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his promise made out to Chrift, God's righteous fervant, the church, Chrift's spouse, is a fruitful vine, and hath born him many children: Would to God thefe may be Chrift's children by adoption, as well as they are the church's by profeffion! May it be faid of them, that this and that man was born of her! O how pleafant a fight is it to fee Chrift's children fet as olive plants round about his table, and to see Chrift himself fetting them there! Surely, if he fet them, he will ferve them alfo, they shall not have ground to go away with any complaint of him: For Chrift is no niggard to his children; he is neither hard-hearted nor hard-handed; if his children feek bread, he will not give them a ftone.

When you are allowed to come forward to the Lord's table, think with yourself. that you hear Chrift or his ministers saying to you, as the angels did to the women at the fepulchre, Matth. xxviii. 5. 6. “We know whom ye feek, ye feek Jefus which was crucified; come, fee the place where the Lord lay:" come, fee the promise, come, fee the elements wherein the Lord lieth.

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And, in the mean while, take care to entertain very high ande xalted thoughts of Chrift, and very low and humble thoughts of yourfelf. Say, or think, "Lord I am not worthy to approach fo near thee, far lefs that thou shouldst come under my roof. I am not worthy to eat the crumbs that fall from my own, much less those that fall from thy table. Oh, I am unworthy to be allowed to creep as a dog under the table, far lefs to fit as one of Chrift's invited guests at the table. serve not room to stand amongst thy fervants, far lefs to fit down with thy children. I deferve not to have daily bread conferred on me, and fhall I be allowed to eat of the bread of life? I am unworthy to lift up my eyes to heaven, and fhall I get manna from heaven? I am not worthy to eat the bread of men, and fhall I be admitted to eat the bread of angels? Shall I entertain him whom they adore: nay, fit down with him at whose feet they fall? Shall I, who am unworthy to tread thy ground, be allowed to tread thy courts? Shall I, that am unworthy to breathe in thy air, have thy Spirit to breathe into my heart, or have leave to breath out my defires unto thee?"

O how great is the condefcending goodness of our heavenly Father to his prodigal children! These are wonders of mercy, miracles of compaffion!

Some directions for Communicants when at the Lord's Table.

I WOULD have you at this time to mind that word of Solomon, Prov. xxiii. 1. "When thou fittest to eat with a ruler, confider diligently what is before thee." O communicant, confider diligently the facramental elements, and what is reprefented and exhibited by them. Confider the facramental promifes, and what bleflings are contained in them. Confider the facramental actions, and the gracious acts which the foul fhould put forth with them. It should be a bufy time, and well improven; for though it be fhort, yet you have many things to do in it, which may generally be comprehended under these two heads :

1. Remember the fuitable fubjects which are to be confidered and meditated on at the table.

2. Obferve and exert the special graces which are to be employed and exercised there.

As to the first of thefe heads, I fhall mention fome fuitable fubjects of your meditation and contemplation at this time; as, 1. Chrift's death and paffion. 2. The bitterness and variety of his fufferings. 3. Chrift's willingness to undergo these fufferings for us, 4. The bleffed effects and benefits of his fufferings. 5. Chrift's free love, as the impulfive cause of all he did and fuffered. 6. The evil of fin, which brought on his fufferings. 7. God's holinefs and juftice manifefted in them. 8. The communion-feaft above, reprefented by this lower table.

I. Remember and meditate upon the death and paffion of our Lord Jefus Chrift. David hath a Pfalm, which he calls a Pfalm of remembrance. Pfalm xxxviii. Here the Son of David hath a facrament, which may well be called a facrament of remembrance; for the great end of it is to be a memorial of Christ its author and founder: For he faid, when he inftituted it, This do, in remembrance of me; and we find these words used twice over, both at the delivering of the bread and of the wine, I Cor. xi. 24. 25. As if he had faid, Whatever

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you mind, fee that you forget not your fuffering Redeemer. Some of Chrift's works are narrated only by one evangelift, as his turning the water into wine, and fome others; fome of his works are recorded by two evangelifts, as the hiftory of Chrift's birth by Matthew and Luke; fome things are recorded by three of them, as the institution of the facrament of the fupper: But as for Chrift's death and paffion, it is recorded by them all four. And this is done no doubt to teach us, that though all Chrift's works and actions are seriously to be remembered and thought upon, yet none fo efpecially as his death and fufferings. And, when fhould this be thought upon, if not at the facrament, whose institution was purpofely for the remembrance thereof? O communicant, will ye not think of this fubject when you have Chrift crucified evidently fet forth before your eyes, in the bread broken and the wine poured out? Oh was his bleffed body broken with torments, and his precious blood fhed for the remiffion of my fin: And will I not think upon him? Dear Saviour, thou biddeft me remember thee: Oh how fhould I ever forget thee at any time, and far less now when I fit at thy table! If I forget thee, O Redeemer, let my right hand forget its cunning, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. O that I could ever go out of myfelf to remember thee, and never think on thee without an extafy of wonder!

II. Think upon the bitterness of Chrift's paffion, and the variety of his fufferings, and revolve in thy thoughts the feveral steps and degrees thereof. And particularly take a view of your Redeemer's agony in the garden of Gethsemane; walk into that garden, and behold him falling to the ground under the weight of your fins, wrestling as in an agony, and fweating great drops of blood, and thefe burfting through all his garments. O fee how he lay, and how he bedewed and ftained the flowers of the garden round about him with his blood. Never any in the world was known to fweat in fuch a manner before, and never any fince that time. In a natural way of speaking, the coldness of the night, his lying on the cold ground, and the exceeding greatness of Chrift's fear at that time, fhould have drawn all his blood

blood inward from the outward parts of his body. O but this sweat was preternatural! He fweats without fire, and bleeds without a wound. There was no heat, no fire without him that made him sweat at that time; no, the fire was within him, even the fire of God's wrath kindled in his foul; this made the blood about his heart to boil and burst through his veins, flesh, skin, clothes, and all together. There was no wound outward as yet given him, no fword, no fpear, no weapon as yet had, touched him, and yet he bleeds: Oh, the wound was inward in his foul; deep and fearful was the gash which the fword of justice made at this time in his foul: The breach was wide as the fea, and accordingly a whole fea of wrath brake in with violence upon his foul. He falls firft upon his knees, and then upon the ground; he lies under the preffure till he is overwhelmed with his Father's wrath and his own blood. Deep called unto deep, till all these dreadful waves and billows paffed over him. He cried to his Father, he complained to disciples, he fought their sympathy and prayers; but no relief had he from that airth, he must tread the wine prefs alone.

Next, O communicants, follow your Redeemer after he was apprehended, by your meditations, and trace his fteps through the ftreets of Jerufalem: Think what he underwent when he was hurried from one tribunal to another. Go into the high priest's palace and to Pilate's judgment-hall, and obferve what unparalleled affronts and indignities he fuffered there, and none to take his part; he was reproached, defpifed, and abandoned by all men, as if he had been the worft of men, and unworthy to breathe in the world. He was put in competition with a vile murderer for his life, and yet the murderer is preferred before him. Yea, his own chofen difciples, who had been eyes-witnefits of his miracles, and earwitneffes of his oracles, they turn their backs on him with the reft; one of them betrays him, another denies him, and all the reft forfake him. Behold how unworthy men buffet him, blindfold him, and fpit on that beautiful face which angels behold with wonder. Behold how he was fcourged, dragged up and down, af

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fronted and mocked a whole night on your account, as if he had been the derifion of wicked men and devils. Now the devil thought, if Chrift was to be the elect's furety, and was to pluck them out of his claws, he should pay well for them ere he got them; and therefore many a wound and buffet got he: But content is our Redeemer to take all, to get his elect free and fafe. In the next place, behold how the heavy tree of the crofs was laid and fastened on the fore and bleeding fhoulders of our Saviour, and he obliged to carry it to the place of execution. Follow him in your thoughts, and fee him wrestling under the weight, when going up mount Calvary He carries it, till he can carry it no further, he is fpent and founders under the load, yet defires no relief. Afcend mount Calvary, and there fee the cross laid down upon the ground, and Chrift, the bleffed victim, laid down upon the cross, which was a rack as well as a death; fee how he is racked and nailed to it by the bloody executioners. And then behold the curfed tree lifted up with the Lord of glory faftened to it, and fixed on the top of mount Calvary, as a facrifice to justice for an elect world. Behold him ranked among malefactors, and hanging betwixt two thieves. Behold his hands and feet pierced and rent with nails, his glorious head covered with a crown of thorns, and his tender fide run thro with a fpear. See how the thorns pierce his holy head; fee how his precious blood trickles down from his many wounds; fee how his royal vifage turns pale; fee how his head bows, and lies a-dying on his bleeding breaft. Is not this an affecting fight?

Again, Confider the prodigious outward darkness that was on Chrift during his paffion on the crofs for feveral hours together, to fhew the horrible inward darkness that was on his foul while the wrath of God acted against him as being the facrifice for the world's fins. We read, that while Abraham was offering his facrifice, Gen. xv. 12. the fun was going down, and an horror of great darkness fell upon him. So fared it with Chrift, while he offered himself a facrifice for us. Now, the Lord revealed his wrath from heaven against the unrighteousnefs of the world, which was at this

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