Page:Preparation sermon, before receiving the Holy sacrament.pdf/7

 extended Saviour requires an enlarged heart: and nothing is more becoming than that love ſhould be recompenced with love, O ſinner here you may ſee God bringing his Son from heaven to earth, from the earth to the croſs, from the croſs to the grave, and pouring out his blood to keep us from bleeding. Remember that without love there is no worthy communicating, ſo benefit by the ſacrament, no communication with God John 14. 21. He that loveth me ſhall be loved of my Father, and ver. 23. We will come unto him, and make our abode with him. O ſinner, why therefore wilt thou not love Chriſt? Go home, and ſecretly take a view of Chriſt and his love, and regret your want of love, And ſay, "Lord, I have a cold heart; O do thou inflame it. How can I look on Saviour who had his hands nailed, his head picked, his ſides pierced, his heart grieved, for my ſins, and not love him? Can I behold the arms of the son of God open on the croſs, the spear reaching his heart, his affections ſtreaming out to us in blood. When we were enemies to him, and still be ſo cold and indifferent."

9. It is to communicate with unbroken hearts for ſin. O ſinner, a whole heart and a broken Chriſt will never ſuit together. This paſſover muſt be eaten with bitter herbs; ye can have no comfort in his ordinance without it; ye must sow in tears if ye would reap in joy. Therefore come humbly and mournfully acknowledging that all theſe all these strokes that were laid on Chriſt were due to us, and that the tragedy that was acted on him ſhould have been acted on us: we ſhould have been the mark of all the arrows of God's vengeacce; it is on us that all the vials of wrath ſhould have been poured out. When he was bruiſed for our iniquities, we ſhould have been bruiſed down to hell under the millſtone of God's wrath: wben he groaned on the croſs, it was we that ſhould have roared with the devils to all eternity.