Church in the most sutable manner to work in men a deep impression Therefore as God himself in order to satisfy Moses more fully that his People should not perish nor so much as diminish under the Thraldom of Egypt shewed him a Bush continuing still whole and entire in the midst of a great Fire and in order they might be more firmly perswaded that tho they were in a wilderness they were under Gods protection he made them go all the way under a Cloud that when soever there should happen any staggering in their Belief both Moses and the People might strengthen it Moses by remembring the Bush and the People by minding the Cloud to the same purpose hath Christ ordained some Visible Signes in his Church to compleat her common Faith and to assure this truth to every one who comes to him that he shall be cleansed of his sins as certainly as it is certain he sees some water which is the ordinary means for washing and that he shall be kept up and fed with a supply of all necessary Blessings as certainly and really as it is real and certain he tasts and takes in this Bread and Wine which are the ordinary means for preserving our life and strength 4. Besides because the Sacraments are designed not only to perswade us more strongly of the truth and Being of the Things but also to acquaint us more familiarly and sensibly with their Condition and nature these Sacraments must have in their natural constitution some known Qualities that make them fit for this Sacramental office Such hath the Water for example which was so deservedly chosen for the use of holy Baptism because of the proper virtue it hath of washing the things that are fowl of reviving and refreshing them that are dry and of making fruitful the Barren Hereupon S. Austin saies plainly that unless the holy Sacraments had some such agreement with the Holy Things which they are set up to represent they could not be Sacraments at all Epist 23. ad Bonif. 5. So the blessed Communion is made of two such Elements as can forthwith expose to the sight and sense of all men the true ground of its Sacramental and significative Function This function is twofold the first to represent Christs Sufferings and the second to represent the Blessing and the Benefit which we receive from these Sufferings The first I say to represent Christs Sufferings This Bread and Wine could neither sustain nor refresh me had not their intrinsecal Substance lost its first condition and estate that is if the one had never fallen under the Sickle the threshing the Milstone the Fire and the other under the Hook the Trampling and the Press of bandmen Nor doth the Son of God save me but by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 2.7 emtying himself in a manner for a while of his first glory in Heaven and by losing that second life which he had taken in Bethlehem This Blessed Savior is not a Savior by the strength of all the Miracles which He did about Judea nor by any thing that He could suffer as long as He would keep himself alive when he was made fast to his Cross As the best Harvest is not yet Bread as long as it stands in the Field nor is the best Corn Bread likewise as long as 't is kept whole in the Floor both Corn and Harvest being no more then antecedent Matter for mans Food Jesus living in Galilee Jesus teaching about the Temple Jesus commanding Storms and Waves when he did walk upon the Sea if he had proceeded no further could not have bin the Bread of life it must be Jesus suffering Jesus crucified Jesus dying the grinding Mill and the burning Fire have of this Corn made me this Bread and nothing less then Cross Wounds Death my Lord my God! could of thy dearest Son make my Savior 6. I say secondly this Eucharistical Bread is instituted to represent the Fruit and Benefit which we receive both at the Holy Table and upon all other occasions from Christs Sufferings to wit Maintenance and Improvement of life As without Bread and Wine or somthing answerable to it the strongest Bodies soon decay so without the virtue of the Body and Blood of Christ the best and holiest Souls must infallibly starve and perish The Body of the Lord as it was offered up to God in Sacrifice is the Truth represented by the Passover and as represented to us at the Holy Communion is the Truth and Accomplishment typified by the Manna The one is as it were the Seed and the Original Principle whence we are born and the other as the Bread wherewith we live That is to say as Bread and Wine do not produce but keep up that animal Life which another Cause hath produced so doth our Lord Jesus by a necessary and continual supply of strength and Grace represented by Bread and Wine sustain improve and set sorward that Spiritual Life and new Being which He hath procured us by his Cross 7. For Jesus the second Adams being seiz'd as He hung on the Cross with that deep sleep which God daused to fall upon him gave this new Being to his Church out of that side which at his Passion was opened and the Blood and Water which then gushed out of his Wounds are the true Principles of life by reason of which his spouse the Church may be called Eve that is true and everlasting Liver Before she had this new original out of her Saviors Passion her Husbands sleep she by her old Extraction was a very Daughter of Death and a Mother of such Children as could pretend to no better Inheritance then Curse and Wrath. Ephes 2.2 By the course of Nature our Life is but a sad Progress from Birth to Death and by the course of Gods Justice a sadder Motion such as is that of condemned Persons from Prison to the Place of their Execution But whilst we were daily passing on to that most dreadful Punishment the Son of God lookt on us and took our Condemnation upon himself and under it dyed in our steed Thus by the Death and satisfaction of this Victim Justice gave way to my Release God the Father forgave my Sin and God the Son procured my Life This Grace is the first Purchace of Christs Blood the first Irradiation of Gods mercy and the first Breath of spiritual Life in our Nostrils 8. But alas how soon would this first life vanish away were it not presently followed and supported by a second How soon would the removal of the former be frustrated by the commission of other Sins And since I am no sooner born in sin then dead in it how hard would it be without more help in this corrupted condition to keep dead Lazarus from Rottenness Therefore the Body and Blood of Christ once Sacrificed on the Cross to help this first procures a second Life that preserves whomsoever it saves out of this stupid death in sin it helps
them out of the Puddle where they did ly like Beasts without sense of danger or shame and it quickens these rotten Trees for the producing of better Fruit. The first Life being opposite to Condemnation and Eternal Punishment belongs properly to the Blood that hath satisfied divine Justice and so removed Punishment and the second which is opposite to stupid and senseless both falling into sin and lying in it relates properly to the Water that after Propitiation and Pardon washes and sanctifies the sinner These two Lives are the two first Effluxes which proceeded out of Jesus Christ when his Body was pierced and both are inseparable as the Blood and the water were which flowed together out of his side Let none who finds himself clean from the filth and spots of his sin be afraid of Punishment for them I have found a Ransom for him Job 33.24 for the water came not without the Blood But let every one that hath a mind to be safe from Punishment which is taken off by the Blood seek for farther security in the purifying of himself from all the uncleanness of sin which the Water is to wash away for the Blood came not without water Christ came not by Blood alone but by water and Blood 1 Joh. 5.6 9. Over and above these two Lives whereof one consists in Pardon and removal of Punishment the other in Sanctification and enlivens us from dead works so as not thenceforward to deserve it as before there remains besides a third Life which consists in an absolute Redemtion from Death and other miseries This life as to the sure Title and Right is together with the two other purchased by the same Sacrifice but as to the real use and possession it is reserved for us in Heaven and there hid with Christ in God Coloss 3.3 Until it be revealed we appear as if we were dead these two Jewels lying in and being wrapped about with the dark Veils of human Mortality till that Christ becoming unto us actual Redemtion as well as actual Justice and actual Sanctification this third life succeeds to break the Cloud 10. Now the blessed Savior being by his Sacrifice the Author and giver of these three Lives shews himself by this Sacrament to be the preserver of them also and to this purpose sets up a Table by his Altar where he engages most solemnly to feed and nourish our Souls with the constant supply of his Mercies to the very day of eternal Salvation as really as he gives and we receive these Elements of Bread and Wine which are the usual meanes of sustaining mortal Bodies until the end of this short Life My Father worketh hitherto and I work with him Ioh. 95.17 God the father rested indeed upon the seventh day from the work of Creating and God the Son at the same day from the work of Suffering but neither of them will rest till the day of Redemtion from the work of preserving both what the Creation hath produced and what the Passion hath saved In the first Creation here is a Man and a Woman made of the Flesh and as it were of the very wounds of her Husband and there you find a Tree planted to maintain both their life and strength In the Deliverance of Egypt here is a People saved by the Sacrifice of the Passeover and lest so many rescued out of Egypt should faint and starve in the Desert there you see an Angel leading them the way with his Light keeping them cool under the Shadow of his Cloud and feeding them through all their journny with a miraculous sort of Meat Jesus is both in the Original and progress of Salvation the Truth foreshewed by these Figures When he dyed upon the Cross there he fullfilled that which had bin shadowed forth both by the Sleep and wound of Adam and by the killing of paschal Lambs And when he feeds from Heaven with a continual Effusion of Blessing those souls and lives which he hath bin pleased to redeem by the effusion of his own Blood He is the Truth both of the Tree and of the Angel which were appointed the one to maintain Man and the other to keep Israel 11. Christ relates to these four Figures as the Body which fulfils them and the Holy Communion relates to them on the other side as an Antitype that is as one Image may relate to another all to express the same object Upon the breaking the one and powring out the other of these consecrated Elements you see what Christ hath suffered as upon the wound of Adam and the death of the Passeover Abel Enoc and Israel might partly see what he should suffer And upon the nourishing nature of this Bread you see that which others have seen in the Tree of life and in the Angel raining down Manna what He would give But this is the advantage of the Holy Communion above all the ancient Figures Adam with his open Side and all Sacrifices with their Blood did foretel only Christs Passion and the Tree of life with all its fruit and the Angel with all his Food did foretel only his preserving Grace whereas this Sacrament alone represents both his Passion and Preserving and besides these another great Mystery by their mutual dependency What wee take and eat is made of a Substance cut bruised and put to the fire that shews my Saviors Passion and it was used in that manner that it may afford me wholesom food that shewes the Benefit which both he gives and I receive out of this dreadful Passion The Angels enjoy such an immortality and wear such Crowns as cost God nothing but the pain he took to give them ours are more precious and costly then so Our inheritance in Heaven is not less then Akeldamah a Possession bought with Christs Blood In this Sacrament here is Death represented there Life the Life is mine the Death my Saviors and ô blessed Jesus this my Life comes out of thy Death and the Salvation which I hope for is purchased with all the pain and Agonies which Thou didst suffer 12. Here Melchisedek and Aaron wait upon Jesus Christ at this Table as Moses and Elias did on the Mount These two great Priests stand to soreshew what Christ alone is to perform For there is Aaron the Priest with Blood and here Melchisedek with Bread There Aaron breaks sheds and destroies here Melchisedek feeds and blesses Nay both are one in Jesus Christ First Christ appears to Sacrifice upon the Cross as Aaron did at his Altar with Flesh and Blood and as in Melchisedeks case and figure with his own Flesh and his own Blood Then as Aaron did use to enter once every year into the Sanctuary Christ once for all is ascended into Heaven thence to bless us Act. 3.26 And this blessing is the strength the Food and Refreshment which Melchisedek brought in a figure that with the help of these good Things both Abraham and his Followers that is all sincere Christians may
pour out all our Grief our Prayers and our Praises before the Lord in so happy a conjuncture The primitive Christians did it so who did as seldom meet to preach or pray without a Communion as did the old Israelites to worship without a Sacrifice On solemn daies especially or upon great Exigencies they ever used this help of Sacramental Oblation as the most powerful Means the Church had to strengthen their Supplications to open the Gates of Heaven and to force in a manner God and his Christ to have compassion on them The People of Israel for the better performance of Prayer and Devotion went up to the Tabernacle and the Temple because besides other Motives both these were Figures of that Body which was to be sacrificed Wherefore Christ calls his Body this Temple Joh. 2.19 and the first Christians went up to their Churches there to meet with these Mysteries which do represent him both as already sacrificed and yet as in some sort offering and giving up himself Those in worshipping ever turned their Eyes their Hearts their hopes towards that Altar and Sacrifice whence the High Priest was to carry the Blood into the Sanctuary and these looking toward the Cross and their crucified Savior there through his Sufferings hope for a way towards Heaven being encouraged to this hope by the very Memorial which they both take to themselves and shew to God of these Sufferings Lastly Jesus our Eternal Priest being from the Cross where he suffered without the Gate gon up into the true Sanctuary which is Heaven there above doth continually present both his Body in true reality and us as Aaron did the twelve Tribes of Israel in a Memorial Exod. 28.29 and on the other side we beneath in the Church present to God his Body and Blood in a Memorial that under this shadow of his Cross and image of his Sacrifice we may present our selves before him in very deed and reality 5. O Lord who seest nothing in me that is truely mine but Dust and Ashes and which is worse sinful flesh and Blood look upon what I have of thee some small Remnant of thine Image some small beginnings of thy Grace and some light sparks of thy Spirit But because all these are defective supply them O Lord with thy mercy and with the Sacrifice of thy Son Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name and thine Anointed give the praise Turn thine Eyes O Merciful Father to the satisfaction and Intercession of thy Son who now sits at thy Right Hand to the Seals of thy Covenant which lye before thee upon this Table and to all the wants and distresses which also thou seest in my heart O Father glorify thy Son whom thou hast sent into this World O Son bless thou this Sacrament which thou hast ordained for thy Church and send with it some influence of that Spirit whom thou hast promised to all Flesh that by the help of these Mercies the World the Church our Flesh and Souls may glorify thee now and ever Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen SECTION VII Concerning the Sacrifice of our own Persons 1. IT is either the Error or the incogitancy of too many Christians which makes them somtimes beleive and oftener live as if under the Gospel there were no other Sacrifice but that of Christ upon the Cross It is very true indeed there is no other nor can there be any other sufficient and proper for this end of satisfiing Gods Justice and expiating our sins I have troden the Winepress alone and of the People there was none with me I looked and there was none to help Esay 63.3.5 In this respect tho the whole Church should in a Body offer up her self as a burnt Sacrifice to God yet could she not contribute more towards the bearing up or bearing away the wrath to come then all those Innocent souls who stood neer Jesus Christ when he gave up the Ghost did towards the darkning of the Sun or the shaking of the whole Earth But that which is not so much as useful much less necessary to this Eternal Sacrifice which alone could redeem Mankind is indispensably both necessary and useful that we may have a share in this Redemtion So that if the Sacrifice of our selves which we ought to offer up to God cannot procure Salvation it is absolutely necessary to receive it 2. As the old Law never introduced Aaron officiating before the Lord without the whole People of Israel represented both by the twelve stones on his Ephod and the two other on his shoulders Exod. 28.12.30 The Gospel most commonly describes Jesus Christ and his Church not only as two Parties that do nothing the one without the other but somtimes also as one Person alone as particularly 1. Cor. 12.12 Christ acts officiates and suffers for his Body in that manner that doth become the Head and the Church imitates and follows all the motions and sufferings of this heavenly and holy Head in such a manner as is possible to its weak Members 3. The main if not the whole Divinity of S. Paul as well in point of faith as of Christian life runs upon this Conformity both of actions and sufferings And that of S. Iohn likewise upon this same Communion The truth is Our Savior had neither Birth nor Death nor Resurrection here on Earth but such as we ought to conform us to as he hath neither Ascention nor Throne nor Everlasting life nor Glory but such as we may also have in Heaven common with him 4. This Conformity or likeness to Christ which as the Hebrewes use to spake is the foundation and Pillar that is the grand Principle of the whole Christian institution relates more directly to our duty about his Sufferings and then to our happiness about his Exaltation And the Communion which is the other great fundamental that S. Iohn hath still in his Mouth points more at this and presupposes that And both make up a full Comment upon the words which our Savior so often commanded his Disciples to follow him thereby signifiing both the Labor and the success of this most Important Journy for without doubt we shall follow him into Heaven if we will follow him here on Earth and we shall have Communion with him in his Glory if we will keep Conformity with him here in his Sufferings 5. These three expressions to Follow to be like or have Conformity and to have Communion which are the most essential Clauses in the charter and charge of christianity are not to be limited to the imitation of Christs Moralls only as when he bids us be Holy as he is Holy c. but they oblige all his Disciples to follow and imitate him likewise as much as in them lies throughout all the other parts of his life and the very functions of his Offices For we must be regenerated in his Birth dye on his Cross be buried in his Grave bear his shame in his Tribulations in
only to charge it with all its sins Nevertheless as under the Law the Lamb and the Oblation added to it did join in one Sacrifice because both were offered upon one Altar and consumed by one fire so under the Gospel Christ and his People are accounted for one Oblation when both in their own proper way are consecrated by the same Cross and are in some manner alike obedient to death For we have bin planted together in the likeness of his death knowing this that our Old Man is dead c. Rom. 6.5 6. 18. By this likeness or conformity of Sufferings Christ is dead once to satisfie the rigor of the Law and so must Christians destroy their sins and mortifie themselves that they may observe hereafter the Righteousness of the Gospel Christ during that terrible storm that made him weep and cry aloud Matt. 27.46.50 Luk. 23.46 Heb. 5.7 did suffer such a heavy punishment as might satisfy Gods Justice And his Mystical Body must every day both undertake and suffer such fatherly Corrections as may overmaster their own sins In a word the Holy Savior was willing to be crucified because this dismal execution was indispensably necessary to turn away the wrath to come and his true members must be willing to crucifie themselves with him because this Discipline is as indispensably necessary to destroy in them by degrees that inward corruption which would bring back again this wrath 19. O Father of Mercies I beseech thee both by the merits of thy Son who now intercedes in Heaven awd by that bloody Sacrifice which he hath offered on the Cross whereof thou seest the Sacrament upon This Table this Day be pleased to receive me into the Communion of his Sufferings and hereafter into the Communion of his Glory Cast not away from thee in displeasure the Elevation of these hands which I will fasten to his Cross so far as they may not offend and which I do now stretch before thee with a true desire that hereafter they may serve thee neither despise the Sacrifice of a poor Soul which also his Cross hath wounded with the sense of her misery and by this wound laies it open both to pour out her own prayers and to gasp after thy mercies O God and Father bestow on me such a measure of that Spirit through which thy Son offered himself * Heb. 9.14 as may sanctifie for ever the Body and Soul which now I offer and may likewise help me to perform the service which I do promise A Spirit of Contrition that I may sufficiently detest those sins which did deliver my God to death then a spirit of Holiness that I may never be temted to them any more then a crucified man can be temted O let this crucified Body which I present to thee for such never be untied from his Cross either to fall to those viclences that have peirced my Saviors hands or to fly up to those vanities that have crowned his head with Thorns or to follow unjust pleasures that have filled his dear Soul with greif that have filled his Entrails with Gall. Arm and Rod of the Lord who in thine Anger didst revenge all these sins upon my Savior in thy mercy correct and destroy them also in me So my God accept of a heart that sheds now before thee its Tears as a poor Victim does its blood and that raises up unto thee all its desires its thoughts its zeal as a Burnt offering doth its flames Finally since my Sacrifice can be neither holy nor accepted being alone Accept of it O Father as it is an Oblation supported by that Sacrifice which alone is able to please thee Receive it clothed with the Righteousness of thy Son and made acceptable with that holy Perfume that rises from of his Altar And grant that He who sanctifies and they who are by him sanctified may be joined in one Passion and may enjoy hereafter with thee the same Glory Our Father which art in Heaven c. SECTION VIII Concerning the Oblation of our Goods and Alms or the Sacrifice of Justice 1. IT is an express and often repeated Law of God by Moses and no where repeated by Christ that no worshipper shall presume to appear before him with emty hands Sincere Christians must have them full at the receiving of the holy Communion with four distinct sorts of Sacrifices 1. The Sacramental and commemorative Sacrifice of Christ 2. The real and Actual Sacrifice of themselves 3. The free will Offering of their Goods 4. The Peace Offering of their Praises 2. The first as representing the Sacrifice offered on the Cross is the ground of the three others especially of the second which must no more be separated from it then Parts are from the Whole or the Body from its Head These two are so close coupled together that St. Austin * Aug. apud Fulg. de Bapt. Aethiop c. ult more then once by the Body of Christ in the holy Communion understands Christs mystical Body which is the Church And St. Cyprian * St. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 3. saies expressly that Christ and his People are contained and united together in the Holy Cup that being represented by the Wine this represented by the Water so that Christ is not there without his People nor the People without their Savior 3. The Third and fourth which are the Sacrifices of our Goods and of our Praises are appendages following after the second that is the Sacrifice of our own selves by as natural a consequence as the fruits and leaves follow the Tree and as what we have or what we can must needs come after what we are All the world know how that blemisht and lame Sacrifices were abominable under the Law and certainly Bodies without heads souls without their faculties and Persons without their proper Duties are not better under the Gospel Such mutilated Sacrifices cannot suit with that of Christ which was perfectly whole and entire Therefore as when we once offer our selves to God our Souls and Bodies become attending Sacrifices on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ so must by the same equity all our Goods and Services by way of seconddary Oblations attend the Sacrifice of our Persons And as the Lamb in the daily Sacrifice was never offered without its Meat Oblation nor this meat Oblation without its incense its Wine its Oil So the Eternal Son and Lamb of God who was pleased to offer himself for me must neither be offered without me nor whensoever I offer up my self both by him and with him must I appear as a dry and unsavory Meat offering without juice without sweet smell without all the holy dispositions of readiness and joy to obey and please my God in all good works whereof the Incense the Wine and the Oil were under the Law sacred Emblemes In a word whensoever we offer our selves we offer by the self same Act all that we have all that we can and so consequently we do engage for