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grass continues to grow. By grievous and presumptuous sins we debar ourselves from the sense and comfort of the covenant for the present: yet when we repent, we come not to make a new covenant with God, but to beseech him to be gracious to us for the old covenant's sake; as an adulteress, if she be received again, and pardoned by her husband, is not new married, but accepted for a wife upon the first contract of marriage.

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Take some examples of those in the New Testament, that sinned against God, and in their return again did not suppose the first covenant of baptism to be abolished, but they comforted themselves that the mercies promised them would hold firm, and not fail them. St. Paul challengeth the Corinthians,' that they had been adulterers, effeminate, and much of the like. Yet he speaks thus to them, "Ye are washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus."2 In the same manner he deals with the Galatians, who had embraced much false doctrine, mingled Judaism with the Gospel: yet as many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Can any thing equal all these heart-refreshings that swim in the pool of baptism? Therefore, in many ages past, the joy of the neophytes was excessive that came to be baptized. Many torches were lighted, and carried before them, to shew it was the day of their illumination. They came in white garments, and wore them constantly eight days together,—a most festival habit. Yet they affected too much to defer their baptism till their elder, nay, their later years, out of the erroneous principle that baptism was the healing water for the remission of sins past and they rather relied upon repentance than upon the baptism which they had received, for the remission of sins that did follow.

1 1 Cor. vi.

2 Ver. 11.

3 Gal. iii. 27.

Whereas repentance is not a new paction with God, but a return to the use of the old : a restitution, as it were, of our blood, when we had been tainted by committing treason against God: that is, repossession of mercy endangered to be forfeited. But were it a new covenant, we should have some new visible sign for it, which never was. Therefore, this is the very soul of mine and every one's baptismal consolation,—that, being once done, it seals pardon for all our sins, through Christ's blood, unto our life's end.

The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

BUT, as if many spouts should open into one cistern, so all comforts conspire to meet in the sacrament of the LORD'S SUPPER. Nothing else but the actual enjoying of heaven is above it. The Church, which dispenseth all the mysteries of salvation, can bring forth no better. Children that are come to age, can ask no more than the whole portion of their father's goods that come unto them: and what is that but the blood of Christ? and this is the new testament in that blood. Christ is mine, his body is mine, his blood is mine, all is mine. "O be glad and rejoice, and give honour to the Lord God Omnipotent, for the marriage of the Lamb is come.' "And the Spirit saith, write, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb." It is much to be received into the covenant with God by the former sacrament: is it not more to be kept in covenant by the other? It is much in baptism to be brought from death to life but what is life without nourishment to preserve

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it? This keeps us in the lease of the old covenant, that the years of it shall never run out and expire.

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This is food to keep us in health and strength, that we never decay and faint. By it we lay hold of the promise," My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Then why should I not embolden my heart with holy security against all fears? for the Lord hath put himself into my hand, and into my mouth, and into my spirit: of what then should I be afraid? This is that courage which our liturgy sounds forth, as with a shrill trumpet, to all that come to this banquet well prepared. It begins, that it is a comfortable thing to all them that receive it worthily;' it bids us come with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience :' it proclaims aloud, 'Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly come unto him, So God loved the world," &c. "This is a true saying," &c. It hath gathered the sallies of spiritual joy, as it were, into a bundle of myrrh. It adds, Christ hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our great and endless comfort.' And if all this put together will not blandish our conscience, and stablish our joy, we would be dull and spirit-broken, though an angel from heaven should come and say unto us, as he did unto Gideon, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."2 For an angel of the Lord cannot plead so much to the solace of the heart, as the great Angel of the Covenant hath done in these great demonstrations of love, as followeth.

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1. First; as baptism was the former, so this is the second, visible publication of God's apparent mercy. It is not a bare message, but a lively apprehension of them by palpable means: not in a vision, or a dream, 1 Isaiah liv. 10. 2 Judg. vi. 12.

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but in a real object. Call to mind that the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared unto him twice.1 Once the Lord hath appeared unto us in the token of his love by water: and once again he appears unto us in the elements of his holy table. Twice he hath appeared to bless thee. Therefore, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart." For if you turn away from comfort, when the Lord hath appeared twice unto you to give it you, he will be angry, and leave you to a thick darkness of sorrow, such as fell upon the land of Egypt.

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2. Secondly; the Lord can appear comfortably unto us, though with a sword in his hand, and in the midst of a camp, as he did to Joshua :3 or, in a flame of fire, as he did to Manoah:* or, in a tempest upon the sea, as he did to the apostles: or, at the grave's mouth, as he did to Mary Magdalen. But here he appears unto us in a feast, which is a time of innocent delight. The glory of God, which we look for, is set forth unto us in that which our senses apprehend for sweetness and pleasure: as, "I appoint unto you a kingdomye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom" which is translated from bodily pleasure to spiritual, that, in the heaven of blessedness, the soul shall feed continually as at a banquet of which we have now a taste in the kingly provision of Christ's supper. It is a kingly feast, although imparted in a little pittance of bread and wine: yet it is more costly and precious in that which it signifies, than Solomon and all his court had for their diet day by day. We are brought to eat at the king's table, as Mephibosheth was, like one of the king's sons: to eat together is a communion of more than ordinary acquaintance:

11 Kings xi. 39.
4 Judg. xiii. 20.
7 Luke xxii. 29.

2 Eccles. ix. 7.
5 Matt. xiv. 27.
8 1 Kings iv. 22.

3 Josh. v. 13.
6 John, xx. 14.
9 2 Sam. ix. 11.

do you note the endearing favour of God in that? And what are we, that are not thrust, as our kind might look for it, to gather up crumbs under the board, but to eat our portion before the Lord, with the Lord, out of the hands of the Lord? For he that brake bread, and gave it to the apostles, gives it to us, as our High Priest, though he be in heaven. I exhort you, therefore, to enter into the guestchamber with a quiet and unshaken heart: for the Lord hath not invited us as Absalom did Amnon, to kill us; nor as Esther did Haman, to accuse us; but, as Melchizedec brought forth bread and wine to Abraham, to bless us. He gives us Asher's portion, bread that shall be fat, and royal dainties. Only the case is altered, if Christ shall say, 'The hand of him that betrays me, the hand of him that loves me not, the hand of him that believes not in me, the hand of him that will not keep my sayings, is on the table,' that wretch shall be thrown out, and be fed with bread of sorrow and water of affliction, nay, where there shall not be a drop of water to cool his tongue.

3. Thirdly; that which astonisheth the communicant and ravisheth his heart, is, that this feast affords no worse meat than the body and blood of our Saviour. Those he gave for the life of the world, these are the repast of this supper, and these we truly partake. For there is not only the visible reception of the outward signs, but an invisible reception of the thing signified. There is far more than a shadow, than a type, than a figure. Christ did not only propose a sign at that hour, but also he gave us a gift, and that gift, really and effectually, is himself, which is all one, as you would say, spiritually himself; for spiritual union is the most true and real union that can be. That which is promised, and faith takes it, and hath it, is not fiction, fancy, opinion, falsity, but

1 Gen. xlix. 20.

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