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
childe may receive a Ring as well as a Gyant and the least Candle points upwards as well as the greatest Torch Great Masters of Families as the Prodigal Observed allow the meanest of their domestick servants to come to the Tables end and eat of their bread Many sinnes many backslidings if there be contrition and godly sorrow serve for bitter herbs to eat the Passeover with Many wants and weaknesses may be accompanied with vehement desires hunger and thirst Low graces may occasion low hearts when God makes the disease a preparative why should we refUse the medicine If we set the pitch of this fitnesse too low in some empty formes of Religion or some eminent works and moral vertues or some conceited perfections which feed our pride we shall take in many that have nothing of Christ in them Gospel-qualifications are most sutable to a Gospel Ordinance We are not prepared for Christ by ostentation of works but sense of misery The sense of unworthinesse is our worthinesse A little vessel that is empty will receive more than a great one that is full A broken Christ requires a broken heart To be rich and full and righteous in the Gospel-Dictionary doe signifie Obstructions and impediments of our happinesse where the naked are cloathed the hungry are fed the ungodly are justified the weary are refresht the sick are healed the stung with fiery Serpents are recovered the returning lost childe is feasted and they that thirst do buy wine and milk without money and without price And hence it follows That no unregenerate man that lies dead in trespasses and sinnes without a seed a spark of Gospel-grace having no initials of true Repentance and Faith in Christ can be in capacity to eat and drink the Body and Bloud of Christ worthily and with effect for such a one is a stranger to the Covenant and uncircumcised and therefore expresly debar'd this Passeover Exod. 12. 43. Where there is no life there can be no reception of nourishment He that is void of the Condition of the Covenant cannot receive the benefit nor eat the Supper that wants the Wedding-Garment This is a severe point and disclaims the greatest part of men from eating and drinking worthily becaUse they have no ticket of grace renewing or regenerating they are not Disciples indeed they are branches in Christ by externall ingraffing John 15. 2. but have not the life of Christ in them They that are not in the body of Christ do not eat his body saith Austin They that are not members of him do not spiritually feed on him Panem Domin they do eat as Judas not Panem Dominum Ego hoc axtoma teneo saith Calvin that without the Spirit Christ is not received in this Sacrament The Papists go no lesse Catholici omnes saith Vasquez all agree in this That it 's necessary for a worthy Communicant to be in the state of grace and sanctification and therefore howsoever any person be furnisht with endowments of nature and education famous for eminent works and vertues adorned with civil and fair conversation yet without something of Christ some work of the Spirit some seed of Regeneration he cannot eat and drink worthily and with effect And this Doctrine is the rather requisite to be taught becaUse men may flatter themselves in that they have past the test are admitted with approbation to this Table and allowed the liberty thereof for all this may be and yet your case no better than Sauls that would needs be honoured before the people than Judas's who was not thrust out from the Sacrament than his who was let in by the servants to the feast but cast out by the King for want of his Wedding-garment You enjoy a priviledge to eat and drink but what judgement and condemnation to your selves Oh consider it The Lord of this feast will come to view his guests he will turn out some that the servants let in he will say Friend How camest thou in hither He answered not Lord I was called in I was admitted in by thy servants No He was dumb he had nothing to plead he had not a Wedding-garment For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly Rom. 2. penult §. 6. What is requisite to our Receiving Worthily § 6 The actual exercise of our graces is requisite to our eating and drinking worthily The instrument must be in tune before-hand as I shew'd you in the former but now the strings are stricken now they make their musick The activity and imploiment of our faith and affections is now required and our graces must be on their wheels now the sails are spread to catch the gale which sweetly breathes from this holy Ordinance for here it 's said Take Eat Take and drink and as the eye the hand the mouth are now in actual imploiment as to the Sacrament or outward part so faith which is the eye hand mouth of the soul and all the affections are to be actually imploy'd as to the inward thing the body and bloud of Christ Not the having of an eye but looking up to the brazen Serpent healed the biting It 's not enough to have faith but we must believe Now that the Sacrament is in Use now must our graces be in Use too Now that God actually offers and presents Christs body and bloud to my faith Now let the hand of faith go forth and take Christ in Awake my faith and see the atonement of my sins in the broken body of my Saviour Awake repentance and hear the strong cries and see the dolefull agony of him that bears our chastisement Awake my memory and call to minde that Aegypt wherein I was and the bloud of the Passeover which removed the destroying Angel from my soul Awake all that is within me to blesse and praise the Lord. Oh let this Crosse crucifie my lusts and passions Let this death stay my reigning sins as Joshua did the Kings of Canaan Now let the Altar smoak with the Sacrifice of a loving heart inflamed with holy fire of Gods love to me Now the wax is warm Oh let the Seal be stamped fair that I may see the impression alwayes after Now that God shews forth to methe death of his Sonne for me let me shew forth that death of Christ to God again as that which I stick unto and abide by for my righteousnesse and peace with God Alas if my graces be now asleep they are next a kin to dead We might have sweet we might have fruitfull Sacraments had we but lively graces Graces upon their wing not lying sullen and benum'd with cold therefore blow up your graces as the Apostle his phrase is blow the smothering fire the embers into a flame by pertinent meditation Be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that this King of glory may come in And that I may speak to the comfort of a godly soul Let grace run forth at what tap it will so there be but vent whether at the uppermost of
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
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
Sacrifice the Matter and Form the intended Analogy between the Sign and the Thing signified will guide us in our distinguishing Substance from Accidents I here make an end though in this Point and in this Lamb which was served in with Legs and Purtenance I might finde out other lesser Resemblances which I shall not but having shown you what fresh Marrow lies in the old Bones of this Passeover-Sacrifice will hereafter set forth our Lords Supper before you CHAP. II. Of Errours and Corruptions in the Church How soon they sprung up When they are a ground of Separation and when not That this Ordinance must be suitable to Gods Institution And the Communicants must be suitable to this Ordinance 1 COR. 11. 83. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you c. THis Epistle is directed to the Church of God in 1 Cor. 1 2. Grotius in initio hujus Epistolae Heylin Geog. pag. 388. 1 Cor. 1. 5 7. Corinth which was sometime a slately City of Greece much renown'd in ancient Authours but now is a place of small note being together with other Cities mentioned in the New Testament swallowed up by that great Leviathan of the Land the Turkish Empire In this City was a famous Christian Church of the highest degree of elevation for parts and gifts and spiritual endowments but their beauty was blemisht with as great blots schisms 1 Cor. 1. 11. Denial of the Resurrection of the dead by some of them 1 Cor. 15. 12. and in this Chapter with a grand abUse of that high and precious Ordinance the Supper of the Lord with ordinary and unwashen hands polluting it with their own intemperance and drunkenness not brought from their own homes or from the Tavern to the Table but Used at the very Table it self which that you may understand you may take notice that it was an ancient custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Zonaras in Concil 6. in Trullo in the Primitive times that the rich and wealthier sort of Christians did by a common purse or contributions furnish out solemn feasts in the very meeting places or Churches and there sit down promiscuously the rich and poor which feasts were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feasts of Love or Brotherly-charity to testifie the intimate affection of Christians among themselves The Scripture speaks of them Jude vers 12. 2 Pet. 2. 13. and the ancient Fathers make often mention of them The occasion of them might be this It 's plain that the Heathens at their Sacrifice had their festival entertainments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Idols Temple that the Jews in their Eucharistical Sacrifices feasted before the Lord God as it were entertaining them to eat and drink with him and that Christ and his Apostles feasted together at the Paschal Supper before the celebration of the Lords Supper and so by imitation very obvious the Christians had taken up a custome of feasting at their religious meetings at which entertainments no Heathens were present and thereupon they suspected and scandalized the Christians for these feasts de pabulo crudae post convivium mesto Tertul. Apol. c. 7 c. 39. that they eat and drunk the flesh and bloud of a childe and that after they had filled themselves with wine and good cheer they fell to incestuous and promiscuous lusts but the ancient Fathers wipe off these aspersions c. § 2 The abUse of these feasts the Apostle reproves from the 17. verse of this Chapter for they fomented their schismes and parties even at these feasts one party and their faction sorting themselves together in one corner another at another as their humour led them and so the common love was broken by private divisions then followed another abUse the poor that could send in nothing had nothing but were set light by and suffered to starve while they were filling themselves and which was worst of all they were intemperate at their feasts eating and drinking excessively one is hungry another is drunken vers 21. The word may signifie had drank liberally as it 's said of Joseph and his brethren Gen 43. ult and as the word is Used John 2. 10. The Summe is there was § 3 1. Siding and sorting themselves into parties with their messes and dishes of good cheer each faction by themselves vers 18. which is contrary to the nature or name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feasts of Love One party went to it before another came v. 21. 33. 2. Here was a slighting and laying aside the poor Christians that could send in nothing contrary to the nature of a religious communion ver 28 22. 3. Here was intemperance and excess ver 21. contrary to Christian sobriety 4. These feasts were made in the Assembly or meeting-place as we say the Church as appears ver 22. Have ye not hoUses And § 4 5. With these juncats and feasts they joyn'd the celebration Beza in Act. 2. in illis convivis Grot. in Mat. 26. 25. Casaub Exere 16. of the Lords-Supper Mensis suis pascebant saith Austin Epist 118. and therefore the Apostle tels them they defaced it vers 21. This is not to eat the Lords-Supper for quod non ritè fit fieri non dicitur and he doth therefore set forth the Lords institution of the Supper vers 23. that they might see the bare and naked nature of it one thing is doubtfull Whether the Lords-Supper was celebrated at the beginning or end of these feasts And the doubt riseth BecaUse in this Chapter as is conceived by learned Diodat Estius Cajetan in loc Gerard. in har p. 461. men the feast went before as in Christs last Supper the paschal Lamb was first eaten and the Cup was taken after Supper vers 25. and the unworthy coming to it mentioned v. 29. and the punishment of this Church for their unworthiness vers 30 argues That their feasting first had unfitted them for the participation of this Ordinance and yet Chrysostom and Donaras saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the participation of the Lords Supper the feast was and that Vbi supra is true for after-times for the reproof of the Apostle haply had removed the feast unto the last place for good Reasons but the feasts were not quite removed out of the Churches of Greece and Africk where Tertul. Apol. c. 39. we finde them continuing Insomuch as the Synod of Laodicea which was about three hundred years after Christ and before the Nicene Councel made a Canon cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That it is not fit the Agapae should be in Churches or publick places of worship and so these ancient Feasts grew out by little and little and now no remainders of them in all Christendom I have been the longer upon this becaUse I think otherwise you would not clearly understand the foregoing verses that touch upon the abUse nor the caUse and Reason of the Corinthians coming
do as oft as ye do it hoc facite is as much as See that ye make or do all things according to the pattern The Apostles were not now at a Councel-Table with their Lord to give their vote what manner of Sacrament should be appointed but as guests to take and eat at present such cheer as the Master set before them and in after-times to do This Do this in remembrance of me and yet our Lord Christ would have his Ordinances administred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently Clemens the ancientest of Fathers in his Epistle to these Corinthians hath an excellent saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ought to do all those things orderly which our Master hath commanded us to do For Christ himself was no friend to slovenliness or loathsome nastiness as one observes Hildersam in John 4. out of that Mark 14. 15. He shall shew you an upper room furnished and prepared but presumption is bold Superstition adventurous as if it was called to councel with God makes no bones of clipping his coyn and therefore this Sacrament hath been filled with many devices and long groaned under their inventions which after long possession plead prescription and come in after-times to be counted parts which at first were but scabs or wens The Apostle did not durst not deliver but what he had received but they that have lesse power than the Apostle dare deliver what they received not and by adding or substracting do plainly finde fault with Gods own model Why should the Papist give into the mouth of his Communicant a whole wafer but that he is afraid to break the bread least some loose crums should fall Why doth he cheat the people wholly of the Cup but upon pretence that a drop of the bloud might be shed or spilt May we not think that they are too nice and more scrupulous than Christ at whose breaking bread there might fall crums and in the Apostles drinking drops from the cup Superstition is foolish that pretends holiness and corrupts Ordinances and had rather make than take a Sacrament We have the Minister in the name and stead of Christ Jesus if this be denied as it is by some I shall at present affirm but this That the reverend and most ancient Father Justin Martyr in his second Apology to the Roman Emperour written about fifty years after the death of John the Apostle sets out as I shall shew you the full manner of their administration of this Sacrament and therein saith the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Minister doth pour forth prayer and gives thanks over the bread and wine which I can give no account of private corners hath been practised in the Christian Churches till this very time and year being 1500 years at least The Minister takes the bread and likewise takes the Cup. He gives thanks or blesseth over the Bread and Cup He breaks the Bread he saith Take ye eat ye drink ye He pronounces This bread is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ This Cup is the New Testament in his bloud You do take you eat you drink This the Minister doth this you do for a remembrance and commemoration of Christ shewing forth his death and this is an Ordinance sutable to the institution § 19 2. That the Communicant be sutable to the Ordinance When the Song is truly set and prickt the singer must Of worthy communicating keep time and tune or else all is not right The Papists have the Ordinance unsuitable to the institution and we alas have Communicants unsuitable to the Ordinance That word which follows in this Chapter that dangerous word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily what is it but unsutably we must measure and fashion the Communicant by the Ordinance He must of necessity be a Disciple to such Christ spoke Take ye eat ye c. not as ye are Apostles but as Disciples He must bring with him a Christ receiving or a Christ applying faith for Take Eat without a hand or mouth of the soul he cannot He must come with hunger and thirst for strength and refreshment for he doth come to a Table to eat and drink the staff of bread the cordial cheering wine This strength and nourishment is by vertue of his union with Christ himself and communion therefore he comes to eat the very body and drink the very bloud of Christ He comes as a confederate with God to receive the seal or as a Legator to receive a Legacy bequeath'd by Will viz. Christ and remission of sins in Christ for this Cup is the New Covenant or New Testament sealed with Christs bloud He comes as to a festival commemoration where the founder of the feast is remembred with praise and honour Do it in remembrance of me He looks through and beyond the broken bread and wine poured out to a broken body and the shed bloud of Christ He looks at another taking then taking of bread another eating and drinking than of bread and wine viz. the taking to himself and the spiritual and intimate application of Christs body and bloud For he discerns the Lords body and therefore comes as a consecrated person to consecrated elements to broken bread with a broken heart full of affections as the Ordinance is full of mysteries and here is a Communicant suitable to the Ordinance and so Paul who received of the Lord and delivered unto them the institution of Christ hath set to rights both the Ordinance and the Corinthian Communicant CHAP. III. That the Lord Jesus is the Authour of this Sacrament 1 COR. 11. 23. That the Lord Jesus c. I Shall follow the track of the Apostle who goes before me in the two points I am to entreat upon 1. The Nature and Use of this Sacrament 2. The due Preparation of the Communicant Of these in order and with what brevity I can contenting my self to speak in decimo sexto what might be spoken in folio in hope that your proficiency by Mr Anthony Burgess and Mr Love your former most worthy teachers may excUse me the labour of so large a volume The next words I come unto do plainly point out unto us 1. The Author of the institution The Lord Jesus 2. The Time of it The same night in which he was betrayed Doct. 1 The Authour of this Sacrament The Authour of this institution is the Lord Jesus The consent of all the Evangelists that write the History puts this out of all controversie Christ was personally present both celebrating and instituting this Ordinance He is res Sacramenti the thing of the Sacrament and Author Sacramenti the Authour of the Sacrament the feast-maker and the feast Out of this pierced side as Austin alludes there came forth both bloud and water the two Sacraments of the Church He took the bread he blest he brake it he gave it it may well be called the Lords Supper yea the Lord is the Supper This is my body this is my bloud § 1
himself hers sed de hoc infra § 5 The Use which may be hence inferr'd is twofold Use 1 The Lord Jesus is authour therefore this Supper is not ours that are Ministers but it is the Lords Alexander Ales pars 4. quaest 49. memb 1. Hales hath an excellent Rule which I shall make Use of hereafter it 's this Sacerdos est dispensator non Dominus Sacramentorum Ecclesiae non dat suum sed reddit alienum quod de jure negari non potest The Minister is the Dispenser or Steward not the Lord of the Sacraments of the Church He gives not that which is his but restores that which is anothers which de jure cannot be denied to him to whom it 's Homil. 83. in Mat. due and therefore Chrysostom speaks to his fellow Ministers and cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Distributers Dispensers as you are of the poors bread in the Church which some Benefactour formerly appointed to be bestowed on them by his Will and of his Gift to whom the Lord gives it We cannot deny if they be within the Sphere of our office and to whom the Lord denies we cannot give A man comes to an Executour Sir I come to you for a certain Legacy given me by my Fathers will whereof you are Executour the gift bequeathed is not yours and you are but the hand whereby the Donour was pleased to hand it unto me True saith the Executour there is such a Legacy bequeath'd but if you look the Will you shall finde it given with some limitations and proviso's See the words ver 28. of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so there is an And so But let a man examine himself and so let him eat and so let him drink It is confest on all hands The Conditions being performed the claim is good but if it can be said You are not a Disciple and to such only this Legacy was bequeathed by Christ or the Church hath set on you the brand of a Heathen or a Publican though you was a Disciple and you have for the present by your sinne forfeited the right you had untill by your repentance you return again why then all will say that an Executour or Administratour may not act directly contrary to the Will for he is not the Testatour to do what he will but he is Administratour to Observe and not to violate the Will § 6 Use 2 The Lord Jesus is authour from him therefore let the benefit and efficacy of this Ordinance be expected for it hath veritatem virtutem both esse and operari being and working from the authour As money hath the stamp and the value from the supream power and here is the difference between natural and moral instruments we take the word instrument largely pro medio for a mean that if the Sacraments were natural means or instruments in which as the Schoolman doth the very vertue or the grace and benefit by them convey'd were contrived then were the vertue and benefit to be expected from themselves and no otherwise from the authour than as authour of the instrument as the Candle gives light whether the maker of it be present or no and the plaister heals by a quality in it self but a moral instrument not so being empty of any vertue to such an effect except the authour do work by it or ad praesentiamejus at the presence of it as the Serpent of brasse on the Pole the Clay and Spittle on the eye the Lambs bloud on door-posts had in themselves no power to their several effects but as they were appointed and Used by God or Christ It is very hard to believe that there is a true and real exhibition of Christs body and bloud to my faith as there is of the bread and wine to the mouth of the receiver sottish and superstitious people that Use charms or inchanted means for diseases c. never ask themselves How these things work by any natural vertue in them or by the devil the authour of them And so here there are thousands that have a reverend esteem of these mysteries yea and a superstitious conceit thinking that there is some good in them and imagining at least that they shall be better for them but whether to apply their eye to the very things themselves or to Christ they know not nor matter not but rest in a confUsed imagination just as they that Use charms Now for redress of this confUsed notion I commend that of famous Dr Whitaker Quasi De Euchar. pag. 624. in 40. Christos in medio sederet c. As if Christ fate amongst you and did the same as in the first Supper so ought we to think of this Sacrament and that is to see Christ to take and bless and say to us This is my body take and eat This is my bloud Drink ye all of it a very effectual consideration according to that good old solemn word Used to be spoken to the people at this Table Surjum corda Have your hearts upward to which they answered Habemus ad Dominum Now as to others that have their eyes so near the book that they see the worse I mean such as by curious enquiry and too much niceness how it 's possible that the eating of a piece of bread and drinking of a sup of wine should exhibit and convey to the faith of a believer the very true and real body and bloud of Christ do dispute themselves into a naked figure and sign as a painted supper represents a true I say this That God imitates men in their assurances or conveyances as we read of his oath of his earnest of his seal so that as men in passing of estates and inheritances do make Deeds and seal them and deliver them and then the real estate is not convey'd out by vertue of a bit of wax but by the Donors sealing that wax and fastening it to his Deed and delivering it as his Act and Deed So God or the Lord Jesus Christ makes a Covenant of giving Christ and eternal life to believers and appoints Sacraments to be Seals of that Covenant and delivers this sealed Covenant to a believer and thereby really and truly the Lord Jesus Christ for in hoc sacro speaking of the Supper saith Bernard non solum quaelibet gratia sed Serm. de caena 2. ille in quo est omnis gratia not only some one certain grace is given but he in whom is all grace viz. Christ Jesus the Lord. And yet I must not say that God hath so tied himself or us to the sacramental Seals as that no man can have Christ or the inheritance without them for that faith which eats and drinks the flesh and bloud of Christ extra Sacramentum Joh. 6. 50 51 53 54. doth save and the Covenant whosoever believes in Christ shall be saved passes the estate effectually to a believer though it be never sealed sacramentally so a Will
shadow represented so shall this continue in the Church till the person come alive which is here represented dying and then an end of this too 2. At the end of the paschal Supper to shew that Jansen Harm p. 105. in this Sacrament there is no bodily repast intended for they had already supped but a spiritual refection of the soul The rosted Lamb might afford the guests a belly-full so the Religion and Ordinances and Promises in the Law were more outward and bodily but this Sacrament of the Gospel is an after Supper modicum full of spiritual signification but not so stuffie for outward matter that we may prepare not as Austin saith our months but our faith and expect to satisfie not the hunger and thirst of the body as they might but the hunger and thirst of the soul which in this little model may finde enough and over-measure The Temple-service among the Jews was an Heb. 9. 1 10. Rom. 2. penult outward Religion and as their Ordinances were outward so they generally were Jews outwardly we wonder that they so little saw and tasted the marrow and kernel of them and stuck in the rinde feeding on the crust of most Ordinances as if a man should think the cloth would heal the sore and not the plaister spread upon it but if we take estimate of them by our selves we shall finde that most of us should have been as they in that case for God having ordained for us outward Sacraments for number few for Observation easie for signification excellent as Austin speaks Epist 118. we are for the general but outward in them though we be clearlier taught what is within them yet we are in the Use of them but outwardly reverent as they and do not spiritually and inwardly enjoy the kernell of them which the Apostle took notice of when he said Not discerning the Lords body and so they are seals indeed but rather seals of a Letter which shut it up than seals of a Deed or Covenant conveying the Estate to us 3. Though it be not a Reason why this Ordinance was appointed after the Passeover-Supper yet I may Observe it to you in this place that hence it is called The Lords Supper from the Author it 's called the Lords and from the Time it 's called a Supper being celebrated in the night and at the close of Supper Some later Maldonat in Mat. 26. 26. Estius in 1 Cor. 11. 20. Jesuites do tax the novelty of the name and affirm Nullus in Scripturâ locus c. No place of Scripture cals it so for the term in this Chapter refers say they to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Love Used with it they may say as well that Lords Table 1 Cor. 10. 21. refers to them too which we believe not it is a spiritual feast that which Matthew cals a dinner Matth. 22. 4. is called by Luke a Supper Luk. 14. 16. but we call it the Lords Supper though it be received in the morning or any other time of day with reference to the time of the first institution as the Passeover in after-times was called the Passeover not becaUse there was any destroying Angel past over their hoUses every year but in respect of the first Passeover in Aegypt and in memory of that wherein there was a passing over the Israelites hoUses and a destroying of the Aegyptians first-born I could name to you many other names that this Sacrament bears in Scripture and ancient Authours farre more ancient then their Missa which is but once found in Ambrose and in none before him or the Sacrament of the Altar as they call it but I insist not now on names He that will may see them in Casaub Exercit 16. § 2 Secondly Why the Lord Jesus ordained it a very little before he was betrayed 1. He now seals his will which men Use to do Paraeus in loc when they are in sight of death This is the New Testament saith he in my bloud when men make their Wils they bequeath their body to the earth Christ bequeaths his body and bloud to us He bestows his body natural on his body mystical the Church The Testatour is Christ Heb. 9. 16. The Legacy bestowed is himself and all spiritual benefits with him My body and bloud The heirs are all believers Disciples The Executours for the outward part are those to whom he saith Hoc facite do this execute this my Will The Witnesses are the Evangelists and Saint Paul Here is a perfect sealing then of a Testament which is of force by the death of the Testatour and nothing must be added or taken away for it is a Will sealed and Gal. 3. 15. publisht 2. To leave it as his ultimum vale or last memorial Aug. Epist 118 of precious relish and esteem when men are going then they give memorial gifts unto their friends then they give their pictures Keep this for me Remember me when you see me not When men are dying then they pull their ring off their finger and leave it with their beloved Oh what impression have the verba morientis the word of a dying man As if a man saith Chrysostome should say to children These were your fathers dying words This was his last charge This he spoke and died and there is nothing that is remembred with more awe more affection than the last words the last gift of dying friends 3. To testifie his dearest love to his Church and people that when death was in sight and all the unspeakable sorrows shame and suffering were now ready to invade him when injuries from men were ready to load him and the justice of God upon sinne to be demonstrated on him all these did not make him forget his love His love to his poor people overtop'd all He loved them to the end Joh. 13. 2. and exprest it at the last and when he was in expectation of utmost sorrow he forgets not his love to his 4. To fortifie his Disciples against temptations which were now rushing in upon them when they should presently see their Lord led away as a prisoner to be arraigned and themselves scattered and discouraged Peter denying bloudy enemies insulting then to fortifie their hearts Let not your hearts be troubled Joh. 1◠1. He administers this Sacrament to strengthen the Union and Communion between him and them and to tie them to him so fast that the gates of hell might not prevail against them that their faith might not fail though it fainted as was said to Peter and though they fall yet they might not utterly be cast down as the Psalmist saith They had before eaten the body which they after saw broken and drunk the bloud which they after saw shed The broken body was not theirs that broke it The bloud shed was not theirs that shed it but it was theirs that had before eaten it and drunk it so God underprops his weak servants before
faintness cherisht by wine the faint and feeble soul by Christ Famine and thirst are importunate things no delights of the eye no Musick to the ear can satisfie them Violent desires towards Christ are not to be excUsed but praised For his Flesh is meat indeed his Blood is drink indeed Joh. 6. 55. 2. Bread and Wine severally and asunder to set forth his death wherein Corpus a sanguine separatum fuit saith Jansenius his Body and his Blood Harm 896. was sundred The Papists as to their Priests and some Kings or Princes will allow bread and wine but as to the common people bread or wine they say by concomitancy the blood is in the bread virtually and so they shut up the wounds of Christ by their dry Mass But Christ would represent himself here not as a Lamb but a Lamb sacrificed and slain and therefore the blood is severed from the body as the money is not a prisoners ransom while it lies in the chest but when it 's paid So the blood of Christ as shed is our ransom As Israel in the wilderness had a type of Christ Manna which they did eat and the rock also of which they drank so have we the memorials of his body and blood that we may eat and drink And which is the summe of all that may be said on this point since the Lord was pleased even under the Gospel to continue that old way of Fellowship and Communion with his Church by entertaining them at his own Table upon his own chear in an Ordinance of eating and drinking as he alwaies allowed the Israelites to feast with him upon the remainders of the Sacrifices in token of followship and the very Heathens did by feasting on their Sacrifices testifie their fellowship with their Idols as is plain 1 Cor. 10. 18 19 20. I see not how more fit materials could be Used then Bread and Wine which as they best stand with the simplicity of the Gospel so they are the most common and necessary attendants in all feasts and do both together set forth that full and perfect nourishment which we finde in Christ As for that I finde in Cyprian and from him in Cyp. Epist 76. Aug. Tract in Jo. cap. 6. 26. August and after both in most Divines That as one bread is made of many grains and one cup of wine of many grapes so the Church is one Body of many Members whose Communion and Fellowship is here professed testified and signified by their participation of one Bread and of one Cup The allusion is proper and not unlike that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 17. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread And this union of members was anciently professed with all dearness of love and affection in the Use of this Ordinance and they delighted to express their division and separation from all the world their combination and concorporation among themselves by all entercourses of love and dearness that could be their Feasts of Love their Kiss mentioned in Scripture and ancient Authours are hereof great witnesses But what shall those places or Countries do that have no bread of corn no fruit of the vine I confess that though God said in the Passeover a Lamb Exod. 12. 5. or Kid yet Christ expresses nothing there of other materials and therefore in case of extream necessity where the proper Elements cannot be had they must either be without the Ordinance or celebrate in that which is Analogicall and which passes for bread with them or wine with them which it's better say some to do than wholly to be deprived Moulin Buckler pag. 531. Beza Epist 2. but this Eclipse is not likely to be seen in our Horison therefore I shall not further discuss it §. 4. The Rites or Actions about the Sacrament § 4 So much of the Elements Bread and Wine Now I proceed to the Rites or Actions and first them of Christs using in which you are to Use your eye as in the Word preached God speaks to your ear so here he speaks to your eye The Sacrament is a visible Word and therefore I hold it requisite that the Communicant be within sight of the Elements and Actions that he may see the bread and the wine Taken Blessed Broken Poured forth and not in corners and holes whence he hath not the actions under command of his eye Not that I deny but a blinde man may receive the Sacrament but that all means of spirituall impression must be Used Behold saith Moses the blood of the Covenant Exod. 24. 8. The first Action of Christ is He took bread likewife after supper the cup so Paul so Luke He took the bread he took the cup so Matthew and Mark of the two Elements the Bread is first taken both by Christ and by the Communicant This order is to be held by the consent of all the four Writers And of Christs Action let us Note 1. That Christ took the Bread into his hands he took the Cup into his hands Observing the rite and custom then Used and gave thanks over the Bread holding it in his hands and so over the Cup having it in his hands This is the first step towards the separating and setting apart the Elements he took them in his hand see there was a solemn rite that the pater familias did Use to take into his hands and bless these principall parts of the meal or feast The taking of the Lamb was the first action towards the Paschall Exod. 12. 2 5 21. 2. That Christ took and blest the Bread and the Cup severally one after the other He took Bread and blest and pronounced This is my Body Afterwards he took the Cup and blest and pronounced This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood The Evangelists Matthew and Mark express it Luke and Paul likewise confirm it and if there were nothing else the very rule and usage amongst the Jewes to blesse them severally would prove it to us 3. But whether there was any intervall of time between his taking and blessing the Bread and the Wine is a harder knot Matthew and Mark say As they were eating or as they did eat he took Bread Luke and Paul say After they had supped he took the Cup This seems to plead for some intervall of time Videtur saith Calvin in 1 Cer. 11. 25. In Mar. 14. 22. Beza and yet if Matthew and Mark be viewed alone the Action seems to be continued What wedge must be Used for this knot Beza hints that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be variously translated When they had eaten but I shall not grant Beza his Interpretation but hold to our own and appeal to the rule or custom then received amongst the Jews to decide the Controversie for if those words As they were eating be all one with those of Paul After they had supped then how doth Paul and Luke so frequently and
Table in that Rituall posture and manner then in Use be holden as indifferent or appendant to the Paschall custom for we shall never hit that pattern in all respects becaUse they sate at the Table while Christ blessed and brake the Bread which we that have severall Tables full do not nor can do and let the Disciples dividing among themselves or handing both the Bread and Cup from one to another be accounted indifferent too and hardly and not conveniently imitable in our numbers yea and not certain neither though very probable to me for if one as Peter Martyr holds it so yet another as Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Paraus in locum saith that it 's not Obscure out of the History that when the Lord said Take ye Benedictum fractum panem singulis manu porrexisse he reacht the Bread to every person with his hand Let us touch the other Question Whether there were any words spoken to every one at the delivering into his hands and here indeed we finde nothing but Take ye eat this is my Body broken for you Drink ye all of it this is the Cup of the New Testament and doubtless the whole Institution needs not to every single person be repeated having been recited in the Consecration Yet you know that in the form Used in England the Minister was appointed to deliver Bread and Wine into the Communicants particular hands with a prescript form of words The Body of our Lord The Blood of our Lord c. and Chemnitius Examen de praparat ad coenam the best Scholar of all called Lutheran saith that the form of applying the words of Institution to every Communicant mihi maxime probatur is best of all approved by him And that in these words the Sacrament was delivered in the Church of old time he cals in for witness Ambrose who hath indeed these lib. 4. de Sac. sub finem words the Minister saith Corpus Christi tu dicis Amen The body of Christ and thou saist Amen And before this time Novatus distributing the Mysteries to every one his part adjured them into his faction first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in stead of saying Amen Histor lib. 6. cap. 35. saith EUsebius which Amen it seems every Communicant said when the Bread was put into his hand as Justin Martyr saith when the Minister hath finisht his Consecration-prayer all the people present Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes acclamation to it saying Amen I Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. p. 366. conclude with Learned Hooker that upon the ground that Sacraments are particularly applying Ordinances and we are dull and heavy-hearted If I Baptize thee offend not why should Eat thou offend any man I conclude upon the whole matter that what is most to the reverence of this Ordinance and serves best to raise up and elevate the peoples hearts shall be followed by me So much for the opening of the Rites or Actions Used by Christ or that are to be Used by any Minister that shall in his Name celebrate this Ordinance He took the Bread and the Cup He blessed or gave thanks He brake he gave In which it is to be noted that he did not recede from the then received rite or custom for both the Elements and the rites are quite through the same which were usually and by custom at that present on foot in their Paschall Solemnities and which is more yet this Bread and Cup so blest and given at these Solemnities are not found to stand by any express command of holy Scripture but were such as their wisdom had by custom made Use of in this service of that Bread and that Cup the Lord was pleased to make the Seals of his Body and Blood as Hugh Broughton our Learned Broughton in Dan. pag. 46. Countryman Observes §. 10. Of the outward Actions pertaining to the Communicants § 10 Now I proceed to the other sort of outward Rites or Actions pertaining to the Communicants which are these He said Take eat He said Drink ye all of it as you may see in St Matthew who was Myroth lin Matth. 26. 26. present in the action and as it is here Forsan at haec sunt vetus formula c. saith Cameron Haply that this was the old Rite but in the Jewish Rituals that are now as it is recited by Cameron in the Hebrew and by Scaliger in Greek it is somewhat diverse Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. Thus every one that is hungry let him come and eat and whoso hath need let him come and keep the Passeover 1. Take ye It is to be understood of taking in the hand for it 's not likely that Christ rose and put the Bread and Wine in every ones mouth saith Beza Epist. 2. Beza but as the Cup passed from the nearest to Christ to them more remote so it 's probable saith the same Author that the Bread also did There is a great stirre about the Communicants taking the Elements in his hand not as though if other wise the Sacrament was a nullity as Beza proves for a Bezain Epist. 2. man may have no hands to take it with but for the decency and significancy thereof The taking in the mouth only being more like that of Bruits which take their meat with mouth or beak as Chamier saith than that of men and there is a whole Chapter spent in reciting Antiquities for this taking in the hand in Chamier who saves me the labour to recite any of De Euchar. l 7. cap. ult them to you and this is all upon occasion of the Papists who take the Bread into their mouths and touch it not with hand out of a too superstitious veneration Beza Epist 2. of the Elements as Beza notes Nor do they of them that search out the footsteps of this custom rise any higher than about five or six hundred years ago The signification of it is the appropriation of Christ to our selves whom God makes ours by his gift and we make ours by faith even as truly as if he were put into our very hand They that make Paraeus in loe Taking and Eating divers Rites of divers significations as many of our excellent Divines do do tell us that there are divers degrees of faith that by taking Christ we have propriety in him He is ours by eating his Body and drinking his Blood we have comfort and refreshment from him and that he is first ours in claim before he be ours in comfort as first take then eat In the Use of the brazen Serpent our beleeving was set forth by an act of our eye Joh. 3. 14. looking up but here 't is set forth by an act of ourhand retension or receiving the promise of Adoption is made to our receiving Christ Joh. 1. 12 and our faith must be a Christ taking a Christ-receiving faith Christ would be ours else he would not have instituted this
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
the thing signified as the bread Christs body the wine is called Christs bloud The Rock was Christ Circumcision called the Covenant The Lamb called the Passeover and in common speech When we look on a Picture we say This is Casar this is Augustus this is Hercules nothing more ordinary In the Sacrament this similitude is a similitude of proportionality saith Bonaventure consisting of four termes You are most of you Arithmeticians and you have a golden Rule called The Rule of Three becaUse three terms being given the fourth is given and this sets forth to you the Analogy of a Sacrament in four termes As water in Baptisme washes the body so the Spirit by his grace or the bloud of Christ cleanseth the soul As the bread and wine nourish and refresh the body so the body and bloud of Christ nourisheth and refresheth the soul As by the hand we take and with our mouth we eat and drink the bread and wine so by faith we receive the body and bloud of Jesus Christ If you destroy the similitude you destroy the Sacrament as the Papists do by their Transubstantiation for they destroy the Analogy Thus the accidents of Bread and Wine or the Species doe not nourish the Body say we Nor the very Body and Bloud of Christ doth not passe into bodily nourishment say they for it was horrible to imagine it therefore there is no resemblance the similitude is destroyed and so the Sacrament § 3 Thirdly It is a most true most firm and golden Rule That a Sacrament out of the Use appointed Chamiâ—r de Luchar l. 7. c. 4. §. 11. l. 8. c. 3 Forbes Hist. Theol p. 550. by God hath not the nature of nor is any more a Sacrament It is not a Sacrament extra usum out of the actual Use There must not onely be Bread and Wine but Blessing and Taking and Eating and Drinking or else to us there is no Sacrament The Bread and Wine upon the Table are no Sacrament but the eating and drinking of Bread and Wine As in Baptism the water is no Sacrament but the washing with water is The Papists confesse this of every Sacrament and of Baptism but not of the Lords Supper which for Transubstantiation-sake which troubles the whole Scaene they hold to be a perfect Sacrament by consecration whether it be received by the Communicant yea or no and this is the Doctrine of their Schoolmen and Aquin. part 3. Qu. 80. aliis Scholasticis all others of their confession We appeal to the Text Take Eat This is my body It 's so being taken and eaten and not otherwise The remains of Bread and Wine are no Sacrament it is the Use which gives the Reason and nature of a Sacrament and when and where the Use is not the Sacrament is not It 's true in our vulgar speech we call it the Sacrament as on the Table as the beast might be called a Sacrifice before it was slain being destin'd and appointed thereunto 1 Sam. 13. 9 Whitak deâ— acram p 621 624 c. as Whitaker saith but it is no Sacrifice till slain and offer'd nor was the Lamb a Passeover but as it was eaten and rosted so a meer stone is a stone wheresoever it be but not a boundary but in the Use and an earnest is money but not an earnest except taken upon agreement Bread and Wine are Elements but not a Sacrament till all the Rites and Actions be Observed which God hath appointed viz. in the participation and Use 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 18. The Cup of blessing and the bread are the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ being partaken and received not else There is some kinde of Argument urged against this Rule from the reservation of the Bread especially and of the Wine which is read of in Antiquity and that was either private reservation when the Communicant carried home the Bread and kept it in his chest for his private Use to eat of privately or else it was by the Ministers to give to lapsed Christians in time of extremity or sicknesse that were debarred of publick participation The first is mentioned Cypr. de lapsis by ancient Authours and by some commended as Ambrose de obitu Satyr Nazian Epitaph pro sor This is excUsed by Jewell against Harding As in time Forbes Hist. Theol. p. 553. Col. 1. of persecution when Christians might be deprived of the publick Ordinance and by others on other grounds Burgess of knealing The other hath one onely example in true Antiquity and that is Serapions case EUseb Histor lib. 6. cap. 34. and is excUsed by Chemnitius as if Chem. de coena Examen p. 93. it was to oppose the Novatian opinion of not restoring the lapsed though penitent unto the Communion of the Sacrament Of both these I see no clear warrant in the Institution of Christ and therefore say with Cyprian Non quod aliquis ante nos c. We are not to look what any hath done before us but what he did and commanded that was before all even Jesus Christ § 4 Fourthly It is the peoples right to receive the Cup as well as the Bread Drink ye all of it Matth. 26. 27. Moulin Buckler p. 529. They all drank of it Mark 14. 23. As often as ye eat this bread and drink of this Cup saith Paul 1 Cor. 11. 26. Nothing more plain and yet whether it be the ambition of the Priests that would exalt themselves above the people or whether it be the fruit of Transubstantiation or both this Cup is taken from the people in the Romane Churches but it was not taken away by publick Decree till the Council of Constance Anno 1416. since which time there was great petitioning to the Council of Trent for the Cup but Chem. Exam. de coena p. 134 135. Concil Trid. Sess 6. they referr'd it to the Pope in whose hands it lies and it seems will lie till God put another cup into his hand to drink And so you see that that Council of Constance that burnt John Husse and Jerome did let out the bloud of good Christians and shut up the bloud of Christ from them I conclude Let us follow that which is simplest and purest according to Christs Institution and neither superstitiously reserve nor impiously mutilate the holy Ordinance CHAP. VIII Of the Real Presence NOw I draw on to the Anatomy of the viscera the entrails and inwards of this Ordinance under the outside whereof if you take off the cover you shall finde such cheer as never was in any other feast This is my body saith Christ which is broken for you saith Paul Which is given for you saith Mat. 26 26 27 28 Mark 14. 22 24. Luk. 22. 20. Luke This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud saith Paul Which is shed for you saith Luke Or as Matthew and Mark This is my bloud of the New Testament which is
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
called the Passeover Exod. 12. 21. The Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. and in this Sacrament This Cup is the New-Testament What shall we require further the form of speech is plain a childe may understand it And it is without example in all Scripture that the signe should be or be changed into the substance of the thing signified and which is further to be said The Hebrew Tongue or the Syriack in which Christ spake doth not Use in this form of speech any copula of subject and predicate either is or signifieth but sometimes and not alwayes a Pronoun as in these places by me cited in the Old Testament There is no is nor other Verb but thus the seven ears of corn they seven years the four beasts four Kings which when Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Moulin Buckler p. 478. they come to be translated into Greek or Latine then the idiome of the language requires it and saith is The Rock was Christ and so in the present case Hoo lach ma this bread of affliction that is This is the bread of affliction §. 5. This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud § 5 I proceed to the next part This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud or This is the bloud of the New Testament where the contenders are a little cooler and must perforce allow a Trope or figurative speech for the Cup sure is not changed into a Covenant or Testament nor the bloud of Christ neither nor the wine The cup is not put for the bloud of Christ for then it would be thus This bloud is the New Testament in my bloud a pure non sense that Papists cannot salve without invention of two blouds but the cup is put for the wine This wine is the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratified in my bloud The wine represents and by representation is the very bloud of Christ which confirms and ratifies Gods Gospel-covenant or the New Testament bequeathing to believers the Legacy of remission of sinnes in Christ for that Christ gave wine and not very bloud in the cup is that which Matthew and Mark say Matth. 26. 29. Mark 14. 25. I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine Peri Haggephen was the word signantly Used Stegman disp 51. p. 593. for wine in the Paschal Rite The fruit of the vine That Climax and Gradation of Luther is pleasant The Cup contains the wine the wine exhibits the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ ratifies and confirms the New Covenant the New Covenant promiseth remission of sinnes Therefore the drinking of this Cup applies seals confirms to believers the promise of remission of sinnes And the allusion is excellent as Cameron in Mat. 26. 27. the Apostle Observes Heb. 9. 20. out of Exod. 24. 8. that Moses said This is the bloud of the Covenant which God hath enjoyned you for all covenant with man fallen is sealed with bloud that under the Law with typical bloud this of the Gospel by the very bloud of Christ For without bloud is no remission Heb. 9. 22. And of this Covenant-confirming bloud of Christ this wine is the lively representation or memorial The particulars thus cast up are summ'd up into this total as the sense and meaning of this Ordinance § 6 First This bread is my body this wine is my bloud as representations and memorials of my body broken and my bloud shed figuring and signifying my death and suffering for you but this is not all for God doth not feed us with empty shows and void figures onely representing as the footstep in the snow the foot or the picture of Hercules represents Hercules This would bring the Sacrament to a Socinian emptinesse as a matter of our duty onely not as of Gods conferring any benefit upon us This is more like the Signe of a Shop than the Seal of a Deed and would rather serve the eye than refresh the soul by eating and drinking as meat and drink Therefore Secondly This Bread is my Body This Cup is the Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. New Testament in my bloud as Pledges Seals and instrumental means of exhibition solemnly Pet. Martyr ibid. Hooker Eccles Polit. p. 359. Paraeus in 1 Cor. 11. conveying though symbolically to the faith of a beleever Christ himself for union and communion and the benefits of his death remission of finnes as the pledge confirms the contract the Seal passeth or conveyeth the estate by which we are as truly partakers of Christ Jesus if we receive by faith as we are partakers of bread and wine for nourishment this is a high signification and Use it 's full and rich and comfortable and this I prove by that of the Apostle wherein I rest as a full explication of the phrase in hand 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we blesse Is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Here is Participation Communion and he saith Is it not Is it not As a known and received truth amongst Christians and with this I content my selfe as cleare and full against all contenders and gainsayers As for the Ancients I referre you to a whole Parliament of them called together and voting down Transubstantiation Crakanthorpe Defens cap. 73. against that unhappy man the Arch-Bishop of Spalato who had before his last revolt said Omnes Patres All the Fathers are against the Real Presence but he unsaid it again afterward to his Justin Apol. 2. losse Justin Martyr cals the bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread over which thanks were given Irenaeus the very same Tertullian and Origen prove That Tertul. l. 4. contra Marc. c. 40. Origen Christ had a true body against the Phantasticks becaUse the bread is a figure and signe of a true body Hierom cals it a representation and Austin is Greek Fathers call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionysius Basilius Theodores totus Calvinianus in the point There are rhetoricall flourishes hyperbolies and high expressions sometimes to procure honour to the Ordinance or quicken up the Communicants but in judgement they are with us Crakantherp Defens cap. 73. § 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lingua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. hom 82. in Matth. sanguinem sugimus Cyp. de caena and such hyperbolies c. So much be spoken for the explication of the words which are so ravelled and perplexed by contrary senses CHAP. IX Of the Inward thing signified or represented in this Supper I. What is presented to the Beleever NOw we shall proceed to open to you what Christ presents unto and sets before the faithfull in this Supper and what the faithfull do receive in the right Use thereof For the first There is here presented and set before you in this Supper 1. Christ himself sacrificed for you with the fruits and benefits of his death or of the sacrifice of
hope erected faith strengthened lusts subdued which follow by consequence upon our union with Christ and our interest in the Covenant in the sense of which when a Christian walks he is in a good frame and posture of spirit CHAP. X. A four-fold Exhortation from the premises FRom what hath been said upon this point I would possess you with four things § 1 I. That you hold fast and stick to the true sense and right meaning of these words This is my Body This is the Blood of the New Testament which hath been so perplexed and depraved by superstition and the vanity of humane inventions especially since the rise of the Schoolmen whose itch of Disputation hath bred such a scab that there hath been left no soundness in the place which hath been tortured with such Convulsions Distortions and Absurdities that the sense which to a chast and simple ear is easie and smooth hath been raveld into knots inextricable and this Text of all other hath suffered infinite injuries and been made the stage of impudent fooleries which have brought and buried out of sight the true meaning of them and made our Saviour that Used to speak vulgarly and easily to delude the senses amUse the Reason nonplus the faith of sober Beleevers And though it be truly said The sense of Scripture is the Scripture and that the right understanding of these words carries you in a right line to the nature Use and benefit of this Or inance yet let me say this more to you as English men That the true meaning of them hath been conveyed to you by the blood of your own Martyrs who in Q Mary her daies were most of them put to the test upon the point of Reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and bare witness against it and I do beleeve that if Popery do ever make another attempt upon you it will play upon you with his battery at this place §. 2. Extreams about Christs Reall presence and the middle way held by the Churches of our Profession § 2 The Churches of our Confession have warily and justly avoided the extreams on both sides 1. The first extream is that which some did fear in Zuinglius and others at first and yet is unjustly charged upon us by many viz. That the Sacraments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked signes empty figures and shadows meerly representing the death of Christ as the Picture of Hercules resembles and represents Hercules which we disclaim and leave it to Socinianizing spirits and other Levellers of Divinity for we are taught that Sacramentall signes are more than meer representing signes being Seals which do confirm and make over unto us the spirituall benefit which they represent and exhibit also they are signs which God commands us to Use and in their right Use he conferres upon us the benefit as the Seal passes a Right to the Estate promised and conveyed as the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 11. He received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith and 1 Cor. 10. 16. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ not representation only but communion or participation also for the picture of a loaf of bread feeds not the hungry nor doth the Ivy-bush refresh the weary and therefore there is not only a representation of the body of Christ broken by the breaking of the bread but Take and eat and drink which denotes participation of the body and blood of Christ 2. The other extream is twofold 1. That the very body and blood of Christ is as it were moulded up with the bread and wine or hidden under them which is the sense of the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran Churches and this though it be too gross an opinion yet is not liable to so many monsters and incompresensible absurdities as the other which is 2. That the bread and wine cease to be and are evoided being turned or change the substance of them into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ which is hidden under the species or outward accidents of bread and wine a monstrous Paradox holden stifly by the Transubstantiatists or Papists The middle way holden by the Churches of our Confession is That the outward Elements do represent as Signes and exhibit as Seales and morall Instruments to the faith of the receiver the very Body and Blood of Christ sacrificed as spirituall repast for our souls and spiritually given and taken but that they continue not as incorporated with them nor are converted into the very naturall Body of Christ as locally or corporally there to be received by the mouth of the receiver We hold a difference or change of bread and wine blessed but it is a change of signification not of substance a relative change not reall a change in regard of Use and esteem not of their naturall substance as the wax now a Seal to a Conveyance is wax still but not a Seal not of that value till now all the Rhetoricall flowers Used by the Ancients reach no further if they do we cannot keep them company We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the faith of the receiver and we might express the reall presence as reall is opposed to imaginary or chimericall were it not for caption and mis-understanding none of ours denies the Body of Christ to be really though spiritually eaten by a Beleever nay it is immotum axioma whatsoever is eaten in that it is Forbes p. 53◠eaten it must be present no man can eat a thing that 's absent but the presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the soul and faith of a Beleever is another We know no union of Christs Body with bread and Wine but with his members which is reall and mysticall not reall and corporall therefore Christ saith Take eat before he say This is my Body as if it were his Body to their faith not as in the outward Element §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body § 3 For attestation of this sense many Arguments may be mustred up together 1. Compare one part of this Sacrament with the other This cup is the New Testament in my Blood that is by Metonymy the Seal of the New Testament but not the New Testament it self so This is my Body that is the Signe and Seal of it but not it self 2. Compare the one Sacrament of the Gospel with the other In Baptism the water is water without reall alteration so here the bread is bread the wine is wine not changed into flesh or blood 3. Compare the Sacraments of the Old Testament with the New Circumcision is the Covenant becaUse the Sign or Seal of it the Lamb is the Passeover becaUse the memoriall or sign of it so the bread
the Apostles did not herein vary for they sung a Hymn at the close as Matth. 26. 30. which example I need not stand to improve against the Anti-psalmists of this age There are severall pertinent meditations that may fully take up the time of the action with great advantage and benefit to our souls as namely 1. The dreadfulness of Gods justice which with a terrible stroak did smite the great Shepherd for our sins the least dram of it would have sunk us to all eternity 2. The cursed nature of sinne that so exasperates the holy God and makes such a breach between God and the creature as can never be made up but by the broken body of the Lord of Glory 3. What it cost to redeem a soul a mass of gold as big as the whole earth not valuable with one drop of this blood 4. What an infinite love broke forth that God rather than let our souls be lost would send his eternall Son and make him sin for us 5. What a great work it is to reconcile a sinner to his God all names of men and Angels are nothing to it all their sufferings would not pay a penny of this debt which is not dissolved by any blood but of the Lord of Glory 6. That God would not only pardon sin by giving forth a generall pardon as a King pardons rebels but so pardon as might even melt the hardest heart and for ever humble and silence and satisfie it by the love of God and the sufficiency of that Sacrifice whose vertue extends to thousands and lasts alwaies 7. That the gratious Covenant of God made with all that beleeeve in Christ is sealed and ratified with such blood as there needs no doubt of the validity of the Covenant though one man bad as many sins on him as all the world 8. That Gods way of saving man by a Mediatour the death of a Mediatour doth oblige man to be the thankfullest creature in the world Angels that sin'd not have need of no Mediatour Angels that sin'd have none man that sin'd and therefore needs one hath one given to him The man Christ Jesus 9. That as God gave Christ for you so he gives him to you that he that was your Sacrifice offered up to God might in this Sacrament be offered unto you as meat and drink as spirituall repast that as we live by Christ so we may live upon him being entertained as confederates to feast with God upon the Sacrifice offered up unto him It is a fruitfull field of Meditation through which ye may walk the time of celebration and then breathe out your Meditations in a Song of praise as the close and musick of this heavenly Feast Concerning which Hymn wherewith the Jews did usually close the coenam apolyticam or dimissory Supper calling it the Hallel from the first word of it Hallelujah you may consult not only the Jewish Writers but our Learned men Cameron Myroth in Matth. 16. 30. Drusius in Matth. 26. 30. Hugo Broughton in Dan. pag. 46. beside Paulus Burgensis Gerard Harm Fol. 178. col 3. who do also point out to us the 113. 114. Psalms as that Hymn for though some others do rather conceive it a new Hymn composed by our Saviour Grotius in Matth. 26. and the 17 Chapter of St John to be it we finde no Reason to go with them in that opinion both becaUse our Saviour did not easily vary from the Rite or Custom received nor could the Disciples have sung with him in consort except we imagine such a praelection of it to them as is Used by us now a daies which will not be proved CHAP. XIII How much it concerneth Ministers to Teach and all to Learn the true meaning of this Ordinance 1 COR. 11. 26 27. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the death of the Lord untill he come Wherefore whosoever doth eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord c. VVHen this Ordinance of the Supper is suitable to the Institution and the Communicant is suitable to the Ordinance then all is right Of the former I have acquitted my self by setting forth the nature Use end of this Sacrament according to our Lords Institution recited by the Evangelists and by St Paul in this place § 1 Now I am to proceed unto the later which is to render the Communicant suitable to the Ordinance of which our Saviour did not in the Institution directly speak but the Apostle in this place speaks more fully and directly unto than in any other place is found the abUses and distempers of the Corinthians leading him most properly to it and though in Popish Churches the grand errour and abUse lies in the unsutableness of their Mass to the Institution yet in Reformed Churches who endeavour to imitate the pattern in the Mount the common sin lies in the unsutableness of the Communicant to the Ordinance and so the point of worship stands between us and the Papists much alike as it stood between the Samaritans and the Jews of old The Samaritans Used a false worship Ye worship ye know not what Joh. 4. 22. The Jews had a true worship but were carnall and for the most part formall worshippers The Feast is prepared drest and ordered according to the Institution of Christ Now the guests are to be surveyed and tried whether they come worthily or unworthily by the test or ticket of the Apostles Doctrine following to the end of the Chapter of which I shall say this in generall 1. That the Apostles Doctrine in this place is properly calculated for the rectifying the abUses and unworthiness of the Corinthians as ye may see at the 33 34 verses but so also most other Scriptures occasionally written are of generall Use their latitude is greater than their particular direction 2. That the Apostle spends the most of his Doctrine upon eating and drinking unworthily setting home the sin and danger of it for the occasion viz. the sinne of the Corinthians required it and yet doubtless the point of worthiness should in order of nature be first stated before unworthiness can be understood for how should I know sinne except first I knew a law of duty how a crooked line except I know what is straight and therefore to attent consideration the Apostle will be found to begin there as I shall shew you afterwards 3. That the Apostle in setting home the sinne and danger of eating and drinking unworthily speaks thunder and lightning in very pertinent but yet new and unusuall phrases which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have no brother in any other part of Scripture as guilty of the body and blood of the Lord eating and drinking judgement or damnation c. full of terrour and fit for compunction These of the 26 verse are the words of St Paul who having recited what Christ did and said at the first celebration and institution of this Sacrament goes about to set
is enough to the putting on my better clothes and framing my self to a grave composure but here I am to meet my Lord Christ and to receive him as my Saviour I am to have the Covenant of mercy sealed to me in his blood I am to make a thankfull memoriall of Christ and to profess my embracement and adherence to his death as my only comfort therefore be thou awakened O my faith my godly sorrow my spirituall appetite my thankfulness that I may go out to Christ and he come in to me 3. This takes off all slighting and undervaluing of this Ordinance which appears to an outward and carnall eye No better bread or wine than I can have at home for in this plain case is a rich Jewel this bread is the body this wine is the Blood of the Lord of Glory and therefore I must not value the seal by the worth of the wax which is not worth a penny but by the pardon or the inheritance which passes and is conveyed by it 4. This keeps me from running blindfold into the sin of guiltiness of the Body and Blood of the Lord and so into condemnation for as the same Signet or Seal of a Prince doth to one seal a pardon to another an execution so this very Sacrament is to a Beleever a seal of pardon to another as it were the seal of his condemnation 5. Lastly The preparation so much spoken of and the self-examination required by the Apostle cannot be imagined to referre to the eating of bread and drinking wine but to the inward thing of the Sacrament it necessarily follows that those inward graces that enable us to have communion with Christ and make commemoration of him can never be known or sought except we know the meaning of this Sacrament for it is that which gives the Law and Rule of all our preparations And so I have shown you the Reasons why we should labour to understand the language of this Ordinance So much of this generall Point the second Point shall be taken from those words Ye shew the Lords death or shew ye for the word might be construed imparatively but that the particle For would not then so well consist CHAP. XIV The great business that lies upon the Communicant as oft as he eats this Bread and drinks this Cup is to shew the Lords Death Doct. 2 THis Point cleaves into two parts § 1 First It is the Lords death which in this Sacrament is shewn forth The two standing Sacraments of the Jewish Church Circumcision and the Passeover did both appear in blood The two standing Sacraments of the Gospel do also referre to death We are buried with him by Baptism into death Rom. 6. 4. and in the Supper we shew the Lords death As of all deliverances and benefits vouchsafed to Israel of old God would have the Passeover-deliverance celebrated by a constant memoriall in all generations so of all that Christ doth for us it is his death that must be shewn forth in all generations of the Church till he come again and therefore this Ordinance is speculum crucifixi as Calvin saith and In 1 Cor. 11. the memoriall not so much of Christs life or resurrection De satisfact cap. 1. saith Grotius as of his death This death hath no second in all the world for it was the death of the Sonne of God the death of the Lamb of God 1. Of the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory whose highness and excellency gave price and value to his death Had he not been man he could not have suffered Had he not been the Sonne of God God blessed for ever he could not have satisfied and conquered 2. Of the Lamb of God and therefore his death was a Sacrifice and that 's more than a Martyrdom for though a Martyr may be said to seal with his blood that truth he dies upon yet no blood can seal the Covenant but this of Christ no death can ratifie the Testament but the Testators death Had the death been the death of the Lord a most excellent person and not also the death of a Lamb for Sacrifice to make attonement it had wanted one of his properties but it was both As it was the death of the Lord of Glory the Sonne of God so it gave us the most illustrious testimony and example of the love of God as ever was or could be and that the Scripture often points unto As it was the death of the Lamb of God so it was a Sacrifice death wherein he was made sinne for us and bore our sinnes in his Body As it was the Joh. 11. 13. Rom. 5. Gal. 2. 20. death both of the Sonne of God and the Lamb of God so it reconciled us sinners unto God and meritoriously redeemed and ransomed us from our bondage to the curse and wrath of God the only ground and foundation of our hope peace and comfort § 2 Secondly It is the business of the Communicant to shew forth this death of the Lord The Ordinance it self is full of death what other language doth bread broken and the blood severed from the body speak but a dying Christ As the Ordinance so the Communicant doth by eating and drinking in fact declare and annunciate his profession of adherence to and embracement of the death of Christ we solemnly and publiquely avow both to God and men that we stick unto and abide by the death of the Lord for remission of sinne and reconciliation of our persons to God and it is a solemn part of Gods positive worship to shew forth the death of Christ our Lord not by a meer historicall relation but a practicall and publique profession of our faith and acceptance thereof which though at all times we may remember yet God would have a solemn Ordinance in his Gospel-Churches for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Supper I know men are witty to elude Ordinances and to flatter themselves with private devotions and meditations but when God hath set up an Ordinance on purpose for the publique and solemn shewing of the Lords death let them consider it that are not only careless of the benefit of it but fail of their duty by not presenting themselves at this solemn shewing of the Lords death but how can it be expected that they that shew not the life of Christ by a godly conversation should care to shew forth his death by publique profession or rather how can it be construed that they do it out of conscience of duty and not out of meer superstition expecting that from the Sacrament which the Papist expects from his auricular confession that is to quit the old score that he may more freely begin upon a new But I may not forget that which is very learnedly Observed that the Apostle using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which frequently is Used for publishing and preaching Schiud in loc Haggada the Gospel doth
the Church of God waited neer four thousand years from the first promise of Christ made to Adam to his first coming so shall the Church of the Gospel wait many years from that promise of Christs second coming Act. 1. 11. untill it be The first Christians did not imagine so long Revolution of time untill Christs second coming as we have seen sixteen hundred and how many yet are to runne out we know not The Apostle checks it in the Thessalonians 2 Thess 2. 2. who began to think that the day of Christ was at hand and the Christians in Justins time who were most of them of the millenary opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he did not think it should be so long ere the thousand years should commence and in Tertullians time they Used in their publick prayers to pray pro mora finis for delay of the end in respect of Antichrists tyranny but the Jews are the example of the efficacy of errour that have overshot already that which is Christs first coming by above sixteen hundred years and are yet gazing we rest in this there is a fulnesse of time for Christs first and so for his second coming and then he will come our hope our comfort our salvation do all lie upon it and therefore we look for it Secondly This Ordinance of the Supper is to continue till Christ come the meaning is not That men shall not deface and dishonour it in some places but that it shall continue in force though not in Use God will not alter or discharge it and the like for there is the like Reason may be said of other standing Ordinances of worship The Jewish Passeover was an Ordinance for ever but that ever had an end when Christ came and the Ordinances of that Church though they might be defaced and destroyed for a time yet were in force till Christs first coming and so the Gospel-Sacraments Worship Ordinances and may it please you Ministry shall be in force and God grant in Use for the time of their Ever and that is Christs second coming The legal Sacrifices and Ordinances were as the Apostle expounds Heb. 12. 27. the Prophet to be shaken down and removed by the bringing in of a better Covenant and other Ordinances by Christ Jesus but the Ordinances of the Gospel cannot be shaken are never to be removed by any other Ordinance or any new Church but onely to cease and expire with the worlds end The Scripture closes and shuts it self up with this Come Lord Jesus Rev. 22. 20. § 3 The Use of this Point may be 1. To confirm us in the Use and esteem of the Ordinances of Christ which have no other period then the world wiser we cannot be than he that thought them necessary but we may be prouder than we should by thinking our selves in a state of perfection and not infirmity which Christ hath provided for by his Ordinances of the Sacrament he saith Till I come Of the Gospel-Ministry he saith I am with you to the worlds end The devil is foolishly subtil now adayes under a pretence of immediate spirit crying down Ordinances and the Gospel-spirit must put down Gospel-Ordinances what Christ set up the Spirit must demolish and it is a Spirit indeed but a perverse one as you may see by the same argument cast in another mould The water only refreshes and quenches thirst therefore cut off all the cocks and pipes you know my meaning § 4 2. This point may stop the mouth of those degenerate Apostates the shame of Christianity that mock at the common principles and fundamentals of our faith saying Where is the promise of his coming 2 Pet. 3. 4. They are Infidels in their faith that they may be Epicures in life We have not waited half so long for his second coming as the old believers did for his first God hath somewhat to do in the world besides the saving of us Time is not so long if it be measured by his span as by ours a thousand years are as one day and then what shall we say to the real Presentialists who will have Christ to come into every Sacrament and yet it 's said Till he come as if he were not personally there at present The Scripture sayes nothing of Christs corporal invisible presence on earth takes notice of a first coming and a second but no more and yet lastly What shall we say to those that are called Seekers and to the Sans-Ordinance men and the Supra ordinance men that will be without and are above Ordinances I say no more then this Christ is not yet come the second time and as it was his first coming that set them up So it is his second only that shall take them down Let not pride infatuate you for as it is a miserable case when the best plea or excUse for a man is to say he was drunk he was mad so it is but a sorry excUse for blasphemy to say It is his conscience let the Ordinances of Christ have his own date viz. till he come § 5 Doct. 5 The fifth point might be taken up from those words This Bread and this Cup where we finde it called Bread still after Consecration in confutation of Popish Transubstantiation and both Bread and Cup allowed to the Communicants a shame to Popish Sacriledge that hath robb'd the Sacrament of one of them but enough was said of both these before when I handled the words of Institution CHAP. XVII Of worthy and unworthy Receiving of the Lords Supper 1 COR. 11. 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord. THis verse hath a mark in it's fore-head the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore whereby at first sight it looks like an inference or collection from that which went before where the Apostle having laid down the Institution of this Sacrament in the Use thereof gathers from thence That whosoever eats this bread c. unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and bloud of Christ § 1 The sinne of receiving unworthily is largely insisted on in the following part of this Chapter where the aggravation of this sinne is shown by the special guilt that attends it and that is a guiltinesse of the Lords body by the particular caUse of this guiltinesse Not discerning the Lords body by the judgement that follows upon it damnation or punishment by the way of prevention of the sinne the guilt and judgement and that is self-examination and self-judging self-examination for the prevention of the sin self-judging for prevention of the punishment inflicted by God So that for a particular sinne properly incident to the abUse or miscarriage of men in this Ordinance there is very much said to shew the nature and danger of it becaUse the distempers reigning amongst the Corinthians did herein shew themselves which the Apostle studies to discover and to heal and
that they were discommended that hold to the Legall service 2. Heathens and Infidels are excluded from this Table becaUse they are extraneous and without so they are called 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge or censure them that are without they are without the gates of the Church not obnoxious to the Government nor allowed the priviledges of it and they that are without the gate cannot be admitted to the Table untill they come in and be members of the family 3. All unbaptized persons are excepted by the order of our Sacraments whereof Baptism is first for insition and implantation into the Body of Christ and the Lords Table for further coalition and growth this order is confirmed by the Use or business of the Sacraments the one being of Regeneration and so first the other of Communion and so the second See 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one spirit are we baptized into one Body and have been all made to drink into one spirit first baptized and then made to drink which order the Church of Christ hath held from the beginning as it 's said by Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. After the new Convert is thus washed we bring him to our meetings where the Eucharist is 4. Those that are under a present incapacity of performing such antecedaneous acts of preparation or which are to be exercised in the act of communicating provided that this incapacity be visible as I may say or manifest unto us as in infants ideots stupid ignorants bruits in the shape of men who though baptized yet are not capable of discerning the Lords Body or of examining themselves who seem to be excepted ver 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat and drink And so I know a mad man may have lucid intervals and a poor ignorant soul may be brought to know the letters and spell the first syllables of Christianity against either of which I would not shut the door but if the ignorant cannot be gotten beyond sottishness and stupidity nor got out of his Obstinacy in blindness I should be very unwilling to let him runne blinofold down the precipice or leave the door open for him to fall into condemnation not that I envy him a benefit but pity his downfall which I ought to hinder or at least not to help forward and I may say of such an one as the Apostle of the Law Rom. 7. 13. Shall that which is good be made death unto him God forbid Especially considering that the Apostle having said Let a man examine himself and so let him eat doth in the next words come on again ver 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body As for infants though the Churches of ancient time admitted them after Baptism to partake of the P Martyr in Musculus de caena Lords Supper for some hundreds of years and one or two of our Reforming Divines speak somewhat favourably of it yet the ground they went upon Joh. 6. 53. that otherwise they had not salvation is disclaimed by all both becaUse that Chapter speaks nothing of Sacramentall or Symbolicall eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood and also was delivered by Christ a year or two before this Sacrament was born into the world and becaUse there is so much activity and exercise required in a Communicant as viz. to remember the Lords death to shew it forth to discern the Lords body to examine ones self to judge ones self therefore is that ancient practise Obsolete and as by tacite consent deserted and in room thereof we admit now not by their years for a man of threescore may be a childe in understanding and a childe in years may be a man but by their discretion and knowledge in the mystery of Christ and if the Parents or Pastors care the blossoming of grace and pregnancy in the childe were answerable to my desires I should as I am for great reasons be for eatly admissions of them as namely that the benefit and refreshing of this Ordinance might curb the over-growth of the sins and lusts of youth and help forward the growth of their graces to an early maturity Those that are professed Christians baptized-Church-members whether they live in open practice or fall under the guilt of some gross and scandalous sinne are for that time as they be impenitent to be secluded from or not admitted unto this Communion and this is an adjudged case in Scripture 1 Cor 5. where one for terrible incest notoriously manifest detested by very Heathens remained in the Communion of the Church through neglect of their duty which the Apostle reproves and having shown what power they had of judging such as were within members of their Church enjoyns them to purge out the leaven and to cast out from themselves that wicked person and least any perverse gainsayer should restrain this power to this one sin the Apostle saith ver 11. If any that is called a brother be a fornicatour a covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or extortioner the Church hath power to judge them that are within But what is this to the Sacrament enough verily for he that is cast out of the hoUse is certainly cast out from the houshold table and the abstention from Communion so much named in Cyprian or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or seclusion Forbes 631. mentioned in the Canons and whatsoever word is Used for this casting one out of Church-communion here if any where it operates and works in forbidding the Use of the Table where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Church society and communion is as for instance Divorce though it extend further yet signifies nothing at all is no Divorce if not a thoro or mensa from bed or board so this restention is nothing it works nothing I speak not of a private avoidance of familiarity with wicked persons which lies on private persons if not to this seclusion from the Table I shall not further urge the example of the old Testament which debarres the uncircumcised and the unclean for the time from the Passeover and I deny not that under that worldly Sanctuary and those carnall Ordinances as they are called Heb. 9. 1 10. Legall uncleanness might debarre when spirituall and morall did not as now morall filthiness may when legall uncleanness is not for that uncleanness under the Law had a spirituall signification and though it was not alwaies sinne yet it signified morall pollution as the leaven which was held Hag. 2. 13. execrable and must be cast out at the Passeover is spiritually applied to another meaning by the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. Purge out the old leaven ver 7. for Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us the old leaven that is the wicked and incestuous person Beza Slater alii out of your society and malice and wickedness out of your lives ver 8. and
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
not my having faith or the truth of my faith I allow too but if this be all the Sacrament seals then it seals no more to a believer than to any man in the world no more to a receiver than a spectatour For whether I believe or no by the relation that the seal hath to the Covenant it confirms and seals it even as it is instituted in the Word for that purpose As the Seal of a Bond Deed Conveyance seals the truth of that Bond to all men to the Witnesses to the Jury who are confirmed that the Bond is true by the Seal But there is a further sealing and that is the Sacrament seals the interest of a believer in Christ unto or in the Covenant and Promises thereof As the Seal of the Bond seals the summe to be paid to the Creditour and the Seal of the Deed seals the propriety and benefit and possession of the State convey'd I say to a believer the Sacrament seals this as to no man else for those words Take Eat Drink are part of the sealing Use or the applying Use and which puts this out of doubt it 's said That this bread we break This Cup we blesse is the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ And what is that but participation For as Chemnitius observes Chem. exam de Praeparat ad caenam The great thorn in a weak believer that disquiets him is this Christ is indeed full and sweet the Promises true and precious but have I any share Have I any portion in them Have I any right or interest Now this is that which is sealed to a believer and of it self though no man believe it seals as was said before the truth and reality of the Promise and of Gods offer for I shall not deny that Now if a man through want of faith be not capable of this effect or Use of the Seal it is not for meer want of that capacity that he is prohibited the Lords Table for then all unregenerate men and all that are not converted should be forbidden which we teach not but it is for scandalous and enormous sin persisted in with Obstinacy and scorn it is becaUse he hath not so much as a little beam of light to know what he doth or what danger he runs upon § 6 Nor can it be said that confirming grace afforded in this Sacrament is in substance the same with converting and that which is confirming to one may be converting to another and so the Sacrament may as well afford one as another Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. being but still the same grace for this is a meer fallacy and a strain beyond Reason Let confirming grace be the same with converting As every degree of heat or fire is the same nature as the first degree yet this Sacrament affords confirming and not converting grace becaUse it presupposeth faith in the Receiver whereby a further degree of grace may be bestowed and without that Faith doth not impart any grace at all As the life maintain'd by meat and drink is the same life Doth it therefore follow that meat and drink may convey life into a dead man becaUse it maintaines it in a living No It 's true the same life in a dead man would make him live but the life maintain'd in a man by meat and drink is therefore maintain'd becaUse there is a life in the man that can eat and drink receive nourishment by which the meat is made nutritive and lively which otherwise could not be And so there must be life in the Patient else the Plaister or Medicine if applied to a dead man would not recover or strengthen life I deny not but if the Sacrament could convey the same grace to a dead man as it doth to a living that dead man would live but that it cannot doe becaUse it works by way of nourishment which the dead receive not Quest If niceties may be heard we shall have no end Suppose saith one a godly man fall into scandalous sinne and therein lie impenitent Why doe you not forthwith admit him to the Sacrament which you say may helpe towards his conversion from a fall though it convert not a man from the state of nature Answ I answer That this Ordinanee doth excite and quicken grace by which a Christian may recover his fall and yet if I say such a Plaister is good to heal a sore it will not follow that therefore it must forthwith be applied for there is proud flesh and a rotten core first to be eaten out with corrosives and then the Plaister may be Used So if there be such or such a sinne under which a godly man lies there is another 1 Cor. 5. Ordinance of God first to be applied for destruction of the flesh for to bring shame and confusion and that is the casting of him out the putting of him away from the society of the faithfull and when that corrosive hath wrought than the Sacrament is to be applied for his strengthning and refreshing Having acquit my self of this Digression I now returne to the Point which I propounded and explain'd before I tooke the turne which I have travail'd and am now in the ready way againe CHAP. XXII Of Worthy and Vnworthy Receiving With some Cautions to prevent mis-judging our selves in the Case § 1 THe Point formerly propounded is That this Sacrament may be received worthily and it may also be received unworthily I mean de facto worthily and unworthily referre to the manner of communicating The Apostle expresses but the one of them being led thereunto by the occasion at present but having precisely laid down the institution of the Supper which regulates the manner of receiving he said enough to make us know what it is to receive unworthily and consequently for the right line is judge of the crooked what to receive unworthily and therefore after he had laid forth the institution he brings in this 27th verse with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore or so that as concluding the manner of receiving from the very nature Use and end of the Ordinance I know worthily and unworthily are opposites and sometimes competent to the same person at the same time or in the Use of the same element either the bread or the Cup. Upon which last words you may ask me May a man receive the bread worthily and the Cup unworthily And I answer That the reading of this Text dis-junctively Whosoever shall Estius in loc eat this bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily which some of the Papists contend for in favour of their dry Masse hath occasioned the starting of that Question which yet I will not contend about in this place but leave it to such resolution as may be given by the sequell of our discourse for I naturally abhorre the crumbling of Scripture into crums when it is delivered to us as the bread in this Ordinance is not by crums when
sounding words and the Reason is becaUse the Gospel placing our righteousnesse and our happinesse in the having of Christ and taking every man utterly off his own bottom doth thereby come to a new reckoning that is not Used in the whole world and accounts them full that are most empty rich that are poor blessed that are in their own sense or outward condition miserable possessing all things that have nothing and so in this point in hand according to Luther's paradoxal expression which our Whitaker approves is Est optime dispositus qui est pessime dispositus He is most worthy that is most unworthy viz. that is sensible of his unworthinesse 2. If this worthinesse of a Communicant should Whitak de Sacram. p. 658. be imagin'd to signifie any meritorious or proud congruities of our vertues works righteousnesse it would be the greatest unworthinesse that could be What should such proud creatures come to a Sacrament or memorial of Christs death for that being no sinne with them to be expiated by that death Thou sayest I am rich I stand in need of nothing go anoint thy eyes that thou mayest see Revel 5. This Pool of Siloam is for such as have infirmities Nor doth the Gospel require perfect faith or perfect repentance or grace for that 's against the nature of this Sacrament which is to last no longer than our imperfections and infirmities last that is untill Christ come So as there is no better Argument of our imperfection than the command of growing in grace so neither is any a fit patient for this medicine but the weak and impotent the doubting and complaining soul The Gospel knows not the name of attainers nor the thing Not that I have attained or were already perfect Phil. 3. 12. This meat and drink is for growing children which as the old Physician Hippocrates saith must be often-nourisht How long might a man examine himself before he finde this temper in himself that he wants nothing there can be no wonder that such a one is above Ordinances especially this which though it be one of the highest Ordinances of the Church yet is accommodated to the Use of the lowest believer The Apostles communicated in it before the Spirit was sent down solemnly upon them they were but ignorant and raw when Christ said Take Eat Drink ye all of it 3. If thou hast the seminals of grace mixt with a masse of corruptions as gold at first is mixed with much earth there may be worthinesse despise not small things Natural generation begins in a small thing a little drop and so Regeneration If there be sense of sin if thirst after Christ there is something Thou art discouraged with thy daily lapses why drink of this wine for thy often infirmities Thou art overborn with strong lusts come and eat and drink to nourish thy weak graces keep them alive to fight though they do not conquer and triumph Thou canst not say thou hast faith but canst thou feel thy want of it and mourn for it This smoak comes from some invisible spark Thou art not thou sayest in Covenant and the Seal belongs not to thee But art thou willing to be in it and come into the bond of the Lord Is it the longing of thy soul to be ingaged into the ways of God and disenthrall'd from the sweet bondage of sin In a word Let thy sins and corruptions be strong and violent thy wants many thy weaknesse great Let them be as thou sayest as thou fearest yet if there be a groaning sense a longing desire of remedy affections piercing of and breathing after Christ If there be a seed of God in thy heart which is kept alive in the midst of so much corruption by no lesse a miracle than if a spark be kept alive in the sea then surely there is a Gospel-meetnesse in thee to be partaker of this Supper Here is Christ cook'd ready to thy weakest and lowest faith in obvious materials of meat and drink Let not the pride of any worthinesse bring thee nor the sense of unworthinesse keep thee back CHAP. XXIII Of Worthy Receiving c. § 1 I Now proceed to handle this point That this Bread may be eaten and this Cup of the Lord may be drunk worthily It is the highest grace that the eternal God should admit sinfull dust and ashes to be his confederates that from his Altar he should furnish a Table for them and feed them with that flesh and bloud which is offer'd up unto himself a Sacrifice Ephes 5. 1. for a sweet smelling savour that he should account them to eat and drink worthily who account not themselves worthy to eat and drink Merit and worthinesse have both their due place merit belongs to the Sacrifice Christ Jesus worthinesse to the Communicant who eats and drinks in such manner as becomes the nature and is answerable to the Use and end of this Ordinance I shall come up to the manner of receiving worthily by certain orderly steps As §. 2. Of Preparation to this Sacrament § 2 1. There is a certain peculiar preparation due to the celebration of this Ordinance for where the manner is so contrary as worthily and unworthily and the effect of the Ordinance much depending upon the manner of receiving it and the benefit so great as communion of Christs body the danger no lesse than of condemnation Reason will tell us that there is a preparation requisite that the fruit may be of the Tree of Life and not of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil Eat and die It 's either too much blindnesse or boldnesse to rush upon this Ordinance without preparation Nature induceth not a new form without preparing the matter Art as it helps so it imitates nature else that which is medicinal may be mortal Our Saviour did not only Use but honour preparations when he fasted and pray'd in order to his great work To the Passeover there belong'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a solemn preparation the Lamb was taken up on the tenth day the leaven was enquired after and purged out which if they have now no obligation yet they have a meaning and you Use to have Sermons for preparation which are but preparatives to preparation they do but light the candle but you must as that woman Luk. 15. 8. Sweep the hoUse and seek diligently else Sermon-preparation may as I fear it often doth go without soul preparation That word vers 28. And so let him eat Gerard. de Sac. Caena c. 23. tels us plainly that somewhat must go before The Papists distinguish of preparation sufficient and probable but that which is probable may be insufficient and so no man be certain that he comes worthily A fit dispute for such as would have meritorious preparations so much sanctity as indeed needs no Sacrament which therefore they say takes away onely venial sinnes I would not bring so much to the Sacrament as to look for little from it Those that
Christ receive here the pardon of sin Question not the Seal or truth of it 3. That I may not divide into further particulars there is by this Sacrament a communication of a greater proportion of Gospel-Spirit For we have been all made to drinke into one Spirit 2 Cor. 12. 13. which Spirit plentifully bestows his severall fruits and graces for the growing up of a member into Christ the Head in all things Ephes 4. 15. from whence we have not onely those Auxilia actualia actual influences and aids of delight comfort evidence sweet tastes powerfull motions and impressions which Vasquez cals grace sacramental and saith That Gratia Sacramentalis non est gratia habitualis sed auxilia quaedam actualia which I conceive is an errour For though a man have a sweet taste and transient delight in meat or wine yet there is also a permanent and abiding nourishment proceeding from that he eats or drinks So here the very habituall graces are nourisht strengthened excited It may be a man at present doth not feele that strength he doth receive nor is sensible of the intention of his graces For the same Vasquez saith Intentionem habituum infusorum sub experimento humano cadere non posse And it 's true at present time But the growth of grace manifests it selfe in time We doe not see our selves or others grow but that we are growne is plaine enough nor doe we see how much the light incReases by every step of the Sunne rising higher for our growth is graduall and by imperceptible instances and degrees when power of resisting temptations mortifie lusts which before were too hard for us doth appear we may see our growth as we see our shadowes are shortened but how much in a minute we see not and may say That the graces which this Ordinance requires and excites are thereby strengthened and enlarged and therefore the Rule is good What Grace thou wouldest have strengthened by this Ordinance that doe thou set on work and exercise in it for that is Sowing to the Spirit as the Apostle cals it And I make no Question but a believer shall finde the benefit of this Sacrament in his obedience also for the fuller the Vessell is the faster it will runne out at the tap If the habits incRease the fruit of obedience will be proportionable We mend a barren Tree at the root sweeten the sap there and the Tree is more fruitfull When Jacob had seen the sweet vision in Bethel then he lifted up his feet Genes 29. 1. it put mettle into him So much for this Point the Benefit of this Sacrament which being dis-Used as at this time is a great losse to the improvement of Christians though they see it not The Christians in persecuting times when a storme was coming then were they most diligent to frequent this Table to lay in store for a hard Winter and fortifie their resolutions And let this Benefit be a Motive to the Use of Preparation which was the Reason I have handled it in this place for there is no Promise no Benefit to one that comes to this Table unworthily CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking Vnworthily § 1 I Have said concerning eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup of the Lord worthily Now I come to the other branch The eating and drinking unworthily What that is hath been sufficiently opened already The Antithesis or opposition between worthily and unworthily is such as if you know the one you know both as he that knows what a right line is knows what is a crooked or oblique Worthily to eat is in such manner as is answerable and suitable to the nature end and Use of the Ordinance and unworthily to eat is contrary that is without a sacramental or Supper-disposition and otherwise then is fit that these holy mysteries be handled and intreated as I have before proved The Point I shall take up is this § 2 To eat the bread and drink the Cup of the Lord unworthily is a sinne of an high Nature and of consequence dangerous It is a fearfull sinne and attended with fearfull effect It is of a high nature as appears by that peculiar guilt which is contracted he shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord it is of fearfull consequence He eats and drinks judgement to himself Thou seest saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In loc what a terrible word the Apostle speaks speaks nay thunders so as may awake the secure soul into a trembling The example of Nadab and Abihu their being made Sacrifices themselves was enough to give warning to all after them against offering of strange fire and was the occasion of that excellent Rule which God gave at that time to be observed in all our near approaches to him I will be sanctified of all that come nigh me Lev. 10. 3. There are four things to be open'd 1. The sin it self viz. Eating and drinking unworthily 2. The caUse of the sinne Not discerning the Lords body 3. The aggravation of the sinne by the object and peculiar nature of it viz. A guiltinesse of the body and bloud of Christ 4. The danger that attends or follows upon it He eats and drinks judgement to himself § 3 1. The sinne is Eating and drinking unworthily and it is a peculiar sinne or transgression of the Law of this Ordinance One may do what the Law requires and yet sinne grievously if the manner of doing be vicious and corrupt Men may be content if the matter by their Law required be done whether with a good will or an evil but God is not so who values the disposition of heart when the thing in command sometimes is not done so he hearkned to Hezekiah his prayer for them that prepared their heart to seek God though not legally purified 2 Chron. 31. 19. and is highly displeas'd when the command Do this is Observed but it is done unworthily and therefore they say he is pleased with benè not meerly with bonum The Ordinance it self is the Index or Touchstone of unworthinesse Here is Christ offer'd and presented to thee and thou hast no faith Christ broken bleeding for sinne and thou hast no repentance Christ for spiritual nourishment and thou hast no appetite The Covenant is sealed and thou art no confederate strengthening and refreshing grace convey'd and thou art a dead man Communion of Christs body and bloud and thou art no member in Union with him How unsatiable art thou to the Ordinance and therefore eatest and drinkest unworthily § 4 This word unworthily may he taken two wayes Privative and Contrary Taken privatively it is as much as not worthily not suitably to the Nature and Use of the Ordinance Taken contrarily it is as much as wickedly so we say a man deals unworthily that is basely unjustly injuriously In the first sense He that hath no spiritual grace and therefore cannot exercise it or he that hath some but doth not exercise
believe these Corinthians men of such knowledge were such bruits for the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 16. speaks to them as wisemen who knew this saying The Bread we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ c. Therefore §. 3. What it is not to discerne the Lords Body practically § 3 The practical discerning of the Lords body is when the body and bloud of Christ are so minded and intended as to compose the inward man and the outward behaviour of the Communicant into such a posture of spirit and carriage as is suitable to Christs body and bloud there offered and exhibited unto faith and the not discerning the Lords body is when the behaviour is so loose and rude the inward man so discomposed and carnal as that interpretative they may be said not to minde or not to discern the Lords body So we would say of one whose carriage is wanton and loose in the presence of his fathers corpse lying in presence in a coffin or beer you doe not minde you consider not who lies there becaUse if he did another countenance and carriage would beseem him and so the Corinthians are taxed here for such carriage of theirs as proclaim'd they had no serious thoughts no sad and fixed minde upon Christ bleeding and broken for that consideration would have bespoken another frame of spirit and forme of behaviour The result of this explication is The Apostle gives us a two-fold caUse of eating and drinking unworthily 1. If we understand not know not the Analogy or resemblance of the bread and wine to the body and bloud of Christ but stick in the rind or shell and feed only on the husks as upon common bread and common wine and resting in that as knowing not the Use or end which makes the difference which renders all bruitish ignorant people unworthy receivers And how should I make them know the danger that know not thus farre of the Use of this Ordinance Willingnesse to be taught would help it if they were not more willing to runne blindefold into the pit than proudly unwilling to discover their fillinesse and ignorance and if they be unwilling It 's no cruelty but charity to keep a blinde man from running into a pit 2. If we understand the meaning of the outward elements by rote or notional knowledge but do not seriously and with a fixed intention consider and look wishly upon Christs body and bloud represented offered and to be exhibited to our faith for this will compose our outward behaviour and inward spirit this bespeaks faith repentance affections suitable this composes us unto reverence and serious behaviour Imagine the very Body of the Lord Jesus was presented to your eye broken bruised bleeding for thy sinnes under the stroke of Gods terrible justice and so offer'd unto thee for thy salvation Would not thy soul raise up all affections and muster up all it's forces to receive him to open to him to thirst after him to admire and praise him And doth not God in this Ordinance really hold him forth to thee as such and so to be received The nature of the feast to which we are invited teaches us how to dresse our selves To a funeral we come in mourning to a marriage in a wedding-garment The very minding of the body of Christ teaches men to come worthily that is suitably and the not minding of it with fixed intention is the caUse that we come loosly carnally and so unworthily CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sinne of Vnworthy Receiving § 1 3. THe aggravation of unworthy receiving follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be holden guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord or God will judge and repute him guilty of the body of Christ unworthily received and entreated or guilty of the unworthy handling or of the contempt and violation of Christs body and blood the memorial of whose death is prophaned by your irreverence and this appointed means of your participation of it is undervalued What a high sound is there in these words He shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord and the eclypsis is left open to be filled with some fearfull word guilty of neglect of contempt of profane violation of and injury to this body the body of our Lord. For the right understanding of which phrase §. 2. What it is to be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. § 2 1. The Papists and no lesse the Lutherans doe hence infer That the very Body and Bloud of Christ is eaten and drunk by the mouth of the Communicant which they call Sacramentall eating and the reason is How else is an unworthy Receiver guilty of his Body We of our Confession that hold the Corporeal Presence of Christ under the Bread impossible as well as false do therefore inferre That that Body which is not corporally there cannot be eaten and therefore the guiltinesse of Christs Body is not by the oral eating 2. We expound it thus Whatsoever irreverence slightnesse neglect or contempt is Used by any in the celebration of this Ordinance is reputed and adjudged to redound to the very Body and Bloud of Christ As it's TReason against the State to embase their coin to abUse a Picture is dishonour to the person to hang a man in effigie or subvert ones Statue as the Romans Used are interpreted to the disgrace of the man whose they are And thus it is here by Reason of that near relation and analogy which this Bread and Cup have to Christ himself so the uncircumcised man-childe Gen. 17. 14. is said to have broken my covenant and therefore the Fathers reckon an unworthy receivers sinne to be like that of Judas the Jews the Souldiers that abUsed and dishonour'd the very Body and Bloud of Christ and this is a peculiar guilt that attends upon the celebration of this Ordinance wherein Christ condescends to come so near us by offering his Body and Bloud to us and this condescention to be neglected and refUsed Think of this and measure not the sinne by your own apprehension of it but by the account which God makes of it who accounts all them that come unworthily to vilifie the Body the sufferings of his Sonne our Lord and to despise the Seal of that gracious Covenant which we make our selves believe we doe not do The result from hence is § 3 1. The sins of wicked Christians against Gospel-Ordinances are of highest nature and incurre greater guilt It 's said of Christians That after illumination and taste fall away they crucifie to themselves again the Sonne of God and put him to open shame Heb. 6. 6. And they that sin wilfully after the knowledge of the truth are said to have trodden under foot the Sonne of God and counted the bloud of the Covenant a common thing and to have done despight to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 19 26. A meer Heathen is out of capacity of guiltinesse of these high sinnes He
of this Sacrament CHAP. IV. Of the time of this Sacraments Institution and of Judas betraying Christ CHAP. V. Why Christ deferred the instituting of the Supper untill the night in which he was betrayed CHAP. VI. Of the Outwards or Elements of this Ordinance of the Supper CHAP. VII Some Observations upon the precedent Discourses CHAP. VIII Of the Real Presence CHAP. IX Of the inward things signified or represented in this Supper CHAP. X. A fonr-fold Exhortation from the premises CHAP. XI Of Christs Mandate or Charge for the celebration of this Ordinance in Remembrance of him CHAP. XII Of doing this in remembrance of Christ The Properties of this Memorial CHAP. XIII A Lamentation for the neglect of this Ordinance CHAP. XIII How much it concerneth Ministers to Teach and all to Learn the true meaning of this Ordinance CHAP. XIV The great Business that lies upon the Communicant as oft as he eats this Bread and drinks this Cup he shews the Lords Death CHAP. XV. The Lords-Supper is an itterable Ordinance CHAP. XVI Of the Continuance of this and other Gospel-Ordinances in the Church CHAP. XVII Of Worthy and Unworthy Receiving of the Lords-Supper CHAP. XVIII The Uses which are to be made of the two last Theses CHAP. XIX What must be done where Discipline cannot be executed for want of Administrators CHAP. XX. Whether a Godly man lawfully may or ought to stand as a Member of and hold Communion in the Ordinances of God with such a Congregation as is mixt as they call it that is where men visibly scandalous in Life and Conversation are mingled with the Good in the Participation and Use of Divine Ordinances Or Whether this Mixture of Heterogeneals do not pollute the Ordinances and the Communion to the Godly so as they are concerned to separate from such Communion CHAP. XXI Whether the Lords Supper be a Converting Ordinance CHAP. XXII Of Worthy and Unworthy Receiving with some Cautions to prevent mis-judging our selves in the Case CHAP. XXIII Of Worthy Receiving c. CHAP. XXIV That a Godly man may receive the Sacrament unworthily CHAP. XXV Of the Graces which are to be exercised and set on work in the Use of this Sacrament CHAP. XXVI Motives to quicken Endeavors to a fit or worthy Participation of this Ordinance CHAP. XXVII False and insufficient Qualifications for the Receiving of this Sacrament CHAP. XXVIII The Fruit and Benefit of worthy Receiving CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking unworthily CHAP. XXX The CaUse of this Sin Viz Not discerning the Lords Body CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sin of unworthy Receiving CHAP. XXXII The Danger of this Sinne. CHAP. XXXIII Of Examination in order to this Sacrament The Bookseller to the READER THis Treatise was very fairly writ by the Reverend Authour Mr Richard Vines now with God and perfected for the Press with his own Hand after which a great part of it was lost and carried by a stranger that took it up thirty miles off which yet by a good Providence of God was brought to his own hands again to his great rejoycing and I hope the Churches great benefit which seems to be the design of that unexpected Providence now that it is made publick He omitted to divide it into Chapters and Sections for the pleasure of the Reader which notwithstanding is now done together with the Contents of every Chapter and of most of the Sections which I thought good to certifie lest any expressions therein should seem unsuitable to the Authours own Genius and derogatory to his worth A TREATISE OF THE Right Institution Administration and Receiving of the SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SUPPER CHAPTER I. Of the Passeover or Paschall-Lamb Its signification and the Analogy or Resemblance between it and Christ our Passeover 1 COR. 5. 7 8. For Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leven c. § 1 IT is usuall in handling the nature and Use of Sacraments to begin with the notion of a Sacrament in generall and then to descend to particular Sacraments which we call Baptism and the Lords Supper in their order But the Field is large and the compasse great and therefore I begin where the Lords Supper it self began and therefore I begin where the Lords Supper it self began and that is at the Passeover at the death whereof and out of the ashes of it this Sacrament of ours like another Phoenix did arise for our Lord at his last Passeover called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his dying Passeover did institute and ordain this which is to live and remain till he come again and which Scaliger and others have Observed the very materials of our Sacramental Supper were taken out of the Paschall Supper for that very bread which the Master of the Family Used of custome not by any Scripture-command to blesse and give to the fraternity saying Holachma degnania 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the bread of affliction which the Fathers did eat in Egypt and that Cup which he blessed and gave to them to drink called the Cup of the hymn or Cos hallel becaUse the hymn followed after and closed all That bread and that Cup did Christ according to the rite severally blesse and give saying This is my body This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud and so he put a new Superscription or signification upon the old metall and let all blinde and bold Expositors know that if they expound not many phrases and things in the New Testament out of the old Records of Jewish writings or customes they shall but fancy and not expound the Text as may be confirmed saith Scaliger sexcentis argumentis by very many arguments In handling of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper I shall select such practical and preparative doctrine as is necessary for your knowledge that ye may discern the Lords body and not be guilty of it and for your practise that you may examine your selves and not eat and drink unworthily For if I should lanch out into controversies there would be no end There hath been more paper written upon those six syllables but five in English This is my body then would contain a just and large Commentary upon the whole Bible I begin with the Passeover which was the second for Circumcision was the first ordinary standing Sacrament of the Jewish Church beginning at their going forth out of Egypt and continuing till the Death of Christ when the Lords Supper did commence or begin and so displaced it The Passeover signified what should be the Lords Supper what is fulfilled in Christ In the Passeover were represented the Sufferings and Death of Christ by a Lamb slain rosted with fire In the Supper by bread broken and wine poured forth The outward symbols or signs differ But Christ is the same under both As Circumcision theirs baptism ours are different signs and rites but the inward Circumcision and Regeneration both one Theirs were both bloudy
and bloud This consideration is of special remark you feast upon a sacrifice you live you feed upon a sacrifice tolle Sacrificium tolle Sacramentum the mouth eats the Sacrament the eye of faith discerns the sacrifice Christ is the sacrifice the Sacrament no sacrifice but the commemoration and communication of a sacrifice and here the Reason must be Observed why God did institute their Passeover and our answerable Sacrament to consist in meat and drink eating and drinking and I conceive thus that it being the most proper way to partake of a sacrifice for how else can it be Therefore we eat and drink in way of participation of our sacrifice Hence the phrase Living upon Heb. 13. 10. the Altar eating of the Altar and thus if we carry our eye to the earthly part in the Supper and to the heavenly part that is to the Sacrament and the sacrifice represented and feed upon the sacrifice represented as well as the Sacrament representing we then discern the Lords body This is the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de hoc plus intra 2. Their Passeover was instituted as an Ordinance for ever for a memorial of their Deliverance in Aegypt and their eduction out of it a commemoration it was and to be Observed for ever that is in all succeeding generations whiles their Polity and Religion stood Exod. 12. 14 24 42. and therefore we read in Jewish Writers and there is some foot-step or original of it Exod. 26. 27. What mean you by this service that in every company of Passeover-communicants there was some one that rehearsed and made commemoration Haggadah shet pesuch the history Buxtorf Chal. Lexic of the Passeover and so God that would have the sacrifice of Christ for our sinne that greatest work of his and our deliverance thereby from worse then Aegypt or destroying Angel to be Observed and kept in minde by a lasting trophy or monument viz our Supper The Apostle in allusion to their custome Useth a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 26. Ye do shew As often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords death till he come or ye do commemorate and with affection and thanksgiving set it forth and as theirs was for ever till Christs first coming so ours is for ever till his second coming so long as their Church continued they were charged with this Ordinance so long as the Gospel-Church continues they are charged with this and therefore neither of the Doctrine of the Gospel nor of the Sacraments shall there be any removal or alteration till Christ come 3. Their Passeover in Aegypt was eaten in their several Families or societies A Lamb for a hoUse except it were too little Exod. 12. 3 4. and in after times when this was repeal'd Deut. 16. 6 7. and was confined to the place that God should chUse and so to Jerusalem then though the Lamb might be slain in the holy Court and the bloud sprinkled on the Altar yet they did carry it home to their hired chambers and there did eat in companies not less then ten in a fraternity Joseph de bello lib. 7. cap. 17. nor above twenty but no man alone Solum epulari non licet saith Joseph Christ and his company made one society so though Christ be our Sacrifice once offer'd up upon the cross a sacrifice to God yet doth our Supper bring him home to us into our Churches and into our souls There is an application of him to be made the bloud sprinkled on our doors the Paschal brought home to our own hoUse Take ye Eat ye Drink ye God comes to particulars with us and the application of the sacrifice is the life of the Sacrament we must eat and drink at home in our own souls Christ comes home to us and yet this Supper ought as the Passeover to be eaten in societies I know no Reason for one alone there must be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a company for it is a communion one makes not a communion The Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 20. When you come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a meeting v. 33 34. when you come together tarry one for another hence it hath been anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meeting a Congregation It 's Gods Ordinance saith a learned man that the Lords Hildersam Joh. 4 p. 122. Supper be administred in publick Assemblies How can there be a Communicant without a Communion sed de hoc infra not that the wals of a Church do make it a communion but a meeting of believers 4. Their Passeover was eaten with unlevened bread and sowre or bitter herbs Exod. 12. 8. There are many circumstances and ceremonies found in the Jewish Authors about the searching out of all leven yea with candles at noon-day and an execration of all leven if any should remain unfound and the bitter herbs were in constant Use the unlevened bread remembred them what haste they went out of Aegypt in Exod. 12. 34. and the bitter herbs what affliction and bondage they had suffer'd and further they saw not The Apostle interprets leven malice and wickedness unlevened bread sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. and so it teaches us how Christ is to be received by us and what manner of persons they must be that apply and receive Jesus Christ They must remember their bondage under sinne not with delight but bitterness and feel the sowr taste of their former wayes as sinners contrite and broken bitter herbs are good sauce for the paschal Lamb sinne felt sets an edge on the stomack as vinegar Christ relishes well to such a soul When thou comest to eat his Supper bring thy own sauce with thee bitter herbs and refresh on thy self the memory of thy old wayes and former lusts that 's the sauce the bread is unleavened bread you cannot eat the Lamb and leaven togegether a secure hypocrite a filthy swine not purged from sinne to think to have Christ and his sinne too to be pardon'd and not purged to be saved and not sanctified Away and never think to eat this Lamb with leaven'd bread come with bitter herbs thou maist contrition for sinne but come not with and in thy sins for that 's eating with leaven'd bread therefore search it out and let thy sinnes be searcht out as with a candle and let them be execrable to thee that God may see thy hatred of them and thy loathing of thy self for them 5. Their Passeover in Aegypt was to be eaten with loyns girded in procinctu shoes on feet and staff in hand and ye shall eat in haste Exod. 12. 11. and therefore standing as ready to be instantly on their march to leave the Land of Aegypt and go to seek their promised countrey which signifies to us that we must receive Christ and his bloud with intention and purpose to leave the dominions of Pharaoh the Kingdom service and bondage of sinne and the Devil and
himself 2. The New Testament or the New Covenant confirmed and ratified by his Blood with the contents of that Covenant viz. Remission of sins and other benefits by consequence flowing from it § 1 1. Here is Christ himself sacrificed for you with the Fruits and Benefits accruing from his death presented and set before you The efficacy of his Hooker Eccl. lib. 5. pag. 360. Body and Blood is not all that is here presented to be received as is consist by the true Protestant Churches of our Confession but first and principally Christ himself as the influence of heaven is in plants beasts men but there is not such a thing only here set forth but a Divine and mysticall Union with Christ himself for here is a participation saith the Apostle of the Body and Blood of Christ who is exhibited as really and truly present not opposing reall to spirituall but to chimericall or phantasticall nor intending his presence in the Elements as contained in them but to the faith of the receiver who hath union with him The very Body and Blood of Christ that Body which was fastened Peter Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 24 25. to the Cross that Blood which was shed was a Sacrifice as offered up to God is meat and drink as offered unto us and therefore our Divines say that Christ is truly and really but yet spiritually given to us as he was given for us This is my Body which is broken for you given for you saith the Text and that which was given for you is given to you He was given for you in the Sacrifice he is given to you in the Sacrament with those blessed fruits and benefits that flow from his Death § 2 2. Here is presented to you the New Testament a Covenant ratified and confirmed in his Blood with the benefits and priviledges thereof It is called New either from the excellency of it as the word New sometimes signifies or for the durableness and perpetuity of it as the Apostle explains it Heb. 8. ult in opposition to the Old made with Israel Cameron in Myreth Matth. 26. which was to determine and vanish away as to the form of dispensation This Covenant is That God will be our God and we shall be his people That he will forgive our iniquities and remember our sins no more c. and the Blood of Christ is the sanction of this Covenant for without Blood is no remission the blood of Christ is the Seal which ratifies the truth and validity of this Covenant The Wine in this Sacrament represents that Blood of Christ and is not so properly a Seal confirming the Covenant in it self as conveying the comfort and participation of it unto us or if you will it is a Seal of Remission of sin to us which is an Article of the Covenant that is sealed by the Blood of Christ and therefore it is said This is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for Remission of sins § 3 And so you have here presented to your Faith Christ himself sacrificed for you the New Covenant confirmed by Christs Blood shed for the pardon of sinnes which are the highest and most glorious things of Gods gift to mankinde who hath in the dishes of this outward Sacrament set before you such good cheer to feed upon as all Sacrifices under the Law and Feasts were but the meer shadows of Take heed of thinking meanly of the furniture of this Table God hath no better provision to set before a sinner than his Sons flesh and blood and his Covenant of grace sealed and confirmed our Socinian likes not this that word My Body broken for you my Blood shed for remission of sinnes makes him bestirre himself to turn off the Body broken to the bread and the Blood shed to the wine and so you see two extreams the Papist turns bread into Christs Body and wine into Blood the Socinian on the other hand that which is spoken of the Body puts off upon the bread and that of the Blood upon the wine that the death of Christ might not be a proper Sacrifice for us §. 4. II. What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance § 4 What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance and this is easily answered For as guests at the Table receive the meat and drink set before them so having seen what God presents to them we shall easily finde what they receive at this Table and that is 1. The faithfull communicant receives Christ himself or his Body and Blood Faith is a receiving of Christ himself we cannot receive the benefits that come by him without receiving of himself as in Marriage the consent is I take thee not I take thine and yet this is consequent upon that our union with Christ is strengthened and more closed and this union with Christ is one of those great mysteries Eph. 5. 32. resembled by man and wise who are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder and as she is under covert and free from arrest of Law for debt so a Beleever by his union with Christ is under coverture and the curse and condemnation of Gods Law cannot touch him or as members knit or branches united to the tree receive influx of life and spirits from the head and root so Beleevers united to Christ by his Spirit receive influences and spirit and life from him by vertue of their union I in them saith Christ Joh. 7. 23 26. The inhabitation of Christ in his people seems to be exprest by their eating and drinking of his Body and Blood spiritually and that inhabitation cannot be without a presence of him such as his inhabitation is such is his presence both reall and yet both spirituall he dwels in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. § 5 2. The faithfull communicant receives the confirmation of that Covenant which is his only comfort He takes hold of the Covenant by the Seal of it the Blood of Christ the severall articles whereof as that God will be our God and that in Christ he will forgive us all our sins c. are particularly sealed up for our better evidence and peace and security that we may be inabled to make a personall and particular claim of the benefits and priviledges of it which are called The unsearchable riches of Christ § 6 And from hence ver 12. the receiving of Christ himself and of the Covenant made in Christ and confirmed in his Blood doth follow that which is usually said to be the benefit of this Sacrament the strengthening refreshing sustentation of the soul by those graces comforts hopes which flow by consequence from Christ or the Covenant so that whatsoever a man may expect for bodily strength or reparation from bread and wine the like he may expect from Christ or the Covenant for his soul life maintained graces quickened deadness enlivened resolutions enabled
as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me For as often c. § 1 SO much be spoken upon the outward part or Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Elements and Rites He took bread and giving thanks he brake it and gave it Likewise also the cup after Supper And so much also touching the Kernell and Marrow of the Feast This is my Body broken for you This Cup is the New Testament in my blood And now having past through our thorny and perplexed way encombred with adversaries through whom we must fight our way we are come into a fairer and clearer road as into a champain not so much infested with enemies and Disputes For whether it be that a practicall conscience be easilier satisfied than a subtill wit or that the devil doth most labour to corrupt our intellectuals that so as once he may corrupt our worship and our morals or whatsoever the Reason be there are more wranglings and Disputes raised about speculative and theoreticall Points than about matters of practice or morall obedience These words contain our Saviour his mandate or charge for the celebration of this Ordinance together with the end whereunto it serves This do in remembrance of me This do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me This do ye there is the charge for remembrance of me there is the end None of the Evangelists have these words but Luke only out of whom either our Apostle takes the words or at least symbolizeth with him making them or rendring them as part of Christs own words spoken by himself at the first Institution and Celebration of his Supper and which you may Observe the two Elements Bread and Wine taken and received though they have distinct significations Christs Body broken and his Blood shed yet they meet as two lines in this one point The remembrance of Christ This do in remembrance of me is spoken of eating the bread ver 24. This drink in remembrance of me is spoken of the cup ver 25. The Use of both the signes makes up but one memoriall of Christ once dying once sacrificed up to God for us and I shall take up the words in this one Point § 2 Doct. The Lord Christ hath left it in charge and commandment that his Church or people should celebrate this Supper for a remembrance of him Or if you will read the words thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for my memoriall or for my commemoration What impression hath the dying charge or commandment of a Testator upon his children or executors Christ builds a monument for himself before he die plain and simple to the eye but a lasting monument that must continue till he come again ver 26. One of the seven wonders of the Heathen world was Mausolaeum a Monument or Tomb. The goodliest monument which distinguishes and beautifies the Christian Church is this of Christs own erecting his Memoriall The second Temple built after the captivity of Babylon was farre inferiour in outward magnificence and splendour to the first built by Solomon and the Jews observe five things to be wanting in the second which were in the first as the Ark c. yet God promiseth Hag. 2. 9. The glory of this latter hoUse shall be greater then the former becaUse Christ the desire of all Nations should come and fill it with glory ver 7. And shall not the presence of Christs Body and Blood in this Sacrament excell in glory all the typicall glory of Sacrifices and Sacraments of the Law They were but shadows of him that should come this the memoriall of him that died and is alive The particulars comprehended under this Point are these § 3 First There is a command and charge in the words Do this it is more then a Warrant which gives authority it 's a Command that requires duty It is more than a Command it is a Charge of a dying Testatour or Saviour laying an injunction upon his Church to do this For both Sacraments of the Gospel we have the word of command The Baptizate Go and Disciple all Nations baptizing them is the word for Baptism Hoc facite This do ye in remembrance of me is the word for the Supper There must be in a Sacrament First An outward Element Secondly A word of promise Thirdly A word of command to Use it to that end as none but Whitak de Sacr. Qu. 6. de numero the supream power hath authority to stamp or coyn legitimate and currant money so none but God can institute and make a Sacrament The Sacraments are parts of Gods instituted worship standing by positive appointment of God The eating and drinking of bread and wine in their natural being or Use are no more memorials symbols and pledges of Christs body and bloud than the form of a Serpent in brasse of healing those that were bitten with fiery Serpents no man can authoritatively institute a Sacrament or prescribe to God any part of his worship I have received of the Lord saith the Apostle that which I delivered also unto you and the Reason is good He onely can make a Sacrament who can make good the promise or grace thereby represented and exhibited § 4 Secondly The charge is to Do this that is to celebrate this Supper Chist limits and confines us to Jans Harm in Mat 26. this as God did Moses See thou do all things according to the patern shown thee in the Mount If we vary from the patern there lies a quis requisivit against us Who hath-required this at your hands So God checks our inventions and superstition in creating will-worship by adding or detracting as we may not coyn so neither wash or clip or embase that which is stamped by the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referrs to that which went before Eat this blessed and broken Bread the next words explain it Do this as oft as ye drink it principally it relates to the actions of Gerard. Harm cap. 171. Communicants Do this that is Eat ye Drink ye and consequently to the actions of the Dispenser or Minister Do this that is Blesse ye Break ye which are antecedent to eating and drinking and so all the external rites or actions of this Sacrament may come under the command Do this but we may not stretch the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accessories and circumstances appendant not to the upper room nor to the night after Supper nor to the gesture of discubiture for neither the injunction of the Passeover did in after times extend to all the circumstances Used at the first Passeover in Aegypt as the Hebrews note The Papist seems to espie here some glimpse of proof of the real Sacrifice of Christ in his Masse from the word here Used Facite which in Latine sometimes signifies to sacrifice or offer and so it doth with an ablative case which is not here but the thred is too fine to hold for if the word signifie so somewhere it is not
afford grace or spiritual benefits You are to understand that this is not per modem emplastri seu medicae potionis not as a natural agent but per modum sigilli or Sacramenti in a way proper to a Sacrament As we say an estate passes by the Seal that is is assured or confirmed or as we say the promise or contract passes by a Ring words which every one understands and doubtlesse the benefit and fruit of the Sacrament is afforded in a peculiar way As the Word besides begetting grace doth also incRease and confirm but not in the same way as the Sacrament doth as it may be the same bargain that passes by promise by oath by earnest by seal yet these are several wayes of certioration so it 's the same grace that 's nourisht by the Sacrament as by the Word but the way is divers That of the Sacrament is by way of sign and seal that of the Word by way of Promise or Covenant-agreement nay the two Sacraments themselves do differ in their proprieties Baptism seals the Covenant by way of initiation and the Lords Supper by way of nutrition or augmentation God did not make or multiply Ordinances at random without their distinct and peculiar Use for the exhibiting to us the same Christ the same graces the same benefits as men have several wayes of assurance making one to another §. 5. What is done to a Worthy Receiver by Christ § 5 So much generally For the particular we shall consider 1. What is here done 2. What is hence received For the first There is here done by Christ two things and answerably two things by a believer in Christ Two things principally are here done by God or by Christ 1. Christ crucified is really exhibited to the faith of a believer 2. The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer 1. Christ crucified together with all those benefits More particularly that ensue upon his death is really exhibited to a believer for there is not a meer representation or empty figure but a real and true exhibition of Christ himself as broken for our sinnes The word accipite Take ye Eat ye does evidently confirm it to us If there were only a resemblance or figurative representation then See ye were more properly said but Take Eat this is my body plainly shews that Christ himself is here given to a believer I think we look so much on the representation that we forget the exhibition and therefore should labour to conclude that Christ himself as in the state of a redeeming Saviour is truly and indeed holden forth and presented to our faith as verily as any benefit can be offer'd and holden forth by one man to another This body and bloud was really offer'd up to God for us which is in this Sacrament really offer'd and applied to us by our faith Answerable to this exhibition of Christ himself the believer performs an act of Communion 1 Cor. 10. 16. partaking of the body and bloud of Christ in a spiritual sense for spiritual nourishment incRease and building up for the new creature is fed and maintain'd by Christ and by vertue of union with him we have communion as the Vine-branches by their union with the Vine receive sap and nourishment So as we have not graces without Christ nor benefits without Christ but first in order of nature we have union as members of him and then of his fulnesse we receive For a Christian is like a branch that hath nothing of its own but what it receives from the root as it self springs from the root so the incRease and growth of it is from the root also He is as the Moon which as appears in the Eclypse hath no light of it self but incReases and comes to full as it receives from the Sunne Let no man think that a believer hath no further Use of Christ after his first believing and receiving of him for then this Sacrament would not be Usefull the effect whereof as Durand saith is not absolutely necessary to salvation as if one could not be in a state of salvation without it becaUse it serves for confirmation of one that is already in a saving state and it 's plain that a great part of Christs Office is exercised in preserving and continuing of them in him who are already members of him and therefore is the finisher as well as authour of our faith for we live in him and from him and our grace is maintain'd by emanations from Christ as the light by continual emanations from the Sunne and therefore this Ordinance of Communion of Christ and the exercise of such acts of communion are of prime Use and benefit as the branch that shoots from the Tree grows and lives from that root which gave to it the first being by a contrived influx of sap into it And this is the first combination of Gods act and of ours 2. The second combination is The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer The common nature of a Sacrament is to be a seal of Justification or Righteousnesse with God by faith in Christ Rom. 4. 11. As a seal refers to some Covenant so the Sacrament refers to Gods Covenant with man which is this That God promises to accept into favour and into his propriety all that do believe in and receive Christ and to bestow upon them all the blessings and benefits thereof God gives Christ in way of Covenant He covenants with Christ our Lord that he should give his soul an offering and a Sacrifice for sin and in so doing should see his seed Isa 53. 10. So Arminius in this point is orthodox Of this Covenant the death or bloud of Christ is the Condition which Christ accepted and performed The Covenant of God with us is That all that believe in Christ that died and receive him for their Lord and Saviour shall have remission of sins c. and of this Covenant the bloud of Christ is the ratification as the Testators death ratifies the Will or Testament for it is bloud that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicate the Testament Heb. 9. 18. and so in the words of this Chapter This Cup is the New Testament or Covenant in my bloud viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicated thereby and this bloud we receive in this Sacrament as the Seal of the gracious Covenant made with us So that if doubts arise concerning the reality of God and surenesse of this Covenant that speaks so much grace and mercy we look upon and take hold of this Seale of bloud and are thereby setled and therein acquiesce Answerable to this act of God the believer accepts of and submits to this Covenant and the Conditions of it viz. to believe and to have God for our God and thereof makes a solemn profession in this Sacrament giving up himself to Christ as Lord and Saviour restipulating and striking hands with him to be
his and so bindes himself and doth as it were seal a counterpart to God again and not onely so but comes into a claim of all the riches and legacies of the Will or Covenant becaUse he hath accepted and here declares his acceptance of the Covenant The Seal is indeed properly of that which is Gods part of the Covenant to perform and give and is no more but offer'd untill we subscribe and set our hands to it and then it 's compleat and the benefits may be claimed as the benefit of any conditional promise may be when the condition is performed And least you should stumble at that word I must let you know That the Will accepting and submitting to the conditions is the performance of the conditions required and so the gracious God that might pro imperio require duty and allegiance of his creature condescends to us to enter into a Covenant of Grace with us and vouchsafes us the honour of coming into Covenant with him that so he might settle and maintain a communion and correspondence between himself and his people and there might be a mutual bond of engagement each to other which is solemnly professed as often as we meet with God in this Sacrament becaUse we are so apt to disbelieve and waver about his promises and to halt and decline from our obligations to him And this is the second combination of action according to that which is to be remembred at every sealing day the Sacrament is a sealing day Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes c. And the Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee So much for the first What is here done §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant § 6 2. I come to the second What is here received and I do not mean to say what every believer doth sensibly receive but what God hath appointed by this Sacrament to convey and what may be received by a believer in the right Use of it not alwayes to his own sense but according to the nature of this Ordinance I will not say that which some affirm but it is Apocryphal of the Manna which the Israelites did eat that it had the taste that every man desired But this I may say that as Calvin of himself When I have Instit l. 4. c. 17. §. 7. said all I have said but little the tongue is overcome yea the minde is overwhelmed I say then in one word 1. Christ is here received the body and bloud of Christ into intimate Union as the nourishment of our souls What is more ours than the meat we eat What is more nearly joyn'd to us than that which becomes part of our selves The Scripture by the language it Useth hath even overcome our apprehensions A man may eat the fruit that hath no interest in the Tree but here the believing eater grows into the Tree he that drinks drinks the fountain he comes to a closer Union with the conduit-pipe of all grace the flesh of Jesus Christ You know the best meat and drink doth you no good except it be made your own nor is Christ of worth except he be ours he is as if he were not Tolle meum tolle Deum we must be happy by a Christ within us Know you not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. There was a croud toucht Christ but vertue went out of him to none but one that toucht him by faith So there is a throng about the Table but none receive Christ but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himself be here received what spiritual grace is there that is not in him It is somewhat a grosse conceit to ask How Christ in heaven and a believer on earth can be united For man and wife are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder And we know that as the Apostle saith Col. 2. 19. there are bands and joynts whereby the Head and every Member the root and every branch are united and they in this mystical union are Spirit and faith He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And so according to that strange expression We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30 A phrase which signifies that the humane nature of Christ is the root of this Union but not to be exagitated by too subtill curiosity becaUse mysticall 2. A believer in Christ may here receive remission of sinne not veniall onely as Papists teach but deadly and mortall Oh but we may not come with such sinnes Yes with repentance and remorse for them We may bring our sinnes to the head of our Sacrifice and put them thereupon by Bellarm. de Euch l. 4 c 18. confession Bellarmine resolves all the difference between Papists and Protestants about the effect of this Sacrament into this That the Papists deny the Protestants hold remission of sinne to be given here and the Papists do it in favour of their Sacrament of Pennance that one Sacrament may not rob another but Scripture tels us Matth. 26. 28. This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for remission of sinne Shed for remission that 's true saith Bellarmine not given in the Sacrament a meer evasion for we drink the bloud that was shed even that which confirmes the New Testament which promises remission of sinne The great Argument wherein he triumphs before the victory is That a believer hath remission of sinnes before he comes viz by his faith in Christ and that 's true Nemo cibum Christi accipit nisi actu sanatus but in this Sacrament the pardon passes Obsignante sigillo before a believer is pardon'd by the Covenant and here that pardon is seal'd and sealed it cannot be except it be before for the pardon of forgiven sinnes is seal'd as Abraham received the signe of circumcision the seale of the righteousnesse of faith which he had before Rom. 4. 11. And this is needfull for reliefe of our doubts and fears and waverings For this is the great Question of anxiety which troubles the soul Are my sinnes pardon'd Are my sins blotted out And God hath saith Chemnitius instituted this Sacrament for solution of this Question to the weak faith Ecce signum Behold the Seal believe upon the Word believe upon the Seal of God Luther gathers it by a gradation The Cup is put for the Wine the Wine signifies the bloud the bloud is the bloud of the New Testament Matth. 26. 28. The New Testament containes the gracious pardon of sinne to a believer And if remission of sinne be an Article of the Covenant the Seale must reach it Therefore all that have wounded their souls with grievous sinnes be wounded again with sorrow put off the purpose of sinning bring repentance and faith touch the hemme of