The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature…

First, Meditate now on the suffering of thy Saviour; the wound of Christ out of which came precious balsam to heal all thy sinful sores, ought never to be forgotten; but the remembrance of them is never so seasonable as at a Sacrament. One end of the institution of this Ordinance, was the commemoration of Christs death; As oft as ye eat this brad, and drink this cup, ye show forth the Lords death till he come, 1 Cor. 11.26, 27. The Sacrament is a lively crucifix, wherein Jesus Christ is evidently set forth, crucified before thine ⟨p. 286⟩eyes. When thou seest the bread and wine consecrated and set apart, consider how God the Father did from eternity set a part his only Son for his bloody passion, and thy blessed redemption. Consider he was a Lamb slain before the foundation of the World. When thou seest the bread and wine upon the Table, consider that as the Corn was ground in the Mill, to make that bread, and the grapes squeezed to make that wine, so thy Saviour was beaten in the Mill, and Wine-press of his Fathers wrath, before he could be meat indeed, and drink indeed, to nourish thee unto life everlasting. When thou seest the bread broken in pieces, think how the body of Christ was broken for thine iniquities. It pleased the Lord to bruise him (as Spice is beaten small in a mortar with a Pestle, so the word signifieth, Isa. 53.10.) Well might he cry out, I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart, Psa. 38.8. When thou seest the Wine poured out, meditate on his precious blood, which was shed for many, for the remission of sins. O consider his wounds and his words, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like Wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels, Psa: 22.14. Consider the doleful tragedy which he acted from first to last; Meditate on his incarnation. For the Son of God to become the Son of man; for him that lived from all eternity to be born in time; for him that thundereth in the clouds, to cry in the Cradle; for him that created all things, to become a creature, is a greater suffering, then if all the men and Angels ⟨p. 287⟩in this and the other World were crowded into an atom, or turned into nothing. This was the first and greatest step of his humiliation. Consider the manner of his birth; he was born, not of some great Princes, but of mean and indigent Parents;