The Communicant's Companion (continued)
4. We must do it cheerfully: for here, in a special manner God loves a cheerful giver, and is pleased with that which is done, not of constraint, but willingly. In our covenanting with God, we must not be actuated by a spirit of fear, but by a spirit of adoption, a spirit of power and love, and a sound mind. We must join ourselves to the Lord, not only because it is our duty, and that which we are bound to, but because it is our interest, and that by which we shall be unspeakably gainers,—not with reluctance and regret, and with a half consent extorted from us, but with an entire satisfaction, and the full consent of a free spirit. Let it be a pleasure to us to think of our interest in God as ours, and our engagement to him as his; a pleasure to us to think of the bonds of the covenant, as well as of the blessings of the covenant. Much of our communion with God (which is so much the delight of all that are sanctified) is kept up by the frequent recognition of our covenant with him, which we should make as those that like their choice too well to change; and as the men of Judah did, when "they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting and with trumpets, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire." Christ's soldiers must be volunteers, not pressed men; and we must repeat our consent to him with such joy and triumph as appears in that of the spouse, "This is my beloved, and this is my friend."
5. We must do it in sincerity.—This is the chief thing required in every thing wherein we have to do with God: "Behold, he desires truth in the inward parts." When God took Abraham into covenant with himself, this was the charge he gave him, "Walk before me and be thou perfect," that is, upright; for uprightness is our gospel perfection. Writing the covenant, and subscribing it, signing and sealing it, may be proper expressions of seriousness and resolution in the transaction, and of use to us in the review; but, if herein we "lie unto God with our mouth, and flatter him with our tongue," as Israel did, though we may put a cheat upon ourselves and others, yet we cannot impose upon him: "Be not deceived, God is not mocked." If we only give the hand unto the Lord, and do not give our hearts to him, whatever our pretensions, professions, and present pangs of devotion may be, we are but as sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal. What will it avail us to say, we covenant with God, if we still keep our league with the world and the flesh, and have a secret antipathy to serious godliness? Dissembled piety is no disguise before God, but is hated as double iniquity. It is certain thou hast no part or lot in the matter, whatever thou mayest claim, if thy heart be not right in the sight of God. I know no religion but sincerity; our vows to God are nothing, if they be not bonds upon the soul.
Chapter 6. Helps for Meditation and Prater in Our Preparation for this Ordinance. editation and prayer are the daily exercise and delight of a devout and pious soul. In meditation we converse with ourselves; in prayer we converse with God. And what converse can we desire more agreeable and more advantageous? They who are frequent and serious in these holy duties at other times, will mid them the easier and the sweeter on this occasion; the friends we are much with, we are most free with. But if at other times, we be not so close and constant to them as we should be, we have the more need to take pains with our own hearts, that we may effectually engage them in these services, when we approach the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
Enter into thy closet, therefore, and shut the door of that against diversions from without: be not shy of being alone. The power of godliness withers and declines, if secret devotion be either neglected, or negligently performed. Enter into thy heart also, and do what thou canst to shut the door of that against distraction from within. Compose thyself for the business, and summon all that is within thee to attend on it: separate thyself from the world, and thoughts of it; leave all its cares at the bottom of the hill, as Abraham did his servants, when he was going up into the mount to worship
God, and then set thyself about thy work: gird up thy loins, and trim thy lamp. Up and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.
I. We must set ourselves to meditate on that which is most proper for the confirming of our faith, and the kindling of pious and devout affections in us, Good thoughts should be often in our minds, and welcome there; so should our souls often breathe towards God in pious ejaculations that are short and sudden. But as good prayers, so good thoughts must sometimes be set and solemn: morning and evening they must be so, on the Lord's day also, and before the Lord's Supper.
Meditation is thought engaged, and thought inflamed.
It is thought engaged.—In it the heart fastens upon, and fixes to a select and certain subject with an endeavor to dwell and enlarge upon it; not matters of doubtful disputation, or small concern, but those things that are of greatest certainty and moment. And since few of the ordinary sort of Christians can be supposed to have such a treasury of knowledge, such a fruitfulness of invention, and so great a compass and readiness of thought, as to be able to discourse with themselves, for any time, upon any one subject so closely, methodically, and pertinently as one would wish, it may be advisable, either to fasten upon some portion of Scripture, and to read that over and over, with a closeness of observation and application, or to recollect some profitable sermon lately heard, and think that over; or to make use of some books of pious meditations or practical discourses, (of which, blessed be God, we have great plenty and variety,) and not only read them, but descant and enlarge upon them in our minds, still giving liberty to our own thoughts to expatiate, as they are able; but, borrowing help from what we read, to reduce them when they wander, refresh them when they tire, and to furnish them with matter when they are barren. In the choice of helps for this work, wisdom and experience are profitable to direct, and no rule can be given to fit all capacities and all cases; the end may be attained by different methods.
It is thought inflamed.—To meditate, is not only to think seriously of divine things, but to think of them with concern and suitable affection.
"While we are thus musing, the fire must bum." When the heart meditates terror, the terrors of the Lord, it must be with a holy fear; when we contemplate the beauty of the Lord, his bounty, and his benignity, which is better than life, we. must do it with a holy complacency, solacing ourselves in the Lord our God. The design of meditation is to improve our knowledge, and to affect ourselves with those things with which we have acquainted ourselves, that those impressions of them upon our souls may be deep and durable, and that, by "beholding the glory of the Lord, we may be changed into the same image."
Serious meditation before a sacrament will be of great use to us, to make those things familiar to us, with which in that ordinance we are to be conversant: that good thoughts may not be to seek when we are there, it is our wisdom to prepare them, and lay them ready before hand. Frequent acts confirm a habit, and pious dispositions are greatly helped by pious meditations. Christian graces will be the better exercised in the ordinance when they are thus trained and disciplined, and drawn out in our preparation for it.
For our assistance herein, I shall mention some few of those things which may most properly be pitched upon for the subject of our meditations before a sacrament: I say, before a sacrament; because though this be calculated here for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, yet it may equally serve us in our preparations for the other sacrament, both that we may profit by the public administration of it, and especially that we may, in an acceptable manner, present our children to it; for which service we have as much need carefully to prepare ourselves as for this. As we must in faith join ourselves to the Lord, so we must in faith dedicate our children to him.
That our hearts, then, may be raised and quickened, and prepared for communion with Christ at his table, (I.) Let us set ourselves to think of the sinfulness and misery of man's fallen state. That we may be taught to value our recovery and restoration by the grace of the second Adam, let us take a full and distinct view of our ruin by the sin of. the first Adam. Come and see what desolations it has made upon the earth, and how it has turned the world into a wilderness. "How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!" What wretched work did sin make! What a black and horrid train of fatal consequences attended its entrance into the world!
Come, my soul, and see how the nature of man is corrupted and vitiated, and lamentably degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude;—God's image defaced and lost, and Satan's image stamped instead of it;—the understanding blind, and unapt to admit the rays of the divine light: the will stubborn, and unapt to comply with the dictates of the divine law; the affections carnal, and unapt to receive the impressions of the divine love.
Come, my soul, and lament the change, for thou thyself feelest from it, and sharest in the sad effects of it; for a nature thus tainted, thus depraved, I brought into the world with me, and carry about with me to this day sad remainders of its corruption. It was a nature by creation, little lower than that of angels, but become by sin, much baser than that of brutes. It was like the Nazarites, "purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than the rubies, and its polishing was of sapphires; but now its visage is blacker than a coal;" Never was beauty so deformed, never was strength so weakened, never was a healthful constitution so spoiled, never was honor so laid in the dust. How is the faithful city become a harlot! Man's nature was planted a choice vine, wholly a right seed; but, alas, it is become "the degenerate plant of a strange vine." I find in myself by sad experience, I am naturally prone to that which is evil, and backward to that which is good. Foolishness is daily breaking out in my life, and by that I perceive it is bound up in my heart: for these things I blush and am ashamed; for these things I tremble and am afraid; "for these things I weep, mine eye, mine eye runs down with tears."
Come, my soul, and see how miserable fallen man is: see him excluded from God's favor, expelled the garden of the Lord, and forbidden to meddle with the tree of life; see how odious he is become to God's holiness, and obnoxious to his justice, and by nature a child of wrath. See how calamitous the state of human life is; with what troops of diseases, disasters, and deaths, in the most horrid and frightful shapes, man is compassed about.
Lord, "how are they increased that trouble him!"
See him attacked on every side by the malignant powers of darkness that seek to destroy; see him sentenced for sin to utter darkness, to the devouring fire, to the everlasting burning. "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" O what a gulf of misery is man sunk into by sin!
Separated from all good to all evil; and his condition in himself helpless and hopeless. A deplorable case! And it is my case by nature: I am of this guilty, exposed, condemned race; undone, undone for ever; as miserable as the curse of heaven, and the flames of hell can make me, if infinite mercy do not interpose. And shall not this affect me? Shall not this afflict me? Shall not these thoughts beget in me a hatred of sin, that evil, that only evil? Shall I ever be reconciled to that which has done so much mischief? Shall I not be quickened hereby to flee to Christ, in whom alone help and salvation is to be had? Is this thy condition, O my soul, thine by nature? And is there a door of hope opened thee by grace? "Up, then, get thee out of this Sodom; escape for thy life, look not behind thee, stay not in all the plain, escape to the mountain," the mountain of holiness, lest thou be consumed.
(II.) Let us set ourselves to think of "the glory of the divine attributes, shining forth in the work of our redemption and salvation." Here is a bright and noble subject, the contemplation and wonder of angels and blessed spirits above, and in the admiring view of which, eternity itself will be short enough to be spent.
Come, then, O my soul, come and think of the kindness and love of God our Savior, his good-will to man, which designed our redemption, the spring and first wheel of that work of wonder. Herein is love. Though God was happy from eternity before man had a being, and would have been happy to eternity, if man had never been, or had been miserable; though man's nature was mean and despicable; though his crimes were heinous and detestable; though by his disobedience he had forfeited the protection of a prince; though by his ingratitude he had forfeited the kindness of a friend; and though by his perfidiousness he had forfeited the benefits of a covenant; yet the tender mercies of our God moved for his relief. Come and see a world of apostate angels passed by, and left to perish, no Redeemer, no Savior provided for them; but fallen men pitied and helped, though angels had been more honorable, and would have been more serviceable.
Come and think of God's patience and forbearance exercised towards man: "the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation." Think how much he bears, and how long, with the world, with me, though most provoking. This patience left room for the salvation, and gives hopes of it. "If the Lord had been pleased to kill us," he would have done it before now.
Come, and think especially of the wisdom of God which is so gloriously displayed in the contrivance of the work of our redemption. Here is the wisdom of God "in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world for our glory." Think of the measures God has taken, the means he has devised, that the banished might not for ever be expelled from him. Think with wonder how all the divine attributes are by the method pitched upon, secured from damage and reproach, so that one is not glorified by the diminution of the luster of another. When sin had brought things to that strait, that one would think either God's justice, truth, and holiness, must be eclipsed or clouded, or man's happiness must be for ever lost; infinite wisdom finds out an expedient for the securing both of God's honor, and of man's happiness. It is now no disparagement at all to God's justice to pardon sin, nor to his holiness to "be reconciled to sinners; for by the death of Christ justice is satisfied, and by the Spirit of Christ sinners are sanctified. "Mercy and truth here meet together, behold righteousness and peace kiss each other." Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and wonder, O earth. And thou, my soul, that owest all thy joys, and all thy hopes to this contrivance, despairing to find the bottom of this unfathomable fountain of life, sit down at the brink and adore the depth! "O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
(III.) Let us set ourselves to think of the "person of the Redeemer, and his glorious undertaking of the work of our salvation." Come, my soul, and think of Christ, who thought of thee: think of him as the eternal Son of God, "the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person," who lay in his bosom from all eternity, and had an infinite joy and glory with him before the worlds were, and in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; the eternal wisdom, the eternal Word, that has life in himself, and is one with the Father, and who thought it no robbery to be equal with God.
He is thy Lord, O my soul, and worship thou him.
Think of him as the Former of all things, without whom was not any thing made that was made. "Thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, all things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Let this engage my veneration for him, let this encourage my faith and hope in him. If I have my being from him, I must consecrate my being to him, and may expect my bliss in him.
Think of him as Emanuel, the Word incarnate, "God manifested in the flesh," clothed with our nature, taking part of flesh and blood, that for us in our nature he might satisfy the justice of God whom we had offended, and break the power of Satan, by whom we were enslaved. Come, my soul, and with an eye of faith, behold the beauties, the transcendent, unparalleled beauties, of the Redeemer. See him, "white and ruddy, fairer than the children of men," perfectly pure and spotless, wise and holy, kind and good; who has the infinite mercies of a God, and withal, the experimental compassions of a man that has been "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." See him by faith, as John saw him in a vision. See him and admire him, as one that in all things has the pre-eminence; none like him, nor any to be compared with him.
Think of him as the undertaker of our redemption, the redemption of the soul, which was so precious, that otherwise it must have ceased for ever.
When the sealed book of God's counsels concerning man's redemption was produced, "none in heaven or earth was found worthy to open that book, or to look thereon." When sacrifice and offering for sin would not do, and the blood of bulls and of goats had been tried in vain, and found ineffectual, then said he, "Lo, I come; this ruin shall be under my hands:" alluding to Isa. 3:6. Come, my soul, and see help laid upon one that is mighty; one chosen out of the people, and every way qualified for the undertaking, able to do the Redeemer's work, and fit to wear the Redeemer's crown. See how willingly he offered himself to the service, how cheerfully he obliged himself to go through with it, and engaged his heart to approach unto God as our Advocate. It is "the voice of thy beloved, O my soul! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills," making nothing of the difficulties that lay in his way. "Behold, thy king cometh, thy bridegroom cometh: go forth, my soul, go forth to meet him with thy joyful hosannas, and bid him welcome. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
(IV.) Let us set ourselves to think of the "cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the dishonors done to him, and the honors done to us by it."—Here is a wide field for our meditations to expatiate in, nor can we determine to know any thing before a sacrament more proper and profitable than Jesus Christ, and him crucified; lifted up from the earth, and drawing all men unto him, as the attractive loadstone of their hearts, and the common center of their unity. Come then, and behold trie man; represent to thyself, O my soul, not to thy fancy, but to thy faith, "the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world by the sacrifice of himself."
Come and look over the particulars of Christ's sufferings, all the humiliations and mortifications of his life, but especially the pains, agonies, and ignominies of his death. Review the story; thou wilt still find something in it surprising and very affecting; take notice of all the circumstances of his passion, and say, "Never was any sorrow like unto his sorrow." Take notice especially of the disgrace and reproach done him in his sufferings, the shame he was industriously loaded with. This contributed greatly to the satisfaction made by his sufferings. God hath been injured in his glory by sin, and no other way could he be injured; he, therefore, who undertook to make reparation for that injury, not only denied himself in, and divested himself of, the honors due to an incarnate Deity, but, though most innocent and most excellent, voluntarily submitted to the utmost disgraces that could be done to the worst of criminals; thus he "restored that which he took not away." See him, my soul, see him enduring the cross, and despising the shame.
Come and see the purchases of the cross. The blood there shed is the ransom with which we are redeemed from hell; the price with which heaven is bought for us, see it a price of inestimable value: "The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor shall it be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire." No, my soul, thou wast not redeemed with such corruptible things. The pardon of sin, the favor of God, the graces of the Spirit, the blessings of the covenant, and eternal life, could not be purchased with silver and gold, but are dearly bought and paid for with the precious blood of the Son of God. All the praise be to the glorious purchaser.
Come and see the victories of the cross; see the Lord Jesus even then a conqueror, when he seemed a captive; then spoiling principalities and powers, when he seemed totally defeated and routed by them. See Christ upon the cross breaking the serpent's head, disarming Satan, triumphing over death and the grave, leading captivity captive, and going forth in that chariot of war, conquering and to conquer.
Think, my soul, think what thou owest to the dying of the Lord Jesus; the privileges of thy way, and the glories of thy home; all thou hast, all thou hopest for that is valuable, they are all precious fruits gathered from this tree of life. Christ's wounds are thy healing, his agonies thy repose, his conflicts thy conquests, his groans thy songs, his pains thine ease, his shame thy glory, his death thy life, his sufferings thy salvation.
(v.) Let us set ourselves to think of the present glories of the exalted
Redeemer.—When we meditate on the cross he bore, we must not forget the crown he wears within the veil. Think, my souk, think where he is at the right hand of the Father, far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named; he is set down upon the throne of the Majesty in the highest heavens. Having obtained eternal redemption for us, he is "entered with his own blood into the holy place." Think how he is attended there with an innumerable company of angels, that continually surround the throne of God and of the Lamb; think of the songs there sung to his praise, the crowns there cast at his feet, and the name he hath there above every name. Think especially what he is doing there: he always appears in the presence of God as the great High Priest of our profession, to intercede for all those that come to God by him; and he attends continually to this very thing: there he is preparing a place for all his followers, and thence he will shortly come to receive them to himself, to behold his glory, and to share in it. Dwell on these thoughts, O my soul, and say as they did who saw his glory in his transfiguration: It is good to be here; here let us make tabernacles. Let these thoughts kindle in thee an earnest desire (shall I call it a holy curiosity?) to see him as he, is, face to face. His advancement is thine advantage, as the forerunner he is for me entered. Let the contemplation of the joy he is entered into, and the power he is there girded with, have such an influence upon me, that by faith I may be raised up likewise, and "made to sit together with him in heavenly places."
(VI.) Let us set ourselves to think of the unsearchable riches of the new covenant, made with us in Jesus Christ, and sealed to us in the sacraments.
—Peruse this covenant in the several dispensations of it, from the dawning of its day in the first promise, to that noon-day light, which life and immortality are brought to by the gospel. Read over the several articles of it, and see how well ordered it is in all things, so well that it could not be better. Review its promises, which are precious and many, very many, very precious, and sure to all the seed. Search into the hidden wealth that is treasured up in them; dig into these mines; content not thyself with a transient view of these fountains of living water, but bring thy bucket, and draw with joy out of these wells of salvation. "Go, walk about this Zion, this city of God, tell the towers, mark well the bulwarks, consider the palaces, and say, This God, who is our God in covenant, is ours for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death."
Stir up thyself, therefore, O my soul, to meditate on the privileges of a justified state; the liberties and immunities, the dignities and advantages, that are conveyed by the charter of pardon. O the blessedness of the man whose iniquities are forgiven! See him secured from the arrests of the law, the curse of God, the evil of affliction, the sting of death, and the damnation of hell. Read with pleasure the triumphs of blessed Paul: (Rom. 8:33, &c.)
Happy thou art, my soul, and all is well with thee, or shall be shortly, if thy sins be pardoned.
Meditate on the honors and comforts of a state of grace. If now I am a child of God, adopted and regenerated, and have received the Spirit of adoption, I have liberty of access to the throne of grace, I have a sanctified use of my creature-comforts, my. fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; "all is mine, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are mine." I have meat to eat that the world knows not of, joy that a stranger doth not intermeddle with. Let thoughts of these great privileges work in thee, O my soul, a holy disdain of the pleasures of sense, and the profits of the world; whenever they come in competition with the gains of godliness, and the delights of spiritual life, offer those to them that know no better.
(VII.) Let us set ourselves to think of the communion of saints.—This contributes something to our comfort in communion with Christ, that through him we have fellowship one with another: "So that we, being many, are one bread and one body; for Christ died to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad;" that all might be one in him in whom we all meet, as many members in one head, so making one body; many branches in one root, so making one vine; and many stones on one foundation, so making fine building.
Enlarge thy thoughts, then, O my soul, and let it be a pleasure to thee to think of the relation thou standest in to the whole family, both in heaven and earth, which is named of Jesus Christ; to think that thou art come, in faith, hope, and love, even to the "innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." Even these are thy brethren and fellowservants. Rejoice in thine alliance to them, in their affection to thee, and in the prospect thou hast of being with them shortly, of being with them eternally. Here we sit down with a little handful of weak and imperfect saints, and those mixed with pretenders; but we hope shortly to have a place and a name in the general assembly of the firstborn, and to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of our Father," with all the saints, and none but saints, and saints made perfect, and so to be together for ever with the Lord.
Please thyself also, O my soul, with thinking of the spiritual communion thou hast in the acts of Christian piety, and in the exercise of Christian charity, with "all that in every place on this earth call on the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." Some good Christians there are, that fall within the reach of our personal communion, to whom we give the right hand of fellowship. Others, within the line of our acquaintance and correspondence; and many more whom we know not, nor have ever heard of, never saw, nor are ever likely to see in this world; but all these are our "companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." They and we are guided by the same rule, animated by the same spirit, conformed to the same image, interested in the same promises, and joined to the same great body; they and we meet daily at the same throne of grace, under the conduct of the same Spirit of adoption, which teaches us all to cry, Abba, Father; and they and we hope to meet shortly at the same throne of glory, under the conduct of the same Jesus, who will gather his elect from the four winds, and present them all together unto the Father. Christ hath prayed, that "all that believe on him may be one;" and therefore we are sure they are so, for the Father heard him always. Let this subject yield us some delightful thoughts here in a scattered world, and a divided church.
(viii.) Let us set ourselves to think of the happiness of heaven.—A pleasant theme this is, very improvable, and pertinent enough to an ordinance which has so much of heaven in it: if indeed we have heaven in our eye, as our home and rest, and our conversation there, we cannot but have it much upon our hearts. Have we good hope through grace, of being shortly with Christ in the heavenly paradise, where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore,—where we shall see God's glory, and enjoy his love immediately, to our complete and eternal satisfaction? Do we expect that yet a little while, and the veil shall be rent, the shadows of the evening shall be done away, and we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known? Are we in prospect of a crown of glory that fades not away, an incorruptible, undefiled inheritance?
Raise thy thoughts, then, O my soul, to the joyful contemplation of the glory to be revealed. Arise, then, and survey this land of promise, as Abraham. Go with Moses to the top of Pisgah, and take a view of it by faith. Get a Scripture map of that Canaan, and study it well. Think, my soul, what they see in that world, who always behold the face of the Father, and in it see all truth and brightness, and the perfection of beauty. Think what they have there, who eat of the tree of life, and the hidden manna; whose faculties are enlarged, to take in the full communications of divine love and grace, and who have God himself with them as their God. Think what they are doing there who dwell in God's house, and are still praising him, and rest not day nor night from doing it. Think of the good company that is there, thousands of thousands of blessed angels, and holy souls, with whom we shall have an intimate and undisturbed converse in perfect light and love.
Compare the present slate thou art in, my soul, with that thou hopest for; and let it be a pleasure to thee to think, that whatever is here, thy grief and burden shall be there removed and done away forever. Satan's temptations shall there no more assault thee; thine own corruptions shall there no more ensnare thee; the guilt of sin, and doubts about thy spiritual state, shall there no more terrify and perplex thee; no pain, nor sickness, nor sorrow, shall be