Awake, holy defires and thirstings of foul, and fay, Lord, "Let not the needy be forgotten, nor the expectation of the poor perish for ever." Let not a thirsty foul perish at the wells of falvation. O happy were I, if at this time I could get a fealed pardon of my fins! "O bleffed is he whofe iniquities are forgiven, and whofe fin is covered!" Lord, whatever thou deny me in the world, do not deny me this choice bleffing. O for a token for good at this time of Chrift's own hand! May I receive a plentiful effufion of the graces of his Spirit into my heart. O that my lufts and corruptions may be mortified and fubdued! May I be enabled to do all my duties better than I have done. May I be more watchful over my heart, my tongue, and all my ways, than ever I have been: O that my foul may depart much bettered much revived, comforted and ftrengthened, from this holy ordinance !

V. Awake your thankfulness to God at this time for redeeming love; join with the Pfalmift, and fay," Bless the Lord, O my foul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Thanks be to God for his unfpeakable gift: What fhall I render unto the Lord for all his gifts and benefits unto me? Let me fpeak of the glorious honour of his Majefty, and declare his wondrous works." You fhould now be in Mary's frame, to fing and say, as in Luke i. 46. "My foul doth magnify the Lord, and my fpirit doth rejoice in God my Saviour:" And in Zechariah's frame, to fay with him, Luke i. 68. "Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, for he hath visited and redeemed his people." The Ancients called the Lord's fupper ftill the Eucharift, i. e. the thanksgiving, because the great defign of it is to keep up the thankful remembrance of God's redeeming love; and believers in partaking of it fhould, with their whole fouls, give thanks unto God for his unfpeakable gift, and fing glory to God in the highest. And, for our example herein, our Redeemer both began this inftitution with the giving of thanks, and finging hymns of praise. The Jews at their paffover did fing the cxiii. Pfalm, with the five following pfalms, which they called the great Hallelujah A Chriftian fhould in every thing and at all times give thanks; but at the facrament

the

the great Hallelujah must be fung. If ever the heart be tuned for the work of praife, it should be now; for greater matter for it you cannot have on this fide of heaven, than at this occafion The great exhortation the Ancients gave at the communion table was, Surfum carda, up with your hearts, communicants; elevate them to God in thankfulness and praife. Invite the angels and the whole creation to help you to bless God for Jefus Chrift the mercy of mercies.

Some further Meditations on the Sacramental Elements, Actions and Words.

BESIDES what I have faid, the facramental elements, actions and words, may afford fuitable subject of meditation to communicants while they fit at the Lord's table, and may be improven for the quickening and upftirring of the facramental graces above mentioned. And here I fhall give fome few inftances for the affistance and direction of weaker Christians.

When you fee the elements of bread and wine fet upon the table, think on Chrift's goodness and condefcenfion in appointing these outward figns to confirm your faith, and excite your affections: They are not coftly things, Chrift would not be burdenfome to his people with any of his ordinances. Think how fitly they reprefent the body and blood of our Redeemer. Bread, ere it be fit to nourish us, must be firft fown and die in the earth; then it must be threfhen, grinded in the mill, baken in the oven, broken and eaten: So Chrift, that he might be a fit Saviour to us, was content to die, and be bruised for our fins, and scorched in the oven of his Father's wrath. Bread is the moft neceffary thing in the world; it ftrengthens man's heart; it is the itaff that upholds his life: So Chrift is the mercy of mercies, the most useful and neceff ry bleffing to our ftarving fouls. Wine, ere it be fit for our ufe, must be fqueezed out of the grave, and this must be trodden and bruifed in the wine prefs: So Chuft was crushed in the wine-prefs of his Father's wrath, till the bleft juice of his body, his precious blood, did gufh out in abundance VOL. I.

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for the redemption of our fouls. No liquour fo fit as wine for cheering the fainting fpirits, Pfal. civ. 15. fo there is nothing can refresh the drooping foul fo much as the blood of Chrift

Though bread and wine be common things of themfelves. yet they are highly valuable in refpect of their fignificancy and ends A little wax, though in itself of fmail value, yet, when affixed to a charter, it ferves to confirm our right and title to a great inheritance: So thefe elements, when confecrated and given to us by Chrift's ambaffadors, are to us a feal of God's covenant, and confirm our title to all Chrift's purchase.

When we fee the minifter take the bread, think how God did chufe and take Chrift from among men to be our Mediator, and a facrifice for our fins.

When the minister sets apart, bleffes, and confecrates the bread, think how God fet apart and fent his Son, fanctified and furnished, with all gifts and graces needful to his mediatory office

When you fee the confecrated bread and wine expofed to open view, think how God in his infinite mercy "hath fet forth Jefus Chrift as a propitiation through faith in his blood," Rom. iii. 25. Behold how " evidently Chrift crucified is fet forth before your eyes." Behold the lamb opening the feals, the feal of God's covenant, the feal of God's treasures, the feal of the fountain of life, and the feal of heaven's gates; all which were fhut before, till Chrift came to open them. Suppofe now you hear that voice, Rev. vi. " Come and fee." Open the eyes of faith, and fee a great fight. What is to be feen here? You may, O communicant, fee here the heinous nature of fin, the severity of divine justice, the mifery of the damned, the defervings of unbelievers: You may fee the devil conquered, juftice fatisfied, a flame of love kindled in Chrift's heart that many waters could not quench: You may fee the clefts of the rock opened, and a fanctuary found out: You may fee the precioufnefs of fouls, the price of pardon, and the worth of heaven. Chrift's body and blood, which were given for them, do fhew that they are things of no fmall value.

When

When you see the elements, you have caufe to blefs God, and rejoice at the fight of this precious fign and feal of God's covenant of grace and falvation. We should rejoice to see the rainbow in the cloud, a fign of God's covenant, and promise to fecure the world against a deftroying deluge: Much more fhould we joy to fee the fign of God's confirming his covenant with believers, fecuring them against the overflowing of God's wrath. If it ftill rained, and never a rainbow appeared, we might have reason to fear: So, if we never faw this ordinance and feal of God's covenant, we might fufpect danger: But, O believer, you fee God is faithful and willing to keep covenant; there is the rainbow appearing; a pleafant fight to a guilty finner!

When you fee the minifter lay his hand on the bread, lift up your foul and pray, "That God may lay his hand on your diseased foul, that all your distempers may depart from you Lord, lay hold on my foul, as the angel did upon Lot; fave me from the flames of wrath, cause me to escape out of Sodom into the mount of God, and clefts of the rock, that I perish not."

When you see the bread broken, think on the breaking and tormenting of Christ's body, and the bruifing of his foul for our fins. He fuffered a double death, one in his foul, and another in his body; he fuffered from men and devils: But all that was nothing to what he suffered from his Father; for, when men were wounding his bo dy, the Father's hand bruifed his foul, made a thousand wounds therein, and poured in a whole ocean of wrath upon him he brake him with breach upon breach, and overwhelmed him with one wave of vengeance upon the back of another, till all his billows went over him. This was a fad time to our Saviour: yet all these floods could not drown his love to us, nor make him quit the grip he had taken of us, but, come of him what will, his poor people must not perifh; his love to them flamed higheft when his fufferings were greatest.

You should, at this time, defire to be in the fame frame, as if you had been at Golgotha ftanding at the foot of the crofs, and had seen the blood trickling down, and heard all the dying groans of the Lamb of God. O

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fhall we see the blessed Son of God, the brightness of his Father's glory, with his eyes dim, his cheeks wan, his face pale, his head bowing, his heart fainting, his fide bleeding, his wounds open to fhelter us, and his love ftreaming forth in blood to us; I fay, fhall we fee all this, and our affections not raised, our love not kindled, and our hearts not concerned ! O what a monftrous thing will it be, to fee our affections and graces at the lowest ebb, when there is a high ftream-tide of the love and blood of our Lord Jefus Chrift flowing towards us!

Take a view of Jefus on the cross breathing forth love to us, when he was breathing forth his laft: Let us look ftreightly and ftedfaftly to him, as he did to us. Many write, that he was crucified with his face toward the weft: The Jews did it out of defpite, as reckoning him unworthy to look on the temple and holy city that flood on the east of mount Calvary; but he had a gracious meaning and defign to us thereby, and now was that word remarkably fulfilled, Pfal. Ixvi. 7. "His eyes behold the nations:" For now his eyes looked to us Gentiles, when he was upon the crofs; and O it was an eye of love and pity he caft then upon us: And fhall not this encourage us to lift up an eye of faith to him upon the crofs for healing and falvation? Efpecially feeing he calls us to do it; Ifa. xlv. 22. "Look unto me and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth.” And it is to be obferved, that Chrift in this call hath a fpecial eye to us in Scotland, who were then Gentiles, and are likewife among the ends of the earth. O fhall we, in this - land and corner of the world, have fuch a loving invitation to look to a crucified Saviour for mercy, and will we neglect it? Behold his arms ftretched out to embrace you, and will you not defire to flee into them? Behold him bowing his head on the cross, to take a view of your wounds, and whisper comfort into your ears: Behold him opening a window in his fide to take you into his heart, and pouring out blood thence to redeem you, and water to cleanse you, a fountain both for your juftification and fanctification.