facrament doth require and call for, is, an bumble and deep fenfe of our own unworthinefs. His death was not for any thing that he had done, but only for our fins; and this fhews what wile wretches we are, and how unworthy perfons. It lets us fee, how hateful our fins had made us unto God, and what they had deferved at his hands, For he would not let them pafs, without inflicting the highest fhame, and the most exquifite pain and tortures. Yea, when his own only begotten Son would intercede for them, and bear the burden of them in his own perfon, fo implacable was the hatred which he had to them, and fo indifpenfible were the reasons which constrained him to punish them; that his moft tender love for him, whom he valued as himself, could not hinder, but that he fhould bleed and die for them. It lets us fee alfo, how troublesome they have made us to our best friends, and how shamefully burdenfome and expenfive to our bleffed Lord and Saviour. For when he longed and laboured to redeem us from them, he could not be our friend, unless he would cease to be his own; nor do us any good at

all,

all, except he would give his own life a ranfom for us.

And what man now can ever think of this, but he muft hide his face, and be quite buried in a shameful sense of his own unworthinefs. He may fee how vile he was, when God was fo highly offended with him, and thought no punishment too heavy for him, and would not be reconciled at the interceffion of his own fon, unless he would die inftead of him; and when it was fo dangerous and coftly a thing, for his Saviour to fhew himself a ferviceable friend to him, even no less than laying down his own life for him.

And if this fight doth not work shame and self abasement in him, he will be concluded by all, to be the baseft man alive; and utterly unworthy, that ever any thing, of all this unparallel'd kindness, fhould have been done for him.

ANOTHER temper and difpofition of mind, which the remembrance of the death of Christ in the holy facrament doth call for from us, is, an utter abhorrence of our fins, which were the caufes of his fufferings. For if we do not hate and abhor

them, when we confider what tortures he endured for them, we fhew that we are very little concerned for his ease, nor have any feeling of his pains, nor any zeal at all against the occasion of his forrows. And this is a very bad requital of his undergoing all thofe pains for our fakes, and a most unworthy usage. So that if we would. worthily commemorate his dying for us, we must be humbled and afhamed of our felves, at the sense of our own unworthiness, seeing we had deferved such infupportable punishments, and have put him to fuch exquisite and intense pains; and particularly we must turn our abhorrence on our fins, which caused all this mischief, and made him, in order that he might befriend us, to undergo fuch heavy tortures himself.

Again; ANOTHER temper of mind which becomes us, when we commemorate the death of Chrift in the holy facrament, is, a refignation of our felves, both fouls and bodies, to his ufe, as we are bought with his blood, and thereby become his own purchase.

He

He died in our ftead, and his blood was given to God for a ranfom, to buy us off from death, that we might not die also. The Son of man, faith he, is come, to give his life a ransom for many. And fince he bought us, and paid fo dear for us, to deliver us from hell torments and eternal death, which is not his, but our own advantage; in all equity and reason, he is become intitled to our obedience, and we fhould be wholly devoted to his fervice. And this the scripture requires of us: The love of God conftraineth us, fays St. Paul, to live in him; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live fhould not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them. again; re are not your own, ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your Spirit, which are God's. And fince his dying for us hath made us his own propriety, and he has thereby acquired an abfolute right over us for his own ufe, which we had infinite reafon to defire, but he had no need of; if we would remember it worthily, we muft do it justly,

And

by

by honeftly devoting our fouls and bodies, and affigning them over to be wholly at his fervice.

AND these are the things, which muft render our remembrance worthy of him, when in the holy facrament we commemorate his dying for us, and fhedding of his moft precious blood a ranfom for our fins. We must be humbled with the fense of our own unworthiness; and abhor our fins, which brought him to these fufferings; and refign up our felves, both bodies and fouls, to be wholly at his ufe, and employed where, and in what he pleases, as thereby they are become his own purchase.

II. A Second end of our eating bread and drinking wine, in the Lord's fupper, is, to confirm the new covenant with almighty God, of reconciliation and pardon, which Chrift purchased for us by his death. And to do this worthily, we muft come to it in fincerity and faithfulness, and with full purpofe and performance of that repentance and obedience, which

3

therein