Sacraments for the bloud of Christ was to be shed ours unbloudy for the bloud is shed and our English well translates the word Passeover the Greek and Latine keep the word Pascha which gave some occasion to derive it from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer a mistake The word is Pesach from Pasach which is to leap or passe over For when Israel after long servitude in Egypt was on wing to be gone God commanded them in their several Families to kill Seh a Lamb or kid to rost it whole to eat it within doors that night to sprinkle the side and upper door-posts with the bloud not the threshold propter reverentiam significationem Christs bloud must not be trampled on and so doing they should be safe from the destroying Angel that rode circuit that night to kill all Egypts first-born but he past over all the hoUses of Israel sprinkled with bloud and hence the name Passe-over the Etymon whereof is given by God himself Exod. 12. 27. We have the kernell in this shell the marrow of this bone a Passeover as well as they but ours is Christ our Passeover is Christ saith the Text. § 2 We proceed Our Passeover Christ is or was sacrificed for us Our Passeover Christ was a true Sacrifice but whether their Passeover was a Sacrifice or no it is in Question The Papists swallow it greedily hoping thereby to prove our Supper to be both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament as their Passeover they say was but there are others both Lutheran and Calvinist as Gerald. in harmon Rivet on Exod. 12. that do not yield the Passeover a proper Sacrifice though it be so called Exo. 12. 27. It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeover for the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew Zabach are sometimes taken generally for mactare when there is no Sacrifice and they finde in Egypt at the first Passeover no Priest but the head of the Family or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Altar no offering of the Lamb to God no expiation nor is it necessary that it should be a Sacrifice to type a Sacrifice for the Serpent on the Pole signified Christ crucified and so the Passeover as a Sacrament may figure out a Sacrifice as our Supper is the commemoration of a Sacrifice but not a Sacrifice On the other hand Calvin and others the Jewish Writers and many from them do hold it to be a Sacrifice and a Sacrament for the Scripture cals it Sacrifice and this bloud is shed at first by the Pater-familia's that was a Priest no other being yet consecrated in after times by the Priests or Levites and the bloud brought to the Altar as it was bloud shed to a religious end a bloud preservative from destroying Angels and therefore a proper Sacrifice What shall we say The difference between a Sacrifice and a Sacrament I 'le promise you not to puzzle you with controversies and disputes for I had rather set meat before you which you may eat then hard bones to gnaw upon The truth is a Sacrifice is something offered up to God by men a Sacrament is offered and given to man by God to be eaten or Used in his Name and so that part of the offering which is offered up to God may be called a Sacrifice and that part eaten or Used by man a Sacrament the very body and bloud of Christ was a Sacrifice no Sacrament The bread and wine as Used are a Sacrament no Sacrifice The Passeover was the figure of a true Deut. 16. 5. Sacrifice Christ and we may call it so becaUse the Scripture doth It follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the Feast What is that Ye shall finde that after the Passeover Lamb was eaten the next day began the Feast Numb 28. 16 17. and the Passeover is called Feast too Exod. 12. 15. c. and that continued seven daies kept in great festivity and solemnity but with unleavened bread the Apostle alludes hereunto Our Passeover is sacrificed therefore let us henceforth c. We that have received the sprinkling of bloud and eaten his flesh by faith live all our daies in a holy rejoycing and thanks giving which is a continuall Feast and let us cast out the incestuous Corinthians out of our Society for he is a leven ver 6 7. and let us purge out of our selves malice wickednesse c. For they are leven ver 8. that we may be a holy Congregation and a holy people and so the argument of the Apostle stands thus from the example of the Old Passeover Those for whom Christ the Passeover is sacrificed ought as holy Congregations and holy people to be unleavened with sin and wickednesse and to walk before God in an unleavened sincerity but for us Christ the Passeover is sacrificed therefore let us keep the Feast c. I have explained the words and now we shall consider this Passeover two waies 1. As a Sacrifice or figure of a Sacrifice and so it refers to Christ our Passeover Christ is sacrificed for us 2. As a Sacrament and so it relates to us and shews us our duty upon that Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the Feast The Sacrifice is given for us the Sacrament is given to us From the first Our Passeover is Christ sacrificed for us Our Passeover is Christ sacrificed for us We have a Passeover but it is Christ sacrificed And here before I shew the Analogy or resemblance between the Passeover and Christ we shall note three or four things § 3 1. They in the Old Church of Israel had Christ as well though not so clear as we 1 Cor. 10. 4. The Rock that followed our Fathers in the Wildernesse was Christ the Passeover was Christ the personall Types such as Isaac on the Wood the reall Types as their bloudy Sacrifices were Christ He was then in his swadling clouts swathed up in shadows and types and not naked as now Gal. 3. 1. those Types being anatomized unbowelled are full of Gospel full of Christ the death of Christ pecus prosunt quam fuit saith Bernard de coena Christ is the marrow in the bone the kernell in the shell yesterday and to day and the same for ever the summe and sweet of all Ordinances therefore those that say they were filled with temporall promises but had no spirituall derogate too much from them as that they were Swine filled with husks and speak a wondrous Paradox that those that had so much faith Heb. 11. should have no Christ we give them the right hand of fellowship and they were the elder brother yet we have the double portion § 4 2. Mark the form of speech Christ our Passeover that is our Paschall Lamb which is also called the Passeover Exod. 12. 31. Kill the Passeover Now the Passeover properly was the Angels passing over the Israelites hoUses and not the Lamb but we must learn to understand Sacramentall
3. This paschal Lamb must be killed the bloud taken into a basin sprinkled with hysop shall be on every door the flesh rosted with fire not eaten raw or boyl'd in water the head the legs the inwards Exod. 12. 7 8 9 22. and this may set forth unto us the unutterable sufferings of Christ both in his soul and body which the Scripture sets out to the life with such an emphasis of words I mean especially those of his soul scorched with the sense of Gods extream wrath which are exprest by words extraordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sweating like drops of bloud with expression of strong cries and tears Oh man thou understandest not the sufferings of this Passeover rosted with fire forbidden to be boyl'd in scalding water for that expresses not the sufferings in extremity and what is all this for Even to make Christ more pleasant meat to thee which if thou feed upon and with a bunch of hysop sprinkle this bloud applying it by faith eating this rosted flesh and drinking this bloud poured forth it will feast thy soul and secure thee from the wrath of God which is the next 4. The destroying Angel seeing this blood on the door posts passes over the hoUse goes and kils the Aegyptians first-born and executes Gods last plague upon them in the mean time the Israelites were safe within the protection of blood Exod. 12. 12 13. and here is the safety of those Israelites Believers that have applied by faith the blood of Jesus Christ when God shall let loose his last and final plagues upon the world they shall be safe Hell and wrath and condemnation shall not touch them When I see the blood saith he I 'le pass over you Exod. 12. 13 23. nothing else will save you God looks at nothing but the blood of Christ upon you Happy they that before God ride his circuit of destruction to make a cry in all Aegypt are gotten under the Sanctuary of blood for then the plague shall not be upon you when I smite the Land of Aegypt Exod. 12. 13. 5. After the Israelites had been secured from the stroke of that dismall night then presently they march away are hired by the Aegyptians to be gone the four hundred and thirty years were out and God being punctual in his times finishes their captivity that hour and begins to fulfill his promises that he had made to them of bringing them to their promised Land Exod. 12. 31 32 33 c. 41 42. and here we see that when a soul hath long lien in the base bondage under sinne and the devil and comes to take hold of Christ and is sprinkled with his blood and enters Covenant with God in Christ then is he set free from his bondage and then he goes out of Aegypt and then all the promises begin to open upon him and he sets upon his heavenly journey and no Pharaoh can hinder him any longer All the sweet promises of peace and comfort and hope begin to be made good to him for they are all Yea and Amen in Christ the Devil and all his power and instruments cannot hold him the blood is upon him from that hour he is a free-man to own no Lord but God and yet still he hath a Wilderness to go thorow but he is miraculously carried as Israel was thorow it but this must not be expected that they should eat the Passeover and stay in Aegypt still they must go out of their bondage that are sprinkled with this blood by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent out thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water saith he in a like case Zech. 9. 11. and haply this Type is yet to be fulfilled in the Gospel Churches whom the Lord will deliver out of the hands of their oppressing tyrants Pope or Turk not by the Sword but Ordinances of his Covenant and then if they shall pursue a people under blood as Pharaoh did there will be a red Sea to swallow them horse and man And so much for the Passeover as referring to Christ our Sacrifice for that it doth so is plain by this That which is said of the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. 46. is expresly applied to and fulfilled in Christ John 19. 36. So much for the Passeover as a Sacrifice or as the figure of our Sacrifice and theirs Christ Jesus § 8 Now we proceed to consider it as a Sacrament not ours but theirs nor yet a figure of our Sacrament in Considered as a Sacrament propriety though often so called in transitu and much contended for by Papists For what Jew could ever have found out our Supper figured in that Passeover and in what propriety can our Sacrament be the Sacrament of another Christ is the res Sacramenti of theirs and ours there they meet as the inward Circumcision and Regeneration is the thing of their Circumcision and our Baptism but that one Sacrament should be the figure of another is absurd and void of Reason As two pictures of one man are both resemblances of that one man but one is not the picture of another and yet becaUse the Passeover hath the common nature of a Sacrament doth set forth the same Christ as our Supper and that the Apostle draws an Argument from it to perswade Gospel-Christians to holiness Therefore we shall consider what significancy there is in it for though the signs be not ours yet the significancy is § 9 First The Passeover or Paschal Lamb as killed and rosted and the blood sprinkled was a Sacrifice The signification of the Passeover as eaten by the Israelites and feasted upon it was a Sacrament and in after-times both by Jewish Records and by Scripture I conceive it appears 2 Chro. 35. 11. Ezra 6 20. that the Levites killed the Paschals the Priests sprinkled the bloud on the Altar and then they took the Lamb to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Families or Chambers in Jerusalem and there did eat it so in our Supper there is a Sacrifice slain and offer'd up for atonement and that is Christ his body and bloud and then there is an eating and drinking of this Sacrifice in the Sacrament of bread and wine as in many Sacrifices of the Law there was first an offering up to God and then a feasting on the remainder we have a true Sacrifice Christ offer'd up to God for us we have a true Sacrament as that Sacrifice is eaten and drunk by us the oblation belongs to God to propitiate and redeem the communication belongs to us to be refresht and nourisht their eating the Passeover was no Sacrifice but a Sacrament our eating and drinking bread and wine is no Sacrifice but a Sacrament their killing and rosting of the Lamb made it eatable Christ his sacrificing of himself for us renders him fit nourishment to us Had he not been a Sacrifice offer'd up for us what profit had there been in eating and drinking sacramentally and spiritually that body
Christ-applying Ordinance He came into the hand of murderers that slew him that crucified and wounded and dying he might be taken in the hand of thy faith faith like the hand hath a faculty of working and bringing forth obedience but like the hand again it hath a taking and receiving faculty which is the most excellent the justifying act of faith taking Christ Take ye is not a bare permission but a command it 's our duty as well as our benefit to receive Christ and consequently not to receive him is both sinne and misery §. 11. Of Sacramentall Eating and Drinking Christs Body and Blood § 11 2. Eat ye drink ye all of it Christ speaks and repeats often Joh. 6. the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood at which some of his followers took offence conceiving him carnally and literally which he told them were to be understood spiritually ver 63. There is a spirituall eating and drinking Christ his flesh and blood by faith only which is extra-symbolicall or without the Sacrament for that Doctrine was delivered a year or two before this Sacrament was instituted and it is such as without which ye have no life in you ver 53. which may not be said of all that never received this Sacrament but that spirituall eating and drinking is here symbolized as that flesh and blood is For the understanding of which let us neither be like the carnall Israelite that did eat Manna and drink of the Rock but neither saw nor tasted Christ in them nor on the other side let us be like the Capernaites Joh. 6. that had a gross apprehension of eating very flesh and drinking mans blood but rightly conceive the meaning thus 1. The first and not the least thing is this that This is the one and only Ordinance under the Gospel where eating and drinking are Sacred and Religious acts for in all the world among all sorts of men friendship fellowship communion are maintained and shown in feasting together eating and drinking together and our God never let his Church be without such an Ordinance wherein he and his people might testifie this fellowship and communion In the Law there was not only a Lamb rosted but in all their Shelamim or Peace-offerings they that brought them had part to feast upon and make good cheer as at all their feasts they rejoyced before the Lord God bidding them to his own Table to feed upon Sacrifices for they that eat of the Sacrifices are partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 10. 18. Rev. 3. 20. I will come in and sup with him and he with me Thus God entertains his friends invites them to eat and drink with him upon his own Sacrifices upon Christ the great Sacrifice It 's Gods own cheer provided for such Abrahams as are the friends of God What a favour and condescension of God is this What honour and dignity is dust and she s graced with to sit together and feast and have fellowship with God in an Ordinance of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of this Sacrifice Jesus Christ Nay and further yet It was a custom in Covenants making that the Confederates feasted eat and drank together therefore Berith the Hebrew word Covenant may come of Barah to eat and so still and further it is implied that this is a Covenant solemnity an eating and drinking of confederates together God smels a savour of rest in the Sacrifice of Christ and we eat and drink of that flesh and blood sacrificed unto God and renew our Covenant with him and he with us by mutuall feeling he to be ours we his I am so taken up with this that if no more be said I should be satisfied but there is more 2. That Christ is full and perfect nourishment of the soul both meat and drink Joh. 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed farre beyond Manna which yet was called Angels food as the substance is beyond the type sights may please the eye sounds or airs the ear but they are not so necessary as nourishment unto life life cannot be maintained without nourishment growing bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hypocrates growing Christians stand in need of much nourishment to bring them up to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stature of a full Christ decaying Christians stand in need of nourishment to repair decaies Every life be it never so little must be nourisht so necessary is Christ to every Christian and still more of Christ for his meat is Christ his drink is Christ As nothing so necessary so neither so sweet and pleasant sights are pleasing to the eye and smels to the sense but nothing is so close and delightfull as the meat and drink to the sense of tasting Christ is sweet to faith as meat and drink to hunger There is no content comparable to the receiving of Christ He is Manna the best Bread and Wine the best drink The fruition of the joys of heaven is set forth by the pleasure of eating and drinking Luk. 22. 30. That you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome It was experimentally said of Galeacius that all the delights of this world are not comparable to an hours enjoyment of Christ Jesus 2. No act of ours could so well have signified the close and intimate union of Christ with a Beleever We may see at a distance and hear and smell but not taste nor eat nor drink the meat and drink is concorporated into us and is made flesh and bone with us Job 6. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwels in me and I in him Christ must be present to the faith of a Christian for we cannot eat and drink that which is absent This union with Christ is reall though mysticall and it is lively drawn forth in this Ordinance under the resemblance of eating and drinking We hardly conceive and hardly beleeve it but when we see the graft live we are sure it 's knit and we may be as sure of our union with Christ by his spirituall sap of Grace which we finde is in us 4. This command Take and eat goes before the pronouncing of the words This is my Body Aquinas saith it is a Hysteron Proteron but I shall not take his word let 's hear him speak that was present an ear witness an eye witness Matth. 26. 26 27. Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of it For this is my Blood what stands this For for if drink ye did not go before This Observation is noted by almost all Divines from Peter Martyr and Mr Hooker makes Use of it thus That Christ is not present in the Elements but in the worthy receiver The order of the words shews it first eat and drink then it follows for this is my Body and this is my Blood an ingenious observation that cuts the hamstrings of the Popish or corporall presence in or under the outward signes as if
shed for many for remission of sinnes saith Matthew which is shed for many saith Mark which is shed for you saith Luke And all these together are my Text at this time § 1 In this Sacrament Mirificè lusit Satan saith an excellent Authour Satan hath play'd his pranks and Chamier de Euchar. l. 6 c. 1. §. 1. tried conclusions upon Divines how he could infatuate aad make them mad such cart-loads of perplexities alterations absurdities and wilde fancies have they been possest with in the agitation of this point and discussion of these very words which as a Reverend D. Rainolds Medit. Divine saith truly are clear and easie to a spiritual ear or minde it is the carnal fancy that perplexes all and corrupts the Text which had been clear if the water had not been muddied with dirty hands so Nicodemus understands Christ carnally in matter of Joh. 3. Regeneration and talks of entring again into our mothers womb So the Disciples of Capernaum understand that excellent Doctrine of Christ John 6. about eating his flesh and drinking his bloud of the very Cannibal eating of mans flesh and bloud The very antidote he gave them would serve here John 6. 63. The words that I speak they are spirit and they are life that is their spiritual meaning is lively and if we could agree on this then we should give our Hooker l. 5. p. 359. selves more to meditate with silence what we have by this Sacrament and lesse dispute the manner how for this heavenly food is given for satisfying empty souls and not exercising our curious and subtil wits for it often comes to passe that curious sifting and disputing Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. p. 364. too boldly chils all warmth of our zeal and brings soundnesse of belief into great hazzard § 2 The words have been and are interpreted in divers senses the most notable I have Observed to be five I Hooker speaking of Ancients lib. 5. pag. 362. say the most notable for there are more 1. That Christ is present in this Sacrament by his efficacy and power to realize and exhibit vertue to and by the Ordinance Nec ullo modo se absentat divina Majestas a Ministeriis Cyprian de Caena and other Ancients 2. That Christ his very body is present with or in or under the outward elements as the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran saith 3. That Christ is really present but modum nescimus we know not the manner how and in this dark some of our learned men spoke of late to what intent they best knew 4. That there is a real turning of the substance of Bread and Wine into the very substance of Christs Body and Bloud Thus the Papists or Transubstantiatists 5. That the Bread and Wine are sacramentally Christs Body and Bloud or the memorials thereof symbolically representing and exhibiting to the faithfull Christians himself and so say We. § 3 And yet all parties in their difference professe themselves clear and that they follow the true naked and literal sense in their judgement Chemnitius that learned Examen de Eucbar p. 65. Col. 1. Luther an professes That he imbraceth that sense which holds the true and substantial presence of Christ in the Supper which the words in their proper and genuine and usual signification hold forth The Papist professes That he hath the very plain letter of the words and the sense literal So farre as Lapide I know not whether with more confidence or impudence saith That if God ask him at the day of Judgement why he held so he will confidently say Tu docuisti Thou hast taught me We are as clear Vide Lee in Annot. in loc that we follow the true proper literal sense and that saith a learned man Upon my soul there is no such D. Jo. Burgesse Kneeling at Sacramâ—nt p. 113. turning of the Bread into Christs Body as the Papist affirms §. 4. This is my Body § 4 I shall open the words severally This is my Body about which there is the greatest heat and quarrel In the Rite of the Paschal Supper when the bread Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. was given there was a solemn signification put upon it This is the bread of affliction and our Saviour transferring that bread into his Supper gave a new signification This is my body In the first Rite there was no turning the substance of bread nor yet in this second Mouliu Bucklet p. 471. For our clearer understanding we must constantly hold these two things 1. That Christ gave bread 2. That this bread was his body First Christ gave bread to his Disciples at this Supper for that which he took which he blest which he brake was bread He took bread and that he gave saying This is my body which is broken for you for the bread was broken as a signe that his body should be crucified and bread the Apostle cals it after consecration thrice in this Chapter vers 26 27 28. and 1 Cor. 10. 16. The bread which we break and ver 17. We are all partakers of that one bread and he cals it so not becaUse it was bread before for he might so have called it wheat a man might be called a boy ripe wine verjuice but becaUse it is so except all our senses be put out and extinguisht with the bread Secondly This bread is Christs body What body Even his own natural body which is given for you Luk. 22. 19. which is broken for you as in my Text What bloud Even that which is shed for you Matth. 26. 28. Luke 22. â—0 But how can this be it 's impossible that bread while it is bread as we have proved it is should be Christs body or wine while it's wine should be his bloud It 's very true that it is impossible Disparatum de disparato non proprium praedicatur therefore we must seek for a possible Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. meaning and of necessity conclude with Calvin Sacramentalem esse loquutionem that it is a sacramental form of speech the signe bears the name of the thing signified as in vulgar and in Scripture language for in Scripture both signs figuratively representing or sacramentally sealing do bear the name of the things represented or sealed as Gen. 40. 12. The three branches are three dayes vers 18. The three baskets are three dayes Gen. 41. 26. The seven ears of corn are seven years the seven kine are seven years Ezek. 37. 11. These dry bones are the whole hoUse of Israel Dan. 2. 38. Thou O King art this head of gold Dan. 7. 17. The four beasts are four Kings Gal. 4. 25. This Agar is mount Sinai Revel 17. 9. The seven heads are seven mountains So in sacramentals Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. And a token of the Covenant v. 11. And a seal of the righteousnes of Faith Rom. 4. 11. The Lamb is
Heathenism and Idolatry yielded up themselves to learn the Doctrine and rule of Christianity and these were called Catechumenoi or hearers who were instructed and trained up to learn untill they had attained cum al quo profectu convenienti Aug. de Fide Operibus some convenient proficiency to become competontes that is to give up their names to be baptized till which they were alwaies dismist with Ite missa est when the faithfull went on to the Lords Table and the Officers thereto pertaining 2. The second sort were such as having been Communicants styled Fideles in opposition to the Catechumeni and Stantes in opposition to the Lapsi did afterwards lapse or fall into Heathenish Idolatry by offering to Idols and these were thurificati renegates or else they gave money to be excUsed from that abhorred act professing themselves Christians but they would buy it out and these were called Libellatici or they were traditores such as in Dioclesian's Forbes 649 c. 646. cruell time delivered up their Bibles to the fire or they fell into some atrocious and notorious sinne Heresie Whoredom Drunkenness Murder c. and these were seQuestred from the Lords Table and put to the School of repentance called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Balsamon the stairs or degrees of correction which were four through which they passed with weeping and sorrow some longer some shorter time till they were reconciled to the Church and so re-admitted to the Table Cyp. Epist 28 38 39 52. Cypr. de Orat. Dominica Yea and after the date and danger was out of being compel'd to offer to Idols in the times of Christian Emperours Chrysostom charges the Ministers under him that if they knew a man to offer himself to the Table that is a gross and open sinner they should prohibit him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. though he be a Lord Generall though a great Commander though he wear a Diadem as Ambrose forbad and interdicted Theodosius And if you say saith he I dare not do it then tell me of him Homil. 83. in Matth. and I for my part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. will part with my life before I will allow him the Lords Board 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us stave off all notorious persons absolutely Was this a copy of his particular zeal or rather a testimony of the ancient Discipline the vigour of which being drowned in the dead sea of Popery yet even therein the rubbish or skeleton thereof is seen by the Doctrine of their Schoolmen and by the Council of Trent which requires of necessity to a man in mortall sinne that he that will come to the Concil Trid. do praparat ad Euch. cap. 7. can 11. Mass must premise Auricular or Sacramentall confession and pennance for they also have their preparation to the Sacrament such as it is As for the Lutheran Churches they have an exploration of all what they understand of this Sacrament and before the Communion a certain confession of sinne which Chemnitius cals paenam institutam And as for Chem. Exa de praparat ad Euchar. the Churches of our Confession you may reade their Confessions and Books of Discipline and be satisfied I will instance only The Church of England English Liturgy Rubrick before Commun and after Confirmation by rule whereof no notorious and Obstinate offendour might be admitted nor none that had not their Catechism perfect which are the two points of ignorance and scandall If this rule had been followed and this Law put in execution the practice would have been no new thing in England as even the old rule is now by some accounted I conclude with that which one argues as out of the common rule of the Church in Austin's Epistle ad Januarium Austin Epist 118. Epist 118. That if there be such a course or force of sin in any man he is to be removed from the Lords board by the authority of the chief and put into the School of penitence till he be reconciled to the Church And so much be said of the evidence of Fact as appears in the rules of the Churches both ancient and later both corrupter and purer not that I or that I wish any else to be absolutely swayed by this Authority for there may be errour in the practice of the Church yea errour universally received as in that of giving this Sacrament to infants upon that ground Jeh 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh c. ye have no life in you and yet it was the practice of the Church so to do both in Cyprians and Austin's time but I prove the evidence of Fact by this Argument otherwise not to be proved at all and I do not expect that any should condemn so ancient a practice nor think they do but rather do conceive that the bottom of the business is the disrellish of that Authority by which it is to be done Bucephalus will be ridden by none but Alexander and it was the saying of Cardinall Matheo Langi concerning Luther That the Church of Rome the Mass the Court the lives of Priests and Friers stood in need to be Reformed but that a poor rascall Monk meaning Luther Heilin Geog. in Bavaria should begin all that he deemed intollerable and not to be endured §. 6. The evidence of Scripture § 6 The second evidence is that of Scripture which is first in dignity but I put it second becaUse it justifies the Fact for the substance thereof and here it is confest that no Turk Jew Infidell is debarred by Reason of his Nation for Scythian and Barbarian bond and free are all one We are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles bond or free 1 Cor. 12. 13. and have been made to drink into one Spirit and therefore the word of the Gospel lies open to all Nations and people without partition wall such as between the Jews and others of old time but the barre lies in point of Religion for if they lie in their Idolatry and Infidelity though they may come to the Word yet not to the Table of the Lord. Who are to be kept from the Sacrament 1. The Jews that serve the Tabernacle and stick to the old Service under the Legall shadows are excepted We have an Altar or rather a Sacrifice Jesus Christ our sin-offering whereof they have no right to eat Heb. 13. 10. that is no right of Communion with us or Christ The place is difficult but easily cleared by Levit. 6. 30. for as the Priests that served at the Altar had no right to eat of the flesh of the sin-offering whose blood was brought into the Sanctuary but burnt it must be without the Camp so the Jews that hold to the Legall service have no right of eating the flesh of Christ whose blood was brought into the Holy place of heaven virtually and his body suffered without the gates of earthly Jerusalem thereby signifying
being accompanied with the Word and so still it is the Word that converts But what will you say to the naked Use and application of the signes that is the act of distribution Taking Eating Drinking Do these convert or confer the first grace I answer I am not curious in delivering the very nick of time of mans conversion I affirm not that so it is nor deny that so it may be The winde blows when and where it listeth This yet is not the Question But whether there be found any declared intention any institution and appointment of God that this Ordinance shall convert souls or hath made it apt for that purpose so as we may look for such efficacy from it by vertue of Gods institution thereof to this end For it is a meerly positive Ordinance and the effect or efficiency must be expected in vertue of the appointment and institution and I cannot assent that the institution of the Supper promiseth this effect Greg. de Valentia and others of the Schoolmen De efficacia Euch punct distinguish between the primary and per se effects of the Lords Supper and these that are per accidens not of institution among which he instances the conferring of the first grace and so Vasquez saith that he doth not hold That this Sacrament conveys Vasquez Tom. 3. Disp 205. the first grace by vertue of institution or appointment to that end and yet cites Bonaventure that the first grace may be given here secundum misericordiam of Gods meer mercy not secundum institutionem according to the institution of the Ordinance And this I say in answer to the Question But doth it follow hence that therefore all may come be invited or admitted becaUse we say that which God can do not what he hath promised or declared that he will Prater intentional or accidental effects give no ground to seek them at such a caUse as is not ordained to work them though haply some have been converted at that time Must a man that seeks a Kingdom be sent to seek his fathers Asses becaUse Saul heard such news at such a time Must we run a man thorow with a sword to save his life becaUse one did so once and let out a secret impostume BecaUse some Minister hath been converted at his Ordination Is therefore the laying on of hands instituted for that purpose BecaUse a man hath been converted at his marriage where the Sermon and benediction have wrought on him Is therefore marriage a converting Ordinance I might adde a great deal more for illustration of this point if I Questioned your apprehension Secondly There is difference to be made between the qualifications of a man to his admittance to this Sacrament and the qualifications of him unto the inward grace benefit or effect of it If one be a baptized person a knowing professour of the Gospel against whom there lies no barre of notorious ignorance or scandal though it appear not that he is truly regenerate and sincere in grace yet he hath admittance he claims upon such a right as the Church cannot justly disallow no more than an Israelite circumcised and clean could be debarred the Passeover but as to the effect and benefit of the Supper to his soul there is required more than so even true faith in Christ and regeneration that he may exercise such graces as the benefits are promised unto and come to the Seals of the Covenant with the condition of the Covenant The wise Virgins cannot forbid the foolish from waiting with them for they have lamps as well as they but the Lord shuts the door against them from entring in with him for their oyl was out Glory not in this that the Church admits you to the Table but labour for the grace to feed upon the dainties set upon it many have the liberty to Use it that have not the benefit or effect of that Use many have a hundred times tasted bread and wine that never once tasted the body and bloud of Christ §. 4 Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion § 4 The Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion Tom. 3. Disp 205. c. 4. The first is that of Vasquez No effects can be ascribed to this Sacrament which fall not under the signification of it they cannot doe not exhibit any grace but what they signifie or figure out the sign and the thing signified are not such strangers as that one thing be signified and another wrought The Rock that followed them doth not set forth Christ for meat nor doth the Manna set forth Christ for spiritual drink What can be expected in Circumcision but the cutting off native corruption or concupiscence What in Baptism of water but the washing away the sordes or filthinesse of our nativity or fleshly birth Now the conversion of a sinner is not signified in this Sacrament or sealed there is no outward element that sets it forth to us and why so BecaUse it is instituted in bread and wine eating and drinking and is it not evident that all this speaks growth nourishment comfort strength but it speaks not the giving of life Doth bread and wine give life to one that is dead Can they congruously signifie the first grace of spiritual life It 's against sense and Reason but life is preserved and cherisht and continued by them and therefore this Sacrament is set forth saith Durand Durand lib 4. Dist 7. qu. 1. under the form of nourishment If you say But here is Christ set forth who is our life as well as our meat he gives and he maintains it in us True but he is set forth in this Sacrament as the one of these he doth both he begins life in us but in this Ordinance which is a Supper his body and bloud are set upon the Table for refection and nourishment of men that take and eat and drink and they are living men Meat is not set before dead folks My flesh is meat indeed my bloud is drink indeed saith Joh. 6. he and so is Christ here set forth As the Use of corporall food is not congruous but to one that lives corporally So c. Durand ubi supra The second Reason is taken from the institution and the Schoolmen generally argue thence for the end Use benefit effect of a Sacrament are undoubtedly learned by the institution and the Reason stands thus This Sacrament by the institution of it appears to presuppose those that reap the sweet and benefit of it to be converts and in grace namely to have faith in Christ and to be living members and if this be presupposed by this Ordinance then it is not first wrought by it They must be in Christ that have benefit by it for them it is instituted and ordained not for such as are out of Christ to bring them in but for such as are in Christ to bring them up in
from that hour to set forward towards our heavenly countrey This is that hard Doctrine of the Gospel This makes men neglect refUse Jesus Christ becaUse they cannot part with sinne they will not resolve to quit their former course as he that went away sorrowfull for he had great possessions So we would fain be saved but go away sorrowfull for we have powerfull pleasing and profitable lusts And as it may allude to our Supper Let it teach us to come to the Table of the Lord with staves in our hand and our loyns girded up as men resolving to march and begin a new and holy life Henceforth not to serve sin Rom. 6. 6. But of this I spake before 6. In their Passeover they must rost and eat a whole Lamb and nothing of it must remain till the morning If any did remain it must be burnt with fire Exod. 11. 9 10. the flesh must be eaten not a bone broken Numb 9. 12. This shews that Christ is all meat there is no offal in him there is variety of nourishment for all our Uses righteousness and peace and comfort and contentment to fill our capacities relieve temptations pardon and purge away our sins but we must not divide but take him whole his merit and Spirit his salvation and Soveraignty Christ our Way our Truth our Life What an unhappy Doctrine is that of the Papists that takes the bloud from us and will not let the people drink It is as if they should not allow our Passeover to be a whole Lamb and as unhappy they that do not only rent his coat but break his bones by depraving the fundamentals of Gospel-Doctrine and tearing the Creed Article from Article and nothing left untill the morning tels us That in the morning-light of the Gospel all those shadows should be abolisht and disclaimed or as Rivet saith That Sacraments are not Sacraments but in their Use and while they are Used as the bread and wine after the Use are no Sacraments as a mear stone is a boundary in it's place remove it and it is lapis not limes 7. No uncircumcised person might eat the Passeover nor no unclean person that was under an uncleanness Exod. 12. 44 48. Numb 9. 7. where the instance is of some unclean by the dead but it extendeth to other uncleanness leprous or menstruous c. Joseph de bello lib. 7. cap. 17. and yet there was provision made for the unclean that they might keep the Passeover in the second moneth as they did in Hezekiah his Passeover 2 Chron. 30. 13. but for the uncircumcised there was no provision and this sets forth to us two sorts of men that are uncapable of worthy coming to the Lords Supper 1. The uncircumcised that are strangers and foreiners Two sorts uncapable of the Lords Supper to the Church and not initiated by the first Sacrament of Baptism no person of what condition soever that is unbaptized can come to the Supper for he is not entred and admitted into Church-fellowship or Communion by the first Sacrament He is not one of the hoUse or of the fraternity where the Lamb is eaten and out of the hoUse the Passeover must not be carried they that are out of the Church have no right to the priviledges of the Church as they that are no freemen have not the priviledge of the City It was never known in the old Church that an uncircumcised person nor in the Gospel-Church that an unbaptized did partake of either of the Suppers theirs or ours for both of them are second Sacraments not firsts the way to the Table hath ever been by the Font or Laver of washing Of this more hereafter 2. The domesticks that are of the hoUse that are Almost one and twenty hundred thousand all pure Joseph cap. 17. lib. 7. de bello Judaic circumcised Israelites yet if they be at the time of the Passeover unclean they may not eat it was a case came into Question thus some were unclean put the case to Moses he respited the decision till he had asked of the Lord and the Lord adjudged it that he should be put off to the Passeover of the second moneth and this tels us by way of allusion that a member of the Church baptized yea a true believer may be unfit at some particular time to come to the Lords Table and may eat and drink unworthily Were not the Corinthians such men and in such a case 1 Cor. 11 Were they not punisht for their unworthy coming and yet doubtless some of them godly and all professed Christians But of this more also § 10 8. There were in the first Passeover in Aegypt Used and commanded by express word certain rituals or occasionals which as Jewish Writers and practice shews were omitted and not Used in after-times As 1. The eating in dispersed hoUses afterward in Jerusalem only 2. The taking up the Lamb four dayes before which we reade not of afterward 3. The striking of the door-posts with the bloud 4. The not going out of the hoUse that night which in after-times Christ and his Disciples did 5. The eating it in travelling posture in procinctu with staves c. which we finde our Saviour and reade that the Jews did in another posture of discumbency a lying on beds c. These or some of these were occasional at the first and the occasion ceasing custom had ruled it otherwise without offence for in our Supper the Lord celebrated and instituted it at night in or at the end of the paschal and common supper 2. In unlevened bread 3. Late at night 4. In a gesture of discumbency a leaning or lying posture Joh. 3. 13. 5. In a chamber of a private hoUse 6. Without presence of any woman 7. Consecrating a blessing the bread and See Evang. for so Used in Passeover the Cup severally and apart 8. Singing the hymne at the close of all as was usual c. And these or many of these were occasional circumstances by Reason of the custom Rite of the paschal Supper or the particular exigency at that time And what then Do they oblige to a hairs breadth all after-ages Do they that impose any one of these themselves hold to all of them Shall we be supercilious and superstitious in Observing all occasional or local customs Why do we not appear in sackcloth at our Fasts Where is that osculum pacis As the Apostle said about the 1 Cor. 11. 16. length of hair so I say If any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome nor the Churches of God If Christ had celebrated the Supper with his loyns girt and staff in hand had we been bound to it and yet we must not raffle this thred too far and under colour of an occasionall circumstance change or mutilate the real substance as the Papist that takes away the Cup which Christ blest and breaks not the Bread as he did and of a Sacrament makes a
is my Body the wine is my Blood in the same form of speech 4. The Language in which our Saviour spake had no other property of expression there being no word for signifie but is in stead thereof as Learned men say and its certain the Scripture in both Testaments Hebrew and Greek Uses the same form in a hundred places giving the name of the thing signified to the sign as hath been shown as the seven ears of corn are seven years The dry bones are the hoUse of Israel The seven Candlesticks are seven Churches c. 5. The words This is my Body are not proper in the Lutheran sense no more than to say This Cloak is Peter becaUse Peter is in it nor in the Popish sense except the Body of Christ be there before the words be pronounced This is my Body which should rather be thus Let this be my Body as God said Let there be light not This is light for it was not light before 6. The spirituall benefit which is eating and drinking Christs Body and Blood by faith is no less in our sense than if there were his very flesh for Christ saith The flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. and the Papists hold that the eating of Christs flesh by wicked men profits nothing except besides the Sacramentall there be a spirituall feeding upon Christ which we affirm 7. The Apostles understood these words as we do and as the Hebrews had ever understood the same expression for form in the Old Testament else they would have been amazed and startled at it and have asked some Question as they were inquifitive enough in lesser matters but they saw Christ fit at table and eat and drink first himself and therefore could not be ignorant of their meaning 8. The Capernaite Disciples Joh. 6. having taken offence at those frequent expressions of eating Christs flesh and drinking his blood understanding them carnally were answered by Christ himself The flesh profits nothing The words that I speak are spirit and life as if he himself would give the interpretation 9. The Apostle thrice in this Chapter following cals it still bread after consecration as also in the Chapter foregoing and surely he that never before did would not delude the senses of his Disciples in this Ordinance and himself cals it wine too Matth. 26. 26. I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the Vine which is the Periphrasis usuall among the Jews for wine 10. The remembrance of Christ the shewing forth his death till he come do import the absence of his Body which the Scripture tels us ascended into heaven and there is contained in lieu of his corporall absence he sent the Spirit to abide for ever as another Comforter Memorials and monuments are of things absent 11. For the Ancient Fathers they prove against the Marcionites that held the Body of Christ to be meerly phantasticall That it is substantiall becaUse the Elements of bread and wine are substantiall which was no good argument if only the accidents or shadows of the Elements do remain and all along downwards they call the outward Elements symbols Forbes p. 561. types figures signes of Christs Body untill about the year 1215. when subtill and superstitious Disputes grew hot about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which occasioned Innocent the third to introduce both name of Transubstantiation and thing not before openly heard of and so as a Decree of the Lateran Council vented it as a point of faith since which time the Councill of Trent hath confirmed Sess 13. ca. 4. the Decree and the word as most fit and proper which are the rotten yet the best props upon which Transubstantiation doth stand at this day being upon the first birth of it as I said even now opposed Forbes p. 609 col 1. by the Waldenses and afterward by Wicliff and those that followed them and shall be opposed by all Orthodox till that Dagon fall §. 4. Why the Error of Transubstantiation is to be rejected with utmost detestation § 4 II. To reject with utmost detestation the impossible and incomprehensible Errour of Transubstantiation and corporall presence by which Doctrine a silly Priest doth that which all the Angels cannot do and that is Make his Maker as they call the Host and people do devour their God and yet they justifie it by Gods omnipotency that God is able to effect it which is no better an argument than the Turks may justifie most of the fooleries of their Alcoran There are two grounds for the rejection of this abomination 1. The Idolatry and Sacriledge which doth ensue upon it and that is the adoration and worship of the Host a piece of bread and the mutilation or maiming of the Sacrament by bread only and the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ himself in the Mass who was once only offered up to God upon the Cross all which are the issue of this Errour 2. The monsters of contradiction and absurdity to sense and Reason which follow thereupon It was begotten by feigned miracles and fabulous Legends and is the mother of blasphemies and inextricable absurdities which set faith it self on the rack and which though they would seem easily to blow away yet by their stragling it appears they strive with that they cannot master The point of Consubstantiation hath brought forth a grand absurdity maintained by some Psendo Lutherans the Ubiquity of Christs Body in all places But this of Transubstantiation surpasses all as I shew thus 1. Suppose Christ sitting at the table with his Disciples and eating this bread and drinking this cup first as the custom at the Paschall Supper was and as the Papists generally and the Fathers hold and we deny not becaUse the Scripture seems plain for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 26. 19. Henceforth I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine supposing I say this How is it possible or imaginable that he should eat himself or how can he sit at table and yet be in the mouths of his Apostles Was he at the same time in his Apostles mouths or stomacks while he sate and rose from table and discoursed those three Chapters of John 15 16 17 or while he sweat that Bloody sweat in his Agony in the Garden c. a monstrous impossibility 2. It 's Impossible to make that which was before existent and in being Can a father beget a son that Chelling p. 70. is already begotten Can an Architect build a hoUse that is already built Can the body of Christ which is before the conversion of the bread be made or produced by the turning of bread into it Can he that was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin be made by pronouncing of four or five words If ever delusions were strong these are Nam factum facere factum infectum facere are equally impossible 3. They say that the substance of bread and wine is avoided and that only the accidents remain so
phrases the signe called the thing signified the figure called the thing figured The Rock was Christ Christ our Passeover that is paschal Lamb Circumcision called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh this will be allowed in every place but one and that is this one This is my body For the Lutheran stands up for a corporall presence under the Signes The Papist for a change of the Bread and Wine into Christs body and bloud No conferences no disputes no condescensions will satisfie them and yet we say very fairly the very body of Christ born of the Virgin that died on the Crosse that sits in heaven is present in this Sacrament but not in the Bread or Wine but to the faithfull Receiver not in the Elements but to the Communicants but all this will not serve turn These two Prepositions Con and Trans have bred more jarres and cost more bloud since they were born and there is neither of them in this caUse six hundred years old then can be well imagined § 4 3. The Passeover figured Christ and yet the Jews ordinarily saw not Christ in it It is plain in their celebration of the Passeover or their Rituals they take notice of and commemorate their Egyptian slavery and their deliverance and so they were commanded but of Christ not a syllable It entred not into them that a Lamb rosted should figure the Messiah as they had formed him in their thoughts and so they held the Passeover as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking backward but as a Type looking forward no knowledge except the faithfull had some glimpse of it and this is the great fault of men in all Sacraments they minde not the inwards of a Sacrament nor look for the kernell they did so and we also not discerning the Lords body is not that it which makes us guilty of his body and bloud there is in all Sacraments res terrena res coelestis as Irenaeus Earthly men see the earthly part they eat they drink It feeds not they eat shells the inwards within the bone are marrow Christ Christ set spirituall food before our bodies viz. ayery set corporall before the soul and you illude both saith Parisiensis de Euchar sub finem § 5 4. The Passeover is Christ sacrificed not Christ a Lamb unspotted but Christ a Lamb rosted with fire and this tels you that the Passeover and our Supper represent Christ crucified Christ dying or dead It is the death of Christ not his Resurrection nor ascension that is here set forth Ye shew the Lords death till he come this is the sight which a sinful soul would see this is the comfortable spectacle to see the price paying the ransome laying down the thing in doing Hence he draws the hope and comfort of Redemption and therefore the bread was broken and the Cup was full of bloud to represent to the life this life giving Death to Christ The Papists have cheated the people of the bloud by a trick of concomitancy telling them that the bread is his body and his body hath bloud in it we have a word of Institution of both severally the life of the representation is the bloud shed the Passeover is a Lamb slain and rosted and the bloud on the door-post and by providence if the Papists will allow all to eat then we have expresly for the Cup a Bibite ex hoc omnes Mat. 26. 27. Drink ye all of it So that it is the Death of Christ here represented and which is one step further it is a Sacrifice Death which works and makes atonement this was it that all the Sacrifices that the Passeover did prefigure a Sacrifice death that should deliver and make expiation This Cup saith Christ is the New Testament in my bloud which is shed for you and many for remission of sins a death and such a kinde of death as in our Sacrament set forth a Sacrifice Death therefore it 's said sacrificed for us § 7 Now let us come to the Analogy or resemblance between the Passeover and Christ sacrificed wherein I shall The resemblance between the Passeover and Christ sacrificed endeavour to avoid the vanity and curiosity of making similitudes to run of all four which is incident to men in handling Types Parables and similitudes which like a string over-stretched makes a jar and disharmony and shews more fondnes then soundness 1. The Paschal must be a male-Lamb without blemish the son of a year taken from the Sheep or Goats Exo. 12. 5. and this resembles Christ himself and his perfection there were many blemishes which the superstitious or curious Jews Observed to the number of fifty or seventy any blemish disabled it Christ was without all blemish nothing was excepted from other men or his likenesse to them but sin in all Points tempted like as weare yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. He was of masculine perfection at the perfection of his age about 33 or 34 years of Lamb-like humility and meeknesse which are noted in him as exemplary graces He was figured out in the Lamb of the daily Sacrifice in the Lamb of the Passeover in Abrahams Ram in stead of Isaac in the Scape-goat Lev. 16. 21. and pointed out by John Baptist under this Name Behold the Lamb of God It 's implied Heb. 9. 28. he shall appear the second time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in his first coming he was not without but we must distinguish of sin ours imputed to him and so he was made sin for us so as to bear it in his body which at his second coming he shall not bear nor be loden with as he was before and therefore is said to come without sinne both his and ours 2. This Paschall-Lamb was to be separated from the flock and set apart for Sacrifice on the tenth day of the moneth but not killed till the 14. day in the Evening or according to that vexed phrase between the two Evenings that is in the afternoon when the Sun declined before Sunset and about the same time of day our Saviour the true Passeover was slain but in a further meaning it shews that Christ was set apart and fore-designed of God to be our Passover long before not in his decree but his promise and the predictions of the Prophets which have been since the world began Luk. 1. 70. but now in the end of the world hath he appear'd to put away sinne by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 26. He suffer'd between the two Evenings of the world which was in his declination when he came that was our Evening and the latter is to come the dayes of his appearance are called often the last daies and though that have another meaning shewing the unalterableness of the Gospel-Ordinances contrary to those of the Law yet we may affirm that it was past the noon of the world when he came and the time shall not be so long after unto Sun-set as before