A41637:846
Christian directions, showing how to walk with God all the day long drawn up…Christian directions, shewing how to walk with God all the day long drawn up…
Christian directions, showing how to walk with God all the day long drawn up for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of Sepulchres parish / by Tho. Gouge ...Christian directions, shewing how to walk with God all the day long drawn up for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of Sepulchres parish / by Tho. Gouge ...
London: printed by R. Ibbitson and M. Wright, 1661
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
These things premised, Come we now to the Duties to be performed at the Ordinance, which are these,
I. When thou art present at the Ordinance, put forth all the strength thou canst in the partaking thereof, I mean, the strength of thy affections. For though thou art very weak, yet if thou put forth thy weakness, God will accept thereof. Content not thy self therefore with a mere outward participation of the Lords Supper, but let thy care be to bring up thine heart, and thine affections to the Ordinance, and to put forth what strength thou canst.
I. When thou art present at the Ordinance, put forth all the strength thou canst in the partaking thereof, I mean, the strength of thy affections. For though thou art very weak, yet if thou put forth thy weakness, God will accept thereof. Content not thy self therefore with a meer outward participation of the Lords Supper, but let thy care be to bring up thine heart, and thine affections to the Ordinance, and to put forth what strength thou canst.
II. Remember the death of Christ, which is Christs command in the institution of this Ordinance; for saith he,1 This do in remembrance of me, viz. in remembrance of my bitter death and passion. For the Apostle Paul explaining this remembrance of Christ, applieth it to his death, 2and the showing it forth. This do, saith he, in remembrance of me: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lords death till he come. So that this Ordinance of the Lords Supper was instituted for a solemn Memorial of that great Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, that his death might never be forgotten, but be ever fresh in our memories. And why must his death be thus remembered? Surely because thereby was the Covenant of Grace ratified and sealed, our Redemption purchased, our sins expiated, our reconciliation made with God, and the foundation of our peace laid. And therefore at the Table, let out thine heart in a serious meditation of the manifold sufferings of Christ, which is the main business of this Ordinance.