till his ftrength is faint, he is breathlefs, and ready to faint under the burden, till another must help. It was, not the cross that made him faint; he had a greater burden to bear than ten thousand worlds, even the infinite wrath of God due to our fins. Behold him ftretched out naked, and laid upon the ground, that they might take the measure of his body and the holes for the nails: yea, they make them longer than they need, that they might both crucify and rack him at once. Behold the four large nails driven in through the most finewy and fenfible parts of his body, and the crofs lift up with the Lord of glory nailed to it: and, when it fell into the hole digged for the foot of it, how did the fall tend and tear his whole body? His own weight was his torture; and the longer he lived, his wounds grew the wider. His hands and feet are fixed, he cannot turn any way for ease: The blood ftreamed down for feveral hours, till he expired amidst thefe tortures. Behold him hanging on a cross betwixt heaven and earth, as if he had been unworthy of a place in either of them: Betwixt two thieves, as if he had been the greateft malefactor of the three. His fufferings were univerfal, and did extend over all the parts and powers of his foul and body; no part free but his tongue, which was at liberty to pray for his enemies. He fuffered in all his fenfes; his fight was tormented with the fcornful geftures of thofe that paffed by, wagging their heads; his hearing with taunts and mocks; his smell with the naufeous favour of dead mens skulls; his tafte with gall and vinegar; his feeling with the nails and thorns that pierced his head, hands, and feet. Behold him on the erofs, fuffering till his ftrength is dried up like a potfherd; his tongue cleaves to his jaws till he cries out, I thirst. And no wonder he thirfted; for, befides all the lofs of his blood, he was fcourged with the fire of God's wrath. Yea, the arrows of the Almighty were within him, the porjon whereof did drink up bis spirit. Behold him at the worst, crying out for relief, My God, my God, why haft thou forsaken me? But yet no re lief appears, there is none to answer: Yea, his own fun, his own heaven, his own Father, his own Godhead, hid their faces and confolations from him. He is left alone in midst of devils and enemies infulting over him; He falls a facrifice to incensed juftice, for our heinous guilt and provocations. Behold the Son of righteousness under a fearful eclipfe. For a candle to be put out is no great matter, but for the fun to be darkened is marvellous and strange. In the next place, take a view of his willingness to fuffer all these things for us. He quickens Judas to de his work, and he goes out to meet his perfecutors, and boldly tells them, that he was the man they fought: He will not fuffer Peter or the angels to do any thing for his rescue, becaufe of his defire to drink the cup which the Father had given him, John xviii. 11. And, God knows, a full and bitter cup it was, being all mingled with guilt, wrath, and curfes, heaped up and running over: A cup, which, if men or angels had tafted, they had all staggered and fallen back headlong into hell: Yet, how cheerfully did he drink it for us? He was not like the legal facrifices, dragged to the altar; no, he went willingly to it, and tyed himself with the cords of love to the horns of it. O, what affections fhould the confideration of these things ftir up in the fouls of communicants! Are ye going up to mount Calvary, to fee Chrift crucified; and, will not ye think on his fufferings, and be affected with them, ere ye go? You may here, as in a looking-glass, behold what you deferved at the hands of a juft God, if Christ had not interpofed for you. You may fee the wondrous love of Chrift that paffeth knowledge, which ought to kindle a flame of love in your hearts. You may fee the curfed nature and demerit of fin, that exposed Chrift to so much forrow and fuffering. Can you look on him whom you have thus pierced, and not mourn bitterly for fin that did it, and hate it as the most ugly thing in the world? Would not your heart rise against the man, yea, against the knife that killed your father, brother, hufband, or friend; and, will not your hearts rife against fin, that VOL. I. 3& has " has killed him that is instead of all relations, and fhould be far dearer to us than a thousand fathers or brothers? Can we look on Chrift's fufferings, and not make folemn vows against fin, and part with lying, fwearing, fabbath-breaking, &c. that crucified him? When the king of Moab was preffed hard by Ifrael, he took his eldest fon that should have reigned in his ftead, and offered him up for a burnt facrifice upon the walls, 2 Kings iii. 27. whereupon they raised the fiege, and went home. Well, the great God hath taken his only Son, facrificed him to juftice, that we might thereby be perfuaded to leave off fighting against heaven. O, let this ftrange act, which is both an act of justice and goodness, so over-awe your hearts with fear, and overcome them with love, that you may leave off to offend God any more. DIRECT. XIV. Be frequent and fervent in Prayer, be fore you Approach to the Lord's Table. THEY that forget God in their closets and families, are not fit to come and remember him at his table; therefore let no prayerlefs foul venture thither. You ought to double your prayers and meffages to heaven that week, and especially that night before you approach to this ordinance; if ever you prayed and wrestled with God, now should be the time of it. As the heathen fhip-mafter faid to Jonah, fo fay I to thee, O communicant, Jonah i. 6. " Arife, O fleeper, and call upon thy God, if fo be that God will think upon thee that thou perish not.” O fleep not now, when you are in hazard of eating and drinking eternal damnation ; but be praying when others are fleeping. This courfe will furely redound to thy advantage, and be the means of procuring special bleflings to thy foul. When was it that God gave commiffion to open Paul's eyes, and fill him with the Holy Ghost, but then, when he was ear nest in prayer to God, Acts ix. 11. 17. "Behold he prayeth. The Lord hath fent me (faid Ananias) that thou mighteft receive thy fight, and be filled with the Holy Holy Ghoft." So, if you were earneft in prayer before the facrament, God would notice you as he did Paul, and give charge to this ordinance to be the means of enlightening thy foul, and filling thee with the Holy Ghoft. It was at the facrament of baptifm that Chrift's prayers opened heaven, and brought down the Holy Ghost upon him: So at the facrament of the Lord's fupper the fervent prayers of a believing communicant will open heaven, and bring down the gracious influences of the holy Spirit upon him. Your work at this time is very great, and much need have you to look to God in Chrift, and plead with him for his special assistance : You have very great encouragement to do it; for God never calls any to do his work, but he helps them in it. It is faid, 1 Chron. xv. 26. That "God helped the Levites that bare the ark." One would think that the work of bearing the ark, needed no more help from God than the general concourfe of his providence; and yet God helped them with fpecial affiftance. And if he helped the Levites to bear the ark, because it was his work; will he not help us to receive the facrament, which he hath inftituted for displaying his glory, if we fincerely feek his help? You have many errands at this time to the throne of grace, for you have many things to pray for. 1. You ought in general to pray for preparation for this folemn feaft: "For the preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord," Prov. xvi. 1. Lay out the cafe of your heart and foul before the Lord, and say, "Lord, thou calleft me to a very folemn ordinance; and, who is fufficient for those things? I have neither a meet facrifice to offer, nor a meet temple to receive thee in. I know not how to pray, or to prepare my felf; how to receive Chrift, or behave myfelf at his table. Behold the bridegroom cometh, but I am not ready; I want the wedding-garment: Oh, what fhall I do for clothing to my naked foul? My beloved hath fpoke, faying, Rife up, my love, my fair one, and come away. I have heard his voice; but Oh, I am not stirring for it: My heart faith, Yet a little fleep, yet a little Aumber. Lord, awake my heart, ftir up my graces, 3 Q3 and and prepare me for a meeting with my Saviour. Lord, thou art the giver of grace as well as of glory, thou muft give the frame as well as the feaft; for without thee we have nothing, we can do nothing; thou prepareft a table for me in this wilderness; but, fhall the time of receiving come before thou comeft into my foul to ftir up thy graces in me? What commerce can a dead heart have with a living God? Lord, thou knowest my fins, and the unpreparednefs of my heart; and, if thou wilt mark iniquity, O Lord, who fhalt ftand? My very preparations and beft performances carry in them matter of indictment against my soul. But, Lord, though my fins be many and great, yet doth not the blood of Chrift cry louder for pardon than my fins do for punishment? O that the cry of that blood may wholly drown the cry of my fins at this time, and anfwer for the defects of my preparation. Oh, let not my foul, whofe only hope is to be faved by Christ's blood, be fent away from his table with the guilt, inftead of the comfort of that blood upon me. 2. And, more particularly, you ought to pray for faving knowledge: Say, "Lord, I am naturally alienated and estranged from thee, thro' the ignorance that is in me; O give me understanding, that I may know thee, and the mystery of faving grace. Haft thou not said, that the covenant thou wilt make with thy people is this, "They shall all know thee from the least even to the greatest?" O give me right up-takings of thy covenant, which is well ordered in all things, and fure! Give grace to know the nature, neceffity, ufe, and ends of this ordinance, which is the compend and feal of it, that fo I may receive it with understanding, and rightly difcern the Lord's body." 3. Pray for holy reverence and humility of spirit. "Lord, affect my heart with aweful reverence of the greatness and holiness of thy majefty, to whom I am to make fo near an approach, and with whom I am to renew covenant. Oh, how durft I, who am finful duft and afhes, prefume to come fo near thee, unless thou hadst invited and commanded me? O for deep felf-abasement and humility of foul when I go to receive the unfpeak able |
