some which is justifiable seemly and seasonable but whatever makes it so seemly that and much more is in the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us to justifie and warrant the Christian 's Joy I dare stand to plead the Christian's Joy to excel on this account as much as the Joy for recovery of a Crown and Kingdom doth excel the Joy of a wise man for the finding of a Pin. Could a Christian enlarge his Joy to the exceeding greatness of his cause of Joy it would incomparably excel all other mens Joy as much as the recovery from a mortal wound excels the healing of a scratcht finger Indeed all other Joy without this is the unseemly Joy of fools or madmen but this without all other is Joy of wise considerate and knowing men and might we enter the comparison it would appear what trifles men of the world how great soever and how wise soever in the account of the world do rejoice in It is reported of Francis the first recovering the French shore upon his delivery out of his Captivity Je suis le Roy. That he leapt and rejoyced with this I am a King And who that values liberty or safety or power or a Kingdom censureth him for it or doubts whether it were seemly But oh believing soul thou seest at a Sacrament a worse prison a more doleful Captivity crueller enemies and more deadly dangers left behind thee and thou set at liberty in a more blessed safety and entitled to a Crown and Kingdom as much better as Heaven is better than France was and this by Christ's Death as it was an accursed Death to free thee from the Curse The men of the world rejoice in their full harvests The victorious Conqueror rejoiceth in the dividing of the spoils The ambitious Courtier rejoiceth in his Court-preferment But what Joy will the Barns and Stores of the wealthy man be when he dies the accursed Death and with Dives is tormented in endless fires Will the Joy of the preferred Courtier continue to him under the disgrace which he shall fall into when God shall arrest imprison condemn and execute him as an accursed wretch What will become of the Joys of Victories and Triumphs when the Crowns shall wither before the hot displeasure of God and when the crowned Conqueror shall be delivered up an accursed wretched prisoner and captive in eternal chains In few words there are many daggers lifted up and striking at the Joy of every man who rejoiceth in any thing but the Cross of Christ and first or last some one or other of these daggers will reach the heart and let out the life of such Joys But the Believer's Joy in the Death of Christ dying a Curse for him is a Joy which is immortal and cannot be destroyed It is a Joy will most gloriously crown the Believer when other mens Joys do most shamefully forsake deceive and torture them If then any may rejoice the Believer may much more and this he may do at every remembrance of his Redeemer's dying a Curse for him And such renewed remembrance of our cause of Joy will undoubtedly renew our Joy he may rejoice still more than yet he hath rejoiced who seeth he hath more to rejoice in than all the jovial merry world ever shall have Thirdly Renewed Meditations of Christ's dying such a Death for us will renew our Joy appeareth from this That our Joy will be most full satisfactory and transporting to us when we come to the distinctest fullest and liveliest knowledge and apprehension of this Death of Christ They who most fully apprehend and who most particularly apply the Benefits of this Death to themselves who live upon it and know what life it is how excellent how happy c. These are fullest of purest Joy and truly as we abate in our ability and skill to meditate on this Death of Christ or as we abate in the exercise and actual meditation and thought of Christ's dying for us as a Curse the more our Joy will abate also The Saints in glory do now rejoice and will forever rejoice for they do ever behold the scars which this Curse hath left in Christ they ever remember that Christ dying a Curse hath given them that blessed Life in which they ever shall rejoice Now what it hath wrought on them and what it will work one day upon us proveth to us what it might work in us at the present It hath now all in it which it ever will have but we have not all in us which we shall have when this dying of our Lord shall fill us with a never-dying or abating love to him who did it and with Joy in the thing done for us The reason why the Believer rejoiceth more in the sight of Christ dying a Curse for him as his distinct knowledge of it groweth is not that his knowledge addeth any thing to it but because his knowledge of it now maketh more of that Death which appeared not so much then to his own eye so his Joy groweth with his knowledge But now it is not so with other Joys they lessen as our knowledge of them increaseth and those which at distance we flattering our selves hoped would be pure and deep sweet and lasting as a Crystal stream prove to us when we come nearer and
Lord give me a heart knowing how to turn this kind of my Lord's Death into what Joy is hidden in it and I know my heart will need no other will desire none but this Again in the sixth place A peaceable 6th Sacramental grace peaceable disposition to the Brethren compassionate and tender affection toward our Brethren our fellow Christians is a Sacramental Grace a disposition of mind which is never out of season and is most in season at a Sacrament Christians should ever live in charity but they should feast with their Lord and with their Brethren in highest measures of charity When they thus feast they should embrace each other when they walk together it should be hand in hand This Love-feast must not be allayed with any mixture of sowre murmurings bitter envyings or unsavoury grudges of discontent The Apostle doth give us a most excellent Rule for this 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Purge out the old leaven c. Let us therefore keep the feast not in the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice c. In malice we should ever be children but especially at the Lord's Supper I will not urge reasons why we must be thus affected each to other when we come to the Table of the Lord for it is so universally known by all and it is so necessary among many other graces that too many think this alone sufficient to prepare men for the Lord's Supper It is true who hath all other but hath not this preparatory is unfit Whosoever wants this alone is not fit though this alone will not fit him for the Lord's Table The want of this must keep him back from this Supper until he hath a mind full of sincere and true love to all men especially to all the invited guests of the Lord. Supposing therefore that it is nothing doubted peaceable affections and compassionate tender love or charity to the Brethren is a Sacramental Quality I shal insist a little on the manner how this may be improved and advanced by the Death of Christ dying an accursed Death for us And so 1. First When thou art at the Lord's Supper and seest a few of thy Christian Brethren there to celebrate the Death of thine and their Lord dying a Curse this in all likelihood will be thy first reasoning upon it If Christ died a Curse for us then were we all under a Curse then were we all plunged in misery all were under the guilt of sin and under the wrath of God and what tongue can tell what this is or what heart can think of it and not be compassionately tender over such poor creatures Can your obdured hardened hearts hear the groans of men tormented with the Strangury or Gout or Stone Can you look upon the miseries of an Hospital without yearning bowels or can you look upon the tortures of one wracked and torn upon a wheel or between wild horses without a wish oh that I might deliver them what kind of hearts do you bear toward persecuted murthered and tormented Christians when you see the pictures of them or read the history of them do not your hearts drop into tender compassions toward them Why now look on Christ dying a Curse he is the lively picture of thine and their woful state it is to be seen in his Death read over the story of Christ accursed it is the story of thy most woful state and of the miserable state of them who are now communicating with thee they were with thee sinful guilty dying creatures which ere long must have been groaning sighing howling under the avenging wrath of the Almighty if Christ had not thus died for thee and them Look upon them say as indeed they were behold what was saved of my shipwrack These were tossed in the same vessel dashed on the same rock taken up helpless and lifeless c. with me Oh I never see them but it comes into my thoughts and my heart my heart weeps over our common danger We do so often renew our compassionate affections toward our companions in dangers as the sight of them renews the thoughts of our danger That which in a different case David said When I remember these things I pour out my soul within me The soul redeemed from the Curse will be able to say when I remember these things compassion and tenderness are poured out The remembrance of a common danger Nihil ad misericordiam sic inclinat atque proprii periculi cogitatio August Misericordia est vicina miseriae Seneca de Clem. is a most prevailing enducement to compassion The Philosopher could tell us That this Pity is a neighbour to misery Whence likely it was that the Lord did enjoyn the Israelites to shew a hearty compassion unto afflicted strangers for They know the heart of a stranger for they were strangers in Aegypt We must compassionately and tenderly love wish well and affect those whose hearts we know for so much as we were in like case Now this is one part of our brotherly love or charity here it begins though it doth not end here This tenderness of heart is like the pith or tender pulp which runneth through the whole body of the tree This indeed is the Root on which the delightful Tree grows and from which the beautiful fruits of love do blossome bud increase and ripen And so often you water the root of Love as you do soften and mollify the temper of your heart which is done when soakt in the thoughts of our common danger I shall close this particular with that piercing Question Matth. 18.33 Shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee How shall we answer this Question if the consideration of our common danger do not stir up in us a love of compassion to others what bowels hast thou if they do not now yearn and move towards them We are apt to pity those whose tormenting diseases and sharp pains we have felt and if ever we felt the inward sorrow and trouble of an accursed state we shall pity such who are under it and with tender affection demean our selves towards those who were under it it will renew our sympathy and this will renew our love to them But Secondly In the remembrance of Christ's dying a Curse for us there is the renewing of a most self-abasing and humbling consideration Now the renewal of this will be a very likely means to improve our love which is a humble self abasing grace So that what increaseth our humility will increase our charity Solomon tells us that onely by pride cometh contention and our own experience proveth the proud man neither sit to be chosen for a loving friend nor to be trusted as one that will be constant in his friendship and love such an one will be ever breaking the laws of friendship of which the Apostle discoursing 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. tells us that it neither vaunteth it self nor is puffed up
Indeed he can see no cause of vaunting himself who views himself in this cursed condition represented and confirmed to us by Christ's undergoing it for us Something or other there must be indeed or must be thought to be which shall exalt a man above his neighbour and brother Now when it appeareth that it was equal guilt and misery under which thou and I and every one did lye until Christ redeemed us this cuts off all vaunts and proud boasting of our selves above others and where pride is laid thus low and taken out of the way there meek and peaceable deportment outwardly and meek and peaceable temper inwardly do spring up and flourish This will prevent all increase and growth of malice and dislike for whatever thou canst find in thy Brother to dislike the same or as bad is found in thee for before grace appeared to you you were both accursed both rebels against God both condemned by the Law of God both alike miscreants and vile nor may dislike fester and ranckle into malice against thy Brother For if the Grace of God hath taken occasion from his vile miserable condition to be and appear grace indeed to him who art thou darest make it an occasion of wrath or malice I know the reasonings of a believer toward believers are of another nature and tendency they all savour of humility and peaceable dispositions and forbidding all proud quarrels and hushing them with some such reflection upon our selves and our condition such was I but I obtained mercy Alas how are we mistaken if we think we may boast our selves in the difference between us and others for who made us to differ There was much of reason in the penitent Thief when he took up and reproved the railings reproaches and blasphemies of the other Luk. 23.20 Doest thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation This ought to have humbled him and kept him in a peaceable behaviour and mind towards those who were dying with him Oh let us manifest a humbled soul a mind abased and laid low with our guilt and vileness let us manifest such a mind by meek peaceable loving disposition towards our Brethren who were first our Brethren in a Curse but now are our Brethren in Christ Certainly nothing doth more become pardoned sinners than such a peaceable behaviour and disposition Nor do I know a more natural genuine fruit of our peace with God through Christ than this our peaceable mind and behaviour towards men when Angels shewed the glad tydings viz. Salvation through Christ they did also proclaim peace on earth so must we when God makes us glad with this salvation 3. Again thirdly In the remembrance of Christ dying a Curse for us there is renewed the remembrance of forgiveness and pardon granted of God to us The Believer communicating at the Lord's Table doth there see himself pardoned and the like pardon offered unto others also through Christ dying a Curse for them Now this doth mightily perswade with the Believer to lay aside all occasions and ground of quarrel and so doth much more promote this brotherly love increasing it both in the habit of charity disposing the mind to it and in the exercise and acts of it in our behaviour and converse among Christians That which God hath done for us teacheth us what we are to do for others when God might justly and righteously have cursed us and refused us peace he did for Christ's sake free us from the Curse and entred confirmed and still keeps peace with us Now saith the considerate Believer I must be like my Heavenly Father he hath accursed but one thing for which he hath not yet for which he never will have thoughts of peace and I must never make or keep a peace with that accursed thing with sin But since it hath been the good pleasure of my Heavenly Father to make peace for such who were cursed and seeing he hath made them blessed by this peace I must with better mind though I cannot in better words say with Balaam Num. 23.20 Behold I have received Commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot reverse it When any grudge envy or dislike would solicit thee to break the law of Brotherly Love ask but this question Is God at peace with this man with whom I am ready to break If God be his friend and at peace with him it is my best course and most advised to be at peace with him also and keep and make him my friend It is reported in the Life of Marius that cruel man that if he saluted not the man he met Plutarch in vit C. Marii his souldiers took it for the token that such a one must not live But if he saluted any one no hurt was done to him At this present I tell you no hurt must be done by you or me to such whom the Great God saluteth as he did Abraham and as he doth still salute Abraham 's seed calling them friends As then the renewed use of the Lord's Supper is a renewed testimony of God reconciled unto us and a renewed profession of our friendship unto God so it will be a renewing of our friendship with those who are so blessed and happy in their alliance unto the Lord who is also our God Moreover suppose flesh and blood could pretend an occasion of contention and quarrel with thy Christian Brethren summon them to put in their Bill and make their plea before Christ who once died a Curse for thee and them let the grievances be rightly stated and hearken what Christ would say to thee that contendest He would surely tell thee that he did not stand upon greater injuries done to him but did bear them and forbear thee in them witness thine own appearance at the Sacrament where thou professest to believe that Christ died an accursed death for thee and dost thou dare to retain the thoughts the remembrance of farthing dammages done to thee in that very place and at that time where thou renewest the remembrance of many talent-dammages by thee done to God all forgiven to thee by thy God who thereupon requireth thee to forgive others How silent and speechless will the merciless unpeaceable man be when God shall make him read over such places as these Shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee And if ye from your heart forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses And he shall have judgment without mercy who showed no mercy Come then thou froward peevish unpeaceable soul look what Christ hath purchased and prepared for every Believer he hath purchased a peace for them he hath for them prepared a blessed peace through his bearing a Curse for them and he hath sealed and confirmed this peace taking away every thing that might break it and this peace made thus thou art now again confirming with God among
Love of Christ and be thankful to him for us Remember the daies of thy fears when thou wouldst have welcomed the news of thy pardon and received it on thy knees with ten thousand praises to thy God Remember the anguish of thy soul when the Arrows of the Almighty stuck fast and the poison thereof drunk up thy spirits what pains wouldst thou have taken then what cost wouldst thou gladly have been at to procure thy soul's peace and ease When thou thoughtest Hell would be thy tormenting prison for ever and thou lookedst on it as the greatest evil because thou shouldst bear thy sins there for ever and never have one smile from God what thankfulness didst thou then think was meet for thee to pay and for Christ to receive Oh let not this be forgotten when thou comest to commemorate the Death of thy Lord say then and think so Here is the blood of my loving gracious Redeemer who was content to be made a Curse for me that I might not slavishly fear my guilt nor be in Hell a So Francis Spira thought spake of his fears and tears before I came to Hell that I might not go mourning under the heavy burthen of my own easeless pains which were worse than death it self those fears terrours and pains which no tongue can describe my blessed Redeemer delivered me from them and duly confirms it to me in minding me that he died and that he died being made a Curse for me I must therefore mind my debt of thankfulness I vowed at least promised and purposed never to forget that more thankfulness was due to Christ then I could ever pay Let my renewed view of this blood so affect me oh my dearest Lord at every Sacrament that it may ever renew my thankfulness until thankfulness be so perfected that I may never more need a Sacrament to put me in mind of this my duty Thirdly The renewed thoughts of Christ dying thus accursed for us will add to our thankfulness In that the heart of a Believer meditating on this may conclude he is judicially acquitted from the charge laid in against him by the Law This charge is sin deserving death to which charge every one must make his plea and bring it to an issue in which process there will be no denying of the charge it is so undeniably true that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God only the believing soul hath a gracious Redeemer who stept in between the passing of the righteous sentence and the execution of it and offered Bail body for body life for life took upon himself the Curse which was all the Law threatned and died thus a Curse for the Believer so that now he may sue for his discharge and plead for his release Nay he hath the discharge and release offered to him as it were sealed signed and delivered to him at the Sacrament whilst God by his Minister doth put the New Covenant into his hand and shews him that blood which was shed for confirmation of the Covenant and for remission of the sins of as many as do believe And that we may know how all this can be how sinners can be acquitted and the Curse threatned can be avoided we are at every Sacrament minded of this that Christ died for us being made a Curse for us that is undertaking and performing what he undertook on our behalf he presented himself to the Justice of God abode the Trial was found in the likeness of sinful flesh humbled himself to the death even the death of the Cross and so suffered all which is exemplified to us in the remembrance of his death considered as the death of one who lay under a Curse for us It is not only entred in the Court Rolls in Heaven but it is entred in the Register-books of the Church by Christ's own order and every believing soul at the Sacrament may see and read it and conclude it for himself and make improvement of it to his comfort Now what heart can look on all this and not look on this duty of thankfulness what soul can receive a pardon under the broad Seal of Heaven and not bow the knee and kiss the Seal When an offender upon indictment and trial is acquitted it is a custom and seemly enough to testifie his thankfulness by praying for the King How much more doth it become us to give thanks at the remembrance of our acquittance absolution and being declared acquitted as we are so often as we duly partake communicate in the blood which was shed for the remission of the sins of many In a word a bare promise of pardon deserveth a grateful acknowledgment but the passing of it under seal doth much more deserve it Had God passed his word onely and required us to believe it and praise him for it we must have done it Now he hath given us greatest assurance he hath proceeded judicially against Christ the common and adequate representative bail and undertaker for us and hath appointed the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as an Authentick and Publick Record or Testimony hereof we ought the rather to be thankful Renewed thoughts of this will renew our judicious and rational praise if we have either judgments or reason exercised in things that excel Fourthly and lastly A fourth particular which will increase our thankfulness to Christ for our deliverance so often as we remember it at a Sacrament under the notion of a deliverance by his dying a Curse for us is this That it mindeth us we were delivered not simply from sorrow trouble and affliction but we were saved from an accursed sorrow from an accursed trouble we are freed from misery but that is not all we are freed from an accursed misery and this should enhance our thankfulness There is an affliction that hath the promise of Comfort Rev. 21.4 Jer. 31.9 Psal 126.5 6. tears that shall be wiped away sorrow and sighing that shall flee away there is a weeping which God will accompany and lead this is a blessed weeping for such carry forth seed which is precious and they shall teturn rejoycing Matth. 5.4 There are mourners whom Christ hath pronounced blessed so that trouble and sorrow are not such evils when they are considered without the imbittering thoughts of a Curse in them it is the Curse which maketh the Cup so full of astonishment It is the Curse which goeth with the condemned into Hell that maketh it Hell indeed unto them Affliction with the favour of God is a blessed state but affliction with the hatred and displeasure of God is a miserable state and unspeakably sad forlorn and woful Now Christ dying a Curse for us hath saved us from sorrows and the Curse from misery aggravated with the hatred of God toward the miserable so that he deserveth much more thanks from us it had been worth our thanks if we had been by him delivered from a bloody issue or a deformed crookedness
Paul to the Romans Both by Tho. Horton D.D. late Minister of St. Hellen's An Analytical Exposition of Genesis and of 23 Chapters of Exodus by G. Hughes D.D. Books 4 to Present State of New England The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration by G. Swinnock M. A. An Antidote against Quakerism by Steph. Scandert An Exposition of the 5 first Chap. of Ezek. with usual observations thereupon by William Greenhill The Gospel-Covenant opened by P. Bulkley God's holy Mind touching matters Moral which he uttered in ten Commandments Also an Exposition on the Lord's Prayer by Edward Eston B. D. The Fiery-Jesuit or an Historical-Collection of the rise encrease Doctrines and Deeds of the Jesuits Horologiographia optica Dyaling universal and particular speculative and practical together with a description of the Court of Arts by a new Method by Sylvanus Morgan The Practical Divinity of the Papist discovered to be destructive to true Religion and mens Souls by J. Clarkson The Creatures goodness as they came out of God's hand and the good mans mercy to the brute creatures in two Sermons by Tho. Hodges B. D. Certain considerations tending to promote Peace and Unity amongst Protestants Mediocria or the most plain and natural apprehensions which the Scripture offers concerning the great Doctrines of the Christian Religion of Election Redemption the Covenant the Law and Gospel and Perfection The Saints triumph over the last enemy in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Jam. Janeway by Nath. Vincent The vanity of Man in his best estate in a discourse on Psal 39.5 at the Funeral of the Lady Susanna Keate by Rich. Kidder M. A. Peaceable Disquisitions by Jo. Humphreys 56 Sermons of Providence by Joh. Collings D. D. Sermons concerning Grace and Temptation by Tho. Froysell The Morning-Lecture against Popery or the Principal Errours of the Church of Rome detected and confuted in a Morning-Lecture preached by several Ministers of the Gospel in or near London Four useful discourses 1 The Art of improving a full and prosperous condition for the glory of God being an Appendix to the Art of Contentment in three Sermons on Phil. 4.12 2 Christian submission on 1 Sam. 3.18 3 Christ a Christians life and death is gain on Phil. 1.21 4 The Gospel of Peace sent to the sons of Peace in six Sermons on Luke 10.5 6. by Jer. Burroughs Dr. Wilds Letter of Thanks and Poems A new Copy-Book of all sorts of useful hands The Saints priviledg by dying by Mr. Scot. The Vertuous Daughter a Funeral Sermon by Mr. Brian The Miracle of Miracles or Christ in our Nature by Dr. Rich. Sibbs The unity and essence of the Catholick Church-visible by Mr. Hudson View of Antiquity by Mr. Jo. Hanmer The intercourse of Divine Love between Christ and the Church or the particular Believing soul in several Lectures on the whole second Chap of Cant. by John Collins D. D. Large Octavo Heart-Treasure or a Treatise tending to fill and furnish the head and heart of every Christian with Soul-enriching treasure of truths graces experiences and comforts The sure mercies of David or a second part of Heart-treasure Heaven or Hell here in a good or bad Conscience by Nath. Vincent Closet-prayer a Christians duty all three by O. Heyword A practical Discourse of Prayer wherein is handled the nature and duty of Prayer by Tho. Cobbet Of quenching the Spirit the evil of it in respect both of its causes and effects discovered by Theophilus Polwhiele The re-building of London encouraged and improved in several meditations by Samuel Rolls The sure way to Salvation or a Treatise of the Saints mystical Union with Christ by Richard Stedman M. A. Sober Singularity by the same Author Heaven taken by Storm The mischief of sin both by Tho. Watson The Childs Delight together with an English Grammar Reading and Spelling made easie both by Tho. Lye Aesop's Fables with morals thereupon in English-Verse The Young-mans Instructor and the Old-mans Remembrancer being an Explanation of the Assemblies Catechism Captives bound in Chains made free by Christ their Surety both by Tho. Doolitle Eighteen Sermons preached upon several Texts of Scripture by William Whitaker The Saints care for Church-Communion declared in sundry Sermons preached at St. James Dukes-place by Zach. Crofton The life and death of Edmund Stanton D. D. To which is added a Treatise of Christian-conference and a Dialogue between a Minister and a Stranger Sin the Plague of plagues or sinful sin the worst of Evils by Ralph Venning M. A. Cases of Conscience practically resolved by J. Norman The faithfulness of God considered and cleared in the great Events of his Word or a second part of the fulfilling of the Scripture The immortality of the soul explained and proved by Scripture and Reason to which is added Faiths-triumph over the fears of death by Tho. Wadsworth A Treatise of the incomparableness of God in his Being Attributes Works and Word by George Swinnock M. A. A discourse of the original c. of the Cossacks The generation of Seekers or the right manner of the Saints addresses to the throne of Grace with an exposition on the Lords-Prayer An Essay to facillitate the Education of Youth by bringing down the rudiments of Grammar to the sence of seeing which ought to be improved by Syncresis by M. Lewis of Totenham An Artificial Vestibulum wherein the sense of Janua Linguarum is contained compiled into plain and short sentences in English for the great ease of Masters and Expeditious progress of Scholars by M. Lewis Speculum Sherlockianum or a Looking glass in which the admirers of Mr. Sherlock may behold the man as to his Acuracy Judgment Orthodoxy A discourse of Sins of Omission wherein is discovered their Nature Causes and Cure by George Swinnock Quakerism no Christianity or a through-Quaker no Christian proved by their Principles and confirmed by Scripture by J. Faldo The Dutch-dispensatory shewing the vertues qualities and properties of Simples the vertue and use of Compounds whereto is added the Compleat Herbalist Small Octavo A defence against the fear of death by Zach. Crofton Gods Soveraignty displayed by William Gearing The godly mans Ark or a City of Refuge in the day of his distress in five Sermons with Mrs. Moors evidences from Heaven by Edmund Calamy The Almost-Christian discovered or the false-Professor tried and cast by M. Mead. The true bounds of Christian-freedom or a discourse shewing the extent and restraints of Christian-liberty by S. Bolton D. D. The sinfulness of Sin and fulness of Christ in two Sermons by Will. Bridg. A Plea for the Godly or the Righteous mans Excellency The holy Eucharist or the Sacrament of the Lords Supper
thee impute thy sin to Christ justice will impute it unto thy own self View these these things and weigh them impartially possibly they may prevail to the convincing of the heart of its sinful state and of the certainty of a future imputation of sin unless it be prevented by repentance And lest thou shouldst flatter thy self that there is little or no danger in appearing before God under imputed sin I advise thee to consider Sect. 3. The greatness of thy danger as it will appear in thy Sacrifice See if thou mayest not descry 1. Death as certainly following thy Sacrifice as imputation of sin did follow the substitution of a Sacrifice He must die who took thy sin upon him he cannot escape who is thy Sacrifice If Christ taking thy sin on him could not have the Cup pass from him thinkest thou there can be any thing but death awaiting thee under thy sin is not here danger is not here great danger I know not what may be accounted danger if death be not I know not what is greatest danger if death under imputed sin be not 2. Was not the Death of Christ thy Sacrifice full of sorrows and grief he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 and if his life were spent in sorrows I am sure his death was full of them Look on him his in agony in the garden explain me the meaning of those unparalleld drops of blood tell me the story of his enemies cruelly buffetting spitting crowning him with thorns and forcing those into his tender temples his blessed head These were preparatory griefs was ever grief like this this thy sin deserved this thou must if Christ had not suffered thou must have been the scorn and triumph of Devils who forever would torment and wrack thee What then judgest thou of death thus aggravated what thinkest thou of the grief and pain of his soul when hands and feet were nailed to the Cross when he hanged there under the sharp pains of a lingriug death what grief was that breath'd out it self in that My God My God why hast thou forsaken me I speak not of the acuteness of his pains which the School-men speak of Let me obtain thy sober thoughts of the sorrows of our Dying Saviour and Sacrifice and then say whether there is danger and how great the danger of thy sin is then say canst thou think of thy danger without fear and astonishment what will become of sinners under the burthen of sorrows which their sins deserve and God will heap upon them 3. View the person who thus suffered view him I say in all his Interresse in the Father's love in all the Priviledges of his nature person and office in all the perfection and excellency of his obedience and see whether any one or all these could exempt him from or defend him against that flame thy sins had kindled and which his blood alone must quench or it will burn for ever and when thou hast thought of this then tell me thy danger 4. Was not his power and strength the power and the strength of a God united to the Humane Nature to support it and yet for all this his Fears Dangers Sorrows were enough to try all his power and albeit he conquered yet not without a bitter conflict How then couldest thou have escaped or born these dangers Thus make an unconvinced heart look on sin in it's Sacrifice make a self flattering secure fearless heart look on the certainty and greatness of it's own danger in the sorrows and grief which fell upon Christ our Sacrifice when thou hast proceeded thus far in this Matter bring thy self to determine these two things 1. whether thou canst bear all the misery which sin deserved and all the sorrows this Sacrifice did sustain Canst thou bear the displeasure of the Almighty if thou think'st thou canst I pity and mourn for thee if thou thinkest thou canst not then 2. say canst thou find out a way for thine escape if the infinit wise God hath not found out any expedient beside this dost thou think thou canst find it out well then if it be intollerable and thou canst not bear it if unavoidable and thou canst not fly from it what remaineth but being shut up under sin as the Scripture speaketh thou shouldst also be shut up in Prison reserved for the day of Execution without any hope in thy self for thou readest thy guilt in the Imputation of sin to thy sacrifice thou readest thy death and danger in the death of thy sacrifice thou readest despair in the unsupportableness of the misery and in the unavoidableness of it's approaches thou art undone and miserable in thy self which cannot but end in consternation of mind and amazement and likely may break out into such enquiries who can dwell with devouring Fire with everlasting Burnings who shall deliver us from wrath to come how shall I escape such great misery what shall I do to be saved Is there not yet Balm in Gilead is there not a Physician there may not this wound be healed dost thou begin thus to fear and enquire I send thee to this Sacrifice for hope and help Sect. 4. 4. Although the death of thy Sacrifice did preach thy danger and thy helpless state in thy self yet doth it also preach help for thee in another it proclaimeth hope of escape for here is a Sacrifice for sin and where a Sacrifice is admitted the offence may possibly be remitted and the offender may be reconciled They that sought out and prescribed their own sacrifices for their Gods maintained their false hopes by this mean And the carnal Jew mistaking the nature of his sacrifices kept up his presumptuous hopes by the same means concluding his peace was made because the sacrifice is offered But he among the Jews who understood the Institution Nature End and Use of the Propitiatory Sacrifices did obtain at first and did maintain unto the last a sound peace between his God and his soul Where there is an appointed sacrifice there is an open and plain declaration of our apprehensions that 1. Our sins are expiable 2. That sacrifice is the way of expiation And 3. That this sacrifice is believed by us fit to expiate our offence These are the common if not universal suppositions of all sacrificing offenders Now beside these common inducements of our hopes let me acquaint my Reader with two things 1. That God hath admitted this sacrifice whose Death we commemorate in the Sacrament Albeit he checked the formal Jew and rejected the Idolatrous Heathen and their sacrifices witha Who hath required this at your hands yet he never will discourage any one who tenders to him by a hand of faith this Propitiatory Sacrifice He will admit this if thou canst present it to him by faith Lift up therefore the feeble hands the drooping head the fainting heart there is hope nay assurance that sins may be expiated For 2. This Sacrifice is of God's own