besides it And indeed what other can we insist upon Outward profession will not do it many a one shall say Lord Lord with a zealous reduplication which yet shall be excluded And for pretended revelations they are no lesse deceitfull Satan oftentimes transforming himself into an Angel of light A Zidkijeh thinks he hath the Spirit as well as any Michaiah of them all our books are full of the reports of dangerous dulusions of this kind whereby it hath come to pass that many a one in stead of the true David hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goats hair 1 Sam. 19.16 But this mark of reall sanctification cannot fail us It will ever hold good that which St. Paul hath Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Nothing in this World can so highly concern us as this to see and know whether we be sealed to the day of Redemption Would we know how it may be evidenced to us look upon the impression that Gods Spirit hath made upon our hearts and lives if he have renewed us in the inner man and wrought us unto true holiness to a lively faith to a sincere love of God to a conscionable care of all our actions and to all other his good graces doubtlesse we are so sealed that all the powers of Hell cannot deface and obliterate this blessed impression But the principal main use of this Seal is for certainty of performance If we have the word of an honest man we believe it but if we have his hand we make our selves more sure but if we have both his hand and seal we rest secure of the accomplishing of what is given or undertaken How much more assurance may we have when we have the word of a God whose very title is Amen Rev. 3.14 whose promises are like himself Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Alas the best man is deceitful upon the balance and his true stile is Omnis homo mend ax every man is a lyer But for this God of truth Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one tittle of his word shall fail but when that promise is seconded by his Seal what a transcendent assurance is here It is the charge of the Apostle Peter Give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure not in respect of God whom no changes can reach whose word is I am Jehovah my counsel shall stand but in respect of our apprehension not in regard of the object only which cannot fail but even of the subject also which if it were not fecible sure the Spirit of God would not have injoyned it or imposed it upon us The Vulgar reads Per bona opera by good works And indeed it is granted by Beza and Clamier that in some Greek copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon Bellarmine would fain take an advantage to prove his conjecturall assurance A strange match of words meerly contradictory for if but conjecturall how can it be assurance and if it be assurance how only conjecturall we may as well talk of a false truth as a conjecturall assurance But that implication of Bellarmine is easily blown over if we consider that these Good works do not only comprehend external works as almes-deeds prayer attendance on Gods ordinances and the like but also the internall acts of the soul the Acts of believing the Acts of the love of God the Acts of that hope which shall never make us ashamed These will evidence as our calling and election so the certainty of both and therefore are the seal of our Redemption Let foolish men have leave to improve their wits to their own wrong in pleading for the uncertainty of their right to Heaven But for us let us not suffer our souls to take any rest till we have this blessed seal put upon us to the assuring of our Redemption and Salvation that we may be able to say with the chosen vessel God hath sealed us and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 If we have the grant of some good lease or some goodly Mannor made to us by word of mouth we stay not till we have gotten it under black and white and not then till we have it under seal nor then if it be a perpetuity till we have livery and seizin given us of it and when all this is done we make account securely to enjoy our hopes and shall we be lesse carefull of the main-chance even of the eternal inheritance of Heaven Lo here all these done for us Here is the word preaching peace and Salvation to all that believe here are his Scriptures the internal monuments of his written word confirming it here is the seal added to it here is the Livery and Seâ—zin given in the earnest of his Spirit and here is sufficient witnesse to all even Gods Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the sons of God Let us finde this in our bosome and we are happy neither let our hearts be quiet till we can say with the chosen Vessel I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature can be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 3. the last verse Lo this is not a guesse but an assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the Apostle speak of his own speciall revelation as the Popish Doctors would pretend but he takes all beleevers into the partnership of this comfortable unfailablenesse nothing shall separate us thus happy are we if we be sealed unto the day of Redemption Having now handled the parts severally let us if you please put them together and see the power of this inference or argument ye are by the Spirit of God sealed to the day of redemption Oh therefore grieve not that Spirit of God by whom ye are thus sealed The Spirit of God hath infinitely merited of you hath done so much for you as ye are not capable to conceive much lesse to answer in so Heavenly an obsignation Oh then be you tender of giving any offence to that good Spirit Do not you dare to do ought that might displease that loving and beneficent Spirit Be not you so much your own enemies as to give just distast to your good God So as the force of the argument as we intimated at the first lies upon an action of unkindnesse affording us this instruction that the ground of Gods Childrens fear to offend must be out of love and thankfulness great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared saith the Psalmist he doth not say great is thy mercy that thou maist be loved nor great is thy Majesty that thou maist be feared but great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared base servile natures are kept in with feare
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By good works The vulgar reads it thus and the Council of Trent cites it thus and some of ours so the text runs thus Give diligence that by good works ye may make your calling and election sure I inquire not how duly but certainly there is no cause that we should fear or dislike this reading good works are a notable confirmation to the soul of the truth of our calling and election Though Cardinal Bellarmine makes ill use of the place striving hereupon to inferre that our certitude is therefore but conjectural because it is of works For the solution whereof justly may we wonder to hear of a conjectural certitude Certainly we may as well hear of a false-truth what a plain implication is here of a palpable contradiction Those things which we conjecture at are only probable and there can be no certainty in probability Away with these blinde peradventures had our Apostle said and he knew how to speak guesse at your calling and election by good works his game here had been fair but now when he saies By good works indeavour to make your calling and election sure how clearly doth he disclaim a dubious hit I-misse-I and implies a fecible certainty And indeed what hinders the connection of this assurance Our works make good the truth of our faith our faith makes good our effectual calling our calling makes good our election therefore even by good works we make our election sure Neither can it hurt us that the Cardinal saith we hold this certainty to be before our good works not after them and therefore that is not caused by our good works We stand not nicely to distinguish how things stand in the order of nature surely this certainty is both before and after our works before in the act of our faith after in our works confirming our faith neither do we say this certainty is caused by our good works but confirmed by them neither doth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply alwaies a thing before uncertain as learned Chamier well but the completing and making up of a thing sure before To which also must be added that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good works must be taken in the largest latitude so as to fetch in not only the outward good offices that fall from us in the way whether of our charity justice or devotion but the very inmost inclinations and actions of the soul tending towards God our believing in him our loving of him our dreading of his infinite Majesty our mortification of our corrupt affections our joy in the holy Ghost whatsoever else may argue or make us holy These are the means by which we may and must endeavor to make our calling election sure But to let this clause passe as litigious the undoubted words of the text goe no less If ye do these things ye shall never fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things are the vertues precedently mentioned and not falling is equivalent to ascertaining our calling and election Not to instance then and urge those many graces which are here specified I shall content my self with those three Theological vertues singled out from the rest faith hope charity for the makeing sure our calling and election For faith how clear is that of our Saviour He that believes in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life Joh. 5.24 This is the grace by which Christ dwels in our hearts Ephes 3.17 and whereby we have communion with Christ and an assured testimony of and from him For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 John 5.10 And what witness is that This is the record that God hath given us eternall life and this life is in his Son verse 11. He that hath the Son hath life verse 12. See what a connection here is Eternal life first this life eternal is in and by Christ Jesus this Jesus is ours by faith This Faith witnesseth to our souls our assurance of Life Eternall Our hope is next which is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thrusting out of the head to look for the performing of that which our faith apprehends and this is so sure a grace as that it is called by the name of that glory which it expecteth Colos 1.5 For the hope sake which is laid up for you in heaven that is for the glory we hope for Now both faith and hope are of a cleansing nature both agree in this Purifying their hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Every one that hath this hope purifyeth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 The Devil is an unclean Spirit he foules wheresoever he comes and all sin is nasty and beastly Faith and hope like as neat huswives when they come into a foul and sluttish house cleanse all the roomes of the soul and make it a fit habitation for the Spirit of God Are our hearts lifted up then in a comfortable expectation of the performance of Gods merciful promises and are they together with our lives swept and cleansed from the wonted corruptions of our nature and pollutitions of our sin this is an undoubted evidence of our calling and election Charity is the last which comprehends our love both to God and man for from the reflection of Gods love to us there ariseth a love from us to God again The beloved Disciple can say We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 And from both these resulteth our love to our brethren which is so full an evidence that our Apostle tells us we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 For the love of the Father is inseparable from the love of the Son he that loves him that begets loves him that is begotten of him Shortly then think not of a ladder to clâ—mbe up into heaven to search the books of God First look into your own lives those are most open we need no locks or keyes to them the Psalmist in his fifthteenth will tell you who is for that blisseful Sion are your lives innocent are your works good and holy do ye abound in the fruites of piety justice Christian compassion Let these be your first tryall it is a flat and plain word of the divine Apostle whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God 1 John 3.10 Look secondly into your own bosomes open to none but your own eyes If ye find there a true and lively faith in the Son of God by whose blood ye are cleansed from all your sins by vertue whereof ye can cry Abba Father a sure hope in Christ purifying your souls from your corruptions a true and unfained love to your God and Saviour who hath done so much for your soules so as you dare say with that fervent Apostle Lord thou knowest that I love thee and in him and for his sake a sincere love to his
fear that we can offend in an over-bold accesse to the throne of Grace in bouncing to hard at his mercy-gate for Lo his goodnesse hath invited us and animated our bashfulnesse When Moses approached to the burning bush he heareth Come not near for he came out of curiosity and wonder not out of devotion but God calls us to this approach Ho every one that thirsteth come Come to me all ye that travell and be heavy laden and I will refresh you and therefore we cannot come with too much confidence nor fail of successe in coming It is an holy and well grounded expostulation which the Psalmist hath How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth implying that whiles we can pray we may make just account of favour and protection So then upon the feet of our affections upon the hands of our actions upon the knees of our devotions we must draw nigh unto God But that we may do so Our care must be that the hindrances of our approach may be removed And first of all we must draw off from the World that is like a rock of Load-stone that drawes our Iron hearts to it and holds them close to it self so as it is not easily quit It is like the Father of the Levites Concubine that holds us on with a pleasing entertainment till there be a danger of mis-carriage in the return But ye remember what the Psalmist sayes Hearken O Daughter and consider Thou must leave thy Fathers house we must in our affections leave the World if we would betake our selves to God Tush ye are ready to say we shall hold in with both and do well enough Be not deceived Brethren The love of the world is enmity with God Ye cannot serve to Masters God and Mammon one of them you must forsake Abraham must leave his Ur of the Chaldees his native Country and his Fathers house if he will have the clear vision of God The Israelites must go out of Egypt ere they can offer an acceptable sacrifice to God we must with Elisha forsake our teame if we will be fit attendants for a Master that is rap't up to Heaven we must forsake our nets and follow Christ if we will be meet Disciples of his In the second place we must give strong denyalls to our own corrupt desires These are like some leaden weights that hang upon our heels and keep us from mounting up into our Heaven these like to Potiphars wanton wife hang upon Josephs sleeve to draw him unto folly and they must be shaken off if ever we would draw nigh unto God If Father or Mother or Wife or Child lie in thy way per calcatum Vade patrem trample upon thy Fathers brest in thy passage to thy Father in Heaven Our self-love and self-respect lies like an huge mountain betwixt God and us we must either by the power of our faith say to this Mountain be thou removed and cast into the midst of the Sea or else we must climbe over it by the painfull practises of a constant and effectuall mortification Shortly as men peregrinamur a domino we are here absent from the Lord 2. Cor. 5.6 but as sinners we are with the prodigall gone into a farr Country quite out of the Ken of our Fathers house and there having spent our patrimony and debauch't our selves we are feeding upon the huskes of vanity Oh let us take up at the last serious resolutions to return home though by weeping crosse and put our selves into our way we shall be sure that our indulgent Father will espie us afar off and meet us in our passage and welcome us with a kisse according to this word in my Text Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you And so from the duty injoyned we descend to the Inducement proposed But indeed what needs any inducement at all There are actions that carry their reward in their mouth such is this we have in hand It is a great honour to us wretched Creatures that we may be allowed to draw nigh to the Lord of glory If there do but an earthly Prince come ever though we have no relation to him at all yet what pressing there is to see him so as there is need of Ushers or whifflers to stave off the multitude but if our own would allow all his subjects to repair to his Court with expectation of favour and countenance from him what thronging would there be to his gates what ambition to enter And Lo the God of Heaven gives us this gracious liberty of a free accesse and yet withall backs it with a strong motive of advantage He will draw nigh unto you And indeed what inducement can there be equally powerfull to this that God will draw nigh to us There is nothing in us but want misery infirmity deformity there is nothing in God but perfection and glory and therefore for us vile wretches to draw nigh to him what can it be other then an honour too high for us but for him to draw nigh to us what can it be but a kind of disparagement to him Ye know what a construction was set upon our Saviour for this very point that he did eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners and how the proud Pharisee censur'd him when that humble penitent made an ewre of her eyes and a towell of her hair for the feet of Christ Luc· 7.39 Oh saith he if this man were a Prophet he would have known what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner as if the suffering himself to be toucht by a sinner were disgrace enough and yet the God of Heaven will descend to us so low as notwithstanding our extream sinfulnesse and unworthinesse to draw nigh unto us God will be so to us as we are to him As face answers to face so doth God to us when ye look upon your glasse if you smile upon it it will smile upon you again if you frown it will so do also even so doth God with us with the pure thou wilt be pure with the mercifull thou wilt be mercifull with the froward thou wilt show thy self froward If thou run away from God he will run away as fast from thee if thou draw nigh unto God he will draw nigh to thee And how will God draw nigh unto us In his Ordinances In his Audience in his Graces In his Aid and Salvation In his Ordinances For God hath graciously as it were tyed his presence to them as under the law so no lesse under the Gospell when Jethro Moses his Father in Law took a burnt offering and sacrifice for God Aaron came and all Israel with him to eat bread with Moses his Father in Law before the Lord Exod. 18.12 where was that but before the Testimony of his presence the Cloudy Pillar And that is very pregnant which God hath Exod. 29.40 This shall be a continuall burnt offering throughout your Generations at
in respect of corporal presence is in Heaven whither he visibly ascended and where he sits on the right hand of the Father and whence he shall come again with glory a parcel of our Creed which the Church learn't of the Angels in Mount Olivet who taught the gazing disciples that this same Jesus which was taken up from them into Heaven shall so come in like manner as they saw him go into Heaven which was with wonderfull glory and magnificence Far be it from us then to think that the blessed humanity of the Son of God should so disparage it self as where there is neither necessity nor use of a bodily descent to steale down and conveigh himself insensibly from Heaven to Earth daily and to hide up his whole sacred body in an hundred thousand several pixes at once It is a wonder that superstition it self is not ashamed of so absurd and impossible a fancy which it is in vain for Men to think they can salve up with a pretence of omnipotence we question not the power of God but his will and do well know he cannot will absolute contradictions Deus hoc potenter non potest as one said truly That which we say of Christs presence holds no less of his reception for so do we receive him into us as he is present with us neither can we corporally receive that which is bodily absent although besides the common incongruity of opinion the corporal receiving of Christ hath in it a further prodigiousness and horrour all the Novices of the Roman Schools are now asham'd of their Popes Dentibus teritur but when their Doctors have made the best of their own Tenent they cannot avoid St. Austins flagitium videtur praecipere By how much the humane flesh is and ought to be more dear by so much more odious is the thought of eating it neither let them imagine they can escape the imputation of an hateful savageness in this act for that it is not presented to them in the form of flesh whiles they professe to know it is so howsoever it appeareth Let some skilful cook so dress mans flesh in the mixtures of his artificial hashes and tast full sauces that it cannot be discerned by the sence yet if I shall afterwards understand that I have eaten it though thus covertly conveyed I cannot but abhorr to think of so unnatural a diet Corporally then to eat if it were possible the flesh of Christ Joh. 6.63 as it could in our Saviours own word profit nothing so it could be no other then a kinde of religious Cannibalisme which both nature and grace cannot but justly rise against Since therefore the body of Christ cannot be said to be corporally present or received by us it must needs follow that there is no way of his presence or receit in the Sacrament but spiritual which the Church of England hath laboured so fully to express both in her holy Liturgie and publickly-authorized homilies that there is no one point of divine truth which she hath more punctually and plainly laid down before us What can be more evident then that which she hath said in the second exhortation before the Communion thus Dearly beloved forasmuch as our duty is to render to Almighty God our heavenly Father most hearty thanks for that he hath given his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ not only to dye for us but also to be our spiritual food and sustenance as it is declared unto us as well by Gods word as by the holy Sacraments of his blessed body and blood c. Lo Christ is in this Sacrament given to us to be our spiritual food in which regard also this sacrament is in the same exhortation called a Godly and heavenly feast whereto that we may come holy and clean we must search and examine our own consciences not our chops and mawes that we may come and be received as worthy Partakers of such an Heavenly Table But that in the following exhortation is yet more pregnant that we should diligently try and examine our faith before we presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood then we dwel in Christ and he in us we be one with Christ and Christ with us so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily What termes can be more expresse it is bread and wine which we come to receive that bread and that wine is sacramental It is our heart wherewith we receive that sacrament it is our faith whereby we worthily receive this receit and manducation of the flesh of Christ is spiritually done and by this spiritual receit of him we are made one with him and he with us by vertue then of the worthy receit of this sacramental bread and wine we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ spiritually and there growes hereby a reciprocal union betwixt Christ and us neither is he otherwise one with us then we are one with him which can be no otherwise then by the power of his institution and of our faith And that no man may doubt what the drift and purpose of our blessed Saviour was in the institution and recommendation of this blessed sacrament to his Church it followes in that passage And to the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our master and onely Saviour Jesus Christ thus dying for us and the innumerable benefits which by his pretious blood-shedding he hath obtained to us he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries as pledges of his love and continual remembrances of his death to our great and endlesse comfort If therefore we shall look upon and take these sacred elements as the pledges of our Saviours love to us and remembrances of his death for us we shall not need neither indeed can we require by the judgment of our Church to set any other value on them But withall that we may not sleightly conceive of those mysteries as if they had no further worth then they do outwardly show we are taught in that prayer which the Minister kneeling down at Gods board is appointed to make in the name of all the communiâ—ants before the consecration that whiles we do duly receive those blessed elements we do in the same act by the power of our faith eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ so effectual and inseparable is the sacramental union of the signes thus instituted by our blessed Lord and Saviour with the thing thereby signified for thus is he prescribed to pray Grant us therefore gratious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our soules washed through his most pretious blood and that we may ever dwell in him and he