spatious and great roome and so it should bee for it was a great Supper the Supper of a King The Disciples were then the type representative of the whole Catholick Church which was now by them to be begotten unto God and therfore the Chamber must needs be a resemblance and Modell of the whole world throughout which the sound of Christs name and the memory of his passion should in his Supper be celebrated untill the end of all things and then no marvell if it were a great Chamber Lastly it was ready spread fitted trimmed and prepared So sacred a mysterie as this may not be exhibited in an unfitted or uncleane place much lesse received into a corrupt and unprepared soule The body of Christ was never to see corruption and therefore it will never be mix'd with corruption It lay first in a cleane womb it was after buried in a virgin Sepulcher it then was taken into the brightest heavens and it still resides in molten and purifide hearts He that had the purity of a Dove will never take up the loding of a Crow Here then we see from these circumstances with what reverence and preparation with what affection and high esteeme we should receive these sacred mysteries The gift of a dying friend though of contemptible value is yet greatly prized for the memory of the donor for though the thing it selfe be small yet is it the pledge of a great love The words of a dying man though formerly vile and vaine are for the most part serious and grave how much more pretious was the gift of Christ who is the Almoner of Almighty God and whose only businesse it was to give gifts unto men how much more sacred were his last words who all his life time spake as never man spake The very presence of a dying man estamps on the mind an affection of feare and awe much more should the words and gifts of him who was dead and is alive againe Certainly he hath a flinty soule whom love as strong as death and death the work of that love cannot melt into a sympathie of affection In summe the Time of this Sacrament was a time of passion let not us be stupid it was a time of passeover let not our soules be unsprinkled it was a time of unleavened bread let not our doctrine of it be adulterated with the leaven of heresie not our soules in receiving tainted with the leaven of malice it was the time of betraying Christ let not our hands againe play the Iudas by delivering him unto jewish and sinfull soules which will crucifie againe unto themselves the Lord of glory let not us take that pretious blood into our hands rather to shed it than to drink it and by receiving the body of Christ unworthily make it as the sop was to Iudas even an harbenger to provide roome for Satan Againe the place of the Sacrament was a high Roome let not our soules lie sinking in a dungeon of sin it was a great roome let not our soules be straightned in the entertaining of Christ it was a trimmed roome let not oursoules be sluttish and uncleane when then the King of glory should enter in but as the Author of those mysteries was holy by a fulnesse of grace the elements holy by his blessing the tyme holy by his ordination and the place holy by his presence so let us by the receiving of them bee transformed as it were into their nature and bee holy by that union unto Christ of which they are as well the instrumentall meanes whereby it is increased as the seales and pledges whereby it is confirm'd CHAP. VII Of the matter of the Lords Supper Bread and Wine with their Analogie unto Christ. WEE have considered the Author or efficient of this Sacrament and those circumstances which were annexed unto its Institution we may now a little consider the essentiall parts of it and first the elements or matter of which it conconsisteth consecrated bread wine it neither stood with the outwad poverrty of Christ nor with the benefit of the Church to institute such sumptuous and gaudy elements as might possesse too much the sense of the beholder and too little resemble the quality of the Saviour And therefore he choose his Sacraments rather for the fitnesse than the beauty of them as respecting more the end than the splendor or riches of his Table and intended rather to manifest his divine power in altering poore elements unto a pretious use than to exhibit any carnall pompe in such delicious fare as did not agree with the spiritualnesse of his Kingdome Though he be contented out of tendernesse toward our weaknesse to stoop unto our senses yet he will not cocker them as in his reall and naturall body so in his representative the Sacrament a sensuall or carnall eye sees not either forme or beauty for which it may bee desired Pictures ought to resemble their originalls and the Sacrament wee know is the picture or type of him who was a man of sorrow and this picture was drawne when the day of Gods fierce wrath was upon him and can we then expect from it any satisfaction or pleasure to the senses this body was naked on the Crosse it were incongruous to have the Sacrament of it pompous on the Table As it was the will of the Father which Christ both glorifies and admires to reveale unto babes what hee hath hidden from the wise so is it here his wisedome to communicate by the meanest Instruments what he hath denied unto the choisest delicates to feed his Daniels rather with poâ—lse than with all the dainties on the Kings table And if we observe it divine miracles take ever the poorest meanest subjects to manifest themselves on If he want an army to protect his Church flies frogs and catterpillers and lamps and pitchers c. shall be the strongest souldiers and weapons he useth the lame and the blind the dumb and the dead water clay these are materialls for his power even where thou seest the instruments of God weakest there expect and admire the more abundant manifestation of his greatnesse wisedome undervalue not then the Bread and Wine in this holy Sacrament which doe better resemble the benefits of Christ crucified than any other the choisest delicateâ— Bread and Wine the element is double to encrease the comfort of the faithfull that by two things wherin it is impossible for God to deceive wee might have strong consolation who have laid hold upon him The dreame is doubled said Iosâ—ph to Pharoah because the thing is certaine and surely here the element is doubled too that the grace may be the more certaine No marvell then if those men who deny unto the people the certainty of grace deny unto them likewise these double elements so fit is it that they which preached but a halfe comfort should administer
doe eat and drink the Lord himselfe And therefore the Church hath both at first and since most devoutly imitated our blessed Saviour in consecrating both these mysteries and their owne soules by thanksgiving and prayer before ever they received the elements from the hands of the Deacons that so that same pure Wine that immaculate Blood might be put into pure and untainted vessels even into sanctified and holy hearts lest otherwise the wine should be spilt and the vessells perish And indeed the Sacrament is ignorantly and fruitlessely received if we doe not therin devote consecrate and set apart our selves unto Gods service for what is a Sacrament but a visible oath wherin wee doe in consideration of Christs mercies unto us vow eternall alleigeance and service unto him against all those powers and lusts which warre against the soule and to make our members weapons of righteousnesse unto him Secondly as Christ brake the bread before he gave it so must our hearts before they be offered up to God for a reasonable sacrifice be humbled and bruised with the apprehension of their owne demerits for a Broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise shall wee have adamantine and unbended soules under the weight of those sins which brake the very Rock of our salvation and made the dead stones of the Temple to rend in sunder Was his body broken to let out his blood and shall not our soules be broken to let it in Was the Head wounded and shall the Ulcers and Impostumes remaine unlanced Would not God in the Law accept of any but pushed and dissected and burned sacrifices was his Temple built of none but cut and hewed stones and shall we think to have no Sword of the Spirit divide us no Hammer of the Word break us none of our drosse and stubble burned up none of our flesh beaten downe none of our old man crucified and cut off from us and yet be still living sacrifices and living stones in his Temple Whence did David call on God but out of the pit and the deepe waters when his bones were broken could not rejoyce Certainly we come unto God either as unto a Physitian or as to a Judge wee must needs bring soules either full of sores to be cured or full of sins to be condemned Againe in that this Rock of ours was broken we know whither to flie in case of tempest and oppression even unto the holes of the Rock for succor To disclaime our owne sufficiency to disavow any confidence in our owne strength to flie from Church treasures and supererrogations and to lay hold on him in whom were the treasures the fulnes of all grace of which fulnesse we all receive to forsake the private Lampes of the wisest Virgins the Saints and Angels which have not light enough to shine into anothers house and to have recourse only unto the Sonne of righteousnesse the light not of a House but of the World who inlightneth every man that commeth into it Think when thou seest these Elements broken that even then thou applyest thy lips unto his bleeding wounds and doest from thence suck salvation That even then with Thomas thy hand is in his side from whence thou mayest pluck out those words of life My God my God that even then thou seest in each wound a mouth open and in that mouth the blood as a visible prayer to intercede with God the Father for thee and to solicite him with stronger cries for salvation than did Abels for revenge Let not any sins though never so bloody so numberlesse deterre thee from this pretious Fountaine If it be the glory of Christs blood to wash away sinne then is it his greatest glory to wash away the greatest sins Thy sinne indeed is the object of Gods hate but the misery which sinne brings upon thee is the object of his pitty O when a poore distressed soule that for many yeares together hath securely weltered in a sinck of numberlesse and noisome lusts and hath even beene environed with a Hell of wickednesse shall at last having received a wound from the sword of Gods Spirit an eye to see and a heart to feele and tremble at the terrors of â—ods judgements shall then I say flie out of himselfe smite upon his thigâ— cast away his rags crouch and crawle unto the throne of grace solicite Gods mercy with strong cries for one drop of that blood which is never cast away when powred into sinfull and sorrowfull soules how think we will the bowels of Christ turne within him How will he hasten to meet such an humbled soule to embrace him in those armes which were stretched on the Crosse for him and to open unto him that inexhausted Fountaine which even delighteth to mix it â—elfe with the teares of sinners Certainly if it were possible for any one of Christs wounds to be more pretious than the rest even that should be opened wide and powred out into the soule of such a penitent Yea if it might possibly be that the sins of all the World could be even throng'd into the conscience of one man and the whole guilt of them made proper and personall unto him yet if such a man could bee brought to sue for grace in the mediation of Christs broken body there would thence issue balme enough to cure blood enough to wash and to drowne them all Only let not us sin because grace abounds let not us make work for the blood of Christ and go about by crimson and presumptuous sins as it were to pose Gods mercy The blood of Christ if spilt and trampled under foot will certainly cry so much lowder than Abels for vengeance by how much it is the more pretious It may be as well upon us as in us As the vertue and benefit of Christs blood is in those that imbrace it unto life and happinesse so is the guilt of it upon those that despise it unto wretchednesse and condemnation Thirdly in that Christ gave and delivered these mysteries unto the Church we likewise must learne not to ingrosse our selves or our owne gifts but freely to dedicate them all unto the honour of that God and benefit of that Church unto which he gave both himselfe and them Even nature hath made men to stand in need of each other and therefore hath imprinted in them a naturall inclination unto fellowship and society in one common City by Christ we are all made of one City of one houshold yea of one Church of one Temple He hath made us members of one body animated by one and the same Spirit stones of one entire building united on one and the same foundation branches of one undivided stock quickned by one and the same root and therefore requires from us all a mutuall support succour sustentation and nourishment of each
likewise but a half Sacrament Secondly Bread and Wine In the Passeover there was blood shed but there was none drunken yea that flesh which was eaten was but once a yeare They who had all in types had yet their types as it were imperfect In the fulnesse of time came Christ and with or â—in Christ came the fulnesse of grace and of his fulnesse doe we receive in the Gospell which the Jewes only expected in the promise that they without us might not be made perfect these things have I spoken saith Christ that your joy might be full the fulnesse of our Sacrament notes also the fullnesse of our Salvation and of his sacrifice who is able perfectly to save those that come unto God by him Thirdly Bread and Wine common vulgar obvious food wine with water being the only knowne drinke with them in those hot Countries amongst the Jewes a lamb was to bee slaine a more chargeable and costly Sacrament not so easie for the poore to procure And therefore in the Sacrifice of first fruits the poore were dispenc'd with and for a Lamb offred a pair of pigeons Christ now hath broken down that partition wall that wall of inclosure which made the Church as a garden with hedges and made only the rich the people of the Jewes capable of Gods Covenants and Sacraments now that Gods Table hath crumms as well as flesh the Dogs the Gentiles eat of it too the poorest in the world is admitted to it even as the poorest that are do shift for bread though they are not able to provide flesh Then the Church was a fountaine sealed up but in Christ there was a fountaine opened for transgressions and for sinnes Fourthly Bread and Wine Bread to strengthen and Wine to comfort All temporall benefits are in divine Dialect called Bread it being the staffe of life and the want of which though in a confluence of all other blessings causeth famine in a Land See here the abundant sufficiency of Christs passion It is the universall food of the whole Church which sanctifieth all other blessings without which they have no relish nor comfort in them Sinne and the corrupt nature of man hath a venemous quality in it to turne all other good things into poyson unlesse corrected by this antitode this Bread of life that came downe from heaven And well may it be called a bread of life in as much as in it resides a power of trans-elementation that whereas other nourishments doe themselves turne into the substance of the receiver this quite otherwise transformes and affirmilates the soule unto the Image of it selfe whatsoever faintnesse we are in if we hunger after Christ hee can refresh us whatsoever feares oppresse us if like men opprest with feare we thirst gaspe after his blood it will comfort us whatsoever weaknesse either our sinnes or suffrings have brought us to the staffe of this bread will support us whatsoever sorrowes of mind or coldnesse of affection doe any way surprize us this wine or rather this bloud in which only is true life will with great efficacy quicken us If wee want power wee have the power of Christs Crosse if victory we have the victory of his Crosse if Triumph we have the triumph of his Crosse if peace we have the peace of his Crosse if wisdome we have the wisdome of his Crosse. Thus is Christ crucified a Treasure to his Church full of all sufficient provision both for necessitie and delight Fiftly Bread and Wine both of parts homogeneall and alike each part of Bread bread each part of Wine wine no crumme in the one no drop in the other differing from the quality of the whole O the admirable nature of Christs blood to reduce the affections and the whole man to one uniforme and spirituall nature with it selfe In so much that when we shall come to the perfect fruition of Christs glorious Body our very bodyes likewise shall be spirituall bodies spirituall in an uniformity of glory though not of nature with the soule Sinnes commonly are jarring and contentious one affection struggles in the same soule with another for mastery ambition fights with malice and pride with covetousnesse the head plots against the heart and the heart swells against the head reason and appetite will and passion soule body set the whole frame of nature in a continuall combustion like an unjoynted or broken arme one faculty moves contrary to the government or attraction of another and so as in a confluence of contrary streames and winds the soule is whirld about in a maze of intestine contentions But when once we become conformable unto Christs death it presently makes of two one and so worketh peace it slayeth that hatred and warre in the members and reduceth all unto that primitive harmony unto that uniforme spiritualnesse which changeth us all into the same Image from glory to glory Sixtly Bread and Wine as they are homogeneall so are they united together and wrought out of divers particular graines and grapes into one whole lump or vessell and therefore Bread and blood even amongst the Heathen were used for emblemes of leagues friendship and Mariage the greatest of all unions See the wonderfull effiâ—acy of Christ crucified to sodder as it were and joynt all his members into one body by love as they are united unto him by faith They are built up as living stones through him who is the chiefe corner stone elect and pretious unto one Temple they are all united by love by the bond or sinewes of peace unto him who is the head and transfuseth through them all the same vitall nourishment they are all the flock of Christ reduc'd unto one fold by that one chiefe Shepheard of their soules who came to gather those that wandred either from him in life or from one another in affection Lastly Bread and Wine sever'd and asunder that to be eaten this to be drunken that in a loafe this in a Cup It is not the bloud of of Christ running in his veynes but shed on his members that doth nourish his Church Impious therefore is their practice who powre Christs blood as it were into his body againe and shut up his wounds when they deny the Cup unto the people under pretence that Christs Body being received the blood by way of concomitancy is received together with it and so seale up that pretious Fountaine which he had opened and make a monopoly of Christs sacred wounds as if his blood had been shed only for the Priest and not as well for the people or as if the Church had power to withhold that from the people of Christ which himselfe had given them CHAP. VIII Practicall inferenâ—es from the materials of the Lords Supper HEre then we see first in as much as these
Vision fruition and possession heere darkly by stooping and captivating our understandings unto those divine Reports which are made in Scripture which is a knowledge of Faith distance and expectation wee doe I say heere bend our understandings to assent unto such truths as doe not transmit any immediate species or irradiation of their owne upon them but there our understandings shall be raised unto a greater capacity and bee made able without a secondary report and conveyance to apprehend clearely those glorious Truths the evidence whereof it did heere submit unto for the infallible credit of God who in his Word had revealed and by his Spirit obsignated the same unto them as the Samaritans knew Christ at first onely by the report of the Woman which was an assent of Faith but after when they saw his Wonders and heard his Words they knew him by himselfe which was an assent of vision Secondly as the Church is heere but a travelling Church therfore cannot possibly have any farther knowledge of that Countrey whither it goes but onely by the Mappes which describe it the Word of God and these few fruites which are sent unto them from it the fruits of the Spirit whereby they have some taste and relish of the World to come so moreover is it even in this estate by being enclosed in a body of sinne which hath a darkning property in it and addes unto the naturall limitednesse of the understanding an accidentall defect and sorenesse much disabled from this very imperfect assent unto Christ the Object of its Faith for as sinne when it wastes the Conscience and beares Rule in the Soule hath a power like Dalila and the Philistines to put out our eyes as Vlysses the eye of his Cyclops with his sweet wine a power to e corrupt Principles to pervert and make crooked the very Rule by which we worke conveying all morall truths to the Soule as some concave glasses use to represent the species of things to the eye not according to their naturall rectitude or beauty but with those wrestings inversions and deformities which by the indisposition thereof they are framed unto so even the least corruptions unto which the best are subject having a naturall antipathy to the evidence and power of divine Truth doe necessarily in some manner distemper our understandings and make such a degree of sorenesse in the faculty as that it cannot but so farre forth bee impatient and unable to beare that glorious lustre which shines immediately in the Lord Christ. So then we see what a great disproportion there is betweene us and Christ immediately presented and from thence wee may observe our necessity and Gods mercy in affoording us the refreshment of a Type and Shadow These Shadowes were to the Church of the Iewes many because their weaknesse in the knowledge of Christ was of necessity more than ours in as much as they were but an infant wee an adult and growne Church and they looked on Christ at a distance wee neare at hand hee being already incarnate unto us they are the Sacraments of his Body and Bloud in the which wee see and receive Christ as weake eies doe the light of the Sunne through some darke Cloud or thicke Grove so then one maine and principall end of this Sacrament is to bee an instrument fitted unto the measure of our present estate for the exhibition or conveyance of Christ with the benefits of his Passion unto the faithfull Soule an end not proper to this mystery alone but common to it with all those Legall Sacraments which were the more thicke shadowes of the Jewish Church for even they in the red Sea did passe through Christ who was their Way in the Manna and Rocke did eate and drinke Christ who was their Life in the Brasen Serpent did behold Christ who was their Saviour in their daily Sacrifices did prefigure Christ who was their Truth in their Passeover did eate Christ by whose Bloud they were sprinkled for howsoever betweene the Legall and Euangelicall Covenant there may be sundry Circumstantiall differences as first in the manner of their Evidence that being obscure this perspicuous to them a Promise onely to us a Gospell Secondly in their extent and compasse that being confined to Iudea this universall to all Creatures Thirdly in the meanes of Ministration that by Priests and Prophets this by the Sonne himselfe and those delegates who were by him enabled and authorised by a solemne Commission and by many excellent endowments for the same service Lastly in the quality of its durance that being mutable and abrogated this to continue untill the consummation of all things yet notwithstanding in substance they agree and though by sundry wayes doe all at last meet in one and the same Christ who like the heart in the middest of the body comming himselfe in person betweene the Legall and Evangelicall Church doth equally convey life and motion to them both even as that light which I see in a starre and that which I receive by the immediate beame of the Sunne doth originally issue from the same Fountaine though conveyed with a different lustre and by a severall meanes So then wee see the end of all Sacraments made after the second Covenant for Sacraments there were even in Paradise before the Fall namely to exhibite Christ with those benefits which hee bestoweth on his Church unto each beleeving Soule but after a more especiall manner is Christ exhibited in the Lords Supper because his pretence is there more notable for as by Faith wee have the evidence so by the Sacrament wee have the presence of things farthest distant and absent from us A man that looketh on the light through a shadow doth truely and really receive the selfe same light which would in the openest and clearest Sun-shine appeare unto him though after a different manner there shall wee see him as Iob speakes with these selfe same eyes here with a spirituall eye after a mysticall manner so then in this Sacrament wee doe most willingly acknowledge a Reall True and Perfect Presence of Christ not in with or under the Elements considered absolutely in themselves but with that relative habitude and respect which they have unto the immediate use whereunto they are consecrated nor yet so doe wee acknowledge any such carnall transelementation of the materials in this Sacrament as if the Body or Bloud of Christ were by the vertue of Consecration and by way of a locall substitution in the place of the Bread and Wine in but are truly and really by them though in nature different conveyed into the Soules of those who by Faith receive Him And therefore Christ first said Take Eate and then This is my Body to intimate unto us as learned Hooker observeth that the Sacrament however by Consecration it be changed from common unto holy Bread and separated from common unto a divine use is
but the incarnation and bloud of the Sonne of God the Creator of the World could wash it out consider the Justice and undispensable severity of our God against sinne which would not spare the life of his owne Sonne nor be satisfied without a Sacrifice of infinite and coequall vertue with it selfe consider that it was thy sinne which were thy associates with Iudas and Pilate and the Iewes to crucify him It was thy Hypocrisy which was the kisse that betraid him thy covetousnes the thornes that crowned him thy oppression and cruelty the nayles and Speares that peirced him thy Idolatry and superstition the knee that mocked him thy contempt of religion the spittle that defiled him thy anger and bitternes the gall and vâ—negar that distasted him thy Crimson and redoubled sins the Purple that dishonord him in a word thou wert the Iew that kild him Canst thou then have so many members as weapons wherewith to crucify thy Saviour and hast thou not a heart wherein to recognize and a tongue wherewith to celebrate the benefits of that bloud which thy sinnes had powred out The fire is queâ—ched by that water which by its heate was caused to runne over and shall not any of thy sins be put out by the over-flowing of that pretious bloud which thy sinnes caused to run out of his sacred Bodie Lastly consider the immensitie of Gods mercie and the unutterable treasures of his grace which neither the provocations of thy sinne nor the infinite exactnes of his owne justice could any way overcome or constraine to dispise the worke of his owne hands or nor to compassionate the wretchednes of his creature though it cost the Humiliation of the Sonne of God and the exinanition of his Sacred person to performe it Lay together all those considerations and certainly they are able even to melt a heart of Adamant into thoughts of continuall thankfulnes towards so bountifull a Redeemer Thirdly wee must remember the death of CHRIST with a Remembrance of Obedience even the commands of God should be sufficient to inforce our obedience It is not the manner of Law-makers to use insinuations and plausible provokements but peremptory and resolute injunctions upon paine of penalty but our God deales not onely as a Lord but as a Father he hath delivered us from the penalty and now rather invites then compels us to obedience least by persisting in sinne we should make voyd unto our selves the benefit of Christs death yea should crucify him a fresh and so bring upon our selves not the benefit but the guilt of his bloud Is it nothing thinke we that Christ should die in vaine and take upon him the dishonor and shame of a servant to no purpose and disobedience as much as in it lyes doth nullify and make voyd the death of Christ Is it nothing that that sacred Bloud of the covenant should bee shed onely to be troden and trampled under foote as a vile thing and certainely he that celebrates the memory of Christs death in this holy Sacrament with a willfully polluted soule doth not commemorate the Sacrifice but share in the slaughter of him and receives that pretious blood not according to the institution of Christ to drinke it but with the purpose of Iudas and the Iewes to shed it on the ground a cruelty so much more detestable then Caines was by how much the blood of Christ is more pretious than that of Abel In the phrase of Scripture sinning against God and forgetting of him or casting of him behinde our backe or bidding him depart from us or not having him before our eies are all of equall signification neither is any thing cald remembrance in divine dialect which doth not frame the soule unto affections befitting the quality of the object that is remembred He is not said to see a pit though before his eyes who by Starre-gazing or other thoughts falls into it nor hee to remember Christ though presented to all his senses at 〈◊〉 who makes no regard of his presence Divine knowledge being practicall requires advertence and consideration an essicacious pondering of the consequences of good or evill and thereby a proportionable governement of our severall courses which who so neglecteth may bee properly said to forget or to bee ignorant of what was before him though not out of blindnesse yet out of inconsideratenesse as not applying close unto himselfe the obiect represented which if truely remembred would infallibly frame the minde unto a ready obedience and conformitie thereunto Lastly Wee must remember the Death of Christ with Prayer unto God for as by faith wee apply to our selves so by prayer wee represent unto God the Father that his death as the merit and meanes of reconciliation with him as prayer is animated by the Death of Christ which alone is that character that addes currantnesse unto them so is the Death of Christ not to bee celebrated without Prayer wherein wee doe with confidence implore Gods acceptance of that sacrifice for us in which alone hee is well-pleased Open thine eyes unto the supplication of thy servants to hearken unto all for which they shall call unto thee was the Prayer of Salomon in the consecration of the Temple What doth God hearken with his eyes unto the prayers of his people Hath not hee that made the eare an eare himselfe but must be faine to make use of another faculty unto a different worke Certainely unlesse the eye of God be first open to looke on the bloud of his Sonne and on the persons of his Saints bathed and sprinkled therewith his eares can never be open unto their prayers Prayer doth put God in minde of his Covenant and Covenants are not to bee presented without seales now the seale of our Covenant is the blood of Christ no Testament is of force but by the death of the Testator whensoever therefore wee present unto God the truth of his owne free Covenant in our prayers let us not forget to shew him his owne seale too by which wee are confirmed in our hope therein Thus are wee to celebrate the death of Christ and in these regards is this holy worke called by the Antients an unbloody sacrifice in a mysticall and spirituall sense because in this worke is a confluence of all such holy duties as are in the Scripture called spirituall sacrifices and in the same sence was the Lords Table ofttimes by them called an Altar as that was which the Reubenites erected on the other side of Iordan not for any proper sacrifice but to bee a patterne and memoriall of that whereon sacrifice was offered CHAP. XVII Inferences of Practice from the severall ends of this holy Sacrament HEere then in as much as these sacred Elements are instituted to present and exhibit Christ unto the faithfull soule wee may inferre with what affection wee ought to approach unto him and what reverent estimation to have of them Happinesse as it is the scope of all
as unto men floating upon the Sea or unto distempered braines the land and house though immoveable seeme to reele and totter or as unto weake eyes every thing seemes double so the promises of God however built on a sure foundation his Counsell and Fore-knowledge yet unto men prepossest with their owne private distempers doe they seeme unstable and fraile unto a weake eye of faith Gods Covenant to bee if I may so speake double to have a tongue and a tongue a promise and a promise that is a various and uncertaine promise And for this cause notwithstanding diffident and distrustfull men doe indeed deserve what they suspect and are worthy to suffer what they unworthily doe feare doth God yet in compassion towards our fraitly condescend to confirme his promises by an Oath to engage the truth of his own essence for performance to seale the Patent which he hath given with his own blood and to exhibite that seale unto us so often as with faith wee approach unto the Communion of these holy mysteries And who can sufficiently admire the riches of this mercy which makes the very weakenesses and imperfections of his Church occasions of redoubling his promises unto it Secondly in that this Sacrament is the instrumentall cause of confirming our faith from this possibility yea facility of obtaining we must conclude the necessity of using so great a benefit wherein wee procure the strengthning of our graces the calmeing of our consciences and the experience of Gods favour in the naturall body there being a continuall activity and conflict betweene the heate and the moisture of the body and by that meanes a wasting depassion and decay of nature it is kept in a perpetuall necessity of succouring it selfe by food so in the spirituall man there being in this present estate an unreconcileable enmity betweene the spirit and the flesh there is in either part a propension towards such outward food whereby each in its distresses may be releeved The flesh pursues all such objects as may content and cherish the desires thereof which the Apostle calleth the provisions of lust The Spirit of the contrary side strengthens it selfe by those divine helps which the wisedome of God had appointed to conferre grace and to settle the heart in a firme perswasion of its owne peace And amongst these instruments this holy Sacrament is one of the principall which is indeed nothing else but a visible oath wherein Christ giveth us a tast of his benefits and engageth his owne sacred body for the accomplishing of them which supporteth our tottering faith and reduceth the soule unto a more setled tranquility Fifthly In that in this one all other Types were abrogated and nullified wee learne to admire and glorifie the love of God who hath set us at liberty from the thraldome of Ceremonies from the costlinesse and difficulty of his Service with which his owne chosen people were held in bondage under the Pedagogie and governement of Schoole-masters the ceremoniall and judiciall Law as so many notes of distinctions charactristicall differences or wall of separation betweene Iew and Gentile untill the comming of the Messias which was the time of the reformation of all things wherein the Gentiles were by his death to bee ingrafted into the same stocke and made partakers of the same juyce and fatnesse the shadowes to bee removed the ordinances to bee canceld the Law to bee abolished for The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth by Iesus Christ Grace in opposition to the Curse of the Morall Law Truth in opposition to the figures and resemblances of the Ceremoniall Law The Iewes in Gods service were bound unto one place and unto one forme no Temple or ministration of Sacrifices without Ierusalem nor without expresse prescription no use of Creatures without difference of common and uncleane wheras unto us all places are lawfull and pure all things lawfull and pure every Country a Canaan and every City a Ierusalem and every Oratory a Temple It is not an ordinance but a Prayer which sanctifieth and maketh good unto our use every creature of God But yet though we under the Gospell are thus set at liberty from all manner ordinances which are not of intrinsecall eternall and unvariable necessity yet may this liberty in regard of the nature of things indifferent bee made a necessity in respect of the use of them We may not thinke that our liberty is a licentious and unbounded liberty as if CHRIST had been the Author of confusion to leave every man in the externall carriages of his worship unto the conduct of his private fancy This were to have our liberty for a cloake of naughtines and as an occasion to the flesh but we must alwayes limite it by those generall and morall rules of piety loyalty charity and sobriety Use all things we may indifferently without subjection or bondage unto the thing but not without subjection unto GOD and superiors Use them we may but with temperatnes and moderation use them we may but with respect to Gods glory use them we may but with submission to authority use them we may but with avoyding of scandall Christian liberty consisteth in the inward freedome of the conscience whose onely bond is a necessity of Doctrine not in outward conformity or observances onely whose bond is a necessity of obedience and subordination unto higher powers which obeying though wee become thereby subject unto some humane or Ecclesiasticall ordinances the conscience yet remaines uncurbed and at liberty Secondly we have hereby a great encouragement to serve our God in spirit and in truth being delivered from all those burdensome accessions which unto the inward worship were added in the legall observances In spirit in opposition unto the Carnall in truth in opposition unto the Typicall ceremonies The services of the Iewes were celebrated in the bloud and smoake of unreasonable creatures but ours in the Gospell must be a spirituall a reasonable service of him for as in the Word of God the letter profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickneth so in the worship of God likewise the Knee the Lip the Eye the Hand alone profiteth not at all it is the spirit that worshippeth It is not a macerated body but a contrite soule which he respecteth if there be palenes in the face but bloud in the heart if whitenes in the Eye but blacknes in the soule if a drooping countenance but an unbended conscience if a knee bowing downe in the Temple of God and thoughts rising up against the grace of God the head like a Bul-rush and the heart like an Adamant in a word if there bee but a bodily and unquickned service a schisme in the same worshipper betweene his outward and his inward man he that is not a God of the dead but of the living hee that accompteth in the leviticall Law carcases as
uncleane things as being in the neerest disposition to rottennes and putrefaction will never smell any sweete savor in such services What have I to doe saith God with your Sacrifices and my soule hateth your new Moones and your appointed feasts My Sacrifices and my Sabboths they were by originall institution but your carnall observance of them hath made them yours Even the Heathen Idols themselves did require rather the truth of an inward then the pompe of an outward worship and therefore they forbad all profane people any accesse to their services And God certainly will not be content with lesse then the Divill Sixtly in that by these frequent ceremonies we are led unto the celebration of Christs death and the benefits thereby arising unto mankinde we may hence observe the naturall deadnes and stupidity of mans memory in the things of his salvation It is a wonder how a man should forget his Redeemer that ransomed him with the price of his owne bloud to whom he oweth whatsoever he either is or hath him whom each good thing we injoy leadeth unto to the acknowledgment of Looke where we will he is still not onely in us but before us The wisdome of our minds the goodness of our natures the purposes of our wills and desires the calmenes of our consciences the hope and expectation of our soules and bodies the liberty from law and sinne what ever it is in or about us which we either know or admire or enjoy or expect he is the Treasury whence they were taken the fulnes whence they were received the head which transferreth the hand which bestoweth them we are on all sides compassed and even hedged in with his blessings so that in this sense we may acknowledge a kind of ubiquity of Christs body in as much as it is every where even visible and palpable in those benefits which flow from it And yet we like men that looke on the River Nilus and gaze wonderously on the Streames remaine still ignorant of the head and Originall from whence they issue Thus as there is betweene bloud and Poyson such a naturall antipathy as makes them to shrinke in and retire at the presence of each other so though each good thing we enjoy serve to present that pretious blood which was the price of it unto our soules yet there is in us so much venome of sinne as makes us still to remove our thoughts from so pure an object As in the knowledge of things many men are of so narrow understandings that they are not able to raise them unto consideration of the causes of such things whose effects they are haply better acquainted with then wiser men it being the worke of a discursive head to discover the secret knittings obscure dependances of naturall things on each other so in matters of practice in Divinity many men commonly are so fastned unto the present goods which they enjoy and so full with them that they either have noe roome or noe leisure or rather indeed no power nor will to lift up their minds from the streames unto the Fountaine or by a holy logick to resolve them into the death of Christ from whence if they issue not they are but fallacies and sophisticall good things and what ever happines we expect in or from them will prove a non sequitur at the last Remember and know CHRIST indeed such men may and do in some sort sometimes to dishonor him at best but to discourse of him But as the Phylosopher speakes of intemperate men who sin not out of a full purpose uncontroled swinge of vitious resolutions but with checks of judgement and reluctancy of reason that they are but halfe vitious which yet is indeed but an halfe-truth So certainly they who though they doe not quite forget Christ or cast him behinde their backe doe yet remember him onely with a speculative contemplation of the nature and generall efficacy of his death without particular application of it unto their owne persons and practices have but a halfe and halting knowledge of him Certainely a meere Schoole-man who is able exactly to dispute of Christ and his passion is as farre from the length and breadth and depth and heigth of Christ crucified from the requisite dimensions of a Christian as a meere Surveiour or Architect who hath onely the practise of measuring land or timber is from the learning of a Geometrician For as Mathematicks being a speculative Science cannot possibly bee compris'd in the narrow compasse of a practicall Art so neither can the knowledge of Christ being a saving and practick knowledge be compleat when it floats only in the discourses of a speculative braine And therefore Christ at the last day will say unto many men who thought themselves great Clerks and of his neere acquaintance even such as did preach him and doe wonders in his name that hee never knew them and that is an argument that they likewise never knew him neither For as no man can see the Sunne but by the benefit of that light which from the Sunne shineth on him so no man can know Christ but those on whom Christ first shineth and whom he vouch safeth to know Mary Magdalen could not say Rabboni to Christ till Christ first had said Mary to her And therefore that we may not faile to remēber Christ aright it pleaseth him to institute this holy Sacrament as the image of his crucified body whereby wee might as truely have Christs death presented unto us as if he had beene crucified before our eyes Secondly we see here who they are who in the Sacrament receive Christ even such as remember his death with a recognition of faith thankefulnesse and obedience Others receive onely the Elements but not the Sacrament As when the King seales a pardon to a condemned malefactour the messenger that is sent with it receives nothing from the King but paper written and sealed but the malefactor unto whom onely it is a gift receives it as it were a resurrection Certainely there is a staffe as well of Sacramentall as of common bread the staffe of common bread is the blessing of the Lord the staffe of the Sacramentall is the body of the Lord and as the wicked which never looke up in thankfulnes unto God doe often receive the bread without the blessing so here the element without the body they receive indeed as it is fit uncleane Birds should doe nothing but the carcasse of a Sacrament the body of Christ being the soule of the Bread and his bloud the life of the Wine His body is not now any more capable of dishonour it is a glorified body and therefore will not enter into an earthy and uncleane soule As it is corporally in Heaven so it will be spiritually and sacramentally in noe place but a heavenly soule Thinke not that thou hast received Christ till thou hast effectually remembred seriously meditated and been religiously affected and inflamed
in the glasse of the Sacraments And surely these are in themselves cleer and bright glasses yet we see even in them but darkly in regard of that vapour and steeme which exhaleth from our corrupt nature when we use them and even on these doth our soule look through other darke glasses the windowes of sense But yet at the best they are but glasses whose properties are to present nothing but the pattern the shaddow the type of those things which are in their substance quite behind us and therefore out of sight so then in generall the nature of a Sacrament is to be the representative of a substance the signe of a covenant the seale of a purchase the figure of a body the witnesse of our faith the earnest of our hope the presence of things distant the sight of things absent the taste of things unconceivable and the knowledge of things that are past knowledge CHAP. III. Inferences of Practice from the former observavations HERE then we see first the different state and disposition of the Church here in a state of corruption and therefore in want of water in Baptisme to wash it in a state of infancy and therefore in want of milke in the word to nourish it in a state of weaknesse and therefore in want of bread the body of Christ to strengthen it in a state of sorrow and therefore in want of wine the blood of Christ to comfort it Thus the Church while it is a child it speaks as a child it understands as a child it feeds as a child here a little and there a little one day in the week one houre in the day it is kept fasting and hungry But when it is growne from strength to strength unto a perfect age and unto the fulnesse of the stature of Christ then it shall be satisfied with fatnesse and drink its full of those rivers of pleasures which make glad the City of God It shall keep an eternall Sabbath a continued festivall the Supper of the Lamb shall bee without end or satiety so long as the Bridegroom is with them which shall be for ever they cannot fast Secondly we see here nor see only but even taste and touch how gratious the Lord is in that he is pleased even to unroabe his graces of their naturall lustre to overshaddow his Promises and as it were to obscure his glory that they might be made proportion'd to our dull and earthy senses to lock up so rich mysteries as lie hidden in the Sacraments in a bason of water or a morsell of bread When hee was invisible by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours hee made himselfe to be seen in the flesh and now that his very flesh is to us againe invisible by reason of that vast distance between his place and ours he hath made even it in a mysticall sense to be seen and tasted in the Sacrament Oh then since God doth thus farre humble himselfe and his graces even unto our senses let not us by an odious ingratitude humble them yet lower even under our feet Let us not trample on the blood of the Covenant by taking it into a noisome sinke into a dirty and earthie heart He that eats Christs in the Sacrament with a foule mouth and receives him into an unclensed and sinfull soule doth all one as if he should sop the bread he eates in dirt or lay up his richest treasures in a sink Thirdly we learn how we should employ all our senses Not only as brute beasts do to fasten them on the earth but to lift them up unto a more heavenly use since God hath made even them the organs instruments of our spirituall nourishment Mix ever with the naturall a heavenly use of thy senses Whatsoever thou seest behold in it his wonder whatsoever thou hearest hear in it his wisedome whatsoever thou tastest taste in it the sweetnesse as well of his love as of the creature If Christ will not dwell in a foul house he will certainly not enter at a foul door Let not those teeth that eat the bread of Angelsgrinde the face of the poor Let not the mouth which doth drink the blood of Christ thirst after the blood of his neighbour Let not that hand which is reached out to receive Christ in the Sacrament be stretched out to injure him in his members Let not those eyes which look on Christ be gazing after vanity Certainly if he will not be one in the same body with a harlot neither will he be seen with the same eyes he is really in the heaven of the greater world and he will be no where else Sacramentally but in the heavenly parts of man the lesser Lastly we see here what manner of conversation we have The church on earth hath but the earnests of glory the earnest of the Spirit and the earnest of the Sacrament that witnessing this signifying both confirming and sealing our adoption But we know not what we shall be our life is yet hid and our inheritance is laid up for us A Prince that is haply bred up in a great distance from his future kingdome in another Realm and that amongst enemies where he suffers one while a danger another a disgrace loaded with dangers and discontents though by the assurance of blood by the warrant of his fathers own hand seal he may be confirmed in the evident right of his succession can hardly yet so much as imagine the honour he shall enjoy nor any more see the gold and lustre of his crown in the print of the wax that confirms it than a man that never saw the Sunne can conceive that brightnesse which dwelleth in it by its picture drawn in some dark colours We are a royall people heirs yea coheirs with Christ but we are in a farre countrey and absent from the Lord in houses ruinous and made of clay in a region of darknesse in a shadow of death in a valley of tears though compassed in with a wall of fire yet do the waves of ungodly men break in upon us though ship'd in a safe Ark the temple of God yet often tos'd almost unto shipwrack and ready with Ionah to be swallowed of a great Leviathan though protected with a guard of holy Angels which pitch their tents about us so that the enemy without cannot enter yet enticed often out and led privily but voluntarily a-away by the enchanting lusts the Dalilahs of our own bosome The kingdome and inheritance we expect is hid from us and we know no more of it but onely this that it passeth knowledge Truly the assurance of it is confirmd by an infallible pattent Gods own promise and that made firm by a seal coloured with that blood and stamped with the image of that body which was the price that bought it What remains then but that where the body is thither the Eagles flie where the treasure is
argument of comfort which no temptation could repell Secondly it hath a purging and purifying property The blood of Christ clenseth us from all sinne Thirdly it hath a quickning preserving and strengthning power Christ is our life and our life is hid with Christ u and Christ liveth in us and he hath quickned us together with Christ and we are able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us And lastly it hath a joying and delighting property I rejoyce in nothing but in the Crosse of Christ I count all things dung that I may winne Christ and I protest by our rejoycing which we have in Christ. Whether we want Physick to cure us or strong meats to nourish us or sweet meats to delight us Christ is unto us all in all our health our strength our joy Secondly the Sacrament is eaten and drunken to signifie the necessity we stand in of Christ crucified many things there are usuall in the life of man both for delight and profit beautifull and pleasant objects for the eye melody and harmony for the eare ointments and odours for the smell curiosities and luxuriancies of invention for the fancie but there is no faculty of nature that doth so immediately concurre to the support and preservation of the whole man as the sense of Tasting which is as it were the Sluce in-let to life without which we have not so much as a capacity of that delight which other objects of an inferiour and subordinate nature can afford even so many things there are wherein the children of God may and ought to take pleasure and solace even as many as we acknowledge from God for blessing but there is nothing in the world which is the object and principle of our life but only Christ no quality in man which is the Instrument and Organ of our life but onely a lively and operative faith by which only we taste how gracious the Lord is The just shall live by faith and I live by the faith of the Son of God and where the body is thither do the Eagles flye that they may eat and live Thirdly the Sacrament is eaten and drunken to shew unto us the greedy desire which is and ought to be in the hearts of Beleevers towards Christ crucified There is no one faculty in man will so much put to its utmost for procuring satisfaction as this of Tasting if once brought into anguish or straits Because as Death in the generall is most terrible so much more that lingring death which consumes with famine and therefore no power of nature more importunate and clamorous for satisfaction no motive stronger to worke a love and attempt a conquest on any nation than an experience of such excellent commodities as may from thence be obtained for the releeving of this one faculty And therefore Almighty God when he would provoke the people to forsake Egypt and comfort them with the newes of a better Countrey describes it by the plenty that it brought forth I will bring you to a Land which floweth with Milke and Honey And when the people murmured against God in the Wildernesse all that hatred of Egypt which the tyranny of the Land had wrought in them all the toyle and servitude that was redoubled on them was wholly swallowed up by the one consideration of flesh-pots and Onions which they there enjoyed And when by Gods appointment Spies were sent into Canaan to enquire of the goodnesse of the Land their Commission was to bring of the fruit of the Land unto the people that thereby they might be encouraged unto a desire of it And we finde how the Roman Emperours did strictly prohibit the transportation of Wine or Oile or other pleasant commodities unto barbarous Nations left they might prove rather temptations to some mischievous designe than matters of mutuall intercourse and trafique No marvell then if the Sacrament of Christ crucified who was to be the Desire of all Nations the desire of whom was not only to transcend and surpasse but even after a sort to nullifie all other desires be received with that faculty which is the seat of the most eager and importunate desire Fourthly we eat and drink the Sacrament to intimate unto us the conformity of the faithfull unto Christ. As in all the appeties and propensions of naturall things we finde an innate amity betwixt the natures that doe so incline towards or imbrace one another so principally in this maine appetite unto food is there ever found a proportion betweene nature and its nourishment insomuch that young Infants are nourished with that very matter of which their substance consisteth Whatsoever hath repugnant qualities unto nature she is altogether impatient of it and is never quieted till one way or other she disburthen her selfe And thus is it and ought to be betwixt Christ and the faithfull there is a conspiracy of affections motions passions desires a conformity of being in holinesse as well as in nature a similitude participation and communion with Christ in his death sufferings glory All other things in the world are very unsuitable to the desires of faith nor are able to satiate a soule which hath tasted Christ because we finde something in them of a different yea repugnant nature unto that pretious faith by him infus'd no man having tasted old Wine desireth new for he saith the old is better and therefore howsoever the wicked may drinke iniquity like water and role it under their tongue as a sweet thing yet the children of God who have beene sensible of that venimous quality which lurketh in it and have tasted of that bread which came downe from Heaven never thirst any more after the deceitfull pleasures the stolne waters of sinne but no sooner have they unadvisedly tasted of it but presently they feele a warre in their bowels a strugling and rebellion betweene that faith by which they live and that poyson which would smother and extinguish it which by the efficacy of faith whereby we overcome the world is cast out and vomited up in an humble confession and so the faithfull do re-gaine their fellowship with Christ who as he was by his mâ—rits our Saviour unto remission of sins so is he by his holinesse our example and by his Spirit our head unto newnesse of life CHAP. XI Of other Reasons why the Sacrament is eaten and drunken and of the manner of our union and incorporation into Christ. FIfthly wee eat and drinke the Sacrament of Christ crucified to signifie that reall and neere incorporation of the faithfull into Christ their head for the end of eating is the assimulation of our nourishment and the turning of it into our owne nature and substance whatsoever cannot bee assimulated is ejected and thus is it between us and Christ whence it commeth that wee so often read of the Inhabitation of
stand ingaged in a summe of mony by me ever impossible to be rais'd if it please him to perswade his owne heire to joyne in my obligation and out of that great estate by himselfe conferred on him for that very purpose to lay downe so much as shall cancell the bond and acquit mee doth not only freely forgive my debt but doth moreover commend the abundance of his favour by the manner and circumstances of the forgivenesse Man by nature is a debtor unto God there is a hand-writing against him which was so long to stand in vertue till he was able to offer something in value proportionable to that infinite justice unto which he stood obliged which being by him without the sustaining of an infinite misery utterly unsatisfiable it pleased God to appoint his own co-essentiall and co-eternall Sonne to enter under the same bond of Law for us on whom he bestowed such rich graces as were requisite for the oeconomy of so great a work by the meanes of which humane and created graces concurring with and receiving value from the divine nature meeting hypostatically in one infinite person the debt of mankind was discharg'd and the obligation cancel'd and so as many as were ordained to life effectually deliver'd by this great ransome vertually sufficient and by Gods power applicable unto all but actually beneficiall and by his most wise and just will conferd only upon those who should by the grace of a lively faith apply unto themselves this common Gift So then all our salvation is a gift Christ a gift the knowledge of Christ a gift the faith in Christ a gift repentance by Christ a gift the suffring for Christ a gift the reward of all a gift whatsoever wee have whatsoever we are it is all from God that sheweth mercy Lastly in that Christ gives his Sacrament to be eaten we learne first not only our benefit but our duty the same Christ it is who in eating wee both enjoy and obey hee being as well the Institutor as the substance of the Sacrament If it were but his precept wee owe him our observance but besides it is his body and even selfe-love might move us to obey his precept our mouths have been wide open unto poyson let them not bee shut up against so soveraigne an Antidote Secondly we see how we should use this pretious gift of Christ crucified not to look on but to eat not with a gazing speculative knowledge of him as it were at a distance but with an experimentall and working knowledge none truly knowes Christ but he that feels him Come taste and see saith the Prophet how gracious the Lord is in divine things tasting goes before seeing the union before the vision Christ must first dwell in us before wee can know the love of God that passeth knowledge Thirdly we learne not to sinne against Christ because therein we doe sinne against our selves by offring indignity to the body of Christ which should nourish us and like Swine by trampling under foot that pretious food which preserveth unto life those that with reverence eat it but fatteth unto slaughter those who profanely devoure it Even as the same raine in different grounds serves sometimes to bring on the seed other times to choak and stifle it by the forwardnesse of weeds for as it is the goodnesse of God to bring good out of the worst of things even sinne so is it the malignity of sin and cunning of Satan to pervert the most holy things the word of God yea the very blood of Christ unto evill Lastly we learne how pure we ought to preserve those doores of the soule from filthinesse and intemperance at which so often the Prince of glory himselfe will enter in CHAP. XIII Of the two first ends or effects of the Sacrament namely the exhibition of Christ to the Church and the union of the Church to Christ. Of the reall Presence HAving thus farre spoken of the nature and quality of this holy Sacrament it followes in Order to treate of the Ends or Effects thereof on which depends its necessity and our comfort our Sacraments are nothing else but Euangelicall Types or shadowes of some more perfect substance for as the Legall Sacrifices were the shadowes of Christ expected and wrapped up in a Cloude of Predicting and in the loines of his Predecessors so this new mysticall Sacrifice of the Gospell is a shadow of Christ risen indeed but yet hid from us under the Cloud of those Heavens which shall containe him untill the dissolution of all things for the whole heavens are but as one great cloud which intercept the lustre of that Sunne of Righteousnesse who enlighteneth every one that commeth into the world now shadowes are for the refreshing of us against the lustre of any light unto which the weaknesse of the sense is yet disproportioned as there are many things for their owne smalnesse imperceptible so some for their magnitude doe exceed the power of sense and have a transcendency in them which surpasseth the comprehension of that faculty unto which they properly belong No man can in one simple view looke upon the whole vaste frame of Heaven because he cannot at the same moment receive the species of so spreading and diffused an Object so is it in things Divine some of them are so above the reach of our imperfect faculties as that they swallow up the understanding and make not any immediate impression on the Soule betweene which and their excellency there is no great disproportion Now disproportion useth in all things to arise from a double Cause the one naturall being the limited Constitution of the faculty whereby even in its best sufficiency it is disabled for the perception of too excellent an Object as are the eyes of an Owle in respect of the Sunne The other Accidentall namely by some violation and distemper of the faculty even within the compasse of its owne strength as in sorenesse of eyes in regard of light or lamenesse in regard of motion Great certainly was the mystery of mans Redemption which poted and dazled the eyes of the Angels themselves so that betweene Christ and man there are both these former Disproportions observable For first of all man while he is on the earth a Traveller towards that Glory which yet he never saw and which the tongue of Saint Paul himselfe could not utter is altogether even in his highest pitch of Perfection unqualified to comprehend the excellent mystery of Christ either crucified or much more glorified and therefore our manner of assenting in this life though in regard of the authority on which it is grounded which is Gods owne Word it be most evident and infallible yet in its owne quality it is not so immediate and expresse as is that which is elsewhere reserved for us for hereafter we shall know even as we are knowne by a knowledge of
beauty of his graces and so constraine and perswade me to be obedient unto it These are those good premises out of which I may infallibly conclude that I have had the beginnings the seeds of Faith shed a abroad in my heart which will certainly be further quickned by that holy spirit who is the next and principall producer of it The operations of this holy spirit being as numberlesse as all the holy actions of the Faithfull cannot therefore all possibly be set downe I shall touch at some few which are of principall and obvious observation First of all the spirit is a spirit of liberty and a spirit of prayer It takes away the bondage and feare wherein we naturally are for feare makes us runne from God as from a punishing and revenging Iudge never any man in danger fledde thither for succour whence the danger issued feare is so farre from this that it betrayeth and suspecteth those very assistances which reason offereth and it enableth us to have accesse and recourse unto God himselfe whom our sins had provoked and in our prayers like Aron and Hurr it supporteth our hands that they doe not faint nor fall It raiseth the soule unto divine and unutterable petitions and it melteth the heart into sights and groanes that cannot be expressed Secondly the holy Ghost is compared unto a witnesse whose proper worke it is to reveale and affirme some truth which is called in question There is in a mans bosome by reason of that enmity and rebellion betwixt the flesh and the spirit and by meanes of Satans suggestions sundry dialogues and conflicts wherein Satan questioneth the title wee pretend to salvation In this case the Spirit of a man as one cannot choose but do when his whole estate is made ambiguous staggereth droopeth and is much distressed till at last the Spirit of God by the light of the Word the Testimonie of Conscience and the sensible motions of inward grace layeth open our title and helpeth us to reade the evidence of it and thus recomposeth our troubled thoughts Thirdly the Spirit of God is compared to a Seale the worke of a Seale is first to make a siampe and impression in some other matter secondly by that means to difference and distinguish it from all other things And so the Spirit of God doth fashion the hearts of his people unto a conformity with Christ framing in it holy impressions and renewing the decayed Image of God therein and thereby separateth them from sinners maketh them of a distinct common-wealth under a distinct governement that whereas before they were subject to the same Prince Lawes and desires with the world being now called out they are new men and have another character upon them Secondly a Seale doth obsignate and ratifie some Covenant Grant or conveyance to the person unto whom it belongeth It is used amongst men for confirming their mutuall trust in each other And so certainely doth the Spirit of God pre-affect the soule with an evident taste of that glory which in the Day of Redemption shall be actually conferd upon it and therefore it is called an hansell earnest and first fruit of life Fourthly the Spirit of God is compared to an oyntment now the properties of oyntments are first to supple to asswage tumors in the body and so doth the Spirit of God mollifie the hardnesse of mans heart and worke it to a sensible tendernes and quicke apprehension of every sinne Secondly oyntments doe open and penetrate those places unto which they are applied and so the Unction which the faithfull have teacheth them all things and openeth their eyes to see the wonders of Gods Law and the beauty of his graces In vaine are all outward sounds or Sermons unlesse this Spirit be within to teach us Thirdly oyntments doe refresh and lighten nature because as they make way for the emission of all noxious humours so likewise for the free passage and translation of all vitall spirits which doe enliven and comfort And so the Spirit of God is a Spirit of consolation and a spirit of life hee is the comforter of his Church Lastly oyntments in the Leviticall Law and in the state of the Iewes were for consecration and sequestration of things unto some holy use As Christ is said to bee annoynted by his Father unto the oeconomy of that great worke the redemption of the world and thus doth the holy-Ghost annoint us to be a Royall Priest-hood a holy Nation a people set at liberty Fifthly and lastly I finde the holy Ghost compared unto fire whose properties are first to bee of a very active and working nature which stands never still but is ever doing something and so the Spirit of God and his graces are all operative in the hearts of the faithfull they set all where they come on worke Secondly the nature and proper motion of fire is to ascend other motions whatever it hath arise from some outward and accidentall restraint limiting the nature of it and so the Spirit of God ever raiseth up the affections from earth fastneth the eye of Faith upon Eternity ravisheth the soule with a servent longing to bee with the Lord and to bee admitted unto the fruition of those pretious joyes which heere it suspireth after as soone as ever men have chosen Christ to bee their Head then presently ascendunt de Terra they goe up out of the Land Hos. 1. 11. and have their conversation above where Christ is Thirdly fire doth inflame and transforme every thing that is combustible into the nature of it selfe and so the Spirit of God filleth the soule with a divine fervour and zeale which purgeth away the corruptions and drosse of the flesh with the spirit of judgment and with the Spirit of burning Fourthly fire hath a purifying and cleansing property to draw away all noxious or infectious vapors out of the Ayre to separate all soyle and drosse from mettalls and the like and so doth the Spirit of God clense the heart and in heavenly sighes and repentant teares cause to expire all those steemes of corruptions those noysome and infectious lusts which fight against the soule Fifthly fire hath a penetrating and insinuating quallity whereby it creepeth into all the pores of a combustible body and in like manner the holy Spirit of God doth penetrate the heart though full of insensible and inscrutible windings doth search the reines doth pry into the closest nookes and inmost corners of the soule there discovering and working out those secret corruptions which did deceive and defile us Lastly fire doth illighten and by that meanes communicates the comforts of it selfe unto others and so the Spirit being a Spirit of truth doth illuminate the understanding and doth dispose it likewise to discover its light unto others who stand in need of it for this is the nature of Gods grace that when Christ hath manifested himselfe to the soule of one
shew forth such an Heavenly light of holinesse puritie majesty authority efficacy mercy wisedome comfort perfection in one word such an unsearchable Treasurie of internall mysteries as that now the soule is as fully able by the native light of the Scriptures to distinguish their Divine originall and authenticalnesse from any other meere humane writings as the eye is to observe the difference betweene a beame of the Sunne and a blaze of a Candle The second question is how the Soule comes to bee setled in this perswasion that the goodnesse of these truths founded on the Authority of God doe particularly belong unto it Whereunto I answere in one word That this ariseth from a two-fold Testimonie grounded upon a preceding worke of Gods Spirit For first the Spirit of God putteth his feare into the hearts of his servants and purgeth their consciences by applying the bloud of Christ unto them from dead workes wish affections strongly and very sensibly altering the constitution of the minde must needs notably manifest themselves unto the soule when by any reflex act shee shall set her selfe to looke inward upon her owne operations This being thus wrought by the grace of God thereupon there ensueth a twofold Testimonie The first of a mans owne spirit as wee see in the examples of Iob David Hezekiah Nehemiah Saul and others namely That hee desireth to feare Gods name to keepe a conscience void of offence to walke in all integrity towards God and men from which and the like personall qualifications arise joy in the holy-Ghost peace of conscience and experience of sweetnes in the fellowship with the Father and his Sonne Secondly the Testimony of the holy Spirit bearing witnes to the sincerity of those affections and to the evidence and truth of those perswasions which himselfe by his grace stirred up So then first the Spirit of God writeth the Law in the heart upon obedience whereunto ariseth the Testimony of a mans owne spirit And then he writeth the promises in the heart and by them ratifieth and confirmeth a mans hops and joyes unto him I understand not all this which hath been spoken generally of all assents unto objects Divine which I take it in regard of their evidence firmnes and stability doe much differ according unto the divers tempers of those hearts in which they reside but principally unto the cheife of those assents which are proper unto saving Faith For assent as I said in generall is common unto Divils with men and therefore to make up the creature of true Faith There is required some differencing property whereby it may be constituted in the entire essence of saving Faith In each sense we may observe that unto the generall faculty whereby it is able to perceive objects proportioned to it there is annexed ever another property whereby according to the severall nature of the objects proposed it is apt to delight or be ill affected with it for example our eare apprehendeth all sounds in common but according as is the Harmony or discord of the sound it is apt to take pleasure or offence at it Our taste reacheth unto whatsoever is the object of it but yet some things there are which grievously offend the Palate others which as much delight it and so it is in Divine assents Some things in some subjects bring along with them tremblings horrors fearefull expectations aversation of minde unwilling to admit or be pursued with the evidence of Divine truths as it is in Divils and despayring sinners Other assents on the contrary doe beget serenity of minde a sweete complacency delight adherence and comfort Into the hearts of some men doth the Truth of GOD shine like Lightning with a penetrating and amasing brightnes in others like the Sunne with comfortable and refreshing Beames For understanding whereof wee are to observe that in matters practicall and Divine and so in all others though not in an equall measure the truth of them is ever mutually embraced and as it were insolded in their goodnes for as truth doth not delight the understanding unlesse it be a good truth that is such as unto the understanding beares a relation of convenience whence arise diversities in mens studies because all men are not alike affected with all kindes of truth so good doth noe way affect the will unlesse it be a true and reall good Otherwise it proves but like the banquet of a dreaming man which leaves him as hungry and empty as when he lay downe Goodnes then added unto truth doth together with the assent generate a kinde of rest and delight in the heart on which it shineth Now goodnes Morall or Divine hath a double relation A relation unto that originall in dependency on and propinquitie whereunto it consilleth and a relation unto that faculty or subject wherein it resideth and whereunto it is proposed Good in the former sense is that which beares in it a proportion unto the Fountaine of good for every thing is in it selfe so farre good as it resembles that originall which is the author and patterne of it and that is GOD. In the second sense that is good which beares a conveniency and fitnes to the minde which entertaines it good I meane not alwayes in nature but in apprehension All Divine truths are in themselves essentially good but yet they worke not alwaies delight and comforts in the minds of men untill proportioned and fitted unto the faculty that receives them As the Sunne is it in it selfe equally light the water in a Fountaine of it selfe equally sweete but according unto the severall Temper of the eye which perceiveth the one and of the vessell through which the other passeth they may prove to be offensive and distastfull But now further when the faculty is thus fitted to receive a good it is not the generality of that good which pleaseth neyther but the particular propriety and interest thereunto Wealth and honor as it is in it selfe good so is it likewise in the apprehension of most men yet we see men are apt to be griev'd at it in others and to looke on it with an evill eye nothing makes them to delight in it but possession and propriety unto it I speake here onely of such Divine good things as are by God appointed to make happy his creature namely our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ his Obedience Satisfaction Resurrection Ascension Intercession Glory and whatever elce it is of which he hath been unto his Church the Author Purchaser conveyer and Foundation Now unto these as unto other good things there is a double right belonging by free donation from him unto the Church a right of propriety unto the thing and a right of possession in the thing This latter is that which here in Earth the Church suspireth and longeth after that other onely it is which here we have and that confirmed unto us by a double Title The first as the Land of Cannan was confirmed unto the Israelits by
with the love of his death without this thou maist be guilty of his body thou canst not be a partaker of it guilty thou art because thou didst reach out thy hand with a purpose to receive Christ into a polluted soule though he withdrew himselfe from thee Even as Mutius Sevola was guilty of Porsena's bloud though it was not him but another whom the Dagger wounded because the error of the hand cannot remove the malice of the heart CHAP. XVIII Of the subject who may with benefit receive the holy Sacrament with the necessary qualifications thereunto of the necessity of due preparation WE have hitherto handled the Sacrament it selfe wee are now breifly to consider the subject whom it concerneth in whom we will observe such qualifications as may fit and predispose him for the comfortable receiving and proper interest in these holy mysteries Sacraments since the time that Satan hath had a Kingdome in the World have been ever notes and Characters whereby to distinguish the Church of God from the Ethnick and unbeleeving part of men so that they being not common unto all mankinde some subject unto whom the right and propriety of them belongeth must bee found out GOD at the first created man upright framed him after his owne Image and endowed him with gifts of nature able to preserve him entire in that estate wherein he was created And because it was repugnant to the essentiall freedome wherein he was made to necessitate him by any outward constraint unto an immutable estate of integrity he therefore so framed him that it might be within the free liberty of his owne will to cleave to him or to decline from him Man being thus framed abused this native freedome and committed sinne and thereby in the very same instant became really and properly dead For as he was dead iudicially in regard of a temporall and eternall death both which were now already pronounced though not executed on him so was he dead actually and really in regard of that spirituall death which consisteth in a separation of the soule from God and in an absolute immobility unto Divine operations But mans sinne did not nullifie Gods power He that made him a glorious creature when he was nothing could as easily renew and rectifie him when he fell away Being dead true it is that active concurrence unto his owne restitution he could have none but yet still the same passive obedience and capacity which was in the red Clay of which Adams body was fashioned unto that divine Image which God breathed into it the same had man being now fallen unto the restitution of those heavenly benefits and habituall graces which then hee lost save that in the clay there was onely a passive obedience but in man fallen there is an active rebellion crossing resistance and withstanding of Gods good worke in him More certainely than this hee cannot have because howsoever in regard of naturall and reasonable operations hee bee more selfe-moving than clay yet in regard of spirituall graces hee is full as dead Even as a man though more excellent then a beast is yet as truely and equally not an Angell as a beast is So then thus farre wee see all mankinde doe agree in an equallity of Creation in a universallity of descrtion in a capacity of restitution God made the world that therein hee might commuicate his goodnesse unto the creature and unto every creature in that proportion as the nature of it is capable of And man being one of the most excellent creatures is amongst the rest capable of these two principall attributes holinesse and happinesse which two God out of his most secret Counsell and eternall mercy conferreth on whom he had chosen and made accepted in Christ the beloved shutting the rest either out of the compasse as Heathen or at least out of the inward priviledges and benefits of that Covenant which hee hath established with mankind as hypocrites and licentious Christians Now as in the first Creation of man God did into the unformed lumpe of clay infuse by his power the breath of life and so made man so in the regeneration of a Christian doth hee in the naturall man who is dead in sinne breathe a principle of spirituall life the first Act as it were and the originall of all supernaturall motions whereby hee is constituted in the first being of a member of Christ. And this first Act is faith the soule of a Christian that whereby we live in Christ so that till wee have faith wee are dead and out of him And as faith is the principle next under the Holy-Ghost of all spirituall life here so is Baptisme the Sacrament of that life which accompanied and raised by the Spirit of grace is unto the Church though not the cause yet the meanes in and by which this grace is conveyed unto the soule Now as Adam after once life was infus'd into him was presently to preserve it by the eating of the fruites in the Garden where God had placed him because of that continuall depashion of his radicall moysture by vitaâ—l heat which made Nature to stand in need of succours and supplies from outward nourishment so after man is once regenerated and made alive hee is to preserve that faith which quickneth him by such food as is provided by God for that purpose it being otherwise of it selfe subject to continuall languishings and decayes And this life is thus continued and preserved amongst other meanes by the grace of this holy Eucharist which conveyes unto us that true food of life the body and bloud of Christ crucified So then in as much as the Sacrament of Christs supper is not the Sacrament of regeneration but of sustentation and nourishment and in as much as no dead thing is capable of being nourished augmentation being a vegetative and vitall act and lastly in as much as the principle of this spirituall life is faith and the Sacrament of it Baptisme It followeth evidently that no man is a subject quallified for the holy communion of Christs body who hath not beene before partaker of faith and Baptisme In Heaven where all things shall bee perfected and renewed our soules shall be in as little neede of this Sacrament as our bodies of nourishment But this being a state of imperfection subject to decayes and still capable of further augmentation wee are therefore by these holy mysteries to preserve the life which by faith and Baptisme wee have received without which life as the Sacrament doth conferre and confirme nothing so doe we receive nothing neither but the bare elements Christ is now in Heaven no eye sharpe enough to see him no arme long enough to reach him but onely faith The Sacrament is but the seale of a Covenant and Covenants essentially include conditions and the condition on our part is faith no faith no Covenant no Covenant no Seale no Seale no Sacrament Christ and Beliall will not lodge together