for ever And when He said take and eat He commanded Heb. 5. 6. us not to offer up His body but only to feed on it So also another abuse of the Papists is to deny the Cup to the people whereas Christ in His institution said Drink ye all of this It is a high Sacrilegious impiety thus expresly to go against Christ's institution in His own words It is by faith alone we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ And yet we say not that the body of Christ is included in the Bread and His blood included in the Cup but if we will enjoy the truth and reality of the Sacrament we must have our hearts lifted up heaven-wards and look upwards where Christ is in the glory of His Father and from whence He shall come to be our Judge for he that seeks Him corporally in these corruptible elements manifestly errs So for me to eat the body of Christ crucified for me and to drink His blood shed for me is not only firmly to believe the whole passion and death of Christ and by it to obtain remission of Joh. 6. 35. to 54. sins and everlasting life but also by His Spirit which dwelleth in me to be more and more united to His blessed body as Christ there said He that eateth My Joh. 6. 56. â—lesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him So that although Christ is in Heaven and we on Earth yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone Eph. 5. 30. 3. 16 17. 4. 15 16. Joh. 6. 57. Even as all the members of the body are quickened and directed by one soul so are we by one and the self same S-pirit So then our eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ which is not corporally but spiritually done signifies four things 1. Our believing of the passion and death of Christ 2. Our receiving remission of sins and everlasting life by faith in Him 3. Our union with Christ by His Holy Spirit which dwelleth both in Christ and us 4. The benefit of quickening by the same Holy Spirit So to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ is to believe that we through the merits of Christ are received by God into grace and favour and by the same faith we receive remission of sins and are reconciled unto God and that the Son of God that Word which was made flesh who hath Joh. 1. 14. united to Himself our humane nature which He personally took doth dwell in us and hath joyned us to Himself and His assumed humane nature by pouring upon us His Holy Spirit by which He regenerates us and restores light in us righteousness and eternal life the same which shineth in His assumed humane nature Or more briefly thus to eat the body of Christ is 1. To believe in Him 2. By faith to receive remission of sins 3. To be united unto Christ 4. To be made partaker of the life of Christ or to be conformable to Christ by His Holy Spirit which worketh the same things both in Christ and in us This our eating is our communion with Christ which the Scripture teacheth and which in this Sacrament we do profess namely our spiritual union with Christ such as is of the members with the head and of the branches with the vine This eating of His flesh Christ teacheth in John 6. and confirmeth it by these outward signs in the Lord's Supper For in the Lord's Supper as we do eat the Bread and drink the Wine even so there as surely Christ gives to all true believers His body to eat and His blood to drink This is clearly manifested to us in the words of institution Mat. 26. 26 27 28. 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. And this promise is repeated by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. 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 For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread To explain this briefly It is called the cup of blessing or of giving thanks because it is received to this end that we should give thanks to Christ for His death and passion for us or that we should use it so as to put us in mind of Christ's benefits towards us and for these to give Him thanks Communion of the blood of Christ Communion is a participation of a common thing the Communion of the body and blood of Christ is by faith to be made partakers of Christ and all His benefits the same Spirit being in us which is in Christ and working the same thing in us which he doth in Christ It is a spiritual communion which believers have with Christ as members with the head and as branches with the vine For the Bread and Wine are the Communion that is the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ This Communion as the Apostle there said consisteth in this that we being many are one body This makes against the corporal eating of the Papists in this Sacrament for our communion with Christ is only by faith and by the Holy Ghost Christ is the common head His benefits are common and communicated to all His members Hence also it follows that the members are common among themselves whence should flow mutual love and amity The Papists to uphold their Transubstantiation do say that we must take the words litterally and so immediately after the words of consecration at the last syllable of the last word that the Bread is transubstantiated or changed into the very body of Christ and the Wine into His blood But this is a Sacramental speech of Christ This is my body As St. Austin to that general rule about Sacramental actions adds this instance of eating the body of Christ This is a certain way said he of finding out whether such a phrase or speech be proper or figurative that whatsoever in Divine Word or holy Scriptures cannot be done by honest and good manners nor be properly referred to the truth of our faith we must know it to be a figurative speech And shortly after instances in that place Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man Joh. 6. 53. and drink His blood ye have no life in you Doth our Saviour here command such a nefarious act to have the Jews fall upon Him kill and â—ley Him to eat His flesh and drink His blood No it is a figurative speech there Christ commands them to communicate with the passion and sufferings of the Lord and most sweetly to lay it up in remembrance that for us His body and flesh was crucified and wounded So also this is a figurative speech when our Saviour speaks of the Bread This is my body and of the Cup This is my blood This Cup is the New Testament in My blood where the
God He â—ob 38. 41. feedeth the young ravens when they cry unto Him If God feed the beasts and birds surely He will not suffer the soul Prov. 10. 3. Psal 37. 10. Isai 33. 16. of His people to famish In the days of fumine they shall be satisfied Bread shall be given them their waters shall be sure And as for rayment If God cloath the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more cloath us Mat. 6. 30 31 32. Therefore take we no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithall shall we be cloathed for our heavenly father knoweth we have need of all these things Be we diligent and industrious in our places ever using lawful means that is our part for to do But the care of provision and maintenance is God's part which we must leave to Him Who hath promised to bless our lawful and honest endeavours subservient to His holy will and command 2. As for maintenance and provision so also my Expectation from God is that as I have committed all my ways to Him and trust in Him so He will bring them Psal 37. 5. Josh 5. 9. Rom. 8. 28. all to pass for the best That he will rowl away my reproach and cause all things to work together for my good He will plead my cause and execute judgment for me He will bring me forth Micah 7. 9. to the light and I shall behold His righteousness My Redeemer is strong Jer. 50. 34. the Lord of hosts is his name He shall Isai 51. 22. throughly plead my cause for He hath stiled Himself the God that pleadeth the cause of His people The Lord God of recompences will surely requite Jer. 51. 56. My expectation is higher than these temporal things as heroically and Christianly Luther once said Lord I have sworn and am resolved that I will not be put off with these lower things or to esteem them my portion c. 2dly But my expectation is higher my expectation from God is chiefly for spiritual and everlasting mercies That Acts 26. 18. as He hath opened mine eyes and turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God so that I Ephes 5. 8 1â— may walk as a child of light and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them Having respect to all God's Commandments Psal 119. 8. not allowing my sell in any onâ— known sin Denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously Godlily in this present word To grow Tit. 2. 12 2 Pet. 3. 18. Joh. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Eph. 3. 19. in Grace and in the knowledge of my Lord Jesus that of His fulness I may receive and Grace for Grace that so may make my calling and election sure being filled with the fulness of God that he will grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with all might by his Spirit in the inneâ— man that Christ may dwell in my hearâ— by faith c. that as he who hath begun 16. 17. a good work in me will also finish Phill. 1. 6. Heb. 12. 2. it For he is the author and finisher of my faith Who is able to build me up â— Acts 20. 32. and that He will settle strengthen and stablish me in every good word and work to do His will working in mâ— 1 Pet. 5. 10. Heb. 13. 21 that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ That I Phill. 1. 10 11. may approve those things which are excellent being sincere and without offence filled with the fruits of righteousness c. Pressing toward the mark Phill. 3. 11 14. for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead that is to such a measure of Grace and Holiness as I shall have 2 Tim. 3. 17. at the resurrection of the dead that I may be perfect throughly furnished unto every good work And for my outward conversation that it may be as it becometh the Gospel Phill. 1. 27. Tit. 2. 3 10. of Christ as becometh holiness that I may adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour in all things so that the Word of Verse 5. God may not be blasphemed nor the way 2 Pet. 2. 2. Jam. 1. 27. of truth evil spoken of through my default and that I may keep my self unspotted of the world walking so as 1 Joh. 2. 6. Christ walked while He was here upon the earth That after I have served my generation by the will of God and shall fall asleep and be gathered to my fathers Acts 13. 36. 2 Tim. 4. 7. and see corruption after I have fought a good fight here finished my course Heb. 12. 28. and kept the faith I may receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that 1 Pet. 1. 4. jude 1. fadeth not away reserved in heaven for me and to which I am preserved in Christ Jesus This is my hope this is my expectation for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to 2 Tim. 1. 12. keep that which I have committed to Him even the keeping of my soul and the crown of everlasting life against that day The Lord is the portion of my soul I am 3. 24 Prov. 23. 18. therefore will I wait for Him and my expectation shall not be cut off For they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary Isai 40. 31. they shall walk and not saint Now the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient 2 Thess 3. 5. waiting for Christ Be not weary in well-doing continue Addition 2 Thess 3. 13. to wait upon God Take heed of impatiency of spirit like Joram that wicked King of Israel in that dreadful man-devouring famine of Samaria who 2 King 6. 33. though he acknowledged this evil is from the Lord yet impatiently and wickedly added wherefore should I wait on the Lord any longer He was convinced of the hand of God in His judgments upon Him so rationally he should have concluded therefore will I wait upon Him and seek to Him for relief Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque feret the same hand that wounds the same hand must bring the cure It had been more rationally inferred this evil is from the Lord therefore upon Him will I wait to Him will I address my self for deliverance But he concludes as in the Hebrew it is Mah Ochil â—adonai Quid expectabo Dominum wherefore should I wait on the Lord why should I fast and pray or carry my self patiently as the Chaldee hath
heaven and heavenly things It is not said this or that place is the 1 Cor. 10 28. Lords but the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Therefore seeing we believe God to be our Father and our heavenly Father so He is able and willing to hear and help us this should moderate our care for the things of this life For if we know our selves to be the children of God then we must also know that God will provide for us As we know in a family the father of the family provideth for all those of his houshold God is the great house-keeper of all the earth He provideth Psal 145. 16. for the Raven his food when his young ones cry to God and wander for lack of meat He giveth to the beast his food Job 38. 41. Psal 147. 9. and to the young Ravens which cry Doth God take care of Beast and Ravens 1 Cor. 9. 9. and will He not much more take care for His Children those of His own Houshold If we should see a young man provide for himself and no one else for him surely we would say his Father is dead even so when a mans care both day and night is set wholly for the things of this life it argues either that God hath cast him off or else that he takes God for no Father of his Again if the Lord doth thus take care of His Children and provideth for them all kind of benefits What a horrid wickedness is it for men to get their living by ungodly means as lying cheating fraud carding dicing and such like exercises If a man were perswaded that God were his Father and would provide sufficiently both for his soul and body so that using lawful means he should ever have enough out of all doubt he would never after the fashion of the world use unlawful and profane means to get a living But this plainly evidenceth that however such men say that God is their Father yet indeed they deny Him Our blessed Saviour in the Fourth Petition of the Lords Prayer teaches us to pray to our heavenly Father to give us this day our dayly bread Where bread by a Synecdoche very usual to the Hebrews signifies all corporal good things necessary for this life as food clothing health peace and such like and also a good use of them Therefore all these good things Christ comprehends under the name of Bread and that for these reasons To bridle our lusts that only bread is to be pray'd for only things necessary for the sustentation of this life whereby we may be the better enabled to serve God and our Neighbour in our Vocation and Calling whether in our general calling as we are Christians or in our particular calling in that place and calling God hath set us in 2. To teach us also to beg of God the wholsom and good use of these outward things So then in the Fourth Petition when we beg Bread of God it signifies 1. Not great riches but only things necessary such a proportion of maintainance credit liberty health wealth Prov. 30. 8. food and rayment c. as is convenient for us And that with condition if God see it fit for us and if it be His good-will and pleasure Which exception is a caution proper to this Petition for outward things 2. We beg hereby that these things may be bread to us that is that by the blessing of God they may be wholsom and good unto us And we beg our bread not anothers that which God sees fir for us which we may call our own God as a Father of a Family distributeth to every one a portion which we beg may be given to us And our bread bread gotten by our own labour and industry that so we may eat the labour of our Psal 128 2. 1 Thes 4. 11. 2 Thes 3. 12. own hands and eat our own bread And so that is called our bread which comes to us by the blessing of God on our lawful endeavours so that neither God nor Man can justly implead us for it And that we may use it with a good conscience and with giving of thanks Let him that stole steal no more but rather Eph. 4. 28. let him work with his own hands that he may have wherewith to give to him that is in want God would have us â—e sure that when He giveth us these good things He gives us power to use and enjoy them and He would not have us to use His gifts as Thieves but freely and with thanks-giving to Him for them Q. Why do we pray for Dayly Bread A. Because God would have us every day to ask so much as is sufficient for us for each day 2. That God may bridle our unsatiable and unruly desires Our Father Mat. 6. 32. knoweth what we have need of A little that a righteous man hath is better than Psal 37. 16. the â—iohes of many wicked No good and needful things shall be wanting to them that fear the Lord. In the proper Psal 34. 10. language of the Spirit of God it is that bread which is fit for me and agreeable to my condition Q. Why do we pray Give us this day A. 1. That we may be taken off from distrust and covetousness 2. That we may depend on God alone and beg things necessary from Him and expect them wholly from Him 3. That the exercise of Faith and Prayer may be daily continued in us 4. We Pray for This day to teach us to Pray for Bread for a day not for a moneth or a year so to teach us for to restrain our care that it reach not too far but to rest on God's Providence and present blessings and so not to be covetous Hereby we profess the moderation of our care and desire of earthly things with our purpose every day by Labour and Prayer to seek these blessings at the hands of God Here also our affections are forbidden to pass measure not to have a carking and troubling care seeing the present Mat. 6. 34. vexation of the day is enough for it self But to commit our ways to God and Psal 37. 5. Prov. 16. 3. to rowle all our matters upon Him who will bring them all to pass So here we see that a moderate appetite and desire of having these earthly things and a moderate care of procuring them is approved and required Eph. 4. 28. 2 Cor. 12. 13 14. that we may not be burdensome but rather helpful unto others There are two extreams hereof we must know that every virtue is a middle between two extreams 1. The first extream is carelessness and neglect of our goods and estate For as he is commended who gathereth in seasonable times so he is much blamed Prov. 10. 5. 6. 6. who neglecteth those opportunities and is censured by the Apostle to be worse than an infidel 1 Tim. 5. 8. 2. The second extream is
man shall set upon thee to hurt thee It is endless to quote all the texts in the Old and New Testament to this purpose I will only add a few Corollaries 1. God will have glory attributed Corollarâ—â—â— to Him not only as He is the Creator and Upholder of Heaven and Earth but also the most High Wise Just and Great Governor and Directer of all things This is against the Figments of the Bpicureans and Pelagians 2. This Doctrine of Providence may confirm and strengthen our hearts against the Blasphemies of the Manichees and Libertines who say that God willeth sin as it is sin Whereas He willeth the act but not the evil of the act c. 3. Against the Opinion of the Stoicks for all things are govern'd by Gods most free and unchangable Decree 4. Therefore He will be acknowledged and praised by us as the Author Fountain and Worker of all good things for nothing in any creature is or can be of good unto us but by Gods Will affectually working in it and by it 5. Seeing all good things are from God Let us not sacrifice to our own â—â—â— 1. 16. nets or burn incense to our own drag that is not resting in creatures or second causes by which we may be benefited but giving all glory and praise to God to acknowledg the creatures are but instruments and ministers in His hand and by His ordering to do good unto us 6. Sith nothing rashly or casually happeneth to us but all things betide us by Gods most Blessed Just and profitable Decree and Good-will towards us Let us effectually be stirred up by knowing and acknowledging hereof to exercise patience in all our adversities As Psal 39. 9. David said I was dumb and opened not my mouth because Thou hast done it Job 1. 21. And Job the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. 7. Let our confidence and comfort be sound firm and established in the Lord who will defend and preserve us in the midst of all enemies and dangers moderating and ordering all evils so that they tend to our good and salvation For we know that all things work Rom. 8. 28. together for good to them that love God 8. By all our past and present afflictions let us be bettered and amended Sith not by chance but by God they are inflicted upon us that we may say Psal 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted c. 9. For future crosses and afflictions seeing they are signs and tokens of Gods anger against sin Let us fear them and strive to avoid them by fleeing and abstaining from sin the cause of them 10. Let us not faint much less despair when we are in dangers troubles or adversities when the outward means of our deliverance fail and the creatures seem to be against us because God is not ty'd to help by them For man lives not by bread alone c. The Mat. 4. 4. 16. 18. gates of Hell shall not prevail c. There 1 Sam. 14. 6. is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few He can deliver either by means or without means or against means 11. Seeing all events are ordered by God and no wholsome counsels can be undertaken without Him neither doth any thing please Him but what we undertake according to His Word Let us not be lifted up in confidence of our own wisdom and power c. but demeaning our selves in the fear of God let us pray that all our actions may be directed by Him and so blessed unto us and that we may never depart from His Will revealed unto us And then confidently wait on Him for sâ—ccess 12. Sith we know as before we said God hath a care of all things especially of mankind and most principally of His own Children whom He peculiarly loveth and careth for so as Christ said the hairs of our head Mat. 10. 31. are all number'd and we are of more value than many Sparrows Let us in doing our duty faithfully in our places rest confidently on the Providence of God Casting all our care on Him for He careth for us EXERCITATION THE FOURTEENTH Rev. 20. 12 15 Verses And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire EXpect not a Logical Analysis of the words and a procedure thereon accordingly that I leave to Divines in their Sermons But according to my use in my former Exercitations to chuse out some heads out of the words read and so meditate and dilate upon them And here we may consider these four heads 1 Death 2 Judgment 3 Hell 4 Heaven Accordingly we shall frame our ensuing discourse 1. Death out of these words And I 1 Death saw the dead c. First there must be death before they could be dead 2. Judgment out of these words 2 Judgment Stand before God c. and they were judged c. 3. This Judgment shall be according to their works They that have done good shall go into life everlasting and 3 Heaven they that have done evil into everlasting 4 Hell fire So it is in the Creed of Holy Athanasius And so also in the Apostles Creed I believe that Christ shall come to judg both the quick and dead I believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting So also in the Nicene Creed That is everlasting life for the good in heaven and everlasting life for the wicked in hell in those never Mark 9. 44. dying flames where the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out First to speak of Death Death is the 1 Death fruit of Sin Sin brings shame misery and death 1. Sin brings shame for before the fall our first Parents were both naked Gen. 2. 25. and were not ashamed But since the fall sin causeth shame in all men and women except those who are come to that height of impudence that they are past shame of whom the Prophet speaks Were they ashamed when they had Jer. 6. 15. committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Therefore said the Apostle What Rom. 6. 21. fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed c 2. Sin brings all sorts of miseries calamities losses c. I have wounded them Jer. 30. 14 15. with the wounds of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquities because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee 3. Sin brings death the end of these Rom. 6. 21. things is death So we see that sin guiltiness and
complaint for want of glory nor of envying others that have more Christ after the day of Judgment shall remain King for ever for He shall not so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father 1 Cor. 15. 24. that He shall cease to reign But that He may represent to His Father that His Kingdom is compleat and shall remain so for ever The meaning of those words is thus when Christ as Mediator hath been established King of the whole World but especially of His Church to gather together govern and bring unto His Father all His Elect and to destroy His enemies shall have brought His work to an end and so deliver up the Kingdom to His Father that as verse 28. God may be all in all that is the Father with the Son and Holy Ghost in Unity of Essence and Glory shall begin to reign immediately over His Church in a manner altogether new namely by Himself without any outward means without the work of Angels or Men Ecclesiastical or Political Orders as it is in this world and likewise without any adversaries or oppositions filling all His with His light love life and glory Which indeed will not a whit disannul Christs Kingdom but only change the meaner form thereof into a more sublime majestical glorious and most perfect form That God may be all in all that is that God the whole blessed Trinity may immediately and absolutely work fully in all the Elect who shall then be perfectly united unto God and that He may Possess Govern and Rule them for ever Now to speak a little where these glorious mansions are in Heaven Philosophers speak of ten Heavens but we shall wave that and speak according to Scripture-phrase and so there are three Heavens 3 Heavens The first is all that whole space from the earth to the sphere of the Moon where the birds flie therefore they are called the folws of Heaven and whence Mat. 6. 26. the rain hail and snow thunder and lightning wind and other Meteors do descend So God opened the Windows Gen. 7. 11. Deut. 28. 12. of Heaven and poured down rain upon the earth The second Heaven is and consists of all those visible Orbs where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whole expansion is called the Firmament Gen. 1. 14. 15. Gen. 1. 8. and God called the firmament Heaven and in this God hath placed the Sun Moon and other Stars which are called in Scripture the Stars of Heaven Num. 3. 16. The third Heaven is that where God is said especially to dwell whither Christ ascended whither St. Paul in a 2 Cor. 12. 2. rapture was caught up into this third Heaven and where all the blessed ones shall be for ever This is the Heaven whereof we now speak Objection But some may ask Where the Soul is when it goeth out of the body and in what condition the Soul lives being separate from the body until the day of Judgment The Papists feign a Purgatory that Solution they may be purged from their sins which is contrary to the Scripture For the Scripture teacheth us that not the sire of Purgatory after this life of which there is no mention made in Scripture but the blood of Christ laid hold on and applied by a lively faith while we are here in this life doth cleanse our souls from all sin And 1 John 1. 7. that the souls of the faithful after death are not thrust into a place of torment but that they are gathered unto Christ into Abrahams bosome The meaning Luk. 16. 23. of into Abrahams bosome is thus it is the gesture of a good Father towards his little and tender Children to cherish them in his bosome The souls of the faithful presently after their departure out of the body are carry'd by the Angels up into heaven into the communion of all true believers of whom Abraham was the Titular Father and therefore called the Father of the faithful Rom. 4. 16 I say That presently after death the soul appears before God to Judgment Eccl. 12. 7. either to be gathered into the Mansions of the blessed or to be cast into Hell into the state of the damned from whence there is no redemption and then truly are tormented in those infernal flames but yet are reserved for greater torments against the last Day when soul and body shall be joyned together again And for this the Scripture is very clear So our Saviour said Father into Thy hands I commit my Spirit Luk. 23. 46. Stephen at his death kneeled down and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts 7. 59. Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 8 Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Therefore not in Purgatory So the faithful are desirous and willing to be absent from the body that they may be present with the Lord. And this is the last Article of Faith as the Crown of all I believe the life everlasting or that there is an everlasting life which holds out these three things 1. I believe that after this life there shall be another life in which all the true members of the Church shall be glorifi'd and shall praise God for ever and ever 2. I believe that I am a member of this Church and so shall be a partaker of everlasting life 3. That in this life I have by Faith the beginning of everlasting life For Christ said He that believeth in Me Joh. 3. 36. hath everlasting life So this profit and comfort hence redoundeth unto me that in and through Christ I am justifi'd before God and am an heir of everlasting life Q. Shall we know each other and our Relations in heaven A. Mark the saying of the Apostle Henceforth know we no man after the 2 Cor. 5. 16. flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceâ—orth know we Him no more that is not with an affection meerly humane civil and natural but wholly with a Divine and spiritual affection befitting the state of glory Having premised this I answer in this Syllogism We shall enjoy in heaven every good thing and comfortable gift which may any way increase or add to our joy and happiness But meeting in heaven with our old dear Christian friends knowing of them and enjoying them never to part more either with them or all other the glorious Inhabitants in those heavenly Mansions will ravish us with sweetest delight Therefore we shall know one another in heaven nay our minds being abundantly enlightned with all wisdom and knowledg we shall be able to know not only those holy persons of our former relation or acquaintance but also such as we never knew before in the flesh even all the faithful which ever were are or shall be We shall be able then to say This was Abraham Isaac or Jacob Samuel David c. This was my Father Mother this was my child c. This was he
upholds all things by the word of his power And they cannot Heb. 1. 3. subsist a moment without Him In Him we live and move and have our Acts 17. 28. being In Whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind He giveth a being to all His Job 12. 10. promises In Him all the promises are 2 Cor. 1. 20. yea and in Him Amen All the creatures out of this inexhausted fountain have all the good which they have For we are not sufficient as of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but all our sufficiency is of God Rom. 11. 36. Of Him through Him and by Him are all things therefore to Him be glory for ever Amen And now what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord Deut. 10. 12 13. thy God to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul to keep the Commandment of the Lord and His statutes for thy good continually Loe this is My God I have waited for Him and He will save me this is the Lord I have waited for Him Isai 25. 9. I will rejoyce and be glad in His Salvation He shall guide me here with His Psal 73. 24. Counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory Now blessed be the Lord My God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous Psal 72. 18 19. things and blessed be His glorious Name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory Amen and Amen EXERCITATION THE SECOND Of Sacraments in general which are the Seals of the Covenant Q. VVHat is a Sacrament A. A Sacrament is an Ordinance of God wherein by giving and receiving of outward Elements according to His Will the promises of the Covenant of Grace made in the blood of Christ being represented exhibited and applyed unto us are farther signed and sealed betwixt God and Man Sacraments are seals annexed to the Rom. 4. 11. Covenant of Grace to instruct assure 1 Cor. 11. 23. and possess us of our part in Christ and His benefits and to bind us to all thankful Gal. 3. 27. obedience to God in Him that we Rom. 6. 4. should walk in newness of life God alone is the Author of a Sacrament because He alone can bestow those Graces which are sealed therein There be two only Sacraments in the New Testament 1. Baptism 2. The Supper of the Lord. Baptism is a Sacrament of our entrance into the Covenant of Grace the Lords Supper is a Sacrament of our continuance therein The other five Sacraments of the Papists as Matrimony Orders Extreme Unction Penance and Confirmation do want an outward sign and institution by Christ and so be no seals of saving Grace I could severally and distinctly prove those five to be no Sacraments but then I should be too prolix The word Sacrament is not used in all the New Testament it is here taken for a Divine Mysteric propounded and represented by outward signs and figures or symbols This signification in the word Sacrament is fitly answered and is borrowed by the Latin Ecclesiastical Writers from Military businesses in which the Oath that Soldiers took and were obliged by to their General was called a Sacrament This may aptly and sitly be so used here for in our Baptism by our Sureties until we come of age to perform it our selves we oblige and bind our selves by a solemn vow to our great Captain and General the Lord Jesus Christ to fight under His banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue His faithful Soldiers and Servants to our lives end These were the words used by every Roman Soldier in his Oath Obtemperaturus sum facturus quioquid mandabitur ab imperatoribus juxta vires And these were termed milites per Sacramentum The word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mysterie or a hidden secret belonging to holy things known but to few and not to be communicated but to those that are initiated or let into the Church From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacris initior or instituor doctrinâ quae ad res sacras pertinet I am instructed in the Doctrine concerning holy things But the word Mysterie is of larger acceptation than Sacrament A Sacrament is called a Mysterie because it signifieth secret things and such things as are unknown to those who have not been taught out of the Word of God concerning the signification and use of them and because there one thing is seen and another thing is meant The lawful use of the Sacraments is not the observation of the external Rite but to have faith to reserve the Rite it self to that end to which it was ordained by God For to the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace no other promise is annexed or added but the promise of Grace which hath always the condition of faith with it either expressed or implyed Faith is the instrument medium or hand by which the things signified and offered by God are received both in the Word and also in the Sacraments Christ Himself by His Spirit doth make the things promised present to our faith and so faith receiveth them In the right use of the Sacrament the giving and receiving the sign and thing signified is joyned and goes together The giving and receiving of the sign is bodily by the hand of the Minister and receiver but the giving and receiving of the thing signified is spiritual through true faith in the receiver and by the hand of Christ Himself giving it A Sacrament in proper speech comprehends the whole action as well the sign as the thing signified But by a Synechdoche it is taken only for the sign the outward visible sign of the inward invisible and spiritual Grace The outward and earthly matter of the Sacrament is the visible sign or element The inward and heavenly matter of the Sacrament is the things signified Christ with all His benefits The external form consisteth in the lawful administration and participation of the Sacrament according to the command of God The inward form is in the Analogy proportion or union of the sign and the thing signified which is a spiritual relation whereby the things signified are really communicated to them who rightly receive and use the signs The Sacraments are signs in a fourfold respect 1 Signifying 2 Exhibiting 3 Applying 4 Sealing 1. The outward signs in the Sacrament do signifie or represent the body and blood of Christ 2. Together with the sign the thing signified is exhibited and given yet not in the sign or element but in the sacramental action the Minister giving the sign or element but our Lord Jesus Christ gives the thing signified 3. The thing signified in the Word of the Gospel generally promised to all true believers is applyed to every believing Soul the outward sign or element being
name of the thing signified by a Sacramental Metonymie is given to the sign So the words of Christ must be understood Sacramentally the Bread is called the body of Christ because it is the sign of the body of Christ and the Cup or the Wine in the Cup is called the blood of Christ because it is the sign of the blood of Christ And the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the sign of the New Testament So the true sence and meaning of Christ's words This is my body which is given for you is thus This Bread which is broken by Me and given to you is a sign of My body which is given to death for you and is a certain sign of your conjunction and union with Me so that he that believeth and eateth this bread he doth truly feed on My body But according to that impious fiction of the Popish transubstantiation many absurdities follow As 1. Christ brake bread not His body therefore the bread is not really the body of Christ 2. The body of Christ is given for us and not bread therefore bread is not really the body of Christ 3. Christ did not say under these species is My body or My body is contained under these species therefore Papists pervert Christ's words and keep not to the institution 4. Christ said not of bread let this be made My body but this is My body 5. Notwithstanding their transubstantiation the bread is neither annihilated nor changed into the substance of a body but remaineth bread still 6. In every Sacrament there are two things the sign and the thing signified but transubstantiation taketh away the sign namely Bread and Wine therefore it doth wholly overthrow the Sacrament 7. Transubstantiation takes away the analogy between the sign and the thing signified But no more of this I will only add four Reasons against the carnal or corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament Reason 1 If the bread were turned into Christ's body then there would be two Christs one that giveth and one that is given for our Saviour gave the bread c. Reason 2 If the bread be the very body of Christ there would then be no more sign of the thing signified and so no Rom. 4. 11. Sacrament Reason 3 Then the wicked receiver might eat and drink Christs body and blood as well as the true believer Reason 4 The Minister cannot give the inward Grace but the outward elements only in the administration of the Sacrament There is another gross error also of Consubstantiation Consubstantiation is a coexistency of two substances in the same place or the presence of the body and blood of Christ not under the species of Bread and Wine but under the very Bread and Wine Luther was of this opinion that it remained bread still but under in or with the bread is the body of Christ And this is the common tenent and opinion of those who this day are called Lutherans Against this these few reasons may suffice 1. The whole action of the Lord's Supper is done in remembrance of Christ what need have we of that if Christ's body were really present either under with or in the elements 2. Christ's body is in Heaven and the Heavens must receive Him until the times of restitution of all things Acts 3. 21. 3. This is an essential property of every magnitude and therefore of Christ's body also to be in one place and circumscribed or encompassed of one place 4. If Christ's body were eaten corporally then the wicked as well as the Godly partake of the flesh of Christ but to eat His flesh is to believe in Him and to have eternal life 5. It is absurd to think that Christ sitting with His disciples did with His own hands take His own body and give it wholly to every one of His Disciples This is the Sacrament not of the living or of the glorious body of Christ but of His suffering and crucified body So Christ said This is My body which is given for you it is the Sacrament of Christ's body delivered unto death for us And that these two ways 1. It is a visible sign bringing to our remembrance or representing to us the body of Christ that as with our bodily eyes we see the bread of the Lord so with the eyes of our Soul we may see Christ's body crucified for us 2. It is a seal sealing to our faith that Christ's body was certainly delivered to death for us and is become the bread of life unto us We must not therefore seek Christ's body in the earthly element but by faith lift up our hearts to Heaven whither Christ ascended and where He is So in our Liturgy at the celebration of this Supper we are admonished to lift up our hearts Now let us come to speak of the outward actions both of the Minister and also of the Receivers 1. The actions of the Minister are these four 1. To take the Bread and Wine into his hands and to separate it from ordinary Bread and Wine Which is to signifie to us that God in His eternal decree separated Christ to be our Mediator and that He was set apart for this office Him hath God the Father sealed 2. To bless and consecrate the Bread and Wine by the Word and Prayer Which signifies to us that God in His due time sent Christ into the world and sanctified Him furnishing Him with all gifts needful for a Mediator 3. To break the Bread and pour out the Wine Which signifies the passions and sufferings of Christ with all the torments which He endured both in soul and body for our sins 4. To give and distribute the Bread and Wine to the receivers which signifies that God gave Christ and that Christ gave Himself to us and that whole Christ and all His merits are freely offered to all sorts of receivers And that God hath given Christ to the faithful receivers to feed their souls unto eternal life Joh. 3. 14 15. Joh. 6. 50 51. 2. Next we come to the Sacramental actions of the receivers and they are these two 1. To take the Bread and Wine offered by the Minister every one into his or her hand This signifies his taking and laying hold of Christ freely offered from God the Father by the hand of faith Joh. 1. 12. Or the receiving of Christ with all His benefits into his soul by faith They and they only have benefit by Christ crucified which thus apply Christ to themselves by a true and lively faith To as many as thus receive Him to them gives He power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on His name 2. To eat the Bread and drink the Wine receiving them into the body and digesting them And this signifies our uniting to Christ and enjoying of 1 Cor. 11. 26. Him or our application of Christ by faith that the feeling of our true union and communion with Christ may be increased We
we may and should remember yet God would have a solemn standing Ordinance in His Church for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Lord's Supper This must be our actual exercise at the time of our eating and drinking at this Holy Table to shew forth the Lord's death The death of Christ then must fill our eyes ears lips and thoughts If any of us could see Christ dying that sight would take us up Here we come as near to see Him dying as can be represented unto us Here Christ is Crucified before our eyes Thus much Gal. 3. 1. for the second part which is a Christian heedfulness in the act of receiving Now of the third and last part a thankful close and shutting up this our duty in this Ordinance 1. By joyful thanksgiving with Prayers 2. Meditation how we are bettered what increase we find of our faith in Christ love to God and all His Saints what strength and power we have gotten against sin lust and corruption what new obedience we shew forth in our lives and what increase and confiâ—ming we find of all other sanctifying and saving Graces in us to help us to lead new lives and to run the ways of all God's Commandments with more strength and alacrity than formerly This do in remembrance of me This is a solemn Memorial instituted by Christ Himself Great Deliverances or Mercies have solemn commemorations Such was the Passeover and the Feast of Purim c. among the Jews Christ did not ordain it for His Nativity Circumcision Ascension c. though all these were for us and our Redemption but in remembrance of His death hereby we shew the Lord's death Because our sins are done away by His death therein in His death was made the Sacrifice of atonement Redemption and Reconciliation was made thereby the Covenant confirmed the justice of God satisfied and everlasting life procured c. 1. Let us make this thankful remembrance to and within our selves what fruit and benefit we receive from Christ and the torments and pains He endured for us both in His blessed body and soul nay His Soul-pains were the sole or chief of all His pains Do not these deserve a thankful remembrance 2. We make this remembrance to others to all the world by our solemn profession of Christ and His death to which we stick for remission of sins and acceptation with God 3. We make this remembrance to God that Christ by His death hath satisfied God's justice and hath made peace through the blood of His Cross Who shall therefore lay any thing to the Col. 1. 20. charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed for us c. Rom. 8. 34. I close up with the Allegory of the Paschal Lamb and Christ how the type and anti-type or the thing signified fitly answer and agree in these thirteen things 1. It must be a lamb of the flock so Christ was true man Joh. 1. 14. 2. A Lamb without blemish so Christ was without sin 3. To be killed and roasted with fire to shew the bitter death and passion of Christ 4. A bone of it must not be broken so Christ had not a bone broken Joh. 19. 36. 5. It must be in the evening so Christ suffered in the end of the world Heb. 1. 2. and 9. 26. 6. The posts were to be sprinkled with the blood so Christ's blood is sprinkled on our Consciences and His satisfaction is imputed to us Rom. 3. Isai 53. 6. 7. Seeing the blood the destroying Angel passed over and they were preserved from death so Christ by his blood frees us from everlasting death 8. The Lamb was to be eaten and in every family so Christ by faith is to be applyed by every believer 9. The Lamb was to be roasted whole his head legs appurtenances so whole Christ is to be received and wholly according to all the articles of our faith 2 Tim. 3. 7. 10. Without leaven that is without hypocrisie 11. It must be eaten with bitter herbs with true repentance and bitter grief for sin which caused that bitter passion of Christ He that will be Christ's Disciple must take up the Cross 12. It must be eaten hastily and with their staves in their hands after the fashion of strangers to shew that we are Pilgrims here and travailing to our heavenly countrey have need of such a Viaticum in the way 13. Only Circumcised to eat thereof So only the regenerate feed on Christ by faith and Christ is profitable only unto them Some Sentences 1. Our Union and Communion with Christ doth not mingle the persons nor unite the substances but it consociates our affections and confederates our wills 2. This is to eat that bread and drink that cup to abide in Christ and to have Christ abiding in thee And hereby it follows that he that abides not in Christ nor Christ in him doth not spiritually eat of this bread and drink of this cup although carnally and visibly he eateth of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ 3. To believe in Christ is to eat that bread of life He that believeth in Christ feedeth upon Him and is invisibly fatted by Him because he is invisibly regenerated 4. Believers only eat the bread the Lord wicked men who are against Christ in their practises may eat the bread of the Lord. 5. All Glory to God and Salvation to Men is placed in the death and passion of the Lord Jesus Christ EXERCITATION THE FOURTH Ecclesiastes 12. 13. Fear God The whole Verse runs thus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep His Commandments for this is the whole duty of Man THe meaning is thus as if King Solomon had said the whole subject of this Book of Ecclesiastes is summarily comprehended in this point that man should lead his life in the fear of God and in holy obedience unto Him So that after this life he may enjoy everlasting blessedness and happiness in Him Now the fear of God is commanded in the first Commandment the scope and meaning of the first Commandment is thus that Jehovah one in Substance and three in Persons the Creator and Governour of all things and the Redeemer of His people is to be entertained for the only true God in all the powers of our soul And that the inward Mat. 22. 37. Prov. 23. 26. Deut. 5. 29. Prov. 4. 23. Mat. 12. 35. and spiritual worship of the heart wherein God especially delighteth and which is the ground of the outward worship may be given to Him and none other and that sincerely without hypocrisie as in His sight who searcheth Jer. 17. 10. and knoweth the heart For this word before Me or before My face noteth that inward entertainment and worship whereof God alone doth take notice And thereby God sheweth that He condemneth as well the corrupt thoughts of mans heart concerning His Majesty as the wicked practise of