in the glasse of the Sacraments And surely these are in themselves cleer and bright glasses yet we see even in them but darkly in regard of that vapour and steeme which exhaleth from our corrupt nature when we use them and even on these doth our soule look through other darke glasses the windowes of sense But yet at the best they are but glasses whose properties are to present nothing but the pattern the shaddow the type of those things which are in their substance quite behind us and therefore out of sight so then in generall the nature of a Sacrament is to be the representative of a substance the signe of a covenant the seale of a purchase the figure of a body the witnesse of our faith the earnest of our hope the presence of things distant the sight of things absent the taste of things unconceivable and the knowledge of things that are past knowledge CHAP. III. Inferences of Practice from the former observavations HERE then we see first the different state and disposition of the Church here in a state of corruption and therefore in want of water in Baptisme to wash it in a state of infancy and therefore in want of milke in the word to nourish it in a state of weaknesse and therefore in want of bread the body of Christ to strengthen it in a state of sorrow and therefore in want of wine the blood of Christ to comfort it Thus the Church while it is a child it speaks as a child it understands as a child it feeds as a child here a little and there a little one day in the week one houre in the day it is kept fasting and hungry But when it is growne from strength to strength unto a perfect age and unto the fulnesse of the stature of Christ then it shall be satisfied with fatnesse and drink its full of those rivers of pleasures which make glad the City of God It shall keep an eternall Sabbath a continued festivall the Supper of the Lamb shall bee without end or satiety so long as the Bridegroom is with them which shall be for ever they cannot fast Secondly we see here nor see only but even taste and touch how gratious the Lord is in that he is pleased even to unroabe his graces of their naturall lustre to overshaddow his Promises and as it were to obscure his glory that they might be made proportion'd to our dull and earthy senses to lock up so rich mysteries as lie hidden in the Sacraments in a bason of water or a morsell of bread When hee was invisible by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours hee made himselfe to be seen in the flesh and now that his very flesh is to us againe invisible by reason of that vast distance between his place and ours he hath made even it in a mysticall sense to be seen and tasted in the Sacrament Oh then since God doth thus farre humble himselfe and his graces even unto our senses let not us by an odious ingratitude humble them yet lower even under our feet Let us not trample on the blood of the Covenant by taking it into a noisome sinke into a dirty and earthie heart He that eats Christs in the Sacrament with a foule mouth and receives him into an unclensed and sinfull soule doth all one as if he should sop the bread he eates in dirt or lay up his richest treasures in a sink Thirdly we learn how we should employ all our senses Not only as brute beasts do to fasten them on the earth but to lift them up unto a more heavenly use since God hath made even them the organs instruments of our spirituall nourishment Mix ever with the naturall a heavenly use of thy senses Whatsoever thou seest behold in it his wonder whatsoever thou hearest hear in it his wisedome whatsoever thou tastest taste in it the sweetnesse as well of his love as of the creature If Christ will not dwell in a foul house he will certainly not enter at a foul door Let not those teeth that eat the bread of Angelsgrinde the face of the poor Let not the mouth which doth drink the blood of Christ thirst after the blood of his neighbour Let not that hand which is reached out to receive Christ in the Sacrament be stretched out to injure him in his members Let not those eyes which look on Christ be gazing after vanity Certainly if he will not be one in the same body with a harlot neither will he be seen with the same eyes he is really in the heaven of the greater world and he will be no where else Sacramentally but in the heavenly parts of man the lesser Lastly we see here what manner of conversation we have The church on earth hath but the earnests of glory the earnest of the Spirit and the earnest of the Sacrament that witnessing this signifying both confirming and sealing our adoption But we know not what we shall be our life is yet hid and our inheritance is laid up for us A Prince that is haply bred up in a great distance from his future kingdome in another Realm and that amongst enemies where he suffers one while a danger another a disgrace loaded with dangers and discontents though by the assurance of blood by the warrant of his fathers own hand seal he may be confirmed in the evident right of his succession can hardly yet so much as imagine the honour he shall enjoy nor any more see the gold and lustre of his crown in the print of the wax that confirms it than a man that never saw the Sunne can conceive that brightnesse which dwelleth in it by its picture drawn in some dark colours We are a royall people heirs yea coheirs with Christ but we are in a farre countrey and absent from the Lord in houses ruinous and made of clay in a region of darknesse in a shadow of death in a valley of tears though compassed in with a wall of fire yet do the waves of ungodly men break in upon us though ship'd in a safe Ark the temple of God yet often tos'd almost unto shipwrack and ready with Ionah to be swallowed of a great Leviathan though protected with a guard of holy Angels which pitch their tents about us so that the enemy without cannot enter yet enticed often out and led privily but voluntarily a-away by the enchanting lusts the Dalilahs of our own bosome The kingdome and inheritance we expect is hid from us and we know no more of it but onely this that it passeth knowledge Truly the assurance of it is confirmd by an infallible pattent Gods own promise and that made firm by a seal coloured with that blood and stamped with the image of that body which was the price that bought it What remains then but that where the body is thither the Eagles flie where the treasure is
Elements are so necessary and beneficiall to that life of man with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries even with hungry and thirsty soules longing for the sweetnesse of Christ crucified Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vitall being hee hath also afforded nourishment to sustaine it and an inclination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment Even the new-borne Babe by the impression of nature is moved to use the breasts before he knowes them Now we which were dead in sinnes hath Christ quickned and hath infused into us a vitall principle even that faith by which the just do live which being instilled into us Christ beginneth to be formed in the soule and the whole man to be made conformable unto him Then are the parts organced and fitted for their severall workes there is an eye with Stephen to see Christ an eare with Mary to heare him a mouth with Peter to confesse him a hand with Thomas to touch him an arme with Simeon to imbrace him feet with his Disciples to follow him a heart to entertaine him and bowels of affection to love him All the members are weapons of righteousnesse and thus is the new man the new creature perfected Now hee that left not himselfe amongst the Heathen without a witnesse but filled even their hearts with food and gladnesse hath not certainly left his owne chosen without nourishment such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus framed them unto As therefore new Infants are fed with the same nourishment and substance of which they consist so the same Christ crucified is as the cause and matter of our new birth so the food which sustaineth and preserveth us in it unto whose body and blood there must needs be as proportionable an appetite in a new Christian as there is unto Milke in a new Infant it being more nourishable then Milke and faith more vitall to desire it then nature And all this so much the rather because he himselfe did begin unto us in a more bitter Cup. Did he on his Crosse drink Gall and Vinegar for me and that also made infinitely more biâ—ter by my sinnes and shalâ— not I at his Table drink Wine for my selfe made infinitely sweeter with the blood which it conveighs Did hee drink a Cup of bitternesse and wrath and shal not I drink the Cup of blessing Did he eat the bread of affliction and shall not I eat the bread of life Did he suffer his Passion and shall not I enjoy it Did he stretch out his hands on the Crosse and shall mine be withered and shrunken towards his Table Certainly it is a presumption that he is not only sick but desperate who refuseth that nourishment which is both food to strengthen and Physick to recover him Secondly the benefit of Christ being so obvious as the commons and so sufficient as the properties of these Elements declare we see how little we should be dismaid at any either inward weaknesses and bruses of minde or outward dangers and assaults of enemies having so powerfull a remedy so neere unto us how little we ought to trust in any thing within our selves whose sufficiency and nourishment is from without There is no created substance in the world but receives perfection from some other things how much more must Man who hath lost his owne native integrity go out of himselfe to procure a better estate which in vaine he might have done for ever had not God first if I may so speak gone out of himselfe humbling the Divine Nature unto a personall union with the humane And now having such an Immanuel as is with us not only by assuming us unto himselfe in his incarnation but by communicating himselfe to us in these sacred Mysteries whatsoever weaknesses dismayes us his body is bread to strengthen us whatsoever waves or tempests rise against us his wounds are holes to hide and shelter us what though sinne be poyson have we not here the bread of Christ for an Antidote What though it be red as Skarlet is not his blood of a deeper colour What though the Darts of Satan continually wound us is not the issue of his wounds the balme for ours Let me be fed all my dayes with bread of affliction and water of affliction I have another bread another Cup to sweeten both Let Satan tempt mee to despaire of life I have in these visible and common Elements the Author of life made the food of life unto me let who will perswade me to trust a little in my owne righteousnesse to spie out some gaspings and faint reliques of life in my selfe I receive in these signes an all-sufficient Saviour and I will seeke for nothing in my selfe when I have so much in him Lastly we see here both from the example of Christ who is the patterne of unity and from the Sacrament of Christ which is the Symboll of unity what a conspiracy of affections ought to be in us both betweene our owne and towards our fellow-members Thinke not that thou hast worthily received these holy mysteries till thou finde the image of that unity which is in them conveighed by them into thy soule As the breaking of the bread is the Sacrament of Christs Passion so the aggregation of many graines into one masse should be a Sacrament of the Churches unity What is the reason that the bread and the Church should be both called in the Scripture by the same name The bread is the body of Christ and the Church is the body of Christ too Is it not because as the bread is one Loafe out of diverse cornes so the Church is one body out of diverse Beleevers that the representative this the mysticall body of the same Christ. Even as the Word and the Spirit and the faithfull are in the Scripture all called by the same name of seed because of that assimulating vertue whereby the one received doth transforme the other into the similitude and nature of it selfe If the beames of the Sunne though divided and distinct from one another have yet a unity in the same nature of light because all pertake of one native and originall splendor if the limbes of a Tree though all severall and spreading different wayes yet have a unity in the same fruits because all are incorporated into one stock or root if the streames of a River though running diverse wayes doe yet all agree in a unity of sweetnesse and cleerenesse because all issuing from the same pure Fountaine why then should not the Church of Christ though of severall and divided qualities and conditions agree in a unity of truth and love Christ being the Sunne whence they all receive their light the Vine into which they are all ingrafted and the Fountain that is opened unto them all for transgressions and for sins CHAP. IX Of the Analogy and
Schisme but that as at all times so much more then wee should all thinke and speake and doe the same things least the manner should oppose the substance of the celebration Lastly if we consider the very act of eating and drinking even therein is expressed the fellowship and the union of the faithfull to each other for even by Nature are men directed to expresse their affections or reconcilements to others in feasts and invitations where even publique Enemies have condescended to termes of fairenesse and plausibility for which cause it is noted for one of the Acts of Tyrants whereby to dissociate the mindes of their Subjects and so to breake them when they are asunder whom all together they could not bend to interdict invitations and mutuall hospitalities whereby the body politicke is as well preserved as the naturall and the love of men as much nourished as their bodies And therefore where Ioseph did love most there was the messe doubled and the nationall hatred betweene the Iewes and Aegyptians springing from the diversity of Religions whose worke it is to knit and fasten the affections of men was no way better expressed than by their mutuall abominating the tables of each other So that in all these circumstances we find how the union of the faithfull unto each other is in this holy Sacrament both signified and confirmed whereby however they may in regard of temporall relations stand at great distance even as great as is betweene the Palace and the Prison yet in Christ they are all fellow-members of the same common Body and fellow-heires of the same common Kingdome and spirituall stones of the same common Church which is a name of unity and Peace They have one Father who deriveth on them an equall Nobility one Lord who equally governeth them one spirit who equally quickneth them one Baptisme which equally regenerateth them one faith which equally warrants their inheritance to them and lastly one sinew and bond of love which equally interesteth them in the joyes and griefes of each other so that as in all other so principally in this divine friendship of Christs Church there is an equality and uniformity be the outward distances how great soever Another principall End or Effect of this holy Supper is to signifie and obsignate unto the Soule of each Beleever his personall claime and title unto the new Covenant of Grace We are in a state of corruption sinne though it have received by Christ a wound of which it cannot recover yet as beasts commonly in the pangs of death use most violently to struggle and often to fasten their teeth more eagerly and fiercely where they light so sinne here that body of death that besieging encompassing evill that Cananite that lieth in our members being continually heartened by our arch enemy Satan however subdued by Israel doth yet never cease to goad and pricke us in the eyes that we might not looke up to our future Possession is ever raising up steemes of corruption to intercept the lustre of that glory which wee expect is ever suggesting unto the Beleever matter of diffidence and anxiety that his hopes hitherto have beene ungrounded his Faith presumptuous his claime to Christ deceitfull his propriety uncertaine if not quite desperate till at last the faithfull Soule lies gasping and panting for breath under the buffets of this messenger of Satan And for this cause it hath pleased our good God who hath promised never to faile nor forsake us that wee might not be swallowed up with griefe to renew often our right and exhibite with his owne hands for what is done by his Officers is by him done that sacred Body with the efficacy of it unto us that wee might fore-enjoy the promised Inheritance and put not into our chests or coffers which may haply by casualities miscarry but into our very bowels into our substance and soule the pledges of our Salvation that wee might at this spirituall Altar see Christ as it were crucified before our eyes clinge unto his Crosse and graspe it in our armes sucke in his Blood and with it salvation put in our hands with Thomas not out of diâ—â—idence but out of faith into his side and fasten our tongues in his sacred wounds that being all over dyed with his Bloud wee may use boldnesse and approach to the Throne of Grace lifting up unto heaven in faith and confidence of acceptance those eyes and hands which have seene and handled him opening wide that mouth which hath received him and crying aloud with that tongue which having tasted the Bread of Life hath from thence both strength and arguments for prayer to move God for mercy this then is a singular benefit of this Sacrament the often repetition and celebration whereof is as it were the renewing or rather the confirming with more and more seales our Patent of life that by so many things in the smallest whereof it is impossible for God to lye wee might have strong consolation who have our refuge to lay hold on him who in these holy Mysteries is set before us for the Sacrament is not onely a Signe to represent but a Seale to exhibite that which it represents In the Signe wee see in the seale wee receive him In the Signe wee have the image in the seale the benefit of Christs Body for the nature of a Signe is to discover and represent that which in it selfe is obscure or absent as words are called signes and symboles of our invisible thoughts but the property of a Seale is to ratifie and â—o establish that which might otherwise bee uneffectuall for which cause some have called the Sacrament by the name of a Ring which men use in sealing those writings unto which they annexe their trust and credit And as the Sacrament is a Signe and Seale from God to us representing and exhibiting his benefits so should it bee a signe and seale from us to God a signe to separate us from sinners a seale to oblige us to all performances of faith and thankfulnesse on our part required Another End and Effect of this holy Sacrament was to abrogate the Passeover and testifie the alteration of those former Types which were not the commemorations but the predictions of Christs Passion and for this cause our blessed Saviour did celebrate both those Suppers at the same time but the new Supper after the other and in the evening whereby was figured the fulnesse of time that thereby the presence of the substance might evacuate the shadow even as the Sunne doth with his lustre take away all those lesser and substituted lights which were used for no other purpose but to supply the defect which there was of him The Passeover however in the nature of a sacrifice it did prefigure Christ yet in the nature of a Solemnity and annuall commemoration it did
uncleane things as being in the neerest disposition to rottennes and putrefaction will never smell any sweete savor in such services What have I to doe saith God with your Sacrifices and my soule hateth your new Moones and your appointed feasts My Sacrifices and my Sabboths they were by originall institution but your carnall observance of them hath made them yours Even the Heathen Idols themselves did require rather the truth of an inward then the pompe of an outward worship and therefore they forbad all profane people any accesse to their services And God certainly will not be content with lesse then the Divill Sixtly in that by these frequent ceremonies we are led unto the celebration of Christs death and the benefits thereby arising unto mankinde we may hence observe the naturall deadnes and stupidity of mans memory in the things of his salvation It is a wonder how a man should forget his Redeemer that ransomed him with the price of his owne bloud to whom he oweth whatsoever he either is or hath him whom each good thing we injoy leadeth unto to the acknowledgment of Looke where we will he is still not onely in us but before us The wisdome of our minds the goodness of our natures the purposes of our wills and desires the calmenes of our consciences the hope and expectation of our soules and bodies the liberty from law and sinne what ever it is in or about us which we either know or admire or enjoy or expect he is the Treasury whence they were taken the fulnes whence they were received the head which transferreth the hand which bestoweth them we are on all sides compassed and even hedged in with his blessings so that in this sense we may acknowledge a kind of ubiquity of Christs body in as much as it is every where even visible and palpable in those benefits which flow from it And yet we like men that looke on the River Nilus and gaze wonderously on the Streames remaine still ignorant of the head and Originall from whence they issue Thus as there is betweene bloud and Poyson such a naturall antipathy as makes them to shrinke in and retire at the presence of each other so though each good thing we enjoy serve to present that pretious blood which was the price of it unto our soules yet there is in us so much venome of sinne as makes us still to remove our thoughts from so pure an object As in the knowledge of things many men are of so narrow understandings that they are not able to raise them unto consideration of the causes of such things whose effects they are haply better acquainted with then wiser men it being the worke of a discursive head to discover the secret knittings obscure dependances of naturall things on each other so in matters of practice in Divinity many men commonly are so fastned unto the present goods which they enjoy and so full with them that they either have noe roome or noe leisure or rather indeed no power nor will to lift up their minds from the streames unto the Fountaine or by a holy logick to resolve them into the death of Christ from whence if they issue not they are but fallacies and sophisticall good things and what ever happines we expect in or from them will prove a non sequitur at the last Remember and know CHRIST indeed such men may and do in some sort sometimes to dishonor him at best but to discourse of him But as the Phylosopher speakes of intemperate men who sin not out of a full purpose uncontroled swinge of vitious resolutions but with checks of judgement and reluctancy of reason that they are but halfe vitious which yet is indeed but an halfe-truth So certainly they who though they doe not quite forget Christ or cast him behinde their backe doe yet remember him onely with a speculative contemplation of the nature and generall efficacy of his death without particular application of it unto their owne persons and practices have but a halfe and halting knowledge of him Certainely a meere Schoole-man who is able exactly to dispute of Christ and his passion is as farre from the length and breadth and depth and heigth of Christ crucified from the requisite dimensions of a Christian as a meere Surveiour or Architect who hath onely the practise of measuring land or timber is from the learning of a Geometrician For as Mathematicks being a speculative Science cannot possibly bee compris'd in the narrow compasse of a practicall Art so neither can the knowledge of Christ being a saving and practick knowledge be compleat when it floats only in the discourses of a speculative braine And therefore Christ at the last day will say unto many men who thought themselves great Clerks and of his neere acquaintance even such as did preach him and doe wonders in his name that hee never knew them and that is an argument that they likewise never knew him neither For as no man can see the Sunne but by the benefit of that light which from the Sunne shineth on him so no man can know Christ but those on whom Christ first shineth and whom he vouch safeth to know Mary Magdalen could not say Rabboni to Christ till Christ first had said Mary to her And therefore that we may not faile to remēber Christ aright it pleaseth him to institute this holy Sacrament as the image of his crucified body whereby wee might as truely have Christs death presented unto us as if he had beene crucified before our eyes Secondly we see here who they are who in the Sacrament receive Christ even such as remember his death with a recognition of faith thankefulnesse and obedience Others receive onely the Elements but not the Sacrament As when the King seales a pardon to a condemned malefactour the messenger that is sent with it receives nothing from the King but paper written and sealed but the malefactor unto whom onely it is a gift receives it as it were a resurrection Certainely there is a staffe as well of Sacramentall as of common bread the staffe of common bread is the blessing of the Lord the staffe of the Sacramentall is the body of the Lord and as the wicked which never looke up in thankfulnes unto God doe often receive the bread without the blessing so here the element without the body they receive indeed as it is fit uncleane Birds should doe nothing but the carcasse of a Sacrament the body of Christ being the soule of the Bread and his bloud the life of the Wine His body is not now any more capable of dishonour it is a glorified body and therefore will not enter into an earthy and uncleane soule As it is corporally in Heaven so it will be spiritually and sacramentally in noe place but a heavenly soule Thinke not that thou hast received Christ till thou hast effectually remembred seriously meditated and been religiously affected and inflamed
with the love of his death without this thou maist be guilty of his body thou canst not be a partaker of it guilty thou art because thou didst reach out thy hand with a purpose to receive Christ into a polluted soule though he withdrew himselfe from thee Even as Mutius Sevola was guilty of Porsena's bloud though it was not him but another whom the Dagger wounded because the error of the hand cannot remove the malice of the heart CHAP. XVIII Of the subject who may with benefit receive the holy Sacrament with the necessary qualifications thereunto of the necessity of due preparation WE have hitherto handled the Sacrament it selfe wee are now breifly to consider the subject whom it concerneth in whom we will observe such qualifications as may fit and predispose him for the comfortable receiving and proper interest in these holy mysteries Sacraments since the time that Satan hath had a Kingdome in the World have been ever notes and Characters whereby to distinguish the Church of God from the Ethnick and unbeleeving part of men so that they being not common unto all mankinde some subject unto whom the right and propriety of them belongeth must bee found out GOD at the first created man upright framed him after his owne Image and endowed him with gifts of nature able to preserve him entire in that estate wherein he was created And because it was repugnant to the essentiall freedome wherein he was made to necessitate him by any outward constraint unto an immutable estate of integrity he therefore so framed him that it might be within the free liberty of his owne will to cleave to him or to decline from him Man being thus framed abused this native freedome and committed sinne and thereby in the very same instant became really and properly dead For as he was dead iudicially in regard of a temporall and eternall death both which were now already pronounced though not executed on him so was he dead actually and really in regard of that spirituall death which consisteth in a separation of the soule from God and in an absolute immobility unto Divine operations But mans sinne did not nullifie Gods power He that made him a glorious creature when he was nothing could as easily renew and rectifie him when he fell away Being dead true it is that active concurrence unto his owne restitution he could have none but yet still the same passive obedience and capacity which was in the red Clay of which Adams body was fashioned unto that divine Image which God breathed into it the same had man being now fallen unto the restitution of those heavenly benefits and habituall graces which then hee lost save that in the clay there was onely a passive obedience but in man fallen there is an active rebellion crossing resistance and withstanding of Gods good worke in him More certainely than this hee cannot have because howsoever in regard of naturall and reasonable operations hee bee more selfe-moving than clay yet in regard of spirituall graces hee is full as dead Even as a man though more excellent then a beast is yet as truely and equally not an Angell as a beast is So then thus farre wee see all mankinde doe agree in an equallity of Creation in a universallity of descrtion in a capacity of restitution God made the world that therein hee might commuicate his goodnesse unto the creature and unto every creature in that proportion as the nature of it is capable of And man being one of the most excellent creatures is amongst the rest capable of these two principall attributes holinesse and happinesse which two God out of his most secret Counsell and eternall mercy conferreth on whom he had chosen and made accepted in Christ the beloved shutting the rest either out of the compasse as Heathen or at least out of the inward priviledges and benefits of that Covenant which hee hath established with mankind as hypocrites and licentious Christians Now as in the first Creation of man God did into the unformed lumpe of clay infuse by his power the breath of life and so made man so in the regeneration of a Christian doth hee in the naturall man who is dead in sinne breathe a principle of spirituall life the first Act as it were and the originall of all supernaturall motions whereby hee is constituted in the first being of a member of Christ. And this first Act is faith the soule of a Christian that whereby we live in Christ so that till wee have faith wee are dead and out of him And as faith is the principle next under the Holy-Ghost of all spirituall life here so is Baptisme the Sacrament of that life which accompanied and raised by the Spirit of grace is unto the Church though not the cause yet the meanes in and by which this grace is conveyed unto the soule Now as Adam after once life was infus'd into him was presently to preserve it by the eating of the fruites in the Garden where God had placed him because of that continuall depashion of his radicall moysture by vitaâ—l heat which made Nature to stand in need of succours and supplies from outward nourishment so after man is once regenerated and made alive hee is to preserve that faith which quickneth him by such food as is provided by God for that purpose it being otherwise of it selfe subject to continuall languishings and decayes And this life is thus continued and preserved amongst other meanes by the grace of this holy Eucharist which conveyes unto us that true food of life the body and bloud of Christ crucified So then in as much as the Sacrament of Christs supper is not the Sacrament of regeneration but of sustentation and nourishment and in as much as no dead thing is capable of being nourished augmentation being a vegetative and vitall act and lastly in as much as the principle of this spirituall life is faith and the Sacrament of it Baptisme It followeth evidently that no man is a subject quallified for the holy communion of Christs body who hath not beene before partaker of faith and Baptisme In Heaven where all things shall bee perfected and renewed our soules shall be in as little neede of this Sacrament as our bodies of nourishment But this being a state of imperfection subject to decayes and still capable of further augmentation wee are therefore by these holy mysteries to preserve the life which by faith and Baptisme wee have received without which life as the Sacrament doth conferre and confirme nothing so doe we receive nothing neither but the bare elements Christ is now in Heaven no eye sharpe enough to see him no arme long enough to reach him but onely faith The Sacrament is but the seale of a Covenant and Covenants essentially include conditions and the condition on our part is faith no faith no Covenant no Covenant no Seale no Seale no Sacrament Christ and Beliall will not lodge together
turne that into Judgment which was intended for mercy What this danger of being guilty of Christs blood is I will not stand long to explaine Briefly to be guilty of the body and bloud of Christ is to offer some notable contempt and indignity unto the sufferings of Christ to sinne against the price of our redemption and to vilifie and set at nought the pretious bloud of the new covenant as if it were a common and profane thing when men out of ignorant sensuall secure presumptuous formalizing inconsiderate and profane affections approach unto Christs Table to Communicate of him To be guilty of bloud is in some sort or other to shed it and to joyne with the Crucifiers of CHRIST A sinne which as it drove Iudas to dispaire and to end with himselfe who had begunne with his Master so doth it to this day lie with the heaviest curse that ever that people indured on the off-spring of those wicked Iewes whose imprecation it was His bloud be on us and on our children As Christ on the Crosse was in regard of himselfe offered up unto the Father but in regard of Pilat and the Iewes crucified so is his bloud in the Sacrament by the faithfull received by the wicked shed and spilt on the ground when not discerning or differencing the Lords body from other ordinary Food they rush irreverendly to the participation of it For a man may be guilty of the blood of Christ though he receive it not at all as a man may of murther though he hit not the party against whom his Weapon was directed It is not the event but the purpose which specifies the sinne The anger of a Dog is as great when he barkes at the Moone which is above his malice as when at a man whom he may easily bite The malice of the apostate who shot up Darts against Heaven was no lesse then if he had hit the body of Christ at whom he shot If that which is done unto the Apostles of Christ is done unto him because they are his Ambassadores and if that which is done unto the poore and distressed flocke of Christ is done unto him because they are his members then surely that which is done unto the Sacrament of Christ must needs be done unto him too in as much as it is his representation and Image For a man may be guilty of treason by offering indignity to the Picture Coyne Garment or Seale of a Prince The dishonour that is done to the Image it being a relative thing doth ever reflect on the originall it selfe And therefore the Romans when they would dishonor any man would shew some disgrace to the statues that had bin erected to his honour by demolissing breaking downe and dragging them in the Dirt. Againe a man may be guilty of the bloud of Christ by reaching forth his hand to receive it having noe right unto it A sacriledge it is to lay hold wrongfully on the Lords inheritance or on any thing consecrated to the maintenance of his worship and service but this certainly by so much the greater by how much the Lords body is more pretious then his portion To counterfeit right of inheritance unto some Kingdome hath beene ever amongst men unfortunate and Capitall We know how ill it is succeeded with the counterfeit Nero amongst the Romans and that forged Duke of Yorke in the time of Henry the seventh And surely no lesse succesfull can their insolence be who having by reason of their unworthy approach noe clayme nor interest unto the benefits of Christs body doe yet usurpe it and take the Kingdome of Heaven as it were by rapine and presumptuous violence Certainly if Christ will not have the wicked to take his Word much lesse his body into their mouths If the Raine that falleth to the ground returnes not empty but according to the quality of the ground on which it falls maks it fruitfull eyther in Herbs meete for the use of men that dressed it or in Thornes and Briars that are neere unto cursing impossible it is that the blood of Christ in his Sacrament should be uneffectuall whether for a blessing unto the faithfull or for a curse to those that unworthâ—ly receive it So then necessary it is that before the Communication of these sacred mysteries a man prepare himselfe by some previous devotions and for this cause wee finde our Saviour Christ washing his Disciples Feet that is cleansing their earthly and humane affections before his institution of this Sacrament And we finde Ioseph of Arimathea wrapping his dead Body in a cleane linnen Garment and putting it into a new Tombe never yet defiled with rottennes and corruption And can we imagine that he that endured not an uncleane grave or shrowd will enter into a sinfull and unprepared Soule The everlasting Dores must first bee lifted up before the King of Glory will enter in CHAP. XIX Of the forme or manner of Examination required which is touching the maine quallification of a worthy receiver Faith The demonstration whereof is made first from the causes secondly from the nature of it HAving thus discovered the necessity of preparation and that standing in the examination and triall of a mans Conscience it followeth that wee conclude with setting downe very compendiously the manner of this examination onely naming some principall particulars The maine querie is whether I am a fit guest to approach Gods Table and to share in the fellowship of his sufferings The suffrings of Christ are not exposed unto the rapine and violence of each bold intruder but he who was first the Author is for ever the despenser of them And as in the dispensation of his miracles for the most part so of his sufferings likewise there is either a question premised beleevest thou or a condition included bee it unto thee as thou beleevest But a man may bee alive and yet unfit to eate nor capable of any nourishment by reason of some dangerous diseases which weaken the stomacke and trouble it with an apepsie or difficulty of concoction And so faith may sometimes in the Habit lye smothered and almost stifled with some spirituall lethargie binding up the vitall faculties from their proper motions And therefore our faith must be an operative and expedite faith not stupified with any knowne and practised course of sinne which doth ever weaken our appetite unto grace they being things unconsistent The matter then wee see of this triall must bee that vitall quallification which predisposeth a man for the receiving of these holy mysteries and that is faith To enter into such a discourse of faith as the condition of that subject would require were a labour beyond the length of a short meditation and unto the present purpose impertinent Wee will therefore onely take some generallities about the causes nature properties or effects of faith which are the usuall mediums of producing assents and propose them by way of
MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE Lords last Supper Written many yeares since BY EDVVARD REYNOLDS then Fellow of Merton College in Oxford LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock and are to be sould at his shop in S. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Kings Head 1638. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL SIR HENRY MARTEN Knight Iudge of the Admiralty and of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Sir SAint Hierom having in the heate of his Youth written an allegoricall Exposition upon the Prophet Obadiah did in his riper Age solemnly bewaile unto his Friend Pammachius both his rashnesse in that attempt aud his infelicity further heerein that what hee thought had beene buried amongst his private papers was gotten into the hands of a certaine Young man and so saw the Light The selfe same complaint am I forced to make touching this little Manuell of Sacramentall Meditations which I humbly put into your hands It was written with respect onely to mine owne private use many yeares since when I was a young Student in the Vniversity as my first Theologicall Essay And now lately by meanes of a private Copy long agoe communicated unto a Friend it had without my knowledge received a Licence for the Presse my earnest care was upon the first notice thereof wholly to have suppressed the Publication but the Copy which had beene licenced being by I know not what miscarriage lost I have found it necessary for feare of the like inconvenience againe to review a broken Copy which I had by mee and have rather chosen to let it passe forth with some briefe and sudden Castigations of mine owne than once more runne the hazard of a surreptitious Edition Mine Apology shall bee no other than that of the good father Infanseram nec dum scribere noveram Nunc ut nihil aliud profecerim saltem Socraticum illud habeo scio quod nescio And now since I finde that the Oblation of the first fruits though haply they were not alwayes the best and ripest did yet finde favourable acceptance with God himself I have bin embolden'd to present this small Enchiridion the very first fruits of my Theologicall studies unto the hands and patronage of so greatly learned eloquent and judicious a person and that upon this assurance That as many times aged men when they walke abroad leane upon the hand of a little Childe so even in this little and youthfull Treatise such comfortable Trueths may bee though weakly delivered as may help â—n your journey towards a better Country to refresh and sustaine your aged thoughts The Blood of Christ and the Food of Life are subjects worthy of all acceptation though brought unto us in an earthen vessell Elisha was not a whit the lesse valued by that noble Naaman though it were an handmaid which directed unto him Neither was Davids comfort in rescuing of his Wives and recovering of the spoiles from the Amalakites any jot the smaller because a yong man of Egypt made way for the discovery The Soveraignty of the Gospell is herein most excellently set forth in that it many times leadeth the Soule by the hand of a childe and is as truly though not as abundantly powerfull from young Timothy as from Paul the aged As christ can use weake elements to exhibite so can hee also use a weake penne to expresse the vertue and comforts of his Body and Blood In this confidence I have made bold to prefixe your name before these Meditations that therein I might make a publike acknowledgement of my many and deepe engagements for your abundant favours and might with most hearty prayers commend you and yours to that Blood of sprinckling which speaketh better things for us than that of Abeâ— In which desires I daily remaine Yours in all humble observance EDVVARD REYNOLDES MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS LAST SUPPER CHAP. I Mans Being to bee imployed in working that working directed unto some Good which is God that Good a free and voluntary Reward which wee here enjoy onely in the right of a Promise the seale of which Promise is a Sacrament THE Almighty power and wisdome of God hath given unto his creatures a triple degree of perfection their Being their Working and their Good which three are so subordinate to each other that Working is the end and scope of Being and Good is the end and scope of Working But no Being can produce any Work no Work reach unto any Good without something that may be a rule of working and a way to Good and therefore Almightie God in the work of the Creation imprinted in each creature a secret principle which should move governe and uniformly direct it to its proper work and end and that principle we call a Law which by assigneing unto each thing the kinde measure and extent of its working doth lead it on by a strait and in fallible line unto that Good for which it worketh All other Creatures below the spheare of reason being not only in the quality of their nature of a narrow and strait perfection but in their duration finite and perishable the good unto which this Law of their creation directs them is a finite Good likewise But men and Angels being both in nature more excellent than all others and in continuance infinite and immortall cannot possibly receive from anything which is a meere creature and lesse perfect than themselves any compleat satisfaction of their desires and therefore must by a circle turne back unto God who is aswell the Omega the end and object of their working as the Alpha the cause and authour of their being Now God being most free not only in himselfe but in the diffusion and communication of himselfe unto any thing created which therefore he cannot be naturally or necessarily bound unto and being also a God infinitely beyond the largest compasse of the creatures merit or working it followes that neither Men nor Angels can lay any necessary claime unto God by a debt of Nature as a stone may unto the Center by that naturall impresse which directs it thither but all our claime is by a right of Promise and voluntary Donation so that that which in other meere naturall creatures is cald the Terme or Scope is in reasonable creatures the Promise or Reward of their working Feare not Abraham I am thy exceeding great reward So then we have here our Good which is God to bee communicated unto us not in the manner of a necessary and naurall debt but of a voluntary and supernaturall Reward Secondly we have our working required as the meanes to lead us in a strait line unto the fruition of that Good and in as much as mans will being mutable may carry him unto severall operations of different kinds wee have thirdly a Rule or Law to moderate the kind and manner of our working whereby we reach unto our desired Good which Rule when it altereth as in the new Covenant of
spatious and great roome and so it should bee for it was a great Supper the Supper of a King The Disciples were then the type representative of the whole Catholick Church which was now by them to be begotten unto God and therfore the Chamber must needs be a resemblance and Modell of the whole world throughout which the sound of Christs name and the memory of his passion should in his Supper be celebrated untill the end of all things and then no marvell if it were a great Chamber Lastly it was ready spread fitted trimmed and prepared So sacred a mysterie as this may not be exhibited in an unfitted or uncleane place much lesse received into a corrupt and unprepared soule The body of Christ was never to see corruption and therefore it will never be mix'd with corruption It lay first in a cleane womb it was after buried in a virgin Sepulcher it then was taken into the brightest heavens and it still resides in molten and purifide hearts He that had the purity of a Dove will never take up the loding of a Crow Here then we see from these circumstances with what reverence and preparation with what affection and high esteeme we should receive these sacred mysteries The gift of a dying friend though of contemptible value is yet greatly prized for the memory of the donor for though the thing it selfe be small yet is it the pledge of a great love The words of a dying man though formerly vile and vaine are for the most part serious and grave how much more pretious was the gift of Christ who is the Almoner of Almighty God and whose only businesse it was to give gifts unto men how much more sacred were his last words who all his life time spake as never man spake The very presence of a dying man estamps on the mind an affection of feare and awe much more should the words and gifts of him who was dead and is alive againe Certainly he hath a flinty soule whom love as strong as death and death the work of that love cannot melt into a sympathie of affection In summe the Time of this Sacrament was a time of passion let not us be stupid it was a time of passeover let not our soules be unsprinkled it was a time of unleavened bread let not our doctrine of it be adulterated with the leaven of heresie not our soules in receiving tainted with the leaven of malice it was the time of betraying Christ let not our hands againe play the Iudas by delivering him unto jewish and sinfull soules which will crucifie againe unto themselves the Lord of glory let not us take that pretious blood into our hands rather to shed it than to drink it and by receiving the body of Christ unworthily make it as the sop was to Iudas even an harbenger to provide roome for Satan Againe the place of the Sacrament was a high Roome let not our soules lie sinking in a dungeon of sin it was a great roome let not our soules be straightned in the entertaining of Christ it was a trimmed roome let not oursoules be sluttish and uncleane when then the King of glory should enter in but as the Author of those mysteries was holy by a fulnesse of grace the elements holy by his blessing the tyme holy by his ordination and the place holy by his presence so let us by the receiving of them bee transformed as it were into their nature and bee holy by that union unto Christ of which they are as well the instrumentall meanes whereby it is increased as the seales and pledges whereby it is confirm'd CHAP. VII Of the matter of the Lords Supper Bread and Wine with their Analogie unto Christ. WEE have considered the Author or efficient of this Sacrament and those circumstances which were annexed unto its Institution we may now a little consider the essentiall parts of it and first the elements or matter of which it conconsisteth consecrated bread wine it neither stood with the outwad poverrty of Christ nor with the benefit of the Church to institute such sumptuous and gaudy elements as might possesse too much the sense of the beholder and too little resemble the quality of the Saviour And therefore he choose his Sacraments rather for the fitnesse than the beauty of them as respecting more the end than the splendor or riches of his Table and intended rather to manifest his divine power in altering poore elements unto a pretious use than to exhibit any carnall pompe in such delicious fare as did not agree with the spiritualnesse of his Kingdome Though he be contented out of tendernesse toward our weaknesse to stoop unto our senses yet he will not cocker them as in his reall and naturall body so in his representative the Sacrament a sensuall or carnall eye sees not either forme or beauty for which it may bee desired Pictures ought to resemble their originalls and the Sacrament wee know is the picture or type of him who was a man of sorrow and this picture was drawne when the day of Gods fierce wrath was upon him and can we then expect from it any satisfaction or pleasure to the senses this body was naked on the Crosse it were incongruous to have the Sacrament of it pompous on the Table As it was the will of the Father which Christ both glorifies and admires to reveale unto babes what hee hath hidden from the wise so is it here his wisedome to communicate by the meanest Instruments what he hath denied unto the choisest delicates to feed his Daniels rather with poâ—lse than with all the dainties on the Kings table And if we observe it divine miracles take ever the poorest meanest subjects to manifest themselves on If he want an army to protect his Church flies frogs and catterpillers and lamps and pitchers c. shall be the strongest souldiers and weapons he useth the lame and the blind the dumb and the dead water clay these are materialls for his power even where thou seest the instruments of God weakest there expect and admire the more abundant manifestation of his greatnesse wisedome undervalue not then the Bread and Wine in this holy Sacrament which doe better resemble the benefits of Christ crucified than any other the choisest delicateâ— Bread and Wine the element is double to encrease the comfort of the faithfull that by two things wherin it is impossible for God to deceive wee might have strong consolation who have laid hold upon him The dreame is doubled said Iosâ—ph to Pharoah because the thing is certaine and surely here the element is doubled too that the grace may be the more certaine No marvell then if those men who deny unto the people the certainty of grace deny unto them likewise these double elements so fit is it that they which preached but a halfe comfort should administer
likewise but a half Sacrament Secondly Bread and Wine In the Passeover there was blood shed but there was none drunken yea that flesh which was eaten was but once a yeare They who had all in types had yet their types as it were imperfect In the fulnesse of time came Christ and with or â—in Christ came the fulnesse of grace and of his fulnesse doe we receive in the Gospell which the Jewes only expected in the promise that they without us might not be made perfect these things have I spoken saith Christ that your joy might be full the fulnesse of our Sacrament notes also the fullnesse of our Salvation and of his sacrifice who is able perfectly to save those that come unto God by him Thirdly Bread and Wine common vulgar obvious food wine with water being the only knowne drinke with them in those hot Countries amongst the Jewes a lamb was to bee slaine a more chargeable and costly Sacrament not so easie for the poore to procure And therefore in the Sacrifice of first fruits the poore were dispenc'd with and for a Lamb offred a pair of pigeons Christ now hath broken down that partition wall that wall of inclosure which made the Church as a garden with hedges and made only the rich the people of the Jewes capable of Gods Covenants and Sacraments now that Gods Table hath crumms as well as flesh the Dogs the Gentiles eat of it too the poorest in the world is admitted to it even as the poorest that are do shift for bread though they are not able to provide flesh Then the Church was a fountaine sealed up but in Christ there was a fountaine opened for transgressions and for sinnes Fourthly Bread and Wine Bread to strengthen and Wine to comfort All temporall benefits are in divine Dialect called Bread it being the staffe of life and the want of which though in a confluence of all other blessings causeth famine in a Land See here the abundant sufficiency of Christs passion It is the universall food of the whole Church which sanctifieth all other blessings without which they have no relish nor comfort in them Sinne and the corrupt nature of man hath a venemous quality in it to turne all other good things into poyson unlesse corrected by this antitode this Bread of life that came downe from heaven And well may it be called a bread of life in as much as in it resides a power of trans-elementation that whereas other nourishments doe themselves turne into the substance of the receiver this quite otherwise transformes and affirmilates the soule unto the Image of it selfe whatsoever faintnesse we are in if we hunger after Christ hee can refresh us whatsoever feares oppresse us if like men opprest with feare we thirst gaspe after his blood it will comfort us whatsoever weaknesse either our sinnes or suffrings have brought us to the staffe of this bread will support us whatsoever sorrowes of mind or coldnesse of affection doe any way surprize us this wine or rather this bloud in which only is true life will with great efficacy quicken us If wee want power wee have the power of Christs Crosse if victory we have the victory of his Crosse if Triumph we have the triumph of his Crosse if peace we have the peace of his Crosse if wisdome we have the wisdome of his Crosse. Thus is Christ crucified a Treasure to his Church full of all sufficient provision both for necessitie and delight Fiftly Bread and Wine both of parts homogeneall and alike each part of Bread bread each part of Wine wine no crumme in the one no drop in the other differing from the quality of the whole O the admirable nature of Christs blood to reduce the affections and the whole man to one uniforme and spirituall nature with it selfe In so much that when we shall come to the perfect fruition of Christs glorious Body our very bodyes likewise shall be spirituall bodies spirituall in an uniformity of glory though not of nature with the soule Sinnes commonly are jarring and contentious one affection struggles in the same soule with another for mastery ambition fights with malice and pride with covetousnesse the head plots against the heart and the heart swells against the head reason and appetite will and passion soule body set the whole frame of nature in a continuall combustion like an unjoynted or broken arme one faculty moves contrary to the government or attraction of another and so as in a confluence of contrary streames and winds the soule is whirld about in a maze of intestine contentions But when once we become conformable unto Christs death it presently makes of two one and so worketh peace it slayeth that hatred and warre in the members and reduceth all unto that primitive harmony unto that uniforme spiritualnesse which changeth us all into the same Image from glory to glory Sixtly Bread and Wine as they are homogeneall so are they united together and wrought out of divers particular graines and grapes into one whole lump or vessell and therefore Bread and blood even amongst the Heathen were used for emblemes of leagues friendship and Mariage the greatest of all unions See the wonderfull effiâ—acy of Christ crucified to sodder as it were and joynt all his members into one body by love as they are united unto him by faith They are built up as living stones through him who is the chiefe corner stone elect and pretious unto one Temple they are all united by love by the bond or sinewes of peace unto him who is the head and transfuseth through them all the same vitall nourishment they are all the flock of Christ reduc'd unto one fold by that one chiefe Shepheard of their soules who came to gather those that wandred either from him in life or from one another in affection Lastly Bread and Wine sever'd and asunder that to be eaten this to be drunken that in a loafe this in a Cup It is not the bloud of of Christ running in his veynes but shed on his members that doth nourish his Church Impious therefore is their practice who powre Christs blood as it were into his body againe and shut up his wounds when they deny the Cup unto the people under pretence that Christs Body being received the blood by way of concomitancy is received together with it and so seale up that pretious Fountaine which he had opened and make a monopoly of Christs sacred wounds as if his blood had been shed only for the Priest and not as well for the people or as if the Church had power to withhold that from the people of Christ which himselfe had given them CHAP. VIII Practicall inferenâ—es from the materials of the Lords Supper HEre then we see first in as much as these
proportion betweene the holy Actions used by Christ in this Sacrament and Christ himselfe who is the substance of it IT followes now that we enquire farther into the nature of this holy Sacrament which will be explained by considering the Analogie fitnesse and similitude betweene the signes and the things signified by them and conferred or exhibited together with them which is Christ the Lord. Now this Analogie or fitnesse as it hath been in some generall manner expres'd in the nature or quality of the elements substantially or physically taken so more expressely and punctually is it propos'd unto us in those holy actions which doe alter in the use and make it a Sacrament And first we finde that Christ tooke the Bread and Wine and blessed it and gave thanks and so consecrated it or set a part unto a holy or solemne use which is the reason why Saint Paul calls it a Cup of blessing so that unto the Church it ceaseth to be that which nature had made it and beginnes to be that unto which the blessing had consecrated it In like manner did the eternall Sonne of God assume into the subsistance of his owne infinite person the whole nature of man the body and the soule by the vertue of which wonderfull union notwithstanding the properties of the divine nature remaine absolutely intransient and uncommunicable unto the humane yet are there shed from that inexhaustible fountaine many high and glorious endowments by which the humanity under this manner of subsistence is annoynted consecrated sealed and set apart for that work of incomprehensible love and power the redemption of the world and secondly as the Bread is taken by us from Christ in the nature of a gift he brake it and gave it to his Disciples so is the humane nature taken by Christ from the Father as a gift from the good pleasure of God Thirdly as the taking of the Bread by Christ did alter only the manner of its being the operation and efficacy the dignity and use but no way at all the element or nature of the Bread Even so the taking of the humane body by Christ did conferre indeed upon it many glorious effects and advance it to an estate farre above its common and ordinary capacity alwayes yet reserving those defects and weaknesses which were required in the aeconomie and dispensation of that great work for which he assumed it but yet he never alterd the essentiall and naturall qualities of the body but kept it still within the measure and limits of the created perfection which the wisdome of God did at first share out unto it Lastly to come neerer unto the Crosse of Christ as hee did by prayer and thanksgiving consecrate their elements unto a holy use so did he immediately before his passion of which this is the Sacrament make that consecratory prayer and thanksgiving which is registred for the perpetuall comfort of his Church The second Action is the breaking of the Bread and powering the Wine into the Cup which doth neerly expresse his crucified Body where the joynts were loosed the sinewes torne the flesh bruized and peirced the skin rent the whole frame violated by that straining and razeing and cutting and stretching and wrentching which was used in the crucifying of it and by the shedding of that pretious blood which stop'd the issue and flux of ours It were infinite and intricare to spin a meditation into a controversie about the extent and nature of Christs passion but certainly whatsoever either Ignominie or Agony his body suffered which two â— conceive to comprize all the generalls of Christ crucified are if not particularly expressed yet typically and sacramentally shaddowed and exhibited in the Bread broken and the Wine powred out The third Action was the giving or delivering of the Bread and Wine which first evidently expresseth the nature and quality of Christ crucified with these benefits which flow from him that they are freely bestowed upon the Church which of it selfe had no interest or claime unto any thing save death Secondly we see the nature of Christs passion that it was a free voluntary and unconstrained passion for though it be true that Iudas did betray him and Pilate deliver him to bee crucified yet none of this was the giving of Christ but the selling of him It was not for us but for mony that Iudas deliver'd him it was not for us but for feare that Pilate deliver'd him but God deliver'd the Sonne and the Sonne deliver'd himselfe with a most mercifull and gracious will to bestow his death upon sinners and not to get but to be himselfe a price The Passion then of Christ was most freely undertaken without which free-will of his own they could never have laid hold on him and his death was a most free and voluntary explication his life was not wrentched nor wrung from him nor snatch'd or torne from him by the bare violence of any forraine Impression but was with a loud voice arguing nature not brought to utter decay most freely surrendred and laid downe by that power which did after reassume it But how then comes it to passe that there lay a necessicie upon Christ of suffring which necessicie may seeme to have enforc'd and constrain'd him to Golgatha in as much as hee himselfe did not only shrinke but even testifie his dislike of what he was to suffer by a redoubled prayer unto his Father that that Cup might passe from him doth not feare make Actions involuntary or at least derogate and detract from the fulnesse of their liberty and Christ did feare how then is it that Christs Passion was most voluntary though attended with necessitie feare and reluctance surely it was most voluntary still and first therefore necessary because voluntary the maine and primitive reason of the necessitie being nothing else but that immutable will which had fore-decreed it Christs death then was necessary by a necessitie of the event which musts needs come to passe after it had once been fore-determined by that most wise will of God which never useth to repent him of his counsells but not by a necessitie of the cause which was most free and voluntary Againe necessary it was in regard of the Scriptures whose truth could not miscarry in regard of the promises made of him which were to be performed in regard of propheticall predictions which were to be fulfilled in regard of typicall prefigurations which were to bee abrogated and seconded with that substance which they did fore-shaddow but no way necessary in opposition to Christs will which was the first mover into which both this necessitie and all the causes of it are to be finally resolv'd And then for the fear and reluctance of Christ noe marvell if he who was in all things like unto us had his share in the same passions and affections like wise though without sin But neither of
these did any way derogate from the most free Sacrifice which hee himselfe offered once for all in asmuch as there was an absolute submission of the inferiour to the higher will and the inferiour it selfe shrunk not at the obedience but at the pain To explaine this more cleerly consider in Christ a double Will or rather a double respect of the same Will First the naturall Will of Christ whereby hee could but wish well unto himselfe and grone after the conservation of that being whose anguish and dissolution did now approach whereby he could not upon the immediate burden of the sinne of man and the wrath of God but feare and notwithstanding the assistance of Angells drop downe a sweat as full of wonder as it was of torment great drops of blood and then no marvell if we here Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from me But then again consider not the naturall but the mercifull will of Christ by which he intended to appease the wrath of an offended by any other unsatisfiable God the removall of an unsupportable curse the redemption of his own and yet his fellow creaturs the giving them accesse unto a father who was before a consuming fire in a word the finishing of that great work which the Angles desire to looke into and then wee finde that hee did freely lay downe his life and most willingly embraced what hee most naturally did abhorre As if Christ had said if wee may venture to paraphrase his sacred words Father thou hast united mee to such a nature whose Created and Essentiall property it is to shrink from any thing that may destroy it and therefore if it be thy Will let this Cupp passe from mee But yet I know that thou hast likewise annoynted mee to fullfill the eternall Decree of thy love and to the performance of such an office the dispensation wherof requires the dissolution of my assumed nature and therefore not as I but as thou wilt So then both the desire of preservation was a naturall desire and the offring up of his Body was a free-will offring And indeed the light of nature hath required a kind of willingnesse even in the Heathens bruit Sacrifices And therefore the beast was led and not haled to the Altar and the struggling of it or flying and breaking from the Altar or bellowing and crying was ever counted ominous and unhappy Now our Saviour Christs willingnesse to offer up himselfe is herein declared in that hee opened not his mouth in that he suffred such a death wherein hee first did beare the Crosse before it bore him in that hee dehorted the women that followed after him to weepe or expresse any passion of willingnesse for his death Thus did hee in his passion and still doth in his Sacrament really perfectly and most willingly give himselfe unto his Church In somuch as that the Oyle of that unction which consecrated him unto that bitter worke is called an Oyle of gladnesse So then Christ freely offreth both in himselfe Originally and in his Sacraments Instrumentally all grace sufficient for nurishment unto life to as many as reach forth to receive or entertaine it CHAP. X. Of the fourth Action with the reasons why the Sacrament is to be eaten and drunken THe fourth and last Action made mention of in this Sacrament is the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine after wee have taken them from the hands of Christ to signifie unto us that Christ crucified is the life and food of a Christian that receiveth him Here are the degrees of faith first we take Christ and then we eat him There are none that finde any nourishment or relish in the blood of Christ but those who have received him and so have an interest propriety and title to him He must first be ours before we can taste any sweetnesse in him ours first in possession and claime and after ours in fruition and comfort For all manner of sweetnesse is a consequent and effect of some propriety which we have unto the good thing which causeth it unto the which the neerer our interest is the greater is the sweetnesse that we finde in it In naturall things we may observe how nothing will be kindly nourished in any other place or meanes than those unto which nature hath given it a primitive right and symthy Fishes perish in the aire and Spice-trees dye and wither in these colder Countries because Nature had denyed them any claime or propriety unto such places We are all branches and Christ is a Vine now no branch receiveth juyce or nourishment unlesse first it be inserted into the stock If we are not first ingrafted into Christ and so receive the right of branches we cannot expect any nourishment from him As the name which was written in that white Stone was knowne unto him only that had it so in these mysteries which have the impresse and character of Christs Passion on them Christ is knowne and enjoyed onely by those who first take him and so have a hold and right unto him But why is it that Christ in this Sacrament should be eaten and drunken Cannot the benefit of his Passion be as well conveighed by the eye as by the mouth It was the joy of Abraham that he saw Christs day the comfort of Simeon that hee had seene Gods salvation the support of Stephen that hee saw Christ in his kingdome the faith of Thomas that he saw his resurrection and why is it not enough that wee see the passion of Christ in this Sacrament wherein he is crucified before our eyes Certainly if wee looke into the Scriptures wee shall find nothing more common than the Analogie and resemblance betwixt spirituall grace and naturall food Hence it is that we so often read of Manna from Heaven Water from the Rock Trees in Paradise Apples and Flagons for Christs Spouse Wisdomes feast and the marriage feast of hungring and thirsting and sucking of marrow and fatnesse and Milke and Honey and infinite the like expressions of divine grace the reasons whereof are many and important First to signifie the benefit we receive by Christ crucified exhibited unto us in his last Supper by that Analogie and similitude which is betwixt him and those things we eat and drink Now meates are all either Physicall common or costly either for the restoring or for the supporting or for the delighting of nature and they have all some of those excellent properties of good which Aristotle hath observed either to conserve nature entire or to restore it when it hath beene violated or to prevent diseases ere they creep upon it And all these benefits do the faithfull receive by Christ. First his body and blood is an Antidote against all infections of sin or feare of death When he said Feare not it is I. It was an
by which we fell from it Satan and Death did first assault our eare and then tooke possession of us by the mouth Christ and faith chose no other gates to make a re-entry and dispossesse them Thus as skilfull Physitians doe often cure a body by the same meanes which did first distemper it quench heats with heat and stop one flux of blood by opening another so Christ that he may quell Satan at his owne weapons doth by the same instruments and actions restore us unto our primitive estate by which he had hurried us downe from it That those mouthes which were at first open to let in death may now much more be open not only to receive but to praise him who is made unto us the Author and Prince of life CHAP. XII Inferences of Practice from the consideration of the former Actions THESE are all the holy actions we finde to have been by Christ and his Apostles celebrated in the great mystery of this Supper all other humane accessions and superstructions that are by the policy of Satan and that carnall affection which ever laboureth to reduce Gods service unto an outward and pompous gaudinesse foisted into the substance of so divine a work are all of them that straw and stubble which hee who is a consuming fire will at last purge away Impotent Christ was not that he could not nor malignant that hee would not appoint nor improvident that he could not foresee the needfulnesse of such actions which are by some proposed not as matter of ornament comelinesse and ceremony a thing left ever arbitrary to the Church but are obtruded on consciences swayed with superstitious pompousnesse for matters substantiall and necessary to be observed As if God who in the first Creation of the world from nothing did immediately after the work produc'd cease from all manner of further Creations did in the second creation of the world from sinne not finish the work himselfe but leave it imperfect to be by another consummated and finished Certainly whatsoever humane Inventions doe claime direct proper and immediate subscription of Conscience and doe propose themselves as essentiall or integrall or any way necessary parts of divine mysteries they doe not onely rob God of his honour and intrude on his Soveraignty but they doe farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour who standeth in need of the Churches concurrence to consummate the work which he had begunne Away then with those Actions of elevation adoration oblation circumgestation mimâ—call gestures silent whisperings and other the like incroachments in the supposed proper and reall sacrifice of Christ in the Masse wherein I see not how they avoyd the guilt of Saint Pauls fearfull observation To crucifie againe the Lord of glory and put him unto an open shame In which things as in sundry others they do nothing else but imitate the carnall ordinances of the Jewes and the Heathenish will-worship of the Ethnicks who thought rather by the motions of their bodies than by the affections of their hearts to wind into the opinion and good liking of their Gods Certainly affectation of Pomp Ceremony and such other humane superstructions on the divine institution I alwaies except Ecclesiasticall observances which being imposed for order and used with decencie Paucity and indifferencie are not lawfull only but with respect to the Authority which requires them obligatory also I say all other pompous accumulations unto the substance of Christs Sacramentr are by Tertullian made the characters and presumptions of an Idolatrous service True it is indeed that the Ancients make mention out of that fervour of Love and Piety towards so sacred mysteries of Adoration at them and of carrying the remainders of them unto the absent Christians but as in other things so here likewise wee finde it most true that things by devout men begunne piously and continued with zeale doe after when they light in the handling of men otherwise qualified degenerate into superstition the forme purpose end and reason of their observation being utterly neglected It being the contrivance of Satan to raise his Temple after the same forme and with the same materialls whereof â—ods consisteth to pretend the practice of the Saints for the enforcement of his owne Projects to transforme himselfe into an Angel of light that hee may the easier mislead unstable and wandring soules and to retaine at least a forme of Godlinesse that he may with lesse clamor and reluctancy with-draw the substance And as in many other things so hath hee herein likewise abus'd the Piety of the best men unto the furtherance of his owne ends That Adoration which they in and at the mysteries did exhibit unto Christ himselfe as indeed they could not choose a better time to worship him in he impiously derives upon the creature and makes it now to bee done not so much at as unto the elements making them as well the terme and object as occasion of that worship which is due only to the Lord of the Sacrament That carrying about and reserving of the Eucharist which the primitive Christians used for the benefit of those who either by sicknesse or by persecutions were with-held from the meetings of the Christians as in those dayes many were is by him now turned into an Idolatrous circumgestation that at the sight of the Bread the people might direct unto it that worship which is due only to the person whose passion it representeth but whose honour it neither challengeth nor knoweth and certainly if wee veiw the whole fabrick either of Gentilisme or Heresie we shall observe the methods and contrivances of Satan most often to drive at this point that either under pretence of divine truth or under imitation of divine Institutions retaining the same materiall Actions which God requires or with the godly have piously or upon temporary reasons observed he may convay into the hearts of men his owne poyson and imprint an opinion of holinesse towards his owne devices for howsoever his power and tyranny have done much mischiefe to Gods Church yet his master-peece is that cunning and deceit which the Scriptures so often takes notice of Secondly we see here what maner of men wee ought to be in imitation of these blessed Actions that we may be conformable unto the death of Christ. First as he when hee took these elements did consecrate them unto a holy use so we when we receive them should first consecrate our selves with thanksgiving and prayer unto a holy life For if not only amongst Christians but even amongst Heathens themselves it hath been by the Law of nature receiv'd for a religious custome not to eat their ordinary food without blessing and prayer with how much more fervency of prayer should we call upon the name of the Lord when we take this Cup of salvation this bread of life wherein we doe not only taste how gratious the Lord is but
doe eat and drink the Lord himselfe And therefore the Church hath both at first and since most devoutly imitated our blessed Saviour in consecrating both these mysteries and their owne soules by thanksgiving and prayer before ever they received the elements from the hands of the Deacons that so that same pure Wine that immaculate Blood might be put into pure and untainted vessels even into sanctified and holy hearts lest otherwise the wine should be spilt and the vessells perish And indeed the Sacrament is ignorantly and fruitlessely received if we doe not therin devote consecrate and set apart our selves unto Gods service for what is a Sacrament but a visible oath wherin wee doe in consideration of Christs mercies unto us vow eternall alleigeance and service unto him against all those powers and lusts which warre against the soule and to make our members weapons of righteousnesse unto him Secondly as Christ brake the bread before he gave it so must our hearts before they be offered up to God for a reasonable sacrifice be humbled and bruised with the apprehension of their owne demerits for a Broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise shall wee have adamantine and unbended soules under the weight of those sins which brake the very Rock of our salvation and made the dead stones of the Temple to rend in sunder Was his body broken to let out his blood and shall not our soules be broken to let it in Was the Head wounded and shall the Ulcers and Impostumes remaine unlanced Would not God in the Law accept of any but pushed and dissected and burned sacrifices was his Temple built of none but cut and hewed stones and shall we think to have no Sword of the Spirit divide us no Hammer of the Word break us none of our drosse and stubble burned up none of our flesh beaten downe none of our old man crucified and cut off from us and yet be still living sacrifices and living stones in his Temple Whence did David call on God but out of the pit and the deepe waters when his bones were broken could not rejoyce Certainly we come unto God either as unto a Physitian or as to a Judge wee must needs bring soules either full of sores to be cured or full of sins to be condemned Againe in that this Rock of ours was broken we know whither to flie in case of tempest and oppression even unto the holes of the Rock for succor To disclaime our owne sufficiency to disavow any confidence in our owne strength to flie from Church treasures and supererrogations and to lay hold on him in whom were the treasures the fulnes of all grace of which fulnesse we all receive to forsake the private Lampes of the wisest Virgins the Saints and Angels which have not light enough to shine into anothers house and to have recourse only unto the Sonne of righteousnesse the light not of a House but of the World who inlightneth every man that commeth into it Think when thou seest these Elements broken that even then thou applyest thy lips unto his bleeding wounds and doest from thence suck salvation That even then with Thomas thy hand is in his side from whence thou mayest pluck out those words of life My God my God that even then thou seest in each wound a mouth open and in that mouth the blood as a visible prayer to intercede with God the Father for thee and to solicite him with stronger cries for salvation than did Abels for revenge Let not any sins though never so bloody so numberlesse deterre thee from this pretious Fountaine If it be the glory of Christs blood to wash away sinne then is it his greatest glory to wash away the greatest sins Thy sinne indeed is the object of Gods hate but the misery which sinne brings upon thee is the object of his pitty O when a poore distressed soule that for many yeares together hath securely weltered in a sinck of numberlesse and noisome lusts and hath even beene environed with a Hell of wickednesse shall at last having received a wound from the sword of Gods Spirit an eye to see and a heart to feele and tremble at the terrors of â—ods judgements shall then I say flie out of himselfe smite upon his thigâ— cast away his rags crouch and crawle unto the throne of grace solicite Gods mercy with strong cries for one drop of that blood which is never cast away when powred into sinfull and sorrowfull soules how think we will the bowels of Christ turne within him How will he hasten to meet such an humbled soule to embrace him in those armes which were stretched on the Crosse for him and to open unto him that inexhausted Fountaine which even delighteth to mix it â—elfe with the teares of sinners Certainly if it were possible for any one of Christs wounds to be more pretious than the rest even that should be opened wide and powred out into the soule of such a penitent Yea if it might possibly be that the sins of all the World could be even throng'd into the conscience of one man and the whole guilt of them made proper and personall unto him yet if such a man could bee brought to sue for grace in the mediation of Christs broken body there would thence issue balme enough to cure blood enough to wash and to drowne them all Only let not us sin because grace abounds let not us make work for the blood of Christ and go about by crimson and presumptuous sins as it were to pose Gods mercy The blood of Christ if spilt and trampled under foot will certainly cry so much lowder than Abels for vengeance by how much it is the more pretious It may be as well upon us as in us As the vertue and benefit of Christs blood is in those that imbrace it unto life and happinesse so is the guilt of it upon those that despise it unto wretchednesse and condemnation Thirdly in that Christ gave and delivered these mysteries unto the Church we likewise must learne not to ingrosse our selves or our owne gifts but freely to dedicate them all unto the honour of that God and benefit of that Church unto which he gave both himselfe and them Even nature hath made men to stand in need of each other and therefore hath imprinted in them a naturall inclination unto fellowship and society in one common City by Christ we are all made of one City of one houshold yea of one Church of one Temple He hath made us members of one body animated by one and the same Spirit stones of one entire building united on one and the same foundation branches of one undivided stock quickned by one and the same root and therefore requires from us all a mutuall support succour sustentation and nourishment of each
Vision fruition and possession heere darkly by stooping and captivating our understandings unto those divine Reports which are made in Scripture which is a knowledge of Faith distance and expectation wee doe I say heere bend our understandings to assent unto such truths as doe not transmit any immediate species or irradiation of their owne upon them but there our understandings shall be raised unto a greater capacity and bee made able without a secondary report and conveyance to apprehend clearely those glorious Truths the evidence whereof it did heere submit unto for the infallible credit of God who in his Word had revealed and by his Spirit obsignated the same unto them as the Samaritans knew Christ at first onely by the report of the Woman which was an assent of Faith but after when they saw his Wonders and heard his Words they knew him by himselfe which was an assent of vision Secondly as the Church is heere but a travelling Church therfore cannot possibly have any farther knowledge of that Countrey whither it goes but onely by the Mappes which describe it the Word of God and these few fruites which are sent unto them from it the fruits of the Spirit whereby they have some taste and relish of the World to come so moreover is it even in this estate by being enclosed in a body of sinne which hath a darkning property in it and addes unto the naturall limitednesse of the understanding an accidentall defect and sorenesse much disabled from this very imperfect assent unto Christ the Object of its Faith for as sinne when it wastes the Conscience and beares Rule in the Soule hath a power like Dalila and the Philistines to put out our eyes as Vlysses the eye of his Cyclops with his sweet wine a power to e corrupt Principles to pervert and make crooked the very Rule by which we worke conveying all morall truths to the Soule as some concave glasses use to represent the species of things to the eye not according to their naturall rectitude or beauty but with those wrestings inversions and deformities which by the indisposition thereof they are framed unto so even the least corruptions unto which the best are subject having a naturall antipathy to the evidence and power of divine Truth doe necessarily in some manner distemper our understandings and make such a degree of sorenesse in the faculty as that it cannot but so farre forth bee impatient and unable to beare that glorious lustre which shines immediately in the Lord Christ. So then we see what a great disproportion there is betweene us and Christ immediately presented and from thence wee may observe our necessity and Gods mercy in affoording us the refreshment of a Type and Shadow These Shadowes were to the Church of the Iewes many because their weaknesse in the knowledge of Christ was of necessity more than ours in as much as they were but an infant wee an adult and growne Church and they looked on Christ at a distance wee neare at hand hee being already incarnate unto us they are the Sacraments of his Body and Bloud in the which wee see and receive Christ as weake eies doe the light of the Sunne through some darke Cloud or thicke Grove so then one maine and principall end of this Sacrament is to bee an instrument fitted unto the measure of our present estate for the exhibition or conveyance of Christ with the benefits of his Passion unto the faithfull Soule an end not proper to this mystery alone but common to it with all those Legall Sacraments which were the more thicke shadowes of the Jewish Church for even they in the red Sea did passe through Christ who was their Way in the Manna and Rocke did eate and drinke Christ who was their Life in the Brasen Serpent did behold Christ who was their Saviour in their daily Sacrifices did prefigure Christ who was their Truth in their Passeover did eate Christ by whose Bloud they were sprinkled for howsoever betweene the Legall and Euangelicall Covenant there may be sundry Circumstantiall differences as first in the manner of their Evidence that being obscure this perspicuous to them a Promise onely to us a Gospell Secondly in their extent and compasse that being confined to Iudea this universall to all Creatures Thirdly in the meanes of Ministration that by Priests and Prophets this by the Sonne himselfe and those delegates who were by him enabled and authorised by a solemne Commission and by many excellent endowments for the same service Lastly in the quality of its durance that being mutable and abrogated this to continue untill the consummation of all things yet notwithstanding in substance they agree and though by sundry wayes doe all at last meet in one and the same Christ who like the heart in the middest of the body comming himselfe in person betweene the Legall and Evangelicall Church doth equally convey life and motion to them both even as that light which I see in a starre and that which I receive by the immediate beame of the Sunne doth originally issue from the same Fountaine though conveyed with a different lustre and by a severall meanes So then wee see the end of all Sacraments made after the second Covenant for Sacraments there were even in Paradise before the Fall namely to exhibite Christ with those benefits which hee bestoweth on his Church unto each beleeving Soule but after a more especiall manner is Christ exhibited in the Lords Supper because his pretence is there more notable for as by Faith wee have the evidence so by the Sacrament wee have the presence of things farthest distant and absent from us A man that looketh on the light through a shadow doth truely and really receive the selfe same light which would in the openest and clearest Sun-shine appeare unto him though after a different manner there shall wee see him as Iob speakes with these selfe same eyes here with a spirituall eye after a mysticall manner so then in this Sacrament wee doe most willingly acknowledge a Reall True and Perfect Presence of Christ not in with or under the Elements considered absolutely in themselves but with that relative habitude and respect which they have unto the immediate use whereunto they are consecrated nor yet so doe wee acknowledge any such carnall transelementation of the materials in this Sacrament as if the Body or Bloud of Christ were by the vertue of Consecration and by way of a locall substitution in the place of the Bread and Wine in but are truly and really by them though in nature different conveyed into the Soules of those who by Faith receive Him And therefore Christ first said Take Eate and then This is my Body to intimate unto us as learned Hooker observeth that the Sacrament however by Consecration it be changed from common unto holy Bread and separated from common unto a divine use is
sympathy and good workes towards our weake Brethren and it hindereth all violent motions the strength of sinne the darts of Satan the provocations of the World the Judgements of God or whatever evill may bee by the flesh either committed or deserved And this Union of the faithfull is both in the Elements and appellations and in the ancient ceremonies and in the very act of eating and drinking most significantly represented First for the Elements they are such as though naturally their parts were separated in severall graines and grapes yet are they by the art of man moulded together and made up into one artificiall body consisting of divers homogeneous parts men by Nature are disjoynted not more in being than in affections and desires each from other every one being his owne end and not any way affected with that tendernesse of Communion or bowels of love which in Christ wee recover but now Christ hath redeemed us from this estate of enmity and drawing us all to the pursuite of one common end and thereunto enabling us by one uniforme rule his holy Word and by one vitall Principle his holy Spirit wee are by the meanes of this holy Sacrament after the same manner reunited into one spirituall Body as the Elements though originally severall are into one artificiall masse And for the same reason as I conceive was the holy Passeover in the Law commanded to bee one whole Lambe and eaten in one Family and not to have one bone of it broken to signifie that there should bee all unity and no Schisme or rupture in the Church which is Christs Body Secondly for the appellations of this Sacrament it is commonly called The Lords Supper which word though with us it import nothing but an ordinary course and time of eating yet in other Language it expresseth that which the other appellation retaines Communion or fellowship and lastly it was called by the Ancients Synaxis a collection gathering together or assembling of the faithfull namely into that unity which Christ by his merits purchased by his prayer obtained and by his Spirit wrought in them so great hath ever beene the Wisedome of Gods Spirit and of his Church which is ruled by it to impose on divine institutions such names as might expresse their vertue and our duty as Adams Sacrament was called the Tree of Life the Iewes Sacraments the Covenant and the Passeover and with the Christians Baptisme is called Regeneration and the Lords Supper Communion that by the names we might bee put in minde of the power of the things themselves Thirdly for the Ceremonies and Customes annexed unto this Sacrament in the Primitive times notwithstanding for superstitious abuses some of them have beene abolished yet in their owne originall use they did signifie this uniting and knitting quality which the Sacraments have in it whereby the faithfull are made one with Christ by faith and amongst themselves by love And first they had a custome of mixing Water with the Wine as there came Water and Blood out of Christs side which however it might have a naturall reason because of the heate of the country and custome of those Southerne parts where the use was to correct the heate of Wine with Water yet was it by the Christians usâ—d not without a mysticall and allegoricall sense to expresse the mixture whereof this Sacrament is an effectuall instrument of all the People who have faith to receive it with Christs Blood Water being by the Holy Ghost himselfe interpreted for People and Nations Secondly at the receiving of this holy Sacrament their custome was to kisse one another with an holy kisse or a kisse of love as a testification of mutuall dearenesse it proceeding from the exiliency of the spirits and readinesse of Nature to meet and unite it selfe unto the thingâ— beloved for love is nothing else but a delightfull affection arising from an attractive power in the goodnesse of some excellent Object unto which it endeavoureth to cleave and to unite it selfe and therefore it was an argument of hellish hypocrisie in Iudas and an imitation of his father the Divell who transformeth himselfe into an Angell of Light for the enlargement of his kingdome to use this holy symbole of love for the instrument of a hatred so much the more devilish than any by how much the object of it was the more divine Thirdly after the celebration of the divine Mysteries the Christians to testifie their mutuall love to each other did eate in common together which Feasts from that which they did signifie as the use of God and his Church is to proportion names and things were called love-feasts to testifie unto the very Heathen how dearely they were knit together Fourthly after receiving of these holy mysteries there were extraordinary oblations and collections for refreshing Christs poore members who either for his Name or under his hand did suffer with patience the calamities of this present life expecting the glory which should be revealed unto them those did they make the Treasures of the Church their bowels the hordes and repositaries of their piety and such as were orphanes or widowes or aged or sicke or in bonds condemned to Mine-pits or to the Islands or desolate places or darke Dungeons the usuall punishments in those times with all these were they not ashamed in this holy worke to acknowledge a unity of condition a fellowship and equality in the spirituall Privileges of the same Head a mutuall relation of fellow-members in the same common Body unto which if any had greater right than other they certainly were the men who were conformed unto their Head in suffering and did goe to their Kingdome through the same path of blood which he had before besprinckled for them Lastly it was the custome in any solemne testimoniall of Peace to receive and exhibite this holy Sacrament as the seale and earnest of that union which the parties whom it did concerne had betweene themselves Such hath ever beene the care of the holy Church in all the customes and ceremoniall accessions whether of decency or charity which have beene by it appointed in this holy Sacrament that by them and in them all the concinnation of the Body of Christ the fellowship sympathy and unity of his members might be both signified and professed that as wee have all but one Sacrament which is the Food of life so wee should have but one Soule which is the Spirit of life and from thence but one heart and one minde thinking and loving and pursuing all the same things through the same way by the same rule to the same end And for this reason amongst others I take it it is that our Church doth require in the Receiving of these Mysteries a uniformity in all her Members even in matters that are of themselves indifferent that in the Sacrament of unity there might not appeare any breach or
as unto men floating upon the Sea or unto distempered braines the land and house though immoveable seeme to reele and totter or as unto weake eyes every thing seemes double so the promises of God however built on a sure foundation his Counsell and Fore-knowledge yet unto men prepossest with their owne private distempers doe they seeme unstable and fraile unto a weake eye of faith Gods Covenant to bee if I may so speake double to have a tongue and a tongue a promise and a promise that is a various and uncertaine promise And for this cause notwithstanding diffident and distrustfull men doe indeed deserve what they suspect and are worthy to suffer what they unworthily doe feare doth God yet in compassion towards our fraitly condescend to confirme his promises by an Oath to engage the truth of his own essence for performance to seale the Patent which he hath given with his own blood and to exhibite that seale unto us so often as with faith wee approach unto the Communion of these holy mysteries And who can sufficiently admire the riches of this mercy which makes the very weakenesses and imperfections of his Church occasions of redoubling his promises unto it Secondly in that this Sacrament is the instrumentall cause of confirming our faith from this possibility yea facility of obtaining we must conclude the necessity of using so great a benefit wherein wee procure the strengthning of our graces the calmeing of our consciences and the experience of Gods favour in the naturall body there being a continuall activity and conflict betweene the heate and the moisture of the body and by that meanes a wasting depassion and decay of nature it is kept in a perpetuall necessity of succouring it selfe by food so in the spirituall man there being in this present estate an unreconcileable enmity betweene the spirit and the flesh there is in either part a propension towards such outward food whereby each in its distresses may be releeved The flesh pursues all such objects as may content and cherish the desires thereof which the Apostle calleth the provisions of lust The Spirit of the contrary side strengthens it selfe by those divine helps which the wisedome of God had appointed to conferre grace and to settle the heart in a firme perswasion of its owne peace And amongst these instruments this holy Sacrament is one of the principall which is indeed nothing else but a visible oath wherein Christ giveth us a tast of his benefits and engageth his owne sacred body for the accomplishing of them which supporteth our tottering faith and reduceth the soule unto a more setled tranquility Fifthly In that in this one all other Types were abrogated and nullified wee learne to admire and glorifie the love of God who hath set us at liberty from the thraldome of Ceremonies from the costlinesse and difficulty of his Service with which his owne chosen people were held in bondage under the Pedagogie and governement of Schoole-masters the ceremoniall and judiciall Law as so many notes of distinctions charactristicall differences or wall of separation betweene Iew and Gentile untill the comming of the Messias which was the time of the reformation of all things wherein the Gentiles were by his death to bee ingrafted into the same stocke and made partakers of the same juyce and fatnesse the shadowes to bee removed the ordinances to bee canceld the Law to bee abolished for The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth by Iesus Christ Grace in opposition to the Curse of the Morall Law Truth in opposition to the figures and resemblances of the Ceremoniall Law The Iewes in Gods service were bound unto one place and unto one forme no Temple or ministration of Sacrifices without Ierusalem nor without expresse prescription no use of Creatures without difference of common and uncleane wheras unto us all places are lawfull and pure all things lawfull and pure every Country a Canaan and every City a Ierusalem and every Oratory a Temple It is not an ordinance but a Prayer which sanctifieth and maketh good unto our use every creature of God But yet though we under the Gospell are thus set at liberty from all manner ordinances which are not of intrinsecall eternall and unvariable necessity yet may this liberty in regard of the nature of things indifferent bee made a necessity in respect of the use of them We may not thinke that our liberty is a licentious and unbounded liberty as if CHRIST had been the Author of confusion to leave every man in the externall carriages of his worship unto the conduct of his private fancy This were to have our liberty for a cloake of naughtines and as an occasion to the flesh but we must alwayes limite it by those generall and morall rules of piety loyalty charity and sobriety Use all things we may indifferently without subjection or bondage unto the thing but not without subjection unto GOD and superiors Use them we may but with temperatnes and moderation use them we may but with respect to Gods glory use them we may but with submission to authority use them we may but with avoyding of scandall Christian liberty consisteth in the inward freedome of the conscience whose onely bond is a necessity of Doctrine not in outward conformity or observances onely whose bond is a necessity of obedience and subordination unto higher powers which obeying though wee become thereby subject unto some humane or Ecclesiasticall ordinances the conscience yet remaines uncurbed and at liberty Secondly we have hereby a great encouragement to serve our God in spirit and in truth being delivered from all those burdensome accessions which unto the inward worship were added in the legall observances In spirit in opposition unto the Carnall in truth in opposition unto the Typicall ceremonies The services of the Iewes were celebrated in the bloud and smoake of unreasonable creatures but ours in the Gospell must be a spirituall a reasonable service of him for as in the Word of God the letter profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickneth so in the worship of God likewise the Knee the Lip the Eye the Hand alone profiteth not at all it is the spirit that worshippeth It is not a macerated body but a contrite soule which he respecteth if there be palenes in the face but bloud in the heart if whitenes in the Eye but blacknes in the soule if a drooping countenance but an unbended conscience if a knee bowing downe in the Temple of God and thoughts rising up against the grace of God the head like a Bul-rush and the heart like an Adamant in a word if there bee but a bodily and unquickned service a schisme in the same worshipper betweene his outward and his inward man he that is not a God of the dead but of the living hee that accompteth in the leviticall Law carcases as