committing Treason against God that is repossession of mercy endanger'd to be forfeited But were it a new Covenant we should have some new visible Sign for it which never was Therefore this is the very Soul of mine and every ones Baptismal Consolation that being once done it Seals pardon for all our sins through Christs bloud unto our lifes end BUT as if many Spouts should open into one Cistern so all Comforts conspire to meet in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Nothing else but the actual enjoying of Heaven is above it The Church which dispenseth all the mysteries of salvation can bring forth no better Children that are come to Age can ask no more than the whole portion of their Father's goods that come unto them and what is that but the Bloud of Christ and this is the New Testament in that Bloud Christ is mine his Body is mine his Bloud is mine all is mine O be glad and rejoyce and give honour to the Lord God Omnipotent for the marriage of the Lamb is come Revel 19.7 And the Spirit saith write Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb Verse 9. It is much to be received into a Covenant with God by the former Sacrament is it not more to be kept in Covenant by the other It is much in Baptism to be brought from death to life but what is life without nourishment to preserve it This keeps us in the Lease of the old Covenant that the Years of it shall never run out and expire This is food to keep us in health and strength that we never decay and faint By it we lay hold of the promise Isa 54.10 My kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Then why should I not embolden my heart with holy security against all fears for the Lord hath put himself into my hand and into my mouth and into my Spirit of what then should I be afraid This is that courage which our Liturgy sounds forth as with a shrill Trumpet to all that come to this Banquet well prepared It begins that it is a comfortable thing to all them that receive it worthily it bids us come with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet Conscience it proclaims aloud Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly come unto him So God loved the world c. Come unto me all ye c. This is a true saying c. It hath gathered the Sallies of spiritual joy as it were into a bundle of Myrrhe It adds Christ hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries as pledges of his love and for a continual remembrance of his death to our great and endless comfort And if all this put together will not blandish our Conscience and stablish our joy we would be dull and spirit-broken though an Angel from Heaven should come and say unto us as he did unto Gideon The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour Jud. 6.12 For an Angel of the Lord cannot plead so much to the solace of the heart as the great Angel of the Covenant hath done in these great demonstrations of love as followeth 1. First As Baptism was the former so this is the second visible publication of God's apparent mercy It is not a bare message but a lively apprehension of them by palpable means not in a vision or a dream but in a real Object Call to mind that the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared unto him twice 1 Kings 11.39 Once the Lord hath appeared unto us in the token of his love by Water and once again he appears unto us in the Elements of his Holy Table Twice he hath appeared to bless thee Therefore eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart Eccles 9.7 For if you turn away from Comfort when the Lord hath appeared twice unto you to give it you he will be angry and leave you to a thick darkness of sorrow such as fell upon the land of Aegypt 2. Secondly The Lord can appear Comfortably unto us though with a Sword in his hand and in the midst of a Camp as he did to Josuah Jos 5.13 Or in a flame of fire as he did to Manoah Jud. 13.20 Or in a tempest upon the Sea as he did to the Apostles Matth. 14.27 Or at the Graves mouth as he did to Mary Magdalen Jo. 20.14 But here he appears unto us in a Feast which is a time of innocent delight The glory of God which we look for is set out unto us in that which our senses apprehend for sweetness and pleasure as Luke 22.29 I appoint unto you a Kingdom that ye may Eat and Drink at my Table in my Kingdom which is translated from bodily pleasure to spiritual that in the Heaven of blessedness the Soul shall feed continually as at a Banquet of which we have now a taste in the Kingly provision of Christs Supper It is a Kingly Feast although imparted in a little pittance of Bread and Wine yet it is more costly and precious to that which it signifies than Solomon and all his Court had for their diet day by day 1 Kings 4.22 We are brought to Eat at the King's Table as Mephibosheth was like one of the Kings Sons 2 Sam. 9.11 To Eat together is a Communion of more than ordinary acquaintance do you note the endearing favour of God in that And what are we that are not thrust as our kind might look for it to gather up Crums under the Board but to Eat our portion before the Lord with the Lord out of the hands of the Lord For he that brake Bread and gave it to the Apostles gives it to Us as our High Priest though he be in Heaven I exhort you therefore to enter into the Guest-chamber with a quiet and unshaken heart for the Lord hath not invited us as Absalom did Amnon to kill us nor as Esther did Haman to accuse us but as Melchisedech brought forth Bread and Wine to Abraham to bless us He gives us Asher's portion Bread that shall be fat and Royal dainties Gen. 49.20 Only the case is alter'd if Christ shall say the hand of him that betrays me the hand of him that loves me not the hand of him that believes not in me the hand of him that will not keep my sayings is on the Table That wretch shall be thrown out and be fed with Bread of sorrow and Water of affliction nay where there shall not be a drop of Water to cool his Tongue Thirdly That which astonisheth the Communicant and ravisheth his heart is that this Feast affords no worse meat than the Body and Bloud of our Saviour Those he gave for the life of the world these are the repast of this Supper and these we truly partake For
says that a discontented person challeng'd the Oracle of Delphos that it never gave a comfortable answer That 's your fault says the Oracle for none of you come to me till your case is past help Venimus huc lapsis quaesitum oracula rebus says the Poet that ever keeps decorum in his Verses Therefore awake right early seek the Lord in the first season that the course of misery may not wax too strong and remediless Otherwise the Prophet will say The days of visitation are come the days of recompence are come Israel shall know it Hos 9.7 and then whither will ye flie for help to be delivered But prevent such dismal tribulations while it is called To day For nothing is more Consolatory than seasonable Supplication CHAP. V. How the Sacraments minister to a Christian's Comfort A general Survey of Sacraments Five Reasons why God ordained Two Sacraments under the Gospel What Comforts flow from the Grace of Baptism What Comforts flow from the Lord's Supper THough by that which hitherto hath been set forth I trust I may assume that every one that sets his heart to make use of it hath drunk well yet as the Ruler of the Feast said at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee I have kept the good that is the best Wine until now Jo. 2.10 The water of life in Baptism the wine that delighteth the Spiritual thirst in the Lord's Supper Other things in the Word report unto us what a good land the Lord hath promised to his Israel but these two Sacraments are Caleb and Josuah spies that have seen and searcht the land and bring us sensible and sure tidings that it is a noble land flowing with Milk and Hony by the Grapes which they have brought with them and by their ocular and diligent survey they yield evident testimony that God hath provided a gracious Country for us in the Kingdom of Heaven To put all my work of Consolation into one prospect together Prayer the best comfortable Grace is married to Hope the Holy Ghost gives it in marriage Faith is the Priest that joyns them together and the two Sacraments are the outward signs by which they have declared their consent as it were by giving and receiving a Ring and by joyning of hands First I will treat of Sacraments in general then of each in particular by it self A Sacrament being a visible sign of inward grace as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof or more at large which comprizeth the end of all such outward signs a token to confirm mens Faith in the promises of God observe first That God hath condescended above all expression to our weakness that He would have us to take notice of his mercies in gross and sensible things A way that is framed to our level and dull apprehension For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Jo. 4.24 that 's purely a Heavenly way But some alterations have been admitted to bring us forward in our own pace that is after humane and bodily fancies Deus quandoque insantilia loquitur For our sakes the Lord speaks in the Scriptures in a plain and vulgar Emphasis strangely beneath his Infinite wisdom as a nurse useth to babble to her Infant So He is pleased to give himself to our hands to our eyes to our taste in common and obvious matter but out of his surpassing wisdom to make us more spiritual by cloathing Religion in a bodily attire The Church began in innocency and yet it began with a Sacrament the Tree of life instituted to keep mankind on Earth immortal by tasting it if Adam had not ambitiously eaten of the Tree of knowledge When the old world was drowned and repaired again God told Noah Gen. 9. I do set my Bow in the cloud and it shall be for a tokken of a Covenant between me and the Earth that the waters shall no more become a floud to destroy all the Earth This is the World's Covenant and not the Churche's a Covenant to save all the Earth from a total deluge And God is to be perceived and to be thought of in that sign Ezek. 1.28 The glory of the Throne of God was as the appearance of the Bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord and so the same glory is figur'd in the Rainbow Revel 4.3 After this it being not discovered who did openly and entirely profess the worship of the true God Abraham was called out of Chaldea and he and his family were imbodied into a Church and received the sign of Circumcision as a mark stampt upon them to be known to be those whom God had called out for his own and did admonish them to circumcise the fore-skin of their heart Deut. 10.16 Chiefly to imprint into them that the promised seed should come from that stock in whom all Nations should be blessed When Abraham's seed became a National Church before they could get out of Egypt the bloud of a Lamb was sprinkled upon their doors with a statute given upon it that from thenceforth every family at that time of the year should give account for a Lamb slain and be eaten within their houses till John Baptist's Lamb was slain to take away the sin of the world Under the like discipline they were trained up for a while in the wilderness when Moses set up the figure of a Serpent upon a Pole that they might look upon it and live that were stung by Serpents Numb 21. verse 9. The Author of the Book of Wisdom writes Divinely upon it That they might be admonisht for a small season it was a sign of Salvation And he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing he saw but by thee that art the Saviour of the world Wisd Chap. 16. Verses 6 7. Neither are we such perfect men under the New Testament to be taught only by the words of holiness and truth but we are received into the Covenant of Grace and preserved in it by Mysteries signifying wonderful things to our outward senses that we may suck and be satisfied with the Churches two breasts of Consolation Isa 66.11 And be filled with the two golden pipes that empty the golden oil out of themselves Zach. 4.12 I stand upon the number of Two because they are put together 1 Cor. 10.3 The Israelites were all baptized in the cloud did all eat the same spiritual meat and all drank of the same spiritual drink As good account for it is 1 Cor. 12.13 By one spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit Or learn it from St. John 1 Epist 5.6 Christ came not by water alone but by water and bloud And there are three that bear witness the Spirit that is the ministry of the Gospel the water that is Baptism and the bloud
fear to do evil because of wrath to come which grows out of love to themselves The second is fit for the best Christians that are led by the Spirit of love who endeavour to do righteousness because they love righteousness and to be like unto God who they know is only good which grows out of the spirit of adoption and obey as sons and daughters and not as servants Our Saviour and his Apostles insist sometimes upon the former way threatning the impenitent yet qualifying it with tidings of peace if they return and amend their lives For sharpness must be applied according to the power which the Lord hath given for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 The same Apostle propounds both in the former Epistle Chap. 4. Verse 21. Shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and in the spirit of meekness Which latter is most suitable to the Gospel to proclaim peace on earth and good will towards men And when James and John would have had fire to come down from Heaven upon the Samaritans Christ reproved them saying The Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Luke 9.56 and St. Paul 1 Thess 5.9 God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ And surely there is cause to apply a cluster of consolation against a few grains of terror 1. Because we are all concluded under sin and the guilt is ever present unto us 2. Because of the weakness of the Graces that are in us not that they are weak but that humane corruption is mixt with them 3. Because of the strength and manifoldness of temptations 4. Because we are to be exercised with the sufferance of the Cross and we are infirm to bear it Lastly Because little is communicated to us at the present of that Reward we look for least of all is any share of it present and before our eyes Forasmuch then as there are so many in-draughts that break into our heart to make us sick of sorrow and fear let us seek comfort from God who hath left no disease without a remedy to cure it who healeth all thy diseases Psalm 103.3 I say it is to be sought from God lest we light upon them that tell false dreams and comfort in vain Zach. 10.2 The right place for it must be the Word of God as it is Rom. 15.4 That we through patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope Which comfort scatter'd up and down in that Holy Book and not cast all into a lump together by searching it diligently we may draw our Consolation out of five things Faith Hope The in-dwelling of the Spirit Prayer and the Sacraments Coronata Fides Dux viae prudens simplicitas CHAP. I. That Faith is the Ground and Foundation of a Christian's Comfort Several doubts and scruples about believing answered FAITH is the Root of all blessings Believe and you shall be saved Believe and you must needs be sanctified Believe and you cannot chuse but be comforted Believe that God is true in all his promises and you are the seed of faithful Abraham and shall inherit the promises made to Abraham Believe that you are Christs and Christ is yours and then you are sure that none can perish whom the Father hath given to him There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 And as Martha said Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died Jo. 11.21 So let all say that groan and pine away in sorrow Lord if thou hadst been here if thou hadst appeared to my soul in thy goodness I had not fainted in my trouble Isaiah foretells Chap. 61.3 that it should be Christs office to give the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness For St. John saw in the spirit that they that follow Christ are cloathed in white garments in garments of joy in the livery of gladness Solomon describing the provident Mistress of a Family Prov. 31.21 says She is not afraid of the snow for her houshold for all her houshold are cloathed with scarlet So the houshold of Christ are not afraid of frost and snow nor of any bitter blast they have put on the garment of dependence on Christ which protects them and do resolve never to put off their privy-coat of confidence in their Saviour With this did Christ encourage the poor woman being under confusion who had secretly toucht the hem of his garment Be of comfort thy Faith hath made thee whole Matth. 9.22 The first time that the word Comfort is found in Scripture is Gen. 5.29 upon the birth of Noah his Father says This Son shall Comfort us so when God did give Christ to be made man he did as it were say unto us This Son shall Comfort you for his name is Jesus and he shall save his people from their sins He that gave us him hath given us all things with him As it is true to say that Matthew left all to follow Christ so it is as true that he got all that can be wisht by following him It is the Chymistry of Faith let me use that word to turn all things into good and precious Ore It is Abraham's Country in a strange land Jacob's wages when Laban defrauded him Moses's honour when he refused to be the son in law of Pharaoh's daughter Rahab's security when all Jericho beside did perish David's rescue when there was but a step between him and death The power of the Apostles to be able to cast out Devils Mary Magdalen's sweet ointment to take away the ill savour of her sins Plead therefore with the Oratory of Faith and say Lord I have no life but in thee I have no joy but in thee no salvation but in thee but I have all these in thee and then how can my Soul refuse to be Comforted But some will say perhaps Faith is a powerful Comforter but I poor wretch had need to be Comforted concerning my Faith I find the pulse of it weak and sometimes it intermits as if it beat not at all Methinks I am not drawn near to Christ or that I am so far off that I cannot embrace him Some such infirmity may seem to have been in the Thessalonians and therefore St. Paul says I have sent Timotheus to establish you and to comfort you concerning your Faith 1 Epist Chap. 3. Ver. 2. Now to turn this water into wine and the trembling of this Objection into peace and joy in the Holy Ghost conceive as if these questions were put to you Do you often accuse your self of a weak Faith in secret unto God I like it for a good symptome for an hypocrite doth not use to accuse himself And do you bewail your want to the Lord because you would have it better supplied that 's a good sign too for it is the same as to thirst for the living God They that