a fweet fhepherd and Saviour have we in covenant, that deals thus with us? and fo he proceeds, "thou wilt prepare my table in the prefence of mine enemies ;" and for the time to come, he promifeth himself as much that God, as he hath been a fhepherd (for the prefent) to provide all things neceffary for body and foul, and guidance, fo furely the goodnefs of the Lord fhall follow me all the days of my life, for he is a perpetual fhepherd, he will not leave us till he hath brought us to heaven. Thus we fee in this place the fweet care of Chrift.

The like place you have, Ifa. xl. 11. "He fhall feed his flock like a fhepherd, he fhall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bofom, and fhall gently lead thofe that are with young." So he leads them into the pastures, and feeds them plentifully and fweetly, not only with fweet things, but with a tender care, which is fweeter. As a fhepherd, he takes into his bofom the poor lambs that cannot walk themselves, and the fheep that are heavy with young, he cares for them; he gently leads them that are poor weak Chriftians, that struggle and conflict with many temptations and corruptions. Chrift hath a tender care of them, he carries them, as it were, in his bofom and in his arms, and leads them gently; for indeed all Chrift's sheep are weak, every one hath fomewhat to complain of, therefore he hath a tender care, he feeds them tenderly and sweetly, or else they might perish.

Another place notable to this purpose, is in Ezek. xxxiv. 14. wherein you have the fame metaphor from a loving fhepherd; and it is but a comment upon the text; therefore being parallel places, they may help our memories: "I will feed them in good pastures upon the high mountains of Ifracl, there fhall their fold be, there fhall they ly in a good field, in a fat pasture: I will feed my flock, and cause them to ly down, faith the Lord God; I will feek that which is loft, and bring back that which is driven away; I will bind up that which was broken, and strengthen that which is fick, and destroy the fat and the ftrong, and feed them with judgment." Thofe that are Chrift's true fheep have fomething to complain of; either they are fick, or broken, or driven away, fomewhat is amifs or other; but Christ's care preventeth all the neceflities of his fheep, he hath a fit falve for all their fores. And (to apply this to the business in hand), doth not Chrift feed us among the lillies? doth he not now feed us with his own body and blood in the facrament? would you have bet

ter

ter food?" My body is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed," that is, it is the only meat and drink that our fouls could feed upon. God gave his Son to death to thed his blood for fins. What would become of the hunger bitten thirsty foul, that is ftung with Satan and his temptations, were it not for the blood of Chrift to quench our thirst, and the body of Chrift given to us for fin; were it not that the foul could think on this, where were the comfort of the foul? All this is reprefented to us here in the facrament; we feed upon the body and blood of Christ spiritually, and are refreshed thereby, as verily as our bodies are refreshed with the bread and wine. For God doth not feed us with empty fymbols and representations, but with things themselves, that the foul which comes prepared by faith, is partaker of Christ crucified, and is knit to him, though now in heaThere is as fure an union between Chrift and the chriftian foul, as there is between the food and the body, when it is once digested.

ven.

Therefore let us come to this bleffed, to this sweet food of our fouls, with hungry appetites, and thankful hearts, that God hath given us the best comforts of his word, and fed us with the fweet comfort of the facrament, as a feal of the word. We should even spend our lives much in thankfulness to God for this, that he will feed us fo fweetly, that he thinks nothing is good enough for our food, but his own felf, with his own gracious word and truth. Thus we should be very thankful unto God; and now at this time labour to get hungry appetites fit for this bleffed food, to receive it.

How fhall we do that?

1. Think seriously of the former part of thy life: For Chrift, the food of the foul, relifheth well with the four herbs of repentance. Let us ftir up in our hearts repentance for our fins, and forrow in the confideration of our own corrupt nature and life; and when we have felt our corruptions, and have the sense of our wants, then Chrift will be fweet to us, the pafchal lamb was to be eaten with four herbs, fo Chrift, our paffover, must be eaten with repentance.

2. Then withal there must be purging-there are many things which clog the stomach. Come not with worldly, wicked, malicious affections, which puff up the foul; "but lay afide (as) the apostle wifheth) all guile, malice, and fuperfluity;" empty the foul of all fin and prepoffeffing thoughts and affections.

T 4

3. And

3. And then confider the neceffity of spiritual strength-that we have need to grow up more and more in christianity, to be feeding ftill. We have need of ftrong faith, and strong affurance that Chrift is ours, and that we are his. Let us often frequent this ordinance, and come prepared as we fhould; and we shall find Chrift making good his own ordinance in his own best time; fo as we shall be able to fay, in truth of heart, experimentally and feelingly, with the church, "My beloved is mine, and I am his, he feedeth among the lillies."

THE

FOUNTAIN SEALED;

OR,

THE DUTY OF THE SEALED TO THE SPIRIT,

AND THE

WORK OF THE SPIRIT IN SEALING.

BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF

SEVERAL SERMONS.

EPHES. iv. 30.

"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are fealed unto "the day of redemption."

W

HETHER the words be a command enfuing from authority or counfel, from wifdom, or a caution from God's care of our fouls, it is not material; confidering that counfels and cautions of the great God, have both the force of a command, with fome mixture of the sweetness of love. The apoftle, as his manner is, from the largeness of his spirit, rifeth from a particular diffuafive from corrupt communication, in the verse before, to this general advice of not grieving God's fpirit by fin, efpecially against confcience enlightened and this diffuafive from evil is enforced from the dangerous effect of grieving the fpirit of God; and the danger of grieving arifeth from this, that it is the fpirit of God, and God himself whom we grieve, and a holy fpirit, holy in himself, and holy as the cause of all holinefs in us; and he, after he hath wrought holinefs in us, fealeth and confirmeth us in that act of grace, until the day of our glorious redemption: fo that the grounds of not grieving

grieving are from the greatness and goodness of the perfon whom we grieve, and from the greatnefs and conftancy of the benefits we have by him. To fpeak fomething of the perfon: the holy Spirit is called a fpirit, not only by nature, as being a spiritual effence, but in regard of his perfon and office, he is both breathed from the Father and the Son, as proceeding from them both; and, by office, breatheth into all that God hath given Christ to redeem, and him to fanctify; fo he is the fpirit of God in proceeding from God, as that he is God, which whofo denieth, deny their own baptifm; being as well baptifed into the name of the Holy Ghoft, as into the Father, and the Son; and no less a perfon than God, is needful to affure our fouls of God's love, and to change our nature, being in an oppofite frame. can reveal to us the mind of God, but the fpirit of God? and herein we may fee the joint forwardnefs both of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost, when both Father and Son join in willingness to fend fo great a person to apply for us, and to asfure us of that great good the Father hath decreed, and the Son performed for us.

Who

The attribute the spirit delights in, is that of holiness, which our corrupt nature leaft delights in, and moft oppofeth. Holi. ness is the glory and crown of all other excellency; without which, they are neither good in themselves, nor comfortable to us. It implies a freedom from all impurity, a perfect hatred of it; an abfolute perfection of all that is excellent. What is it then to grieve fuch a holy fpirit, before whom the heavens themselves are impure, and not only the devils tremble, but the angels cover their faces? what fhall we think then of them who do not only neglect, but defpife, yea oppofe this holiness, and endure any thing elfe? What is hated in the world with keen and perfect hatred, but holiness, without which, yet, we fhall never fee God, nor enter into that pure place, into which we all profefs a defire to enter? There was planted in man by nature a defire of holiness, and a defire of happiness: the defire of happiness is left ftill in us, but for holinefs, which is the perfection of the image of God in us, it is both loft, and the defire of it extinguished. And that men might the better drive it out of the world under a form and fhow of it, they oppose the truth of it, and that with the greater fuccefs, because under that great colour, the devil and his vicar, carry all their devilish policies under a fhow of holiness. We fee in popery, every thing is holy with them, but that which should be holy, the truth of God, and the expreffion of it. The man of fin him

felf,