Church in the most sutable manner to work in men a deep impression Therefore as God himself in order to satisfy Moses more fully that his People should not perish nor so much as diminish under the Thraldom of Egypt shewed him a Bush continuing still whole and entire in the midst of a great Fire and in order they might be more firmly perswaded that tho they were in a wilderness they were under Gods protection he made them go all the way under a Cloud that when soever there should happen any staggering in their Belief both Moses and the People might strengthen it Moses by remembring the Bush and the People by minding the Cloud to the same purpose hath Christ ordained some Visible Signes in his Church to compleat her common Faith and to assure this truth to every one who comes to him that he shall be cleansed of his sins as certainly as it is certain he sees some water which is the ordinary means for washing and that he shall be kept up and fed with a supply of all necessary Blessings as certainly and really as it is real and certain he tasts and takes in this Bread and Wine which are the ordinary means for preserving our life and strength 4. Besides because the Sacraments are designed not only to perswade us more strongly of the truth and Being of the Things but also to acquaint us more familiarly and sensibly with their Condition and nature these Sacraments must have in their natural constitution some known Qualities that make them fit for this Sacramental office Such hath the Water for example which was so deservedly chosen for the use of holy Baptism because of the proper virtue it hath of washing the things that are fowl of reviving and refreshing them that are dry and of making fruitful the Barren Hereupon S. Austin saies plainly that unless the holy Sacraments had some such agreement with the Holy Things which they are set up to represent they could not be Sacraments at all Epist 23. ad Bonif. 5. So the blessed Communion is made of two such Elements as can forthwith expose to the sight and sense of all men the true ground of its Sacramental and significative Function This function is twofold the first to represent Christs Sufferings and the second to represent the Blessing and the Benefit which we receive from these Sufferings The first I say to represent Christs Sufferings This Bread and Wine could neither sustain nor refresh me had not their intrinsecal Substance lost its first condition and estate that is if the one had never fallen under the Sickle the threshing the Milstone the Fire and the other under the Hook the Trampling and the Press of bandmen Nor doth the Son of God save me but by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 2.7 emtying himself in a manner for a while of his first glory in Heaven and by losing that second life which he had taken in Bethlehem This Blessed Savior is not a Savior by the strength of all the Miracles which He did about Judea nor by any thing that He could suffer as long as He would keep himself alive when he was made fast to his Cross As the best Harvest is not yet Bread as long as it stands in the Field nor is the best Corn Bread likewise as long as 't is kept whole in the Floor both Corn and Harvest being no more then antecedent Matter for mans Food Jesus living in Galilee Jesus teaching about the Temple Jesus commanding Storms and Waves when he did walk upon the Sea if he had proceeded no further could not have bin the Bread of life it must be Jesus suffering Jesus crucified Jesus dying the grinding Mill and the burning Fire have of this Corn made me this Bread and nothing less then Cross Wounds Death my Lord my God! could of thy dearest Son make my Savior 6. I say secondly this Eucharistical Bread is instituted to represent the Fruit and Benefit which we receive both at the Holy Table and upon all other occasions from Christs Sufferings to wit Maintenance and Improvement of life As without Bread and Wine or somthing answerable to it the strongest Bodies soon decay so without the virtue of the Body and Blood of Christ the best and holiest Souls must infallibly starve and perish The Body of the Lord as it was offered up to God in Sacrifice is the Truth represented by the Passover and as represented to us at the Holy Communion is the Truth and Accomplishment typified by the Manna The one is as it were the Seed and the Original Principle whence we are born and the other as the Bread wherewith we live That is to say as Bread and Wine do not produce but keep up that animal Life which another Cause hath produced so doth our Lord Jesus by a necessary and continual supply of strength and Grace represented by Bread and Wine sustain improve and set sorward that Spiritual Life and new Being which He hath procured us by his Cross 7. For Jesus the second Adams being seiz'd as He hung on the Cross with that deep sleep which God daused to fall upon him gave this new Being to his Church out of that side which at his Passion was opened and the Blood and Water which then gushed out of his Wounds are the true Principles of life by reason of which his spouse the Church may be called Eve that is true and everlasting Liver Before she had this new original out of her Saviors Passion her Husbands sleep she by her old Extraction was a very Daughter of Death and a Mother of such Children as could pretend to no better Inheritance then Curse and Wrath. Ephes 2.2 By the course of Nature our Life is but a sad Progress from Birth to Death and by the course of Gods Justice a sadder Motion such as is that of condemned Persons from Prison to the Place of their Execution But whilst we were daily passing on to that most dreadful Punishment the Son of God lookt on us and took our Condemnation upon himself and under it dyed in our steed Thus by the Death and satisfaction of this Victim Justice gave way to my Release God the Father forgave my Sin and God the Son procured my Life This Grace is the first Purchace of Christs Blood the first Irradiation of Gods mercy and the first Breath of spiritual Life in our Nostrils 8. But alas how soon would this first life vanish away were it not presently followed and supported by a second How soon would the removal of the former be frustrated by the commission of other Sins And since I am no sooner born in sin then dead in it how hard would it be without more help in this corrupted condition to keep dead Lazarus from Rottenness Therefore the Body and Blood of Christ once Sacrificed on the Cross to help this first procures a second Life that preserves whomsoever it saves out of this stupid death in sin it helps
cured Naaman of a Plague which naturally was incurable and as soon as but a shadow did pass by or some Oyl was dropped down or some Cloaths were toucht presently virtue went out not of Rods or Trumpets or shade or Clothes but of Himself Virtue says he is gon out of me and thus he cured the sick c. Since then he hath instituted and adopted unto himself the Sacraments of the Gospel as the Representative of his Sacred Body and Blood why may he not take the same course for the dispensing of his Mercies at the use of his Ordinances and why should not his very body pour out Effusions of life as well when we take in his Sacraments as when others did touch his Clothes which surely had less Priviledg 9. Under the Law the Right hand of the Lord had the preeminence the Right hand of the Lord brought these mighty Things to pass either when the red Sea opened a way for Israel or when the Rock of Horeb powred Rivers to refresh them Now under the Gospel It is Christ himself with his Body and Blood once offered to God upon the Cross and ever since standing before him in Heaven as the Lamb slain Rev. 5.6 who fills his Church continually with the Propitiations and Perfumes of his Sacrifice when after the receiving of the holy Sacrament faithful Communicants return home richer then they came with the first fruits of Salvation For Baptismal Water and Consecrated Bread and Wine can contribute no more to it then the Rod of Moses or the Oyl of the Apostles did which was no more then their Motion and their Presence But yet since these simple Motions and inconsiderable Presences are so closely attended by Christs institution and working that he is pleased to attribute to them the Blessing wrought out by himself 1 Pet. 3.21 O my God whensoever thou wilt bid me go and wash in Jordan or be baptised and wash away my sins I will doubt no more to be made clean either of my Leprosy or of my Sins then if I had bin bathed in thy Blood And whensoever thou wilt be pleased to say unto me go take and eat this Bread which I have blessed and which now I have given thee I will doubt no more of being fed with the true Bread of Life then if I were eating thy very Flesh. 10. In this manner faithful Communicants eat as effectually of the Body of Jesus Christ by receiving its strength and virtue as the Saints eat of the Tree of life Rev. 22.2 because they eat the Fruit of that Tree or Israel did drink of the Rock 1 Cor. 10.4 because they did drink of the Stream that flowed from it Once my Savior could say that some Body had touched him tho they had touched but his Clothes because a Woman had reached both her Faith and her Hand so near as to be healed by the Divine warmth and virtue that proceeded then out of him as if she had touched his very Flesh. The truth is we really touch have or enjoy the Thing it self when we are within that distance where we may enjoy its virtue So the Church was clothed with the sun Rev. 12.1 because shee had all about Her its Brightness and by the Holy Baptism we are said to put on Christ Galat. 3.27 because we then receive the Robes of his Righteousness and that which was typified by that Garment which God made of skins which implies the death of Victims to cover Adams Nakedness 11. This Victim having bin offered up both in the fulness of times and in the midst of the habitable World which properly is Christs great Temple and thence being carried up to Heaven which is his proper Sanctuary thence he spreads all about us Salvation as the Burnt offering did its smoke as the Golden Altar did its Perfumes and as the burning Candlestic its Lights And thus Christs Body and Blood have every where but especially at the Holy Communion a most true and real Presence When he offered himself upon Earth the Vapor of his Attonement went up and darkned the very Sun and by renting the great Vail it cleerly shewed he had made a way into Heaven Now since He is gon up to Heaven thence he sends down on Earth the Graces that spring continually both from his everlasting Sacrifice and from the continual Intercessions which attend it So that it is in vain to say who will go up into Heaven since without either ascending or descending this Sacred Body of Jesus fills with Attonement and Blessing the remotest Parts of this Temple 12. Of these Blessings Christ from above is pleased to dispense somtimes more somtimes less into these Inferior Courts of the People either according to the several degrees of their Faith or according to the several waies and times which He hath appointed to them for presenting themselves nearer to Him All worshippers do not come to him with the same Faith nor have all seasons and waies tho approved and appointed by Him the same or equal Priviledg And his Ordinances in the Church as well as his Stars in Heaven differ in Glory one from another Fasting Prayer Hearing of the Word public and private Services and all like holy Duties are all very good Vessels to draw water from this Well of Salvation but yet they are not all equal The blessed Communion must exceed as much in Blessings when well used as it exceeds in danger of a Curse when it is not In all places saies God where I record my Name there I will come to thee and bless thee Exod. 20.24 But in those Places and Ordinances which He hath in an especial manner set out to record his Passion and to renew the Sacrifice of his Body he will certainly come with such a fulness of Blessings as attend this Sacred Body which is the proper Seat of Blessings the Bread which we do break being the Communion of his Body just as the eating of the Unleavened Loaves were out of Jerusalem the communion to the Passover which was the type of Christ Crucified Christ our Passover saies the Apostle is Sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast c. 1 Cor. 5.7.8 12. Our life in general is the time of this Festival and the Blessed Communion is the Bread and Wine of the Banquet Therefore as they of Israel who for some lawful impediment could not eat the Lamb in Jerusalem nor durst because of the Law sacrifice and eat it at home had nevertheless the Benefit both of the Passover and other Holy Things of the Temple by virtue of privar Feastings which they were allowed to keep with unleavened Bread and bitter Herbs in the Country Our Eucharistical eating supplies now this very Office and derives on worthy Communicants as far as their Salvation is concerned the virtue of Christs Sacrifice in as large and saving a manner as if they were present at His Altar and at the hour of His Passion The Lord bless thee out of
them out of the Puddle where they did ly like Beasts without sense of danger or shame and it quickens these rotten Trees for the producing of better Fruit. The first Life being opposite to Condemnation and Eternal Punishment belongs properly to the Blood that hath satisfied divine Justice and so removed Punishment and the second which is opposite to stupid and senseless both falling into sin and lying in it relates properly to the Water that after Propitiation and Pardon washes and sanctifies the sinner These two Lives are the two first Effluxes which proceeded out of Jesus Christ when his Body was pierced and both are inseparable as the Blood and the water were which flowed together out of his side Let none who finds himself clean from the filth and spots of his sin be afraid of Punishment for them I have found a Ransom for him Job 33.24 for the water came not without the Blood But let every one that hath a mind to be safe from Punishment which is taken off by the Blood seek for farther security in the purifying of himself from all the uncleanness of sin which the Water is to wash away for the Blood came not without water Christ came not by Blood alone but by water and Blood 1 Joh. 5.6 9. Over and above these two Lives whereof one consists in Pardon and removal of Punishment the other in Sanctification and enlivens us from dead works so as not thenceforward to deserve it as before there remains besides a third Life which consists in an absolute Redemtion from Death and other miseries This life as to the sure Title and Right is together with the two other purchased by the same Sacrifice but as to the real use and possession it is reserved for us in Heaven and there hid with Christ in God Coloss 3.3 Until it be revealed we appear as if we were dead these two Jewels lying in and being wrapped about with the dark Veils of human Mortality till that Christ becoming unto us actual Redemtion as well as actual Justice and actual Sanctification this third life succeeds to break the Cloud 10. Now the blessed Savior being by his Sacrifice the Author and giver of these three Lives shews himself by this Sacrament to be the preserver of them also and to this purpose sets up a Table by his Altar where he engages most solemnly to feed and nourish our Souls with the constant supply of his Mercies to the very day of eternal Salvation as really as he gives and we receive these Elements of Bread and Wine which are the usual meanes of sustaining mortal Bodies until the end of this short Life My Father worketh hitherto and I work with him Ioh. 95.17 God the father rested indeed upon the seventh day from the work of Creating and God the Son at the same day from the work of Suffering but neither of them will rest till the day of Redemtion from the work of preserving both what the Creation hath produced and what the Passion hath saved In the first Creation here is a Man and a Woman made of the Flesh and as it were of the very wounds of her Husband and there you find a Tree planted to maintain both their life and strength In the Deliverance of Egypt here is a People saved by the Sacrifice of the Passeover and lest so many rescued out of Egypt should faint and starve in the Desert there you see an Angel leading them the way with his Light keeping them cool under the Shadow of his Cloud and feeding them through all their journny with a miraculous sort of Meat Jesus is both in the Original and progress of Salvation the Truth foreshewed by these Figures When he dyed upon the Cross there he fullfilled that which had bin shadowed forth both by the Sleep and wound of Adam and by the killing of paschal Lambs And when he feeds from Heaven with a continual Effusion of Blessing those souls and lives which he hath bin pleased to redeem by the effusion of his own Blood He is the Truth both of the Tree and of the Angel which were appointed the one to maintain Man and the other to keep Israel 11. Christ relates to these four Figures as the Body which fulfils them and the Holy Communion relates to them on the other side as an Antitype that is as one Image may relate to another all to express the same object Upon the breaking the one and powring out the other of these consecrated Elements you see what Christ hath suffered as upon the wound of Adam and the death of the Passeover Abel Enoc and Israel might partly see what he should suffer And upon the nourishing nature of this Bread you see that which others have seen in the Tree of life and in the Angel raining down Manna what He would give But this is the advantage of the Holy Communion above all the ancient Figures Adam with his open Side and all Sacrifices with their Blood did foretel only Christs Passion and the Tree of life with all its fruit and the Angel with all his Food did foretel only his preserving Grace whereas this Sacrament alone represents both his Passion and Preserving and besides these another great Mystery by their mutual dependency What wee take and eat is made of a Substance cut bruised and put to the fire that shews my Saviors Passion and it was used in that manner that it may afford me wholesom food that shewes the Benefit which both he gives and I receive out of this dreadful Passion The Angels enjoy such an immortality and wear such Crowns as cost God nothing but the pain he took to give them ours are more precious and costly then so Our inheritance in Heaven is not less then Akeldamah a Possession bought with Christs Blood In this Sacrament here is Death represented there Life the Life is mine the Death my Saviors and ô blessed Jesus this my Life comes out of thy Death and the Salvation which I hope for is purchased with all the pain and Agonies which Thou didst suffer 12. Here Melchisedek and Aaron wait upon Jesus Christ at this Table as Moses and Elias did on the Mount These two great Priests stand to soreshew what Christ alone is to perform For there is Aaron the Priest with Blood and here Melchisedek with Bread There Aaron breaks sheds and destroies here Melchisedek feeds and blesses Nay both are one in Jesus Christ First Christ appears to Sacrifice upon the Cross as Aaron did at his Altar with Flesh and Blood and as in Melchisedeks case and figure with his own Flesh and his own Blood Then as Aaron did use to enter once every year into the Sanctuary Christ once for all is ascended into Heaven thence to bless us Act. 3.26 And this blessing is the strength the Food and Refreshment which Melchisedek brought in a figure that with the help of these good Things both Abraham and his Followers that is all sincere Christians may
his holy Seat For then it was the kindness of the Lord towards his first People as certainly He hath no less mercy for the second virtually to diffuse the Propitiation and strength of Holy Things from his Palace into their Tents and to bless them both inherently with all the Graces and imputatively with all the Right which could be conferred on them whose fault 't is not if they cannot either eat the Passover nearer the Temple or wait upon Christ at his Cross 13. Thus this great and Holy Mystery extends and communicates the Death of the Lord both as offering himself to God and as giving himself to Men. As he offered himself to God it enters me both into that mysterial Body which is reputed as dead with Christ and into their Society priviledg and Communion for whom He was pleased to dye it sets me among the precious stones of Aarons Ephod Exod. 28. close to the Breast and on the very shoulders of that Eternal Priest whilst he offers up himself and intercedes for his spiritual Isiael and by this means it conveyes to me the Communion of his Sufferings Philip 3.10 whence will infallibly proceed another Communion in all his Graces and Glories Under the second notion as He offers himself to Men the holy Eucharist is after the Sacrifice for sin the true Festival and Sacrifice of Peace offerings and the Table purposely set up to receive those Mercies that are sent down from the Altar Take and eat this is my Body which was broken for you And this is the Blood that was shed for you 14. Here then I wait at the Lords Table that both shews me what an Apostle who had Heaven for his School had the greatest mind to see and learn and offers me the richest Gift that a Saint can receive on Earth the Lord Jesus crucified Amen Jesu my Lord and my God give me all this which Thou showest and grant withal that I may both devoutly take and faithfully keep what Thou art pleased to give Bless this thine own Ordinance and make it of a true Sign an effectual Means of thy Grace then bless and sanctify my Heart also and make it a fit Temple for thy Mercies Certainly Thou wilt deal with me in these thy Mysteries O God of Truth according to thy faithfulness but dispose also my heart so towards the right using of them that I may safely wish it may be don according to my Faith O Father which art in Heaven here I offer up to thee my Soul and thou offerest to me thy Son The Oblation which I make is alas an unclean habitation to receive the Holy One of Israel and a Tent infected with Leprosy therein to Lodg the Saint of the Lord. Come in nevertheless come in high and Eternal Priest but wash thy house at thy coming Let no ill savor of the grave no more then that of Lazarus keep thee so far from the Sepulcher and from the vile condition wherein I ly but that thy power with thy Voice and thy Blood with thy Sacrament may reach to me to raise me up And let none of those uncleannesses that after the Law of Moses did defile them who came too near keep off the great Saint of the Lord from touching and healing me Evil Spirits enter somtimes into swept houses to make them foul * Matth. 12. But O Holy and hallowing Spirit of God draw nigh unto my Soul which of it self is foul already to make it clean I am a poor sinful and unless thou help a lost person but yet such as I am sinful and lost I wait for thy Salvation Come in O Lord with thy Salvation to a dying Man to make him whole to a sinner tyed hand and foot with the bonds of iniquity to release him to one who confesses his sins to absolve him Finally come in my Savior as thou didst to the Publican both to make me better and to save me O let this day Salvation come to this House Amen SECTION V. Of the Blessed Communion as being a Pledg of the Happiness and Glory to come 1. THe blessed Communion opens such a treasure of Blessings on the two sides which look towards the past or present Time as I have considered it as it may very well take up both all the eyes of Cherubins in beholding the Mysteries and all the hands of the numerous Israelites in gathering up all the Manna that it contains yet it hath one other side or prospect more which goes beyond the two former as much as the future Blessings exceed the present and as the Glory which we hope for exceeds the small degree of grace which we possess The blessed Communion which is a speciall Instrument ordained of Christ both to present a new as to our use his Passion and to convey on us the present Graces which flow out of this Passion doth there withall assure us likewise of all the Happiness to come whereof the received Graces are a hopeful Earnest and this Sacrament under this third notion is a certain Pledg 2. Now tho what is given before hand for Earnest and what is engaged by way of Pledg come all to one in point of Validity and obligingness yet they quite differ many times both in their use and in their intrinsecal value Whence it comes to pass that Earnests may be allowed upon account for part of the Payment which is promised whereas Pledges are recalled and taken back as the Seal and Staff of Juda once were Gen. 38. Thus for example zeal Charity and these degrees of Holiness which God bestowes at the use of holy Sacraments will remain still ours in Heaven and there make part of our Happiness whereas the Sacraments themselves shall be kept back and shall not appear more in Heaven then did the Cloudy Pillar in Canaan or do now the shadows of the Law under the time of the Gospel Certainly we shall have no need either of these sacred Images of Christ when we shall see him face to face or of these Pledges to assure us of that Glory which is to be revealed when we shall actually possess it But till that day the holy Communion hath this third use namely of being a Pledg and an assurance from the Lord that in his good time he will crown us with Everlasting Happiness 3. Our blessed Savior pointed at it when He said to his Disciple the Holy Cup being in his hand that he would drink no more of that Fruit till he should drink it new in the Kingdom of his Father Luk. 22.18 In the reall purpose of God his Church and Heaven go both together That being the way that leads to this as the Holy Place to the Holyest and both Holy Place and Holyest come to this one Thing which Christ calls the Kingdom of God Let them not whom He hath invited to eat and drink at Abrahams Table trouble themselves about the Room where our blessed Savior will feed them for tho it were but
in this inferior part of the kingdom where this Patriarck was faithfull it it a sufficient assurance that in time He will also make them sit in that other Palace where this holy Man is now happy and whosoever are admitted to the Dinner of the Lamb slain Matth. 22.4 unless they be wanting to themselves must not doubt of being admitted to that wedding Supper of the same Lamb who once was dead but now is Living for ever Luk. 14.16 Revel 19.9 4. The consequence and connexion that these two Festivals have one with the other was most sweetly alluded to by our Savior when he asked the Disciples who talked of sitting at his Right hand in his Glory whether they could pass to it throught the same Baptism and the same Cup. Mark 10.37.38 And S. Paul meant as much when he said that by the holy Eucharist we set forth the Lords death til he come 1. Cor. 11.26 Both referring and continuing this holy Mystery to the second Coming of Christ not only as to the End where it must cease but chiefly as to the Scope that it looks to and to that happiness at his coming where it must be fullfilled And truly since our Savior scarce ever speaks of his own death but as a forerunner and Preparative to his Resurrection and often joines in one Clause and delivers as it were with one breath both his Crucifiction and his Glory Mark 10.34 it it very fit unless we put asunder these two Things which Christ commonly did put together that the Sacrament which he instituted purposely to represent the one which is already accomplished should at the least cast an Eye towards the other which we look for 5. Nay it must look and lead that way upon another and much stronger necessity Our Savior hath given us three kinds of life by his Passion and He promises to nourish and maintain us in every one of them by these tokens of Bread and Wine which he hath made his Sacrament This Sacrament affords help and improvement for two as t is said before but there is a third more that we are not yet come to This is that eternal Life for which this present world is too vile an Element and we our selves as yet too vile vessells Till we acquire by Grace and pious Endeavors a greater Perfection and till we grow to that stature as may fit us to bear up that weight of Eternal Glory we are neither of age to enjoy our Inheritance nor of ability to manage well that great Estate and wear those noble Ornaments that attend it and therefore it lyes hidden from us with Christ in God and as it were under his Custody I Know whom I have believed and I am perswaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that Day 2. Tim. 1.12 that is by Faith we deposit this great Treasure in the hands of God to keep and God by this Sacrament assures us and engages himself that he will both keep it safe for us and restore it to us whensoever we are fit for it 6. This third use is the Crown and the Accomplishment of the two other And tho the Sacrament hath three Faces and looks three several waies the Past the present and the future yet as to the main end these three aim at one and the same Glory The first use of this Sacrament is to set out as new and fresh the great and holy Sufferings which have purchased our Title to Everlasting Happiness the second is both to represent the quality and to afford us the help of all necessary Graces true Effluxes of these Sufferings to capacitate us towards it and the third is to assure us that when we are capacitated by these Graces God and his Christ will faithfully surrender to us the Purchace it self that is eternal Happiness And these three Parts put together make up the proper and true sense of these words Take and eat this is my Body for the consecrated Bread is not said to be the Lords Body only because it represents the Lords Body but because also as to our present use on Earth it doth as good as exhibit it and as to our Happiness in Heaven bought with the price of this Body it is the most solemn Instrument to assure our Title to it 7. Thus the consecrated Elements are no more the Body and Blood of Christ in that sense that Pictures and Maps set about Rooms are commonly called Kings and Countries only because they represent them but as Patents also granted by Kings or other Deeds and Evidences left in our houses by our Ancestors are called Lands Estates and Manors because they convey over to us most really both the Title and Possession of all the goods which they mention Represent to your mind Jacob dividing among his Children every Parcel of his Estate and withal surrendring the Titles that belong to each Division take thou this Joseph this is the Field which my Grand Father Abraham bought of Hephron and you Manasehs come you hither this is the Land which I got from the Amorite It is most certain that the surrendring such Instruments altho in themselves but Papers or Parchments is in very deed nothing less then giving away the very Lands And Deeds and lands may very well go together under one Name since by giving whether Deeds or Lands whether Patents or Priviledges Fathers and other Benefactors do both intend and effect the same Thing If it happen somtimes among men that Right and Possession take not one way that our best Titles are laid aside and that we cannot enjoy those Estates whereof either our Kings or Fathers have left us most clear Evidences this falls out so by unhappy Rencounters of either weakness or injustice or ignorance which are not to be found in Christ Here then Christ our blessed Savior being desirous before his death as by a Deed of his last will to settle upon his true Disciples both such a measure of his Grace in this life as might in part make them Holy and after this life such a fullness of all Blessings as might make them eternally happy He delivers into their hands by way of Instrument and Conveyance the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood the true Root and stem of all Blessings in the same manner as to his Intention but in a surer way as to the Event and effect as Kings use to bestow Dignities by the bestowing of a staff or sword and Fathers pass as much as they please of their Estates on their Children by giving them some few writings 8. The true reason of all this is because the Giver is not able to transfer into his Friends hands Houses and Lands because they are of an immoveable Nature and therefore this must be supplyed by substituting in stead of Lands some Ceremonies forms or tokens which may visibly pass from hand to hand and shew to all ends and purposes both the Intention that the one hath to
pass away and the power which the other hath to take and enjoy what is given him Now Christ and his Estate his Happiness and his Glory his Eternity and his Heaven are not Things that may be moved more easily then the Mountains or the Earth and therefore not to be disposed of in any other real manner then great immoveable Estates are Therefore the Kingdom of Israel was once conferred upon David with some drops of that Sacred Oil which Samuel poured on his head 1 Sam. 16.13 The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is in full value and Heaven with all its fulness is in sure Title instated on true Christians by those small portions which they receive at the Blessed Communion the Minister of Christ having as to this effect as much power from his Master for what he acts as any Prophet or any Angel ever had for what they did 9. Hence it appears what crime it is not to discern the Lords Body It is to do worse then Esau did who sold his Birthright for a trifle it is to value at the same rate the Anointing of a Prophet and the composition of a Perfumer it is to take the Lords Body for a despicable Morsel of Bread In a word 't is to perform the action of a Beast that devours but the gross and earthy Matter of this Sacrament and have nothing of a Christian or rational creature who elevates his Soul to that Body which by Christs institution it represents and to the Price of that Body which it promises For since the proper essence of Sacred signs or Sacraments consists not in what they are in their nature but in what they signify by divine institution hence it happens infallibly that when the Sacraments are abused the injury must needs light not upon them in their own natural Being Bread Wine and Water which upon this account are not at all considerable but upon the Holy mysteries the Body and Blood of Christ himself who is the main object of their formal Being that is their Signification And therefore the Apostle speaks most exactly when he saies that whosoever eats of this Bread unworthily doth not discern or doth not sanctify but uses as a common and profane thing the very Body of Jesus Christ 11. In this profane want of Discerning 't is hard to say whether the Sin or the Punishment be the greater For the sin is abominable since not the Bread but Christ himself suffers the wrong the Bread being not here concerned at all nor more abused by the Villain that abuses the Sacrament then is the Earth the water or any other common matter of human Bodies by the Murtherer that kills a Man or then are Brass and Marble by the Rebels who pull down their Princes Statues or then Parchment Paper and Ink by that unnatural Son who tears and tramples upon the Deeds and the last will of his Father Only there is this difference that in these last Instances the Outrage proceeds but from the Earth the Brass the Marble the Paper and other such common Matter to the Man King or Fathers persons who should have bin considered and who alone suffer the wrong whereas in abusing the blessed Sacraments the sin flys a great deal higher namely to the very Face of Jesus Christ for whose Body and Blood they stand So that as the Holy Communion is not exposed in the Church under the notion of Bread and Wine the faithful Communicants do appear there to receive Christ and the faithless to abuse Him 11. But if this Attemt is impious the Punishment that attends it is most dreadful It is a very sad mischance when Dogs or Apes tear like lose paper all to fitters the Titles and assurances of a good Estate and who would not pitty that wretch who in his mad Passion had thrown into the sea the very Keyes which were given him to Justify the Propriety of vast Treasures in such Houses as these keyes might open Blind Villains you cannot discern either among these Papers the Original Deeds of your Estate or among all these Instruments the keyes that might both assure and give you admittance to immense Riches Whensoever you eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup thus unworthily unhappy men you do not discern the Pledges of your Salvation nay most Impious as you are you neither discern nor will honor the Body and Blood of your Savior which would bring salvation to you At once both impious and unhappy men you despise and cast away from you both the Salvation and the Savior 12. Lord Jesu who hast ordained this Mystery for a Communion of thy Body for a Means of advancement and proficiency in Holiness and for an infallible Pledg of Eternal Salvation which thou hast purchased by thy Body and which thou preparest thy People to receive by this Proficiency in Holiness now Lord in mercy look on me help my unbelief increase my Faith and order the Soul of thy Servant who is to take these Holy Things Then since thou thy self originally givest them tho not immediatly but by the ministry of thy Disciples * Joh. 4.1 2. In giving them bless them also and bless them whilst I receive them that they may be efficacious to settle me in the Communion of thy Sufferings which they exhibit and shew forth to feed me with that living Bread which they present and to sanctify me for that eternal Happiness which they promise O Lord thou knowest my simpleness my Growning is not hid from thee look on a poor Sinner at thy Table as thou didst on him who hung by thy Cross O Lord my God remember me now when thou art come into thy Kingdom * Luke 23.42 Amen 13. Eternal Priest who art gon up on high there to receive Gifts for men fill my Heart I beseech thee with blessings out of thy holy Seat as now thou fillest my Mouth with the Holy Things of thy Church and so dispose me by thy Grace to eat both spiritually and really the Flesh of that Sacrifice which thou didst offer without the Gate and which this Sacrament sets before me here in thy Courts that thence I may be admitted into that Holyest Sanctuary which thy Sacrifice hath opened and which this Sacrament invites me to This is the Bread which the Lord hath prepared for his Children and which he sends me now by the hand of one of his Angels O that in the strength of this Meat I may walk as Elijah did my fourty daies or as Israel my fourty years and come at last to that Holy Mountain where without the help of any Bread or the Ministry of any Angels I shall see my God face to face Eternal and blessed and blessing Spirit of God bless me now and help me to drink so worthily of this fruit of the Vine that I may drink it new in the Kingdom of my Father Amen SECTION VI. Of the Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice And first of the Commememorative
pour out all our Grief our Prayers and our Praises before the Lord in so happy a conjuncture The primitive Christians did it so who did as seldom meet to preach or pray without a Communion as did the old Israelites to worship without a Sacrifice On solemn daies especially or upon great Exigencies they ever used this help of Sacramental Oblation as the most powerful Means the Church had to strengthen their Supplications to open the Gates of Heaven and to force in a manner God and his Christ to have compassion on them The People of Israel for the better performance of Prayer and Devotion went up to the Tabernacle and the Temple because besides other Motives both these were Figures of that Body which was to be sacrificed Wherefore Christ calls his Body this Temple Joh. 2.19 and the first Christians went up to their Churches there to meet with these Mysteries which do represent him both as already sacrificed and yet as in some sort offering and giving up himself Those in worshipping ever turned their Eyes their Hearts their hopes towards that Altar and Sacrifice whence the High Priest was to carry the Blood into the Sanctuary and these looking toward the Cross and their crucified Savior there through his Sufferings hope for a way towards Heaven being encouraged to this hope by the very Memorial which they both take to themselves and shew to God of these Sufferings Lastly Jesus our Eternal Priest being from the Cross where he suffered without the Gate gon up into the true Sanctuary which is Heaven there above doth continually present both his Body in true reality and us as Aaron did the twelve Tribes of Israel in a Memorial Exod. 28.29 and on the other side we beneath in the Church present to God his Body and Blood in a Memorial that under this shadow of his Cross and image of his Sacrifice we may present our selves before him in very deed and reality 5. O Lord who seest nothing in me that is truely mine but Dust and Ashes and which is worse sinful flesh and Blood look upon what I have of thee some small Remnant of thine Image some small beginnings of thy Grace and some light sparks of thy Spirit But because all these are defective supply them O Lord with thy mercy and with the Sacrifice of thy Son Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name and thine Anointed give the praise Turn thine Eyes O Merciful Father to the satisfaction and Intercession of thy Son who now sits at thy Right Hand to the Seals of thy Covenant which lye before thee upon this Table and to all the wants and distresses which also thou seest in my heart O Father glorify thy Son whom thou hast sent into this World O Son bless thou this Sacrament which thou hast ordained for thy Church and send with it some influence of that Spirit whom thou hast promised to all Flesh that by the help of these Mercies the World the Church our Flesh and Souls may glorify thee now and ever Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen SECTION VII Concerning the Sacrifice of our own Persons 1. IT is either the Error or the incogitancy of too many Christians which makes them somtimes beleive and oftener live as if under the Gospel there were no other Sacrifice but that of Christ upon the Cross It is very true indeed there is no other nor can there be any other sufficient and proper for this end of satisfiing Gods Justice and expiating our sins I have troden the Winepress alone and of the People there was none with me I looked and there was none to help Esay 63.3.5 In this respect tho the whole Church should in a Body offer up her self as a burnt Sacrifice to God yet could she not contribute more towards the bearing up or bearing away the wrath to come then all those Innocent souls who stood neer Jesus Christ when he gave up the Ghost did towards the darkning of the Sun or the shaking of the whole Earth But that which is not so much as useful much less necessary to this Eternal Sacrifice which alone could redeem Mankind is indispensably both necessary and useful that we may have a share in this Redemtion So that if the Sacrifice of our selves which we ought to offer up to God cannot procure Salvation it is absolutely necessary to receive it 2. As the old Law never introduced Aaron officiating before the Lord without the whole People of Israel represented both by the twelve stones on his Ephod and the two other on his shoulders Exod. 28.12.30 The Gospel most commonly describes Jesus Christ and his Church not only as two Parties that do nothing the one without the other but somtimes also as one Person alone as particularly 1. Cor. 12.12 Christ acts officiates and suffers for his Body in that manner that doth become the Head and the Church imitates and follows all the motions and sufferings of this heavenly and holy Head in such a manner as is possible to its weak Members 3. The main if not the whole Divinity of S. Paul as well in point of faith as of Christian life runs upon this Conformity both of actions and sufferings And that of S. Iohn likewise upon this same Communion The truth is Our Savior had neither Birth nor Death nor Resurrection here on Earth but such as we ought to conform us to as he hath neither Ascention nor Throne nor Everlasting life nor Glory but such as we may also have in Heaven common with him 4. This Conformity or likeness to Christ which as the Hebrewes use to spake is the foundation and Pillar that is the grand Principle of the whole Christian institution relates more directly to our duty about his Sufferings and then to our happiness about his Exaltation And the Communion which is the other great fundamental that S. Iohn hath still in his Mouth points more at this and presupposes that And both make up a full Comment upon the words which our Savior so often commanded his Disciples to follow him thereby signifiing both the Labor and the success of this most Important Journy for without doubt we shall follow him into Heaven if we will follow him here on Earth and we shall have Communion with him in his Glory if we will keep Conformity with him here in his Sufferings 5. These three expressions to Follow to be like or have Conformity and to have Communion which are the most essential Clauses in the charter and charge of christianity are not to be limited to the imitation of Christs Moralls only as when he bids us be Holy as he is Holy c. but they oblige all his Disciples to follow and imitate him likewise as much as in them lies throughout all the other parts of his life and the very functions of his Offices For we must be regenerated in his Birth dye on his Cross be buried in his Grave bear his shame in his Tribulations in
THE CHRISTIAN Sacrament and Sacrifice By way of Discourse MEDITATION PRAYER Upon THE NATURE PARTS and Blessings OF THE Holy Communion By DAN BREVINT D. D At the THEATER in OXFORD Anno Dom. 1673. The CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT Sacrifice At the THEATER in OXFORD To The RIGHT HONOURABLE The Lady ELIZABETH CARTERET THis is one of the many Tracts which I made at Paris on several Subjects at the instance of those two Incomparable Princesses who there for many years continually emploied me in their service What use they were pleased to make of them your Ladyship knows best being often admitted with some other Persons of Quality to their privat Devotions Therefore when I present you with these Papers I but repeat and ratify their gift and by this public Address pay that respect which I owe besides what is due upon other accounts to that singular Esteem and Kindness which they ever had for your Ladiship Those great and holy Souls had no desire more earnest then to contemplate and embrace Christian religion in its original beauty see it freed from the Encombrance which ordinary Controversies most commonly throw upon it And really tho they did understand all these Scholastic points as well or better then their Teachers especially the Princess of Turenne whose clear and quick Apprehension and neat and unartificial eloquence were wonderful yet they cared so little for them that they deplored very often the unhappy necessity that had filled the Church with such weapons and had so flanck't about to use here their expression Jerusalem with Bastions that one could hardly see the Temple I can assure you Madam that upon this account the holy Communion which is as the tree of life in the Paradise of God the most generous plant in his Vineyard of the Church hath bin the worst dealt with For as it was most despitefully treated by Popery the Protestants did spend most of their care this way to secure it whereby it could not be well expected that men thus taken up in raising fences in planting thorns and quicksets against wild Bores could have much time to dress and improve better plants Then came from Germany Anabaptists and from other parts Socinians who pretend that the best way of pruning luxuriant excrescencies is to cut up by the roots Here then Madam while the Romanists having made havock of the Vineyard and laid it wast the fatness of the ground brought forth that poisonous wild vine of the Roman-Mass and others left nothing but dead sapless branches and dry leaves the emty figures of fanatic Heretics I make it my endeavor to rescue it out of the hands of such Husbandmen and to restore all back again both to the full meaning and institution of Christ who is the Planter as well as the Master of the Vineyard and to the Practice of the Holy Fathers who for several hundreds of years dressed it and made it bear excellent fruit So here I take no more notice of either Papists or Sectaries no nor Protestants neither then as if the former had never appeared in the world to trouble and spoil the Church of God nor the latter to assert and redress it The holy Sacrament being thus set at liberty and enlarged to its full extent will appear presently attended with all its Duties and Blessings as the Ladder of Jacob did with ascending and descending Angels This may be soon perceived by any one who will but take the trouble to read this Book so he do it with some attention and distinctly in parcels a caution which I desire may be adverted to Chronicles or eloquent Discourses may best please when they are cursorily run over But Mysteries must be studied or they cannot be well understood and God knows how much more is here required at our hands besides bare understanding Therefore I have added to the Discours that refers to the advancing the mind in knowledg Meditation and Prayer the two usual attendants on devotion which being joined together are the only probable means of dealing succesfully with holy things and of attaining by the use to the true end of this Sacrament which aims at nothing less then a mutual Communion between us and Christ even here on earth while we seem to be absent from him and withall at such a reciprocal correspondency between God and his Church as may both open our hearts toward him in holy Duties and Performances and open his hand and bowels toward us in all necessary Mercies I know Madam that for the confirming of all this I need but appeal to your own experience And t is partly on this account that without so much as asking leave I have made bold to put your Name before this Book because it having bin first written for the peculiar use of two Persons whom God had sanctifyed in all respects much above the rate of these Times it seems to claim a special Title to their acceptation and reading who intimately knew the worth of those Princesses and walk after their steps at so neer a distance as your Ladiship doth to whom I am MADAM A most Humble and Faithful Servant DAN BREVINT Durham Jan. 24. 1673. THE CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT and Sacrifice By way of Discourse MEDITATION and PRAYER upon THE NATURE PARTS and Blessings Of the Holy Communion SECTION I. The Importance of well understanding the Nature of this Sacrament 1. THe Sacrament instituted by Christ at the eve of his Passion which S. Paul calls the Lords Supper is without controversie one of the greatest Mysteries of Godliness and the most solemn Festival of the Christian Religion The holy Table or Altar which presents this sacred Banquet may as well as the old Tabernacle take to it self the title of * Meeting since there the People must appear to Worship God and there certainly God is present to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tabernacle for appointed time meeting meet and to bless his People At the Place and during the whole Act of this Meeting with God the Christian Communicants are in a special manner invited to offer up to God their Souls their Bodies their Goods their Vows their Praises and whatsoever they can give and God on the other side offers to us the Body and Blood of his Son and all those other Blessings withal that will assuredly follow this sacred Gift For this must be granted then the holy Communion is not only a Sacrament that the Worshipper is to come to for no other purpose then to receive nor a Sacrifice only where he should have nothing els to do but to give but it is as the great Solemnity of the ancient Passover was whereof it hath taken the place a great Mystery consisting both of Sacrament and Sacrifice that is of the Religious Service which the People owe to God and of the full Salvation which God is pleased to promise his People 2. It may by this appear how far it concerns every Christian not to err in a Point that makes the
we do Act. 2.37 He shall fall amazed at that Stroke of Divine Justice that being offended but by Men could not be sanctified nor appeased but by the sufferings and death of God How dreadful is this Place how deep and holy is this Mystery Then he will fall again to worshipping not less amazed at then thankful for those inconceavable Mercies of God the Father who so gave up his only Son and for the Mercies of God the Son who thus gave himself up for us 11. My Lord and my God! I behold here in this Bread made of a Substance that was cut down beaten ground and bruised by men all the heavy Blows and Plagues and Pains which my Savior did suffer from the hands of his Murtherers I behold in this Bread dryed up and baked and burnt at the Fire the fiery wrath also which he suffered for me from above and from the hand of his own Father My God my God why hast thou thus forsaken him the violence of wicked men first hath made him a Martyr then the Fire of Heaven hath made him a Burnt sacrifice and under both these Sufferings lo he is become to me the Bread of Life Let us then go to take and eat it For tho the Instruments that bruised him be broken to pieces and the direful Flames that burned him be quite put out yet this Bread which is the Body of the Lord continues new The Spears and Swords that slew and the Burnings that compleated the Sacrifices are many years since scattered and spent but the strength and sweet smell of the Oblation is still fragrant the Blood still warm the words still fresh and the Lamb still standing as slain * Rev. 5.6 Any other Bread by duration will alter and any other Sacrifice will lose its strength but Thou most Eternal victime offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit by an everlasting Priest and by an Order which can never be changed Thou remainest alwaies the same and as thy years shall never fail they shall never lose nor abate any thing of thy saving strength and mercy help O help me also that they abate nothing of my Faith Help me to grieve for the sense of my sins and for that of thy pains as those good Souls did who saw thee suffer †Luke 23.27 Let not my heart burn with less Zeal to follow and serve thee now when this Bread is broken at this Table then did the hearts of thy Disciples when thou didst break it in Emaus * Luke 24.32 O Rock of Israel Rock of Salvation Rock struck and cleft for me let those two streams of Blood and Water which once gushed out of thy side †Joh. 19.34 when the Curse of the Law and the Rod of Moses had opened it bring down with them Salvation and Holiness into my Soul tho far distant from the Mountain where thou didst receive that deadly Blow And let not my Soul less thirst after them at this distance then if I stood upon Horeb whence sprung this water and near the very Cleft of that Rock the very Wounds of my Savior whence gushed out this Sacred Blood All the distance of Times and Countries how great soever which is between Adam and me doth not keep his Sin or his Punishment any more from pursuing and reaching me then if I had bin born in his house and notwithstanding this distance we sin and dye after his Image as if we were immediatly sprung from his Loines Second Adam Adam descended powerful from above let thy Blood reach as far and come as freely both to save and to sanctify as the Blood of my first Father did both to destroy and defile me Blessed Jesu who revivest by this Sacrament the Memory of thy Sacrifice quicken and strengthen my faith also dispose my mind prepare my heart and then bless this thine Ordinance If I but touch in that manner I ought to do the Hem of his Garment the Garment of his Passion virtue will proceed out of Him it shall be done according to my Faith and my poor Soul shall be made whole Amen SECTION III. Of the blessed Sacrament as it stands for a Sign of present Graces 1. THe second Face of the blessed Communion looks towards the present Graces that attend the right use of it first as a Figure whereby God represents secondly as a moral Instrument whereby he is pleased to convey them unto the Church First I say it marks and signifies these present Graces For being of its own nature a Sacrament that is a sign of an Invisible Grace it must principally stand to signify and lead us to greater Blessings 2. It is the ordinary way of God when He either promises or bestowes on men any considerable Blessing to confirm his word and his Gift with the addition of some Signs For this I need not to alledg other Evidences then the Rainbow the Burning Bush Abrahams Furnace Gideons Fleece the Cloud the Ark c. which for those times were Sacraments of great Things God commonly sent no Prophets without giving them as it were a Sacramental Equippage which could represent in some degree the Message they had to deliver witness the Hairy Mantels the rent Garments the Iron Yoakes the Hornes some times some kinds of life or Gesture wherein men might see before hand the Charges and sad Predictions which they were to hear soon after Our Savior did observe this same method when he laid his hands on Children when he breathed upon his Disciples when he bad them to anoint the Sick and when he cursed the Fig-tree All men by a naturall instinct do somwhat like this when they second their Expressions with some signs and motions of their Body tho they think of no Mysteries So that you hardly can hear any man being somwhat earnest and serious upon any matter whether of Request or complaint Submission or Excuses but you may see him at the same time either bowing the knee or joining his hands or uncovering his head which Acts are in a manner civil and natural Sacraments to confirm his Expression 3. The truth is such is the disposition of most men that how strongly soever they be perswaded of the Truth which they hear yet will they be far better wrought upon towards their own perswasion when they see some signs of this Truth And tho a true Israelire doubts not at all of the presence of his God nor a faithfull Disciple of the promise given him that he shall receive the Holy Ghost when Moses and Christ have once passed their Word for these two Things yet will their Faith be much strengthned when one sees the Ark and the Cloud which were the Sacrament of that and when the other receives the Breath which was the Sacrament of this Now the Mystery of the Cross and of the Salvation that followes it is of that high and important nature as might justly oblige the Son of God to propose them to his
of Blessing which wee bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ 1. Cor. 10.16 For whether the word which wee render Communion be taken in an active sense as 't is often for Communication the holy Eucharist is a Means of communicating the Blood of Christ or tho we take it but in a neuter and intransitive sense yet the holy Eucharist will be still a Mystery wherein one way or other true Christians shall find not a Commemoration or Representation only but a Communion also with the Blood so represented and remembred 5. The reall Efficacy which the Holy Communion hath to convey Grace and Blessing on the true Christian Receiver is evidently demonstrated by the opposite Efficacy it hath to convey a Curse and Destruction on the Profane Whosoever sayes S. Paul eats of this Bread unworthily eats damnation to himself Now certainly this would be as much to think unworthily as to eat unworthily of this holy Bread to think it might be really pernicious when it is abused but not really blissful and saving in its right use and that this Bread which we eat of should be an effectual Communion to procure death but meerly Sacramental only to shew and not to procure Salvation S. Paul sets out the Character of the unworthy Communicant by not discerning the Lords Body and thereby declares him guilty of the very Body and Blood of Christ That is to say that whosoever offers to abuse this Sacrament plunges himself into their Crime who have abused Christ himself and that that Villain goes hand in hand with Judas with Pilate with both Jews and Romans who murthered Him What therefore can be thought of those good Souls who approach to this Sacrament with faith humility and a trembling Reverence but that they will return home as much Justified and full of grace after their Devout as the other shall full loaded with Damnation after their impious usage and that God will be as merciful in reckoning those among the Righteous Mary Joseph Nicodemus as He is Just against these when upon this account he shuts up their Souls with the Sinners that in very deed crucified him And God forbid that the Body of Christ who came to save not destroy should not diffuse as much of its Savor of life for the life and Salvation of Devout Souls as it doth of its Savor of Death for the Death of the Impious 2 Cor. 2.16 6. The manner of this real Communication and Conveyance is the great unfathomable Mystery which the Holy Fathers have ever admired and which therefore we neither need nor do take upon us to explain The Shepherds think themselves happy with the Message brought to them by an Angel This day is born to you a Savior Luke 2.11 tho they know nothing of the way of his most miraculous Birth and the honest Israelites ought not to receive Manna less thankfully as they do not less effectually tho they know neither of what matter nor by what means the Heavens the Air or the Clouds can thus every morning shed about their Tents this strange Meat I must not wonder if the waies of the Lord be unknown to me in his Miracles since they are so very often in his most ordinary works And if David tho a Prophet cannot think upon that natural virtue which makes Bones and Veins every day out of that feed that is apparently nothing like to all these parts of Mans body but he cries out I have bin strangely and wonderfully made Ps 139.13 Who am I to pretend to a clear understanding of that hidden and incomprehensible wisdom wherewith God is pleased to make out of Water or Wine or Bread in themselves weak Elements strong and supernatural Organs for Mens Souls and salvation 7. It is true indeed that Bread Wine and Water can without much ado come up so high as to become a Sacrament to signify since the Act of signifying depends meerly on Institution Yet this Institution such as may make a Sacrament must needs proceed both from a Divine and an almighty Origine Divine I say to give a Sacred Character and Almighty withal to justify and maintain it For example after the Flood no man or Angel had authority to make of the Rainbow a Mystery that should signify the worlds preservation from Drowning and if either Men or Angels had taken on them that Liberty none of them had the power to make it true that is to make it a standing infallible Evidence that the world shall never perish by water So in the Church neither Apostles nor Bishops have any more Right to confer either upon the water of Baptism or upon the Bread and Wine of the Holy Communion a Sacramental or representative Office then they have power to make good their Representation by conferring the Blessings promised by it And it is specially to this purpose that most of the Expressions and Epiphonemas of the holy Doctors are to be understood when they stand somtimes amazed at the infinit Power of God either in the Institution or the use of these Mysteries God alone being able to raise water or Blood or any Thing else to the Order of Sacraments But to raise them a step higher that is to the Dignity of standing for true Means and Instruments which may convey on us those Graces which by their proper institution they represent there is the Finger of God indeed and there is a fitter matter for Mens admiration then Mens knowledg 8. Here then I come to Gods Altar with a full perswasion that these words This is my Body promise me more then a figure that this holy Banquet is not a Representation made of outward shews without substance and that it is not so dangerous a Mystery but that the Religious use of it may convey to me at the least as many and as great Blessings as the profane abuse of it may throw on the Abuser Plagues and Curses But how these Mysteries become in my behalf the supernatural Instruments of such Blessings it is enough for me to admire One thing I know as said the blind man after he had received his sight S. Joh. 9.25 he laid Clay upon mine Eyes and behold I see He hath blessed and given me this Bread and my Soul received Comfort I verily believe that Clay hath nothing in it self that could have wrought such a Miracle as Israel never saw the like And I know as much of this Bread that it is not such a Jewel as may contain in its substance or impart from it self to others Grace Holiness and Salvation which is the juice and the substance of Christs Body Only I am perfectly satisfied that 't is the constant way of God to produce his greatest Works at the presence tho not by the virtue of the most useless Instruments At the very stroke of a Rod He parted once in two the red Sea At the blowing some Trumpets He tumbled down massy strong walls At some few washings in Jordan he
Sacrifice 1. IT is a certain truth that there never was on Earth a true Religion without some kind of Sacrifices and 't is a very great lye to say that now the Christian should want them The Jews and the Pagans who first aspersed the Church of Christ with this slander did it upon such a reason as became them because they saw neither Altars set up nor Beasts slain and burnt among them Thus the Pagans accused the Jews of adoring nothing but Clouds because they had no Gods of Stone or Silver in their Synagogues and thus silly men may think now that the world is destitute of Angels because they do not appear so often as they did in ancient times in the shape and forms of Men. The truth is as what appeared like a Body was not an Angel nor what was Stone or Silver could be a God Neither the slaughter of poor beasts could ever be true Sacrifices Thou delightest not in Oblations the Sacrifice of God is a broken Spirit Many among the Jews much less quick sighted then the Prophets were confessed as much nor certainly could any reason permit them to imagine that Flesh and Blood which in all their Scriptures passes both for the weakest and the vilest of Things could be the best and the soundest part of Sacrifices 2. Of all the Carnal Sacrifices which the Jews do reduce to six kinds besides many more Oblations none ever had any saving reality as to the washing away of sins but in dependance on Jesus Christ our Lord and as to our service and duty towards God which they were also to represent none had this second end so fully performed under the Law as it must be under the Gospel The blessed Communion alone when whole and not mutilated concenters and brings together these two great Ends full Expiation of sins and acceptable Duty to God towards which all the old Sacrifices never look't but as either simple Engagements or weak shadows As for the first which is Expiation of sins 't is most certain that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone hath bin sufficient for it and that if all both men and Angels were joined to it it were not to add too but to receive from its fulness It is most certain also that this great Sacrifice being both of an infinit virtue to satisfy the most severe Justice and of an infinite virtue to produce at once all the Effects that can be expected of it it were impiety to think it should need to be don again as weak and infirm Causes must in order to make up by degrees and at several times their full Effect This was perhaps the want of Faith which the holy Scripture taxes in Moses Num. 20.12 which it is hard to find in any thing els to strike a second time and without order that mysterious Rock which to strike once had bin enough for this second blow could proceed but of a faithless mistrust that the first which alone was commanded could not suffice But it were a much greater offence both against the Blood of Christ to question its infinit worth and against the infinitness and Immensity of this worth to charge it with som Emtiness which any reiteration should fill up Therefore as the Expiatory Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Cross was infinitly able to do at once whatever an infinit number of other Sacrifices had bin able to do either all together at one time or each of them severally during the succession of all Ages the Offering of it must needs be one only and the Reiteration of it were not only superfluous as to its real effect but also most injurious to Christ in the very thought and Attemt 3. Nevertheless this Sacrifice which by a real Oblation was not to be offered more then once is by an Eucharistical and devout Commemoration to be offered up every day This is what the Apostle calls to set forth the death of the Lord to set it forth I say as well before the Eyes of God his Father as before the Eyes of all Men and what S. Augustin did explain when he said that the holy Flesh of Jesus Christ was offered up in three manners by prefiguring Sacrifices under the Law before his coming into the World in real deed upon the Cross and by a Commemorative Sacrament after he is ascended into Heaven All comes to this first that the Sacrifice as t is it self and in it self it can never be reiterated yet by way of devout Celebration and Remembrance it may nevertheless be reiterated every day Secondly that whereas the Holy Eucharist is by it self a Sacrament wherein God offers unto all men the Blessings merited by the Oblation of his Son it likewise becomes by our Remembrance a kind of Sacrifice also whereby to obtain at his hands the same Blessings we present and expose before his Eyes that same holy and precious Oblation once offered Thus the ancient Israelites did continually represent in their Solemn Prayers to God that Covenant which he had made once with Abraham Isaac and Jacob their Forefathers Thus did the Jews in their Captivity turn their Faces towards either the Country or the Temple where the Mercy Seat and the Ark were which were the Memorial of his Promises and the Sacramental Engagement of his Blessings And thus the Christians in their Prayers do every day insist upon and represent to God the Father the meritorious Passion of their Savior as the only sure ground whereon both God may give and they obtain the Blessings which they do pray for Now neither the Israelites had ever Temple or Ark or Mercy seat nor the Christians have any Ordinance Devotion or Mystery that may prove to be such a blessed and effectual Instrument to reach to this Everlasting Sacrifice and to set it out so solemnly before the Eyes of God Almighty as the Holy Eucharist is To men it is a sacred Table where Gods Minister is ordered to represent from God his Master the Passion of his dear Son as still fresh and still powerful for their Eternal Salvation and to God it is an Altar whereon Men mystically present to him the same Sacrifice as still bleeding and still sueing for Expiation and Mercy And because it is the high Priest himself the true Anointed of the Lord who hath set up most expressly both this Table and this Altar for these two ends namely for the Communication of his Body and Blood to Men and for the Representation and Memorial of both to God it cannot be doubted but that the one must be most advantageous to the penitent Sinner and the other most acceptable to that good and gracious Father who is alwaies pleased in his Son and who loves of himself the repenting and the sincere return of his Children Luke 15.22 4. Hence one may see both the great use and advantage of more frequent Communion and how much it concerns us whensoever we go to receive it to lay out all our wants and
that is his Church For we that are many saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.17 are one Bread To this purpose the holy Martyr Ignatius Epist Rom. being ready to be offered up by Martyrdom said he was the wheat of God which was to be ground by Beasts teeth Soon after the Church added Oyl and Frankincense to Bread and Wine to make up the whole Meat Offering which consisted of these four Things The truth is all what we can offer upon our own account is but such an Oblation as this Meat and Drink offering of Moses was that cannot be presented but by the virtue and merits of Jesus Christ who supports it and that can never ascend up to Heaven but along with the sacred smoke of that great Burnt Sacrifice which is to carry it up thither For on the one side our own persons our works or any thing else that may be ours are by themselves but weak unsubstantial kinds of Offerings which cannot be presented unto God otherwise but as these Additional Oblations which from themselves fall to the ground unless a more solid Sacrifice do sustain them And on the other side this solid and fundamental Sacrifice upholds saves and sanctifies but those persons and things that according to the Law of Moses his Meat Offerings are thrown into this his fire are hallowed upon his Altar and are together with him consecrated to God by him 11. For this cause it is that as soon as the Prophet had preached the coming of this Everlasting Sacrifice and the propitiation and happiness which it would spread over all the world he foretels at the same time that the Apostles and their successors whom he designs by expressions proper to that Oeconomy under which he did live should bring the Nations from all parts of the Earth as an Offering unto the Lord. Esay 66. And to the same purpose St. Paul himself speaks of his Evangelical Office as of a Sacrificing Priesthood and of the Gentiles whom he did convert to Christ as of so many Sacrifices which he presented to the Lord. I exercise saies he in the Gospel a holy Sacerdotal Priesthood for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both that the Oblation of the Gentiles may be acceptable being sanctified by the holy spirit Rom. 15.16 Hence proceeds that Method which he observes most constantly never to preach the Faith in Jesus Christ without inviting presently the Beleivers to Offer up unto God either their Bodies and Souls as Rom. 12. or their works of holiness of Praise of Charity c. as every where else And these are the Spiritual Offerings which every true Christian must join to cast upon the fundamental Sacrifice of Christ Jesus 12. We know indeed that the universal Assembly of Christians could never meet at the same time or place either to follow Christ in a Body when he went to offer himself for them or to fall upon their faces and prostrate themselves to the ground when he bowed his head under their Sins Providence that scatters men up and down throughout all places and times of the world permitting no possibility of such a general meeting But the Sacrifice of Christ tho it was confined to few hours and to a small parcel of Ground as to the Suffering yet being everlasting infinit and still the same as as to the sufficiency and virtue of it coextends it self most perfectly to all both times and places when and where those scattered members will ever come to Offer up themselves to God with their head And besides this the second part of his Sacerdotal Office which consists in interceding continuing still in the very Act till the worlds end They that could not embrace his Cross and join with him at that same time that he Offer'd himself may do it every day and humble themselves like poor victims loaden with sins and miseries at the same time that now he continues still actually interceding So in all Places at all times and upon any emergencies whensoever the Beleivers will present themselves unto God both with and by his Son Jesus they may still receive the favor of acceptation and that real efflux of saving Odor from Christ which was represented by that typical holiness which the additional Oblation did receive from the principal Sacrifice when it was adjoined to it Whereas it is most certain that all the Merit and blood of Christ shall no more save Men that will not draw neer and join themselves to conformity and Communion of his Death then the continual and other burning Sacrifices were ever able to consecrate that meat that Wine that Oyl and that Frankincense which were not brought nor burned upon the the same Altar with them 13. Now tho all men be called to this conformity and Communion in the Sufferings of Christ from the time of those sufferings until there be no times at all and altho the daies of our present life have all the priviledg which these seven feast daies once had when every one might gird his loins eat his unleavened bread and kill his own Bullock as the Priest did Sacrifice the Paschal Lamb which Bullock was superadded to the Paschal Lamb that both might better suffice for the 7 Festival daies besides its other ritual and figurative importance as a Sacrifice it is certain nevertheless that there are two more special and extraordinary daies wherein Christians are invited by more urgent and proper Circumstances to present their Souls and Bodies by way of Second Offering upon the Sacrifice of their Savior The first is past and that was when the Savior offered himself to death when Heaven and Earth Temple and Graves shook at the blow that killed him when pious Souls either stood immoveable as the blessed Virgin hard by his Cross or in a manner crucified themselves beating their breasts as the Daughters of Jerusalem and when every Disciple might by the very conjuncture of all the things he saw be moved to say as Thomas let us go and let us dy with him Joh. 11.16 The other time most favorable and proper next to that of his real Passion is that of the holy Communion which as it hath bin * Gelas Cyzic part 2. cap. 31. explained is a Sacramental Passion where tho the Body be broken and the blood shed but by way of representative Mystery yet both are as effectually and as truly offered for our own use if we go to it worthily as when that holy and divine Lamb did offer himself the first time 14. Therefore whensoever Christians approach to this dreadful Mystery and to the Lamb of God lying and sacrificed as some say that the holy Nicene Council speaks upon the holy Table it concerns their main interest in point of Salvation as well as in other duties to take a special care not to lame and deprive the grand Sacrifice of its own due Attendance But to behave themselves in that manner that as both the principal and additional Sacrifices were consumed by the
same fire and went up towards Heaven in the same flame So Jesus Christ and all his Members may jointly appear before God this in a Sacramental Mystery these with their real Bodies and Souls offering themselves at the same time in the same place and by the same Oblation So that whosoever are attending on this sacrifice since they do it in remembrance of their Savior once really dead and every day Sacramentally dying for them do this in remembrance of me they do it in such a manner 1. as may become faithful Disciples who are resolved to dy both for and with their Master 2. as true and sincere Members that cannot outlive their own head and 3. as truly penitent sinners who dare not look for any share in the Glory and Redemtion and session at the right or left hand of their Savior unless after their way they undergo the same Baptism unless they will drink the same Cup and unless they enter really into the Communion of that Sacrifice and those Sufferings which their Master their head and their Savior hath passed through and which this very Sacrament engages them to 15. Now this Communion doth require first a Conformity of Actions that may in some sort correspond to all what Christ hath done as Priest Secondly another Conformity of mortifications and passions that may likewise answer to whatsoever he hath Suffered as a voluntary Victim As Priest for in this occasion all Christians after the example of their Savior become Priests since they offer themselves to God to follow all the steps and take upon them all the preparations the Course of life and the like dispositions of mind which were seen in this Blessed Melchisedeck when he presented himself to God To this effect the faithful Worshipper presenting that Soul and Body which God fitted him with at his coming into this world will lay them down at the Altar Lo I come if this Soul and Body may be useful to any thing here they are both to do thy will O God * Heb. 10.5.7 And hereafter if it please thee to use that power which thou hast as Creator over Dust and Ashes over weak flesh and Blood over a brittle vessel of Clay over the work of thine own hands Lo here they are to suffer also thy good pleasure I do now protest to my God that if he please to afflict me either with pain or dishonor I will humble my self under it and be obedient unto death even unto the death of the Cross †Phil. 2.8 Whatsoever may happen to me either from the Jews or Gentiles from my Neighbors or from strangers since it is my God that emploies them tho they neither know nor think it so unless at the same time God help me to some lawful means of securing my self against their wrongs I will not hereafter open my mouth before the Lord who doth strike me except only to sing the Psalm after I have eaten some bitter Herbs that belong to this Passover and to bless the Lord who gave them me and intreat him for the wicked who perhaps hath maliciously gathered them Hereafter no man can take away any thing from me no life no honor no Estate since I am ready of my self to lay them down assoon as I can perceive that God requires them at my hands Nevertheless O Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me yet if I must drink it thy will be don What kind soever of Suffering hereafter may trouble my Flesh or what kind soever of Agonies may perhaps worse trouble my Spirit following the example of this high Priest in the midst of his bitterest pains O Father into thy hand b Luke 23.46 I will ever remit my life and the dearest concernments that attend it And if thou be pleased that either I live yet a while or not I will with my Savior bow down my head c Joh. 19.30 Joh. 19.46 I will adore thee under my burthen and humble my self under thy hand I will give up all what thou wilt be pleased to ask Goods Joys c. until at last I surrender and give up the Ghost a Luke 22.42 Matth. 26.42 16. To this first part of our Conformity with Christ as Priest must be referred whatsoever we read he did from his last Passover to his Passion as far as we can imitate it as when he washed the feet of his Disciples when he prayed for his Murderers when he received with a mild reply the rashness of him that struck him commiting all the rest to God when he took that charitable care of gently restoring the Ear to an insolent fellow named Malchus when his dismallest Agonies never kept him from comforting a Penitent this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23.43 nor from instructing Good pious Souls ye Doughters of Jerusalem weep not c. nor from interceding for his cruellest Enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they do nor from taking care for his Relations woman behold thy son c. Ioh. 19.26 Hereupon the success of these both Active and Passive dispositions must needs be this that God looking first to Abel and finding him endued with that spirit of humility of Charity of meekness and of patience which was also in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 he certainely will be pleased to look also upon his Sacrifice Genes 4.4 17. Besides this first Conformity of holy Dispositions and as it were Sacerdotal Ornaments between Jesus and his Disciples considered as they are Priests there must needs be also a conformity of Death and Passion between them being considered as Sacrifices The first Conformity which regards Personal and Priestly Endowments is never so exact nor so full as to adorn inferior Priests with all the proper Attire of Aaron his Golden Plate his embroidered Ephod or his Miter or his Breast Plate yet it is never so defective but that he and they may without indecency notwithstanding the inequality of their Garments officiate at one Altar The second Conformity which regards the Sacrifice is yet much shorter then the first being between things not only unequal in degrees of perfection but different in their nature For really the Sacrifice of a living Creature as the Lamb was could not differ so much in nature from dead and inanimate Offerings such as the Meal the Oil and the Wine were which as secondary Sacrifices were added to the first as the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ differs from what poor Christians either are in their nature or can offer up to God in Sacrifice For of these two Sacrifices as to their proper conditions The one is Divine allmighty and all Holy and the other is human infirm and sinful And as to their several ends The one is made to procure and work Expiation and the other only to get some capacity to receive it The first and prime Sacrifice imparts to the second its Righteousness and the second is thrown upon the first as a burthen
and offerings and that instead of the Bread and Wine which they had offered upon his Altar as either the first fruits or the Representatives of all their Goods he was pleased to return to them not simple Bread and simple Wine but such Blessed Bread and Wine as were both the sacred Mysteries of the Body and Blood of his Son and an infallible surety of all Things depending thereon This is the reason why because primitive Christians never received those holy Mysteries but after they had made their Offerings and because those very Mysteries which they received were commonly taken as to the matter from that Bread and Wine which they had before Offered The Holy fathers for instance S. Ireneus * Iren. l. 4. c. 30 34. Et alibi passim who then had no occasion to be so exact or cautious as to distinguish precisely the Nature of two sacred Offices which went constantly together do not scruple to speak of the blessed Communion promiscuously as Sacrament or Sacrifice 12. Now to bring all this more home The Law of Antient Israel the practise of the Primitive Church and the very equity of the thing it self do sufficiently testify that we ought not in these more then in the former Ages to appear before the Lord with emty hands that it is not more fit for worshippers now then it was then to present their persons without their Goods as it were trees without their sap and fruit and that these same Nations which in the prediction of Esay were at their first coming to bring and consecrate both themselves and their Gold unto the Lord must not be now less liberal when by their Sacrifice they appear to renew the vowes of their former Consecration as surely God is not upon the same occasions less merciful when by his holy Sacrament he renews unto them the Covenant of his saving Grace Therefore he that comes rich is bound to appear before his Savior with his hands full of such free Will offerings as he may take out of his abundance as did in Israel the husbandman out of a plentiful harvest when the Lord had blessed his field He that is less able must offer out of what he can either get by his labor or spare by his Parcimony as the poor widow did when she offered her Mite In a word every one whether he be rich or poor is to lay down at the Offerings of God according as the same God hath either blessed or spared him 1. Cor. 16.2 13. The quantity of these Oblations whether extraordinary as upon a Communion Day or more ordinary as upon other daily occasions is wholy left to the discretion of the Christian worshipper And whereas God by his Law did deal with the Israelites as fathers do with Children in an ago unfit to guide itself prescribing to them the measure the time and the manner of every thing which they were either to do or to give our Savior hath by the Gospel freed all Christians from this punctual Pedagogy leaving them as men able to give an account of themselves both to their own Judgment and to the direction of his spirit But if this different way of the Gospel discharges Christians now adaies from the subjection of doing punctually and litterally every thing which the ancient Israel were to observe it certainly obliges them to do more as to the matter and to do it in a better manner And God forbid that this honor and liberty which he vouchsafes us above what he did to the Jews should be taken by us either as a permission or as an occasion of being worse Therefore God in former times did give special Laws to his People for every thing they were to do in point either of Piety or Charity for example they were to give the Tenth part of whatsoever they could gather out of their feilds their Trees and their flocks besides another Tenth part every third year that is a Thirtieth part every year and what ever could grow of it self during the vacancy of every seventh year They were bound moreover to many other charitable waies of helping the poor as to lend them mony without taking either use or pawn and to leave in their fields and Vineyards so much of their Corn and fruits behind as could recompence the labor and diligence of many honest Neighbors who at the end of the year had no other Harvest then this Gleaning And altho all this was Charity yet it was among the People of Israel called Justice because it was commanded by Law and that they were obliged to pay these Almes as strictly as any other Debt Here then a downright Christian will do well to take notice of what all these charges may come to and what proportion they will bear with the Estate and revenue that God blesses him with that so he may contribute towards works of Piety and Charity not only so much but more and if not in the very same yet in as good a kind as the Jews did So that he may go beyond them in Charity whom the Gospel commands us to exceed in all other virtues as we exceed them in Blessings 14. The time of these oblations is not more limited then their measure At first S. Paul had appointed the first day of the week that is the Lords day for the gathering of those Charitable assistances and as he calls them Acceptable Sacrifices 1. Cor. 16.2 Phil. 4.18 which were to be sent to the poor Brethren of Jerusalem because even from that time that day was in a more special manner consecrated to the solemn Ministry of Prayers of Preaching and of Communion Now tho the danger of Profaneness which then was less to be feared hath in our daies made the use of this Sacrament much less Common then that of Preaching and Prayer Nevertheless since by these two holy exercises both God speaks to us and we to him this should be warning enough not to presume to appear before him without a Gift And that we may both bear up the more easily the expenses of this weekly Sacrifice and diffuse more universally the sweet savor thereof into all the parts of our life it would be a piece of holy prudence to take care that every day should both bear some part of the burthen and have some share of the holiness And that by a daily attending to this service the Rich be still industrious to defalk some larger portions of his abundance the poor to steal some thing out of his necessaries and the middle conditioned man to spare what he can out of all his competence But specially when the good Providence le ts fall into our hand some considerable advantages then let him that will grow rich in God look upon those temporal occasions as a propitious time of Harvest whereof he must be sure to reserve the first fruits to God and let him have a place in his house like the Treasury in the Temple where he may daily cast